A primary characteristic of the Last Days / Church Age / Age of Grace is the proliferation of false teachers and false prophets. These lying deceivers may find expression through false religions such as Islam or Hinduism or Buddhism. They may find expression through humanist God-rejecting false philosophies such as atheism, communism, materialism. They may find expression through heretical, deviant outgrowths of Christianity such as Jehovah’s Witness or Mormonism. But the most dangerous false teachers are those who arise within Christianity and sink roots inside the church.
Peter, in his final letter before his martyrdom, warns us, But false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will also be false teachers among you, who will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, bringing swift destruction upon themselves. Many will follow their sensuality, and because of them the way of the truth will be maligned; and in their greed they will exploit you with false words; their judgment from long ago is not idle, and their destruction is not asleep (2 Peter 2:1-3).
False prophets also arose among the people — Peter is referring to Israel in former generations, plagued by prophets who were not sent by God. The Lord had said through Jeremiah, ‘Also among the prophets of Jerusalem I have seen a horrible thing: the committing of adultery and walking in falsehood; and they strengthen the hands of evildoers, so that no one has turned back from his wickedness. All of them have become to Me like Sodom, and her inhabitants like Gomorrah … Behold, I am against those who have prophesied false dreams,’ declares the Lord, ‘and related them and led My people astray by their falsehoods and reckless boasting; yet I did not send them or command them, nor do they furnish this people the slightest benefit’ declares the Lord (Jere 23:14,32)
There have always been false prophets, lying hucksters among the people of God and so Peter
adds a warning to the church, Just as there will also be false teachers among you. Not maybe. They will arise. Arise where? Among you — from within the church. He is not referring to teachers of false religions. He is referring to false teachers within the church.
Jesus warned the church of false prophets, false teachers, infiltrating the church. Immediately after Christ ascended to heaven, the apostles were contending against them and their doctrines of demons poisoning the young church. It wasn’t decades later — it was immediate.
The Danger of False Teachers
1. They secretly introduce destructive heresies (2 Peter 2:1).
The danger of false teachers is not merely that they teach that which is false. More insidious, they promote lies as if they were truth. These lies are all the more dangerous because they may contain a measure of truth, may sound reasonable, may be attractive. They may appeal to intellectual pride and the desire to rebel against Godly truth which lurks in fallen human nature. But all lies originate with Satan, who, as Jesus reveals, Whenever he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own nature, for he is a liar and the father of lies (John 8:44).
The first lie was spoken by Satan in Eden and today the lie is spoken through every means of communication and even in the church and in some church-sponsored schools and universities.
The terrible danger is that when people believe the lie, they disbelieve the truth. The truth reveals Christ, draws us to Christ and brings us to salvation. To be seduced by the lie is to be seduced away from salvation and eternal life with God. The danger of false teachers is that their lies draw people into everlasting separation from God. The ultimate end of the lie is hell.
How tragic when immature, undiscerning believers allow the lie, tolerate the lie, give permission to the lie, believe the lie. Sometimes, this is done out of sheer ignorance, lack of knowledge, which itself is the result of faulty, insufficient teaching ministry in the church. Far worse when the lie is propagated by the church in the false name of unity, “We just want to give everyone the opportunity to be heard. We want to love everyone.” No, if we really love God’s people we do not want them to be polluted, confused, tainted or damned by doctrines of demons (I Tim. 4:1).
But worst of all is when the church itself becomes conformed to the lie, when the lie is molded into doctrine and the doctrine is hardened into stone and the visible church becomes an apostate church, persecutor of the truth. This has happened throughout the history of the church.
Peter says that these purveyors of lies will secretly introduce destructive heresies (2 Ptr. 2:1). The word secretly speaks of deception, masks, camouflage, cunning. Introduce carries a sense of bringing something alongside something else. In the case of the false teachers, they bring false doctrine alongside true doctrine, which makes the false more attractive and more difficult to detect among those who are undiscerning and untaught.
Jude reminds us, For certain persons have crept in unnoticed, those who were long beforehand marked out for this condemnation, ungodly persons who turn the grace of our God into licentiousness and deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ (Jude 1:4). Licentiousness refers to promiscuity, lack of moral discipline. Their false teaching is that we can live any way we want to live, violate God’s moral commands and God will forgive because God is a God of grace. They turn grace into a license to sin.
The words crept in depict a burglar, a thief, a silently slithering serpent. What do these venomous thieves do? They introduce destructive heresies ( 2 Ptr. 2:1).This phrase may also be translated, heresies of destruction. The word heresies refers to self-willed opinion which is contrary to God-revealed, Scriptural truth and therefore leads to division. The word destructive has to do with waste, ruin, damnation, perishing. It is the same word Jesus used when He said, Enter through the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the way is broad that leads to destruction, and there are many who enter through it (Matt. 7:13).
