WHO ARE THE FALSE TEACHERS by Dudley Marvin Canright

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Nov 16, 1876

WHO ARE THE FALSE TEACHERS.

By Dudley Marvin Canright

BY ELD. D. M. CANRIGHT.

TEXT: “Yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution.” 2 Tim. 3:12.

When the truth of God relating to the coming of the Lord is presented to the people, much is always said with regard to false teachers and false prophets as applying to us. But what does the Bible say about this class of prophets and teachers, and those found doing the work of the Lord by proclaiming the messages of warning to the people of their time?

First, we will notice the language of our text in connection with others of like import: “Yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution.” This is unqualified. All who will live godly shall suffer persecution. The language of our Saviour is to the same effect: “If ye were of the world, the world would love his own; but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you.” John 15:19. He says his people are not of the world, and therefore the world hates them. The term world does not simply mean those who are commonly called worldlings. It is any man, whether in the church or out, who follows the spirit of the world. The men that hated Christ were particularly those who professed to obey God.

The Saviour continues: “Remember the word that I said unto you, The servant is not greater than his lord. If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you, if they have kept my saying, they will keep yours also.” Verse 20. Thus it is that the spirit of the world, and the spirit of Christ are opposed one to the other. It was so in the days of Christ and his apostles, and thus it continues to be.

The language of Stephen, in Acts 7:51, 52, is to the point: “Ye stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, ye do always resist the Holy Ghost. As your fathers did, so do ye. Which of the prophets have not your fathers persecuted? And they have slain them which shewed before of the coming of the Just One, of whom ye have been now the betrayers and murderers.” Notice this text a moment. From this we get the key-note of the Scriptures. Where is there a prophet who has spoken the truth, but that has suffered persecution from the hands of those professing godliness? So long as any man will come out and live a Christian, and reprove the ungodly for wickedness, so long that man will be persecuted. That is the reason why the world hates him. Those who go to the places where the worldlings go, and do the things they do, and love the things they love, they do not persecute. This world is at enmity with God. The man that will come out and obey God and the truth is destined to bring upon himself the hatred of those that are opposed to God.

Why is it that the wicked persecute the righteous—not professors merely, but those that are really righteous? John gives the reason with regard to Cain and Abel: “Not as Cain, who was of that wicked one, and slew his brother. And wherefore slew he him? Because his own works were evil, and his brother’s righteous.” 1 John 3:12. Cain was the first persecutor. The righteousness of his brother Abel condemned him. It is, then, because a righteous man, by his conduct and faith in God and obedience to the truth, condemns those who do not do right; and hence the righteous are always causing them trouble.

Mark, wherever God’s servants have given the truth, and uttered warnings, the wicked and persecutors turn round and say, “These men are dividing families, breaking up churches, and doing mischief generally. Of Elijah we read,—“And it came to pass, when Ahab saw Elijah, that Ahab said unto him, Art thou he that troubleth Israel?” 1 Kings 18:17. Remember that Elijah lived in the time of Ahab’s reign, and was a prophet of the Lord. Elijah had reproved sin, and had told Ahab that his sins would find him out. This incensed the king. He accused Elijah of troubling Israel. They said it was on Elijah’s account that Israel was troubled. Hear the answer Elijah made: “I have not troubled Israel, but thou and thy father’s house, in that ye have forsaken the commandments of the Lord, and thou hast followed Baalim.” Verse 18.

He points out the trouble in language unmistakable. They had forsaken the commandments of the Lord. They had broken the first commandment by following after another god. The trouble was not with Elijah, only that he insisted that they should reform, that they should leave off worshiping Baal, and keep the commandments. “Then said Elijah unto the people, I, even I only, remain a prophet of the Lord; but Baal’s prophets are four hundred and fifty men.” Verse 22. Yes, they had a big majority,—four hundred against one. If some of our modern brethren had been back there, they would have gone with the majority. They had the great men, the aristocracy, the king, and the queen, on their side. Quite a respectable majority, was it not?

Again, I come down to the New Testament. Take John the Baptist. You know how he lost his life. He was a fearless man. He came right out and called sin by its right name. There was the king, a man in great authority, who had married his brother’s wife. What did John do? He stepped up to him and said, “It is not lawful for thee to have her.” Matt. 14:4. There was the trouble; he came right out and protested against the wrong. He said, “Thou art the man;” and they put him in prison, and afterward beheaded him.

They accuse us of talking pretty strong sometimes. Perhaps we do; but do we talk any stronger than did John the Baptist? He says, “But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees come to his baptism, he said unto them, O generation of vipers, who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come.” Matt. 3:7. Who were they? The gentlemen of Jerusalem, leading men of the place. But said he to them, Ye generation of vipers, what have you come for? That is the way the servants of God have talked all the time. When a man walks with God, that man has more sense of what wrong is, and he will talk it right out; and when somebody gets hit, then he begins to persecute those who point out his sins. That is the reason why God’s servants have always been persecuted. They condemn sin and rebuke wrong.

On the other hand, how do false prophets do? Let us read a description of false prophets, and the people to whom they prophesy. Thus the Lord by Isaiah says, “Now go, write it before them in a table, and note it in a book, . . . that this is a rebellious people, lying children, children that will not hear the law of the Lord; which say to the seers, See not; and to the prophets, Prophesy not unto us right things, speak unto us smooth things, prophesy deceits.” Isa. 30:8–10.

