How Do I Identify Unbiblical Teaching?

Photo by Michael Morse

In many ways, the use of media among Christians and Bible teachers has been a blessing. The Bible has never been so accessible, as well as lessons taught from it. While this means that there is increased opportunity for clarity with God’s word, it also means that there is increased opportunity for confusion. With hundreds, perhaps thousands, of Bible teachers, how can I discern if their teaching is good or bad? Biblical or unbiblical? Scripture warns that “Not many of you should become teachers, my brothers, for you know that we who teach will be judged with greater strictness” (James 3:1). To teach others about what God has said can either help them to live for God or can lead them outside of God’s design and into sin. Friends, let us not mindlessly consume Christian teaching on podcasts, in books, or on social media. “All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness” (2 Timothy 3:16). It is important to learn about the truths in scripture so that we can learn how to better live for Christ. But how can we tell if a Bible teacher is teaching what God intended, the truth?

1. Glorifying Humanity Instead of God

A question to ask ourselves while we listen to the teaching of scripture is, “Does this give me more glory or power than God?”, or even “Does this diminish the power of God?”. Bible teachers who focus on trying to make us, humans, look great, or who say that we have some kind of power or control that God doesn’t have, should immediately give off red flags. As soon as we are made to be greater than we are, God is shown as smaller than He is, removing His glory and giving it to us. For example, there is a popular teaching in the 21st century that Jesus died for us because we were so loveable and amazing. However, this teaching diminishes God because it diminishes His grace. Scripture teaches that all have turned away from God and are worthless (Romans 3:12). It is God, in His love and grace, who chose to save us from our sins even though we did not deserve it. Even though we despised His ways and turned from Him, despite no good thing on our part, He loved us. That is just the kind of great God that He is.

Why is it such a big deal if humanity is given glory, or made to look great? As Paul says, “Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen” (Ephesians 3:20-21). God is the one deserving of all the glory, all the praise, because He is the only One who is all-powerful, sovereign, and perfect. “Great is our Lord, and abundant in power; his understanding is beyond measure” (Psalm 147:5)

2. The Teaching is Popular Among Nonchristians

Have you noticed that a certain pastor or Bible teacher is frequently quoted by atheists/nonchristians on Instagram or Facebook? It is most likely that this person’s teaching, or the Biblical lesson in general, is not true to the Bible. Why? Because scripture teaches that the truth of God is convicting, it is life changing, and it is despised by those who do not know and love Christ. Jesus warned us that “if the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you” (John 15:18-19). While we should not seek to be controversial or despised by the world, it is an inevitability if we are teaching the truth in scripture. If a Christian teacher’s words are bringing them favor from the unbelieving world without changing any hearts, it could be that they are friends of the world rather than God: “You adulterous people! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God” (James 4:4).

So if a Christian teacher is well-loved by nonChristians, it should send off red flags. Notice, I am not saying well-known. There are many well-known theologians and Bible teachers, such as John Piper or Tim Keller, but their teaching is not necessarily favored by nonbelievers because it is convicting truth. Notice also, that this is not referring to any kind of teaching by a Christian, but specifically “Christian” or “Biblical” teaching. C.S. Lewis, though a well-known Christian author, is also highly favored among nonbelievers for his scholarly critiques of literature and philosophy. I would argue that this does not discredit his teaching in his Christian books because these essays are for academia, not for the church, so we should be careful that we are distinguishing favored “Christian teaching” and teaching that just so happens to be from a Christian. Overall, if “Christian” teaching attracts the world because it agrees with it rather than challenges it, it is most likely unbiblical.

3. Using Scripture Out of Context

Although we should be eager to learn more about God and His word, we should be attentive to the scripture that a teacher is teaching from. Oftentimes, Bible verses are used out of context so that it can align with the teacher’s lesson, rather than vice versa. It does not make someone a heretic or false teacher if they use a verse out of context (I know that I have many times in my Christian walk), but it does mean that what they are teaching does not align with scripture.

When a verse is taken out of context, that is, all of the circumstances and events leading up to and surrounding the verse are not properly considered, then a verse can have a completely different meaning than intended. There are pastors who have written articles and books just to address some of the most commonly misused bible verses in the general Christian community. I remember a couple years ago when I listened to a speaker explain that he didn’t go to church while he was a missionary because he and his wife are the church in their home based on Ephesians 5:22-24: “Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife even as Christ is the head of the church, his body, and is himself its Savior. Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit in everything to their husbands.” From this verse, he concluded that he and his wife are a complete church. However, if one were to read the surrounding text of these verses, the context is not about how the church should be organized but how believers within the church should treat one another. Just because a Bible teacher uses a verse from the Bible to support their point does not mean the teaching is correct. We should always look into the context of the verse to see its intended meaning.

4. “Did God really say…”

Finally, if a Christian teacher says that parts of the Bible are irrelevant to our time and culture, or that God has changed His mind on some of the things said in scripture, then the teaching can immediately be concluded as false and even dangerous to our faith. There are even some teachers who say that we have misunderstood some teachings of scripture for the past 2,000 years, referred to as humanity’s “traditional understanding/teaching” of the Bible. For example, a very popular pastor and LGBTQ+ activist, Matthew Vines, argues that he holds fast to all of the teachings of scripture, but that the church for the past 2,000 years has misinterpreted what it teaches about sexuality. Because Jesus said that there will be false teachers and we will know them by their fruits, Vines claims that this “traditional interpretation” of scripture is false teaching because it has born bad fruit by breaking the hearts of Christians who are called not to act on same-sex attraction.

Why is this dangerous? I am not just talking about Vines, but any teaching that questions the direct and clear meaning of scripture that has been taught for 2,000 years, not even including the Old Testament, whether it be teaching about sexuality, sin, the resurrection, the trinity, etc. Much could be said in response to Vines’ arguments, but some trustworthy Bible-loving teachers have already done this. The truth is that there is the same major fault in his teaching that plagues many other Bible teachers today (though false teaching is certainly not a new problem), and the major fault is the misunderstanding of an unchanging, holy God, and of the inerrancy and consistent, non-contradicting teaching of the scripture. God’s word teaches that “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever” (Hebrews 13:8), that is, Jesus of today is the same Jesus 2,000 years ago, and even eternity ago before He took on human flesh and walked among us. Likewise, God and His word stand unchanged forever: “The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God will stand forever” (Isaiah 40:8). If God and His word are unchanging, then we can rest assured that His word is inerrant, that is, there is no fault or human error in it, and that He is protecting His word and His people (see 2 Timothy 3:16). God has not abandoned us so that the true church world-wide is led astray in foundational teachings of the trinity, sexuality, marriage, etc., for hundreds or thousands of years. While we as individuals are constantly learning and growing in the scriptures as well as correcting our false views of its teachings, God’s word stands fast. And though others may stray from God’s word and make their own false version of Christianity, God will continue growing and working in those who are truly His (2 Corinthians 3:18). When we put on a new lens to reading scripture, a lens that is not about accepting and believing what we read in His word but a postmodern lens, a lens that demands that what is in the scriptures should be conformed to my fleshly desires and what I think is good and bad, just or unjust, then we produce a new Bible, or we abandon the Bible all together. So dear friends, for all teaching, let us measure it against what the scripture has clearly said for thousands and thousands of years, trusting that God is unchanging and holy.