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1). False teachers are known as savage wolves: “Therefore take heed to yourselves and to 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. For I know this, that after my departure savage wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock. Also from among yourselves men will rise up, speaking perverse things, to draw away the disciples after themselves. Therefore watch, and remember that for three years I did not cease to warn everyone night and day with tears” (Acts 20:28-31); KJV calls them “grievous wolves”; the NIV calls them “vicious wolves”; the ESV calls them “fierce wolves”. ICB calls them “wild wolves”. New Life Version calls them “hungry wolves”.

2). The bible warns us to stay away from false teachers: “Now I urge you, brethren, note those who cause divisions and offenses, contrary to the doctrine which you learned, and avoid them. For those who are such do not serve our Lord Jesus Christ, but their own belly, and by smooth words and flattering speech deceive the hearts of the simple” (Rom. 16:17-18, & 2 John 1:9-11). Are you going to a church that is pastored by a heretic? A simple way to know is by seeing if your pastor is teaching you the bible in a systematic and expositional way. If he is not teaching you  the bible, book by book, chapter by chapter, and verse by verse, your pastor most likely is a false teacher, because if he believes that the bible is the Word of God, then why is he not teaching it in such a way?

3). False teachers are deceitful workers that have disguised themselves as apostles of Christ: “For such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into apostles of Christ. And no wonder! For Satan himself transforms himself into an angel of light. Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also transform themselves into ministers of righteousness,  whose end will be according to their works” (2 Cor. 11:13-15). Just because your pastor calls himself a “pastor” does not mean that he is a biblical pastor. According to the bible, pastors must feed the sheep, the people of God (John 21:15-17, 1 Pet. 5:1-4, and not be greedy for money (1 Tim.3:3).

4). False teachers teach doctrines of devils: “Now the Spirit expressly says that in latter times some will depart from the faith, giving heed to deceiving spirits and doctrines of demons, speaking lies in hypocrisy, having their own conscience seared with a hot iron” (1 Tim. 4:1-2).  Because false teachers have not been called by God, they do not teach the Word of God. On the contrary, their “sermons” are filled with humanistic phsychology. They manipulate peoples emotions through a shallow “sermon”, and loud concert style “worship” music. 

5). False teachers will have a big following: “For the time will come when they will not endure sound  doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers; and they will turn their ears away from the truth, and be turned aside to fables (2 Tim. 4:3-4).  Most people believe that big churches are of God. But nothing can be farther from the truth because there are many cults that have millions of members as well. And Paul warned Timothy of a time in which people would not love sound doctrine. Many instead want to be entertained in church with rock style loud music, followed by an emotionally driven preacher that is scratching peoples ears instead of teaching them the Word of God. And the reason that he will not teach the Word is because people do not want to sit down and listen to a systematic and expositional study that will edify them spiritually. They will consider that boring because they have a misunderstanding of what biblical Christianity is. When the church gathers, the Word of God must be taught, otherwise heresy will come out of the pulpit.

6). False teachers are motivated by money: “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. And many will follow their destructive ways, because of whom the way of truth will be blasphemed. By covetousness they will exploit you with deceptive words; for a long time their judgment has not been idle, and their destruction does not slumber (2 Pet. 2:1-3).  “In their greed they will make up clever lies to get hold of your money” (NLT). (Does this sound like the pastor at your church who is always asking for money?). If so, leave that church immediately and look for a bible teaching church instead!

7). False teachers are against Christ:  “Little children, it is the last hour; and as you have heard that the Antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have come, by which we know that it is the last hour. They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us; but they went out that they might be made manifest, that none of them were of us” (1 John 2:18-19, also 2 Cor. 11:13-15, John 4:1-3, 2 John 7-11).

8). False teachers will be judged by God and condemned: Jude, the half brother of Jesus wrote in Jude 4a, “For certain men have crept in unnoticed, who long ago were marked out for this condemnation…” (also vs. 14-15, Hosea 9:7-9, Jeremiah 8:8-13).   False prophets and false teachers are enjoying the financial benefits of their deception, but one day they will die and will be giving an account to the Lord for everything that they spoke in His name. 

9). False teachers are not committed to Scripture, therefore they hate doctrine:  “Till I come, give attention to reading, to exhortation, to doctrine... Take heed to yourself and to the doctrine. Continue in them, for in doing this you will save both yourself and those who hear you” (1 Tim. 4:13, 16) “But as for you, speak the things which are proper for sound doctrine:” (Titus 2:1, see also 1 Tim. 1:3, 4:6, 6:3, 2 Tim. 3:16-17).  As one reads through Scripture, one cannot deny the fact that the Word of God places a great importance on doctrine and on the teaching of it (Matt. 4:4, John 8:31-32, 2 Tim. 2:15)), and that because it was and is the inspired Word of God (2 Tim. 3:16-17). That is what the early church did, including Paul the Apostle, whenever they would gather to worship the Lord. They did not gather to hear loud music and an emotional and covetous preacher who was playing with peoples emotions only to get more money out of them. True pastors were given to the church to edify it through the teaching of the Word of God (Eph. 4:14).

10). False teachers claim that God speaks to them and through them:  But that is heresy because “God, who at various times and in various ways spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets, has in these last days spoken to us by His Son...” (Heb. 1:1-2a). Therefore, everything that we need to know about God has already been written in His divine Word. There are no new revelations or truths. The problem of false teachers also existed in the O.T. “Then I said, “And the LORD said to me, “The prophets prophesy lies in My name. I have not sent them, commanded them, nor spoken to them; they prophesy to you a false vision, divination, a worthless thing, and the deceit of their heart” Jer. 14:14. “I have heard what the prophets have said who prophesy lies in My name, saying, ‘I have dreamed, I have dreamed!’ How long will this be in the heart of the prophets who prophesy lies? Indeed they are prophets of the deceit of their own heart” (Jer. 23:25-26).

11). False teachers love to flatter people to gain advantage: Jude 1:16 “These are grumblers, complainers, walking according to their own lusts; and they mouth great swelling words, flattering people to gain advantage.” “For those who are such do not serve our Lord Jesus Christ, but their own belly, and by smooth words and flattering speech deceive the hearts of the simple” (Rom. 16:18). 

12). False teachers preach another gospel: Their “sermons” tend to focus on wealth: They do that because it is a successful spiritual trick that they have up their sleeve (Eph. 4:14). They say that the more that you give the more the Lord will bless you. But in reality, the more you give, the more rich they become.  The bible does teach on giving, but not the way false teachers say. “So let each one give as he purposes in his heart, not grudgingly or of necessity; for God loves a cheerful giver” (2 Cor. 9:7). There are many other signs of false teachers, but if our educational system teaches directly from the text books from cover to cover, why aren’t churches teaching the bible cover to cover if they truly believe that it is the inspired Word of God? If schools taught the way modern day churches “teach”, students would remain in kinder (2 Cor. 11:13-15, Gal. 1:1-6, 1 Tim. 4:1-5, 2 Tim. 4:1-4, 2 Pet. 2:1-3. Study the bible! For more please watch “Wolves Among Us" on Amazon Prime.

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