Are All False Teachers UNSAVED?!

Fight For Truth

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Hey guys, Colin here, and welcome back to the channel where the Bible and critical thinking meet to give you real

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Christian commentary about the things that matter. Thanks so much for watching, let's get into the video. So I talk a lot on this channel about people who

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I believe to be false teachers. And that is not simply because I disagree with these people on small secondary issues.

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No, it's much bigger than that. I disagree with R .C. Sproul, for instance, on the issue of infant baptism, but he was a great man and a great brother and I still consider him as such.

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I disagree with John MacArthur on dispensationalism and many of his views on the end times, but I have consistently commended him for his excellent ministry.

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There are many better, smarter men of God who disagree with me on several issues, and that list could go on forever.

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My views are not the be -all end -all, God's are. And good brothers in Christ will understand that and have fellowship together nonetheless.

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But there is another category of people, ladies and gentlemen, people who should not be treated as brothers who have a simple minor disagreement, and those people are called false teachers.

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Effectively, these are people who have deviated from the Bible to such a great extent that they can no longer be referred to as teaching the truth.

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Examples of such people would be Joel Osteen, T .D. Jake, Stephen Furtick, and unfortunately there are many, many more.

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But many people who watch my channel are often stuck asking themselves after my videos, is Colin saying that all of these people he disagrees with are unsaved individuals who are going to end up in hell unless something changes?

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And the answer to that is no, but sometimes they are. For instance, I believe there is sufficient evidence to confidently say that Joel Osteen is not a brother in Christ.

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He's an outright heretic, and I will have absolutely no fellowship with him or any other hyper -prosperity teacher like him until they repent.

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Jude verse 4 says, quote, For certain people have crept in unnoticed who long ago were designated for this condemnation.

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Ungodly people who pervert the grace of our God into sensuality and deny our Master and Lord Jesus Christ, end quote.

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So yes, according to Jude, some false teachers have crept into the Church and do not obey

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Jesus Christ. And these people are designated for condemnation and for judgment. Some of the people

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I talk about on this channel are not saved people or Christian people whatsoever. That's true, and it's worth acknowledging.

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I'm not going to walk that back. But does that mean that all people who could be labeled false teachers must also bear the label of unsaved?

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No, I don't believe so, and let me tell you why. By the way, for those of you who think that false teachers are only those who have bad theology on what you might call gospel issues,

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I will have a video refuting that idea coming out soon. But in any case, let me offer you a few objective biblical examples of false teachers who were actually saved.

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They were actually Christian people. The first example is Apollos. Acts 18, verse 24 says, quote,

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Now a Jew named Apollos, a native of Alexandria, came to Ephesus. He was an eloquent man, competent in the

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Scriptures, he had been instructed in the way of the Lord. And being fervent in spirit, he spoke and taught accurately the things concerning Jesus, though he only knew the baptism of John, end quote.

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So the key here with Apollos is that he is fervent, he's passionate about his faith. He's bearing fruit, he's trying to spread the gospel.

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There's a lot of good things here. He seems to be a great man with a good heart who actually knows God. He's actually faithful.

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But here's the catch. He only knew the baptism of John the Baptist. And we know that John the

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Baptist preached two main things, repentance and faith in the Messiah who was to come.

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In Matthew 3, 2, John the Baptist says as much when he says, quote, Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand, end quote.

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So it seems that to one degree or another, Apollos was seriously missing some key

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Christian doctrine of some kind. And then Acts 18, verse 26 says that Apollos, quote, began to speak boldly in the synagogue.

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But when Priscilla and Achilla heard him, they took him aside and explained to him the way of God more accurately, end quote.

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So not only was Apollos unintentionally wrong in his teaching, he was wrong to such a major extent that Priscilla and Achilla felt the need to take him aside and offer him a correction.

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In other words, Apollos was unintentionally a false teacher. And if you only teach what

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John the Baptist taught, you are certainly not teaching fully fledged Christian doctrine, because John himself was not fully aware of complete

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Christian doctrine during his teaching ministry. This was before the teaching ministry of Christ. Any church teaching only the message of John the

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Baptist today could hardly be called a sound Christian church, right? So yes, Apollos was a false teacher, but he was also a man of true faith in the

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Messiah nonetheless. Acts 18, verse 27 goes on saying, quote, And when he, Apollos, wished to cross to Achaia, the brothers encouraged him and wrote to the disciples to welcome him, end quote.

