Category: Articles

Rev. Mark Buetow

This is a series of articles explaining what the Apostles’ Creed teaches and why we use it in church and in our prayers.

The Third Article:
I believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy Christian church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body and the life everlasting. Amen.

The First Article of the Creed teaches us that God the Father made all things. The Second Article teaches that Jesus Christ is true God and true man, who was born, lived, suffered, died and rose again to take away our sins. The Third Article tells us what the Holy Spirit does. The Bible teaches, and the Creed therefore summarizes the work of the Holy Spirit this way: He delivers what Jesus did for us and thereby makes us holy. That is, Jesus died for our sins and rose again; He accomplished our salvation. The Holy Spirit delivers that salvation through the church.

The Christian church is where the Word of God is preached and baptism, absolution and the Lord’s Supper are administered and given. Through the Word (which is preached but also written in the Bible), the Holy Spirit turns the hearts of those who hear it to faith and trust in Jesus. Without these “means” or “instruments” or “tools,” the Holy Spirit doesn’t work. But through these gifts, we can be certain that the Holy Spirit is active and delivering Jesus and His forgiveness to us.

In fact, the Christian church is about nothing other than the forgiveness of sins. Jesus did not establish His church by the preaching of the Apostles and the sending of the Holy Spirit to be a place of correcting morals. He didn’t establish it to be a place of self-affirmation. He didn’t establish it as the center of judgment against what is wrong with the world. He establishes His church, through the work of the Holy Spirit, to forgive sinners. To deliver to the world the Good News that no matter what we’ve done, no matter what sins we have, they’ve been wiped out by His death and resurrection. Baptism, the absolution, the Gospel and the Supper all testify of this, proclaim it and deliver it.

But there’s even more! The Third Article of the Creed teaches and reminds us that just as the Spirit breathed life into Adam when he was created, so on the Last Day, the Spirit will breath life into us and our bodies will rise from the dead. Often we get sidetracked into thinking that eternal life is just our disembodied spirits floating around “heaven.” The Bible teaches there will be a new heaven and new earth and that our bodies will rise from the dead. In other words, ours will still be a physical existence, though we will be changed in that resurrection so that we never die again and every tear is wiped away.

There is always a temptation, when talking about the Holy Spirit, to make Him be some impersonal force or working of God which isn’t so much about the Lord as it is about what we want or feel or decide. People can do lots of things and then say, “Well the Spirit led me.” The Apostles’ Creed helps us by reminding us the Spirit’s job isn’t to be an excuse to do whatever we want. Rather, the Spirit’s job is to forgive our sins, and give us everlasting life, by giving us Jesus and His salvation. And the Holy Spirit doesn’t just do that anywhere, He does it in and through the Word and gifts he gives to us in the holy, Christian church.

Now hopefully you see that the Apostles’ Creed, though its words are not directly from the Bible, doesn’t teach anything that isn’t in the Bible. In fact, the Creed is just a short summary of what God’s Word teaches. When we say it in church, or in our prayers at home, we are simply hearing the summary of the what the Bible says. On the one hand, we glorify God when we speak the truth that He has revealed to us. This is an act of worship, as we speak His Word and hear who He is and what He has done for us. On the other hand, these words teach and remind us what the Truth is, so that we are not easily led astray by teachings and ideas that are not taught by God’s Word. The Creed reminds us of what is true and protects us from what is false.

So say the Apostles’ Creed! Learn it! Memorize it! Recite it! Pray it! The Apostles’ Creed is a gift because it fills our ears with the wonderful list of the Father’s, Son’s, and Holy Spirit’s gifts to us!

Rev. Mark Buetow

This is a series of articles explaining what the Apostles’ Creed teaches and why we use it in church and our prayers.

The Second Article:
And [I believe] in Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord, who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and was buried. He descended into hell. The third day He rose again from the dead. He ascended into heaven and sits at the right hand of God the Father Almighty. From thence He will come to judge the living and the dead.

The center, foundation, focus, emphasis, big deal and whole point of the Christian faith is Jesus Christ. But there are lots of Jesuses out there. So we learn and pray and recite the Apostles’ Creed to confess, teach and be reminded of what the Bible says about the real Jesus. Who is He? Why did He come here? What did He do?

