Destructive Doctrines         But there were also false prophets among the people, even as there will be  false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Lord who bought them, and bring on themselves swift destruction.  2  And many will follow their destructive ways, because of whom the way of truth will be blasphemed.  3  By covetousness they will exploit you with deceptive words; for a long time their judgment has not been idle, and their destruction  does not slumber.

The New King James Version. 1982 (2 Pe 2:1-3). Nashville: Thomas Nelson.

 2:1  At the close of chapter 1 Peter referred to the prophets of the Old Testament  as men who spoke, not by their own will, but as moved by the Holy Spirit. Now he mentions that in addition to the true prophets in the OT  period, there were also false prophets. And just as there will be bona fide teachers in the Christian era, there will be false teachers as well.

These false teachers take their place inside the church. They pose as ministers of the gospel. This is what makes the peril so great. If they came right out and said they were atheists or agnostics, people would be on guard. But they are masters of deception. They carry the Bible and use orthodox expressions though using them to mean something entirely different. The president of a liberal theological seminary acknowledged the strategy as follows:

Churches often change convictions without formally renouncing views to which they were previously committed, and their theologians usually find ways of preserving continuity with the past through re-interpretations.

W. A. Criswell describes the false teacher as follows: ...   A suave, affable, personable, scholarly man who claims to be the friend of Christ. He preaches in the pulpit, he writes learned books, he publishes articles in the religious magazines. He attacks Christianity from within. He makes the church and the school a lodging place for every unclean and hateful bird. He leavens the meal with the doctrine of the Sadducees. 

Where are these false teachers found? To mention perhaps the most obvious places, they are found in:

Liberal and Neo-Orthodox Protestantism , Liberal Roman Catholicism, Unitarianism and Universalism , Russellism (Jehovahs Witnesses) , Mormonism , Christian Science , Unity School of Christianity , Christadelphianism ,  Armstrongism (The Radio Church of God) , Scientolofy,  Free Masons

While professing to be ministers of righteousness, they secretly bring in soul-destroying heresies alongside true Bible doctrine. It is a deliberately deceptive mixture of the false and the true. Primarily, they peddle a system of denials. Here are some of the denials which can be found among certain of the groups listed above:

They deny the verbal, plenary inspiration of the Bible, the Trinity, the deity of Christ, His virgin birth, and His death as a Substitute for sinners. They are especially vehement in their denial of the value of His shed blood. They deny Jesus  bodily resurrection, the doctrine of eternal punishment, salvation by grace through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, the reality of miracles in the Bible.

Other false teachings common today are:

The Kenosis theory, the heresy that Christ emptied Himself of the attributes of deity. This means that He could sin, make mistakes, etc.

The God is dead fantasy, evolution, universal salvation, purgatory, prayers for the dead, etc.

The ultimate sin of false teachers is that they even deny the Master who bought them. While they may say nice things about Jesus, refer to His divinity,His lofty ethics, His superb example, they fail to confess Him as God and as unique Savior.

Nels Ferr wrote, Jesus never was or became God. ... To call Jesus God is to substitute an idol for Incarnation.  13  13 (2:1) Nels Ferr, The Sun and the Umbrella, pp. 35, 112. 

Methodist Bishop Gerald Kennedy agreed:   I am frank to confess that the statement (that Christ is God) does not please me and it seems far from satisfactory. I would much prefer to have it say that God was in Christ, for I believe that the testimony of the New Testament taken as a whole is against the doctrine of the deity of Jesus, although I think it bears overwhelming witness to the divinity of Jesus.  14  14 (2:1) Gerald Kennedy, Gods Good News, p. 125. 

In this and in many other ways, false teachers deny the Lord who bought them. Here we should pause to remind ourselves that while these false teachers to whom Peter refers had been bought by the Lord, they had never been redeemed. The  New Testament   distinguishes between purchase and redemption. All are purchased but not all are redeemed. Redemption applies only to those who receive Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, availing themselves of the value of His shed blood (1 Pet. 1:18, 19).

