Distinguishing truth from error requires that we rely not on our own understanding, but rather on the guides God has provided.
In previous posts in this series, we have seen the importance of pursuing truth from God and being on guard against error, for we live in a world swirling with deceptions about the ultimate questions of life. These lies can lead to our destruction.
That brings us to a crucial question. How do we recognize false teaching? How does God equip even the youngest believer to distinguish truth from error?
Passing the test brought on by deception
Those who love and trust the true God will not ultimately be deceived and lost due to false teaching—guaranteed—but that does not mean their salvation is automatic. We are responsible to follow the guides God has given to keep us from error.
When you are unsure what is true, you can trust him to lead you to truth as you prayerfully find harmony between three guides:
(1) the objective truth found in God’s inerrant Word (the Bible),
(2) the subjective truth given by the abiding, internal witness of the Holy Spirit,
(3) the objective teaching of the broader church on essential doctrines.
We must find agreement between all three.
1. Scripture
The foundation of all true teaching about God is the Bible.
The apostle Paul counseled his assistant Timothy, “Continue in what you have learned and have firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it and how from childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred writings, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching” (2 Tim. 3:14–16, italics added).
Paul was an authoritative apostle commissioned directly by Jesus Christ, and we see in this verse that he had complete confidence in Scripture as the inerrant guide to the truth that brings salvation, just as Jesus had absolute confidence in Scripture and his own teaching as inerrant guides.
“Scripture cannot be broken,” said Jesus (John 10:35).
Notice that I said Scripture is an inerrant guide. People go astray when they think they know better than the Bible and Jesus. That is a sure way to end up in error. I long ago determined that I would humble my mind under God’s Word and believe it rather than believe my own understanding or the wisdom of man.
God is perfect, and he has given us perfect truth in Holy Scripture.
Next week we discuss the second guide to truth: the Holy Spirit.
We must not be casual about ultimate truths but must be in a lifelong, diligent pursuit of truth.
In previous posts we have looked in Scripture at the personal responsibility we each have to love and actively seek truth. We have seen that choosing to believe error is a serious sin with grave consequences. Here is one final installment on that theme.
Blame rests on people who do not value ultimate truth enough to seek it. Instead they occupy themselves with the cares, pursuits, pleasures, and entertainment of this world. They do not make it a priority to study the Bible on their own and with the church to know it well.
Their indifference is a choice. Our choices show what we value, and we are morally responsible for what we value. If we are not interested in the truth God has graciously given in Scripture, if we are unwilling to learn from mature teachers, we are responsible for the consequences.
God has given his truth and put the ball in our court; now we are responsible to make every effort—every effort—to learn it. A good person treasures truth. If we treasure other priorities, we are not innocent victims if deceived.
A man who boards an airplane to fly over the ocean and chooses to watch a movie while the attendant explains what to do during an emergency landing, and who ignores the emergency instructions in the seat pocket in front of him, has no one to blame but himself if the plane ditches into the water and he drowns while those who paid attention to instructions lived. Solomon would probably say, he was a fool.
Solomon
Speaking of Solomon, he deserves the final word:
Wisdom cries aloud in the street, in the markets she raises her voice; at the head of the noisy streets she cries out; at the entrance of the city gates she speaks: “How long, O simple ones, will you love being simple? How long will scoffers delight in their scoffing and fools hate knowledge? If you turn at my reproof, behold, I will pour out my spirit to you; I will make my words known to you.
“Because I have called and you refused to listen, have stretched out my hand and no one has heeded, because you have ignored all my counsel and would have none of my reproof, I also will laugh at your calamity; I will mock when terror strikes you, when terror strikes you like a storm and your calamity comes like a whirlwind, when distress and anguish come upon you.”
Then they will call upon me, but I will not answer; they will seek me diligently but will not find me. Because they hated knowledge and did not choose the fear of the LORD, would have none of my counsel and despised all my reproof, therefore they shall eat the fruit of their way, and have their fill of their own devices.
For the simple are killed by their turning away, and the complacency of fools destroys them; but whoever listens to me will dwell secure and will be at ease, without dread of disaster. (Pro. 1:20–33)
We are morally responsible to love God’s truth enough to pursue it diligently.
That brings us to a crucial question. How do we recognize false teaching? How does God equip even the youngest believer to distinguish truth from error?
There is a reason Satan is called the deceiver and the father of lies and why we should avoid deceptions like the plague.