Jesus is true God, the Son, eternally begotten of the Father. He is true man, having taken on flesh in the womb of the virgin Mary. So Jesus is God. Jesus is a man. He suffered, died, rose again. He ascended into heaven and will come back in a way we can see with our eyes one day. That’s why we call Him “Lord.”

Notice that the words of the Creed about Jesus are all about Him. Not us. Him. The sum and substance of the Christian faith is not us. It’s not our faith. It’s not how much we believe. It’s not how much we change or improve our lives. It’s not how we live or how holy we can act or seem. It’s about Jesus. Jesus being born for us. Suffering for us. Dying for us. Rising from the dead for us. Ascending into heaven for us. Coming back for us.

One of the reasons that we learn to recite and pray the Creed every day is that then our hearts and minds and ears will be filled with Jesus and not us. It’s very easy to make religion about how well we can fix what’s wrong with us. About how well we’re doing. About how we are better than others. The Creed doesn’t play that game. These words that the church pulled from the Bible put it to us straight and simply: Jesus saves sinners. He came to do all that He did to save us from everlasting death and separation from God. He came to forgive us and make us new.

The Creed reminds us, before we head out into the world, that the only Jesus that matters is the One who is Lord by saving us. The only Jesus that saves us is the One who gave His life for us. The only true God is the One who sends His Son and the Son who comes in the flesh to be our Lord and to rescue us from sin and death. The Creed reminds us of all that.

And we need to be reminded. We need to hear it daily. We need to rehearse it. We need to say it and believe it. That’s because we’re always inclined to look for the god who works on our terms. Fixes what we want fixed. Does what we want done. Makes me happier and better off. The Creed doesn’t play that game either. The Creed summarizes what the Bible teaches from front to back: We are doomed unless God saves us. So He does. And He does so by becoming one of us so that He can suffer and die like we do. Then He rises from the dead, doing what we can’t do so that one day we will do like He did: rise from the dead.

When you look at these words of the Creed, particularly these words of the Second Article (the second part, about the Son), there are really no other words which so simply, beautifully, and comfortingly tell us what God and religion and church and the faith are all about.

Learn these words. Recite them. Pray them. Cherish them. For in these few words, we have the summary of what the whole Bible is about: a God who becomes man to save us. The Creed tells us the “who” and “how” of what Jesus Himself says in John 3:17: “For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.” The Creed, then, is not just some man-made bunch of stuff. It’s a display case that illuminates and shows the beauty of God’s Word and what it says.

In the First Article of the Creed, we are taught that God is our Father. Here in the Second Article we are taught that God is our Redeemer, that is, the One who saves us from sin, death, devil, and hell. That’s worth hearing every day, not just in church but in our homes and always in our hearts and minds.

Rev. Mark Buetow

This is a series of articles explaining what the Apostles’ Creed teaches.

The First Article:
I believe in God, the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth.

The first thing that the Creed teaches us is that God is our Father. People like to stick lots of adjectives on God: He is almighty. He is all-powerful. He is present everywhere. He is mighty and eternal and so on and so forth. While those things are true, what matters most for us is that God is our Father. What do fathers do? Well, they give us life and, if they are doing their job, they provide for their children.

God the Father made everything there is out of nothing, by speaking it into existence by His Word. Last of all, He made man and gave everything else to him as a gift. When man disobeyed God and fell into sin, the Father promised He would send His Son to save us from our sins and make all things new again. The Creed teaches and reminds us that from the very beginning, the Father has made all things–including us–and still takes care of and preserves them.

Some earthly fathers abandon their children. They may hurt or abuse them or just leave them altogether. It’s hard for people who have experienced a bad earthly father to believe that they have a heavenly Father who is loving and gracious. But even if we have a decent family life, it is still hard to believe that God could be a loving Father when there is so much suffering and want in our world. Sure, the Father may give you health and provide you daily bread, but what about that person who is sick and dying or doesn’t have what they need?

