Do False Teachers Know they’re False? - By Elizabeth Prata

Found here. Our comments in bold.

--------------------

The author does not seem to understand the nature of deception. If we are truly dealing with a false teacher, that person is under deception. It's a spiritual condition where the truth is undiscernible. When one is deceived, by definition one doesn't know it. A false teacher doesn't know he's a false teacher.

Further, a false teacher is not simply someone whose doctrines are not perfect. A false teacher has particular characteristics, according to Peter:

• 2Pe. 2:1 They secretly introduce destructive heresies
• 2Pe. 2:2 They bring the way of truth into disrepute.
• 2Pe. 2:3 They will exploit you with stories they have made up. 
• 2Pe. 2:10 They despise authority. They are bold and arrogant.
• 2Pe. 2:12 They blaspheme in matters they do not understand.
• 2Pe. 2:13 They carouse in broad daylight. 
• 2Pe. 2:14 They are adulterous. They are experts in greed.
• 2Pe. 2:15 They have left the straight way.
• 2Pe. 2:18 They are boastful. They entice people.  
• 2Pe. 2:19 They promise freedom, but they are slaves of depravity.

Note how intensely sinful a false teacher is. This kind of person is not simply a pastor you disagree with, or a church that engages in practices you don't like or think are unbiblical. It's not even a matter of doctrinal disagreement. No, a false teacher is easily distinguished by his licentious lifestyle and blatant blasphemy. 

And we note that a person teaching a different doctrine than what you believe may be right, and it's you that needs to change. 

------------------
A reader asked this question the other day, “Do you think, they believe they are doing what God is calling them to do?” In other words, do they know they’re false or do they sincerely believe that they are in the right? (A false binary choice. A third option is that they might not be false teachers.)

The answer is yes, no, and we can’t know. Let me explain. (She will try and fail to explain.)

I look to the Bible for examples of false teachers and whether the Bible answers the question. In the New Testament, we have one answer of ‘Yes’, the false ones know they are false. Nicodemus was in the Sanhedrin, which was the Supreme Court of Israel. He was a Pharisee. (We look in vain for a Scripture where Jesus said the Pharisees were false teachers. He called them a lot of things, but we could not find where he called them false teachers.) 

When Nicodemus came to Jesus by night, John chapter 3, he said, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God, for no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with him.” (John 3:2b). “We” means the fellow Pharisees and teachers. They knew He was from God. (The author presumes without evidence that Nicodemus' use of the word "we" was referring to the other Pharisees. We believe this is clearly incorrect.

First we note that Nicodemus came at night. This means he was surreptitiously coming to Jesus to avoid being discovered, which suggests he was not at all representative of what the Pharisees believed. 

Second and more importantly, the author reads into the phrase "we know" something that is not there. The Greek word is οἶδα (eidó), be aware, behold, consider, perceive... it is well known, acknowledged. That is, this was something well known about Jesus. So Nicodemus was not talking about what the Pharisees believed, he was speaking to what was generally common knowledge.

The author is wrong on her first point.)

As John MacArthur said, out of the 6,000 Pharisees, only one came to investigate the man ‘they knew was from God.’ Instead they and the Sadducees became angry and jealous. (Acts 5:17). As RC Sproul said, “[N]othing reveals a counterfeit like the presence of the genuine. 

On the other hand, the answer is no, because Paul, also a Pharisee, says that he acted in ignorance and unbelief. (1 Timothy 1:13) “I myself was convinced (That is, Paul was deceived. All who are false are deceived.)

that I ought to do many things in opposing the name of Jesus of Nazareth.” (Acts 26:9). Indeed, Paul could be included among those whom Jesus prophesied earlier that “the time is coming where those who kill you think they are doing a service to God”. (John 16:2).

The question boils down to motivation. (Undocumented assertion.)

What motivates a false teacher? A wayward sincerity that can be corrected? Or a deeply warped, conscious pursuit of evil? One thing we know, if a person is a true teacher temporarily teaching falsely they will correct. They will respond to reproof. How do we know? Because in a true believer their primary motivation is glorifying God. If they are told their teaching does not glorify God they will be aghast and seek to improve, for the sake of the Name. Look at Apollos. He wasn’t teaching falsely, just incompletely. He was already competent in the scriptures and teaching accurately. (Acts 18:24, Acts 18:25). When shown the truth, he corrected course and became known as an eloquent teacher with many devoted students. (Acts 18:28).

