Flawed and false teachings are spreading fast

 

In recent years, we have seen an increase in all kinds of flawed and some even blatantly false teachings that pastors have no choice but to find ways to warn, educate and protect their flocks against these ravenous wolves. 

        It is not enough these days to just have a good Sunday sermon; even more important is both Word-based and proper theological grounding for your flock, and making sure that they are fully aware of the various kinds of false teachings these days. A lot of people "join" these groups without realizing what they are getting into.

        Due to the widespread usage of social media, these influences are also spreading very fast and unknowingly affecting your church members. Overnight, we see such people appearing on the social media with all kinds of strange doctrines. 

        There are also many warnings and exposé made by individuals or groups about some preachers such as Kenneth Copeland, Peter Wagner and the New Apostolic Reformation, Kenneth Hagin, Joyce Meyer, Jimmy Swaggart, Chuck Missler, Joseph Prince, Jesse Duplantis, Sadhu Sundar Selvaraj, and groups such as Bethel and the Hillsongs, and the list continues. You can go to the Internet search engine and type certain keywords such as "Hillsong exposed" or "Joseph Prince exposed" so that, based on the exposé made by others who have done their research, you will be able to form your own opinion by comparing their teachings with the Scriptures. 

        Not everyone is so blatant as one local author who wrote a book on Immortality and claimed that he will live forever and not see death until he is being raptured. When I invited him to have coffee at Starbuck, and asked him to bring along Moses, Elijah and Paul, he could not give an answer.

        Others like the Church of the Almighty God or Eastern Lightning are becoming very subtle compared to the heresy of Arianism we learnt about in the seminaries. Originally from China, the proponents of this cult have produced short movies that appeal to unsuspecting believers. Their videos are now dubbed with English voice over, making it appealing to the unsuspecting English speaking world. This group claimed that Jesus has returned in the form of a female Chinese woman in modern times! You can occasionally see this being posted in Christian chat groups. A church sister of mine in Malaysia told me that her father and siblings are ardent followers of this cult.

        Another deviant group in the Philippines have also been teaching about the baptism of fire at their centre known as Zion of God. You will find this video very disturbing (to some), but it is worth knowing what is happening. Through some proponents, who come to your church members, I can assure you some of your members will fall into the snare of the devil if you do not warn them in advance.

         Another more recent development which I have come to know about is the case of one "Rev Dr" Joe Pang. When I first saw this in a chat group, "False teachings alert", I dismissed it as another hoax until more facts emerged. I did my own investigation and discovered that he was not asked to quit by the leadership of Kuala Lumpur Baptist Church just because he admitted that he is "gay"; instead, he was sacked due to some more serious allegations. While most of us in the Klang Valley were largely insulated from such news about this man ("never heard of him or the Good Samaritan Church"), I have since been in touch with the pastors in Penang who came out with a very bold statement to warn their flocks regarding this recent meeting.

        According to sources, Pang has moved his base to Hong Kong. Also read this.

        On the hype over "anything and everything Jewish," I have already written a lot about it in my blog, Learn Hebrew Together. However, worth noting are (I have decided to insert their names so that you will know who to stay away and not make your own guesses):

        (a)  A man from Pune, India, Mark Young whom I had initially collaborated with was supposed to teach Hebrew, but over time, I discovered that he was going into what he calls, the "deeper truths". I kept quiet for a while but eventually God stirred my spirit when this man made two statements: 

• That Jesus was a כְלִי or 'a vessel' that the Holy Spirit filled. This is a blatant heresy. 
• That 'we, whether Jews or Gentiles, must be grafted into the house of Israel. Israel is Jesus and Jesus is Israel.' This is a heresy as it puts the house of Israel on par with the Son of God and bringing the Son of God to a level equivalent to a sinning house of Israel.

           John 15:4, 5 says that Jesus is the true vine and we are to be grafted into the Lord Himself, who alone is the Promised Seed of Abraham. And Jesus is both God and Man in his physical birth, not a vessel that later became filled with the Holy Spirit. 

        (b)An 80-year-old man, who has been teaching Hebrew for over 30 years recently told a group of people wanting to learn Hebrew that the name "Jehovah" is the name of the Supremely Evil. 

        After I approached him that this could be a serious form of blasphemy, and explaining to him that the name "Jehovah" is as close as it can get for a German translation of the tetragrammaton (in some languages, the J is pronounced as a Y as in the case of Johann, being pronounced as 'Yohann'), he turned around to call me a 'cult leader.' The true colours are finally out. 

        I have attended a couple of his so-called Hebrew classes and I was surprised how shallow is the teaching compared to what we had to learn in two semesters at seminary level going through J. Weingreen's "A Practical Grammar for Classical Hebrew." 

        This is currently being perpetuated by another lady, who claims that the name Jehovah is a combination of two words: 

• Yah = God
• Hovah = ruin, calamnity, mischief, very wickedness

        Read this further. 

        (c) A 60-plus-year-old man man who also claims to be teaching Hebrew has strong views about going into the gematria and reading some so-called 'hidden' meanings into the Hebrew alphabet. For example, the alef is seen as representing two hands and one peg -- hence, a picture of the cruficixion. This is absurdity if you think back again, as alef exists in many other Hebrew words that you would not want to associate with Christ! He could have just shared this as just his own illustration instead of calling it some "insights" or as some put it, "new insights" that God reveals to them.

        I have also written a fair bit about all this and because I was the one who asked him to come on Zoom and even promoted his Zoom sessions, I took on myself to approach him about his teachings. This is where I learnt that he had "learnt" his stuff from "reliable Christian sources", which includes the person mentioned in (a) above and one Steve Cociolanti from Australia. 

