Why Are False Teachers In The Church?

This is the Thirteenth post in the series from Chapter 5 of Friends With God: God’s Called Out Ones. In the previous post we examined Christ’s long teachings on leadership in Matthew 18:1-35, which included the necessity for humility in the church leaders.

Christ demonstrated his own humility, and instructed his disciples to follow his example of humility:

You call Me the Teacher, and Lord, and you say well, for I am. If then I, the Lord and the Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another's feet. For I have given you an example, that you should do as I have done to you. (John 13:13-15)

If someone is not humble, they are not a follower of Christ, and they are not of God.

God Allows False Leaders To Exist

From the discussions we have seen in previous posts, it is clear that leadership within the church has always had major problems. And if you think about it, then you will realize that God has allowed these issues with leadership, because God expects church members to confront these problems by judging these leaders and to then make determinations about them through looking at their fruits:

Beware of false prophets (teachers) who come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves. You shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes from thorns, or figs from thistles? … Therefore by their fruits you shall know them. (Matt 7:15-20)

If we don’t judge our leaders wisely, then we will be led astray into the broad gate, which many go in, leading us into destruction. (Matt 7:13-14) At least those going that way won’t be lonely!

The lesson is that we simply can’t trust leaders to teach us the truth all the time.

And God expects us to be diligent to search out the truth from the error:

Therefore, beloved, looking for these things, be diligent, spotless, and without blemish, to be found by Him in peace…. beware lest being led away with the error of the lawless, you fall from your own steadfastness. (2Peter 3:14-17)

We are required to take responsibility to remain steadfast, and a major part of this is to judge those who could lead you astray- namely the church leaders.

God expects you to take on the responsibility of judging your church leaders, and in doing so you play an active part in your own salvation.

Clearly, Christ has not “done it all” for us.

Overcoming the Iron Law of Oligarchy

The concept of the Iron Law Of Oligarchy, discussed in this previous post, demonstrates how large organisations tend toward authoritarian leadership.

Christ again addressed overcoming the issue of authoritarian tendencies of leaders later in the book of Matthew, when he spoke about the hypocrisy, oppression, and self-aggrandisement of the leaders of the Jews:

Then Jesus spoke to the crowd and to His disciples, saying, The scribes and the Pharisees sit in Moses' seat. (They have the authority of Moses to administer the written law) Therefore whatever they tell you to observe, (out of the law) observe and do. (Follow what they say out of the scriptures)
But do not do according to their works (although teaching the law, they don’t follow the law); for they say, and do not do.
For they bind heavy burdens (that are not in the law, but which are) hard-to-carry and lay them on men's shoulders. But they will not move them (obey these laws) with one of their fingers. (They will not bind these burdens onto themselves)
But they do all their works in order to be seen of men, … and enlarge the borders of their garments (made large the symbols of righteousness that were on their robes).
And they love the finest seats at the feasts, and the exalted seats in the synagogues, and (obsequious) greetings in the market-places, and to be called, Rabbi! Rabbi! by men. (They are full of self-aggrandisement and pretence)
But you must not be called Rabbi, for One is your teacher, Christ, and you are all brothers. (a very egalitarian structure for the church)
And call no one your father on the earth (as in spiritual father), for One is your Father in Heaven.
Nor be called teachers (spiritual teacher), for One is your Teacher, even Christ. But he who is greatest among you shall be your servant. (Matt 23:1-11)

Over the next 25 verses Christ continued to expose the Scribes’ and Pharisees’ foolishness, hypocrisy and blindness. Please take the time to read Jesus’ words, for you won’t hear them preached by authoritarian leaders!

He even called these leaders serpents and offspring of vipers! They were obviously not the sort of people whose example we should be following! They were hypocrites, or actors, which is what the Greek word for hypocrisy means:

Even so you (the Jewish leaders) also appear righteous to men outwardly, but inside you are full of hypocrisy and iniquity (lawlessness)”. (Matt 23:28)

These clear directives by Christ show how to undermine the very persistent Iron Law Of Oligarchy and greatly undermine the potential for leaders’ self-aggrandisement. Such bad leadership reflects the mind of the old Serpent (Matt 23:33), rather than the mind of the Son of God- who came to serve rather than to be served.

Christian leaders should not follow the example of these foolish, blind hypocrites. And the way Jesus told us to avoid this is to follow his clear commands to not have fancy titles, or special clothes, or important places to sit at gatherings.

Unfortunately, that’s exactly what many Christian churches heap upon their leaders to exalt them and (lo and behold) along has come the foolishness, blindness and hypocrisy similar to that identified so damnably among the Pharisees!

So, we see that the Iron Law of Oligarchy often rears its head with false teachers because Christian churches don’t follow the clear directives of Christ in how to establish the structure of the church.