When the Father made things, He made them in such a way that the things He makes do the work He wants. For example, in order to give life, the Father makes parents who have a child together. Through those same parents, the Father takes care of that child, providing all he or she needs. Therefore, if it seems like our heavenly Father is not doing something, the more likely explanation is that man and his sinfulness have intervened to ruin and corrupt things. In fact, since the Garden of Eden, we creatures have been turning our backs on our Creator and doing things our own way. We have, as it were, run away from home, telling our Father to stay away from us and leave us alone. And, doing that, we have the audacity to blame HIM for our problems when all He would do is love and provide for us!

But here is what makes our heavenly Father a great Father: He sends His Son to bail us out. To rescue us. To save us. God the Father would give up His own eternally begotten Son to suffering and death to bring us back to Him. Suddenly, God being our Father isn’t just about getting what we want or avoiding stuff we don’t like. God being our Father means that when His children don’t want Him, He sends His Son to save them. The simple fact is, God can never disown us and the proof He cannot is that Jesus died and rose from the dead.

When the Creed says that God is “Almighty,” that’s more than just super powers that can flood the earth or whip up a tsunami or let loose a volcano. The power and might of the Father is that He is merciful and saves sinners, at the cost of His own Son’s life!

When we speak and confess and recite and pray the words of the Creed, in particular the First Article about the Father, we are reminded and taught that everything we have comes from Him. And whatever we suffer, whatever we lack, whatever seems bad–none of that can overcome what the Father has given us in His Son. And what the Father has given us in His Son is everlasting life. It’s pardon for our offenses, rescue from the things that would ruin us, and the promise that because of what His Son has done, now we are the Father’s dear children forever.

To say, “I believe in God, the Father Almighty.” is to say nothing other than what God’s Word teaches. The Father has made all things. He made you. And even when you don’t acknowledge and thank Him, He sent His Son to save you. Such a heavenly Father, full of patience, grace, and mercy, is what the Bible teaches, and what the Creed says simply and clearly.

Rev. Mark Buetow

Friends, Romans and Youth, “Lent me your ear.” Ash Wednesday begins the Holy Season of Lent. What is Lent? Lent is a Holy Season of the Church Year lasting 40 days. But what is Lent about? Well, it’s not about things people borrowed from you and it’s not about that fuzzy stuff that sticks to your pockets. No, Lent is a season in which Christians pay close attention to Jesus going to the cross for sinners and taking the opportunity to receive even more of Christ’s gifts to us in Word and Sacraments. (Usually with the Supplemental Church Lenten Wednesday Service).

The season of Lent has a long history in the church. First of all, the 40 days of Lent remind us of a bunch of “Top 40s” in the Bible. There was the 40 days and nights that rained during the Flood in which Noah was safe in the ark. There are the 40 years of the Children of Israel wandering in the wilderness on their way to the Promised Land. There is the 40 days of repentance declared to the city of Nineveh by the prophet Jonah. Jesus was in the wilderness for 40 days fasting and praying when He was tempted by the Devil and laid the Word-of-God smackdown on the Evil One. There were 40 days after Jesus rose on Easter until He ascended into heaven. All of these “40s” were the basis for a time of reflection and devotion in the Church Year. The 40 days of Lent was a time to remember that God’s people are still in the “wilderness” of this life and our Lord is there taking care of us.

But, as sinners like to do, Lent gradually became a season that was less about Jesus and more about “me!” When sinners pulled a big whopper, the priests would say that they could only come back into the church after a time of fasting and prayer. That was the main part of Lent: the “penitents,” the people who had really blown it, were working their way back into the good graces of the Church. Think of it as a Spring Semester with no Spring Break. But, of course, that had more to do with people trying to overcome their sins than Jesus overcoming them for us.

So, after the Reformation, Lent was again given its place as a time to focus and rejoice on the suffering and death of Jesus for our sins. Sure, we think about our sins because they caused Jesus to go to the cross. But we rejoice that He went to the cross to take away our sins. Think of Lent as the time to pay close attention to what exactly Jesus has done for you. In Lent, we have more opportunities to hear the Good News that Jesus is our Savior and to receive His holy gifts of absolution and His body and blood.

But beware! Most people, when they hear of “Lent” only hear “giving something up.” Some people give up chocolate for Lent. Some give up TV or candy or other things they like. I once joked with my Dad that we should only use slow Internet for Lent. Why do people give things up? It has to do with the tradition of fasting. Fasting means having less of something or giving something up. That’s a good idea if there’s something that you really like so much it consumes you. Lent is the time to give it a rest and learn to live by God’s Word rather than the things you love more than God’s Word. But be careful! Some people think the point of giving something up in Lent is to deny themselves some pleasure and so make themselves more sad or mopey. Baloney! Remember: Lent isn’t about YOU. It’s about Jesus. If you want to give something up, give it up so you can have more Jesus not because Jesus will like you if you stop eating ice cream or brownies.

You might get ashes on your forehead on Ash Wednesday, the beginning of Lent. The ashes remind us that “we are dust and to dust we shall return.” But pay close attention! Those ashes are smeared on your forehead in the sign of the cross so that you never forget that the Lord came and died and rose for us crumbly piles of ashes. He gave Himself into death for our sins so that we, who die, will have eternal life with Him who rose again and conquered sin and death. So off we go into Lent! It’s solemn. But it’s not joyless. After all, how can we not rejoice when our Lord is headed to Calvary for our sins? He died and rose for us and that makes Lent a really great time of year! 40 days of what, you say? 40 days of Jesus all for you!

Rev. Mark Pierson

“Knowledge is power.” “It’s not what you know, it’s who you know.” “Know your enemy.” Popular phrases like these reinforce the notion that knowledge is of the utmost importance. Indeed, many people think being called “ignorant” is among the worst of insults. After all, who wants to be characterized as someone who ignores facts? Yet there is a religious position that actually takes pride in not knowing what is true or false. Agnosticism gets its name from the Greek prefix a- (no, not) and the noun gnosis (knowledge). Some have called it the “non-position position,” however, because its most basic belief is that one cannot really know what to believe.

Not Atheism, Not Relativism, But What?
Time after time, Christian apologists have successfully shot down the arguments of atheists, from the philosopher Nietzsche boldly saying, “God is dead,” to zoologist Richard Dawkins claiming “Evolution is a fact!” The evidence simply convinces most people of a higher power. But when it comes to who or what this higher power is, many seem content not knowing. Do you believe in only one God, or in many gods? “I don’t know.” Is God distinct from the universe because He made it, or is the universe itself sort of divine-like Mother Nature? “I’m not sure.” Do you believe in a personal deity who can be known, like the God of the Bible, or is “god”-just an impersonal force like in Star Wars? “Who can say, really?” And so Christians often get confused (if not annoyed) because agnostics not only doubt every basic belief of ours, but also the beliefs of everyone else.

This is partly due to globalization-the increase in knowledge of other religions, cultures, and worldviews. When people are confronted with a buffet of beliefs in the cafeteria of religion, some simply throw up their hands in despair. “How can we ever know which one is correct? But what agnostics don’t say is that all religious beliefs are correct, depending on how one views them. That is the position of relativism, which says there are many paths to the same “god”-that whole Jesus-is-true-for-you-but-Buddha-is-true-for-me nonsense. Agnostics, like Christians and atheists, realize that all religions contradict each other. So while they can all be false, they can’t all be true because that flies in the face of simple logic.

Humble Honesty or Skeptical Smokescreen?
It can be helpful to distinguish between two general types of agnostics. First, there are those who think there’s currently insufficient evidence for reaching definite conclusions about religion, but (and that’s a crucial but) they are willing to leave the door open for the possibility that something will convince them someday. Agnostics such as these hope to acquire some new evidence and discover the truth at some point, or at least be able to cross a few options off their list.

The second type of agnostic goes far beyond this and claims it is impossible for anyone to know what religious position is true. It’s not simply a matter of needing the missing pieces of the puzzle, but of declaring that the pieces will never be found. These agnostics not only claim they don’t know, but also that they can’t know.

