Christian Foundations

Christ – The Solid Rock and Anchor of My Soul

At the end of days, truth is under attack and lies will abound. That is why Jesus said watch out for false teachers and counterfeit religion. When faced with a similar situation at the turn of the century, evangelicals produced a work called the FUNDAMENTALS in 1909-1915. These writers: (R.A. Torrey [of Biola], B.B. Warfield [of Westminster Seminary], J.C. Ryle [devotional writer], G. Campbell Morgan [an expositor pastor], C.I. Scofield [of the study Bible], James M. Gray [MBI], A.T. Pierson [devotional writer]) distilled down the fundamental beliefs that distinguish a true believer from a false or counterfeit one. They boiled down all theology into seven essentials. They then presented and explained these seven doctrines in a multi-volume set of books called “The Fundamentals”. Here is their list of the seven essentials.  

1. INSPIRATION: The Inspiration and Reliable Historicity of the Bible.

2. CREATION: The error of Evolutionism and Darwinism.

3. DOCTRINE: The naming of the cults' errors [Jehovah Witness, Mormonism, Christian Science, Spiritism].

4. DEPRAVITY: The reality of sin.

5. SUBSTITUTION: Biblical salvation by faith through the grace of God.

6. IMPUTATION: The errors of Roman Catholicism.

7. CHRISTOLOGY: The Deity, the work, and the personal visible return of Christ. 

How to Spot a False Teacher 

These men were making a “most wanted” poster for believers—showing who the enemy of the truth was. So how do we spot these false teachers? What do these signposts pointing people in the wrong direction believe and teach? What is the message promoted by Satan’s legion of liars?  

Often it is not what they say—but what they don’t say that identifies them! What do false teachers deny? How do you spot a false teacher? There are clear signs of an apostate or false teacher: 

1. THEY DENY CHRIST IS THE ONLY WAY. 1 Timothy 4:1 Now the Spirit expressly says that in latter times some will depart from the faith, giving heed to deceiving spirits and doctrines of demons,
2. THEY DENY OUR LIBERTY IN CHRIST.  1 Timothy 4:3 forbidding to marry, and commanding to abstain from foods which God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and know the truth.
3. THEY DENY DIVINE POWER. 2 Timothy 3:4-5 traitors, headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, 5 having a form of godliness but denying its power. And from such people turn away!
4. THEY DENY BIBLICAL TRUTH.  2 Timothy 3:8 Now as Jannes and Jambres resisted Moses, so do these also resist the truth: men of corrupt minds, disapproved concerning the faith;
5. THEY DENY THE NECESSITY OF SOUND DOCTRINE.  2 Timothy 4:3-4 For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers; 4 and they will turn their ears away from the truth, and be turned aside to fables.
6. THEY DENY THE DEITY OF CHRIST.  2 Peter 2:1 But there were also false prophets among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you. They will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the sovereign Lord who bought them -- bringing swift destruction on themselves. (NIV)
7. THEY DENY THE REALITY OF CHRIST COMING AGAIN. 2 Peter 3:3-4 knowing this first: that scoffers will come in the last days, walking according to their own lusts, 4 and saying, “Where is the promise of His coming? For since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of creation.”
8. THEY DENY THE NECESSITY OF PERSONAL HOLINESS.  Jude 18 how they told you that there would be mockers in the last time who would walk according to their own ungodly lusts.
9. THEY DENY THE NECESSITY OF THE HOLY SPIRIT. Jude 19 These are sensual persons, who cause divisions, not having the Spirit.

 The World Detached from Truth--Shipwreck 

Love of the truth, as you saw yesterday in II Thessalonians 2, is the proof of salvation. Lost ones never receive a love of the truth so they never seek out and find Christ's offer of salvation.

To not love the truth leads to “shipwreck”; it meant that the ship you trusted to take you across the dangerous waters had failed you and you were not going to make it. If you lose your ship in the midst of the sea there is usually no hope, no place to go—and certain death. 

Think of the implications of being in a doomed boat. Not believing the truth about God means that all who count on a lie to get them safely to the other shore—are lost forever! 

1 Timothy 1:19-20 having faith and a good conscience, which some having rejected, concerning the faith have suffered shipwreck, 20 of whom are Hymenaeus and Alexander, whom I delivered to Satan that they may learn not to blaspheme. 

What can cause a soul to be shipwrecked?

• False teachers
• Belief in a false Christ

So how do we stay safe as these dark days cast their shadow across society, media, culture, and every other realm of daily life? Only one way—check the anchor of your soul. 

When the world darkens, culture crumbles, and truth dies—you know the end of the world is near. It is then that Jesus warned that the church would fill up with fruitless counterfeits. When that happens it is time for believers to brace for the storm that we know is coming. The waves will only increase. Spiritual darkness will only deepen as deceptions grow. These are days when we who know and love the Lord Jesus should reach into our hearts and grab onto our anchor line and feel it strongly holding us securely—tugging us homeward. 

Jesus is Our Anchor  

Hebrews 6:11-12, 18-20 And we desire that each one of you show the same diligence to the full assurance (plerophoreo - to overflowingly wear or hold or possess or have)  of hope until the end, 12 that you do not become sluggish, but imitate those who through faith and patience inherit the promises. 18 that by two immutable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie, we might have strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold of the hope set before us. 19 This hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast, and which enters the Presence behind the veil, 20 where the forerunner has entered for us, even Jesus, having become High Priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek. NKJV