Jesus, being fully God in flesh and perfect in every way, showed we mere fully and only humans who are called to follow Him and receive the gift of the Holy Spirit, how we can best defeat temptations and false doctrines. With rightly divided scripture. Notice how Jesus put Satan behind Him.
Luke 4:1-13 (English Standard Version)
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Notice Jesus Christ took Himself to the brink of physical limits with a 40 day fast. Given this, Satan felt Christ was ripe for temptation and asked Christ to break the fast by making a stone into bread and proving He is the Son of God. Christ, having nothing to prove immediately denies Satan with Deuteronomy 8:3. Even at what would have made a mere mortal crumble, Christ did not fall to temptation for food.
Having failed with physical food, Satan went for the prosperity doctrine trick! He promised the Lord great earthly gain if He (Jesus) would worship him (Satan). Unfortunately this is the temptation that causes many to stumble, for money and power they assume a false gospel, which points their hearts toward earthly things. Jesus responded to Satan’s offer with a big dose of Deuteronomy 6:13. The Lord’s ministry is not one of material gain, but of the Spirit and earnings in the Kingdom of Heaven.
Jesus continued to make it clear that you can’t serve God and money.
Luke 16:13 (English Standard Version)
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And notice Jesus is not ecumenical about it. He does not decide to follow Satan and claim He might remain with His Father via some other path. Later in his ministry in flesh on earth, Jesus makes it clear, He is THE ONLY WAY HUMANS HAVE TO REACH THE FATHER, John 14:6.
After failing with material gain, Satan decided to try a straight suicide and bravado play, to see if Christ might test God. Satan even came with wrongly divided scripture in twisting the use of Psalm 91:11-12. Jesus responded with a firm pound of rightly divided scripture that is found in Deuteronomy 6:16 and Isaiah 7:12. Jesus stayed the course for what was intended for Him. No games and no playing around.
So Satan backed off. Satan thought he might win when Jesus was crucified, Luke 22:53. But Christ took the ultimate victory in what Satan thought he might gain from, 1 Peter 3:18-22. Which is why we who believe on Christ are saved from our sins through Christ’s shed blood AND have the gift of eternal life through His resurrection.
One has to wonder, why would anyone desire and even make up a doctrine that seeks things of this world, when those who are the Lord’s are not of this world?
John 17:14 (English Standard Version)
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Praise God for the hope we saints have in His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ!
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September 3rd, 2007 at 8:31 pm
Yeah, but I already know the counterargument of the heretics: you are not Jesus Christ and do not have the authority to judge false doctrine or to call people out over it. Not because I am foretelling the future or anything like that, but rather because I get that lie all the time myself.
September 3rd, 2007 at 8:58 pm
[...] Posted by healtheland on September 3rd, 2007 See this link from Independent Conservative: Jesus Showed Us How to Defeat Temptation and False Doctrines With Rightly Divided Scripture. And before you resort to the commonly given lie that we can’t do such a thing as discern, expose, and oppose false preachers because we are not Jesus Christ, let me give you this scripture: Luke 10:19 - “Behold, I give unto you power to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy!” The final portion of that verse says “and nothing shall by any means hurt you”, so that just lets you know that all of you who attack me for doing God’s Will for telling you how all of these false preachers are misleading you and exploiting you for money, well your words are just roll off me like water on a duck’s back, and I tread it under my feet like the salt that has lost its savor that it is. Oh yes, and to seal the deal, this verse particularly shows why if Jesus Christ had the authority to oppose false preachers so do we: John 14:12 - Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto my Father. And the “I go unto my Father” part is key. When Jesus Christ went to the Father, He sent to the church a comforter, the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is what gives us the power to discern false teachers and preachers, and the power and authority to oppose them. It is because of the Holy Spirit that we are not merely to “pray for them”, “pluck the beams out of our own eye”, “not judge”, and “let the wheat and the tares grow together.” See, those verses and references are either grotesquely taken out of context (i.e. the wheat and tares growing together was in response to the disciples asking why God allowed evil people and conditions in the world to persist … Jesus Christ was answering the theodicy question, not saying that there should be no church discipline, or else how would you explain Revelation 2 and 3, which of course you never read because there is no “prosperity” in those chapters) or were what Jesus Christ said to HIS PHARISEE ACCUSERS and not the righteous who believed on Him. Of course, if you are AN UNSAVED PHARISEE ACCUSER, you cannot judge right from wrong because you are A) still a filthy sinner yourself and B) you do not have the power, authority, discernment, or guidance of the Holy Spirit. [...]
September 3rd, 2007 at 9:11 pm
Those who claim we should not defend sound doctrine and feel we should not speak against those who preach another doctrine need to submit to the authority of scripture and read 1 Timothy 1.
September 3rd, 2007 at 9:33 pm
These false teachers today are like the Pharisee because like them, they preach, teach and uphold the Old Testament ways to suit their purpose but would circumvent Christ and His teachings. Both, the false teachers and the Pharisees failed to acknowledge that Christ is the way to salvation with the exception of Nicodemus, who came to Jesus by night and a few Pharisees, I believe but correct me.
September 3rd, 2007 at 10:16 pm
art123 - Even Paul when he was Saul was a Pharisee. Most any Jews who accepted Christ were of the Pharisee. Most Jews of that time leaned Pharisee. It was the Sadducees (they rejected any concept of their being a resurrection and so they only lived for the here and now, Acts 23:8) who were the minority group and Christ shut them down in Luke 20:27-40. I don’t know of any record of any from their ranks following Christ.
But your point of today’s false teachers being like those who stood against Christ is valid. Matthew 23 is very applicable to today’s false teachers of all stripes.