Why the Greatest Danger to Christendom — Is Us
Confronting the flatteries of false teaching
That the pen is mightier than the sword isn’t just a fundamental principle of the West — it’s a fundamental principle of Christianity, apart from which there would be no West. The only reason we enjoy the freedoms we do is because our founders believed that truth — ultimately the truth of Christ — provides the only stable basis for society; and that as long as truth is proclaimed, there is the power to transform individuals, nations, and the world.
When you read the Scriptures, the first thing you’ll notice is that their focus is very different from the focus of secular history books. Sure, the goings-on of various empires and powers are acknowledged, but even this is mostly in passing. One minute Babylon or Assyria or Egypt appear as a totalizing power; the next they’ve been conquered or displaced. This is consistent with Christianity, which has always affirmed the greatest power men can produce is nothing compared to the living, enduring Word of God.
Consider that the good news of the Gospel didn’t come down as an edict from the king. Rather, it was a message spread by poor and powerless people, and has been ever since. What this means is that if we have the truth — if the Word of Christ “dwells in us richly” — we have everything. And that if we everything except the truth we have nothing.
We live in an age where everyone is encouraged to believe whatever they want and no one is allowed to say anything against it. In contrast to this prevailing worldview, there is the church, which Paul calls “a pillar and a buttress of the truth.” The church takes her marching orders from Jesus. It is her duty to preach and teach that not all ideas are valid; that some ideas are positively evil and must be condemned, and that others are absolutely necessary and must be affirmed without qualification.
One of the greatest threats to the life and witness of the church is false teaching. This makes sense if you think about it. If all we have is the truth, then whatever would threaten and undermine that truth must become our mortal enemy. The other thing to keep in mind is what Paul states in 1 Timothy 4:1, “The Spirit clearly says that in later times some will abandon the faith and follow deceiving spirits and things taught by demons.” In other words, false teaching isn’t something that only existed in the first centuries of the church. It remains a perennial danger until Christ returns.
What this means for Christians is that we must assume a continual posture of humble vigilance. Towards the world, yes — but especially towards ourselves.
Confronting the monster within
What we see in the New Testament is that the greatest threats confronting the church don’t come from without but from within. One of the unique characteristics of Christianity is that unlike the base tribal impulses that come naturally for fallen humanity, Christians don’t locate evil exclusively in some other person or group. Instead, we recognize that all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.
The problem is we’ve gotten so used to hearing this, we can lose sight of its novelty; we can start reciting it as a mantra rather than clinging to it as bedrock reality. Yet the Bible places particular emphasis on putting off our own individual sin. Does this mean we’re unconcerned with the world around us? Absolutely not. To love God and our neighbor requires us to do justice, to care for the poor, and to give voice to the voiceless. But the humility and desire to do these things starts by acknowledging and confessing the propensities of our own hearts.
True Christians are characterized by an ongoing desire for holiness — an ongoing desire to be like Jesus. Such a person recognizes that even though we’re born again, the old nature is constantly fighting against us. There is always remaining sin to confess and put to death. As it says in 1 John 1:8, “If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. But if we confess our sin, he’s faithful and just to forgive us and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar and the word is not in us.”
A lot of people think that Christians are people who go around pretending they’re better than others. And certainly one of the easiest ways to cover our own guilt is by talking about the flaws and failures of others. In setting up a moral standard apart from God’s Word, we leave off comparing ourselves to his righteous standard and begin comparing ourselves to other people. But a true Christian is someone who recognizes that apart from Jesus, they’re just as capable of evil as everyone else. They know that there was only one human being who has ever perfectly loved God and others, and that he died the death that we deserve for the sins we’ve committed.
A Christian is someone who acknowledges and lives in the reality that in the flesh, nothing good dwells; that we are just as dependent on the grace of God on year fifty as on year one. It is only those who become less aware of their need for Jesus who fall away from him and reveal themselves to have never truly known him.
Where there’s no humble acknowledgement of sin in our own hearts, and only perpetual blame and accusing others, there is no spirit of Christ in us.
The drift away from sober mindedness
Since 2020 there’s been a massive shift away from the humble acknowledgement of our own sin to an inordinate focus on the sins of others.
Before covid, I knew almost nothing about politics. My life was taken up with immediate concerns — my family, church, my school. Outside that circle, my involvement shrunk significantly. And then there was this shift — suddenly forces from outside were having this huge impact on my life to an extent that I had to stop and figure things out. And many people did. What I’ve noticed since is that as we’ve become more aware of the enemy outside, we’ve become less aware of the enemy inside.
There’s a way to engage in the culture war that’s just a cover. By joining the “right side” of such-and-such a movement, we start to believe that makes us righteous people. But no one is justified before God merely by participating in the right cause or opposing the right thing. The true battle lines are formed between those who recognize the sin in their own heart and those who don’t. Those are the lines. And, frankly, I think there’s a lot of people engaged in the so-called culture war who think they’re on the good side when they’re not. Which is why, increasingly, you see that the “left” and “right” are really just the same team with different jerseys. They’re both fighting the same war. They’re both falling back to the same strategies.
