I’m told the way they train bank tellers to spot counterfeit bills is to have them handle real money for long periods of time. As a result, they become so familiar with the genuine article that they don’t even have to look down when a counterfeit bill crosses their palm. They know right away.
In the same way, we as Christians should know the genuine article so well, we should be able to identify false teachings without much effort.
2 Corinthians 11:3-4 (ESV)
3 But I am afraid that as the serpent deceived Eve by his cunning, your thoughts will be led astray from a sincere and pure devotion to Christ. 4 For if someone comes and proclaims another Jesus than the one we proclaimed, or if you receive a different spirit from the one you received, or if you accept a different gospel from the one you accepted, you put up with it readily enough.
The Bible tells us to test all things (1 Thessalonians 5:20-21)
But, what sort of things are we to test? We are to test everything. We are to test our own beliefs (2 Corinthians 13:5) We are to test what the pastors and others in leadership teach us (Acts 17:10-11).
How do we test it? We test it by God’s Word. It and it alone is the standard by which we are to test everything. This is one important difference between Christianity and every other Major religion except perhaps Judaism, the instruction to test all things.
But, where do these counterfeits come from. Certainly, if they are different from what Scripture teaches and the folks are teaching you error, these people are sent from the counterfeiter himself. Many, no doubt, are sincere. Many live lives that make us blush with embarrassment as we look at our own. No doubt we should be living exemplary lives, but it is not our lives and how we live them that saves us. It is Who we know.
It is the counterfeit which tries to tell us works are needed for our salvation. It is the counterfeit that tells us we’re not holy in God’s eyes through Christ’s sacrifice. It is the counterfeit that tells us we cannot understand Scripture for ourselves.
Satan’s desire is to keep people from the truth. If that person is a non-believer, Satan wants to keep them lost at all costs. If the person is a believer, he wants to make her as ineffective as possible. Walter Martin used to say, “The next best thing to a non-believer is a sterile Christian.” There’s a lot of truth in that.
Let’s not be sterile Christians because we’ve accepted a counterfeit we haven’t examined, haven’t tested.
2 Timothy 2:15 (ESV)
15 Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth.
Believers Armed and Dangerous 