53 Bible Verses about False Teachings

Yet I have a few things against you--You have among you those who hold to the Teaching of Balaam, who taught Balak to put temptations in the way of the Israelites, so that they should eat idol-offerings and commit licentious acts. Again you have among you those who hold in the same way to the Teaching of the Nikolaitans.

Whoever, therefore, breaks one of these commandments, even the least of them, and teaches others to do so, will be the least- esteemed in the Kingdom of Heaven; but whoever keeps them, and teaches others to do so, will be esteemed great in the Kingdom of Heaven.

As to the Coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and our being gathered to meet him, we beg you, Brothers, Not lightly to let your minds become unsettled, nor yet to be disturbed by any revelation, or by any message, or by any letter, purporting to come from us, to the effect that the Day of the Lord is come.

But the Spirit distinctly says that in later times there will be some who will fall away from the Faith, and devote their attention to misleading spirits, and to the teaching of demons, who will make use of the hypocrisy of lying teachers. These men's consciences are seared, and they discourage marriage and enjoin abstinence from certain kinds of food; though God created these foods to be enjoyed thankfully by those who hold the Faith and have attained a full knowledge of the Truth.

Yet I have this against you--You tolerate the woman Jezebel, who declares that she is a Prophetess, and misleads my servants by her teaching, till they commit licentious acts and eat idol-offerings.

But vainly do they worship me, For they teach but the precepts of men.'"

But vainly do they worship me, For they teach but the precepts of men.'

Do not let any one deceive you with specious arguments. Those are the sins that bring down the Wrath of God upon the disobedient.

Since, with Christ, you became dead to the puerile teaching of this world, why do you submit, as though your life were still that of the world, To such ordinances as 'Do not handle, or taste, or touch'? For all the things referred to in them cease to exist when used. You are following mere human directions and instructions.read more.
Such prohibitions appear reasonable where there is a desire for self-imposed service, and so-called 'humility,' and harsh treatment of the body, but are of no real value against the indulgence of our earthly nature.

I beg you, as I did when I was on my way into Macedonia, to remain at Ephesus; that you may instruct certain people there not to teach new and strange doctrines, nor to devote their attention to legends and interminable genealogies, which tend to give rise to argument rather than to further that divine plan which is revealed in the Faith. The object of all instruction is to call forth that love which comes from a pure heart, a clear conscience, and a sincere faith.read more.
And it is because they have not aimed at these things that the attention of certain people has been diverted to unprofitable subjects. They want to be Teachers of the Law, and yet do not understand either the words they use, or the subjects on which they speak so confidently.

But there were false prophets also in the nation, just as there will be false teachers among you, men who will secretly introduce ruinous divisions, disowning even the Lord who bought them, and bringing speedy Ruin upon themselves.

Beware of false Teachers--men who come to you in the guise of sheep, but at heart they are ravenous wolves.

I know that, after my departure, merciless wolves will get in among you, who will not spare the flock; And from among yourselves, too, men will arise, who will teach perversions of truth, so as to draw away the disciples after them.

There are, indeed, many unruly persons--great talkers who deceive themselves, principally converts from Judaism, whose mouths ought to be stopped; for they upset whole households by teaching what they ought not to teach, merely to make questionable gains.

And from among yourselves, too, men will arise, who will teach perversions of truth, so as to draw away the disciples after them.

Then we shall no longer be like infants, tossed backward and forward, blown about by every breath of human teaching, through the trickery and the craftiness of men, towards the snares of error;

Timothy, guard what has been entrusted to you. Avoid the profane prattle and contradictions of what some miscall 'theology,' for there are those who, while asserting their proficiency in it, have yet, as regards the Faith, gone altogether astray. God bless you all.

Do not let yourselves be carried away by the various novel forms of teaching. It is better to rely for spiritual strength upon the divine help, than upon regulations regarding food; for those whose lives are guided by such regulations have not found them of service.

They have eyes only for adulteresses, eyes never tired of sin; they entice weak souls; their minds are trained to covet; they live under a curse. Leaving the straight road, they have gone astray and followed in the steps of Balaam, the son of Beor, who set his heart on the reward for wrong-doing,

In writing thus to you, I have in mind those who are trying to mislead you.

There will be many, too, who will follow their licentious courses, and cause the Way of the Truth to be maligned.

Jesus replied to them as follows: "See that no one leads you astray; for, many will take my name, and come saying 'I am the Christ,' and will lead many astray.

Then Jesus began: "See that no one leads you astray. Many will take my name, and come saying 'I am He', and will lead many astray.

For a time will come when people will not tolerate sound teaching. They will follow their own wishes, and, in their itching for novelty, procure themselves a crowd of teachers.