When Arrogant Ignorance Knows No Bounds
In my experience, the first kind of agnostic is few and far between. That’s because they are genuinely humble about how little they know, and are willing to do some research in hopes of learning something. Conversation with this type of agnostic is generally more fruitful, because they are willing to listen and exchange ideas. However, talking with the second kind of agnostic can be more difficult. They regularly remain stubborn in their views, often using statements about how “nobody can know anything” as a trump card to shut down all conversation. Sometimes it seems like their insistent “I don’t know” is really “I don’t want to know.” Then agnosticism becomes a cop-out-an excuse that allows one to be lazy and not look for answers. Or it’s used to play an endless game of questioning, where nothing but 100% proof with absolute certainty will satisfy. It’s like children who keep asking “Why?” after every answer you give. When you finally say, “I don’t know,” they act like they achieved some grand victory when in fact they never really wanted an answer in the first place.

While agnostics are not always on the same page, one thing many seem to have in common is their dismissal of the specific truths of the Christian faith. Often times this is not just the result of globalization, but of someone or something (like a professor, textbook, webpage, or roommate) actively trying to point out supposed problems in the Bible. So while agnostics all say, “I don’t know what’s true,” many of them would add, “but I do know that the beliefs particular to Christianity aren’t.” The idea of progress is also considered important here. If we hold to the primitive and erroneous views of the Bible, the argument goes, then we’ll be closing our eyes to other options and miss the truth. It is a fair question to ask the agnostic, “How do you know that?” And, “How do you know that the Bible is as full of holes as you’ve been led to believe? Why don’t you doubt those who told you this as much as you doubt the text itself?” More often than not, a double standard is at work.

Indeed, by now you may have noticed some serious problems with agnosticism. To state flat out that we cannot know anything about religious matters is a claim of knowledge about religion. This view is therefore self-refuting. Likewise, not committing to any particular beliefs in favor of sitting on the fence indefinitely is actually a commitment in itself-a commitment to being non-committal. To be sure, there is nothing wrong with a healthy skepticism. Nobody should believe everything they hear. But there is also such a thing as unhealthy skepticism, which is dangerous. The truth will be missed if an unreasonable amount of certainty is demanded before knowledge is considered possible. Plus, it is inconsistent to apply such extreme skepticism to religious questions but not to other things in life. Imagine endlessly asking about whether the lunch your mom made was really poisoned, with no answers ever satisfying you. Eventually you’d starve to death!

You Shall Know the Truth
It is precisely when it comes to knowing the truth that Christianity alone has something to offer. Our God has not primarily made Himself known through philosophy or personal experience. Nor has He done so in creation or even by doctrines. Instead, the Christian God has revealed Himself first and foremost through a person-a real flesh and blood man who lived at an actual time and place, who said and did particular things. Knowing the truth about God depends on knowing the truth about this person, Jesus Christ. As a figure in history, Jesus has opened himself up to being investigated, to the evidence being weighed, and to a verdict being rendered based on the reliability of the testimony about Hm. So there is no need to throw one’s hands up in despair when deciding between Jesus and Buddha, Muhammad, Joseph Smith, or other religious leaders. Nor should anyone be stumped by questions about whether God exists and what He’s like. These all are answered-these are all known-by examining the evidence in the Gospel accounts of the One who is “God with us.” And in the end, faith is never something we can talk a person into. It’s the gift of the Holy Spirit who calls, gathers, enlightens and sanctifies us by the Gospel.

Agnostics may think they have the upper hand by remaining undecided, but there is no neutrality when it comes to Jesus. You are either for Him or against Him-period. As Christ Himself said, only those who know they’re sick will look for a doctor. Sadly, agnostics prefer ignorance, and thereby reject both the diagnosis and the cure. For those interested in the truth, however, you can point them to this Man who is Truth itself, whose historic life, death, and resurrection have set the world free from guilt, death, and religious ignorance. For if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.

Rev. Mark Pierson is assistant pastor at St. Paul’s Lutheran Church in Long Beach, California. He wrote the chapter entitled, “The New Testament Gospels as Reliable History,” in Making the Case: Case Studies in Christian Apologetics, eds. Adam Francisco and Korey Maas (St. Louis: Concordia, 2014). You can email him at markapierson@gmail.com.

