Vampires are the most popular of all the horror creatures with a few weaknesses. Sunlight would kill them (they sparkle in Twilight), garlic burns, they run away from a cross, and a wooden stake through the heart will kill them. Yet, in certain stories, although I cannot confirm it is in every vampire story, there is one power that people have over them that does not make sense: they cannot enter a house unless they are invited in. A fictitious, supernatural creature that move fast, is stronger than the average man, and can transform into a bat cannot simply go through the front door unless the people in the story let them in.
Once someone lets a vampire in, well, you can imagine what happens. It ends up with someone dead or being turned into a vampire. So the moral of the story is simply, don't let them in.
In the church today, many have let something in that is not make-believe. There are times it looks innocent and even pleasant. It can even come under the guise of a gospel ministry or church. Most in the church will never know it has entered the church unless you have discernment and knowledge of the Bible. What is this you ask? The answer is false teaching.
False teaching has been let into the church since the day of Christ's ascension. One church that allowed false teachers in that caused many to abandon the gospel of grace for a gospel of works were the Galatians. They listened to Judaizers who taught that faith in Christ is not enough, you must also obey the Law of Moses to be saved. The Apostle Paul refuted this false gospel in his letter to the Galatian church, which I highly recommend that you read.
It is not clear how these false teachers got into the church, but they were let in somehow. They might have even been pretending to be true believers when they really were not. Jesus said in Matthew, "Beware of the false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves. You will know them by their fruits" (Matthew 7:15-16a, LSB).
The Apostle John in his first epistle wrote, "Children, it is the last hour; and just as you heard that antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have appeared. From this we know that it is the last hour. They went out from us, but they were not really of us; for if they were of us, they would have remained with us; but they went out, so that it would be manifested that they all are not of us" (1 John 2:18-19, LSB). These false brothers were in the church, but they were not actually part of the church. They professed Christ yet they did not believe in the gospel.
False teaching has come into the church because they sound or even look like they are from God when they are really not. Some in the church have unintentionally let false teaching in not only to their churches but their homes as well. They let them in because an organization have the words Gospel, Bible, Jesus, God, or Reformation in their name.
How do we combat false teaching? The first thing we do is test them:
Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world.
By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God,
and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, of which you have heard that it is coming, and now it is already in the world.
You are from God, little children, and have overcome them; because greater is He who is in you than he who is in the world.
They are from the world; therefore they speak as from the world, and the world hears them.
We are from God. The one who knows God hears us; the one who is not from God does not hear us. From this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error (1 John 4:1-6, LSB).
The Bible also says not to despise prophecies, but to examine everything (1 Thessalonians 5:20-21). We are not believe everything we see and hear. We need to be like the Bereans in Acts 17, who "received the word with great eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see whether these things were so" (Acts 17:11, LSB). Know the scriptures and put them to the test.
If false teaching is happening at your church, I pray your elders will put a stop to this because it will produce confusion and, God forbid, apostacy. This leads me to my next point of stopping false teaching, which really should be the first thing we do, but sometimes we will not be aware until, we study the Scriptures and that is don't let them in.
Do not let false teachers with their counterfeit Christianity enter your church. If you are not leader in the church, make them aware of false teaching you have discovered so that it will not enter in your house of worship as well as your own home. In his second epistle, the Apostle John wrote:
For many deceivers have gone out into the world, those who do not confess Jesus Christ as coming in the flesh. This is the deceiver and the antichrist.
See to yourselves, that you do not lose what we accomplished, but that you may receive a full reward.
Anyone who goes too far and does not abide in the teaching of Christ, does not have God. The one who abides in the teaching, he has both the Father and the Son.
If anyone comes to you and does not bring this teaching, do not receive him into your house, and do not give him a greeting,
for the one who gives him a greeting participates in his evil deeds (2 John 7-11, LSB).
Simply put, if anyone does not teach with what Christ has given us, do not even let them in your own home. Sadly, our home is where many have wandered into false teaching thanks to Christian television and the Internet. Many think it is okay because it sounds Biblical when it is not. Take a look at the worship songs that being sung in most churches. Most of the lyrics will pass a theological smell test, but that you get into the church's teaching, anyone with Biblical knowledge will know they are not of God.
I remember hearing the story of one man who became a Christian and played Hillsong worship on his guitar. He loved the songs he was playing when he decided to listen to a sermon from them. His thinking was, if the songs are great, the preaching must be good. He listened to one sermon and was astonished at what they were proclaiming. He could not believe a church with good worship music preaches the prosperity gospel. He never played a song from Hillsong ever again. He refused to let their teaching, even the music, into his house.
The church is suffering from a lack of discernment and it needs to start with examining the Bible and not letting false teaching into our homes as well as our churches.
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