With boastful and foolish talk, they appeal to the passions of man's lower nature, and, by their profligacy, entice those who are just escaping from the men who live such misguided lives. They promise them freedom, while they themselves are slaves to corrupt habits; for a man is the slave of anything to which he gives way.

Dear friends, do not trust every inspiration, but test each inspiration, to see whether it proceeds from God; because many false Prophets have gone out into the world. This is the way by which to know the inspiration of God--All inspiration that acknowledges Jesus Christ as come in our human nature is from God; while all inspiration that does not acknowledge Jesus is not inspiration from God. It is the inspiration of the Anti-Christ; you have heard that it was to come, and it is now already in the world.read more.
You, my Children, come from God, and you have successfully resisted such men as these, because he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world. Those men belong to the world; and therefore they speak as the world speaks, and the world listens to them.

For false Christs and false Prophets will arise, and will display great signs and marvels, so that, were it possible, even God's People would be led astray.

For false Christs and false Prophets will arise, and display signs and marvels, to lead astray, were it possible, even God's People.

For at the Coming of the Lord there will be great activity on the part of Satan, in the form of all kinds of deceptive miracles, signs, and marvels, as well as of wicked attempts to delude-- to the ruin of those who are on the path to destruction, because they have never received and loved the Truth to their own Salvation.

Then I saw, rising out of the earth, another wild Beast. It had two horns like those of a lamb, and its voice was like a dragon's. It exercises all the authority of the first Beast under its very eyes; and it makes the earth and all who are living on it worship that first Beast, whose mortal wound was healed. It performs great marvels, even causing fire to fall from the heavens to the earth, before men's eyes;read more.
and in consequence of the marvels which it was allowed to perform under the eyes of the Beast, it is able to deceive all who are living on the earth. It bids those who live on the earth to make a statue in honour of the Beast, who, despite the wound from the sword, yet lived. It was permitted to breathe life into the image of the Beast, so that the image of the Beast might speak; and it was also permitted to cause all who refused to worship the image of the Beast to be put to death.

But the Spirit distinctly says that in later times there will be some who will fall away from the Faith, and devote their attention to misleading spirits, and to the teaching of demons, who will make use of the hypocrisy of lying teachers. These men's consciences are seared,

Yet I fear that it may turn out that, just as the Serpent by his craftiness deceived Eve, so your minds may have lost the loyalty and purity due from you to the Christ. For, if some new-comer is proclaiming a Jesus other than him whom we proclaimed, or if you are receiving a Spirit different from the Spirit which you received, or a Good News different from that which you welcomed, then you are marvelously tolerant!

Dear friends, do not trust every inspiration, but test each inspiration, to see whether it proceeds from God; because many false Prophets have gone out into the world. This is the way by which to know the inspiration of God--All inspiration that acknowledges Jesus Christ as come in our human nature is from God; while all inspiration that does not acknowledge Jesus is not inspiration from God. It is the inspiration of the Anti-Christ; you have heard that it was to come, and it is now already in the world.

And I saw three foul spirits, like frogs, come from the mouth of the Dragon and from the mouth of the Beast and from the mouth of the false Prophet. They are the spirits of demons, and perform marvels; they go to kings all over the world, to collect them for the battle on the Great Day of Almighty God.

In their covetousness they will try to make you a source of profit by their fabrications; but for a long time past their Sentence has not been standing idle, nor their Ruin slumbering.

Take care there is not some one who will carry you away by his 'philosophy'--a hollow sham!--following, as it does, mere human traditions, and dealing with puerile questions of this world, and not with Christ.

This is the way by which to know the inspiration of God--All inspiration that acknowledges Jesus Christ as come in our human nature is from God; while all inspiration that does not acknowledge Jesus is not inspiration from God. It is the inspiration of the Anti-Christ; you have heard that it was to come, and it is now already in the world.

Therefore I tell you plainly that no one who speaks under the influence of the Spirit of God says 'JESUS IS ACCURSED,' and that no one can say 'JESUS IS LORD,' except under the influence of the Holy Spirit.

You, however, have received consecration from the Holy One. You all know--But I am not writing to you because you do not know the Truth, but because you do know it, and because nothing false can come from the Truth. Who is a liar, if not the man who rejects the truth that Jesus is the Christ? He is the Anti-Christ--The man who rejects the Father and the Son.read more.
No one who rejects the Son has found the Father; he who acknowledges the Son has found the Father also.