        I did a google search for "Steve Cociolanti exposed". This is the kind of teacher that we have in Steve Cociolanti. Watch the video of his prediction using the number 17 that Trump would win the election this year. I cannot help but ask what about 13 and 4 = 17? And both numbers 13 and 4 are taboo numbers to most people, no? Steve Cociolanti, Steve, I can only say he is a nut!

        At least, of the lot, this man is slightly more sound theologically due to his seminary training. This is PROVIDED that he does not delve into the extra-biblical sources and expounding them as though they are lifted out of the pages of the Bible. The biggest danger is when these teachers delve into the extra-biblical sources and start teaching them as gospel truths.

        (d) Recently, an MDiv student from Malaysia Bible Seminary, KL Ng of KL Ministries has started teaching some "form of Hebrew" on Zoom. In one of his classes which I watched on Youtube, he seeks to re-interpret Genesis 1:1-5 by saying:

• The word בָרָא is wrongly translated as 'God created'. By reducing this word to merely 'he filled', this young man is reducing God to a mere chess player who filled 'the land' with living things. 
• The word הַָָָאָרֶץ according to him is only to be translated as 'the land' instead of 'the earth.' He interpreted Genesis 1:1 as "God created the skies and the land.' In short, based on his teaching, all our Bible translators over several centuries have erred with their translations, "God created the heavens and the earth." 
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        As a student of Hebrew, I won't go on with all the rubbish that these people are teaching believers in the name of teaching Hebrew but I would let you know that I also received an invitation to join a class on Judaism taught by a teacher from India. Some gullible people will join, thinking that they can learn something from Judaism, not realizing that this religion is not compatiable with Christianity.

        Because there are so many false teachings, it is impossible for me to highlight all of them one by one. However, I want to add that there are also "flawed" teachings as highlighted to me by a senior theologian. He commented on a book written by a local doctor who self-published many books of late and trying to promote all sorts of "Christian" books in churches:

        This is the comment from my theologian friend:

On the same page 68 of his book, (the author) is also telling and encouraging believers to pursue spiritual experiences all the time from the baptism of the Holy Spirit of speaking in tongues to the baptism of fire of Paul Ang...

"Never mind what Paul said...."

When a person can publicly contradict Scripture to champion his position, he is not only on the wrong track, but also writing and spouting theological nonsense here ..

Now which part of Scripture actually encourages us to seek for spiritual experiences and to chase after more and more of such experiences?

Rather we are commanded to 'seek FIRST the kingdom of God and his righteousness'...

Seeking and chasing after spiritual experiences is not advocated nor encouraged by Scripture. It is clearly an incorrect emphasis.

If we really want to experience the real presence of God in our hearts, it must begin with the issue of personal OBEDIENCE to the direct command of Jesus first. For example, Jesus will only manifest his love and the Father's love in a deeper measure to believers who practise John 14:21 on a regular basis. 

Chasing after spiritual experiences can lead counterfeit experiences if it is without true obedience to God in the first place...

   Recommendations

        It is time that church leaders find ways to warn, educate and protect their flocks against all winds of doctrines. We are told that in the last days, which began since the Acts 2 Pentecost, there will be all sorts of strange doctrines being preached. The wolves are out there since the early church, well hidden from the shepherd's sight in their sheep's clothings, and waiting for the right moment to pounce on the sheep. Unless the shepherd is alerted to any such teachings, the shepherd may think he has done his job by bringing his flock to the green pastures, but would not be able to do an effective job to safeguard his flock or warn them against the wolves. 

        It is time for churches to cooperate together with the local seminaries to conduct theological classes online to help their members work through their theological framework and beliefs.  Too many Christians have only a vague understanding on the key doctrines of Scriptures. So, when confronted with false teachings, they are not able to differentiate the right from the wrong.

        It is time now for churches to engage seminarians who do research on the wrong teachings to carry out online sessions to warn their members against certain cultic practices. Applied theology must deal with the flaws of certain teachings in order to effectively help the church on the right path again.

        It is time for pastors to exchange notes with each about any deviant groups as they emerge. These groups are in places all over our neighbourhoods, and sometimes, we are not even aware that they have started springing up unless these are being discussed in chat group. In Malaysia, we do not have any Messianic Jews, yet we have Messianic congregations that try to follow the Levitical System and Judaistic practices, why? Wasn't the writer of Hebrews emphatic about the fact that we are no longer under the Levitical priesthood because we have a high priest who is after the order of Melchizedek? If left unchecked, the leaven of the Pharisees will continue to spread. 

        It is time that churches take a more proactive stand to clearly demarcate the line so that we are not accused of being liberal towards a certain kind of social ill such as homosexuality that even our Muslim cousins do not condone. We should avoid the sin of omission, by following the three monkeys, "See No Evil, Speak No Evil and Hear No Evil." We are no longer effective as salt of the earth with our comfortable Sunday church services.

        It is time for the Christian community in Malaysia to seek to apply the principles taught in Romans 13 that, if any of the so-called deviant groups, break the law, God has instituted the state agencies and institutions for a good purpose. We have to be zealous to protect the name of the Lord, which has been profaned time again by these deviant groups, yet many of us choose to stay in a state of self-denial. 

        My prayer is that some of these people mentioned here may experience God's mercy upon them, and turn their hearts wholy to Him so that many who have been misled may return to the fold. 

        Let me end with a message from Dr Chew Weng Chee, senior pastor of SIBKL.