3 minutes
False teaching usually comes from the mouth of a gifted communicator, often someone engaging and entertaining. Their message will make you feel good, so you keep coming back for more. Don’t be surprised if they are selling lots of books and DVDs. They’re making a fortune off of it, and so is the publisher. The Bible warns us.
“For the time will come when people will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths.” 2 Timothy 4:3-4 NIV
I look back on the days when I followed the false teaching, Word of Faith. I was sincere. I was devoted. I was on fire for Christ! But, I wasn’t mature. I wish someone would have said, “Before you latch on to this teaching, study your Bible instead of the books written by the Word of Faith teachers.”
Eventually, I was able to discern the errors, because I was a student of the Bible. But my involvement in Word of Faith almost shipwrecked my faith. It’s devastating to realize you have been deceived. I blamed God for allowing it. It caused me to question everything I knew about God.
But God brought me through, and now I speak up against the dangers false teachers pose to the Body of Christ. So ask yourself, “Am I a mature Christian or do I lack discernment?”
How can you know? Ask God with a sincere heart. Love the Truth more than your own opinion. Be disciplined enough to read and study your Bible daily.
A mature Christian is someone who has walked with the Lord over the years, and by knowing and obeying God’s Word, they have learned to discern truth from error. To know God’s Word, we must study God’s Word.
It’s not necessarily a bad thing to be an immature Christian. After all, how could a new Christian be mature? They couldn’t. They have to learn and grow in Christ. Unfortunately, not everyone grows and matures. Evidence of this can be seen by the large numbers of Christians who unknowingly follow false teaching. Consider the following Scripture:
“So Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ. Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of people in their deceitful scheming.” Ephesians 4:11-14 NIV (emphasis mine)
I know the damage false teaching will eventually bring about in the lives of those who are ensnared in it. It’s not okay.
“But solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil.” Hebrews 5: 12-14 NIV (emphasis mine)
Beware of the false teaching from the Word of Faith, New age, and New Apostolic Reformation which is infiltrating the Church today. Your best protection is the Belt of Truth (God’s Word). The following links provide more information.
New Apostolic Reformation (NAR)
How Can I Recognize a False Teacher?
In His Love, Cindy
To learn more about Jesus, read Who Is Jesus? A message for the Skeptic
“I will establish my covenant as an everlasting covenant between me and you and your descendants after you for the generations to come, to be your God and the God of your descendants after you.” Genesis 17:7 (emphasis mine)
RealChristianWomen.blog
Real Christian Women 
Thank you for this very important message, Cindy. As you point out, it’s a major issue from some corners of the Church.
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You are right. It is a major issue. May God’s people embrace His Word. 🙏
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This is an excellent testimony Cindy, thank you for sharing it and sounding the alarm for others regarding the wolves misleading many folk. It is important to see how God allowed you to be brought to the place where the only medicine was studying His Word. His Word is the only Guidebook to following the walk of Godly faith in Christ alone.
God bless you richly today my friend and sister in Christ 🙏
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Yes, God allowed me to be mislead. That is what gives me the zeal for His Word I have today. I can see, now, how a Christian who loves God can be so easily deceived if they don’t know God’s Word. That’s why new believers are vulnerable to Satan’s deception. They must be taught to love God’s Word and warned against depending on popular “Christian” books to grow in Christ. Thank you for your encouraging comments. God bless you my friend and brother in Christ! 🙏
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What about the Catholic religion which I was once a part of until God opened my eyes to the truth. They practice idol worship, praying to dead people, have Mary equal to Jesus teaching she was born without sin, and much more why not mention these false teachers also???
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I have chosen not to write about the Catholic religion for personal reasons. There are many apologists who do write about it. Have you thought about doing it? Maybe you already have. God bless you as you seek His will. 🙏
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Cindy, thank you for sharing this. Your testimony puts real flesh on something Scripture warns us about repeatedly: deception rarely comes wrapped in obvious danger. It comes through voices that sound sincere, helpful, and spiritually energized — the very sort of voices immature believers find compelling. Your story illustrates how easily zeal can outrun discernment when the Word is not the anchor.
What stands out most to me is your insistence that maturity isn’t measured by passion but by long obedience shaped by Scripture. That’s the part many Christians miss. False teaching doesn’t spread because people hate the truth; it spreads because they haven’t trained their hearts to recognize it. When believers outsource their spiritual formation to popular books, charismatic personalities, or “new revelations,” they become exactly what Paul described — tossed by waves, carried by winds, vulnerable to cunning schemes.
Your call back to the Word is the corrective the Church needs. Not more suspicion, not more tribalism, not more hunting for wolves — but more Scripture, more humility, more disciplined love for the Truth. When the Word becomes the daily diet rather than the occasional supplement, believers grow into the kind of maturity that can’t be easily manipulated.
Thank you for sounding the alarm with grace rather than bitterness. Your story reminds us that discernment is not a weapon but a mercy — one God uses to guard His people and draw them deeper into Christ.
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Thank you, Michael, for adding more substance to my post. I agree with you 100%. You said “zeal can outrun discernment when the Word is not the anchor.” This is exactly why so many are lead into deception. And it’s the saddest reason of all.
On the other hand, I have spoken with Christians who think they have discernment because their parents were “good Christians” and they have gone to church many years. That guarantees nothing if they don’t study God’s Word for themselves.
God bless you as you serve our Savior!
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Thanks for the NAR link, Cindy. With regard to the RCC, Tom at https://excatholic4christ.wordpress.com/ would be my first choice, and myself as a backup at https://bcooper.ca/roman-catholicism/ Blessings!
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