It is the same word Jesus used as He prayed to the Father, speaking of Judas, While I was with them, I was keeping them in Your name which You have given Me; and I guarded them and not one of them perished but the son of perdition (destruction), so that the Scripture would be fulfilled (John 17:12).
It is the same word Peter used when speaking of future judgment of the ungodly, But by His word the present heavens and earth are being reserved for fire, kept for the day of judgment and destruction of ungodly men (2 Peter 3:7).
It is the same word used to describe the end of the AntiChrist, The beast that you saw was, and is not, and is about to come up out of the abyss and go to destruction (Rev. 17:8).
False teachers are proud of their new ideas, their cutting edge re-interpretations of Scripture and they do not usually deny Biblical truth outright. Rather, they deceptively mix lies with truth, darkness with light, deviating from the truth in subtle ways. This is far more dangerous than outright denial of truth but the result is always the same: they introduce destruction — ruin, damnation — into their own lives and the lives of those who believe them.
Their lies are often in harmony with the depraved society in which they live and so they have the testimony of popular culture: “This must be permissible, everyone is doing it.”
2. They seduce with their sensuality.
Many will follow their sensuality (2 Ptr. 2:2).
The word sensuality refers to unbridled lust, shameless, excessive indulgence. It may be expressed through sexual immorality or gluttony or greed or any other activity which disregards restraint, especially disregarding God’s moral law. Peter further describes them in verse 14, Having eyes full of adultery that never cease from sin, enticing unstable souls (2 Ptr. 2:14).
Paul lists sensuality among the deeds of the unregenerate life, Now the deeds of the flesh are evident, which are: immorality, impurity, sensuality (Gal. 5:19). Darkened in their understanding … They, having become callous, have given themselves over to sensuality for the practice of every kind of impurity with greediness (Eph. 4:18,19). Sensuality expressed through every kind of impurity with greediness — this is a characteristic of many false teachers. They live without moral restraint.
Unfortunately, many will follow their sensuality … enticing unstable souls (2 Ptr. 2:2,14). Peter expands on this later in the chapter, For speaking out arrogant words of vanity they entice by fleshly desires, by sensuality, those who barely escape from the ones who live in error, promising them freedom while they themselves are slaves of corruption; for by what a man is overcome, by this he is enslaved (2 Ptr. 2:18,19). They promise freedom but the result is always enslavement.
How similar to the false prophets denounced by God through Jeremiah, Among the prophets of Jerusalem I have seen a horrible thing: the committing of adultery and walking in falsehood; and they strengthen the hands of evildoers, so that no one has turned back from his wickedness (Jere. 23:14).
False prophets strengthen the hands of evildoers. They entice, seduce through their false teaching and their false lifestyle. They are popular — promising … freedom. They draw people in because they give permission to live any way people choose apart from God’s revealed truth. This surely appeals to fallen human nature. We still hear their lie today, “Live any way you want. God loves you. His grace will abound when we sin.” Yes, God loves us but that does not give us a license to sin all the more. If we have really encountered the grace and love and truth of Jesus then there will be transformation in our lives, transformation that leads to true freedom, not further enslavement.
Paul confronted this lie, What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin so that grace may increase? May it never be! How shall we who died to sin still live in it? (Rom. 6:1,2).
What we believe determines how we live. False teaching forms false beliefs which create a life lived falsely. But a truly redeemed life becomes a truly transformed life. Truth that communicates the moral goodness of Jesus leads to a life that reflects the moral goodness of Jesus. But the evil doctrine and evil life of the false teacher leads to evil transformation and deeper enslavement.
3. They bring shame on the church.
And because of them the way of the truth will be maligned (2 Ptr. 2:2).
The word maligned is blasphemeo from which we derive the words blaspheme and blasphemous. False teachers cause the way of the truth to be blasphemed, slandered because of their unbridled lusts which deny and contradict the way of truth which they pretend to proclaim.
4. They exploit with their words.
And in their greed they will exploit you with false words (2 Ptr. 2:3).
The word greed refers to an out of control desire to possess, unrestrained covetousness. Peter further describes them in 2:14 as having a heart trained in greed. The word trained is an athletic term — gymnazao — which means to exercise, as an athlete would train or exercise to prepare for the competition. (We derive the words gymnast or gymnasium from gymnazao). In other words, these false teachers, through practice, have formed, trained their souls to be greedy.
Paul reminds us in Colossians 3:5 that greed is an expression of idol worship. He describes these false teachers as men of depraved mind and deprived of the truth, who suppose that godliness is a means of gain (I Tim. 6:5). They insert themselves into positions of prominence in the church for the greedy purpose of monetary gain.
