Responding to False Teaching

Responding to false teaching can be a tough job for adults. But what about our kids?

False teaching is rampant in the church today. It must be addressed. We must pass along God’s truth to the next generation. We must help them navigate real truth from the twisted “truth.”

*Click on the download button towards the END of this post to snag the free printable pack. It’s perfect for 5th grade and up!
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What is False Teaching?

False teaching is any teaching that goes against what the Bible plainly says about salvation and/or a teaching that makes a claim about God, Jesus, or the Holy Spirit that isn’t true.

As believers, we are told in Scripture to test the spirits of those who claim to be speaking on God’s behalf. My mind immediately goes to 1 John 4:1-6 and 1 Thessalonians 5:20-22.

In both passages we are told to put man’s word to the test. We are specially told in 1 John how to do this. Take a moment to read it. Some questions you can ask to “test” the spirits are: Do these people deny God’s Word? Do they deny that Jesus is God in the flesh?

False teaching and false prophets are rampant in the church today, but it’s not a new thing! We see God speaking against the false prophets that sought to preach a peaceful and “happy” message that wasn’t from God in Ezekiel 13. God has some strong things to say about them.

In the early church, John was seeing false teaching, which ultimately broke out into full-blown Gnosticism by the 2nd century. This false teaching had many aspects, one being that Jesus did not have a real, fleshly body. John knocked that false teaching down by sharing that he had seen Jesus with his own eyes and touched Him with his own hands. Jesus DID have a body. He wasn’t merely a ghost.

The topic of false teaching is extremely important to God. It’s so important that out of the twenty-seven books in the New Testament, twenty of them speak about false teachers and false teaching! {Another Gospel? by Alisa Childers} Peter spends an entire chapter in 2 Peter warning the church about false teachers while Jude pivots to write his entire letter about false teachers who were in the church.

False teachers don’t wear nametags that say, “Hello. My name is ‘False Teacher.’” Jesus called false teachers and false prophets wolves dressed as sheep. (Matthew 7:15-23) He tells us we can recognize them by their bad fruit, and He warns us not to be deceived by them.

We need to be armed with the truth found in God’s Word by reading it daily. If we don’t know the truth, we may easily be deceived by the lies.

After all, false teachers/prophets often take the truth {or something that sounds good}, then add a lie to it. They may take a Scripture verse out of context and twist its meaning. They may say it means something that it doesn’t. This is exactly what our adversary, Satan, does with God’s Word. {Read Genesis 3:1-7 and Matthew 4:1-11.}

Responding to False Teaching: How?

1. We must READ the Bible, know the Bible, and believe the Bible.

This simply isn’t a step we can afford to skip or skip for the next generation. {Just read Judges 2:10 if you think we don’t need to pass it on.}

God’s Word is truth. It’s how we are sanctified to look more and more like Jesus.

2. We should pray for false teachers and false prophets as well as the people following them.

Instead of praying fire and brimstone down on false teachers or prophets, we should pray for their salvation. False teachers not only deceive others, but they are deceived themselves. {2 Timothy 3:13} Pray for a chance to have a conversation with them or the people who follow them.

3. We should speak the truth. The truth should be seasoned in love and grace.

We are not calling out false teaching for the fun of it. We do not delight in their demise.

But truth matters, especially when it comes to the truth of His Word. Those who don’t know His Word can easily be led away from Christ and the gospel of salvation if a true gospel isn’t preached.

We must season the truth in love and grace with a humble spirit. We want God’s best for them.

If you would like to equip yourself to answer the lies of false teaching, I would first recommend reading the Bible. Pictured above are some other great books:

Counterfeit Kingdom by Holly Pivec and Doug Geivett ~ Holy and Doug do an amazing job of exposing the lies behind the New Apostolic Reformation and Bethel Church.
Know the Heretics by Justin S. Holcomb ~ This is a little book, but does such a great job of sharing the history, the orthodox response, and then how we are to respond to the heresy
Kingdom of the Cults by Walter Martin ~ This book is now edited and added to by Walter’s daughter, Jill. It’s a book my dad has had on his bookshelf ever since I can remember as a little girl. It’s absolutely packed with info!
Another Gospel? by Alisa Childers ~ Alisa shares her journey of starting down the progressive “Christianity” path and has great tips for passing truth along to our kids.
Live Your Truth and Other Lies by Alisa Childers ~ This is Alisa’s newest book. It explores some of the false teachings of our day like “Live your truth,” and what our response should be as Christians.

Free Printable Pack!

I’m so excited to share this FREE printable pack with you! In it, you’ll find a lesson you can read aloud to kids. {I recommend this for 5th grade and up.}

You’ll also find 16 ready-made pages like the one you see below AND one blank page you can adapt as you see fit for your kiddos.