Bible Studies

False Doctrines and itchy ears

by Phyllis Inniss 
02/15/21
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“False  Doctrines” and “itching Ears”

Paul tells Timothy in 2Timothy 4:2,3 “Preach the word!  Be ready in season and out of season.  Convince, rebuke, exhort, with all longsuffering and teaching.  For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap for themselves teachers.”   

Paul encourages Timothy to teach the Word  “with all longsuffering” because he already saw signs of doctrines brought into the Church which differed from what the apostles were preaching and from the gospel which Jesus commanded them to teach to all nations, tribes and tongues.  In Galatians 1:6,7 He says, “I marvel that you are turning away so soon from Him who called you in the grace of Christ, to a different gospel, which is not another, but there are some who trouble you and want to pervert the gospel of Christ.” they should be confronted and shown to be false, lest they be accepted as factual. Our society is replete with foolish teachings, ideas, theories, and misconceptions—both secular and religious”(The Bereans)

I am always amazed when I hear those who call themselves Christians espousing doctrines contrary to what are in the Bible. “perverting the gospel of Christ.”  They would read a verse from Paul out of context to satisfy their own beliefs and to convince their listeners of a truth that is sorely lacking.  I wonder why they are not paying close attention to what the Word of God says.  I know some of these modern Bibles stray from what the original Bible says, but we have to be cognisant of the fact that what God says is given to us for a purpose and a guide to sound living and must be obeyed.

I listened to the same pastor who very vehemently told his congregation that Christ died on a Wednesday and not on Good Friday, “because it was three days”, contrary to all the evidence in the Bible that the day Christ died was the Preparation Day, which we know is the Friday before the Sabbath, which word always means Saturday. It is the only day of the week that God sanctified and made holy and asked that we “Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy” On this occasion he said the seventh day Sabbath, which God distinctly gave His creation as a day of rest, was changed to Sunday, citing the words in Daniel, he would intend “to change times and laws” as the reason for the change.  He also took a passage from Acts 20:7 where the Bible says “Now on the first day of the week, when the disciples came together to break bread, Paul ready to depart the next day, spoke to them and continued his message until midnight.”  He used this passage to show that the Sabbath was changed from the Saturday Sabbath to Sunday.  Unknowingly to him and many others the Jewish Sabbath begins at sunset on Friday evening until sunset Saturday  after which the first day of the week begins until sunset Sunday. 

In Genesis 1 at Creation after each creation event God said “So the evening and the morning was the first day and so on until He came to the sixth day and said “So the evening and the morning was the sixth day.  That’s how the days began with the evening after sunset.  So Paul met with the disciples on the first day of the week, that is after  sunset of the Saturday Sabbath to break bread with the disciples, which they always did.  That would have been the beginning of the first day of the week and he spoke until midnight, hence the many lamps which helped to send Eutychus to sleep (Acts 20:8/9).  To our western minds from Saturday sunset to midnight would hardly count as being the first day of the week and Paul’s leaving on the next day would also mean he was leaving later on on the Sunday.  We have to be careful how we interpret the language of Scripture as some words do not translate exactly into our English.

Because of disobedience to the Word of God and the ‘false doctrines being espoused. the whole world is in chaos: pandemic, at present the corona virus, famine, wars and rumours of wars, fires, earthquakes, floods, tornadoes, drought, tsumanis.  We have forgotten what God did to the Israelites of old when they disobeyed His commandments. We say the Commandments were done away at the Cross because we couldn’t keep them.  Do all people murder, steal, dishonour their parents, covet, worship images, change the commandments to suit themselves?  No!  Therefore the commandments are not burdensome as 1 John 5 points out v.3 says “In fact, this is love for God: To keep his commands.  And His commands are not burdensome, for everyone born of God overcomes the world.” We cannot overcome the world if we carry out the same objectionable practices that are played out in the movies, the media and other fora.  Throughout the New Testament we read “if you love me keep my commandments.”

Mathew 24:21 Jesus says “For then there will be great tribulation, such as has not been since the beginning of the world until this time” Matt. 24:4 “Take heed  that no one deceive you.” Later in the chapter Jesus says “For false christs and false prophets will rise and show great signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, even the elect (the evangelicals? who felt the former President was elected by God Himself to lead them, “for such a time as this” (Esther 4:14 –Mordecai tells Esther “Yet who knows whether you have come to the kingdom for such a time as this), while they listened to his lies and saw his anger spilling out into insults to those who disagreed with him and firing anyone who didn’t follow his unconstitunional biddings, even after he incited rioters to storm the Capitol?) Did he think of himself as God that he spoke the word and it came into being, telling the citizens that the coronavirus was a hoax, when he knew from the beginning that the virus was very dangerous, that the virus was going away when hundreds were dying from it globally, the worst hit being the U.S., that the economy was doing better when businesses had to close down and areas were being under lock down, that unemployment was in the past?

Can you imagine 74 million Americans were deceived into believing that the election was stolen from the former President, even when prior to the election itself he says if he loses the election the election was rigged.  Is he a prophet, one of those false prophets who deceive, mentioned in Revelation 19:20?  And isn’t that why so many find the book of Revelation difficult to understand because they can’t see the connection between Revelation and Daniel in the Old Testament by their disobedience to God’s word.  God gives wisdom and discernment to those who obey all His commandments.  As a matter of fact, many boast that they are New Testament people, forgetting that much in Revelation and some in the New Testament refer to events in the Old Testament.  Jesus often quoted verses from the Old Testament in reference to himself and other matters.  He quoted from Isaiah 61:12 in Luke 4:18/19, when He began “The spirit of the Lord is upon me……… “To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord” and later on In the same chapter of Luke verses 25-27 He refers to Elijah’s encounter with the widow of Zarephath during the famine there and Elisha the prophet’s cleansing of Naaman the Syrian of his leprosy.  When we understand the Old Testament we can better appreciate the truths in the New Testament. We will recognize that the Scriptures therein were leading us all along to the coming of the Messiah, Jesus Christ, who was destined to come and save us from our sins and from false doctrines. Jesus, Himself, said “And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.”