LDS Are there false teachers in the world?

[Rescued One]

My first object is to find out the character of the only wise and true God, and what kind of a being he is; and if I am so fortunate as to be the man to comprehend God, and explain or convey the principles to your heart, so that the spirit seals them upon you, then let every man and woman henceforth sit in silence, put their hands on their mouths, and never lift their hands or voices, or say anything against the man of God or the servants of God again. but if I fail to do it, it becomes my duty to renounce all further pretensions, or to be a prophet; and I should be like the rest of the world---a false teacher, be hailed as a friend, and no man would seek my life.
Smith, Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, p. 344

If there are false teachers, how can a person reognize the message that is from God?

 

[Godlovesmetwo]

If there are false teachers, how can a person reognize the message that is from God?

I don't think anyone is perfect at this. Sometimes its obvious. Other times less obvious. I think you really need your antenna tuned finely sometimes as Satan can be real sneaky.
Avoid cults and all the criteria that go with them. You can look them up on the net. Don't make any one person your guru for example.

 

[Rescued One]

That seems to be good advice. Thank you!

Does anyone have other advice?

 

[Radrook]

Here are a few guidelines:

Denominational history should be researched:

One preventive measure to avoid getting duped is to research the history of the denomination of the person who is speaking. Does it frequently shift theological views?

Is truth now not truth a few years later? A newcomer to such a denomination who has not researched properly might be under the erroneous impression of prophetic infallibility.

How many times has the denomination changed its mind?

Policy Towards sin:

How does the denomination that preacher/teacher represents handle sin within its ranks.

Does it wink at abortion? Adultery? Fornication?

Does it tolerate clergy misbehavior within its ranks?


The nature of its theology itself:

Is it teaching a Christ that goes completely contrary to the one described in the Bible?

Does it teach that salvation is EARNED via works?

Does it describe an unforgiving God who delights in having humans roasted alive forever?

Does it place higher criticism above the Bible's veracity?

Does it place popular scientific opinion or theories above biblical truths?


Yet another is denominational policies towards members:

Does the denomination expect constant attendance or else it considers a member spiritually weak?

Does it practice shunning to the extent that former friends and family members become veritable enemies?
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Investigation of these will reduce the risk of getting a very nasty surprise later.

 

[Mike Fleming]

That seems to be good advice. Thank you!

Does anyone have other advice?

I agree with Bettercallpaul on this. I think we had better believe that Satan is out to deceive more than ever, as in Matt. 24:24, For false messiahs and false prophets will appear and perform great signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, even the elect." Even we in the body of Christ can be led off track behind false teachings and prophets. I think this is becoming the hardest time in history to remain firm and clear. You made mention to the Mormon church and Joseph Smith's encounter. Very good example. In my ministry to Mormon's and to those who practice Santeria (Catholicism mixed healing magic), I have referred to John 4:1-3, " Dear friends, do not believe everyone who claims to speak by the Spirit. You must test them to see if the spirit they have comes from God. For there are many false prophets in the world. 2 This is how we know if they have the Spirit of God: If a person claiming to be a prophet acknowledges that Jesus Christ came in a real body, that person has the Spirit of God. 3 But if someone claims to be a prophet and does not acknowledge the truth about Jesus, that person is not from God. Such a person has the spirit of the Antichrist, which you heard is coming into the world and indeed is already here." Basically, Joseph Smith saw angelic beings in the form of Jesus and a couple of apostles, but when did he ever test them? He assumed they were who they said they were, he listened to them.

