Danger of False Teachers
Every now and then I get a comment telling me that I am assisting the enemy by speaking badly about other Christians. As I said in a recent comment, I do not speak badly about other Christians, I offer Biblical Arguments against False Teachings. And now, Glenn from The Watchman’s Bagpipes, explains why False Teachers are dangerous and must be publicly denounced.
Note: As far as Glenn’s list of false teachers goes, I have not read his posts about each one which I am sure contain his reasons for branding them as such. If you have questions about his list, please search his blog for his reasons.
I really don’t like Glenn Chatfield’s site. It reminds me of the wave of books, published in the 1980s, which were a mixture of genuine exposure of abuses and twisted misinfomation and slander about genuine ministries. Many people were hurt and confused by these books, including me. I also think the “Order of Heresy Hunters” he claims to be a member of sounds creepy!
I disagree with his premise that “wolves” need to be exposed in the way he believes he is doing. There are very few people denounced by name in the New Testament. Even Simon Magus, briefly mentioned in Acts as trying to buy the power of the Holy Spirit, is not named in the epistles, despite the fact that he was well known as a heretic and self-proclaimed false messiah! There are passages which refute teachings he was associated with (not obvious to 21st century readers), but Simon himself is not mentioned.
One of the objections we GD parents have to many Christian parenting books is that they mix good advice with poison. It’s the same with the heresy hunting movement. Some of what gets exposed needs to be, but the rest is inaccurate gossip, with people being quoted out of context and in some cases presented as saying the opposite of what they actually teach.
Abuses need to be stopped (not merely exposed), and in order to do this it’s sometimes necessary to name the perpetrators. However, I believe heretic hunting, with its widespread naming and shaming, is ungodly and is motivated by religious spirits rather than the Holy Spirit. There is a lot of misrepresentation and half-truth, and the fruits are not good. Jesus said we would know false teachers by their fruits – not their roots, as one of the sites Chatfield links to actually paraphrases as a catchline! Some of the people and movements denounced by people who call themselves watchmen are bearing much better fruit than the “watchmen” themselves…
I applaud these people’s desire for Biblical truth. However, I believe they are deceived in what they are doing.
Thank you for sharing your opinion on this. You give excellent food for thought here.
I don’t understand what this Watchman’s problem is with Rob Bell, or Brian McClaren? I don’t think having a different interpretation of the extent of the atonement, or a different interpretation of certain parts of the Bible is the same as being a dangerous false teacher. I do however agree that Harold Camping is a sham, and that what he did hurt a lot of people. Creflo Dollar, and other prosperity gospel gurus are also a sham, and they profit off their sham. I just don’t understand the Rob Bell and Brian McClaren implication.
I don’t know, I have not studied either one of them. I started reading The Watchman’s blog because he had a post about Michael Pearl’s teachings. I just added a disclaimer to my post, thank you for giving me that idea.
Here are his posts about Rob Bell and here are his posts about Brian McLaren.