Discernment

.

I exhort you,

brothers, to watch out for those

who cause divisions and temptations

contrary to the teaching which you have learned;

and stay away from them.

Rom 16:17

- A Personal Note -

Why do I dedicate part of this ministry to discernment? Formerly, I would have rather seen discernment as something unbiblical and unloving. But God and the study of His Word changed this dramatically. The first impulse came from a documentary that opened my eyes to leave in 2020 the leadership of a church that directly partnered with Kenneth Copeland and openly preached the Prosperity Gospel. The pandemic gave me the second impulse, when I fell for one of the numerous false prophecies and later investigated the very 'interesting' circles around Sid Roth. The last impulse then came through the happenings on January 6th, 2021 in the US, when I immediately started to investigate the team of spiritual advisors and the reasons why evangelicals had been so divided over political issues. I set up an anonymous website that is still active today, but had in the first days of the investigation one of the worst spiritual warfare of my life - with sleepless nights and much prayer. I was honestly scared how hard the enemy attacked my efforts.

Then finally in 2022, I took the courage to merge both ministries by adding this section, and to consecutively add discernment on Books, Movies and Music I previously recommended without having the sufficient discernment. It was a very difficult journey and I had to develop certain mechanisms in order to protect myself from harm, e.g. to rather read a transcript of a Youtube video than watch a potentially satanic ceremony that could harm me. I sometimes argued with God why He assigned me this burdensome part of my ministry, but now I am grateful to have acquired this knowledge & even wisdom, while not becoming bitter or hateful at the same time, but simply seeing this evil as a part of God's masterplan. I now pray that you may benefit from this knowledge - and love your brothers and sisters enough in order to share this discernment when you see them falling prey to those problematic teachers.

One last word - you might disapprove me for including celebrities / untouchables such as C.S. Lewis or Timothy Keller, but once you take your biases and our common tendency for Celebrity Christianity away, you will walk in a new light.

T he List

Who are problematic teachers we have to be aware of? This compact summary aggregates what more than 3000 articles reveal about problematic teachers, cults, movements and religions of our modern day. Consider this non-exhaustive list also as a prayer list - ask God to reveal the full truth to those teachers and to lead them to be a good influence in the future.

DISCERNMENT · FULL LIST

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Identification of False Teachers

But solid food is for the mature, for those who have their powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil. Heb 5:14
... you are not able to tolerate evil, and you put to the test those who call themselves apostles and are not, and you found them to be false. Rev 2:2
How do we distinguish good from evil?
How do we identify problematic teachers?
What are some good techniques / principles that help us discern?

DISCERNMENt · IDENTIFICATION

T ypes Of False Teachers

What does the Bible say about the different types of false teachers? Learn about the characteristics and biblical descriptions of Abusers, Anti-Christs, Charlatans, Dividers, False Prophets, Heretics, Prosperity / Word-Of-Faith Teachers, Speculators and Ticklers.

DISCERNMENT · TYPES