We have learned that the Church of all ages is riddled with false teachers and their mortal doctrine. We met seven of these false teachers and saw the devastation they bring. We have identified five tests that we can apply to any doctrine to determine whether it is false or true, but this leaves us with some important questions: how does a church come to reject sound doctrine?Fortunately, God gave us a clear guide in His Word, showing us how churches fall into mortal doctrine and how we can protect ourselves from it.
Most biblical scholars agree that 2 Timothy is Paul’s last epistle. He was near the end of his life, so he pulled out his pen to write back to his young friend. In his last words to Timothy, Paul wishes to warn him of the danger of false teachers. “For there shall be a time when they shall not endure sound doctrine; on the contrary, they will surround themselves with teachers according to their own concupiscences, such as itching in the ears; and refuse to listen to the truth, giving in to fables?(2 Tim 4. 3-4). In these verses, he looks to the future and describes a church undermined and destroyed. This is not a prophecy of the death of a single congregation, but an overview of the death of a thousand. Describes four steps that can gradually lead any health congregation to death.
- Step 1: Reject the truth.
- Paul warns Timothy that people “will refuse to listen to the truth.
- “The first step in destroying a church is a collective rejection of clear biblical teaching.
- First.
- One individual leaves.
- Then another.
- Until most of the congregation begins to question what they once considered true.
- This can happen gradually.
- As mistrust spreads in God’s revealed truth.
- Or happens quickly.
- Because love of the world drowns out the fertility of a congregation.
- In any case.
- What was once the love of truth becomes an aversion and What was once the hatred of error becomes a plot and then an interest.
Step 2: Reject the preachers of truth. When a church departs from the truth, its members soon turn against those who tell the truth. Paul tells Timothy that in the days to come, people “will not tolerate sound doctrine. “These people will no longer tolerate the education they once enjoyed As they have begun to question the truth, these people will turn against those who boldly proclaim it; the same teachers who once attracted them and those they enjoyed begin to disgust them.
Step 3: Welcome fake masters. Once the church has rejected those who teach the truth, it will replace them with teachers who will give them what they want to hear. “They will surround themselves with teachers according to their own lusts, such as itching in their ears. “This church now want novelty more than truth, superficiality beyond exhortation. They want religion and even want the label of “Christians”, as long as they can maintain respect for society and remain acceptable in a world without God. They then invite false teachers to guide them in a very deep and complete distortion of the truth.
Step 4: Adopt the false doctrine. Once people have rejected the truth and the preachers of truth, and once they have found teachers to guide them to distorted truth, they will deviate “by giving in to fables. “Now they will embrace total heresy. They will harden so much in their sin that they will elevate error to the state of truth; in their rebellion, they will celebrate in the name of God exactly the things that God hates; under the guidance of false teachers, they will fully adopt the doctrine of mortals; they will stray like sheep who defstrate from the care of a good shepherd by a herd of wolves.
Paul outlines a tragic progression that begins with people who are tired and ashamed of the truth, who no longer want to endure a healthy teaching, who get rid of the preachers of truth and accumulate teachers who correspond to their own lusts. Get away from the truth and resort to fables. This mortal model has destroyed countless churches.
Remember that Paul writes to the young pastor Timothy asking him to protect his congregation. How can Timothy prevent his church from succumbing to false teachers and mortal doctrine?Should I study the methods of heretics to anticipate all their movements?Doctrine of heretics to refute them point by point? Paul proposes a much simpler solution: preaching. “Preach the word, exhort, whether appropriate or not, to correct, to rebuke, to exhort with all patience and doctrine?(2 Tim 4. 2) .
The solution for false teachers and mortal doctrine is not to obsess over lies, but to seek truth. The church that remains faithful to God is the church that remains faithful to the Word of God. Here’s how Paul says Timothy? And each of us?He must protect the church from the standard of earthly doctrine.
Preach the Palabra. La church that wants to stay healthy must preach the Word of God. Preaching is as powerful as your fidelity to the Bible. The most faithful way to preach the Word is to preach explicitly, to ensure that the subject of a text becomes the subject of the sermon. This form of preaching restricts the pastor to the Word of God and assures the congregation that each word is faithfully extracted from the scriptures.
Preach insistently. The Church must persist in this preaching in order to be ready, whether appropriate or not. There are times when the preaching of the Bible is loved and considered effective, and there are times when it is hated and considered terribly ineffective. According to many experts, they are supposed to say that explanatory preaching is dying and will soon cause the contraction and collapse of a church. But this kind of faithful, speech-based preaching must be at the heart of the Church, whether it is timely. or not, when it’s popular and when it’s unpopular.
Preach for the application. Preaching should include an element of teaching the facts of the Bible, but it must also “correct, rebuke, exhort. “It should always have a practical dimension that goes to the listener’s heart and confronts his disbelief. While teaching is intended to actually accumulate, preaching aims to save souls, transform lives, and motivate a holy life. Faithful preaching confronts and corrects the false doctrines and standards of life of sinners (corrects, rebukes) and forms and encourages things that honor God (urgency).
Preach patience. The Church must continue this preaching “with all patience. “A congregation should never tire of this kind of preaching or lose confidence in its goodness and effectiveness. They should never ask their pastors for anything but the scriptures, nor hesitate in their commitment to faithfully expose the Word of God as the very heart of Christian worship.
Preach a sound doctrine. Finally, Timothy’s preaching must have an element of “doctrine. “Preaching is being full of Christian truth. It is to communicate the whole truth of God from the whole Word of God. People who turn away from God do not support a healthy Best preaching is one who is full of sound doctrine and never contradicts it. The kind of preaching Paul calls “teaching all the counsel of God,” preaching the whole Word of God. God.
Can Paul imagine a future in which people will not tolerate the truth and tell Timothy to remain true to his central call?Lead the church with and through the Word of God. That was Paul’s burden on Timothy two thousand years ago, and that burden continues on you and me today. While God’s people live in a period of itching in our ears, we must remain committed to nothing less than the weekly faithful preaching of God’s precious Word.
Individually, we are responsible for finding and participating in such a church; together, we are responsible for building such churches and making sure that they continue to faithfully preach the Word of God. The healthy church is the church that preaches, the church firmly anchored in the word of God.