Category: False Teaching

I believe in God’s grace. He had appeared and told us this : “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.” (Matt 19:26).

When I see the indigent poor brothers impossibly live in peace and joy and with no lack, I know this is His amazing grace.  I am overwhelmed and humbled.

In Section IIE paragraph 5, The Cape Town Commitment mentioned this :

5. Walk in simplicity, rejecting the idolatry of greed
The widespread preaching and teaching of ‘prosperity gospel’ around the world raises significant concerns. We define prosperity gospel as the teaching that believers have a right to the blessings of health and wealth and that they can obtain these blessings through positive confessions of faith and the ‘sowing of seeds’ through financial or material gifts. Prosperity teaching is a phenomenon that cuts across many denominations in all continents.
We affirm the miraculous grace and power of God, and we welcome the growth of churches and ministries that lead people to exercise expectant faith in the living God and his supernatural power. We believe in the power of the Holy Spirit. However, we deny that God’s miraculous power can be treated as automatic, or at the disposal of human techniques, or manipulated by human words, actions, gifts, objects, or rituals.
We affirm that there is a biblical vision of human prospering, and that the Bible includes material welfare (both health and wealth) within its teaching about the blessing of God. However, we deny as unbiblical the teaching that spiritual welfare can be measured in terms of material welfare, or that wealth is always a sign of God’s blessing. The Bible shows that wealth can often be obtained by oppression, deceit or corruption. We also deny that poverty, illness or early death are always a sign of God’s curse, or evidence of lack of faith, or the result of human curses, since the Bible rejects such simplistic explanations.
We accept that it is good to exalt the power and victory of God. But we believe that the teachings of many who vigorously promote the prosperity gospel seriously distort the Bible; that their practices and lifestyle are often unethical and un-Christlike; that they commonly replace genuine evangelism with miracle-seeking, and replace the call to repentance with the call to give money to the preacher’s organization. We grieve that the impact of this teaching on many Churches is pastorally damaging and spiritually unhealthy. We gladly and strongly affirm every initiative in Christ’s name that seeks to bring healing to the sick, or lasting deliverance from poverty and suffering. The prosperity gospel offers no lasting solution to poverty, and can deflect people from the true message and means of eternal salvation. For these reasons it can be soberly described as a false gospel. We therefore reject the excesses of prosperity teaching as incompatible with balanced biblical Christianity.

https://www.lausanne.org/content/ctc/ctcommitment#p2-5

Though the distorted grace message seems to be the main tenet of the hyper grace doctrine, the actual main message of claiming of wealth and health blessings through sowing of seed by giving generously to the church really enthrall the followers.

Allow me to show the fallacy of this sowing of the miracle seed.

Luke 21:1-4 NASB
And He looked up and saw the rich putting their gifts into the treasury. And He saw a poor widow putting in two small copper coins. And He said, “Truly I say to you, this poor widow put in more than all of them; for they all out of their surplus put into the offering; but she out of her poverty put in all that she had to live on.”

This passage clearly reminds us that our offering is only meaningful to God out of a genuine love for Him and not with any other selfish or covetous motive. In Matt 6:1-4, Jesus our Lord already told us that if our giving is to draw and gain recognition from others, our giving will not be acceptable to God. Jesus specifically said that the poor widow gave more than all of the rich that day. Obviously He was not referring literally to the physical absolute amount of money given. Jesus, in His omniscience, even knew the 2 copper coins were all she had to live on.

Jesus is watching intently on our motives for giving our offering today as well. Let’s be sure on this first fact that Jesus our Lord uses a different criterion to weigh our giving – on our hearts and on not our gifts – unlike the tangible criterion the world uses.

Similarly, Jesus weighs on our repentance and not on our works, or on the circumcision of our hearts and not physical circumcision pertaining to our response to the gospel.

What the poor widow put into the treasury was considered more than all the rich Jews put. So let’s be sure that it is not the physical amount Jesus weigh on but the right motive or attitude in giving. The poor widow gave out of poverty while the rich Jews gave out of surplus – contrasting extremes which our Lord always loved to use to illustrate His teachings. The only qualm I can see about the rich giving out of surplus in this incident is probably a nonchalant performance of duty and not an act of devotion, unlike the poor widow. Then consider this : how contemptible it will be if the rich actually give with a covetous heart that God will reward him or her with even more when he or she is already very well off !

