Pastoral Letters

Watch Out for False Teachers!

August 28, 2022 Author:Pastor Andrew Tan
If a thief were to enter your house to steal things? I’m sure your father will get up to stop the thief, drive the thief away, and call the police. What will you do? Will you stop your father, and say, “Father, how can you be so unkind as to shout at the thief and get the police to arrest him? How can you be so rude as to drive him out of the house?” I’m sure, as your father’s child, you would not stop your father. Instead, you will help your father to stop the thief (and not your father!). Yet in some churches when the church leaders expose false teachings, some Christians think the pastor as being unloving. In the same way, the Bible urges us to defend the church from being attacked by false teachings and false teachers. Thus, Jude says, “I felt compelled to write and urge you to contend for the faith that was once and for all entrusted to God’s holy people. For certain people . . . have secretly slipped in among you. They are ungodly people, who pervert the grace of our God into a license for immorality” (Jude 3-4). Jude instructs us to “contend for the faith” of our Lord Jesus Christ, to prevent the gospel from being twisted into a false gospel.

Defending the faith and exposing falsehood is unpleasant as it will offend people. Sometimes, even Christians may get angry with the pastor for exposing falsehood: “Pastor, you are so unkind.” First, let me emphasise that we defend the faith by peaceful means: by speaking the truth in love” (Eph 4:15) and gentleness. We defend the faith by showing proofs from God’s Word. We do not defend the faith using means or attitudes that come from the sinful nature. Second, we must speak the truth. Only if we guard the church from falsehood, then your souls will be kept safe from harm: “Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by cunning and craftiness of people in their deceitful scheming” (Eph 4:14).

Today, after worship service, we shall examine two false teachings: prosperity gospel and “word of faith” teaching. They teach that it is God’s will that Christians are wealth, healthy and prosperous. In fact, if you are not, there is something wrong with you. E. W. Kenyon, the founder of the “word of faith movement said, it is “wrong to have sickness and disease in your bodies when God laid those diseases in Jesus.” But this obviously contradicts the Bible: Paul told his disciple, Timothy, to “stop drinking only water, and use a little wine because of your stomach and your frequent illnesses” (1 Tim 5:23). Even Paul himself had a serious physical illness (2 Cor 12:7-9). Jesus’ disciples, Peter and John, were very poor. Even Jesus himself was poor. How can the prosperity gospel be right?! Yet these prosperity gospel teachers audaciously teach such things that fly in the face of truth. But the harm is not only at the spiritual level. It has destroyed the lives of people. Some people refuse to seek medical treatment even in death-threatening sicknesses because they believe that if they have faith in their own words (which is what “word of faith” teaching teaches), they will be healed. Some Christians feel guilty because they are not wealthy and healthy: “If wealth and health are God’s will, why do I have diabetes and why am I so poor?”

There are good Christians who are rich. There are also good Christians who are not rich, or even poor. God gives us what he thinks best for us. Thus, the writer of Proverbs wisely prays,

Two things I ask of you LORD . . .

give me neither poverty nor riches,

but give me only my daily bread.

Otherwise, I may have too much and disown you

and say, “Who is the LORD?”

Or I may become poor and steal,

and so dishonour the name of my God.

How wise this writer is! His prayer is “give me neither poverty nor riches” as both extremes may cause God’s children to sin against God. Yet a major prosperity teacher, Kenneth Hagin, teaches that God “wants His children to eat the best, He wants them to wear the best clothing, He wants them to drive the best cars, and He wants them to have the best of everything.” Many mega-churches all over the world are teaching the prosperity gospel and word of faith. We must know their errors. Then we will not be led astray by them. Also, let us be equipped so that we can save people from such harmful and erroneous teachings.