One of the main characteristics of false teaching is that it lets us draw lines other than where God’s Word draws them. “I’m white, I’m Canadian, I affirm traditional gender roles, I want beautiful architecture. I lift weights.” These things become what sets us apart from other people. But according to the Scriptures, the only distinction that matters is faith or unbelief. The only thing that matters is the worship of the true God or the worship of idols.
One day we’re all going to stand before the Lord of Hosts, and he’s not going to ask if we were of European descent, married a white girl, or voted conservative. His only question will be: did you love my Son?
When we condemn and blame others at the expense of being honest about ourselves, we end up being hypocrites and frauds. True Christians recognize the greatest commandments (to love God and our neighbor) are the only moral standards by which we are judged. The advance of “christendom” will only take place as we subject ourselves to the scrutiny of this standards, confess where we fall short, and seek his grace and power to be transformed.
Embracing the discomfort of conviction
In a nutshell, false teaching is whatever contradicts the standard of the Word of God and produces the fruit of ungodliness. These things always go together.
Another way of saying this is that false teaching always affirms our sinful desires. How do you know when you’re living contrary to the truth? Well, do you ever find yourself challenged? Confronted? Contradicted? Today, we’re told to view whatever contradicts us as a threat. But according to Scripture, feeling challenged or confronted is indicative of God’s work in our lives. Christians ought to view these moments as the best moments of their lives; as the lifeline they didn’t know they needed. Sure conviction feels awful when you’re suddenly forced to acknowledge, “Wow, I’m not right about a lot of things. Which means I might have to change my mind on a lot of things, which means I’m going to have to change my life on a lot of things.” But godly grief that brings repentance is the only path forward.
Think back to what it felt like to be converted. You go through this very uncomfortable phase of being confronted on all kinds of things you didn’t even know were a problem. But the truth is that the Christian life never stops being about that. The Christian life is about becoming comfortable with discomfort.
But false teaching doesn’t do that. False teaching doesn’t ever make you feel convicted. It never confronts you. In fact, it flatters you. It makes you feel proud. It affirms you.
Now, it can sometimes be difficult to predict the consequence of ideas; not everyone can always see where there might be a logical or theoretical contradiction. What we can do is observe the fruit of ideas. Does a certain belief or doctrine make you more godly? Does it make you more like Jesus? Does it make you love other people more? Does it make you despise your sin and cry out to God for mercy? Does it produce peace amongst brothers or discord?
Sound doctrine, Paul says in Timothy, is healthy doctrine. And the reason he uses the word “healthy” is because, again, false doctrine produces bad fruit but good doctrine produces good fruit. In 1 Timothy 6:3, he say, “It agrees with the sound words of Jesus Christ and the teaching that accords with godliness.” Here we have the right standard, the words of Jesus Christ, and the fruit, the teaching that accords or is in line with godliness. False doctrine claims to be Christian but contradicts the teachings of scripture and results in the kind of ungodliness revealed in this text: envy, dissension, slander, evil suspicions, and constant friction among people.
One of the things I’ve noticed in those who hold to false teaching, and especially the kind that’s currently circulating, is a complete absence of godliness, a total disregard for authority, and a fundamental unwillingness to listen or acknowledge one’s own wrong. And this brings us to the real danger of false teaching.
The reason it spreads like wildfire is not only does it affirm our sinful desires, but it rebrands them as righteous. I’m a defender of Christendom! I’m a defender of the West! I care about my ancestors! I care about orthodoxy! All lies. And the reason it spreads so fast is presented in Proverbs 17:4, “An evildoer listens to wicked lips, and a liar gives ear to a mischievous tongue” and in 2 Timothy 4:3, “For the time will come when people will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear.”
Why do we listen to lies? Because we’re liars. Why do we listen to evil? Because we’re evil. It’s not complicated. Evil people love evil teaching, and false teaching lets us justify ourselves rather than confess our corruption and our need for the true and better righteousness of Christ.
And the result is rampant sin and division between brothers, families, and churches.
Give ‘em the Balaam treatment
What should our response be to this?
In the first few chapters of Revelation, Jesus sends out seven letters to seven churches, each of which contain a variety of rebukes, encouragements, and warnings. In 2:14-16, Jesus says:
Nevertheless, I have a few things against you: There are some among you who hold to the teaching of Balaam, who taught Balak to entice the Israelites to sin so that they ate food sacrificed to idols and committed sexual immorality. Likewise, you also have those who hold to the teaching of the Nicolaitans. Repent therefore! Otherwise, I will soon come to you and will fight against them with the sword of my mouth.
Notice here that it’s not the entire church that holds to these things — it’s just some of them. Yet he includes the entire church in his warning. He says if such things are tolerated in your midst, you’re not going to be able to make the excuse, “Well, it wasn’t me, it was them.” He says I’m going to come and wage war against you. You can’t love what Jesus hates. You can’t poison his people and be on his side. You can’t have peace with him while you wage war against his sheep.
And make no mistake: to tolerate false teaching is to wage war against his sheep.
And in all of us there is a proclivity to listen to lies because lies tell us all the things about ourselves we want to believe; that we’re awesome and that there’s nothing that needs to change. This isn’t just false teaching — it is an anti-Gospel. It is opposed to Christ and everything he accomplished.
By God’s grace, and with his help, we can and must reject it.