Chad Bird

The chandelier is fashioned from fingers, toes, skulls, and a whole skeleton’s worth of other bones. There are chalices, candelabras, pillars, and other artwork, all forged from the remains of saints. In fact, over 40,000 people are crammed into this Sedlec Ossuary, a small church in the Czech Republic-at least, parts and pieces of them are. The obvious question is why? You might say that, inside this Bone Church, an artist has literalized the verse, “surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses” (Hebrews 12:1). These skeletal “witnesses,” gathered from the nearby church cemetery when the citizens eventually ran out of burying room, were artistically arranged to form this most unique architecture. And while it’s a bit creepy, this creation confesses a truth about which today’s church is often mute: that within the walls of God’s house, we are never alone. Now let’s slip inside another church. This one is worlds away from the Bone Church’s rather raw architecture.

Welcome to Lakewood Church, in Houston, Texas, where Joel Osteen serves as pastor. Maybe you’ve heard of this popular preacher or seen his books. Osteen’s congregation has mushroomed over the decades to out-mega all other mega churches. To fit everyone in, they transformed the sports arena, where the Houston Rockets used to play, into a 16,000-seat worship facility. One end of the stadium was gutted and remodeled to become what traditionally would be known as the chancel. Two 30-foot waterfalls gurgle and splash on either side of this platform. Three massive screens project images of the preacher or other worship leaders. Several hundred LED lights allow for multiple mood settings. What is most obvious, however, is what is absent: crosses and crucifixes, altars and icons, baptismal fonts and stained glass, along with just about everything a traditional church might have. And, needless to say, in Lakewood Church, there hangs no chandelier of saints’ bones.

So from this tale of two churches, what can we learn? When you visit other churches with friends, or check out churches around your college campus, does the art and architecture of those churches really matter? Is it all just a matter of taste and practicality?

Here’s the point: There was nothing haphazard in the construction of either of these churches. From the carpet color in Lakewood to the bone choices in Sedlec, the architects of each venue did not work willy-nilly. They had a theological “vision” for what a church should be, even on the level of the senses-how it should look, feel, sound, smell, and what kind of taste it should leave in your mouth. In short, doctrine determined design. Theology designed architecture, and architecture signaled theology. Sometimes, when you walk into a church, what you see is indeed what you get.

If you’re like me, you wouldn’t want to sip Christ’s blood from a chalice of human bones, but neither would you want to sip Starbucks from a comfy stadium seat while gazing at Osteen’s smile beaming from a monstrous screen. Somewhere between the super-earthy of Sedlec and the swank-and-sexy of Lakewood, there’s a church that captures the reality of what church is: a gathering of wounded, hurting sinners around the throne of God and the Lamb, surrounded by angels and archangels and all the company of heaven, to become united with the crucified and resurrected Christ. That’s the church we need.

I mentioned earlier that within the walls of God’s house, we are never alone. That’s because the church on earth and the church in heaven are not two churches, but one. And never are they more together as one than in the liturgy. Earthly soil becomes heavenly ground. We are surrounded by heavenly believers and angelic hosts. So why not make the invisible, visible in art? That’s one purpose of pictures and icons of the saints; those images remind us that the church is bigger than what we see. Also, since Christ is not only the central message, but the sole message of the church, shouldn’t the architecture proclaim the same? For example, crucifixes preach the only knowable God; altars, the table from which we feast upon the body and blood sacrificed for us; fonts, the bath in which the filthy garments of sinners are made white in the blood of the Lamb; incense, the smoke of supplications wafting upward to Christ’s throne. All of these, in their own way, serve the Gospel. They preach the God who became a man with all His senses, that we, with all our senses, might receive His life and worship him.

The art and architecture of a church deeply matter. They are the embodiment of theology. They should be catechetical, teaching the faith; beautiful, imitating the God who makes all things well; catholic, expressing the totality of the church on earth and in heaven; and Christ-centered, focusing upon the One who is the be-all and end-all of the church. For when people step into the space in which the Lord is present, the goal is not for them to say, :This is none other than a stadium!” or “This is none other than a practical place for worship and, afterward, basketball!” No, they should confess with Jacob, “This is none other than the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven!” (Genesis 28:17).

Chad Bird is a member of Crown of Life Lutheran Church in San Antonio, Texas. His email address is birdchadlouis@yahoo.com.

