We may have learned false doctrine in church, as it was taught, or by misunderstanding the truth and coming up with wrong ideas on our own. Either way, false doctrine harms our Christian walk, until we re-learn the truth.
In posts I have written earlier, I mentioned some wrong ideas I developed about God, due to some teaching I received in my childhood. Some may have been actual (but not Biblically correct) doctrine from my childhood church, and some may have come from me misunderstanding what I was taught. Yet the churches I attended, as a child and young adult, were truly Christian. The Gospel was clearly taught in them, and I was one of many people who came to a saving faith there. So when I speak of false doctrine, I mean “minor” things, not the essential doctrine of saving faith in Jesus Christ.
I wanted to clarify the difference between errors some, otherwise good, churches teach (what I see as error) versus falsehoods that deny Jesus Christ and our salvation through him. There are cults where Jesus Christ is not honored and taught as the living God, who came in the flesh, via the virgin birth. Those cults deny his atonement is essential for our salvation. They do not believe we have to surrender our life to Christ by inviting him into our hearts, to be saved. So I am not referring to so-called “churches” (really cults) where the essential doctrines are all wrong.
I refer to situations where we could become genuine Christians and place our faith in the Lord, but we would still believe lies that contradict some parts of the Bible. The lies would be so subtle, that we may not notice them when we are younger in our faith. And people with submissive (compliant) personalities may also have a harder time breaking away from such errors, because those gentle spirited people believe they are turning their back on God when they disagree with the false ideas they learned.
But the errors exist, and they will stunt a Christian’s faith unless she recognizes the errors and corrects her beliefs. Some denominations differ in areas of doctrine, such as infant baptism and communion. Some denominations insist a person will receive her salvation by being baptized as an infant. This is one of the most dangerous errors, because some people think they have their salvation, because they were baptized as an infant. This can actually cause a person to not surrender her (or his) life to Christ and end up going to Hell if she does not ever repent of her sins and truly submit to Christ. Yet at some of those churches, the members are taught they must repent of their sins too. As a result, it is possible for a person to think she was saved as a baby but in fact she became a true believer later when she surrendered to Christ. She may even naively believe she just grew in her faith since her baby days. Yet, in fact, she did not become a Christian until later when she understood the way of salvation and truly fell in love with Jesus and surrendered her life to him.
But there is danger in having this gal think she was saved as an infant. While she may have surrendered her life to Christ and been saved when she was old enough to understand faith, she may believe other people are also Christians, but they are not. This danger also exists in churches that do not teach about a personal relationship with Christ. This may not be the direct doctrine of those churches, but unless the pastor clearly teaches his congregation the importance of a personal relationship with Christ, he may not enable his members to see the difference between a person who knows about God and a person who loves and surrenders to God.
Yet it is essential that pastors, youth leaders, Sunday School teachers and all members understand the difference between a mental ascent of God (admitting Jesus is God and died for her sins) and a genuine surrender of her heart, where she has invited Jesus to live in her heart. The first group is not saved. They only know, in their heads, that Jesus is Lord. We have the Bible to prove that such head knowledge is not enough to save a person, because James said in 2:19, “You say you have faith, for you believe there is one God. Good for you, even the demons believe this, and they tremble in terror.” By not surrendering their hearts to Jesus, this group also did not enable the Lord to know their hearts. Jesus described this group in Matt.7:21-23, “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. On that day many will come to me and say, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’” In those verses, notice that the Lord said he did not know them. They claimed to know God, but he did not know them. This shows they lacked a personal relationship with God.
While people may deny this can really happen, consider how many fans would name a person and say, “I know him/her.” But if we asked the famous person, “Do you know that fan?” the famous person would admit he or she does not know this fan. The fan thinks she knows the famous person, but she has never had a personal relationship with the famous person. How much more serious is it when the fake Christian thinks just admitting Jesus is Lord and died for her sins will save her, when this belief will not save her. Her “belief” only comes from her head, not her heart. God has to truly know us. For him to know us, we must surrender our will to him. Sadly this kind of personal relationship is not taught in some churches. The result is a false doctrine that claims that just saying, “Jesus is Lord and died for me,” counts as saving faith without the surrender of the person’s will and life to the Lord.
