"There are at least six characteristics of false teachers in the Church Age.
a. False teachers are masters of hypocrisy. They use a phony facade, first exposed by our Lord in Mat 7:15, and further developed by Paul in Rom 16:17-18.
b. Behind a public relations facade, false teachers use legalism to convert their victims to religion, Gal 4:17 18; 2 Tim 3:5 7.
c. False teachers of religion appeal to human arrogance. They flatter their victims, making them feel wanted appealing to their pride, 2 Cor 10:12.
d. False teachers promote idolatry as a part of the devil’s communion table, Hab 2:18 19; 1 Cor 10:19 22
e. False teachers promote self-righteousness, to include legalism, personality arrogance, authority arrogance, crusader arrogance, and works arrogance, 1 Tim 1:6 7
f. Such believers are described as anti christs and enemies of the Cross, Phil 3:18.
False teachers are clever and can only be detected through the consistent perception, metabolization and application of Bible doctrine in your own soul. Without metabolized doctrine, you do not have the ability to identify false teaching. Metabolized doctrine is the basis for momentum in both the spiritual life and for discernment between the false and the true.
False teachers continue to operate throughout the Church Age, as this is the intensified period of the Angelic Conflict, 1 John 4:1. The legalism of self righteous arrogance has rejected the grace standards of Bible doctrine, and therefore operates on the double standard of the sins of the tongue, including flattery to manipulate their followers.
True happiness comes from thinking Bible Doctrine, i.e., from perception, metabolization, and application of God’s Word taught from the pulpit of the local church; it is not associated with hypocrisy and flattery, people, places, things, or success." (Pastor-Teacher, James Rickard, Italics mine)
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