52 Bible Verses about False Teachings

But I have one or two things against you: you have some adherents there of the tenets of Balaam, who taught Balak how to set a pitfall before the sons of Israel by making them eat food which had been sacrificed to idols and give way to sexual vice. So even with you; you likewise have some adherents of the tenets of the Nicolaitans.

Therefore whoever relaxes a single one of these commands, were it even one of the least, and teaches men so, he will be ranked least in the Realm of heaven; but whoever obeys them and teaches them, he will be ranked great in the Realm of heaven.)

With regard to the arrival of the Lord Jesus Christ and our muster before him, I beg you, brothers, not to let your minds get easily unsettled or excited by any spirit of prophecy or any declaration or any letter purporting to come from me, to the effect that the Day of the Lord is already here.

But in later days, the Spirit distinctly declares, certain people will rebel against the faith; they will listen to spirits of error and to the doctrines that daemons teach through plausible sophists who are seared in conscience ??3 men who prohibit marriage and insist on abstinence from foods which God created for believing men, who understand the Truth, to partake of with thanksgiving.

Still I have this against you: you are tolerating that Jezebel of a woman who styles herself a prophetess and seduces my servants by teaching them to give way to sexual vice and to eat food which has been sacrificed to idols.

vain is their worship of me, for the doctrines they teach are but human precepts."

vain is their worship of me, for the doctrines they teach are but human precepts.

Let no one deceive you with specious arguments; these are the vices that bring down God's anger on the sons of disobedience.

As you died with Christ to the Elemental spirits of the world, why live as if you still belonged to the world? Why submit to rules and regulations like "Hands off this!" "Taste not that!" "Touch not this!" ??22 referring to things that perish by being used? These rules are determined by human precepts and tenets; they get the name of 'wisdom' with their self-imposed devotions, with their fasting, with their rigorous discipline of the body, but they are of no value, they simply pamper the flesh!

As I asked you when I was on my way to Macedonia, stay where you are at Ephesus and warn certain individuals against teaching novelties and studying myths and interminable genealogies; such studies bear upon speculations rather than on the divine order which belongs to faith. Whereas the aim of the Christian discipline is the love that springs from a pure heart, from a good conscience, and from a sincere faith.read more.
Certain individuals have failed here by turning to empty argument; doctors of the Law is what they want to be, but they have no idea either of the meaning of the words they use or of the themes on which they harp.

Still, false prophets did appear among the People, as among you also there will be false teachers, men who will insinuate destructive heresies, even disowning the Lord who ransomed them; they bring rapid destruction on themselves,

Beware of false prophets; they come to you with the garb of sheep but at heart they are ravenous wolves.

I know that when I am gone, fierce wolves will get in among you, and they will not spare the flock; yes. and men of your own number will arise with perversions of the truth to draw the disciples after them.

For there are plenty of insubordinate creatures who impose on people with their empty arguments, particularly those who have come over from Judaism; they must be silenced, for they are undermining whole families by teaching objectionable doctrine for the base end of making money.

and men of your own number will arise with perversions of the truth to draw the disciples after them.

O Timotheus, keep the securities of the faith intact: avoid the profane jargon and contradictions of what is falsely called 'Knowledge.' Certain individuals have failed in the faith by professing that. Grace be with you. [Amen.]

Never let yourselves be carried away with a variety of novel doctrines; for the right thing is to have one's heart strengthened by grace, not by the eating of food ??that has never been any use to those who have had recourse to it.

they have gone wrong by leaving the straight road, by following the road of Balaam son of Bosor, who liked the profits of evil-doing ??16 but he got reproved for his malpractice: a dumb ass spoke with human voice and checked the prophet's infatuation.

I am writing to you in this way about those who would deceive you,

and many will follow their immorality (thanks to them the true Way will be maligned);

Jesus replied, "Take care that no one misleads you; for many will come in my name, saying 'I am the Christ,' and they will mislead many.

So Jesus began: "Take care that no one misleads you: ??6 many will come in my name saying, 'I am he,' and mislead many.

for the time will come when people will decline to be taught sound doctrine and will accumulate teachers to suit themselves and tickle their own fancies;

By talking arrogant futilities they beguile with the sensual lure of fleshly passion those who are just escaping from the company of misconduct ??19 promising them freedom, when they are themselves enslaved to corruption (for a man is the slave of whatever overpowers him).

