How can we discern the difference between the two?

As with most counterfeit things, it is not always obvious to tell the difference from the true one, for they can be very similar in many ways.  To know the truth about God’s salvation, we can find the answers in the Bible, but we need to read it for ourselves instead of relying on someone else’s interpretation of it, because this can give anyone room to change it around into a whole other gospel that is not the true Gospel. This has been a successful method in deceiving many people all throughout the history of mankind.

2 Corinthians 11:3-4  “But I fear, lest somehow, as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, so your minds may be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ. ⁴ For if he who comes preaches another Jesus whom we have not preached, or if you receive a different spirit which you have not received, or a different gospel which you have not accepted—you may well put up with it!”

To be able to discern the deception and trappings from the Evil One of ungodly behavior of indulging in the superficial attractions of the world that appeals to the flesh, such as materialism, greed, and lust are more obvious than when he uses deception to appeal to our intellect.  Think about why there are so many Christian denominations that all use the same Bible as their source but interpret it differently.

Colossians 2:8  “Beware lest anyone cheat you through philosophy and empty deceit, according to the tradition of men, according to the basic principles of the world, and not according to Christ.”

Galatians 1:11-12  “But I make known to you, brethren, that the gospel which was preached by me is not according to man. ¹² For I neither received it from man, nor was I taught it, but it came through the revelation of Jesus Christ.”

To be able to discern the counterfeit, the false doctrine of God, we need to know what the true doctrine is for comparison.  John Macarthur simplifies the message of the Gospel mentioned in Colossians 1:5, “The Greek word literally means “good news,” and was used in classical Greek to express the good news of victory in a battle. The gospel is the good news of Christ’s victory over Satan, sin and death.”¹ And in Romans 1:1, “Its message is that God will forgive sins, deliver from sins power, and give eternal hope…”²

Part of the Gospel message we need to be aware of is that God is not only in the process of the salvation of the lost souls of men, but of putting all of His enemies under His feet (1 Cor. 15:25), which include not only rebellious mankind but all of the principalities and powers in heavenly places so that all of His creation will declare Him to be the Most High God who alone is worthy of all glory, honor and praise (Ps. 83:18; Rev. 4:11).  The power of spiritual death has kept us blinded to spiritual realities and truths (Jn. 3:3;).  We may not realize that the power of our will to be self-dependent and self-sufficient has made us an enemy of God by choice, and how our fallen condition has made us powerless to master sin, not realizing that we are being continually influenced by the Devil and his temptations.  When we do things against our will or against our good conscience and find ourselves powerless to overcome them, this testifies of our human depravity. 

The truth is revealed in the Bible but many people do not search there for this truth, even though they may acknowledge God.  Satan acknowledges God (James 2:19) and does a fine job of deceiving people of the true interpretation of the Bible through many false religions. This is easy for him to do because in our fallen condition we are always seeking to accept what is appealing to the flesh and intellect.  Fortunately, when the ways of the flesh finally run us dry and empty, we are able to realize how spiritually depraved we are, which puts us in a disposition to learn the truth about ourselves as described in the true Gospel. When people find themselves in need of God’s mercy and grace, and learn the depth of His forgiveness that motivates them to repent and commit their lives to Him, Christianity to them is no longer about a religious institution, but about a loving, living relationship with God.

Consider how much emphasis is made in the Bible to recognize God as the Most High God (Exod. 20:3; 2 King. 17:35-36; 1 Chron. 16:25; Ps. 96:4-5; Philip. 2:9-11; 1 Tim. 2:5; Rev. 15:4; etc…) – compared to whom?  And that He will receive all glory, honor and praise – why this emphasis?  Because others, both human and spiritual beings, are trying to make that same claim. We demonstrate this by living our lives apart from being filled with the Holy Spirit as the Bible plainly teaches (Rom. 5:10; Eph. 2:2; 5:8; Philip. 3:18-21), but in our fallen condition we are not consciously aware of this fact, for our minds have become blinded as a result of the fall (2 Cor. 4:4).

