He is to be Accursed

February 10


In James 3:1 we read, "Let not many of you become teachers, my brethren, knowing that as such we will incur a stricter judgment." and in Galatians 1:9 we read, “As we have said before, and now say again, if any man is preaching to you a gospel contrary to what you received, he is to be accursed!” In Romans 16:17 Paul tells us, “Now I urge you brethren, keep your eye on those who cause dissensions and hindrances contrary to the teaching which you learned and turn away from them.” The context of I Timothy 5:19, 20 suggest the issue for which an elder should be rebuked is incorrect teaching, and finally, the context of I Timothy 1:20, where Paul turned Hymenaeus and Alexander over to Satan seems also clearly to be for bad teaching.

I think we usually fail to note the difference between how we are instructed to address heretics compared to how we are to address those who are led astray by the teaching of those heretics. Since God’s word declares we should differentiate, I believe it behooves us to do so. Those like Robert Schuler, Rob Bell, Joel Osteen, Creflo Dollar, Kenneth Hagin and everyone connected to the word of faith ministries as well as the emergent church, and the hundreds of others on nationwide television preaching another gospel need to be severely reprimanded and rebuked publicly for their heresy. I've beem ill the past three days, so I began searching through the church channels this afternoon, trying to identify good biblical teaching. I could find none. I listened for fifteen or twenty minutes to each heretic. They certainly could not be labeled preachers of the gospel. It only took about three minutes listening to most of them to discover they were, without an ounce of doubt, heretics. Their incredibly sad preaching covered everything from the Jezebel shouting to her audience that she was going to heal them all of their afflictions, to the preacher preaching while two of his disciples hovered over magic prayer cloths, to the need for each of us to build our self esteem.

I am only one of some dozen pastors in America I am personally aware of who are rebuking these heretics right now and publicly. According to God’s word, they preach their heresy knowing it is heresy (Rom. 1:18, 19). They’re out to make a buck anyway they can by prostituting the gospel. Their only goal in this life is to magnify themselves and the huge corporate monstrosities they head, and get rich proclaiming their false gospel.

When a teacher of these false gospels (Mormons and/or Jehovah's Witnesses) comes to my door, I might well move onto my porch with my bible and show them the error of their ways, but I would not invite them into my home (II Jn. 1:10). My strategy in dealing with such people is to discern if one of the two on my doorstep is the student. If that appears to be the case, I  address him exclusively, attempting to help him see the heresy in what he has been taught. That would likely make the trainer so uncomfortable he would seek to leave as quickly as he could. His fear of hearing the truth would undoubtedly register in the heart of the student, which might eventually move him into a true church where the gospel is being taught accurately.

Under the Old Covenant, heretics were called false prophets and were stoned to death. I find it truly disconcerting we seem to think Jesus’ telling us to love our enemies and our neighbors means we are to coddle these egomaniacal heretics today. While telling his disciples to love their neighbors He called the heretics of His day (the Pharisees and Sadducees), liars, snakes, dogs, sons of hell, hypocrites, blind guides, fools, blind men, whitewashed tombs, murderers, serpents, and broods of vipers (Matt. 23). It seems rather obvious teachers of the gospel today need to stop being so timid about exposing the heresies perpetrated on unsuspecting victims and start exposing them regularly and publicly. I have spent most of the past ten years doing so with little or no support from other pastors or Christians. That’s fine with me. I won’t quit doing that which I believe God’s word declares we must do. My two closing comments to any reading this entry who do not believe it is the clearly revealed will of God come from John 5:44, “How can you believe, when you receive glory from one another and you do not seek the glory that is from the one and only God?” Until God's word is all that matters to you, you won't use it to expose lies and false teachers.  And Paul’s statement in Galatians 1:10, “If I were still trying to please men, I would not be a bond-servant of Christ.” Until people who call themselves God's preachers quit worrying about what mere men think about the them or the truth they preach, they won't proclaim it boldly, entirely, confidently, and without compromise.