In previous posts we have looked in Scripture at the personal responsibility we each have to love and actively seek truth. We have seen that choosing to believe error and deception is a serious sin with grave consequences. Along that same line, here are warnings from three more important Scriptures.
Teachings of demons
Shockingly, Paul wrote, “Now the Spirit expressly says that in later times [which began then and continue now] some will depart from the faith by devoting themselves to deceitful spirits and teachings of demons, through the insincerity of liars whose consciences are seared” (1 Tim. 4:1–2, ESV here and elsewhere, italics added).
According to this verse, false teachers and prophets have demons working in and around them. The people they deceive “devote themselves” primarily to that spirit and secondarily to the false teacher led by that spirit. These teachers who use lies actually sear their consciences, deadening their soul’s moral decision-making ability to avoid feeling guilt or shame. No one in this verse is an innocent victim.
All wicked deception
Elsewhere Paul described the deceptive powers of the antichrist and why he will someday be able to deceive most people in the world. “The coming of the lawless one [the antichrist] is by the activity of Satan with all power and false signs and wonders, and with all wicked deception for those who are perishing, because they refused to love the truth and so be saved” (2 Thess. 2:9–10, italics added).
They made a moral choice; they deliberately “refused to love the truth,” which made them easy marks for the deceiver. Paul underlines the moral issue for which sinners are responsible: do they love truth or lies? A person who dislikes truth is not an innocent victim.
Deceiving and being deceived
Paul told Timothy, “Evil people and impostors will go on from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived” (2 Tim. 3:13, italics added).
Deception cuts both ways. Those who choose to use lies enter the realm and power of lies and thus themselves are easily deceived. Those who choose the covering of darkness lose the ability to see. Those who live by the sword die by the sword. They are not innocent victims.
It is our duty to love truth, and we are culpable if we choose error.
Suppressing truth
The Bible says much about the culpability of the deceived mind. Paul writes, “The wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them” (Rom. 1:18–19, italics added). Ungodly people willfully suppress truth and therefore are not innocent victims.
Choosing darkness
John describes this culpability in terms of light and darkness. Three verses after the well-known verse, “God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16), John explains why people do not believe in Jesus, and it is not because they lack information: “This is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their deeds were evil. For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed” (John 3:19–20, italics added). People deliberately choose the light of Jesus or the darkness of sin. They are not innocent victims.
Rejecting the words of Jesus
In Jesus’ day, the religious leaders knew the most biblical information and therefore should have been best prepared to recognize Jesus as Messiah, yet they did not believe in him. Jesus explained why and pulled no punches:
Why do you not understand what I say? It is because you cannot bear to hear my word. You are of your father the devil, and your will is to do your father’s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, and has nothing to do with the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks out of his own character, for he is a liar and the father of lies. But because I tell the truth, you do not believe me. Which one of you convicts me of sin? If I tell the truth, why do you not believe me? Whoever is of God hears the words of God. The reason why you do not hear them is that you are not of God. (John 8:43–47, italics added)
Those who deliberately choose lies have chosen their father, and he is the devil. They are not innocent victims.
Hardening one’s heart
In Ephesians 4:17–19 Paul said the fallen person’s mind is characterized by futility. He laid the blame for that futile thinking squarely on each person’s shoulders, highlighting eight culpable traits. Paul wrote, “You must no longer walk as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their minds. They are [1] darkened in their understanding, [2] alienated from the life of God [3] because of the ignorance that is in them, [4] due to their hardness of heart. They have become [5] callous and [6] have given themselves up to sensuality, [7] greedy to practice every kind of [8] impurity” (italics and numerals added). At the core of this futile mind Paul blamed “hardness of heart,” which led directly to ignorance of God, alienation from God, darkened understanding, callousness, sensuality, greed, and impurity. This person is not an innocent victim.
A morally deceived person is not an innocent victim.
Lies can be useful. For example, if an unmarried man is having sexual relations with his girlfriend, and he believes they are doing wrong before a holy God, he will suffer guilt and the fear of divine punishment. If he is determined to keep having sex with her, sooner or later he will probably choose to be deceived on this issue in order to quiet his conscience. He does not acknowledge to himself that he is deceiving himself; he just does it, and that change in belief in violation of his conscience and Scripture is an evil act for which he is responsible. He believes what he wants.
And to be consistent he must shift other beliefs accordingly. If he once regarded the Bible as completely true, he now will doubt the divine inspiration of at least some of it, because Scripture plainly says sexual relations outside of marriage are sinful. If he once regarded God as a consuming fire who judges sin, he now will need to believe God does not judge people, or he will question whether God even exists. He must rid his mind of troubling truths.