The word exploit refers to buying and selling, carrying on business. The old King James says that they make merchandise of you. How do they do this? With false words selling a false gospel, peddling doctrines of demons to their naive customers.
Interestingly, the word false is plastos from which we derive the word plastic which originally referred to something not entirely authentic. But even in its modern usage, we understand plastic to be a material which is flexible, elastic, able to be bent or shaped. So it is that these false teachers bend and twist the Word of God to serve their lying, sensual, greedy purpose.
Using religious words for monetary gain is nothing new. Centuries ago, the Lord spoke through the prophet Micah, Her leaders pronounce judgment for a bribe, her priests instruct for a price and her prophets divine for money. Yet they lean on the Lord saying, ‘Is not the Lord in our midst? Calamity will not come upon us’ (Micah 3:11). So it is today — false prophets labor for wealth while assuring their followers that God will not judge them. They are grievously mistaken.
5. They shape their message to maximize popularity, like the prophets of Jeremiah’s day, They have healed the brokenness of My people superficially, Saying, ‘Peace, peace,’ But there is no peace (Jere. 6:14). They tell people what they want to hear, not what they need to hear. They feed the appetite of people who prefer comfortable lies rather than challenging truth.
The Outcome of False Teachers:
1. Even denying the Master who bought them (2 Ptr. 2:1).
These false teachers make a profession of faith in Christ, so as to insert themselves into the church. But their teaching and their living deny their profession, or rather, reveal the falseness of their profession. Jesus said, Many will say to Me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?’ “And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness’ (Matt. 7:22,23).
The word deny means to disown, renounce, repudiate, refuse. It is the same word Jesus used when He said, But he who denies Me before men will be denied before the angels of God (Luke 12:19). It is the same word John used when he said, Who is the liar but the one who denies that Jesus is the Christ? This is the antichrist, the one who denies the Father and the Son (I Jn. 2:22). Denying that Jesus is the Christ means denying all that is true about Jesus — that He is the eternal, pre-existent Second Person of the Trinity, that He was born in human form as the God / Man to offer Himself as the atoning sacrifice for sin, that He rose from the dead.
False teachers, with their lying heresies and there wicked lifestyles, deny the truth of Jesus and truth about Jesus. In denying the Master who bought them, they deny to themselves the truth that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them (2 Cor 5:19). They deny to themselves the benefits of the Christ who came to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many (Mark 10:45). They deny, disown, renounce, repudiate and refuse Christ’s saving blessings and His redeeming work on their behalf. They deny to themselves the blessing of resurrection into eternal life with the redeemed. It is not that they abandoned faith in Christ but that they refused to embrace faith in Christ.
It is true that Peter himself denied Jesus on the night of Christ’s arrest but that wasn’t Peter’s committed lifestyle. All that was required was one glance from Jesus (Luke 22:61) and Peter wept bitterly over his sin and repented. But these false teachers are hardened in their denial of the truth, their opposition to the truth and resolute, unyielding in there commitment to destructive heresy. In doing this, they deny to themselves God’s gift of salvation.
2. They therefore bring swift destruction upon themselves (2 Ptr. 2:1).
The result of their destructive heresies is that they bring swift destruction upon themselves, in time and for all eternity. How ironic and just. They brought destruction into the lives of others. Now they will experience swift destruction. The word swift refers to something that is pressing in to the present moment and will not be postponed. Yes, they may gather a following, may prosper for a season but the reality of their destruction hovers close by and will not be evaded.
Their judgment from long ago is not idle, and their destruction is not asleep (2 Ptr. 2:3).
These false teachers may be quite popular for a season, may gather quite a following, may appear to be prosperous. But make no mistake — they are under the judgment of God. This judgment was determined from long ago by the God who sees the end from the beginning. And though they do have a destructive impact on the church and on the world, their destruction is not asleep.
Peter then encourages the church, For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but cast them into hell and committed them to pits of darkness, reserved for judgment; and did not spare the ancient world, but preserved Noah, a preacher of righteousness, with seven others, when He brought a flood upon the world of the ungodly; and if He condemned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to destruction by reducing them to ashes, having made them an example to those who would live ungodly lives thereafter … then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from temptation, and to keep the unrighteous under punishment for the day of judgment (2 Peter 2:4-6,9).
The Lord knows how … to keep the unrighteous under punishment for the day of judgment. Be certain of this: false teachers are under the judgment of God — their destruction is not asleep (2 Ptr. 2:3). And on the day when the souls of the unredeemed stand before Him, their sentence of judgment will be pronounced.
Destruction does not refer to annihilation, the loss of being. Rather, it refers to the loss of well being — life lived in absolute separation from God in the horrors of hell forever.