I would like to add on to Bettercallpaul's statement of not using one person as your guru. You should not go all over the places listening to prophet after prophet either. I choose several who are in line with the word of God and whose teaching lines up with each other as in Deut. 19:15,"The facts of the case must be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses."
Because of false teachers and prophets many of closed off altogether any prophetic teaching. I tend to disagree with this. I think God still speaks through prophets, but we just have to be careful and discerning. We can be led astray. Some are out to completely deceive with Satanic motives. Others themselves are decieved and think they are doing the right thing, e.i. Joseph Smith. There are others who have not developed their prophetic gifting and have stated a misinterpretation of a message they received or spoke it prematurely. Part of Rev. 3:18 says, " (buy) ointment for your eyes so you will be able to see." God does provide armor for us. That is through seeking His discernment and His clarity. That the prophesy or teaching can be confirmed by two or three witnesses, and the spirits have been tested. God WILL NOT confuse His people. 1 Corin. 14:33, "For God is not a God of disorder but of peace, as in all the meetings of God’s holy people." Check into teachings you hear. ponder them (Luke 2:19), and pray for direction, discernment and protection of deceptive spirits.

 

[Godlovesmetwo]

Does it describe an unforgiving God who delights in having humans roasted alive forever?

Rare, medium or well-done?

 

[Godlovesmetwo]

Let "doubt" be your asset, not your liability. Question, question, question.
Obedience is important but make sure the "obedience" line is not used by a human being for their own purposes.
Look at something from different perspectives. Does it make sense? Does it sound plausible? Do you sense a feeling of trust? Does it satisfy both your intellect and your imagination? Does it make you feel like you are in a straight-jacket? Does it sound to loosey goosey?
I believe honest doubt and daily Bible Reading can lead to authentic faith. If you sincerely and earnestly seek God, you will find Him.

 

[Ironhold]

You must test them to see if the spirit they have comes from God.

...which is what the leadership has told everyone to do time and time again...




That being said, what about all of the false teachers within mainline Christianity?

The ones who preach violence in God's name?

The ones who tell people that the minute you profess faith you've got a one-way ticket to Heaven no matter how wicked you are the rest of your days?

The ones who tell people that God wants everyone to be rich, so one's wealth is a sign of one's favor?

The ones who feel it justified to lie about others if the ends justify the means?

The ones who focus on Jesus' skin color to maintain a larger narrative?

Et cetra.

Get back to me when you're willing to condemn these people as well.

 

[Radrook]

Rare, medium or well-done?

The chef doesn't care actually since there is no consumption of the human meat on the grille and no customers. It's all dun just foe dah fun.

Knowwatameeens?

 

[dzheremi]

St. Ignatius of Antioch (d. circa 108), the disciple of St. John, warns against false teachers in his Epistle to Hero with the following strong words:

Every one that teaches anything beyond what is commanded, though he be [deemed] worthy of credit, though he be in the habit of fasting, though he live in continence, though he work miracles, though he have the gift of prophecy, let him be in thy sight as a wolf in sheep's clothing, labouring for the destruction of the sheep. If any one denies the cross, and is ashamed of the passion, let him be to thee as the adversary himself. "Though he gives all his goods to feed the poor, though he remove mountains, though he give his body to be burned," let him be regarded by thee as abominable. If any one makes light of the law or the prophets, which Christ fulfilled at His coming, let him be to thee as antichrist. If any one says that the Lord is a mere man, he is a Jew, a murderer of Christ. (emphasis added)

In the same saint's Epistle to the Ephesians, he writes the following:

Nevertheless, I have heard of some who have passed in among you, holding the wicked doctrine of the strange and evil spirit; to whom ye did not allow entrance to sow their tares, but stopped your ears that ye might not receive that error which was proclaimed by them, as being persuaded that that spirit which deceives the people does not speak the things of Christ, but his own, for he is a lying spirit. But the Holy Spirit does not speak His own things, but those of Christ, and that not from himself, but from the Lord; even as the Lord also announced to us the things that He received from the Father. For, says He, "the word which ye hear is not Mine, but the Father's, who sent Me." And says He of the Holy Spirit, "He shall not speak of Himself, but whatsoever things He shall hear from Me." And He says of Himself to the Father, "I have," says He, "glorified Thee upon the earth ; I have finished the work which, Thou gavest Me; I have manifested Thy name to men." And of the Holy Ghost, "He shall glorify Me, for He receives of Mine." But the spirit of deceit preaches himself, and speaks his own things, for he seeks to please himself. He glorifies himself, for he is full of arrogance. He is lying, fraudulent, soothing, flattering, treacherous, rhapsodical, trifling, inharmonious, verbose, sordid, and timorous. From his power Jesus Christ will deliver you, who has founded you upon the rock, as being chosen stones, well fitted for the divine edifice of the Father, and who are raised up on high by Christ, who was crucified for you, making use of the Holy Spirit as a rope, and being borne up by faith, while exalted by love from earth to heaven, walking in company with those that are undefiled. For, says [the Scripture], "Blessed are the undefiled in the way, who walk in the law of the Lord." Now the way is unerring, namely, Jesus Christ. For, says He, "I am the way and the life." And this way leads to the Father. For "no man," says He, "cometh to the Father but by Me." Blessed, then, are ye who are God-bearers, spirit-bearers, temple-bearers, bearers of holiness, adorned in all respects with the commandments of Jesus Christ, being "a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a peculiar people," on whose account I rejoice exceedingly, and have had the privilege, by this Epistle, of conversing with "the saints which are at Ephesus, the faithful in Christ Jesus." I rejoice, therefore, over you, that ye do not give heed to vanity, and love nothing according to the flesh, but according to God. (emphasis added)

And the fellow-disciple St. Polycarp of Smyrna (d. 155), also a student of St. John, writes in his Epistle to the Philippians the following:

For whosoever does not confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh, is antichrist; and whosoever does not confess the testimony of the cross, is of the devil; and whosoever perverts the oracles of the Lord to his own lusts, and says that there is neither a resurrection nor a judgment, he is the first-born of Satan. Wherefore, forsaking the vanity of many, and their false doctrines, let us return to the word which has been handed down to us from the beginning; watching unto prayer, and persevering in fasting; beseeching in our supplications the all-seeing God not to lead us into temptation, as the Lord has said: "The spirit truly is willing, but the flesh is weak." (emphasis added)

+++

We can know, then, that this first generation of disciples who learned directly from the apostles themselves, represented by men like St. Ignatius and St. Polycarp (who, it should be said, transmitted what they had been taught to the generation after them; St. Irenaeus of Lyon, who died in 202, heard St. Polycarp's preaching in person, as a young man in Smyrna), recognized false teachers and false teaching in a few different ways: (1) by what they preached, and (2) by why they preached it. The false teacher seeks his own distinction and his own reward, and bending to that, teaches beyond what has been given, so that he may satisfy his own lust and arrogance. And since he is following himself rather than God, it does not stop him that whatever he teaches is against what has been handed down, since it is nothing to such people to say that the rest of the world and all the fathers, even those who were much closer to Christ and His apostles and their disciples in time and location, were all wrong and that the message that he brings is the corrective. He is, to himself and his followers anyway, as the Joseph Smith quote puts it, the man to comprehend God.

 

[Rescued One]

Matthew 24:24
"For there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall shew great signs and wonders; insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect."

I would add these verses:

Psalm 119:105
"Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path."

Acts 5:29
"Then Peter and the other apostles answered and said, We ought to obey God rather than men."

Acts 17
10 And the brethren immediately sent away Paul and Silas by night unto Berea: who coming thither went into the synagogue of the Jews.
11 These were more noble than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness of mind, and searched the scriptures daily, whether those things were so.

Be aware of the commandments and obey them if you love Jesus. (John 14:15)

My internet connection isn't allowing me to link to John 14:15.

 

[Radrook]

...which is what the leadership has told everyone to do time and time again...
That being said, what about all of the false teachers within mainline Christianity?

The ones who preach violence in God's name?

The ones who tell people that the minute you profess faith you've got a one-way ticket to Heaven no matter how wicked you are the rest of your days?

The ones who tell people that God wants everyone to be rich, so one's wealth is a sign of one's favor?

The ones who feel it justified to lie about others if the ends justify the means?

The ones who focus on Jesus' skin color to maintain a larger narrative?

Et cetra.

Get back to me when you're willing to condemn these people as well.

