Counterfeit Guides

How can you and I avoid falling prey to false teaching or counterfeit truth?

How can you and I avoid being a victim of spiritual identity theft in a pluralistic, post Christian world? 

A reminder and a warning from John the apostle:

18 Dear children, this is the last hour; and as you have heard that the antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have come. This is how we know it is the last hour. 19 They went out from us, but they did not really belong to us. For if they had belonged to us, they would have remained with us; but their going showed that none of them belonged to us. 20 But you have an anointing from the Holy One, and all of you know the truth. 21 I do not write to you because you do not know the truth, but because you do know it and because no lie comes from the truth. 22 Who is the liar? It is whoever denies that Jesus is the Christ. Such a person is the antichrist—denying the Father and the Son. 23 No one who denies the Son has the Father; whoever acknowledges the Son has the Father also. 24 As for you, see that what you have heard from the beginning remains in you. If it does, you also will remain in the Son and in the Father. 25 And this is what he promised us - eternal life. 26 I am writing these things to warn you about those who are trying to lead you astray. 27 As for you, the anointing you received from him remains in you, and you do not need anyone to teach you. But as his anointing teaches you about all things and as that anointing is real, not counterfeit - just as it has taught you, remain in him.

1 John 2:18-27

John’s one word strategy to avoid counterfeit truth - REMAIN, REMAIN, REMAIN.

The word “REMAIN” comes from the Greek word “Meno” and means to abide, to stay, to be held fast by.

• Remain in Community.
• Remain in God’s Word.
• Remain in Christ.

Examples of False teaching of our day: 

• Relativism
• Christian Nationalism
• Legalism

The postures we take: 

• Cultural warriors
• Cultural capitulators
• Kingdom Ambassadors