How can I tell if a Bible teacher
is teaching error?

Everyone who teaches the Bible is prone to error. As James 3:1-2 says, "Not many of you should presume to be teachers, my brothers, because you know that we who teach will be judged more strictly. We all stumble in many ways. If anyone is never at fault in what he says, he is a perfect man, able to keep his whole body in check." There is a big difference, however, between stumbling along the way while seeking to walk along the right path and deliberately choosing the wrong path and leading others to follow it.

Bible teachers who stumble (myself included) are subject to four kinds of errors.

  • We tend to overemphasize some things to the neglect of others (Matthew 23:23-24).
  • We are too easily influenced by the opinions of others rather than standing for the truth no matter what (Acts 20:20, 26-27).
  • we tend to confuse the assumptions of our culture or tradition with the teachings of Scripture (Matthew 15:1-9).
  • We tend to make mistakes in our principles of Bible interpretation.
If you see us Bible teachers stumble, you can do them a big favor if you are willing to show us "the way of God more adequately," as Priscilla and Aquila did for Apollos (Acts 18:24-26). We will be grateful for your help.

Other Bible teachers, however, fall into a distinctly different category. They intentionally mislead their students. In Matthew 7:15-20, Jesus labeled them "false prophets" and "wolves in sheep's clothing," and he warns us to watch out for them. Yet he reassures us that we can identify them by their "fruits": the evil that results from their teaching. Paul also warns against "wolves" who will not spare "the flock" and whose teaching spreads like gangrene and whose folly will become clear to everyone (Acts 20:29-31; 2 Timothy 2:16-18; 3:1-9).

Both stumbling Bible teachers and false teachers commit many of the same kinds of mistakes in their interpretation of Scripture. Fortunately, the common errors have been listed and analyzed in two significant books: Twisting Scriptures: 20 Ways Cults Misread the Bible by James Sire, and Exegetical Errors by D. A. Carson. Here is a short summary of those errors.

The primary mistake is taking a verse out of its context and applying it in a way contrary to that context. This is surprisingly easy to do, and all of us must be conscientious to avoid doing it. For example, have you ever heard Bible teachers telling people not to let the failures of their past limit the possibilities of their future? They might quote Paul, who said, "Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus" (Philippians 3:13-14). But Paul is not talking about the failures in his past, but the reasons he has had to be proud of himself. The context is important, not just the applicability of the words themselves.