“Beware of Wolves” Part 3
Confirmation of Teaching
There should never be
a time when we enter the house of God without the ability to take notes on the
information that is being facilitated. When we take notes, it is important to verify
that the speaker has given us sound information that is supported by the Word
of God.
In Acts 17, the
citizens of Berea listened to Paul and Silas as they taught. After hearing their message, the Bereans
searched the Scriptures to ensure that Paul and Silas were teaching them the
truth. We do not restrict our time to
simply studying the information that the teacher has taught; we also have a
responsibility to search and verify that the information is accurate. The question we should always ask is, “Does the
Bible support what was taught?” Many
times false teachers will alter biblical stories in order to give the story
more appeal.
Over the years, instead
of CONFIRMING the accuracy of what was being preached or taught, people
instead, studied and memorized what had been taught and RECYCLED the information
to the next generation. For example, generations
of Christians have taught that speaking in tongues is the evidence that we have
received the Holy Spirit. However, the
Bible does not confirm this belief. In 1
Corinthians 12, Paul identifies different spiritual gifts within the body of
Christ and at the end of the chapter, in verses 29 and 30, he asks a number of
rhetorical questions concerning the gifts, to which the answer to each question
is NO. One of the questions that he asks
is, “All do not speak with tongues, do
they?” Although there isn’t much
room for theological debate regarding the meaning of this question, the point
of highlighting this subject is to reveal that many within the body of Christ
have been made to feel inferior when they failed to display the gift of speaking
in tongues. Some have even been discouraged to the point
of leaving the church because they assumed that their inability to speak in
tongues meant that God had not given them His Holy Spirit. However, thorough study of the Scriptures
would have extinguished this teaching before it was allowed to propagate
through the church for the past 120 years.
Although many have claimed to speak on behalf of God, careful consideration is to be given when evaluating any message that we receive. It has been said that sometimes when someone gives a word that is supposed to be from God, we may have to eat the meat and throw away the bones. But, if someone was given a sandwich with molded bread, they would not remove the bread and eat the meat. They would discard the whole sandwich. In like manner, we do not eat the meat and throw away the bones when it pertains to anything that God has to say; we receive His entire word. We do not accept some truth, half-truth, or most truth. It has to be all truth or nothing at all.