So his choice to deceive himself with one lie inevitably leads to many more self-deceptions. The process resembles a walk from the bright light of day into a cave of deeper and deeper moral darkness, where he now believes falsehoods he never could have imagined believing before his sexual sin began. If his girlfriend becomes pregnant, he now believes in the need for abortion, even a ghastly late-term abortion.
To quiet his conscience, he must find ways to construe abortion as a virtue. Thus he and his girlfriend are, in their eyes, rescuing the unborn child from a life of poverty or from being unwanted. They are courageously defending rights his girlfriend supposedly has over her body. They are making a prudent decision in the best interests of their entire family. He wants to believe this abortion is moral, and therefore he believes whatever he must to make it so.
To be consistent, he must also find ways to frame opposing ideas as immoral. Those who oppose abortions are now regarded as evil because they are intolerant and judgmental. They are trying to empower government to meddle in a woman’s right to control her body. Churches and preachers are the country’s real problem because they impose their morality on others. In this young man’s mind, the moral universe has turned upside down.
Belief is a choice. What we believe is as much a moral act as choices in sexuality or finances. Belief is a moral act for which we are accountable because we choose our beliefs about life’s ultimate issues to suit our desires. Either we want God and his truth at any cost, or we want to satisfy our corrupt desires. Satan could deceive Eve because she wanted what he offered. If we choose to be deceived, we rebel against God, and the consequences are far-reaching.
Continued next week with more on why we deceive ourselves
How we respond to truth and error reveals crucial things about us.
Have you ever wondered why God allows false teachers and heresies to exist in the world?
Deuteronomy 13:1–4 says:
“If a prophet or a dreamer of dreams arises among you and gives you a sign or a wonder, and the sign or wonder that he tells you comes to pass, and if he says, ‘Let us go after other gods,’ which you have not known, ‘and let us serve them,’ you shall not listen to the words of that prophet or that dreamer of dreams. For the LORD your God is testing you, to know whether you love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul. You shall walk after the LORD your God and fear him and keep his commandments and obey his voice, and you shall serve him and hold fast to him.” (ESV, Italics added)
Purposeful Tests
Here Moses identified the purpose of this trial: false prophets test whether people love the Lord with all their heart and soul. In the sphere of medical care, every test monitors certain things. A thermometer measures body temperature. An electrocardiogram reveals electrical activity in the heart. A sphygmomanometer tests blood pressure. In the spiritual sphere, false prophets test a person’s love for God. People who truly love God will not be deceived—or at least not permanently deceived—and will certainly pass the test.
False teachers serve the same function as Satan, demons, temptation, the fallen world, and any opportunity to sin. They reveal who someone is in the secret place of the heart.
Moral beings
God must know the heart because he is a perfectly fair and righteous judge. He is a moral being who created mankind in his image as moral beings. A moral being can distinguish between right and wrong and is responsible to do what is right. Because God is a good moral being and the sole creator and ruler of the universe, he must hold moral beings accountable for their choices. God resembles a human judge who must uncover the truth about a defendant in order to render fair judgment. Good judges want to know everything they can in order to do what is right: to exonerate the innocent or condemn the guilty. In order to judge us fairly, and in order for all moral beings—mankind, good angels, and fallen angels—to witness the judgment and realize that God’s decision about each person is fair, what people truly are must be shown indisputably. What is beyond dispute are a person’s deeds.
The criterion of final judgment
Therefore the Bible says this about the Final Judgment:
“Then I saw a great white throne and him who was seated on it. From his presence earth and sky fled away, and no place was found for them. And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Then another book was opened, which is the book of life. And the dead were judged by what was written in the books, according to what they had done. And the sea gave up the dead who were in it, Death and Hades gave up the dead who were in them, and they were judged, each one of them, according to what they had done.” (Rev. 20:11–13, ESV, italics added)
Twice this says God will judge people according to their deeds. He does that because deeds display the truth. He allows false teachers to test us because how we respond to false teachers is a deed that reveals the truth about us. How we respond to lies reveals whether we love truth, and whether we love truth reveals whether we love the God of all truth.
Assurance
Those who truly love God need not fear the test from false teaching. No one who sincerely loves God and humbly seeks truth from him will be deceived. Jesus said, “False christs and false prophets will arise and perform great signs and wonders, so as to lead astray, if possible, even the elect” (Mat. 24:24, italics added). The words, “if possible,” mean it is not possible for false teachers to deceive the elect, who truly love and believe God.
