Great Bible Doctrines
Lesson No. 13: Perverting the Doctrine

Date: August 21, 2002, Wednesday Evening Adult Bible Class
Speaker: John Phillis

This is the last lesson in this series concerning Great Bible Doctrines. In this final lesson, we want to talk about the perverting of doctrine. We have spent time discussing what doctrine is from the very first lesson. We have said that the word “doctrine” is not a “dirty” or “bad” word, but is a “good” word. It means “teaching” or “instruction.” We talked about the importance of doctrine and we will reiterate some of these things in this lesson.

Doctrine is important to God, therefore, it must be—it needs to be—important to us! It is by doctrine—this process of teaching and instructing—that God has chosen to reveal His Will to us and to give us guidance in our lives.

Jesus was the Living Word. We read in John, chapter 1, “and the Word became flesh and dwelt among us,” [verse14—“And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the Only Begotten of the Father, full of grace and Truth.”] He was the “living Word.” He revealed God’s Will to us. Upon His departure, He sent the Holy Spirit to guide the writers of the New Testament into all Truth.

It is by doctrine—teaching and instruction—that we have faith in Jesus. Paul writes to the church in Rome and says, “So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God” [Romans 10:17]. In John, chapter 20, verse 31, near the end of his Gospel, John will say “but these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ,” [“but these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in His Name.”]

It is by doctrine that we grow and develop as Christians. In 1 Peter, chapter 2, verses 1 and 2, Peter talks about the need to “desire the pure milk of the Word, that you may grow thereby.” [“Therefore, laying aside all malice, all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and all evil speaking, as newborn babes, desire the pure milk of the Word, that you may grow thereby, …”] All of this is talking about doctrine—this teaching, this instruction from God—that has been revealed to us.

Here’s a very sobering thought for us: It is this same doctrine—this same instruction and teaching—that will judge us in the last days! Last week we talked about Eschatology [the study of “end times” or “last things”] and the judgment. What is the standard whereby we will be judged? It will be the Word. In John, chapter 12, verse 48, Jesus said, “He who rejects Me, and does not receive My Words, has that which judges him—the Word that I have spoken will judge him in the last day.”

Doctrine is also important because it is from God, and not from man! Sometimes, a lot of the things that we hear put forth out of the denominations and other so—called “religious” organizations, institutions, and so on, are really the “doctrine of man.” But the true doctrine—the doctrine that we speak about, the Scriptures, the Word—comes from God! John would say, in quoting Jesus, “For I have not spoken on My Own authority; but the Father Who sent Me gave Me a command, what I should say and what I should speak. And I know that His command is everlasting life. Therefore, whatever I speak, just as the Father has told Me, so I speak,” John, chapter 12, verses 49—50.

Doctrine is the basis for Christian unity, 1 Corinthians 1, verse 10 [“Now I plead with you, brethren, by the Name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you all speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment.”].

God’s doctrine is to be proclaimed to all of the world. “Go into all the world and preach the Gospel,” was Jesus’ last instruction to his apostles [Mark 16:15—“And He [Jesus] said to them, ‘Go into all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature.’”].

But, thinking about the importance of doctrine, there is a problem of which we must be aware. We must be concerned about this problem and we must address this problem. That problem is that this doctrine can be perverted. [“Pervert” means: to lead astray; to corrupt; to misuse; to distort; to debase] God’s teaching, His instruction, His doctrine, can be perverted in any generation and in any age. It can be perverted anywhere and it is subject to being perverted by anyone, who either deliberately twists, changes, perverts, or it can be perverted by someone who may do so innocently. The devil knows how important doctrine is to the church. He constantly seeks to minimize it. There are those who say, “Oh, let’s not get wrapped up with doctrine. Let’s not worry about doctrine.” The devil seeks to pervert God’s doctrine in every way that he can through false teachers. False teachers and prophets abound everywhere, and we must be fully aware of these. Once again, from John’s first epistle, he would say, “Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits, whether they are of God; because many false prophets have gone out into the world,” 1 John 4, verse 1. It was true in the first century, toward the end of the first century, at the time John wrote this epistle, and it’s true today!

We see “two truths” here. The first truth is: There are those who would teach false doctrine. The second truth is: There is a responsibility—an obligation—placed on each of us to check this out—to test any teaching to see if it is according to the doctrine of God. We must “hold it up to the light,” and do a “litmus test” on what is being taught, to see if it is of man or of God, to see if it a perversion or doctrine. Probably among the best “case studies” in this area can be found in Galatians, chapter 1, beginning with verse 6. We see there that Paul is writing to the churches of Christ in the region of Galatia. Paul 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. But even if we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel to you than what we have preached to you, let him be accursed. As we have said before, so now I say again, if anyone preaches any other gospel to you than what you have received, let him be accursed.”