53 Bible Verses about False Teachings

Yet I hold it somewhat against you that you have among you some adherents of the teaching of Balaam, who taught Balak to entrap the children of Israel into eating meat that had been sacrificed to idols, and into immoral practices. So you also have among you some who hold the teaching of the Nicolaitans.

Anyone, therefore, who weakens one of the slightest of these commands, and teaches others to do so, will be ranked lowest in the Kingdom of Heaven; but anyone who observes them and teaches others to do so will be ranked high in the Kingdom of Heaven.

As to the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, brothers, and our assembling to meet him, we beg you not to let your minds be too easily unsettled or wrought up, by any message of the Spirit or any utterance or letter purporting to be from me, to the effect that the Day of the Lord has already come.

The Spirit distinctly says that in later times some will turn away from the faith, and devote their attention to deceitful spirits and the things that demons teach through the pretensions of liars??en with seared consciences who forbid people to marry and insist on abstinence from certain kinds of food that God created for men who believe and understand the truth to enjoy and give thanks for.

But I hold it against you that you tolerate that Jezebel of a woman who claims to be inspired and who is misleading my slaves and teaching them to practice immorality and to eat meat that has been sacrificed to idols.

But their worship of me is all in vain, For the lessons they teach are but human precepts.' "

But their worship of me is all in vain, For the lessons they teach are but human precepts.'

Whatever anyone may say in the way of worthless arguments to deceive you, these are the things that are bringing God's anger down upon the disobedient.

If you have died with Christ to material ways of looking at things, why do you act as though you still belonged to the world, and submit to rules like "You must not handle," "You must not taste," "You must not touch"??22 referring to things that are all meant to be used up and destroyed? This is to follow mere human rules and regulations. Such practices pass for wisdom, with their self-imposed devotions, their self-humiliation, and their ascetic discipline, but they carry with them no real distinction, they are really only a catering to the flesh.

As I asked you to do when I was on my way to Macedonia, stay on in Ephesus in order to warn certain people there not to teach strange views nor to devote themselves to fictions and interminable pedigrees; such things lead to controversy instead of the divine system which operates through faith. The aim of your instruction must be love that springs from a pure heart and from a good conscience and from a sincere faith.read more.
Some people have failed in these things and been diverted into fruitless talk. They would like to be teachers of law although they do not understand the words they use or the matters they insist upon.

There were false prophets too among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you, who will introduce destructive sects and deny the Master who has bought them, thus bringing on themselves swift destruction.

"Beware of the false prophets, who come to you disguised as sheep but are ravenous wolves underneath.

I know that after I am gone savage wolves will get in among you and will not spare the flock, and from your own number men will appear and teach perversions of the truth in order to draw the disciples away after them.

For there are many undisciplined people, who deceive themselves with their empty talk, especially those of the party of circumcision. They must be silenced, for such men upset whole households by teaching things they ought not to teach, for the sake of dishonest gain.

and from your own number men will appear and teach perversions of the truth in order to draw the disciples away after them.

We must not be babies any longer, blown about and swung around by every wind of doctrine through the trickery of men with their ingenuity in inventing error.

Timothy, guard what has been intrusted to you. Keep away from the worldly, empty phrases and contradictions of what they falsely call knowledge, through professing which some people have made a failure of the faith. God bless you all.

You must not be carried away with strange varieties of teaching. The true way to steadfastness of heart is through God's mercy, not through scruples about food, which have never done their adherents any good.

They have eyes for nobody but adulterous women??yes insatiable in sin. They lure unsteadfast souls. Their hearts are trained in greed. They are accursed! They have left the straight path and gone astray. They have followed the path of Balaam, the son of Beor, who set his heart on dishonest gain,

I write you this with reference to those who are trying to mislead you.

Many people will follow their immoral ways, and they will cause the true way to be maligned.

Jesus answered, "Take care that no one misleads you about this. For many will come under my name, and say, 'I am the Christ,' and many will be misled by them.

And Jesus said to them, "Take care that no one misleads you about this. Many will come under my name and say 'I am he,' and many will be misled by them.