God promises this. The New Testament Book of Jude, which warns about the test from false teachers, assures us that God “is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you blameless before the presence of his glory with great joy” (1:24). We must trust God to keep us in the truth. Jesus assures us, “My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one can snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all; no one can snatch them out of my Father’s hand” (John 10:27–29).
Paul assures us, “He will keep you strong to the end, so that you will be blameless on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Cor. 1:8). And, “He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus” (Phil. 1:6). You can be completely confident that God has the ability to bring you successfully through a test from false teaching and that he does not leave you to find truth on your own.
Next week I begin a new theme: Tested by Truth and Error.
I am praying this for you
May your life be blessed of God in the New Year.
May you grow in the knowledge of God. May the Lord give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of God.
Here are some additional Scriptural prayers I am praying for you, and I urge you to pray them in 2023 for your own life and your intercession for others.
Lord, let your favor be upon me. Establish the work of my hands, my mind, and my mouth. (based on Psalm 90:17 [ESV here and below])
Keep me from stumbling. (based on Jude 1:24)
Encourage me. Strengthen my heart in every good work and word. (based on 2 Thessalonians 2:16–17)
“Make me to know your ways, O LORD; teach me your paths. Lead me in your truth and teach me, for you are the God of my salvation; for you I wait all the day long” (based on Psalm 25:4–5)
“Teach me your way, O LORD, that I may walk in your truth; unite my heart to fear your name” (Psalm 86:11)
“Do not let my heart incline to any evil” (based on Psalm 141:4).
“Uphold me with a willing spirit” (Psalm 51:12).
“Make me know the way I should go, for to you I lift up my soul” (Psalm 143:8).
When praying for others, see below
Below the prayers above are converted into the plural for use in intercession for others, for example:
Lord, I pray for my family (church members, friends):
Let your favor be upon us. Establish the work of our hands, our minds, and our mouths. (based on Psalm 90:17 [ESV here and below])
Keep us from stumbling. (based on Jude 1:24)
Encourage us. Strengthen our hearts in every good work and word. (based on 2 Thessalonians 2:16–17)
Make us to know your ways, O LORD; teach us your paths. Lead us in your truth and teach us, for you are the God of our salvation; for you we wait all the day long, (based on Psalm 25:4–5).
“Teach us your way, O LORD, that we may walk in your truth; unite our hearts to fear your name” (Psalm 86:11)
“Do not let our hearts incline to any evil” (based on Psalm 141:4).
“Uphold us with a willing spirit” (Psalm 51:12).
“Make us know the way we should go, for to you we lift up our souls” (Psalm 143:8).
I came across this tree this week. I think it is especially beautiful. Putting up beautiful decorations is one of the normal things people do at Christmas. Why?
About two weeks ago we began singing Christmas songs in church, and you may have begun playing Christmas music at home. (One of my favorites is “Mary Did You Know.”) Few things communicate Christmas more than the special songs we bring out for one month of the year. Why do we do that?
There is probably one or more people in your life to whom you are planning to give a Christmas gift. Why did people long ago begin exchanging gifts at Christmas?
Yesterday we enjoyed a Christmas lunch after the worship service. Why do we have special meals at Christmas?
The answer to all the above questions is, we are celebrating. We eat and sing to celebrate something good. We exchange gifts and decorate to celebrate something good.
We celebrate that there is an all-powerful, infinitely loving, absolutely pure and eternally living person at the center of the universe who is committed to saving those who trust in him. He is the Son of God. He is unimaginably good. He came to earth and became a man to die for our sins, save us from death, and defeat our worst enemy Satan. No matter what happens to us in this life, our faith in Jesus assures us we have an eternal life awaiting us that will be gloriously good and free from sorrow.
Believers in Jesus have every reason to celebrate.
The depth of our joy at Christmas is tied directly to the strength of our walk as a disciple of Jesus and the degree of our knowledge of the Lord. The more you learn from Jesus, the more he means to you. The more he cleanses your life of what is sinful and broken, the more grateful you are to him. And the more he rebuilds your life, the more you love him.
This is the final post in a series on how God tested Abraham by calling him to sacrifice his son Isaac (see Genesis 22). To read from the beginning, click here.