What kind of prophecies did the people want? Said they, “Speak unto us smooth things.” False prophets have always done that. They look and see what the mass want, and then speak that which will make them popular, and gain them favor. They study to please the mass. This is always the danger. We are apt to fear the people more than God, to love the praise of men more than the unpopular truth. Frequently at the present day, if any man happens to get hit for his sins, the minister will take back all that he has said, apologizing very humbly for his misdirected words; and it is all smoothed over, and the minister and people are in harmony again.

Christ tells us how it is with false prophets in the following language: “Wo unto you when all men shall speak well of you! for so did their fathers to the false prophets.” Luke 6:26. Yes, everybody spoke well of the false prophet,—the wicked did, and sinners did. He is a splendid fellow, said they. But if those prophets had talked things right out, they would not have got along so well. Let a man go out in the fear of God and call things by their right names, and point out the fables and false doctrines of the age, and he will fare just as the righteous have in other ages. Take the case of our Lord Jesus Christ, against whom there could be no fault found. Who persecuted him? The men who claimed to be the chosen of God. They hated him the most of any body, and why? In Luke 11:42, we are let into the secret. “But wo unto you Pharisees! for ye tithe mint and rue, and all manner of herbs, and pass over judgment and the love of God; these ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other undone.”

Christ might have said after speaking this language as our modern brethren would have said, Oh! excuse me, you Pharisees, I was talking in a general way. I hope you will not take it to yourselves. But he made no such acknowledgment. It was this spirit of boldness that stirred up the lawyers, scribes, and Pharisees, to persecute him. He did not come praising this one or excusing that one; but he came as a reprover, and as a teacher of righteousness. Again he says to them, “Wo unto you, lawyers! for ye have taken away the key of knowledge; ye entered not in yourselves, and them that were entering in ye hindered.” Verse 52. Who were these lawyers? They were not of our modern class of lawyers, but expounders of the law and of the Scriptures. Of them Christ said, “Ye have taken away the key of knowledge; ye entered not in yourselves, and them that were entering in ye hindered.” That is to say, They had so mystified and covered up the true meaning of the Scriptures, that the people did not understand the Bible any more. The same thing is as true to-day as it was then. Look abroad and see the errors in our land, and see how Scripture is perverted to suit the opinions of man and church creeds.

What did Christ point out in the Pharisees and the church of his day, which gave them such great offense? Here is one thing: They broke the law of God. The scribes and Pharisees came to him and said, “Why do thy disciples transgress the tradition of the elders? for they wash not their hands when they eat bread.” Matt. 15:2. What is the matter? They transgress the tradition of the elders. Whatever the fathers say, they must do. What did Christ say? “Why do ye also transgress the commandments of God by your traditions?” Verse 3. He takes up the fifth commandment. Now, he says, you have got up a tradition which makes void the commandment of God—God says one way, and you say another. Are not the mass now with their teachers making void the fourth commandment of God, as did the Pharisees the fifth commandment in Christ’s time? Of such, Christ says, “This people draweth nigh unto me with their mouth, and honoreth me with their lips; but their heart is far from me. But in vain do they worship me teaching for doctrines the commandments of men.” Verses 8, 9. There it is. Go back to our Saviour’s time, and gathered together was an audience, as I have here before me. Jesus was their teacher. The sins of the people were before him, and he openly rebuked them. It was for this, because he talked the truth so plainly, that they hated and persecuted him.

For another saying of Christ did the Pharisees persecute him. Said he, “Let them alone; they be blind leaders of the blind. And if the blind lead the blind, both shall fall into the ditch.” Matt. 15:14. This was a plain declaration, was it not? referring directly to the spiritual guides of his time. “Oh!” says one, “my minister believes so. I guess he is an honest man, and I will follow him. I am not going to follow this new doctrine.” Christ says they are blind leaders of the blind, and both will fall into the ditch. If people shut their eyes, and are led down to perdition, well and good; but God will bring both the leaders and the followers to account, each one for himself.

Another thing Christ did which gave offense;—he taught the multitude,—the poor people. “And the common people heard him gladly.” Mark 12:37. It has ever been so. When God sends a man, it is generally in a humble manner. The apostle Paul was a humble man. He worked with his hands making tents. God chooses from among the common people. Paul says, “I am afraid of you lest you be removed from the simplicity of the gospel.” When men become lifted up, rich, and proud, they will not love the cross of Christ; and they are rejected by God, their places being filled by those with less pretensions, men from among the poor and common people.

John sent to ask Christ for the proof of his ministry. “Then Jesus answering, said unto them, Go your way, and tell John what things ye have seen and heard, how the blind see, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, to the poor the gospel is preached.” Luke 7:22. This was one proof that he came from God. Christ was ever reaching out after the poor and unfortunate, and bringing them in. Thus it should ever be with the church of Christ; but when the minister gets above that, you will find the church filled up with the rich and the proud, while

the poor are crowded back till they are crowded out with the gospel.

Of Christ it is said: “Then drew near unto him all the publicans and sinners for to hear him. And the Pharisees and scribes murmured, saying, ‘This man receiveth sinners, and eateth with them.’” Luke 15:1, 2. They did not like to have their teacher a friend to the publicans and sinners. The Pharisees found fault and complained of him for this; and they asked, “Have any of the rulers, or of the Pharisees believed on him?”

(To be Continued.)

WHO ARE THE FALSE TEACHERS.*

WHO ARE THE FALSE TEACHERS.