How Pastors & Teachers Turn Christian Families to Heresy and Atheism...and how to stop it

A pastor friend of mine put up a post on Facebook recently.  Actually he copied a post from someone else and put it on his page.  There was nothing wrong with the post itself, as a matter of fact, there was a lot of wisdom in the post.  However, the original post was from someone who identifies as a former Christian who actively seeks to challenge those who hold to his former faith.

I don't know if my friend knew this about the person he quoted.  

It reminds me of the Nooma videos of Rob Bell put out in 2003 and that I played in my youth group.  When these videos were being produced, they were slickly designed and well produced.  Many of the first videos didn't have anything truly controversial in nature.  You can even check out this early one called Noise and see for yourself ==>  here.  There was little or nothing in them that would let you know of the progressive shift that either he always had or was leaning into.

As his views began to skew away from the historic Christian faith, I stopped using his videos.  However, some of my students continued to follow his teaching...right out of the historic Christian faith to progressive Christianity and atheism.  Such is the power of influence.

I recently played that very video to my student leadership team at youth group and asked them if they could see anything wrong with it.  They couldn't because there was nothing wrong with it.  However, I juxtaposed that first clip with this one ==>  here.  The latter clip shows Rob Bell's acceptance of homosexual marriage and claims that the church will become more irrelevant if it adheres to the Word of God against progress.  The stark contrast was obvious.  Yet, if I had only shown the first video without the second and praised it for its insight, my students would have been tempted to adopt the cool teachings of Rob Bell because of my introduction, as some of my former students did.  

One thing many pastors and teachers do not understand is, if we put up a video or quote from Rob Bell or any other progressive Christian or "former" Christian, without some sort of disclaimer of his/her current heretical views or calling him/her out as a false teacher, as a pastor or teacher, we are subtly giving an endorsement for those views.  Those youth, and even those parents, who click on the link we have shared, if they really like and resonate with the video or blog or article, will click on the author of that information and diligently search to see what else this person has produced.  I know I have done it with the people whom I respect and follow.

This is the complaint that I have had with many Christian bookstores and websites.  There is no filter on the content that they promote.  So when you scroll their website or you visit their stores, you can see a progressive Christian author or an author of some other heresy sitting next to a sound biblical teacher.  All the customer knows is that they are on a Christian website or inside a Christian bookstore.  Therefore, instead of comparing all things to Scripture, as they should be doing, customers treat the store or the website as a trusted gatekeeper, which ironically opens themselves up to false teachings promoted by the very site that they are putting their faith in hopes of not being lead astray.

Another friend of mine recently commented on a video I posted from Mike Winger.  His comment was that he loved Mike's stuff (I do too), but that he felt that much of his stuff was focused on the "negative/gotcha" side of things, trying too hard to expose heresy rather than preach biblical truth.  However, with all the misinformation on the internet about the Christian faith, it is easy, and sometimes necessary to skew that way, if you wish to be a faithful teacher.  

How do we, as pastors and teachers, responsibly teach parents and their children to avoid this minefield that often doesn't distinguish between orthodox and the heretical?  How do we, as parents, do the same for our children?

1)  Pastors & teachers must be committed to building a worldview based upon knowledge of the Word of God to families they minister.     

The biggest reason that most youth and families leave the faith is their lack of knowledge concerning the Word of God.  They have not be taught to build first on the foundation of the Word of God.  In fact, most families in the church are not even sure where to start, as it pertains to discipling their children and youth this way, but most want to.  However, if we do not give families this proper foundation by which to compare and demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God and make it obedient to Christ (2 Cor. 10:5), they will have no defense against the onslaught of false teaching that awaits them on the internet, the workplace or even the Christian bookstore.

If you don't know where to begin, go to thenextgenerationministries.com and ask for our free blueprint for your church or family.

2)  We must teach people to follow Christ and not people.

The celebrity pastor and Christian influencer is the natural result of a culture that is more interested in personality and presentation than truth.  How people often find themselves fading into heretical teaching is that they love the way a certain person teaches or communicates their message.  In my example above, there is no denying Rob Bell's communication skills.  It is captivating, to say the least.  But heresy that is captivating and inspiring is just as damning as heresy that is ugly and obvious.  