Beware of false Teachers--men who come to you in the guise of sheep, but at heart they are ravenous wolves. By the fruit of their lives you will know them. Do people gather grapes from thorn bushes, or figs from thistles? So, too, every sound tree bears good fruit, while a worthless tree bears bad fruit.read more.
A sound tree cannot produce bad fruit, nor can a worthless tree bear good fruit. Every tree that fails to bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Hence it is by the fruit of their lives that you will know such men.

You tolerate a man even when he enslaves you, when he plunders you, when he gets you into his power, when he puts on airs of superiority, when he strikes you in the face!

My Children, do not let any one mislead you. He who lives righteously is righteous--as Christ is righteous. He who lives sinfully belongs to the Devil, for the Devil has sinned from the first. It was for this that the Son of God appeared, that he might undo the Devil's work. No one who has received the new Life from God lives sinfully, because the very nature of God dwells within him; and he cannot live in sin, because he has received the new Life from God.read more.
By this the Children of God are distinguished from the Children of the Devil--No one who lives unrighteously comes from God, and especially the man who does not love his Brother.

Any one who teaches otherwise, and refuses his assent to sound instruction--the instruction of our Lord Jesus Christ--and to the teaching of religion, is puffed up with conceit, not really knowing anything, but having a morbid craving for discussions and arguments. Such things only give rise to envy, quarreling, recriminations, base suspicions, and incessant wrangling on the part of these corrupt-minded people who have lost all hold on the Truth, and who think of religion only as a source of gain.

I beg you, as I did when I was on my way into Macedonia, to remain at Ephesus; that you may instruct certain people there not to teach new and strange doctrines, nor to devote their attention to legends and interminable genealogies, which tend to give rise to argument rather than to further that divine plan which is revealed in the Faith.

Avoid profane prattle. Those who indulge in it only get deeper into irreligious ways, and their teaching will spread like a cancer. Hymenaeus and Philetus are instances of this. They have gone completely astray as regards the Truth; they say that a resurrection has already taken place, and so upset some people's faith.

As for you, let what you were told at the first be always in your thoughts. If, then, what you were told at the first is always in your thoughts, you yourselves will maintain your union both with the Son and with the Father.

I am astonished at your so soon deserting him, who called you through the love of Christ, for a different 'Good News,' Which is really no Good News at all. But then, I know that there are people who are harassing you, and who want to pervert the Good News of the Christ. Yet even if we--or if an angel from Heaven were to tell you any other 'Good News' than that which we told you, may he be accursed!read more.
We have said it before, and I repeat it now--If any one tells you a 'Good News' other than that which you received, may he be accursed!

This, then, is the charge that I lay upon you, Timothy, my Child, in accordance with what was predicted of you--Fight the good fight in the spirit of those predictions, with faith, and with a clear conscience; and it is because they have thrust this aside, that, as regards the Faith, some have wrecked their lives. Hymenaeus and Alexander are instances--the men whom I delivered over to Satan, that they might be taught not to blaspheme.

Keep before you, as an example of sound teaching, all that you learnt from me as you listened with that faith and love which come from union with Christ Jesus. Guard by the help of the Holy Spirit, who is within us, the glorious trust that has been committed to you.

I urge you, Brothers, to be on your guard against people who, by disregarding the teaching which you received, cause divisions and create difficulties; dissociate yourselves from them. For such persons are not serving Christ, our Master, but are slaves to their own appetites; and, by their smooth words and flattery, they deceive simple-minded people.

Be sure of this, that in the last days difficult times will come. Men will be selfish, mercenary, boastful, haughty, and blasphemous; disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, impure, incapable of affection, merciless, slanderous, wanting in self-control, brutal, careless of the right,read more.
treacherous, reckless, and puffed up with pride; they will love pleasure more than they love God; and while they retain the outward form of religion, they will not allow it to influence them. Turn your back on such men as these. For among them are to be found those who creep into homes and captivate weak women--women who, loaded with sins, and slaves to all kinds of passions, are always learning, and yet never able to attain to a real knowledge of the Truth. Just as Jannes and Jambres opposed Moses, so do these people, in their turn, oppose the Truth. Their minds are corrupted, and, as regards the Faith, they are utterly worthless. They will not, however, make further progress; for their wicked folly will be plain to every one, just as that of Jannes and Jambres was.

But have nothing to do with foolish discussions, or with genealogies, or with controversy, or disputes about the Law. They are useless and futile. If a man is causing divisions among you, after warning him once or twice, have nothing more to say to him. You may be sure that such a man has forsaken the Truth and is in the wrong; he stands self-condemned.

Every one who goes beyond the limits of the Teaching of the Christ has failed to find God; the man who keeps to that Teaching--he has found both the Father and the Son. If any one comes to you and does not bring this Teaching, do not receive him into your house or welcome him; for the man who welcomes him is sharing with him in his wicked work.