Who determines what is false doctrine?: Difference between revisions

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 We think that this is a valid question that should be addressed.  Specifically, we will try to address the question - How should Christians generally determine what is false doctrine and what is not?
+==Our response==
+From our research and experience, false doctrine has five characteristics:
+:1. '''False doctrine is based on scripture.'''  We see this reflected in Acts 20:30:
+:::''Even some men from your own group will rise up and '''distort the truth''' in order to draw a following.<ref>Tyndale House Publishers, Holy Bible: New Living Translation (Carol Stream, IL: Tyndale House Publishers, 2015), Ac 20:30.</ref>
+::Also in 2 Peter 3:15-16
+:::''...as also our dear brother Paul wrote to you, according to the wisdom given to him, 3:16 speaking of these things in all his letters. Some things in these letters are hard to understand, things the ignorant and unstable twist to their own destruction, as they also do to the rest of the scriptures.<ref>Biblical Studies Press, The NET Bible First Edition; Bible. English. NET Bible.; The NET Bible (Biblical Studies Press, 2005), 2 Pe 3:15–16.</ref>
+:2. '''False doctrine is plausible.'''  No one is going to be led astray by a false teaching that makes no sense.
+:3. '''False doctrine is self-centred and self-focused.'''  As noted in Acts 20:30, the purpose of false doctrine is for the false teacher to draw a following.  The followers of false doctrine group together and generally exclude those who do not believe their pet doctrines.
+:4. '''False doctrine is reductionist.'''  Reductionism is where you make a main thing into the only thing or make a partial thing the whole thing. The greatest heresies do not come about by straightforward denial; most of the church will see that for what it is. They happen when an element which may even be important, but isn’t central, looms so large that people can’t help talking about it, fixating on it, debating different views of it as though this were the only thing that mattered.<ref>N. T. WRIGHT as quoted in Hirsch, Alan; Nelson, Mark. Reframation: Seeing God, People, and Mission Through Reenchanted Frames (p. 45). 100 Movements Publishing.</ref>  In the message, the Gospel is reduced to "God sent a prophet."  Failure to believe that means that you have not truly accepted the Gospel.
+:In its original meaning, the word heresy does not infer that someone is wrong or has believed a falsehood. Rather, it simply refers to a particular truth or belief that has been extracted from its true and complete context and is subsequently treated as if it were the whole truth. This explains why every heretic in the history of the church has had a verse or two of Scripture they rigidly hold to.  The heretic becomes increasingly obsessive and sectarian by making the newly recovered particular truth into the whole truth. Its real meaning is obscured because it is separated from the greater Truth from which it has been extracted.12 Truth thereby becomes fragmented.<ref>Hirsch, Alan; Nelson, Mark. Reframation: Seeing God, People, and Mission Through Reenchanted Frames (pp. 48-49). 100 Movements Publishing</ref>
+:5. '''False doctrine is divisive.'''  We read in Titus 3:10:
+::''As for a person who stirs up division, after warning him once and then twice, have nothing more to do with him, knowing that such a person is warped and sinful; he is self-condemned.<ref>The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), Tt 3:10–11.</ref>
 =What the Bible says=
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 Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, for many false prophets have gone out into the world. 2 By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, 3 and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you heard was coming and now is in the world already. 4 Little children, you are from God and have overcome them, for he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world. 5 They are from the world; therefore they speak from the world, and the world listens to them. 6 We are from God. Whoever knows God listens to us; whoever is not from God does not listen to us. By this we know the Spirit of truth and the spirit of error.<ref>The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton: Standard Bible Society, 2001), 1 Jn 4:1–6.</ref>
+==False teachers must be rebuked==
+Paul said that an overseer in the church must be able not only “to give instruction in sound doctrine” but also “to confute those who contradict it”:
+:Titus 1:9: ''He must hold firm to the trustworthy word as taught, so that he may be able to give instruction in sound doctrine and also to '''rebuke those who contradict it'''.<ref>The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton: Standard Bible Society, 2001), Tt 1:9.</ref>
+:2 Timothy 2:24-25: ''...able to teach, patiently enduring evil, '''correcting his opponents with gentleness'''. God may perhaps grant them repentance leading to a knowledge of the truth...<ref>The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton: Standard Bible Society, 2001), 2 Ti 2:24–25.</ref>
+:Titus 2:7-8: ''Show yourself in all respects to be a model of good works, and in your teaching show integrity, dignity, and sound speech that cannot be condemned, '''so that an opponent may be put to shame, having nothing evil to say about us'''.<ref>The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton: Standard Bible Society, 2001), Tt 2:7–8.</ref>
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