In Matthew 13:44 the Lord Jesus is pictured as a man who sold all He had to buy a field. In verse 38 of that same chapter, the field is distinctly said to be the world. So by His death on the cross, the Lord bought the world and all who are in it. But He did not redeem the whole world. While His work was sufficient for the redemption of all mankind, it is only effective for those who repent, believe, and accept Him.

The fact that these false teachers were never truly born again is indicated by their destiny. They bring on themselves swift destruction. Their doom is eternal punishment in the lake of fire.

2:2  Peter predicts that they will attract a large following. They do this by scuttling the biblical standards of morality and encouraging the indulgence of the flesh. Here are two examples:

Anglican Bishop John A. T. Robinson wrote:

 ... nothing can of itself always be labeled as wrong.One cannot, for instance, start from the position sex relations before marriage or divorce are wrong or sinful in themselves. They may be in 99 cases or even 100 cases out of 100, but they are not intrinsically so, for the only intrinsic evil is lack of love.  15  15 (2:2) Robinson, Honest, p. 118. 

 In the book Called to Responsible Freedom, published by the National Council of Churches, young people are counseled:

In the personal, individual sense, then, what justifies and sanctifies sexuality is not the external marital status of the people before the law but rather what they feel toward each other in their hearts. Measured in such a way, holding hands can be very wrong indeed while intimate sex-play can be right and good. (Called to Responsible Freedom, p. 11. )

 As a result of this type of behavior, taught and practiced by false teachers, the way of truth is maligned. Unbelievers develop a deep contempt for Christianity.

2:3  These false teachers are greedy, both in the sexual and financial realms. They have chosen the ministry as a lucrative profession. Their great aim is to build up a large following and thus to increase their income.

They exploit people with false words. Darby said, The devil is never more satanic than when he carries a Bible.So these men, with Bible in hand, pose as ministers of righteousness, give out well-known evangelical hymns, and use scriptural expressions. But all this is camouflage for heretical teachings and corrupt morals.

An awful condemnation awaits these religious fifth-columnists. Their judgment has not been idle; it has been arming itself for the slaughter. Their destruction has not been nodding its head in sleep; it has been wide awake, ready to pounce like a panther.

  3  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!

The New King James Version. 1982 (2 Co 11:3-4). Nashville: Thomas Nelson.

 11:3  The second reason for Pauls playing the fool (see complete chapter in context) was his fear that the saints might be deceived and their minds might be corrupted from the simplicity and purity of devotion to Christ. Here simplicity means single hearted ness. He wanted them to be devoted to the Lord Jesus alone, and not to allow their hearts affections to be drawn away by anyone else. Then, too, he wanted them to be unspotted in their devotedness to the Lord.

The apostle remembers how the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness. He did it with an appeal to her mind or intellect. That is exactly what the false teachers were doing in Corinth. Paul would have the heart of the Corinthian virgin to be undivided and unspotted.

Note that Paul treats the account of Eve and the serpent as fact, not myth.

11:4  The third reason why the apostle was willing to indulge in a little folly was that the Corinthians had shown a readiness to listen to false teachers.

When anyone came to Corinth actually preaching another Jesus, and professing to dispense a different spirit than the Holy Spirit, and proclaiming a different gospel, the Corinthians put up with such a one quite willingly. They showed a lovely toleration of these views. Paul is saying sarcastically, If you do that with others, why don't you do it with me?

The final words, you may well put up with it! must be understood as irony. The apostle is not endorsing their acceptance of heresy, but chiding them for their gullibility and lack of discernment.

The Mormon church views Jesus and Satan as spirit brothers and sons of god. The gods put forth THERE plan of salvation for the world, and Satan proposed his own plan. Jesus accepted the plan of the gods and offered to implement it as the Savior. The Father chose Jesus, and the spirit of Jesus was given a body through the virgin Mary. He was crucified on a Roman cross, and rose from the dead three days later to establish His deity. The character and life of Jesus is attainable by anyone who performs at such a righteous level so just as Jesus became a god, so do male mormans become gods and inherit their own planet.

