What do false religious teachers and false doctrines/teachings have in common?

Question

Jesus warns us in Scripture to beware of false prophets/teachers/ministers.

What commonalities are there found in false religious leaders and what they teach?

There are the obvious things, such as "twisting Scripture" but I am looking for more specific answers. What makes a false teaching false, when quite a number of people believe such teachings to be true? How do we discern a true teaching from a false one? What criteria do we use?

If you answer "Scripture", without specifics, this ignores the fact that some Scriptures apply to Christians, and some does not.

Time to put the brain in gear---

Oops. Poor grammar.

As usual, I get responses that don't even address the questions.

Tachus, if we used that as the criteria, we would all be killing our first born, seeing as God commanded it of Abraham. After all, its a command from God, right?

Answer 1

Dear Hogie,

That is an excellent question.

Before I read your details I was flippantly going to answer that they all have falsehood in common.

My second observation is that they have the human touch in one way or another in common.

My dad brought me up in a liberal Protestant denomination. My mom had become a Watchtower witness after my parents married and singlehandedly waged World War 3 in our home. She made so many pronouncements about what was going to happen to Dad, and we children IF we did not become jws. At the time I only had a gut feeling on which to base my beliefs that what she was saying just couldn't be true.

As an adult I finally read the Bible from cover to cover and that gave me a much better understanding to discern true from false or REAL from counterfeit.

Some years after I read the entire Bible the first time, I was talking to a cousin who was a jw at that time. Being close in age and not having the Mom-against-everybody-else baggage to deal with we were able to simply converse and decide we each did NOT want what the other had.

I was willing to pray about the situation asking the LORD to make His will clear to me. If my cousin was closer to the Truth then the LORD would have to change me. But if I was closer to the Truth then I asked the LORD to speak through me to Mom and my cousin. It was in answer to that prayer that the LORD spoke to me through Deuteronomy 18:20-22 which led me to the other Scripture regarding FALSE prophecy and discerning true from false.

I think it simply boils down to knowing the Bible, praying and willingness.

Afer awhile I left the liberal denomination that I grew up in and now attend a Bible-believing church. My cousin also left the Watchtower.

For His glory,
JOYfilled

Answer 2

well according to the book of 1 John the way to test a "lying spirit" is to compare its teachings to the teachings of the rest of the Bible. If it's not in line with what God is saying in the Bible, it's pretty clear to me that it'd be false teachings.

Answer 3

I believe they begin with enlightenment and liberty from everyday problems.2nd Corth.11:12-15. Then they subtlely lead their followers to absolutes that are contridictory to their original teachings.
T4

Answer 4

Their common ground is :
They don't speak the truth . The Word of God
They are deceitful. They teach how one should live their life, twisting the word of God.

Answer 5

They all teach against the keeping of the Laws of Yahweh.

Mat 5:17 ¶ Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to establish them.

Rom 3:31 Do we then make void the law through faith? Yahweh forbid: yea, we establish the law.

Answer 6

All belief systems are programming/brainwashing to gain control over the "flock"! Say Baaaaaa! ;-)=

Answer 7

Walk with those that seek truth. Run from those that have found it.

Answer 8

christianity wouldn't exist without them

Answer 9

oh, claiming that a human is god, that kind of thing.

Answer 10

They are both false!