God’s fierce, covenant love is what draws us even though he tests us. His love is worth everything. His love is better than life. And his love can be trusted. In fact, one of the most encouraging things about Abraham’s test is God’s jealousy. It shows how much he cares about you. Your love matters to the Lord of all.
The worst thing that can happen to you is not to be tested as Abraham was; the worst would be if the Lord of the universe did not care about your love. I do not want the one who holds my life in his hand to be indifferent. I am glad my affection matters infinitely to him. What could be more flattering or give greater significance? Not success or fame. Not family. And not wealth. Not anything we withhold from him. God tests deeply because he loves deeply. He will prove true to those who prove true to him.
Such love is why we need not fear this trial. Fallen hearts avoid surrender. In some ways we want to be close to God and his blessings, yet at the same time we want to keep our distance lest he require us to surrender what we love most. We fear what he will ask from us. This is one reason people avoid God, the Bible, and church. They know they have something he wants, and they do not intend to release it. It has become their god, their supreme desire, the one thing they feel they cannot live without. If the choice is between God and Isaac, they choose Isaac.
Surprisingly it is this unsettling quality of God’s heart—his jealously of Isaac—that assures you can wholeheartedly draw near. For he requires surrender because he loves you greatly. He requires surrender because that love will satisfy infinitely more than your Isaac. He requires surrender because he knows his generous intentions to reward your sacrifice extravagantly. And he requires surrender because he is God; therefore he alone deserves your ultimate devotion. It glorifies him, and that glory will delight you forever.
In the end, we lose what we withhold from God and keep what we give. Abraham’s ultimate test ends with these words about him and his son: “They arose and went together to Beersheba” (Genesis 22:19).
How the cross of Jesus compares with Abraham’s test
In the previous posts we have seen in Genesis 22 that God tested Abraham by commanding him to journey to a distant mountain and there sacrifice his son Isaac. Abraham obeyed God, to the point that he was moments away from slaying his son. At that moment God intervened and directed Abraham to a ram to sacrifice in Isaac’s place.
How is this test of Abraham thousands of years ago relevant for us today?
First, Abraham’s test resembles the Cross of Christ in too many ways to be a coincidence. Both involve the substitutionary sacrifice of a lamb who is a ram. Both involve a father giving his beloved son. And both involve a son submitting quietly to their father’s action, going like a sheep to the slaughter.
Both involve God’s provision for what man lacks. Both involve the ultimate test of a man’s life, in particular the test for obedience and surrender. And both involve a son to be sacrificed on wood.
Both involve death and resurrection (see Hebrews 11:19). Both happened on a mount in a region named Moriah, perhaps the same mountain (see 2 Chron. 3:1 and 1 Chron. 21). Like the Cross on Golgotha, the altar on Mount Moriah showed the ocean depths of God’s heart.
The Cross of Jesus is the greatest revelation of God. Given its similarity, the testing of Abraham must also be one of his greatest revelations. It was not an anomaly.
Further relevance
As he did with Abraham, God calls everyone to the same obedience and the complete surrender of what we love most. Jesus said, “If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple. Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple…. So therefore, any one of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple” (Luke 14:26–27, 33).
Jesus said the most important commandment is “to love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength” (Mark 12:30).
Romans 12:1 says, “I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.”
Jesus calls us to surrender in spirit every relationship and priority dear to us, to sacrifice our very selves. God calls us to sacrifice Isaac.
Differences
How does Abraham’s test differ from our similar tests? First, again, God has commanded in Scripture that no one may offer a child in sacrifice. He never intended for Abraham to sacrifice Isaac, and he forbids anyone today to slay a person in ritual sacrifice.
The second difference is how God communicates. When he tests you about surrendering something, he ordinarily does not speak with an audible voice as he spoke to Abraham, but rather through his written Word, your conscience, and other people and circumstances. But such a call is no less a test. Jesus summons everyone to full surrender, and you know whether you have complied. You know if you love something or someone more than God. You know when the central issue in a trial is whether you will surrender what you most value. You also will know whether God is returning what you surrender, just as he restored Isaac to Abraham.
Abraham’s test reveals God’s heart, for he does not change. This trial shows how important it is to God that you fear him in a way that results in obedience. This trial also shows his jealous love. He will not have rivals. His jealousy is not the insecure, sinful jealousy we experience but rather a divine jealousy based in covenant love. God does not need your love, for he is perfectly self-sufficient, yet he has freely chosen to set his steadfast love on you and enter covenant with you. Divine love is covenant love, which we must requite in faithfulness.