The greatest mistake of the Witnesses is that they are expecting the coming of Jesus but they start saying that Jesus is not God, but just the "son of God", like you and I. The Jehovah's Witnesses discard most orthodox doctrines of the Bible, conflicting with those of historic Christianity:  The Holy Trinity is seen as a demonic doctrine, Jesus Christ is stripped of his deity, is not God!, the Holy Spirit is robbed of his personality... they deny the physical resurrection of Christ, and there is not eternal Hell... their doctrines on the sufficiency of Christ's atonement, on human government, and on the existence of the soul are not biblical...  The worst of them all is to say that "Jesus is not God"

They believe that Jesus was also a created being. They deny the deity of Christ. Some accept the Holy spirit while other reject it. Some will accept any written holy book as equal or better than the bible. They have Very diverse beliefs--Unitarian/Universalist welcome all deity beliefs as well as non theistic beliefs. Some congregations are formed for those who share a common belief, e.g. Christianity. Most believe that heaven and hell are not places but are symbolic. Some believe heaven and hell are states of consciousness either in life or continuing after death; some believe in reincarnation; some believe that afterlife is nonexistent or not known or not important, as actions in life are all that matter.  Some believe in salvation through faith in God and Jesus Christ, along with doing good works and doing no harm to others. Many believe all will be saved, as God is good and forgiving. Some believe  the necessity to eliminate personal greed or to learn all of life’s lessons before achieving enlightenment or salvation. For some, the concepts of salvation or enlightenment are irrelevant or disbelieved.  Most Unitarians do not believe that Satan causes suffering. Some believe suffering is part of God’s plan, will, or design, even if we don’t immediately understand it. Some don’t believe in any spiritual reasons for suffering, and most take a humanistic approach to helping those in need.  The Unitarian Universalist Association’s stance is to protect the personal right to choose abortion. Other contemporary views include working for equality for homosexuals, gender equality, a secular approach to divorce and remarriage, working to end poverty, promoting peace and nonviolence, and environmental protection.  To view the Unitarianism and Universalism statement of beliefs click here.

Quoting John Naisbitt:   "In turbulent times, in times of great change, people head for the two extremes: fundamentalism and personal, spiritual experience...With no membership lists or even a coherent philosophy or dogma, it is difficult to define or measure the unorganized New Age movement. But in every major U.S. and European city, thousands who seek insight and personal growth cluster around a metaphysical bookstore, a spiritual teacher, or an education center."

The New Age is definitely a heterogeneous movement of individuals; most graft some new age beliefs onto their regular religious affiliation. Recent surveys of US adults indicate that many Americans hold at least some new age beliefs:

        8% believe in astrology as a method of foretelling the future

        7% believe that crystals are a source of healing or energizing power

        9% believe that Tarot Cards are a reliable base for life decisions

        about 1 in 4 believe in a non-traditional concept of the nature of God which are often associated with New Age thinking:

        11% believe that God is "a state of higher consciousness that a person may reach"

        8% define God as "the total realization of personal, human potential"

        3% believe that each person is God.

Muslims believe that God revealed his direct word for humanity to Muhammad (c. 570–632) through the angel Gabriel and earlier prophets, including Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses, and Jesus. Muslims believe that Muhammad is the last prophet, based on the Qur'anic phrase "Seal of the Prophets" and sayings of the prophet of Islam himself, and that his teachings for humanity will last until the Day of the Resurrection. Muslims assert that the main written record of revelation to humanity is the Qur'an, which is flawless, immutable, and which Muslims believe is the final revelation of God to humanity.

Muslims hold that Islam is the same belief as that of all the messengers sent by God to humanity since Adam, with the Qur'an, the text used by all sects of the Muslim faith, codifying the final revelation of God. Islamic texts depict Judaism and Christianity as prophetic successor traditions to the teachings of Abraham. The Qur'an calls Jews and Christians "People of the Book", and distinguishes them from "Polytheists". However, Muslims believe that some people have distorted the word of God by deliberately altering words in meaning, form and placement in their respective holy texts, such as Jews changing the Torah and Christians the Injeel. This perceived distortion is known as tahrif, or tabdi-l, meaning "alteration, substitution". This doctrine is accepted by most Muslims; some relatively small sects, such as Mu'tazili and Ismaili, as well as a few Islamic scholars and members of various liberal movements within Islam, reject the view that the Qur'an is a correction of Jewish and Christian scriptures.

"To believe in God" is one of the greatest deceptions of Masonry... because for a Mason, the only "acting God" is the "Lodge" and the "Worshipful Master", like for Communists the real acting "god" is the State and the Premier.... The primary allegiance and obedience of the Mason is to the "Worshipful Master", the only proper form to address him!... and through the Master to any other secret "higher Mason authority"... In the Lodge, the "Master" is "Worshiped", not God!... you can not even mention your God!.... This is why Masonry is incompatible with Christianity, Judaism, and Islam, because their primary allegiance is to "God"... and even many local authorities are debating whether membership to the Craft is compatible with local government.

The term emergent churchrefers to a new movement among evangelical Christians that builds on a deep engagement with postmodern culture through appreciation of key components in a postmodern outlook. The emergent church is usually identified with Brian McLaren, author of A Generous Orthodoxy and identified as one of the top twenty-five leading evangelicals by Time magazine. Other emergent church leaders include Leonard Sweet, Robert Webber, Sally Morgenthaler, and Thomas Hohstadt. The movement receives its best intellectual support from Dallas Willard and the late Stan Grenz.

Robert Webber has pictured the emergent movement as a third alternative to traditional evangelicals and pragmatic evangelicals. The former term refers to an older evangelical paradigm that places emphasis on apologetics and sound doctrine. By pragmatic,Webber means the seeker-sensitive paradigm, connected most famously with Bill Hybels and Rick Warren. Emergent leaders believe that the older models of evangelical Christianity fail either because of an outdated epistemology or because of a capitulation to a consumer view of religion.

The emergent church movement embraces paradox and balances competing realities. Leonard Sweet states that our faith is ancient. Our faith is future. Were old-fashioned. Were new-fangled. Were orthodox. Were innovators. Were postmodern Christians.McLaren writes that he can be viewed as Missional, evangelical, Post/Protestant, Liberal/Conservative, Mystical/Poetic, Biblical, Charismatic/Contemplative, fundamentalist/Calvinist, Anabaptist/Anglican, Methodist, catholic, Green, Incarnational, Depressed-Yet-Hopeful, Emergent, Unfinished.

Both Charles Colson and D. A. Carson have criticized the emergent church for being too sympathetic to postmodernism and too open to relativism. These concerns are worth keeping in mind but must not be overstated. The emergent church is far more concerned to address postmodernism and relativism than to embrace either or both uncritically. Robert Webber has noted, A postmodern setting demands relationship, participation, community, symbol, servanthood and the like. The radical renorming of biblical priorities coupled with an absolute rejection of slick marketing, showy worship and phony verbal games precede the birth of an honest, genuine, authentic community passionately engaged with being the truth.

The emergent church places a great deal of emphasis upon worship in community. This arises out of an emphasis upon the relational and subjective element in Christian faith. McLaren and other emergent leaders are critical of the seeker-sensitive movement because of its alleged preoccupation with entertainment. Sally Morgenthaler argues, The new worship paradigm contends that unbelievers can respond positively to a worship that has been made culturally accessible to them; it also proposes that unbelievers come to church, not primarily to investigate the claims of Christ,but to investigate the Christ in us. 