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The implication here is that Apollos had accepted the correction of Priscilla and Achilla, and he had done so willingly.

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He changed his overarching theological views to be in accordance with true teaching once he was made aware of it.

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He was repentant. He was teachable. He was faithful. So part of answering the question of whether or not someone is an unsaved false teacher, well that depends on how new they are to the faith, who their teacher was, how repentant they are when they're corrected, their background, their access to information, etc.

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There are many different factors, and none of those influence the truth of their statements. If they're saying objectively false things, then they're false.

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But it's not as simple and black and white as, if you teach anything false, then you're an unsaved heretic who's bound for hell.

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It's more nuanced than that. The next example of a false teacher who was saved is the Apostle Peter.

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Peter had denied Christ, but was forgiven by him and sent by Jesus to be a leader in the church. In Matthew 16, 18,

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Jesus says, and I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it, end quote.

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Now many people have recognized that the words for Peter and for rock in the Greek language sound quite similar.

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But whatever the case may be, whatever connection we might make, we do know this. Peter has been directly and completely forgiven by Jesus and has been commissioned by Christ at that point.

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In other words, Peter is most definitely a saved Christian man at this time. However, in Galatians 2, 11 -13,

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Paul says this, quote, But when Cephas, that is, Peter, came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face, because he stood condemned.

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For before certain men came from James, he was eating with the Gentiles. But when they came, he drew back and separated himself, fearing the circumcision party.

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And the rest of the Jews acted hypocritically along with him, so that even Barnabas was led astray by their hypocrisy, end quote.

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Peter was living in a way that was not compatible with Christian doctrine, and he was promoting the false teaching of the

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Judaizers in this way. This was a group that sought to teach Old Testament practices like circumcision as if they were essential

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Christian doctrine. They were providing a stumbling block to many people. In any case, the passage clearly says that Peter stood condemned for these actions.

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He was a false teacher. And as far as I can tell, we actually have no idea how long

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Peter was doing these things. We don't know how long he was aiding and abetting this kind of false teaching. But again, we still have really good reason to believe that Peter was saved all throughout this affair and that he repented of this and changed his ways.

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The Apostle Peter was participating in false teaching for a time, but Peter is still most certainly in heaven right now worshipping our

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Savior. My point here is that Christians can sin by offering false teaching, but this sin is fundamentally forgivable, and it does not instantly remove them from all of Christianity.

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In Galatians 3 .3, Paul says, quote, Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh?

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End quote. The Galatian church was partaking in some serious false teaching here, and they are seriously rebuked by Paul for that.

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But Paul does not say, none of you guys are Christians anymore. Rather, he rebukes them as if they are

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Christian brothers, acknowledging that they have begun by the Spirit. It is implied, then, that they are foolish and deceived

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Christians who desperately need to repent of this, but they're still assumed Christians nonetheless.

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I could offer you many more examples of New Testament churches being corrected by Paul for their participation in false teaching and believing false teachers, but that would belabor the point.

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The overall message I want you to take away here is this. For the most part, we should not be making consistent and confident statements about other people who claim to be

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Christians being unsaved. There are definitely many cases in which that is justified, and we can say that, but we have to be very careful when we go about that.

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That's all I'm saying. It is usually something that only God can truly know. But when it comes to severe, blatant, unrepentant false teaching, there are definitely some people who are unsaved and headed for hell unless something changes.

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They need to be warned. They need to be challenged. They need to be told the truth. But remember also that there are some genuine

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Christians who are simply mistaken in their beliefs as well. And all of that is to say, when I call someone a false teacher on this channel, please don't be too quick to assume that I'm also calling them a false

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Christian. I hope that distinction has been helpful to you, and let's earnestly pray that false teachers of all kinds, of all stripes, would repent of their false teaching and turn to the truth of God's Word.

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Thank you so much for watching. If you liked that video, please like, comment, share, subscribe, and hit the notification bell so that you never miss another one.

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If you didn't like that video for any reason, then I invite you to watch my Frequently Asked Questions video, link in description, where I deal with common objections and define the purpose and goal of my channel using

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And until next time, fight for truth, never surrender, and keep your eyes open. Thank you, and God bless.