Watch Out For Charlatans and Wolves

Christians have asked me, “What does the Bible mean when it says…….?” When responding by saying it means exactly what it says, they seem rather taken aback. It’s as though they’re thinking, “But there must be more to it than that.” Often such questioning can be a key indicator of what kind of teaching they’re getting. Take salvation for example: the Bible makes it clear to us how to receive this as a gift. One: admit you’re a sinner who’s offended God. Two: repent from sin. Three: receive Jesus Christ as your Savior and Lord. Confirming they’ve done this, they seem to then want to argue for something else based not on what the Scripture says, but on what some man says.

The written promises from Jesus and the New Testament writers on this glorious gift are not difficult to understand, provided one not only studies the doctrine of salvation with godly people, but also for themselves. Sadly, too many Christians don’t; they embrace isolated Scriptures on it and leave it at that. That’s such an unwise, dangerous thing to do because they make themselves targets for every charlatan and wolf in sheep’s clothing that comes across their path. And come across their path, they will! Wherever Jesus and the apostles were working, the devil was not far behind and this has never changed. One of the favorite tricks of charlatans and wolves is to pick out certain words or phrases from Scripture and major on them causing doubt and confusion.

Lets’ take ‘the bride’ for example: John the Baptist mentioned it once John 3:29, with Jesus being the bridegroom. John the disciple mentioned it four times Revelation 18:23; 21:2, 9; 22:17. The bride speaks figuratively of the church. It’s an illustration drawn from marriage 2 Corinthians 11:2; Ephesians 5:22-33. Church means ‘the called out ones’ and the called out ones are those who belong to Jesus Christ as a result of being washed in His blood … not difficult to grasp when one accepts the plain-sense meaning of Scripture. Charlatans and wolves on the other hand, latch on to things like this and spiritualize them into saying that which God never said. This is how Satan creates uncertainty in God’s people as to whether they belong to Christ or not.

That’s how charlatans and wolves work. They’ll make a doctrine out of ‘the bride’ mentioned only five times in the New Testament (four times in the last book!) at the expense of ‘salvation’ (rescue, safety, deliver, health, save, saving, defence, defender) which is mentioned forty-five times in sixteen books! And sadly, unless one is truly a truth-seeker, those who sit under these devils tend not to bother checking these things for themselves. But when the Holy Spirit begins to stir them up and they ask questions about salvation, they want to argue for the lesser rather than the greater. I sometimes ask myself if the person is looking for an answer or an argument. Christians seem to love arguments; no wonder we have so many denominations and groups.

Let’s take the blood of Jesus for another example: In reference to Jesus’ blood shed on the cross for our sin, ‘blood’ is mentioned over forty times in the New Testament. When sinners repent and turn to Christ we are redeemed by the blood, reconciled to God through the blood, cleansed through the blood, sanctified through the blood, made holy through the blood, we have God’s life in the blood, we have power in the blood and we have victory over all that Jesus has defeated through the blood. Take away the blood and you have nothing left but religion! Charlatans and wolves create doctrines which greatly devalue the blood. One doctrine is ‘sinless perfection.’ Sinless perfection teaches just that; everyone who is truly in Christ will be perfectly sinless before Jesus returns.

If that’s true, Jesus won’t need to return! Sinless perfection is not biblical; it’s a doctrine from hell which causes God’s people to doubt their eternal security in Christ. Every sin committed tells them they’re not matching up therefore they’ll never make it. They’re always hoping, but unable to rest in Christ, our hope (expectation, confidence) 1 Timothy 1:1. Holding to this lie makes one an unbeliever in the Bible. James 3:2, 8 gives idea of how “perfect” we are – and will be until either we die or Jesus returns! By their manner and actions, sinless perfection advocates come across as the spiritually elite among Christians. They don’t mix with anyone other than themselves, they’re rather joyless, seriously introspective, smug and spiritually lifeless.

I am yet to meet a sinless perfection advocate who can freely and spontaneously talk about Jesus, or pray in His name in the unbeliever’s environment. Too, from what I’ve seen, it takes an enormous amount of Scripture-juggling to come up with such a doctrine. Charlatans and wolves have to do a massive cut and paste job on the Bible, cutting Scriptures from their right context to make them fit where they need them to fit. And it all sounds good too for a while … until one stops to consider the confusion, uncertainty and unrest they’re experiencing. Praise God for the Holy Spirit-led apostle Paul who told us, the Lord is the Spirit; and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty 2 Corinthians 3:17.

