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

with sins, led away by various lusts, always learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth. 2 Timothy 3:6-7

Other translations translate this passage…

Weak- willed women… --NIV Vulnerable women … --NLT

Th e Message Bible reads this way…

These are the kind of people who smooth-talk themselves into the homes of unstable and needy women and take advantage of them; women who, depressed by their sinfulness, take up with every new religious fad that calls itself “truth.” It is important to understand that deception is not a women’s or men’s issue here. We are all vulnerable at times and, therefore, susceptible to deception. However, it must be said that women tend to have a more trusting nature that can often be exploited by those with impure motives in both the business and the church world. I know that this may seem a sexist thing to say, but just ask any auto mechanic. Fourthly , false ministries prey on the wounded and vulnerable (Jer. 6:13-15). In the Old Testament Jeremiah identified such ministries. “From the least to the greatest, they trick others to get what does not belong to them. Yes, even my prophets and priests are like that! They offer superficial treatments for my people’s mortal wound. They give assurances of peace when all is war. Are they ashamed when they do these disgusting things? No, not at all-- they don’t even blus h! Therefore, they will lie among the slaughtered. They will be humbled beneath my punishing anger,” says the LORD. Jeremiah 6:13-15, NLT

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