Does your teacher act like that? Teach accurately but incompletely? (That is not a false teacher.) 

Immediately correct when shown? (Who corrects this teacher? The author? Is this teacher in her church, or in another city? Where in Scripture does the author get authorization to be the Doctrinal Police for every Christian everywhere?)

Use scriptures to show who Jesus is? If so, they are motivated by giving God glory.

Or is he like Diotrephes, who like to put himself first? Who refused to acknowledge John’s authority? Who spoke malicious words against the one trying to engage with him? (3 John 1:9). (*Sigh* The apostle John does not call Diotrephes a teacher, let alone a false one. For some reason the author rarely quotes Scripture. Let's do the author's job for her. 3Jn. 9-10: 

I wrote to the church, but Diotrephes, who loves to be first, will have nothing to do with us. 10 So if I come, I will call attention to what he is doing, gossiping maliciously about us. Not satisfied with that, he refuses to welcome the brothers. He also stops those who want to do so and puts them out of the church.

Diotrephes is a self promoter who avoids the apostles and is a gossiper. He doesn't welcome the apostles and forces those who would welcome them out of the church. 

There is nothing here about authority or being a teacher.)

False teachers actively reject oversight, and it’s one way to tell if they are false, and likely is one way they know they are false themselves. Their pride will out them to their conscience. The Pharisees did this. They knew Jesus spoke with an amazing authority and not just as a teacher (Mark 1:22). But in pride they suppressed this knowledge and sought to arrest, then kill, Jesus. (Um, deception...)

As for the truly false teachers, ultimately unless the Bible explicitly states their interior motivations, their specific motivation will be hard to prove. (No, it's not hard to prove. We opened with Peter's explanation of false teachers. These things are quite obvious. 

Further, a false teacher is teaching false things. These are objectively knowable.)

We know one motivation the false teachers have is jealousy. (Acts 5:17). Another is their own appetites. (Romans 16:18). Another is greed. (2 Peter 2:14). Does a false teacher know they they want to satisfy their own appetites rather than Jesus? Probably. But they suppress it. Whether they suppress it tot he point of convincing one’s self they are doing right, like Paul did, is something we can’t really know unless the Bible tells us, like Paul did. (An undocumented false claim. And by the way, the author sets herself up as an authority on false teachers and true doctrine. If we can't really know that what a false teacher knows about himself, then what is the purpose of her article?)

Ultimately I personally think the answer is yes, deep down they know, but it’s covered with sin and seared in unrighteousness, so their own motivation might be hidden from their own self. False Teachers are unbelievers, (Undocumented claim. In fact, Peter tells us they are or were believers. 2Pe. 2:20-21:

If they have escaped the corruption of the world by knowing our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and are again entangled in it and overcome, they are worse off at the end than they were at the beginning. 21 It would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than to have known it and then to turn their backs on the sacred command that was passed on to them.)

and unbelievers suppress the truth in unrighteousness. (Romans 1:18). When someone suppresses the truth they are actively engaging in a mental choice. Yet sin is also a powerful deceiver, and hides, masquerades, and rationalizes, so much so that someone who kills another human being can morally accept it as a ‘good.’ Look at Saul/Paul persecuting Christians. Look at abortion. If murder is easy to rationalize, it would be easier to convince one’s self that one is teaching something good even thought they know deep down they are not. So the answer is we can’t know.

In the end it’s not important for us to know if they themselves know they are false. (In other words, the author negates the whole purpose of this article.)

We are given signs to look for in teachers so they we may know if they are true or not. It’s enough. If they are false, their end will be hell. (2 Peter 2:3, 2 Peter 3:16, 2 Corinthians 11:15, Galatians 1:8).

If they are true, they will be corrected by the Spirit via the word of God, a friend, or another authority and they will submit to that correction. False teachers are unbelievers and unbelievers operate in sin and evil, like all sinners. What it comes down to is that if they are false, they are an accursed brood. (2 Peter 2:14). And Jesus will deal with the accursed.

Meanwhile let us glorify Jesus by pursuing holiness in ourselves, by measuring a teacher’s words against His word, and by continuing in our walk along the narrow path.

(What a muddled mess. And this woman fancies herself as a teacher of women and a Corrector of Doctrine.)