For a time will come when they will not listen to wholesome instruction, but will overwhelm themselves with teachers to suit their whims and tickle their fancies,

They utter arrogant nonsense and use physical cravings to lure into immorality men who are just escaping from among those who live in error; promising them freedom when they are themselves slaves of destruction; for a man is the slave of whatever overcomes him.

Dear friends, do not believe every inspired utterance, but test the utterances to see whether they come from God, for many false prophets have come out into the world. You can tell the Spirit of God in this way: all inspiration that acknowledges that Jesus Christ has come in human form comes from God, and any inspired utterance that does not acknowledge Jesus does not come from God; it is the inspiration of the Antichrist. You have heard that it was coming, and here it is already in the world.read more.
You are children of God, dear children, and you have been victorious over these men, for he who is in our hearts is greater than he who is in the world. They are children of the world; that is why they speak as the world directs, and the world listens to them.

for false Christs and false prophets will appear, and they will show great signs and wonders to mislead God's chosen people if they can.

For false Christs and false prophets will appear, and they will show signs and wonders to mislead God's chosen people if they can.

The other's appearance, by the contrivance of Satan, will be full of power and pretended signs and wonders, and full of wicked deception for men who are going to destruction, because they refused to love the truth and be saved.

Then I saw another animal come up out of the land. It had two horns like a lamb, but it spoke like a dragon. It exercises the full authority of the first animal on its behalf. It makes the earth and its inhabitants worship the first animal, whose mortal wound had been healed. It performs great wonders, even making fire come down from heaven to earth before men's eyes.read more.
It leads the inhabitants of the earth astray by the wonders it is allowed to do on behalf of the animal, telling the inhabitants of the earth to erect a statue to the animal that bears the mark of the sword-thrust and yet lives. It is also allowed to impart life to the animal's statue so that the animal's statue can speak, and to have all who do not worship the animal's statue killed.

The Spirit distinctly says that in later times some will turn away from the faith, and devote their attention to deceitful spirits and the things that demons teach through the pretensions of liars??en with seared consciences

But I am afraid that just as the serpent by his cunning deceived Eve, your thoughts will be led astray from their single-hearted fidelity to Christ. For when somebody comes along and preaches another Jesus than the one I preached, or you receive a different spirit from the one you received or a different gospel from the one you accepted, you put up with it well enough!

Dear friends, do not believe every inspired utterance, but test the utterances to see whether they come from God, for many false prophets have come out into the world. You can tell the Spirit of God in this way: all inspiration that acknowledges that Jesus Christ has come in human form comes from God, and any inspired utterance that does not acknowledge Jesus does not come from God; it is the inspiration of the Antichrist. You have heard that it was coming, and here it is already in the world.

Then I saw three foul spirits like frogs emerge from the mouth of the dragon and from the mouth of the animal and from the mouth of the false prophet. They are demon spirits that perform wonders, and they go out to the kings all over the world to muster them for battle on the great Day of God Almighty.

In their greed they will exploit you with pretended arguments. From of old their condemnation has not been idle, and their destruction has not slumbered.

Take care that nobody exploits you through the pretensions of philosophy, guided by human tradition, following material ways of looking at things, instead of following Christ.

You can tell the Spirit of God in this way: all inspiration that acknowledges that Jesus Christ has come in human form comes from God, and any inspired utterance that does not acknowledge Jesus does not come from God; it is the inspiration of the Antichrist. You have heard that it was coming, and here it is already in the world.

Therefore, I must tell you that no one who is speaking under the influence of the Spirit of God ever says, "Curse Jesus!" and no one can say, "Jesus is Lord!" without being under the influence of the holy Spirit.

But you have been anointed by the Holy One. You all know the truth; I do not write to you because you do not know it, but because you do know it, and because no lie can come from the truth. Who is such a liar as the man who denies that Jesus is the Christ? He is the real Antichrist??he man who disowns the Father and the Son.read more.
No one who disowns the Son can have the Father. Whoever acknowledges the Son has the Father too.