R. Albert Mohler Jr., president of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, gave this indictment of McLaren: Embracing the worldview of the postmodern age, he embraces relativism at the cost of clarity in matters of truth and intends to redefine Christianity for this new age, largely in terms of an eccentric mixture of elements he would take from virtually every theological position and variant.This is far too harsh and distorts McLaren. However, McLaren should be more aware of the epistemological complexities involved in his critique of traditional evangelicalism. He and other emergent leaders should also correct an implicit elitism that shows itself in the rhetoric in emergent church discourse. Of course, traditional evangelicalism has an explicit elitism that emergent leaders properly critique

 Buddhism has probably the best image of any world religion. This arises in general because of Buddhist emphasis on peace, serenity, and compassion. More specifically, Buddhism has great appeal because of the singular impact of His Holiness the Dalai Lama, renowned for his great character, humility, and humor. Buddhism goes back to an Indian reformer named Gautama, who is now known to us as the Buddha.

The different traditions in Buddhism do not agree on the details about his life and teachings. In fact, there is no uniformity among Buddhists or among scholars of Buddhism even about when he lived. However, his life is often captured in twelve crucial acts.

The Roman Catholic Church, headquartered in Rome, Italy, has its own powerful City-State, the Vatican, and claims over 968 million members worldwide and 60 million in the U.S. and Canada (as of 1996). (Catholic membership figures are considerably misleading, though, in that they count as members every person who has been baptized Catholic, including millions of people who were baptized as infants but who are not practicing Catholics.) The Roman Catholic Church, in its pagan form, unofficially came into being in 312 A.D., at the time of the so-called "miraculous conversion" to Christianity of the Roman Emperor Constantine. Although Christianity was not made the official religion of the Roman Empire until the edicts of Theodosius I in 380 and 381 A.D., Constantine, from 312 A.D. until his death in 337, was engaged in the process of simultaneously building pagan temples and Christian churches, and was slowly turning over the reigns of his pagan priesthood to the Bishop of Rome. However, the family of Constantine did not give up the last vestige of his priesthood until after the disintegration of the Roman Empire -- that being the title the emperors bore as heads of the pagan priesthood -- Pontifex Maximus -- a title which the popes would inherit. (The popes also inherited Constantine's titles as the self-appointed civil head of the church -- Vicar of Christ and Bishop of Bishops.)

Prior to the time of Constantine's "conversion," Christians were persecuted not so much for their profession of faith in Christ, but because they would not include pagan deities in their faith as well. Then, with Constantine's emphasis on making his new-found Christianity palatable to the heathen in the Empire, the "Christianization" of these pagan deities was facilitated. For example, pagan rituals and idols gradually took on Christian meanings and names and were incorporated into "Christian" worship (e.g., "saints" replaced the cult of pagan gods in both worship and as patrons of cities; mother/son statues were renamed Mary and Jesus; etc.), and pagan holidays were reclassified as Christian holy days (e.g., the Roman Lupercalia and the feast of purification of Isis became the Feast of the Nativity; the Saturnalia celebrations were replaced by Christmas celebrations; an ancient festival of the dead was replaced by All Souls Day, rededicated to Christian heroes [now Hallowe'en]; etc.). A transition had occurred -- instead of being persecuted for failure to worship pagan deities, Christians who did not agree with the particular orthodoxy backed by the Emperor were now persecuted in the name of Christ! "Christianized" Rome had become the legitimate successor of pagan Rome! This is the sad origin of the Roman Catholic Church.

Below are the highlights of what Catholics believe concerning their source of authority; God, Christ, and Mary; salvation and the sacraments; and heaven and hell. So much more could be said concerning not only the items listed below, but also concerning other areas of Catholic teaching (such as the claims of the Roman priesthood and its supposed origin in the Apostles; the nature of the pope's alleged infallibility and the supposed origin of his office in the Apostle Peter; the nature of the Confessional; the doctrine of penance/indulgences; practices concerning rituals, ceremonies, and relics; the doctrine of Celibacy; policies on marriage and divorce; the role of the parochial school; etc.). Excellent reference sources for a thorough treatment of Catholicism’s origins, beliefs, and practices would be Roman Catholicism (466 ppgs.) and A Woman Rides the Beast (544 ppgs.)