This one minute short video comes from our full length video called "Roman Catholicism Series #11: Scripture Twisting - 20 Ways Religious Cults Misread the Bible" at    • Roman Catholicism Series #11:  Script...   . To see the entire 16 hour video series called "Roman Catholicism Series" go to our playlist "Dealing With Roman Catholicism, Eastern Orthodoxy, Idolatry & the Virgin Mary" with 295 videos at    • Dealing With Roman Catholicism, Easte...   .

False religions pervert the message of the Bible in many ways. Galatians 1:6-9, "6 I marvel that you are so quickly deserting Him who called you by the grace of Christ for a different gospel, 7 which is really not another, only there are some who are disturbing you and want to distort the gospel of Christ. 8 But even if we, or an angel from heaven, should proclaim to you a gospel contrary to the gospel we have proclaimed to you, let him be accursed! 9 As we have said before, so I say again now, if any man is proclaiming to you a gospel contrary to what you received, let him be accursed!"

We can identify a false teacher or a false prophet by examining first and foremost their teaching and secondly their behavior in light of Scripture. If what they are teaching is not consistent with what is plainly revealed in Scripture, they are a false teacher and are to be ignored, even if they live extraordinary lives, even if they appear to have supernatural insight, or even if they seem to work great miracles. Jesus warned us that there would be false prophets who would perform great signs and would seek to lead astray, if possible, even the elect (Matthew 24:24, Mark 13:22). It is, therefore, urgent not to be distracted by such things, but to focus on the content of their teaching. Our Lord explained:

“Beware of the false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves. You will know them by their fruits. Grapes are not gathered from thorn bushes nor figs from thistles, are they? So every good tree bears good fruit, but the bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot produce bad fruit, nor can a bad tree produce good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. So then, you will know them by their fruits,” (Matthew 7:15-20).

The false prophet comes in the clothing of a sheep but is inwardly a wolf. He appears on the outside as a sheep but is secretly a wolf within. We are to know them by their “fruit,” not by their “clothing.” A fig tree bears figs, an apple tree bears apples, a prophet bears prophesy, and a teacher bears teaching.

“Either make the tree good and its fruit good, or make the tree bad and its fruit bad; for the tree is known by its fruit. You brood of vipers, how can you, being evil, speak what is good? For the mouth speaks out of that which fills the heart,” (Matthew 12:33-34).

Jesus likewise said of the false teachers of his day:

“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs which on the outside appear beautiful, but inside they are full of dead men’s bones and all uncleanness,” (Matthew 23:27).

“Woe to you! For you are like concealed tombs, and the people who walk over them are unaware of it,” (Luke 11:44).

The image here, drawing from the Old Testament ceremonial purity laws, is of something that looks innocuous or even pleasing on the outside, but is not only corrupt within but also makes the unsuspecting impure because of its deception. It is, therefore, imperative that we not be distracted by any outward appearance of “goodness,” but rather focus first and foremost on the window we have to what is within: the words.

It is no surprise, then, that in one of the earliest church writings outside the New Testament we possess, called the Didache, in Chapter 11 which specifically discusses how to identify false prophets and false teachers, the very first instruction before all others is:

“Whosoever, therefore, shall come and teach you all these things that have been said before, receive him; but if the teacher himself be perverted and teach a different doctrine to the destruction thereof, hear him not.”

The Bible does provide us some concrete examples:

False teachers will often seek to add to the work of Christ some law, work, ritual, or ordinance that a believer must also perform in addition to repentance and faith in Christ, saying that this too must be done to be saved, (Galatians 3, 1 Timothy 4:1-5).
On the other hand, many false teachers will do the opposite, proclaiming that, because God is so merciful and salvation is by grace alone, you, therefore, don’t need to repent at all. They pervert God’s grace and make it a license to sin, (Jude 4).
Any teacher who subtly denies Jesus (2 Peter 2:1), or His authority (Jude 4), or His deity (1 Corinthians 12:2-3), or that He came down from heaven and took on human flesh and died in our place (1 John 1:1-3), these are clearly false teachers.