Lin

There was another comment on Wade’s blog that I thought made a very important point. The commenter said something to the effect of whether God is building the church or man. One thing we need to realize is that man CAN build large churches that have very little to do with Him.

A wolf can have what looks to be good doctrine.

My friend, Cindy K, shared this with us a while back and it is worth repeating here:
Dr. Paul Martin on Doctrine/Behavior

Dr. Martin also included some interesting information about what the Bible has to say about false teachers and wolves in sheep’s clothing.

Of the 210 verses that refer to false prophets, priests, elders and Pharisees, here is a summary of their content:

99 verses (47%) concern Behavior
66 verses (31%) concern Fruit
24 verses (13%) concern Motives
21 verses (10%) concern Doctrine

It is interesting that most Christians who deal with apologetics, false teachers and Bible-based cults are most concerned with doctrine only. When discussing the patriarchy movement on SharperIron.com and ibelieve.comearlier last year, I was told by many that it was not appropriate to discuss much of anything save these folks’ misuse of Scripture. But doctrine represents only a small portion of what Bible speaks about concerning false teachers, essentially only 23% of what the Bible points out as problematic.
According to the Scriptures, we should be very concerned with both the behaviors and the fruit of spiritual leadership in the church and in parachurch organizations. This is not gossip or mean-spirited criticism but what Scripture actually teaches us to observe.
Dr. Paul Martin (an evangelical Christian) is CEO and Founder of the
Wellspring Retreat & Resource Center