II Peter 2 - False Teachers

Today our focus passage is an entire chapter. I'd like for all of us to read it and consider it before we really dig in tomorrow.
Here is some background for us:
Probably most of us have been in the situation where one of our kids, or our family member, or someone that is close to us, is getting ready to leave the house. It has been raining/sleeting/snowing for about an hour (you can insert whichever one works for your corner of God's world!) and so you tell them to "fasten their seatbelt, don't go too fast, pay attention to other (crazy) drivers" .....why do we do that? They know all of that. They are not likely to leave the seatbelt hanging out of the door, squeal tires out of the driveway right in front of an oncoming truck, and belt down the highway at 80 mph. (Grin) But we remind them. Because we care, and we want them to remember the dangers that are at hand.
This second letter from Peter, the bold and impulsive fisherman who left his nets to follow Christ, is a series of reminders.....so far he has reminded us to go beyond just being a passive and comfort-zone Christian. He has told us to add to our faith all seven of the spiritual vitamins that we studied; he has reminded us that the Lord is certainly going to return; he has told us that the prophets and scriptures are reliable and true.
Now he is going to remind us that there are false teachers in our world.
We need to beware, and to take heed. We need to compare and consider their teachings and determine if they are true or false teachers.
There have always been, and will always be false teachers.

There were false prophets in the Old Testament. Do we remember the story of Micaiah? How about Elijah and the prophets of Baal?
First, let's look at Micaiah . . . we can read about this in I Kings 22.  This was in the time of the divided kingdom, and the king of Judah (Jehoshaphat) was visiting the king of Israel, Ahab. The king of Israel had been longing to retake a portion of the kingdom that had been conquered by Aram. Being a neighborly sort of fellow, Jehoshaphat said, "Sure, let's go take back Ramoth-Gilead, but first let's ask the Lord if we should." "No problem," says Ahab, and he consults his four hundred prophets, who are led by Zedekiah and are all saying the exact same thing.
"Attack, and the Lord will deliver the bad guys into your hand!"
I'm not sure why, but Jehoshaphat seemed to think it was a bit weird for all four hundred to be chanting the same thing, and he asked if there were any other prophets. Kinda like asking for a second opinion.
Ahab said, well, sure, but I don't like this other guy's prophesies because he's such a negative Nellie. He always tells me the Lord is against me, and things are not going to go well. But, hey, if you want to hear him, I'll bring him in.
So they fetch Micaiah, and the messenger tells him about the goings-on while they head to the threshing floor. The messenger implores Micaiah to give a favorable message, but the prophet affirms that he will tell whatever God gives him to say.
After mocking the four hundred by repeating their words in a sing-song manner, Micaiah gets down to business and tells the kings the real message from God. He tells about a meeting of heavenly hosts, in which a spirit volunteers to put a false message in the mouths of Ahab's prophets, so that the king will be enticed to go into battle -- to his death.
As we can imagine, this doesn't go over well.
First, Micaiah is struck in the face by Zedekiah, and then Ahab orders him to be thrown in jail and placed on a bread and water diet. Ahab must have been worried about the prophecy, though, because he disguises himself and goes into battle, hoping no one will know it's him. He is killed anyway, by a random arrow . . . and we don't hear of Micaiah again, although some say it's he who is the un-named prophet in I Kings 20; but I leave that for the scholars.
Have we ever felt like we are up against four hundred false prophets?
How about Elijah? He was victorious over eight hundred! The false prophets of Baal and Asherah danced and yelled and even cut themselves to try to get their gods to respond. Elijah showed everyone that YAHWEH was the only true God!

False teachers came under the scrutiny of Jesus, as well. Look at Matthew 7:15:

“Watch out for false prophets. They come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves. ¹⁶ By their fruit you will recognize them. (Matthew 7:15, 16a)

Sometimes it's difficult today to weed out the false from the true. We can scroll through channels on our cable television; we can thumb through books and pamphlets at a bookstore; we see all kinds of claims and statements from human beings who feel they have something significant to say. They want to teach.
But because false teaching can be dangerous, it is up to us to ask the Holy Spirit to help us determine which ones are true. And we can refer to this chapter in II Peter, because he gives us several characteristics that we can look for.
I hope that you will read the second chapter of II Peter and rejoin me for our studies this week!