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

scriptural. People who do so are not “rebels,” they are, as Luke says, “of more noble character.”

There are different reactions that we can have to new truth.

1. We can reject immediately without even giving it a fair hearing. This is skepticism and it is folly (Pro. 18:13).

2. We can accept it immediately without any examination of or testing of the truth. This is dangerous. We are to test all things (1 Th. 5:21). This is gullibility. 3. We can be like the Bereans. We can receive it with a good spirit and search it out to discover if it is true. This is wisdom. The third area that requires discernment is in relation to our own hearts (Ps. 139:23-24). We are all weak and vulnerable as believers. The more we acknowledge our own vulnerability the more we can keep from being personally deceived. The more we realize how much we need the Lord the more success that we will have. As we study this area in the pages ahead, we have to open our own hearts up to the Lord and allow Him to examine us and remove any of the things that might lead us to be those who could be labeled false. At the same time, we need to examine our hearts to see if there is anything in us or our thought processes that makes us particularly vulnerable to the deceptive teaching or practices of ministries that might be labeled false. Search me, O God, and know my heart; try me, and know my anxieties; and see if there is any wicked way in me and lead me in the way everlasting. Psalm 130:23

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