False Teachers: The Gatekeepers of Hell

Who do You Trust?

Several years ago, the safety manager for a client called me to ask about a concern. The client, in this case

Using an Emergency Eyewash. photo courtesy of JM Ellsworth, Co.

a municipality, had just received citations from North Carolina OSHA (NCOSHA) which were the result of an inspection which had occurred a few months earlier. One particular citation was especially troubling to the safety manager and thus the reason for his call. Among other things, the employer had been cited for not having an emergency eyewash in a lab where workers routinely handled very caustic chemicals. The client did not dispute the fact there should have been an emergency eyewash in the lab and responded quicky to have one installed. The concern was over instructions provided within the citation. Such instructions are called “abatement notes” and are intended to provide guidance to the employer in achieving compliance with the specific citation. The note of concern read, “A suitable eye wash must have: …a copious flow of potable water for at least fifteen minutes with a temperature above freezing and less than 212F.”

So NCOSHA, in this instance, is saying that a water temperature of 211°F with a minimum fifteen-minute exposure is acceptable. My goodness, that is just one degree below the boiling point for water and 56 degrees above what is considered scalding! Clearly a serious hazard to any user. Following this OSHA-provided instruction would give the employer the false comfort they were now satisfying requirements for safeguarding lab workers-that is until an employee splashed acid in his/her eyes and ran for the emergency eyewash. 

Had the individual at NCOSHA who provided this false information been familiar with requirements for installation and maintenance of emergency eyewashes, they would have known the acceptable temperature is described as “tepid” which is a range between 60-100°F.  

Getting to the Point

My point is that providing false or inaccurate information can result in serious injury or even death. More to my point, some false teachings can result in separation from God and an eternal death in the pits of hell.  

Scripture warns us about false teachers. Peter puts it this way. “But there were also false prophets among the people, even as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Lord who bought them, and bring on themselves swift destruction.” (2 Peter 2:1, NKJV) 

A false teacher will not only provide inaccurate information that could push someone away from God but may also omit Scriptural teachings that could otherwise lead someone to God. There are many in the pulpit today who fall into this category. Some can be seen on television delivering sermons to millions every Sunday morning. Such leaders and their followers are in for a bad, bad time. See Care for My Sheep. 

Test the Spirits

So, how does one know if the teachings they are receiving are truly of God or are the thoughts or perhaps self-indulgent misinterpretations of a false teacher? John tells us to “test the spirits.”  

“Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits, whether they are of God; because many false prophets have gone out into the world. By this you know the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God, and every spirit that does not confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is not of God. And this is the spirit of the Antichrist, which you have heard was coming, and is now already in the world.” (1 John 4:1-3, NKJV) 

Listen carefully to the teachings so you will know if they are of God. Are the pastor’s or teacher’s words consistent with or contrary to Scripture? Study the Bible so you will be able to discern God’s word from teachings which are not of God. Following false teachings may not scald your eyeballs, but you could surely lose your eternal life in heaven.  

The Real Deal or a Bad Facsimile?

In 2004, a contractor was conducting routine periodic elevator service and preventative maintenance at one of the hospitals within the Duke University Health System. As a part of the service, the hydraulic fluid which had been used in the elevator system had to be replaced. But before draining the used fluid, technicians had to have some type of vessel in which to drain it. Having brought none along, they looked around and stumbled across some empty plastic containers which originally held detergent used to wash surgical instruments. The problem is, after filling these containers, they neglected to re-label them or even mark out the original labelling which erroneously told Duke staff the containers no longer contained detergent. Then just to drive home a case for Murphy’s Law, the contractor left the containers on-site. Long story short, surgical instruments were washed in used hydraulic fluid and some 3,800 surgeries were conducted with said instruments before the error was discovered. Fortunately for Duke and those 3,800 patients, instruments are routinely sterilized following the washing process. 

As an occupational safety and health consultant at the time teaching, among other things, OSHA’s hazard communication standard, I saw this story as a godsend. I’m sure I must have repeated it a thousand times while teaching OSHA’s requirements for proper container labeling and material safety data sheets. Now here we are sneaking up on the 20^th anniversary of this event, with me nearly three years into retirement, and I’m still getting mileage out of this story. 

Why, you might ask, was no one able to discern between dirty hydraulic fluid and liquid detergent? Again,

A comparison: Used hydraulic fluid and surgical instrument detergent.

I direct you to Murphy’s Law. This detergent was not a pretty sapphire blue nor lemony scented liquid detergent like that at the back of your kitchen sink. The detergent, in fact, was very similar in both color and viscosity to the hydraulic fluid in question, so, it was easy to mistake the bad for the good. It wasn’t until months later when someone noticed the cleaned instruments had a slick feeling, that the problem was discovered.  

Likewise, it is very easy to be fooled by someone teaching Scriptural contradictions. Anyone who claims anything to be true that contradicts God’s commands or speaks in the name of other gods is a false prophet or teacher.  Equally bad would be someone who, in the name of God, does NOT teach the precepts of God for fear of offending members of the congregation. You may think you haven’t run across such people, but chances are, you have; if not in person, likely on television. The words of that smooth talker might sound good but, you must ask yourself, are they biblical? “God wants you to be happy!” Or “God wants you to be rich and prosperous!” That might sound good but does the preacher ever preach about heaven and what exactly one must do to get there, or hell and what one must do to avoid it? Does he voice a stand against immoralities so pervasive today in our communities, our schools, or our governments? Or does he pick his sermon topics carefully and skillfully to avoid such hot social issues for fear of offending someone? If the latter is true, then he is no more than used hydraulic fluid contaminating every mind that absorbs his message. 

How are we supposed to identify false prophets and avoid being duped? Well, obviously, if we want to be able to identify anything that is not rooted in Scripture, we must know what Scripture says. That’s not to say we all need to become theologians overnight. But, be encouraged to spend some time each day reading the Bible. Ten or fifteen minutes each morning in a good study Bible that offers commentary and explanation of Scripture may surprise you. Find a good Bible study-group. Finally, weigh the words in the sermon against God’s Word to be sure they are biblically correct and sound. Make sure you’re getting the real deal and not a bad facsimile.  

Be warned! At 2 Timothy 4: 3-4, we read: 

“3 For the time will come when people will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. 

4 They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths.” 

Amen!