Look again at the 2nd chapter of James. In verse 14 James asks, “What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if someone claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save them?” James answers his own question in verse 26, “As the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead.” A lifetime of habitual good works does not save us, but it shows we are already saved. Look again at what Jesus said to those who were not saved. He said, (verse 23b), “Depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.” The works these people had were sins. They were doing things God specifically forbade them to do. And the “working of lawlessness” was not an occasional action. The verb implies an ongoing work, as a habit. This was the fruit of that person’s life. That person may have occasionally done some “good works” that looked good on the outside. But they were just for looks and not because that person had surrendered his or her life to Christ. That person’s heart was still lawless.
I share this problem of believing “head knowledge” of Jesus saves, when it does not, because this can cause two problems, one of which is when people never submit to Christ and go to Hell. There is a second danger. True Christians can get pulled into partnerships with unbelievers, thinking the other person is a believer. Believers know Scripture says in 2Cor.6:14, “Do not be yoked with unbelievers.” But naïve Christians end up yoked with unbelievers anyway. This may be as roommates, business partners or even married spouses. Then the believer suffers in this relationship. The unbeliever may pull down the Christian, and nag and mock her as if she were strange for her sold-out relationship with Christ. And she may end up feeling guilty about her Christian walk and back off from fully following Christ—being saved but not growing in her faith.
Legalism is another false belief that may not keep a gal out of heaven, but it can wreck havoc on her walk of faith. She may believe she has to be “nice” to everyone, and trust what anyone in the church tells her, because she is supposed to be kind to other believers. But there is a difference between kindness and niceness. Being nice might mean putting up with a man’s sexual or coarse jokes, or another woman’s excessive demands on her time, and any other issue where the Christian thinks she has to be “nice.” But kindness might include telling a lustful man to stop his dirty language and not pass it off as humor. The Christian would feel justified in saying, “No,” when she truly does not have enough time to do something, even when the user insists it is the nice thing to do to give too much to this other person. “Nice” is a false doctrine in which takers try to squeeze too much out of naïve believers. Being kind includes being strong and rebuffing sin in others. But this legalism and belief that a person has to always be “nice,” can damage a gal’s Christian walk. Ephesians4:15 tells us to “Speak the truth in love.” Love includes the truth, and true kindness may include some hard truths a gal may have to tell another person who is sinning against her.
I grew up with the false “nice” doctrine. I don’t know if this was the true teaching of the denomination where I grew up, or if it is just a tool of so many liars in the church who wanted to take advantage of a naïve Christian. But that false doctrine caused me to put up with many abuses in the name of my Christian faith.
Another false doctrine was that Christians are not wise enough to pray and ask the Holy Spirit for direction. That doctrine taught that Christians are so naïve they might accidentally ask for a demon’s help instead of asking the Holy Spirit. Those Christians were taught they need to just make their best judgment on all decisions. But this also contradicts the Scripture. In Luke 11:13, God said, “If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly father give the Holy spirit to those who ask for him?” But I grew up under the false belief that denied my direct access to the Holy Spirit, and I struggled to find God’s direction in my life. With the false belief of “Christians have to be nice to everyone,” and without the clear guidance of the Holy Spirit, I often made wrong choices and got hurt by cruel people.
I still remember the first time I heard God’s audible voice. He told me three words, “You love them.” I was stunned, because I also did not grow up in a church where we were taught that God could speak to us audibly. Yet I knew this was God’s voice, because I had been wondering if the girls I had just shared the Gospel with would like me. How silly! I had not been worrying about their salvation, but about my own standing with them, whether they liked me. I still was under some bondage of fearing others and wanting them to like me. Here was God tossing aside the “do the others like me?” question and not asking, but telling me to love them. That is a direct command from the Scripture. It was such a shock, because I had never heard God speak to me in a voice I could hear. Yet I knew it was God’s voice, because that voice corrected my thinking and guided me back to the truths he taught me in the Bible. Those three words fully agreed with the Scripture. After that I did work on loving those girls. God corrected me, but best of all, the Holy Spirit was speaking to me! It was not a demon, but God who clearly confirmed what he had already said in the Scripture.
This post will get too long if I do not close for now. But I will write a second part to this post, because I want to share a few more ways these subtle falsehoods get taught directly, or are not refuted sufficiently. So if you remember ways you (or a loved one) have fallen for the wrong beliefs, please let me know, while I work on the sequel.
God will continue to teach us and correct us when we have wrong thinking or have fallen for wrong doctrine. God promises to reach out to those who sincerely seek him. (Jer.29:13, “You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart.”) Even though a Christian may initially suffer from false doctrines, if she truly seeks God, he will correct her. In his love, he will keep guiding her to his joy and glory. I know, because he has done this for me, and it has brought me such joy. I pray we have blessed you with this post this week. Thanks for joining us!