Watchout For WOLVES: Keys To Discerning Authentic Ministries & Evaluating Doctrinal Trends

Chapter 6 Defining “Current Trends”

In this chapter I am transitioning from looking at true and false ministries to looking at true and false doctrines or teachings that can easily infiltrate the church world. This has been a problem since the inception of the Church in the First Century A.D. Paul had to deal with many false teaching whether he was dealing with a misapplication or Jewish law of the Old Covenant to the New Covenant in the Church Age or the blending of Christianity with secular philosophy. The other apostolic writers also had to deal with the synergistic tendencies of the First Century to blend Christianity with other “ism” of the day. One of the most prominent of these was the blending of the tenets of Christianity with Gnosticism. Both Peter and John dealt with some of these abuses in the letters that they wrote to the churches of their day. Paul warned in Ephesians 4 that the church could easily be blown about by every new wind of doctrine that might come their way (4:14). If you have lived any length of time in the Christian world, you know that we go through seasons where a new wave of doctrinal emphasis seems to periodically land on the beach. Much of what occurs has a very positive element to it. But there is also the tendency for it to come with some mixture. This is true because these teachings come through imperfect vessels.

These waves on the beach might be called “current trends” in the Body of Christ.

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