False Teaching

Today I want to talk about false teachers. People who pretend to teach one thing but are really teaching another. Fake Teachers. Pseudo-Teachers.

The Bible warns us about this, and the Bible advises us that false teachers will arise.

So how do you tell false teaching? The Bible tells us that it is people who do not teach the word of God, false teachers are people who teach things as being from the God which are not from God.

Probably the most common false teaching in Christianity is the idea that Noah took 2 of every animal on the ark. Jews hear this from Christians and think Christians are idiots. The Bible tells us that the animals were put on the ark in pairs, two by two, and that there were seven pairs of clean animals and two pairs of unclean animals. Some people reading the Bible believe that there is a contradiction in Genesis, loading two of each in one passage and seven of each in another. This case can be made in the English, but, not in the original Hebrew which is why Jews don't think much of common Christian teaching.

Now I don't believe that people start out to become false teachers of Christianity or God's word. People just teach others what they have been taught by other people.

There is no Greek word for false. There is a word prefix, the prefix pseudo. Pseduo-Teachers, Pseudo-Prophets that is translated to the English word False.

Pseduo does not exactly mean False, it means more like Fake.

Studying Greek in the New Testament is interesting. The Greek the New Testament is written in is not Classical Ancient Greek, it is Trade Greek. Trade Greek is more like Eubonics. Trade Greek switches between the masculine and feminine, it misuses the rules of grammar, it is based more on Greek “slang” than Classical Greek. In addition Greek words do not directly translate into English words.

This makes the translation of some passages very difficult.

Lets look at something else very common, the Christian teaching of Apostles.

Commonly Christians teach that there were 12 Apostles and they were all men. The Bible does not say that there were only 12 Apostles. The Bible does mention the 12 Apostles, as well as other Apostles like Paul and Barnabas. The Bible does not even tell us all the Apostles were men, but, these are commonly taught ideas in Christianity.

In Luke Chapter 10 Christ sends out another 70 people to spread the message. People sent out by God to preach are Apostles. In Luke 9 the Twelve are referred to as disciples. These twelve are sent out to preach and they become Apostles.

Lets look at a specific Bible Verse in both the Greek and the English, the verse about Mary and the others telling the Apostles about Christ not being in the Tomb.

Luke 24:10 Now they were Mary Magdalene, Joanna, and Mary the mother of James. The other women with them told these things to the apostles.

This is a really interesting verse, not because of what is written which is interesting, but, also because of what is left out.

Greek also has several ways of expressing the idea of "others", you can have "the other hand", you can have "other people", you can have "other places", there are "others that are the same" and there are "others that are different".

There is a Greek word left out of the second sentence. If we translate the Greek directly without converting the grammar into English Grammar we get:

The others (like themselves) with them telling unto tous apostles things.

According to Strong's the word Tous is used to mean:
about (2),
all (5),
case* (3),
cause* (1),
circumstances* (3),
companions* (8),
condition* (1),
experiences (2),
far (1),
followers* (1),
former* (1),
meat (1),
one (6),
one who (1),
one* (1),
others (4),
others* (1),
outsiders* (3),
people (1),
sight (1),
some (7),
some* (5),
suitable (1),
these (4),
things (1),
this (31),
those (406),
those who (17),
together* (8),
under* (1),
welfare (1),
what (47),
what had happened (1),
what* (1),
which (14),
who (52),
whoever (8),
whom (4) times

So why was this word left out? My research leads me to believe that the sentence means something more like “They told the other (like themselves) Apostles about these things”.

Am I correct in this translation? Maybe. This is something that theologians can argue about for centuries.

The Bible does not tells us that the Apostles were only men. Paul tells us not to allow women to teach in the church, but, in Philippians 4:3 Paul also tells us help those women which laboured with me in the gospel.

This passage is also pretty strange because the Greek words translated in this passage stress the togetherness and similarity of work multiple times. Essentially Paul is saying help those women who are doing the same things I am doing, OR, help these women who are the same as me.

We allow women to teach in the church because over time we have gained greater understanding of these passages and we believe that Paul's instructions not to allow women to teach were based on the time and culture in which he taught. Because of passages like the one in Philippians we understand that women did teach the Gospel in Paul's time, just not everywhere.

There are still Christians who teach that women are not allowed to teach in church. I think that is pseudo-Christianity. My Opinion based on my studies, my research and most of all my prayer and direction by the Holy Ghost.

The Bible does not tell us that there were only 12 Apostles. The Bible does not tell us that all the Apostles were men. These are things that people teach.

I also think those who teach things that the Bible does not tell us are teaching pseudo-Christianity, False Teachers.

All of my study of the Hebrew, the Greek, the Bible and all the other surrounding historical documents has led me to believe that there is one way to learn, from the Holy Spirit. If I put my faith in learning from people who teach false doctrine like only 1 cow and one bull on Noah's ark my faith is not in God, it is in those I allow to teach me.

These days I put no faith in men, nor the words of men nor the laws of men nor the teachings of men.

I place my faith in the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost.