False Teachers and Wolves

Many people will follow them in the morally wrong things they do. And because of them, others will say bad things about the way of truth we follow.

2 Peter 2:2

There are harsh words spoken against today’s apostate church. “Woe to the pastors”, says the LORD through Jeremiah. Peter tells us something very similar.

2Pe 2:1 In the past there were false prophets among God’s people. It is the same now. You will have some false teachers in your group. They will teach things that are wrong—ideas that will cause people to be lost. And they will teach in a way that will be hard for you to see that they are wrong. They will even refuse to follow the Master who bought their freedom. And so they will quickly destroy themselves.
2Pe 2:2 Many people will follow them in the morally wrong things they do. And because of them, others will say bad things about the way of truth we follow.
2Pe 2:3 These false teachers only want your money. So they will use you by telling you things that are not true. But the judgment against these false teachers has been ready for a long time. And they will not escape God who will destroy them.

Do you teach against God’s holy covenant? Do you tell people it’s okay to break the commandments of Yahuah? How about calling evil good and good evil? Teaching people to profane His Sabbaths, or teaching the doctrines of man as the commandments of God? This is for you!

Jer 23:1 Woe be unto the pastors that destroy and scatter the sheep of my pasture! saith the LORD.
Jer 23:2 Therefore thus saith the LORD God of Israel against the pastors that feed my people; Ye have scattered my flock, and driven them away, and have not visited them: behold, I will visit upon you the evil of your doings, saith the LORD.

Jesus had similar words for the religious leadership in His time walking the Earth.

Mat 23:15 Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you travel across sea and land to make a single proselyte, and when he becomes a proselyte, you make him twice as much a child of hell as yourselves.

One of the ways we know these sayings are for today, is that these things are happening before our eyes. When else in recent history have pastors universally been against the commandments of God as they are today? Another clue is that Yahuah is going to gather out His followers.

Jer 23:3 “Then I myself will gather together the remnant of my flock from all the lands where I have driven them, and I will bring them back to their grazing place, and they will be fruitful, and they will become numerous.
Jer 23:4 And I will raise up over them shepherds, and they will shepherd them, and they will no longer fear, and they will not be dismayed, and they will not be missing,” declares Yahweh.
Jer 23:5 “Look, days are coming,” declares Yahweh, “when I will raise up for David a righteous branch, and he will reign as king, and he will achieve success, and he will do justice and righteousness in the land.
Jer 23:6 In his days Judah will be saved, and Israel will dwell in safety, and this is his name by which he will be called: ‘Yahweh is our righteousness.’
Jer 23:7 “Therefore look, days are coming,” declares Yahweh, “when they will no longer say, ‘As Yahweh lives, who led up the Israelites from the land of Egypt,’
Jer 23:8 but ‘As Yahweh lives, who led up, and who brought the offspring of the house of Israel from the land of the north and from all the lands where he had driven them.’ Then they will live in their land.”

These prophesies have not happened yet. We still talk about the Exodus from Egypt. Jeremiah also tells us we will understand his words in the latter days. How could it get any clearer?

Jer 23:20 The anger of Yahweh will not turn back until his doing and until his keeping the plans of his mind. In latter days you will look closely at it with understanding.

Jer 23:16 Thus says Yahweh of hosts, “You must not listen to the words of the prophets who prophesy to you. They are deluding you with visions of their mind, They do not speak from the mouth of Yahweh.
Jer 23:17 They are continually saying to those who disregard the word of Yahweh, ‘Peace it will be to you,’ and to each one who walks in the stubbornness of his heart they say, ‘Calamity will not come upon you.’

Paul warned about apostasy as Peter did. Hearts are hardened and people say, “that’s not what it means to me” or “that’s just your interpretation”. So how do you interpret these verses against your lawless gospel?

Isa 56:6 And the foreigners who join themselves to Yahweh to serve him and to love the name of Yahweh, to become his servants, every one who keeps the Sabbath, so as not to profane it, and those who keep hold of my covenant,
Isa 56:7 I will bring them to my holy mountain; I will make them merry in my house of prayer. their burnt offerings and their sacrifices will be accepted on my altar, for my house shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples,”
Isa 56:8 declares the Lord Yahweh, who gathers the scattered ones of Israel (still I will gather to him, to his gathered ones).

Paul tells us the law is for the lawless and disobedient! If we are operating through His Spirit, we will not be concerned about the law because we will be obedient. These verses are pointing back to the Ten Commandments. We are not supposed to break them or tell people they don’t matter any more.

1Ti 1:8 Now we know that the law is good, if one uses it lawfully,
1Ti 1:9 understanding this, that the law is not laid down for the just but for the lawless and disobedient, for the ungodly and sinners, for the unholy and profane, for those who strike their fathers and mothers, for murderers,
1Ti 1:10 the sexually immoral, men who practice homosexuality, enslavers, liars, perjurers, and whatever else is contrary to sound doctrine,
1Ti 1:11 in accordance with the gospel of the glory of the blessed God with which I have been entrusted.

Peter told us people would use Paul’s words to justify breaking God’s commandments because Paul was hard to understand. Don’t do this!

2Pe 3:14 Therefore, beloved, since you are waiting for these, be diligent to be found by him without spot or blemish, and at peace.
2Pe 3:15 And count the patience of our Lord as salvation, just as our beloved brother Paul also wrote to you according to the wisdom given him,
2Pe 3:16 as he does in all his letters when he speaks in them of these matters. There are some things in them that are hard to understand, which the ignorant and unstable twist to their own destruction, as they do the other Scriptures.
2Pe 3:17 You therefore, beloved, knowing this beforehand, take care that you are not carried away with the error of lawless people and lose your own stability.
2Pe 3:18 But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be the glory both now and to the day of eternity. Amen.

“Be diligent to be found by him without spot or blemish” means do what He, God, says to do. Follow His commandments. Pastors that twist Paul’s words, explain this:

1Co 7:19 For neither circumcision counts for anything nor uncircumcision, but keeping the commandments of God.

Circumcision was a representation of sacrificial law that was added due to sin.

Mat 9:13 Go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, and not sacrifice.’ For I came not to call the righteous, but sinners.”

Sacrificial law involved the people continually breaking the commandments, then sacrificing animals. Yahuah always desired that His people would just quit sinning. This was the original covenant at Mount Horeb that Jesus came to refresh.

Deu 5:22 “These words Yahweh spoke to your whole assembly at the mountain from the midst of the fire and the very thick cloud with a loud voice, and he did not add anything, and then he wrote them on two tablets of stone and gave them to me.

Isa 5:20 Ah! Those who call evil good and good evil, those who put darkness for light and light for darkness, those who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter!
Isa 5:21 Ah! Those who are wise in their own eyes and have understanding in their view!
Isa 5:22 Ah! Heroes at drinking wine, and men of capability at mixing strong drink!
Isa 5:23 Those who acquit the guilty because of a bribe and remove the justice of the innocent from him.
Isa 5:24 Therefore as the tongue of fire devours the stubble, and dry grass sinks down in the flame, so their root will become like the stench, and their blossom will go up like the dust. For they have rejected the instruction of Yahweh of hosts, and they have treated the word of the holy one of Israel with contempt.
Isa 5:25 Therefore Yahweh’s wrath was kindled against his people, and he stretched out his hand against them and struck them, and the mountains quaked, and their corpses were like refuse in the middle of the streets. In all of this his anger has not turned back, and still his hand is stretched out.

Jesus came to bring remembrance to the commandments, destroy evil and eventually write the commandments on our hearts.

Mat 19:16 And behold, a man came up to him, saying, “Teacher, what good deed must I do to have eternal life?”
Mat 19:17 And he said to him, “Why do you ask me about what is good? There is only one who is good. If you would enter life, keep the commandments.”
Mat 19:18 He said to him, “Which ones?” And Jesus said, “You shall not murder, You shall not commit adultery, You shall not steal, You shall not bear false witness,
Mat 19:19 Honor your father and mother, and, You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”

Jesus then told him to sell all his possessions and follow Him to be perfect. Some use the latter part of the story to negate the fact that Jesus said, “If you would enter life, keep the commandments.”. Jesus, or in Hebrew, Yeshua, tells us we cannot understand Him if we reject Moses.

Luk 16:27 And he said, ‘Then I beg you, father, to send him to my father’s house—
Luk 16:28 for I have five brothers—so that he may warn them, lest they also come into this place of torment.’
Luk 16:29 But Abraham said, ‘They have Moses and the Prophets; let them hear them.’
Luk 16:30 And he said, ‘No, father Abraham, but if someone goes to them from the dead, they will repent.’
Luk 16:31 He said to him, ‘If they do not hear Moses and the Prophets, neither will they be convinced if someone should rise from the dead.’”

This is not too hard to understand. Read the Bible and ask for understanding. Teach the holy covenant and flee from idolatry.

Mat 5:18 For truly, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the Law until all is accomplished.
Mat 5:19 Therefore whoever relaxes one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever does them and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven.
Mat 5:20 For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.

The featured image is by Darren Welsh on Unspalsh.