Consider how much emphasis Jesus puts into testifying that He is God’s Son, who was obedient to being sent by God, that He came to earth as God in the flesh to show us the ways and truth of God’s kingdom, and reveal the heart of the God’s law through the Gospel message in doing so.  He also mentions being the fulfillment of many Old Testament prophecies to verify His claims about Himself.  Why this emphasis?  Because the Devil does not want us to be saved from the power of death. Jesus, in His own words, which should be the only reliable source, has made known the truth about Himself by which we should believe.  But the Devil has made it his mission to invent every kind of variation or opposition to the truth.  In the New Testament era an early form of Gnosticism was one cult that tried to discredit true Christianity.³ Now that he has deceived us into being rebellious towards God like himself, he can take advantage of our spiritual blindness and confuse us with our vain attempt to know the true Gospel with our own limited understanding. 

Matthew 24:11  “Then many false prophets will rise up and deceive many.”

The Bible clearly states that one must be born-again to enter the kingdom of God. (“Jesus answered, ‘Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. ⁶ That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. ⁷ Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’” Jn. 3:5-7). Think about how much sense that makes.  We need to be sinless in order to spend eternity in the presence of our Holy God.  When we receive the forgiveness of God, we spiritually become free from the bondage of our fallen nature, we are spiritually transferred from death to life, and we are forgiven, justified, and cleansed by the shed blood of Jesus Christ. Now that we have been made righteous, we can start a new beginning, a new life in the Spirit of God, welcomed into His eternal kingdom now that we have been made clean and our hearts are devoted to worship and honor Him as the One True God. There are many religions that fail to preach this liberating truth.  But we are not bound to this blindness, for Jesus said “My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me” (Jn. 10:27).  When we hear the True Gospel, we are capable of responding to it and be set free.

When we understand the great length God went to in order to reveal His love to mankind, we are most likely to be more willing to admit we have sinned and rebelled against Him, knowing He took away the fear of punishment and that He desires for us to be restored to our relationship with Him (1 Jn. 4:18).

It is the Holy Spirit who enables us to know the true Gospel, which is in contrast to the many religious outward forms of man’s interpretation of the Bible.⁴ You can see many examples of this between Jesus and the religious rulers in the Gospel of John, when they use their interpretation of the Old Testament Scriptures to accuse Jesus of breaking them. They failed to recognize their long awaited Messiah because they were expecting a political earthly ruler and not a personal spiritual deliverer from sin. He made it clear that His kingdom is not of this world in His conversation with Pilate, “Jesus answered, “My kingdom is not of this world. If My kingdom were of this world, My servants would fight, so that I should not be delivered to the Jews; but now My kingdom is not from here,” (Jn. 18:36). After Christ’s resurrection, when Christianity was established, the belief in what Jesus proclaimed in the gospels was then manipulated by false apostles, teachers and prophets, by changing the facts and true meaning (Matt. 7:15-16; 24:24; 2 Tim. 4:3-4; Acts 20:28-30; 2 Cor. 11: 13-15; 1 Jn. 4:1-2). You can see how the Devil misused the Scriptures to Christ Himself when He was tempted in the wilderness after His baptism (Matt. 4:1-11). Christians are to be diligent in keeping the Gospel of Jesus pure against the misinterpretation of the Old Testament and the many false doctrines of the True Gospel, which is a Gospel of grace.

Don’t Be Deceived

It is common for a new believer to be enamored with their new awareness of the reality of the spiritual realm and be enthusiastic about how that may make an impact on their lives.  But because their old nature has yet to be renewed, they may still depend on their self-worth by their own works and performance, having the desire to do good all the time and make everything right, imagining themselves to play the part of the Savior rather than step out of the spotlight and let the Holy Spirit take over so that God receives all the glory.  They have yet to learn what it means to “die” daily in Christ.⁵

It is at this stage in their Christian growth that they are the most vulnerable to false doctrine and ministries that bypass true discipleship and focus on either the works of the flesh, being “religious,”⁶ (which is a dead church if they are not living in the power of the Holy Spirit) or they focus on miracles, signs and wonders, on what the Lord can do rather than focus on their relationship with Him. If we are sincere about committing our lives to God, we will endeavor to know Him personally so that we will clearly hear His voice and not be resistant to follow Him through the narrow gate (Matt. 7:13-14).  It is helpful to realize that His ways are not our ways (Is. 55:8-9), and be willing and wise to be yielded to the guidance of the Holy Spirit and not react in being overzealous for the Lord that may result in works of the flesh, thinking you are doing His will when you are not.

