False teaching went on in Biblical times. It is a much greater problem today.
You may still be at an age when you think all teachers are right. We should have pity on false teachers. Many times they have been taught the wrong way themselves. Our guide should be the Lord Himself, though.
For instance, He says that a false prophet is anyone who claims that something will come true, and it doesn’t come true. It doesn’t matter if 99 out of 100 things this person says come true, and one doesn’t. That one that doesn’t makes the person a false prophet in God’s eyes. Such a person might be very wise in some areas. It might be good to listen to that person in those areas they’re good in. But, again, it might not.
Remember Part I, section D(2)(c)(ii), where we saw Solomon’s son, Rehoboaam? That narrative, in 1 Kings 12:7-16, isn’t about false teaching. However, again, we can apply it to teaching, to show that disaster can strike when we listen to the wrong teachers. Godly advice is needed so you can know which teachers are telling the truth about Jesus about themselves, and so on, and which ones are not. That means learning and practicing discernment. This is a gift God gives everyone, though some more than others, because He wants His believers to be close to Him.
A good example of false teaching is something called the “prosperity Gospel.” As we saw in Part II, not everyone is meant to be rich. It’s not a lack of faith that keeps some people from having gobs of money. It’s that God has different plans for them. Job, after all, had incredible faith, and yet he lost everything and got very sick.
Some of the people who preach this mean well, but they are reading too much into the Bible. They have their minds too much on the riches of this world, so they don’t think about the fact that God’s riches are eternal. They are the kind that don’t fade away. Why would God give everyone something that’s going to lose value and won’t last forever? He has plans for some people to have it. He just doesn’t plan for everyone to have it.
God will give you what you need, of course. But, He also expects you to do your part. Take a miracle that happened right before Elisha’s encounter with the Shunnamite woman. 2 Kings 4:1-7 tells of a widow whose sons were about to be taken as slaves to pay a debt she owed. Elisha told her to gather a bunch of containers. She had a little oil, and God multiplied it so it filled every container. She sold all that oil and was able to pay the debt. This is another great example of how God will provide just what we need, when we need; and sometimes in miraculous ways. He never wanted creditors to be so mean as to take people as slaves, anyway. However, He also let Joseph have lots of problems in Egypt, because it was for the good of saving his whole family.