Let’s look at the first fallacy.

Jesus would be wrong to commend that the poor widow gave more if this false teaching of the growth formula (growth of multiple fold to what one gives) is to be believed because the poor widow would gain the least among all who gave that day. The real motivation behind such call to sow miracle seed is to raise as much funds as possible for the church and this objective can only be achieved by stoking the greed in the members to give more in physical amount and be rewarded in kind by God. Pittance giving will be considered a nuisance to the fund raising exercise.

On the second fallacy, this false teaching promises deliverance from poverty for sacrificial giving to the church. If it is true, the poor widow should not remain poor all this while till Jesus saw her. If she was giving for the first time, it would be a first time jackpot hit and Jesus was not really omniscient to know. Definitely not the first time because she was a Jew and not young since she was a widow. And if she had been giving with such commendable attitude all this while, then why was she still poor ? Do you follow ?

When the rich gave, the gifts would not hurt them a bit for it would be a pittance of their surplus. But when the poor widow gave, she probably had to go hungry that day for that was all she had to live on. Hallelujah ! The poor widow was really wise to see that storing treasure in Heaven, and not on earth, would last. Her physical hunger was nothing compared to her hunger for God. That was an excellent act of devotion to God. Besides she had survived all this while on little showing she had no lack by the grace of God though she was poor.

Let’s emulate the poor widow in giving out of love for God instead of covetous motive.

Rev 2:5
But you have this in your favor: You hate the practices of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate.

Though there was not much written record on the Nicolaitans, some believed it could be a heretical sect started by Nicholas, one of the deacons of the early church. Acts 6:5. Clement of Alexandria said this about their deeds : “They abandoned themselves to pleasure like goats, leading a life of self-indulgence.” It seemed to be a form of antinomianism. (http://www.gotquestions.org/Nicolaitans.html)

The church at Pergamum actually embraced the teachings of the Nicolaitans unlike the church at Ephesus. Rev 2:15. They got no commendation but only censure. Jesus our Lord warned them that unless they repent, they would face the judgment reserved for those who taught false doctrine. Rev 2:16; 19:15.

One thing is for sure : It was an abomination for Jesus our Lord which He hated. Jesus our Lord had warned that life does not consist in the abundance of possessions and that we should not live in dissipation. But modern day hyper grace teachers continually preach that abundant life is an abundance of every good thing in life to be claimed and enjoyed. While the hyper grace teachers need not stress in the wrong premise that their teaching gives a license to sin; their teaching in the “positive” premise that a Christian is once saved always saved and that they need not worry about sin anymore even if they do commit sin is as good as permitting sin.

If Jesus our Lord would commend us for hating the works of such heresy, let no believer condemn us.

Hear what our Lord further commended on our discernment and intolerance for wicked people who taught heresy in Rev 2:2-3 :

“I know your deeds, your hard work and your perseverance. I know that you cannot tolerate wicked people, that you have tested those who claim to be apostles but are not, and have found them false. You have persevered and have endured hardships for my name, and have not grown weary.”

Going through the several sermons of one hyper grace teacher with special emphasis on numerology and the hidden meaning, and the constant reminder to his followers that he is the only anointed one or among the select few with the given knowledge from God to the “true” meaning of Scripture, I am sure that Kabbalah mystical teachings are now being introduced in bits and pieces here and there to the hyper grace followers.

http://www.gotquestions.org/Kabbalah.html

By claiming to be the only anointed one or among the select few with the given knowledge from God to the “true” meaning of Scripture over the clear teachings of all before him, he has proclaimed that the Holy Spirit had taught no one over the centuries on the right doctrine and all were in error till he comes on the scene now to teach the “real” thing. How preposterous !

You may ask whether the whole false doctrine is an immaculate conceived deceptive plan or plain innocent error.