Every book in the New Testament except for Philemon gives some kind of warning or exhortation against false doctrines, apostles or prophets whose intention is to keep God’s chosen ones from becoming spiritually mature in the simple Gospel truth as recorded in the Bible.  New believers must come to terms with the fact that the enemy is relentlessly determined to hold back the kingdom of God from advancing on this earth through the testimony of the sons and daughters of the Living God because their victory means his time on earth as being the temporary ruler of it is coming to a close very shortly (Rev. 12:11-12).

We can be safe-guarded against deception by going through the sanctification process in which we depend on the Holy Spirit for guidance and growth in order to display a life that is humbled and fully dependent on God, worshipping Him as Lord of our lives and desiring to give Him all the glory; by discerning the fallacy of the flesh and its rebellious nature toward God, which will give us the desire to despise it and put it to “death” continuously until the Lord returns; through daily prayer and communing with God; and by diligently keeping our eyes fixed on God and not man whose fruit of the fallen nature produces worldliness. 

Before you settle into a new church, you may realize sooner or later that many are spiritually dead.  If you are a new Christian you may not be able to discern this because you are still heavily influenced by the flesh. You are still prone to rely on your own understanding and have yet to have your mind renewed of the ways of God by the practice of relying on the Holy Spirit for wisdom and understanding, to teach you the depth of the Gospel message and who will cause you to grow and develop as a new creation in Christ.

Because you are still of the flesh and ignorant of the things of God you may feel vulnerable to this new reality of being a child of the invisible kingdom of God.  This may cause you to be attracted to a church for the wrong reasons, a church whose message appeals to your intellect or socially meets your emotional needs. There are many cults that have phenomenal fellowship, making you feel wanted, accepted, secure and give you a sense of self-worth with plenty of opportunities to be useful, making it hard to see through the subtle deceptive changes they made to the true Gospel, or you may not be aware of their intentional or unintentional omission of the whole counsel of God.⁷

This is why I would highly recommend learning the basic truth of the Gospel on your own first, one on one with God, communicating with the Holy Spirit through prayer and Bible study, asking many questions.  You may find journaling to be very helpful in this way.  If you would like to be ministered to by a sound, reliable teaching of the Bible you can listen to the teaching of Pastor Joe Focht of Calvary Chapel Philadelphia.  There are many branches of Calvary Chapel in other states that you can look up on their website if you would like to attend one near you.⁸ Ultimately, you want to pray to the Holy Spirit to guide you to the right church that will help you develop in spiritual growth.  We are to be set apart from the world, and as we mature we will develop spiritual fruit that is contrary to the world (Gal. 5:22-25). You should be cautious of being deceived of being a worldly or carnal Christian, one who is not any different from the world other than the fact that you claim to believe in Jesus.  We are in the world but not of it (1 Jn. 2:16).

And what can be worse than being in a spiritually dead church is being part of a ministry that appears to be not of this world by being super spiritual and charismatic.  As a young Christian you may naturally think that because you are seeing or experiencing supernatural phenomenon, (miracles, signs and wonders) that these must be from God (“Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven. ²² Many will say to Me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?’ ²³ And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!’” Matt. 7:21-23).  Some of it may be from God, but how can you discern this?  You would know if you knew the Lord personally, wouldn’t you?  If you have a personal relationship with Him, He will tell you the truth, so the more you know Him, the less chance you have of being deceived.  This is why it is important to belong to a church with mature Christians who can properly mentor you in discipleship, becoming a person of substance, godly virtue and quality, having your feet planted firmly on the Rock of your salvation and not be tossed in every direction by every wind of doctrine, always learning and never coming to the full knowledge of God. (Eph. 4:4; 2 Tim. 3:1-9).  People will truly know we are Christians by our ability to love others like Christ loves us, not by spiritual manifestations alone (“Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I have become sounding brass or a clanging cymbal. ² And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. ³ And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, but have not love, it profits me nothing.” 1 Cor. 13:1-3).