This isn't to say that we shouldn't find people whom we can learn from and whose teaching we respect.  Rather, we need to teach people to first compare what they hear from anyone to the Scripture so they can say the "amen" to it.  We must teach them the courage to depart from any pastor, author or influencer that moves into the realm of heresy.  It is the exact same thing that we are supposed to be doing in our churches (see Mat. 7:15-27; Mat. 18:15-17).

3)  As pastors, teachers & parents, we must call out heretical views and teaching from popular Christian influencers who are going astray.

The entire books of Galatians & 1 John are dedicated to combating false teaching.  They call out entire groups of people (Judaizers & Gnostics) who were promoting false teaching within the church.  This is done for the protection of the people in their care.

As a pastor or teacher, it isn't enough just to stop using material from a source that has gone rogue from the Christian faith.  We are called to expose them (see. Eph. 5:8-17).  

So if it is Critical Theory or Critical Race Theory that is opposed to the gospel (Phil. 3:18-19) and is the foundation of movements like BLM, we have to expose it, not simply have nothing to do with it.

If it is a pastor or teacher who was formerly regarded, such as a Rob Bell or Jen Hatmaker, who is now preaching another gospel, which is no gospel at all (Gal. 1:6-9), we have to expose it, not simply stop using their materials.

In our culture today, the last thing any of us want as pastors, teachers or parents is a charge of perceived hatefulness based off of intolerance that many within our culture & congregation may label us with, if we begin calling out these heretical views.  Most of us hate conflict to begin with, but in order to safeguard our people and our families, we have to get used to it. 

4)  As Christian institutions, we should safeguard against false teaching entering into our congregations and schools through beloved pastors & teachers.

Conflict with outside pastors, teachers and influencers is hard enough, but add the idea of confronting heretical instruction from beloved and respected pastors and teachers within our congregations or Christian institutes of higher learning and the real struggle begins.

What happens when leadership catches wind of a pastor or teacher using material from Rob Bell or parroting the views of Jen Hatmaker or John Pavlovitz or promoting the agenda and ideology of the BLM organization?

Last year, Krista Bontrager (Theology Mom) posted an excellent article titled, "Six Ways to Find Out What Your Child's Christian University Is Actually Teaching".  (You read her article and my interaction with it through the title's link.)  Her post was concerned about Critical Theory and Critical Race Theory that had found its way into many Christian universities.  It further highlights the need for churches and schools to safeguard against these false ideologies entering onto their campuses through trusted teachers and preachers.  

We must have the fortitude to confront, correct, expose, and if there is no recanting or repentance, expel those who bring false ideologies on our campuses.  For too long, such confrontations are placed on hold for fear of backlash or losing people who are followers of that specific beloved teacher or pastor.  However, the longer we wait to confront such false teachings, the longer we allow the influence of those false ideologies to sway the people we are commissioned to lead into the truth of Christ.

We are called to protect the flock, a flock that will be ravaged by the wolves in sheep's clothing if we do not step up and protect them against these destructive teachings (see Acts 20:28-31).  

5)  We must provide accountability to those who may be teaching the historic Christian faith, but not living it out.

In recent days, many of us have been horrified and even disillusioned over the revelation of the Ravi Zacharias scandal.  Though the allegations against Ravi Zacharias have lingered for years, the organization readily admitted that they did not pursue these charges the way that they should.  The result is a falling out that will surely affect many who had put their faith in Christ because of the words of this man.  

It is easy to point to this example because it seems so far away from us, even though it touches many of us more personally than we would like to admit.  However, if we were to look at the safeguards within our congregation, our schools and even within our own families, how many of us would say we have overlooked a sin or indiscretion from those in authority because we loved them and trusted their teaching.  

In these cases, it isn't the teaching but the actions of the pastor or teacher that lead to a distrust of the Christian faith because of lack of accountability.

Leaders within the church must be able to not only teach and train, but to also correct, rebuke and restore, even popular pastors and teachers, when they fall short (1 Tim. 5:17-22; 2 Tim. 3:16-17; Gal. 6:1).  They need to do this for the protection of the ones they are shepherding.

These five steps are a beginning of creating much needed gatekeepers for the faith so that we may pass down that faith to the next generation and know that we are doing all that we can to keep that faith pure.

**The Next Generation is committed to providing materials to help parents disciple their children in the historic Christian faith.  Our goal is to provide trustworthy materials free of charge toward that end.  Our materials are updated regularly to ensure that resources used align with the historic Christian faith. 

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