Unfortunately there are too many well-meaning albeit misguided and self deluded people who narrow down what being a Christian means to just one thing-being a Trinitarian. Everything else to them is irrelevant so anything else is OK.

It's as if proclaiming to be a Trinitarian absolves then of all other moral responsibilities. Weird!

 

[BigDaddy4]

...which is what the leadership has told everyone to do time and time again...

Unfortunately, the leader of your "leadership" failed that test. He wouldn't believe the Christian counsel he recieved after his first vision. Nor did he believe the Scriptures that say no man has seen God and lived. So why follow this leader to begin with?

Get back to me when you're willing to condemn these people as well.

How do you know anyone on this forum has not?

 

[Kiwi Christian]

mormons hate their own material

 

[Rescued One]

Joseph Smith called us a false teacher:
"...like the rest of the world---a false teacher..."


"I will prove that the world is wrong, by showing what God is."
--- Joseph Smith

I don't know if Mormons hate their own material. They accept a lot of it --- such as the changes they've made in my lifetime.

"We have been sent to earth to follow Heavenly Father's plan. Choosing to be baptized into The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is an important first step in our journey back to our heavenly home."
Author Chad G. Daybell, Baptism Entering The Path To Eternal Life, Juvenile Audience

 

[Ironhold]

mormons hate their own material

Did you understand the point of my post?

 

[Kiwi Christian]

Yes, there have been and are false teachers all around us.

Joseph smith, the pope, early church "fathers", charles taze russel, benny hinn, joyce meyers, etc.

 

[Kiwi Christian]

Prophecy about Jesus' return within 56 years--"President Smith then stated that the meeting had been called, because God had commanded it; and it was made known to him by vision and by the Holy Spirit. He then gave a relation of some of the circumstances attending us while journeying to Zion--our trials, sufferings; and said God had not designed all this for nothing, but He had it in remembrance yet; and it was the will of God that those who went to Zion, with a determination to lay down their lives, if necessary, should be ordained to the ministry, and go forth to prune the vineyard for the last time, for the coming of the Lord, which was nigh--even fifty-six years should wind up the scene." (History of the Church, vol. 2, p. 189).

Jesus did not return within fifty-six years when 1891 arrived.

 

[Ironhold]

Prophecy about Jesus' return within 56 years--"President Smith then stated that the meeting had been called, because God had commanded it; and it was made known to him by vision and by the Holy Spirit. He then gave a relation of some of the circumstances attending us while journeying to Zion--our trials, sufferings; and said God had not designed all this for nothing, but He had it in remembrance yet; and it was the will of God that those who went to Zion, with a determination to lay down their lives, if necessary, should be ordained to the ministry, and go forth to prune the vineyard for the last time, for the coming of the Lord, which was nigh--even fifty-six years should wind up the scene." (History of the Church, vol. 2, p. 189).

Jesus did not return within fifty-six years when 1891 arrived.

I note that you didn't look for the original citation, which very much exists:

Joseph Smith's Alleged 56-Year Second Coming Prophecy - Revision - SHIELDS

"I was once praying earnestly upon the subject. and a voice said unto me. My son, if thou livest till thou art 85 years of age, thou shalt see the face of the son of man.--I was left to draw my own conclusion concerning this & I took the liberty to conclude that if I did live till that time he would make his appearance.--but I do not say whether he will make his appearance or I shall go where he is."

Shazam. The prophecy was dependent upon Joseph being allowed to live until he as 85.

It's actually a full-on academic level paper on the matter if you want to read it.

 

[Kiwi Christian]

A couple of Jehovahs Witnesses false prophecies:

Failed/Changed prophecies. The Millennium began in 1873. (Thy Kingdom Come, page 305),The Millennium began in 1874. (Finished Mystery, page 386),The resurrection would occur in 1878 (They Kingdom Come, page 234),Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and the faithful prophets of old would return in 1925. (Millions Now Living Will Never Die, page 89),The Book of Ruth is "not prophetical". (Watchtower Reprints IV, p.3110, 12/7/02),The Book of Ruth "is prophetic". (Preservation", p. 169, 175, 176.)