God Tests Our Hearts

Yet that is not the only reason such people are allowed to lead members astray. God allows false leaders to test our heart, as he did to ancient Israel:

If a prophet rises among you, or a dreamer of dreams, and gives you a sign or a wonder, and the sign or the wonder which he foretold to you occurs, saying (and he says), Let us go after other gods which you have not known, and let us serve them, you shall not listen to the words of that prophet or that dreamer of dreams.
For the Lord your God is testing you to know whether you love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul.
You shall walk after the Lord your God and fear Him, and keep His commandments, and obey His voice, and you shall serve Him and hold fast to Him. (Deu 13:1-4)

We are also warned many times in the New Testament that God is willing to test you with signs and wonders done by false prophets. (Matt 7:15-23, Matt 24:11, Matt 24:23-25, Mark 13:21-23, Acts 13:6.) God is not playing games by such tests- this is very serious. We must be very careful, for we see that God will allow us to be in harm’s way!

Behold, I send you out as sheep in the midst of wolves. Therefore, be as wise as serpents and as harmless as doves. (Matt 10:16)

God is very blunt! We must take responsibility for being wise in our actions, knowledge, and beliefs. God puts this responsibility squarely on our shoulders.

The reason for this is simple: we would never expect anyone else to develop a friendship for us through another person! Neither can we expect a preacher to come between us and God. We need to develop our friendship directly with God.

End Time Miracle Workers

Revelation 13:11-16 tells of an end time false prophet, who will have the power to use miraculous signs and wonders. Christ also warns of false Christs who could also to potentially deceive even the very elect. (Matt 24:24) We need to keep our eyes on Christ who is the Word of God, and not on people- what they teach us, or what they do.

The fact is that false teachers have existed in the past, and will also exist in future churches. They are allowed by God to be there, to test us, to determine if we will follow men or God.

Revelation 11:3-13 also talks about two righteous witnesses of God, who will exist at the same time as this false prophet, and will also have power to do miraculous signs and wonders.

God will always have some faithful members he calls upon to confront these false leaders and expose them. However, it’s up to us to determine which is the true teacher of God, or if he is going to lead us into the wide gate that leads to eternal death.

However, Paul encourages us to never give up, for God is with us:

Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written, “For your sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.” Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us.
For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Rom 8:35-39)

God tests us, and we also need to test our leaders, to ensure they are not starting down the well-worn track of domination and control over others. To avoid such evil leaders, we must constantly check the scriptures to see if what the preachers are saying is correct.

In the town of Berea, Paul and Silas found an audience who would willingly listen to their teachings, but these same people also checked the scriptures to see if everything they said was correct. (Acts 17:10-11) Paul praised them for doing this – he didn’t complain that they were checking up on him. He was glad they did this, and God has seen fit to record this so that we would do likewise!

We must read the scriptures in context and prove if what we are told by the leaders is true. We should also pray for the leaders to be humble. And we need to be careful to not elevate leaders and give them titles, thus tempting them to adopt a prideful mind and to regard others as inferior to themselves.

If we do these things we will have a strong foundation for a wholesome and healthy Christian organisation, which will go a long way in counteracting the Iron Law of Oligarchy. But, as the powerful but short book of Jude tells us, this is a battle that will always need to be fought, for people will creep in unawares and try to lead many astray:

For there are certain men crept in (to the Church) unawares, who were before of old ordained to this condemnation, ungodly men, turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness (lustfulness), and denying the only Lord God, and our Lord Jesus Christ. (Jude 1:4)

God’s Structure For The Church

From the above, and the previous posts on this subject, we see that we need to have an open, honest and accountable church structure, that is able to be reviewed and amended by the active input of all the members, not just the leaders.

Unlike a capitalist company, where leaders may own everything, and therefore justifiably make the decisions for the direction of the organisation, a church must be organised in a manner that ensures that the members know exactly what is going on. Members should be encouraged to participate in the decision-making process, which means that the membership must also be willing to participate, which is often just not the case.

The structure of the Church organisation should be such that individuals can easily be informed, and are able to respond to any information in an appropriate manner, and timely fashion. Unfortunately, as is seen with our democratic systems of government, discussed in previous posts, organisations that are founded on the ideal of ‘open accountable government’ can easily be corrupted and fall foul of the Iron Law of Oligarchy. We therefore need a church structure that is much better than democracy.

One church I was associated with claimed to have an open and honest financial reporting system, yet their budget lumped in the “ministers’ wages” with many other “expenses for preaching the gospel”, such as hall hire. Members therefore didn’t know if they were paying the ministers a vast fortune in wages, or just had very expensive halls!

While we are supposed to be God’s sheep, we are not to be so foolish as to allow ourselves to have the wool pulled over our eyes by deceptive and manipulative leaders. (Matt 10:16) We are not their sheep, to be shorn and used how they like!

In the next post we will examine more about what God tells us is the ideal Christian church structure he wants for those representing him on the Earth.