Art Katz makes a significant observation from 2 Thess. 2:7-12 on how love keeps us protected from deception: “It is not just the truth, or the acknowledgement of the truth that God makes key to the issue of deception, but that they did not receive the love of the truth.  Truth needs to be loved, or we are not going to suffer the sacrifices by which truth is obtained.  Confessing our faults one to another is being truthful.  It is a painful and humiliating sacrifice to do, and we will only do it because we love the truth. The love of the truth, which will withstand whatever cost it requires, is God’s primary provision for keeping us from deception and the giving of ourselves to lying signs and wonders.  If we are habituated to the effect of them, if we only want to see the excitement, there is no doubt a void in our lives that wants to be titillated at the apparent miracle and power without asking too many questions about how it is performed.  It matters not who performs them, and who is ultimately receiving the glory for the performance, for we have already become candidates for being deceived.  Do we love the truth so much that we will raise those questions?  Will we be alert to them, or will we just be impressed by outward performance?”⁹

Martyn Lloyd Jones brings to light of discerning the true Christian message when he writes about Acts 2:27-40, “The true Christian message brings us face to face with the historical facts.  I repeat this once again because false religions make people think about everything except Jesus Christ.  But when you come to a truly Christian church, it is Jesus Christ who takes the highest position – nobody else, however great, however wonderful.  Jesus Christ dominates us, and the Spirit dominates us.  The first thing we have to face is the person of Jesus Christ – His life, His death, His resurrection, these great historical events.”¹⁰

Notes

1. The MacArthur Bible Commentary by John MacArthur, Pg. 1731

2. The MacArthur Bible Commentary by John MacArthur, Pg. 1502

3. See “The Message of the Beloved Disciple” PDF by Daniel J. Lewis, www.troychapel.org/educational-downloads/new-testament/

4. “The Apostolic preaching was in demonstration of the Spirit and of power.  For Paul preached the Word of God.  This is more than preaching according to the Scriptures.  Even without the Spirit, men  may preach according to the Scriptures; yet such preaching may proceed from a dead self-acquired knowledge, and mere natural zeal; it may be without divine authority, like “the burden of the Lord,” or exposition of texts and repetition of divine truth, which Jeremiah describes in the false prophets, who prophesied though they were not sent of God.*  Such preaching possesses no regenerating power, it is not seed of divine life.  The promise is only to the Word which goeth forth out of God’s mouth.  He who preaches the Word of God, receives it first himself by the Spirit of God; by repentance and faith he makes it his own, the Word dwells in him.  It is Heaven high above him, it condemns and rebukes him, it deepens his conviction of sin, it shows him how little he has yet attained; but still it is his; he believes it, he grasps and cherishes it; he eats the Word, and the Word becomes his very life-blood, the  husbandman himself partaketh first of the fruit.  Then he receives this Word of God, which is now his, as a special message, for the special occasion before him, and he determines to deliver it unto men, and with utterance asked for and given, he speaks. 

By such preaching cometh faith.  Faith is due only to God’s Word.  “The Word of the Lord in thy mouth is truth,” said the woman to Elijah, and this is the response of the quickened conscience to spiritual preaching. The Holy Ghost, who testifies of Christ in the Scriptures, preaches Christ according to the Scriptures, by the living witnesses.  Preaching is more that an exposition of Scripture; it is a reproduction of Scripture.  It is the Word of God, and it is inspired, though not as the Scriptures, in which there is no admixture of sin and error, and which remain always the standard by which even Apostolic preaching is judged (Acts 17:11). But the Gospel is preached with the Holy Ghost sent down from Heaven (1 Peter 1:12, 25), and this preaching is called in Scripture “Word of God.”

*Read the very emphatic and remarkable passage, Jer. 23:16-40.  There is a text-preaching, which is not “Word of God preaching.” There is such a thing as stealing, “The Lord’s words” (v. 30), from human authority and human sources, instead of receiving it from Him who alone has the right and power of sending forth the quickening and saving message (v. 22).  When a minister of the Gospel reads such a passage, his heart’s prayer is: Oh, for a closer walk with God!  All homiletics and pastoral theology are summed up in this petition.” (Christ Crucified by Adolph Saphir, Pgs. 119-120)

5.  Moses went through a similar experience when he came of age and was called to deliver his people from the bondage of the Egyptians.  In Exodus 2:22-15 he defended a fellow Hebrew by killing the Egyptian who was beating him.  The next day Moses found out that the Hebrews had no respect or gratitude for him, as powerful as he was, for he was a mere man acting in his own strength and was no match for their enemy, the Egyptians.

