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What the Bible says about False Doctrines
(From Forerunner Commentary)

2 Corinthians 12:19

The apostles had the responsibility of speaking before God the Father with the authority of Christ, but again, the Holy Spirit as a personality is ignored as having no divine authority. Did they not speak before the Holy Spirit, as a personality?

John W. Ritenbaugh
The Holy Spirit

Colossians 1:5

The key here is "which you heard before." Before what? Before this philosophy (Colossians 2:8) became a problem, or perhaps before their conversion—since hearing the gospel led to their conversion. Paul is taking them all the way back to the beginning because he wants to remind them of what they had faith in then.

The same principle is at work in our lives now. Those who have been devastated through false doctrinal changes have to be taken back to the faith once delivered (Jude 3) to begin rebuilding their faith or they will never recover. Paul was faced with a somewhat similar situation. So He writes, "Brethren, let us go back all the way to the beginning and remember what we heard in the gospel." In this case, apparently, it was preached by Epaphras.

John W. Ritenbaugh
The Covenants, Grace, and Law (Part Twenty-One)

1 Timothy 1:3-7

Paul is telling Timothy to command those who are teaching false doctrine to stop the fables and the endless genealogies. They do not edify. The purpose or the goal is to have a pure heart, faith, and a good conscience before God. That is what God wants from us. Paul wants Timothy to expand his horizons'to stop and think of what God wants from him. In verses 6-7, we can see quite a few did not do this.

John O. Reid
Don't Take God for Granted

2 Peter 3:1-4

At the very core of the gospel message is the assurance that Jesus Christ will return and establish His Kingdom on earth. Our hope is in His second coming because we recognize that we need His merciful intervention before humanity wipes itself out. As things continue to deteriorate, we keep returning to this confident expectation that there is a solution to the problems that mankind faces, but that solution is still just over the horizon. However, it seems like His return has been “just over the horizon” our entire lives, and we may wonder at times why the end has not yet come.

In this regard, II Peter 3 is invaluable for keeping the right perspective on Christ's return, and especially its timing. The apostle Peter helps us to focus on the right things in anticipation of that day.

Peter begins the chapter with a reminder of all the things the prophets and apostles had been inspired to preach. The timing of Christ's return was the source of quite a bit of confusion in the first century, and so Peter reminds his audience that a tremendous amount of God's Word has to do with that very topic. The Bible contains a solid foundation for at least a general understanding of the end times, even though the exact timing is not spelled out.

In these verses, Peter addresses the prevailing notion that “life goes on” and the public's scoffing at the idea that the Creator would return and intervene in human affairs. In the previous chapter, he paid considerable attention to false prophets, false teachers, and false doctrines that were troubling the church from the inside. In chapter 3, Peter draws attention to all that the true prophets and apostles had written because their writings needed to be the basis of evaluating what the contemporary teachers were saying. Along the same lines, Paul says in I Timothy 4:1 that “the Spirit expressly says that in latter times some will depart from the faith, giving heed to deceiving spirits and doctrines of demons. . . .”

A picture emerges of people who had “the faith”—a specific faith—at one time, but whose natural desires have overshadowed it. They had regressed to the place where they scoff at the idea that there is anything more to life than what they can discern with their senses. As their faith deteriorates, they conclude that nothing has really changed in the millennia of (accepted) human history, so it is doubtful that this world will ever end. So Peter writes to those who have not departed from the faith, pointing out that God's Word is filled with examples of His intervention, so that they—and we—might be bolstered in the face of the scoffing.

David C. Grabbe
How Much Longer Do We Have?


 




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