I believe it is the former. Whenever such hyper grace teachers build a certain “truth” with only one or two Scriptural verses, any serious Bible reader will notice the contradiction with the whole counsel of the Word of God. And whenever such error is pointed out, I have noticed that not only the subsequent counter-argument is terribly weak because it throws up even more error, but it also exposes a desperate attempt to make good the “truth” as biblical. So when we see such desperate attempt to fill up a pit by digging another pit with every subsequent weaker counter-argument, we know the false teacher is fully aware of the deliberate error he is introducing.

So why is the hyper grace teacher deliberately introducing error being fully aware it is against clear Scriptural teaching ? All for the sake of gain which the Bible called the Balaam’s error.

It is so interesting to learn from this Balaam’s story that despite knowing God was going to judge him through the word of a donkey, yet it did not deter Balaam from continuing his evil work for the sake of gain and he was eventually judged.

2 Pet 2:1-3,14-16.
But false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, bringing upon themselves swift destruction. 2 And many will follow their sensuality, and because of them the way of truth will be blasphemed. 3 And in their greed they will exploit you with false words. Their condemnation from long ago is not idle, and their destruction is not asleep… They have hearts trained in greed. Accursed children! 15 Forsaking the right way, they have gone astray. They have followed the way of Balaam, the son of Beor, who loved gain from wrongdoing, 16 but was rebuked for his own transgression; a speechless donkey spoke with human voice and restrained the prophet’s madness.

Jer 23: 16-17 NLT

This is what the Lord of Heaven’s Armies says to his people: “Do not listen to these prophets when they prophesy to you, filling you with FUTILE HOPES. They are MAKING UP everything they say. They do not speak for the Lord! They keep saying to those who DESPISE MY WORD, ‘Don’t worry! The Lord says you will have peace!’ And to those who stubbornly follow their own desires, they say, ‘No harm will come your way!’

Jeremiah, best known as the weeping prophet, started his ministry around 627 BC during the reign of Josiah and continued to the eleventh year of Zedekiah. He prophesied during the last forty years of Judah and he witnessed the fall of Jerusalem and the deportation of Jews to Babylon.

His mission was to speak against the apostasy of his days and the coming judgment. His messages were so unwelcome that he faced so much persecution from both kings and common folk. The people even accused him of being a traitor for only bringing messages of reproof, warning and judgment. The people continued in their normalcy bias ways preferring to hear the feel good messages of the false prophets.

How ironic that the same is happening today again !

Against the backdrop of the warning of our Lord Jesus and the apostles to guard against spiritual apostasy, inordinate fear of calamities and persecution in the last days, most are so indifferent like in the days of Noah. They do not eagerly expect the return of Him and fall prey easily to the seducing feel good messages of hyper-grace teachers in indulging in dissipation.

Notice how similar are the seducing feel good messages of the hyper-grace teachers today with the messages of the false prophets in Jeremiah’s days telling them not to worry about the admonishing words and warnings of Jesus and that no harm will come their way when they follow their carnal desires as these are promises to be claimed from God.

Luke 16:13-18
“No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.” 14 The Pharisees, who loved money, heard all this and were sneering at Jesus. 15 He said to them, “You are the ones who justify yourselves in the eyes of others, but God knows your hearts. What people value highly is detestable in God’s sight. 16 “The Law and the Prophets were proclaimed until John. Since that time, the good news of the kingdom of God is being preached, and everyone is forcing their way into it. 17 It is easier for heaven and earth to disappear than for the least stroke of a pen to drop out of the Law. 18 “Anyone who divorces his wife and marries another woman commits adultery, and the man who marries a divorced woman commits adultery.

In the eyes of Jewish society then, the Pharisees were outwardly pious Jews who honoured God through their exemplary life in being blameless in keeping the Law. Yet inwardly they loved money. Though they justified well in the eyes of the Jewish society, God was not impressed at all knowing that they saw godliness as a way of gain.

So when Jesus taught that no one can serve both God and Money, they sneered at Him. These Pharisees could profess love for God outwardly but inwardly their real god was Money.