Do not believe every spirit, beloved, but test the spirits to see if they come from God; for many false prophets have emerged in the world. You can recognize the Spirit of God by this: every spirit which confesses Jesus as the Christ incarnate comes from God, and every spirit which does not confess Jesus [incarnate] does not come from God. This latter is the spirit of antichrist; you were told it was coming, and here it is already in the world.read more.
My dear children, you belong to God, and you have conquered all such, for He who is within you is greater than he who is in the world. They belong to the world, therefore they speak as inspired by the world, and the world listens to them:

for false Christs and false prophets will rise and bring forward great signs and wonders, so as to mislead the very elect, ??if that were possible.

for false Christs and false prophets will rise and perform signs and wonders to mislead the elect if they can.

and with the full deceitfulness of evil for those who are doomed to perish, since they refuse to love the Truth that would save them.

Then I saw another Beast rising from the land; he had two horns like a lamb, but he spoke like a dragon. He exerts the full authority of the first Beast in his presence, causing the earth and its inhabitants to worship the first Beast, whose deadly wound was healed. He performs amazing miracles, even making fire descend from heaven on earth in the sight of men,read more.
and by dint of the miracles he is allowed to perform in presence of the Beast, he seduces the dwellers on earth; he bids the dwellers on earth erect a statue to the Beast who lived after being wounded by the sword, and to this statue of the Beast he was allowed to impart the breath of life, so that the statue of the Beast should actually speak. He has everyone put to death who will not worship the statue of the Beast,

But in later days, the Spirit distinctly declares, certain people will rebel against the faith; they will listen to spirits of error and to the doctrines that daemons teach through plausible sophists who are seared in conscience ??3 men who prohibit marriage and insist on abstinence from foods which God created for believing men, who understand the Truth, to partake of with thanksgiving.

but I am afraid of your thoughts getting seduced from a single devotion to Christ, just as the serpent beguiled Eve with his cunning. You put up with it all right, when some interloper preaches a second Jesus (not the Jesus I preached), or when you are treated to a Spirit different from the Spirit you once received, and to a different gospel from what I gave you! Why not put up with me?

Do not believe every spirit, beloved, but test the spirits to see if they come from God; for many false prophets have emerged in the world. You can recognize the Spirit of God by this: every spirit which confesses Jesus as the Christ incarnate comes from God, and every spirit which does not confess Jesus [incarnate] does not come from God. This latter is the spirit of antichrist; you were told it was coming, and here it is already in the world.

Then I saw issuing from the mouth of the dragon and from the mouth of the Beast and from the mouth of the false Prophet, three foul spirits like frogs ??14 demon-spirits performing miracles, who come out to muster the kings of the whole world for battle on the great Day of almighty God.

in their lust they will exploit you with cunning arguments ??men whose doom comes apace from of old, and destruction is awake upon their trail.

Beware of anyone getting hold of you by means of a theosophy which is specious make-believe, on the lines of human tradition, corresponding to the Elemental spirits of the world and not to Christ.

You can recognize the Spirit of God by this: every spirit which confesses Jesus as the Christ incarnate comes from God, and every spirit which does not confess Jesus [incarnate] does not come from God. This latter is the spirit of antichrist; you were told it was coming, and here it is already in the world.

so I tell you now, that no one is speaking in the Spirit of God when he cries, 'Cursed be Jesus,' and that no one can say, 'Jesus is Lord,' except in the holy Spirit.

Now, you have been anointed by the holy One, and you all possess knowledge. I am not writing to you because you do not know the truth, but because you do know it, and know that no lie has any connexion with the truth. Who is the real liar? who but he who denies that Jesus is the Christ? This is 'antichrist,' he who disowns the Father and the Son.read more.
No one who disowns the Son can possess the Father: he who confesses the Son possesses the Father as well.

Beware of false prophets; they come to you with the garb of sheep but at heart they are ravenous wolves. You will know them by their fruit; do men gather grapes from thorns or figs from thistles? No, every good tree bears sound fruit, but a rotten tree bears bad fruit;read more.
a good tree cannot bear bad fruit, and a rotten tree cannot bear sound fruit. [Relocated to follow vs 20] Any tree that does not produce sound fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire. So you will know them by their fruit.