But also be certain of this: The Lord knows how to rescue the godly from temptation (2 Ptr. 2:9).
The righteous cry, and the Lord hears and delivers them out of all their troubles (Ps. 34:17).
Paul testifies, The Lord will rescue me from every evil deed, and will bring me safely to His heavenly kingdom; to Him be the glory forever and ever. Amen (2 Tim. 4:18).
Peter assures us that we are protected by the power of God through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time (I Ptr.1:5)
How are we to respond to false teachers?
1. Guard the faith:
Guard, through the Holy Spirit who dwells in us, the treasure which has been entrusted to you (1 Tim. 1:14).
The treasure which has been entrusted to us is not only our salvation but the entire body of truth regarding our salvation and our Savior. We guard this truth by knowing the truth, living the truth, praying the truth. Jude exhorts us, But you, beloved, building yourselves up on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit (Jude 1:20). Praying in the Holy Spirit means praying according to the will of God and we are able to know His will as we study His word.
2. Proclaim the faith:
Jesus has commissioned us, All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age (Matt. 28:18-20).
3. Contend for the faith:
Jude exhorts the church to contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all handed down to the saints (Jude 1:3). The word faith refers to the entire body of truth revealed in God’s holy word. The phrase contend earnestly is the compound verb epagonizomai from which we derive the English word agonize. It means to struggle vigorously, continually.
We contend for the faith as we proclaim it in truthful teaching and truthful living.
4. Live in holy contentment:
Make sure that your character is free from the love of money, being content with what you have; for He Himself has said, ‘I will never desert you, nor will I ever forsake you’ (Hebr. 13:5). Paul reminds us, Godliness with contentment is great gain (I Tim. 6:6). This is the balanced life, thankful for what we have, not coveting what we do not have. We cannot be seduced by false teachers if we are thankful and content.
5. Be discerning:
a. We discern false teachers by the error of their teaching: Is their teaching consistent with the truth of God revealed in the holy Bible?
b. We discern false teachers by the error of their ways: So then, you will know them by their fruits (Matt. 7:20). Are their lives consistent with the truth of God revealed in the holy Bible?
c. We discern false teachers by their priorities: What are they seeking — popularity, applause, money? If so, they will tell people what they want to hear, not what they need to hear. Speaking of unstable souls, Paul says, For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires (2 Tim. 4:3).
d. We discern false teachers by the impact they have on other people. Are the people who listen to them growing in the grace and knowledge of Jesus? Are they growing in holiness or are people being led astray?
6. Maintain confidence in our security in Christ:
Jesus said, For false Christs and false prophets will arise and will show great signs and wonders, so as to mislead, if possible, even the elect (Matt. 24:24). If possible implies that this is not possible that the redeemed would be misled. Therefore be encouraged: The Lord knows how to rescue the godly from temptation (2 Ptr. 2:9). Be certain of this.
As redeemed followers of Christ, we will not be led into damnable heresy by false teachers because of the commitment of our Lord to shepherd us, as Jude reminds us, Now to Him who is able to keep you from stumbling, and to make you stand in the presence of His glory blameless with great joy (Jude 1:24).
John reminds us, But you have an anointing from the Holy One, and you all know (I Jn. 2:20). The anointing is the presence of the Holy Spirit within us, the Spirit of truth and He will guide us into all truth (Jn. 16:13).
Jesus said to the Father, Of those whom You have given Me I lost not one (Jn 18:9). We maintain confidence in our security in Christ:
7. Know the word of God.
The Apostle Paul warned the elders in the Ephesian church, Be on guard for yourselves and for all the flock, among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to shepherd the church of God which He purchased with His own blood. I know that after my departure savage wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock … speaking perverse things … And now I commend you to God and to the word of His grace, which is able to build you up and to give you the inheritance among all those who are sanctified (Acts 20:28-30,32).
The word perverse may be translated distorted or twisted. Paul compares false teachers and false prophets to savage wolves who will distort truth, tear the truth which Paul had imparted to the church. But he reminds them of the antidote — the word of God which is able to build you up.
Paul exhorted Timothy to remember, All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness; so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work (2 Tim. 3:16,17).
As we move deeper into the last days, false teachers and false prophets will increase. They will secretly introduce destructive heresies, seduce with their sensuality, bring shame on the church and exploit with their words, continually seeking to expand their popularity. But as we guard, proclaim and contend for the faith, as we live in holy contentment and walk with discernment, as we maintain confidence in our security in Christ and know the word of God, the Lord will bring us through time into eternity, as our brother Jude exhorts us:
Now to Him who is able to keep you from stumbling, and to make you stand in the presence of His glory blameless with great joy, to the only God our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion and authority, before all time and now and forever. Amen (Jude 1:24,25).