Jesus went on to teach that the old covenant was from Moses to John the Baptist and the new covenant had begun. And everyone had to force his way into the kingdom through jumping over the obstacles set up by the Pharisees. John the Baptist’s message of repentance centered on repentance from the sins of cheating and extortion originating from love of money and believers had to literally force their way in overcoming their covetous or greedy tendency to contentment. Luke 3:7-14.

But with the advent of the new covenant, it does not mean the moral Law or values will be discarded. So Jesus taught that it is easier for heaven and earth to disappear than for the least stroke of a pen to drop out the Law.

I believe our Lord mentioned the law of marriage to expose the spiritual adultery of the Pharisees in believing they could have the best of both worlds. It is wishful thinking that they could worship both God and Money.

How similar are the modern day hyper grace false teachers with the Pharisees of old, though they preached two opposite extreme variants of the true gospel  !

1. They can be so spiritual on the outside but inwardly they love money.
2. They see godliness as a way of gain.  They preach a message of piety in tithing and giving, though one went further to stoke the covetousness of their followers through miracle seed teaching.
3. They trivialize or discard the law in order to justify covetousness.

A decade and a half ago when I was in the corporate world, my good friend in the IT industry hired a general manager to manage his business. He would speak so well of my friend in front of business associates every time. It almost seemed to the listeners that he hero-worshipped my friend. One evening when we were having drinks in a pub, he got drunk and started cursing my friend to my shocking surprise.

I was upset with his hypocritical attitude that I disclosed everything to my friend. I was even more surprised that my friend continued to keep him in employment. Not because he performed well but that he admitted he liked his praises in front of business associates !

It is clear to me that it is definitely possible to praise someone all the time for personal gain but it is not true to his heart. In real life drama, such hypocrisy is often played out among the rich descendants hoping to have a share of the inheritance from the patriarch.

This is what our Lord Jesus said in Matt 15:8-9 concerning this possible hypocritical attitude :
“This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me; in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.”

Similarly today, do not be surprised that the hyper grace false teachers continually give Christ exalting messages and feel good messages. But their hearts are far away from Jesus. It is possible to praise and exalt Jesus in words all the time but it will be very difficult to conceal their hypocrisy in deeds.

Matt 7: 15-16
“Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves. You will recognize them by their fruits…”

Our Lord mentioned this fruit or the lack of it to know if one is with Him or otherwise. So watch for the fruit of the false prophets or teachers.

John 14:21,23; 12:47-48
“Whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me…Whoever does not love me does not keep my words…If anyone hears my words and does not keep them, I do not judge him; for I did not come to judge the world but to save the world. The one who rejects me and does not receive my words has a judge; the word that I have spoken will judge him on the last day.”

So how can the hyper grace false teacher really love Jesus when they brush aside all the clear teachings of Jesus and worse still, twist them to mean the opposite of what He taught or trivialize them ? There is also no intention to follow Him as a disciple on His terms given so clearly in Luke 9:23-26 and Luke 14:25-33. Much less to participate in the suffering of Christ !

It is also interesting to note from the above story of mine that one can ignore all wrongdoing as long as he hears flattering words. Similarly the hyper grace believers may be so side blinded by all the feel good messages that speak to their carnal desires that they fail to note the clear hypocrisy of the false teachers.

Phil 3: 17-21
Join together in following my example, brothers and sisters, and just as you have us as a model, keep your eyes on those who live as we do. For, as I have often told you before and now tell you again even with tears, many live as enemies of the cross of Christ. Their destiny is destruction, their god is their stomach, and their glory is in their shame. Their mind is set on earthly things. But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, who, by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body.

It will be the most frightening and heart-wrenching prospect to find out that we have been living as enemies of the cross of Christ when it is too late because the destiny is destruction for eternity. Many who profess to love Christ will be heading towards such a prospect because they are deluded by false teachers today. St Paul, being as compassionate as Christ his Lord, said so with much tears because such a prospect is really heart wrenching.

The Word of God has given the following clear evidence of a life at enmity with the cross of Christ.

1. Their god is their stomach. Such believers are so consumed with their desires as represented by their appetites. Not that difficult to identify such churches today when you will hear the hyper grace teachers stoking the appetites of their followers in every sermon without fail. Living godly lives is deliberately not exhorted at all because of the deliberate false claim that it will be works nullifying the finished atoning work of Christ.