Chris Rosenbrough

False teachers and false prophets have been and will always continue to be a very serious threat to the Church and to each and every baptized Christian. In today’s postmodern society it is not considered politically correct to speak this way because people wrongly believe that everyone who claims to be a Christian is a Christian, regardless of what they believe, teach or confess. Yet, Jesus warns us in his Sermon on the Mount about false teachers and false prophets and describes them as wolves in sheep’s clothing and not has harmless people who should be ignored—or worse—tolerated. Here’s what our Lord said:

“Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves. You will recognize them by their fruits. Are grapes gathered from thornbushes, or figs from thistles? So, every healthy tree bears good fruit, but the diseased tree bears bad fruit. A healthy tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a diseased tree bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Thus you will recognize them by their fruits.” (Matthew 7:15–20)

Notice that Jesus warns us that false teachers and prophets disguise themselves to look like Christians. But also notice that Jesus says the sheep-like camouflage won’t work too well because we will be able to recognize the wolves by their fruits. So what are these bad fruits that make wolves easy to recognize? Answer: their messages.

One of the regular features on my radio program, Fighting for the Faith, is the sermon review. Over the past five and half years I’ve reviewed hundreds of sermons by the world’s most popular Bible twisters. Each one puts his own spin on the Bible and each one has concocted his own unique theology. Yet there is a common characteristic that each of these false teachers possesses: They preach about themselves, not Christ.

The Apostle Paul, when he warned the elders of the church in Ephesus about the false teachers who would be coming after his departure, gave them a simple way to spot the wolves:

“Pay careful attention to yourselves and to all the flock, in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to care for the church of God, which he obtained with his own blood. I know that after my departure fierce wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock; and from among your own selves will arise men speaking twisted things, to draw away the disciples after themselves. Therefore be alert.” (Acts 20:28–31)

Note well what Acts 20:30 says about the fierce wolves—they draw away the disciples after themselves. The 5th century Church Father Ammonius of Alexandria, preaching on this text noted:

“In order to draw away the disciples after them.” Heretics strive to make the people their own instead of the Lord’s, so that they might boast in themselves…Paul himself checked this beforehand when he silenced and censured those who were saying, “I’m Paul’s; I’m Apollos’s; I’m Cephas’s,” since he did not want their faith to be explained by the name of a person but by Christ’s name; he wanted them all to be called Christians, even though they had been taught by different teachers. Accordingly, whenever all the teachers strive for the same goal of proclaiming the true faith, of profiting the students while suppressing their own names, they are called, by the same name, Christians.1

The fruit of false teachers, prophets and ravenous wolves is easy to spot. If they preach themselves, not Christ, then they’re wolves.

Wolves preach about their lives, their victories, their dreams, their visions, their ideas, the tips and tricks they’ve discovered to achieve success. Jesus, if He’s mentioned at all by them, is merely held up as an example to be followed. The goal of their preaching is to convince you to apply the pastor’s insights and life tips so that you can be successful, just like the pastor is successful.

Faithful teachers of the one true faith, on the other hand, are not like wolves but are like the apostle Paul who said:

“But we have renounced disgraceful, underhanded ways. We refuse to practice cunning or to tamper with God’s word, but by the open statement of the truth we would commend ourselves to everyone’s conscience in the sight of God….For what we preach is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, with ourselves as your servants for Jesus’ sake.” (2 Corinthians 4:2, 5)

If you ever find yourself in a church where the pastor is preaching himself, not Christ, run! As a baptized sheep in Christ’s flock you must always remember that wolves are not harmless, they eat sheep! The pastor who preaches himself rather than Christ is working for the devil and is preaching himself and his congregation into the fires of hell rather than into Christ’s eternal kingdom. And when you hear the faithful preaching of Christ crucified and raised for sinners, then rejoice and give thanks for that faithful pastor through whom Jesus delivers His forgiveness and life and makes you a member of His own flock of dearly bought sheep.

1 Martin, F., & Smith, E. (Eds.). (2006). Acts (p. 255). Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press.

Chris Rosebrough is on the board directors of Higher Things and is also the captain of PirateChristianRadio.com and host of the Fighting for the Faith radio program.