There are charlatans and wolves amongst those who teach that unless one speaks in tongues they have no salvation. This lie plays utter havoc on the minds of biblically ill-informed Christians; so much so, that they will manufacture tongues speaking for themselves. The most common Scripture these devils use to corrupt their people is,  Then Peter said to them, Repent, and let everyone of you be baptzed in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit Acts 2:38. Examining this in detail, it says firstly, repent … that’s it! Nothing else is needed for salvation. Getting baptized is useless without salvation and you don’t receive the Holy Spirit until you receive salvation.

The gift of speaking in an unknown language is wonderfully self-edifying and extremely powerful when exercising spiritual warfare but it can never surpass the glorious gift of salvation. Those who elevate their tongues over their salvation need to fall prostrate to the floor before God and repent of such blindness and foolishness. In addition, there are charlatans and wolves who teach the reason someone doesn’t speak in tongues is because they’re not baptized in the Holy Spirit. That’s a lie too. There are many godly, Holy Spirit-led men and women who don’t have the tongues gift and they’re greater witnesses, teachers and preachers of Jesus and the Scriptures than this crowd will ever be!

Earlier I mentioned Christendom’s numerous denominations and groups. The greatest witness to Christendom’s disunity is “the one true church” mentality. There are many who say this about themselves, some of them being so far removed from New Testament Christianity that they’re not churches at all in the biblical sense of the word, they’re simply religious institutions. They have placed someone or something over the Lordship of Jesus Christ making Him in reality, not Lord at all, regardless of what they boast to the contrary. The apostle Paul warned that this would happen around 1950 years ago, For I know this, that after my departure savage wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock. Also from among yourselves men will rise up…. Acts 20:29-30.

Not all of these particular “church” leaders are charlatans and wolves in themselves but because they’re associated with churches and groups whose doctrines were founded by charlatans and wolves they have placed themselves under controlling religious spirits of deceit, deception, error and lies. Essentially, these demonic spirits are the source of all false doctrine and teaching. But for biblical Christians it’s not difficult to discern what goes on in those places doctrinally speaking, so they don’t trouble us, we’ll never be part of them. But it’s a very different story when sitting under leaders who speak of Jesus’ Lordship, His mercy, compassion and love, His gift of salvation, the efficacy of His blood and the gifts of the Holy Spirit etc.

In other words, when some leaders use all the right words regarding the gift of salvation and eternal life in Jesus, it’s easy to get the impression that we’re all on the same spiritual page. It’s not until they start dropping words more related with spiritual legalism rather than spiritual liberty do alarm bells begin to ring. As Christians on the pathway of spiritual liberty, it is crucial we let it sink deep down into our spirit that charlatans and wolves are controlling, religious legalists. They’re not free people! And if you, as one who experiences the liberty of the Holy Spirit should walk into their midst and hang around too long, they will subtly but surely take that liberty from you. They don’t see it as liberty, they see it as frivolity.

They have their own image of who the Lord Jesus is and they’ll have you conforming to that image. In their minds there’s only “one true church” and that church is theirs! The fact that the church across town is saying the same thing means nothing to them. They’ll smile condescendingly and whisper softly to you, leaving you in no doubt that there’s only one true church and it’s not the one across town! In your theological discussions with the leaders and the people, you’ll discover that you have nothing to say to them. And if you put some serious effort into listening to them, you’ll discover that even though they’re using the same words, they’re speaking a very different language. That should mean they’ve got nothing to say to you either!

But that’s not what usually happens. And a major reason why it doesn’t has little to do with doctrine but a lot to do with people. People sitting under legalism can be more kind, caring, giving and committed to you than those walking in liberty. Newcomers pick up on this and they come back next week for more. After some weeks they feel very much part of the family and so plant themselves and commit to membership. In time they become legalists too but they don’t realise it. Then one day they hear more about hell than they do heaven coming from the pulpit and home groups. They hear that the finished work of Christ at the cross for their sin John 17:1-4; 19:30 wasn’t finished at all, there’s more they must do for assurance of salvation.

It’s a lie, of course, but by now they’ve become indoctrinated! They run to the Scriptures and read again and again what Jesus and the apostles said about salvation being a gift to be received upon a genuine repentance, but the constant unspoken message coming from the church is, “Are you sure yours was genuine?” They’re unsettled, they look around the church and there’s no one to help them. They seek guidance outside the church and it confirms the Scriptures but still they doubt.

Then one day they prostrate themselves to the floor crying out to God and He comes swiftly to their aid. He points them to New Testament Galatians. They read it in one sitting and learn a grand lesson. The lesson? Read and embrace all Scripture in context, not in isolation. Watch out for charlatans and wolves. “Stand fast therefore in the liberty by which Christ has made us free, and do not be entangled again with a yoke of bondage” Galatians 5:1.