“Moses soon identifies himself with the oppressed rather than the oppressors (cf. Heb. 7:24ff).  By slaying the Egyptian he renounced his adoptive state, but his concern is not immediately obvious to his people.  This act reveals that Moses as yet is not ready for the task, for it is by meek obedience to God (cf. Num. 12:3; Jas. 1:20) and not unrighteous wrath, and by God’s power, not his, that his people were to be delivered.  This discipline in trust and obedience was to take 40 years.” (The New Bible Commentary Revised, Pg. 122)

6. “There is always a danger of making God commonplace, of fashioning Him in our own image.  We may not even be aware of what we are doing.  God’s lament to us through the prophet Isaiah (28:20) is that we thought God was such a one as we, and that the knowledge of Him is taught by the precept of men, but once one has resorted to precept, it is no longer God that is being proclaimed, but principles about God, not God Himself.” (The Anatomy of Deception by Art Katz, Pg. 37)

“To remember both her duty to, and her danger in, the world is difficult; and experience shows that the Church is apt, either to take a narrow view of her mission, and to fail in aggressive courage and breadth of love and sympathy, or to be dazzled by a superficial success, and, conforming herself with this present world, increase her numbers with those who, being dead and unrenewed, are without the Spirit, and therefore without the love of Christ.” (Chapter 7, The Church and the World from the book Christ and the Church by Adolph Saphir,

Chapter:  www.gospeltruth.net/resurrection/res10.htm    

Full book: www.babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015063882065&view=1up&seq=220)

7. “We are sent to preach Christ according to the Scriptures.  This commission was given us by the risen Savior.  First by His example, for He opened the understanding of the Apostles that they might understand the Scriptures.  He began at Moses and all the prophets, and expounded to them in all the Scriptures the things “concerning Himself.”  And then by precept.  For He said unto them, “Thus it is written, and thus it behoved Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead, that repentance and remission of sins should be granted in Hs name”; that is, thus it was written and thus it happened, and thus it must be preached (Luke 24:44-48).

Jesus is the Christ; and Christ crucified is Christ indeed; this is the sum and substance of our message; but if we wish to preach Christ fully according to the Scriptures, we must declare the “whole counsel of God.” Can we preach that Jesus is the Christ without explaining what is the meaning of the promise of Messiah?  And does not this involve the history of the old covenant?  Can we show the efficacy of the atonement without explaining the nature of sin and guilt, the holiness and justice of God, the perfection of the law, and the typical sacrifices appointed by God?  Is it not necessary to know the history of creation and of the fall to understand Christ as the second Adam?  The Scripture is one; it cannot be broken; it is profitable throughout; it leads everywhere to Christ. 

The doctrine of Christ embraces history and prophecy; it shows us what to believe, love, and hope for; the gospel is doctrine, history, prophecy, exhortation; all its history is doctrinal, all its doctrine is practical; it possesses fullness and unity; in it, as in everything spiritual, every part is a whole, and the whole is in every part.  The Gospel is a doctrine for man and human life, and coextensive with all relationships, duties, and trials of our earthly pilgrimage.  It takes cognizance, also, of all the root forms of sin and error in the individual and in mankind, and hence comes into contact with everything in this world; judging it with perfect clearness and absolute authority.  As the Scripture is the book for man and for the world; for all that is in man, and for all generations of our race, and as Christ is to be preached according to the Scripture, the preaching of Christ possesses a breadth as well as a depth, a variety and universality as well as a concentration, which all preachers that have appeared have not fully comprehended, still less actually set forth.” (Christ Crucified by Adolph Saphir, Pgs. 114-115)

8. Calvary Chapel of Philadelphia, www.ccphilly.org/

9. The Anatomy of Deception by Art Katz, Pg. 34 www.benisrael.org/product-category/books/

10.  Authentic Christianity, Studies in the Book of Acts, Vol. 1, by Martyn Lloyd Jones, Crossway Books, Pg. 54

Recommended Resources

Critical Issues Commentary website by Bob DeWaay exposes modern day false ministries:

www.cicministry.org/articles.php

Marks of a False Apostle by John MacArthur, www.gty.org/library/sermons-library/47-77/Marks-of-a-False-Apostle

Watch the movie “Luther” starring Joseph Fiennes that tells the story of the monk Martin Luther in 16^th century Germany and how he was in opposition to the religious orthodoxy of the time.