You put up with a man who assumes control of your souls, with a man who spends your money, with a man who dupes you, with a man who gives himself airs, with a man who flies in your face.

Let no one deceive you, my dear children: he who practises righteousness is just, as He is just; he who commits sin belongs to the devil, for the devil is a sinner from the very beginning. (This is why the Son of God appeared, to destroy the deeds of the devil.) Anyone who is born of God does not commit sin, for the offspring of God remain in Him, and they cannot sin, because they are born of God.read more.
Here is how the children of God and the children of the devil are recognized; anyone who does not practise righteousness does not belong to God, and neither does he who has no love for his brother.

Anyone who teaches novelties and refuses to fall in with the sound words of our Lord Jesus Christ and the doctrine that tallies with piety, is a conceited, ignorant creature, with a morbid passion for controversy and argument which only leads to envy, dissension, insults, insinuations, and constant friction between people who are depraved in mind and deprived of the Truth. They imagine religion is a paying concern.

As I asked you when I was on my way to Macedonia, stay where you are at Ephesus and warn certain individuals against teaching novelties and studying myths and interminable genealogies; such studies bear upon speculations rather than on the divine order which belongs to faith.

Avoid all that profane jargon, for it leads people still further into irreligion, and their doctrine spreads like a gangrene. So it is with Hymenaeus and Philetus; they have failed in the Truth by arguing that the resurrection has taken place already, and they are undermining some people's faith.

Let that remain in you which you learned from the very beginning; if what you learned from the very beginning remains with you, then you will remain in the Son and in the Father.

I am astonished you are hastily shifting like this, deserting Him who called you by Christ's grace and going over to another gospel. It simply means that certain individuals are unsettling you; they want to distort the gospel of Christ. Now even though it were myself or some angel from heaven, whoever preaches a gospel that contradicts the gospel I preached to you, God's curse be on him!read more.
I have said it before and I now repeat it: whoever preaches a gospel to you that contradicts the gospel you have already received, God's curse be on him!

I transmit these instructions to you, Timotheus my son, in accordance with what the prophets said who first directed me to you; fight the good fight on these lines, keeping hold of faith and a good conscience. Certain individuals have scouted the good conscience and thus come to grief over their faith ??20 including Hymenaeus and Alexander, whom I have made over to Satan. That will teach them to stop their blasphemous ongoings!

Model yourself on the sound instruction you have had from me in the faith and love of Christ Jesus. Keep the great securities of your faith intact, by aid of the holy Spirit that dwells within us.

Brothers, I beg of you to keep your eye on those who stir up dissensions and put hindrances in your way, contrary to the doctrine which you have been taught. Avoid them. Such creatures are no servants of Christ our Lord, they are slaves of their own base desires; with their plausible and pious talk they beguile the hearts of unsuspecting people. But surely not of you!

Mark this, there are hard times coming in the last days. For men will be selfish, fond of money, boastful, haughty, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, irreverent, callous, relentless, scurrilous, dissolute, and savage; they will hate goodness,read more.
they will be treacherous, reckless and conceited, preferring pleasure to God ??5 for though they keep up a form of religion, they will have nothing to do with it as a force. Avoid all such. Some of them worm their way into families and get hold of the women-folk who feel crushed by the burden of their sins ??wayward creatures of impulse, who are always curious to learn and never able to attain the knowledge of the Truth. For these guides of theirs are hostile to the Truth, just as Jannes and Jambres were hostile to Moses; they are depraved in mind and useless for all purposes of faith. However, they will get no further, for their aberration will be detected by everyone, as was the case with these magicians.

But avoid foolish controversy, and let genealogies and dissensions and strife over the Law alone, for these are fruitless and futile. After a first and a second warning have no more to do with a factious person; you may be sure a man like that is perverted; he is sinning and he knows it.

Anyone who is 'advanced' and will not remain by the doctrine of Christ, does not possess God: he who remains by the doctrine of Christ possesses both the Father and the Son. If anyone comes to you and does not bring this doctrine, do not admit him to the house ??do not even greet him, for he who greets him shares in his wicked work.