"Beware of the false prophets, who come to you disguised as sheep but are ravenous wolves underneath. You can tell them by their fruit. Do people pick grapes off thorns, or figs off thistles? Just so any sound tree bears good fruit, but a poor tree bears bad fruit.read more.
No sound tree can bear bad fruit, and no poor tree can bear good fruit. Any tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and burned. So you can tell them by their fruit.

For you put up with it if a man makes you his slaves, or lives on you, or takes you in, or puts on airs, or gives you a slap in the face.

Dear children, let no one mislead you; whoever acts uprightly is upright, just as he is upright. Whoever commits sin is a child of the devil, for the devil has sinned from the beginning. This is why the Son of God appeared??o undo the devil's work. No one who is a child of God commits sin, for God's nature remains in his heart, and he cannot sin, because he is a child of God.read more.
This is how the children of God and those of the devil can be distinguished: No one who does not act uprightly or who does not love his brother is a child of God.

Anyone who teaches different views and does not agree with the wholesome instruction which comes from our Lord Jesus Christ, and with religious teaching is a conceited, ignorant person, with a morbid craving for speculations and arguments which result only in envy, quarreling, abuse, base suspicions, and mutual irritation between people of depraved minds, who are lost to the truth and think of religion only as a means of gain.

As I asked you to do when I was on my way to Macedonia, stay on in Ephesus in order to warn certain people there not to teach strange views nor to devote themselves to fictions and interminable pedigrees; such things lead to controversy instead of the divine system which operates through faith.

Leave worldly, empty phrases alone, for they lead people deeper and deeper into godlessness, and their teaching spreads like a cancer; men like Hymenaeus and Philetus, who have missed the truth and say that the resurrection has taken place already, thus undermining people's faith.

Keep what you have heard from the beginning in your hearts; then you will always be in union with the Son and the Father.

I am amazed that you are so quickly turning away from him who called you by the mercy of Christ, to some different good news??7 not that there is any other, only that there are some people who are trying to unsettle you and want to turn the good news of the Christ around. But even if we or an angel from heaven preach to you good news that contradicts the good news we have preached to you, a curse upon him! We have said it before, and I repeat it now??f anyone is preaching to you good news that contradicts the good news you have already received, a curse upon him!

These are the instructions that I intrust to you, my son Timothy, and they are in accordance with the predictions made long ago about you. Fight the good fight with their aid, keeping hold of faith and a good conscience. For some people have let that go and have had their faith ruined, like Hymenaeus and Alexander, whom I turned over to Satan, to be taught not to blaspheme.

As your example in wholesome instruction, keep before you what you learned from me, in the faith and love that come through union with Christ Jesus. Guard that splendid trust through the holy Spirit that lives in our hearts.

I beg you, brothers, to be on the watch for those who introduce divisions and difficulties, in opposition to the instruction that you were given, and to avoid them. Such men are not serving our Lord Christ, but their own base passions, and with their plausible and flattering talk they deceive simple-minded people.

Understand this, that in the last days there are going to be hard times. People will be selfish, avaricious, boastful, arrogant, abusive, undutiful, ungrateful, irreverent, unfeeling, irreconcilable, slanderous, with no self-control, brutal, with no love for what is good,read more.
treacherous, reckless, conceited, caring more for pleasure than for God, keeping up the forms of religion, but resisting its influence. Avoid such people. They are the kind of men who make their way into people's houses and make captives of poor, weak women, loaded down with their sins and under the control of all sorts of impulses, always ready to learn but never able to comprehend the truth. Just as Jannes and Jambres opposed Moses, these people in turn oppose the truth; they are men of depraved minds and counterfeit faith. But they will not make much progress, for everyone will perceive their folly, just as they did that of those others.

But have nothing to do with foolish controversies, pedigrees, strife, and wrangles about the Law, for they are profitless and futile. If a man is inclined to a sect, after warning him once or twice, have nothing more to do with him. You may be sure that a man of that kind is corrupt and sinful, for his own actions condemn him.

Anyone who goes too far and does not keep to the teaching of Christ has not God. It is the man who holds to the teaching who has both the Father and the Son. If anyone comes to you without bringing this teaching, do not let him come into the house or bid him good morning. For anyone who bids him good morning shares in his wicked work.