7 Sure Marks of a False Teacher

Indeed. As we are seeing here.

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YECists want us to follow them into denying the truth that comes from creation.

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And here they are from the Tim Challies website…

And here is the first one. False teachers are man pleasers. At heart, these false teachers, they’re not interested in looking good in the eyes of God.

Second, false teachers bring their harshest criticism against God’s most faithful servants.

Third, false teachers teach their own wisdom rather than God’s wisdom.

Fourth mark of a false teacher. False teachers ignore what is of greatest importance to focus instead on what’s of lesser importance.

The fifth mark of a false teacher. False teachers mask their false doctrine with eloquent speech and impressive logic.

Sixth mark of a false teacher. False teachers are far more concerned with winning others to their own opinions than in actually helping people and bettering people.

The seventh, the final mark of a false teacher. False teachers exploit their followers. False teachers, they take advantage of people. They take advantage of their ignorance, advantage of their greed, advantage of their lust or immaturity or anything, something so that they can exploit them.

So creationists?

  1. Man pleasers? Yep. They ignore the evidence to teach what people want to hear.
  2. Against God most faithful servants? Yep. Scientists are the greatest example of faith in modern times, serving all by discovering more that can help people… heal them in every way.
  3. Teach their own rather than God’s wisdom? Creationists? Yep. They close their eyes, ears, and minds to all God sends us in the earth and sky to believe what THEY want to believe.
  4. Ignore what is important to focus on things of lesser importance? Yep. What is more important? The gospel or how God created? The gospel. Why distract us from this by turning the Bible into a false science text book? Maybe so we don’t see how they have changed Jesus’ gospel of salvation by the grace of God into a Gnostic gospel of salvation by their teachings.
  5. Do creationists hide their false teaching with false rhetoric? The fanciest rhetoric turns illogic into pretend logic, irrationality into pretend rationality, your attention to fabricated evidence and pseudo-science, all to get you to believe lies rather than the truth.
  6. Since creationists turn people away from what can help them this is another mark that they are false teachers.
  7. And who are exploiting people taking advantage of ignorance and immaturity? That is pretty obvious. It is not the scientists who are busy doing real work.

But how about adding an 8th one which was left out.
8. False prophecy. Creationism is founded on the teachings of 7th day Adventist prophetess Ellen White whose prophecies of Christ’s return did not come to pass.

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It seems to me that the prescribed Rule #1 (that it must come from God, or be pleasing to God) may not end up being of any practical benefit (except as self-congratulatory [long-historical] hindsight) while someone is in the middle of needing to discern between two groups.

Because any tribe will claim the righteous mantle, whether explicitly (as the religious right does) or implicitly (as the left might with social justice ideologies), but in either case, when a party claims or even implies: “Thus saith the Lord…”; that has one and only one effect on the debate process. It’s the party’s way of declaring “As far as we’re concerned, this conversation is over.” And of course, as such, it becomes 100% useless to the discernment process.

The subsequent rules, however, do start to get into more observeable effects.

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Looks like a good list. I can’t disagree with any of them. I might add they glorify themselves rather than God. That might be financially, or just from a fame and adoration standpoint. If their website is more about them and what they do rather than leading others to serve the kingdom and glorify God, it is a problem.

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Good description.
 

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Sometimes the best learning is simply to observe others. :wink:

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I haven’t been there (Products - Despair, Inc.) for several years. They’re a hoot. XD

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FWIW, I’ve seen YEC exclaim about how wonderful it was that God could even use an SDA to proclaim his word. There’s no arguing with people who believe false is true.

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Just gotta comment on some of these …

I’ve seen a lot of opinions to the effect that the only people YEC hate more than atheists are Christians willing to accept science (those damned compromisers!).

Like emphasizing Genesis over The Resurrection.

You seem to be applying definitions of “eloquent” and “logic” with which I was previously unfamiliar. :wink:

Nailed it!

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I also don’t particularly disagree with any of those things in the list. But just like with scripture, it’s not the verses themselves I disagree with but how they are often misused and aimed in the wrong directions.

The main thing with false teachers is that they lead others away from god. False teacher means way more than something I disagree with. I don’t think YECist teachers are false teachers or heretics. I simply think they are wrong. Just like I think futuristic interpretations of revelation such as carried out by the left behind series is wrong but they are not heretics.

So there is a big difference between thinking someone’s interpretation is wrong versus thinking they are false teachers teachings lies leading souls to destruction through hell.

The next thing to understand is that all biblical doctrine is interpretation. We all must interpret the Bible in order to understand it and we must all find out how that that work with our world views and so on. Evolutionary creationist and young earth creationists and intelligent designist ( or whatever they are called ) must all interpret the word of God. So it’s not like yecist are just applying straight scripture when they read genesis 1 as literal anymore than evolutionary creationist. Both are looking at those verses and interpreting them and applying them using a multitude of tools. Evolutionary creationist just simply interpret it in a way that does not undermine basic science.

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Just to clarify…

Those words and that list did not come from me but from the Tim Challies website linked in the OP.

Apologies. My error! :dizzy_face:

Small world: it’s run by some of my uncle’s friends from when he was in college, which is how I am familiar with it.

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Again, I’m disappointed to see that the article in the OP says nothing whatsoever about the vitally important issue of making sure that your facts are straight.

There is a very good reason why James 3:1 tells us that teachers will be judged more strictly. Teachers in the Church are in a position of trust. It is a position of trust certifying that they know what they are talking about and that they are performing due diligence in making sure that what they are teaching is factually accurate and honest. If teachers in the Church are found to be teaching things that are untrue or misleading, they are in breach of that trust. This is a very serious matter because it undermines their authority when they teach about anything else.

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And false shepherds are condemned.

The “it” for having a connection to the owners is Despair, Inc., not other groups mentioned in this thread.

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BlockquoteSecond, false teachers bring their harshest criticism against God’s most faithful servants…Religious teachers continue today to rebuke and to belittle God’s most faithful servants.

I struggle a little with this because it’s a little ironic. The point of the exercise is supposedly to identify who are the false teachers. This implies you already know who are the most faithful servants. Criticism itself isn’t wrong: Jesus ‘brought his harshest criticism against’ false teachers such as Sadducees or those he considered hypocrites. So the Sadducees should therefore use Tim Challies’ list to identify Jesus as a false teacher because they viewed each other as God’s faithful servants. Same goes for Paul who ‘brought his harshest criticism’ against false teachers.
I think he has a list of six.

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