2. Their glory is in their shame. The hyper grace believers even boast in the very things which they should be ashamed of. Whenever they sin, they will ignore confession and repentance and even boast of freedom from contrition of sin. They seriously still believe and boast that God favors them when they grieve His Spirit.

3. Their mind is set on earthly things. This is self explanatory. It is almost incredible that these false hyper grace teachers and their followers could still sound so pious to Christ while their minds and lifestyle are all set on earthly things contrary to the teachings of our Lord.

Luke 14:25-33
Now large crowds were going along with Him; and He turned and said to them, “If anyone comes to Me, and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be My disciple. Whoever does not carry his own cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple. For which one of you, when he wants to build a tower, does not first sit down and calculate the cost to see if he has enough to complete it? Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who observe it begin to ridicule him, saying, ‘This man began to build and was not able to finish.’ Or what king, going out to encounter another king in war, will not sit down first and deliberate whether he is able with ten thousand to meet him who comes against him with twenty thousand ? So then, none of you can be My disciple who does not give up all his own possessions.

Discipleship is never an option. A believer has to be a disciple. Jesus would rather have few sincere disciples obeying His demands than to have many professing believers among the big crowds which would not be with Him for all eternity. Matt 7:13-14.

Jesus had obeyed the same 3 demands He demanded of His disciples. Indeed, He had asked nothing of us which He was not willing to do Himself. He had “hated” His own heavenly home to come to live in a sinful world among us with no roof over His head. He had gone to the ultimate Cross dying for our sake for which the wages of our sin is death. He had renounced all that He had for our sake. Though He was rich, yet for our sake, He became poor. 2 Cor 8:9.

In view of the coming glory to which nothing can be compared, is it too much to ask of His disciples to go through the process of daily death to the lure of the world and the endurance of reproach and suffering for His name’s sake ? Is it too much to ask to renounce the hold of possessions on our lives ? We know we are in Him when we walked in the same way in which He walked. 1 John 2:6.

He shared two parables about considering carefully the cost of discipleship before making His third demand of renouncing the hold of possessions.  The emphasis is about careful consideration before making the commitment. Today, the false teachers are making the gospel message big on emotions and small on the cost of following Jesus.

Like going into a war with numerically inferior forces implying an uphill task, the king must consider very carefully whether to give 100% commitment to winning the war or back off from the war.

Or like building a tower with careful consideration of the cost and having enough to complete it.  If we follow Him for the wrong reason – when the going gets tough and we depart from the faith – we are going to cause even more damage to His cause. People will ridicule our faith when we cannot “finish building the tower” or finish the race. (Anyway, it is predicted that many will depart from the faith following false teachers in the last days. 1 Tim 4:1.)

He ended His above sermon addressing the large crowds with a very serious exhortation, “Whoever has ears to hear, let them hear.” Luke 14:35.

I pray that all believers will heed this exhortation and not believe the false hyper grace teachers whose main doctrinal tenets are diametrically opposite to the 3 costly demands of discipleship :

1.  Hyper grace believes solely in self love and doing good to oneself as the will of God. Hear what Victoria Osteen said in her own words.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7RcIqhcNNhw

2.  Hyper grace believes the finished work of Christ on the Cross to mean He has taken all your self-renunciation, reproach and suffering upon Himself on your behalf and you need not carry your own cross daily anymore.

3.  Hyper grace believes in claiming all instead of surrendering all.

Faith without obedience is Cheap Grace;
Obedience without Faith is Legalism;
Faith and Obedience must travel together.

The difference between true grace and hyper grace is quite stark. One comes with poverty of spirit to receive Grace with full gratitude and submissive obedience; the other comes with the binding insistence that God must honor His salvation promise with or without poverty of spirit. One is the response of the Tax Gatherer and the other that of the Pharisee.  One is justified while the other is not.

The contrast of the various facets of life based on believing the different gospels  – the way of life, experience, focus in life, hope, the response towards wrongdoing and the fruit (good or bad) –  is shown in the table below.