Our theology tends to come from whatever we trust. The fact that a writer or teacher has some good insights along the way makes the heresy all the more effective. Hand somebody undisguised rat poison and they won’t eat it. Cover it in chocolate, and they likely will. All effective heresy contains much that is true—it’s the chocolate that deceives us into eating rat poison.

First Timothy 4:1 says, “The Spirit clearly says that in later times some will abandon the faith and follow deceiving spirits and things taught by demons” (“doctrines of demons” in some translations). False doctrine is more than errant human opinion. Often its source is in another world, where evil spirits labor to deceive us. Ironically, demons know true doctrine better than we do—making them all the more effective in obscuring and twisting it: “You believe that there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that—and shudder” (James 2:19).

A remarkable statement is made in 1 Timothy 6:3-4: “If anyone teaches false doctrines and does not agree to the sound instruction of our Lord Jesus Christ and to godly teaching, he is conceited and understands nothing...”

A rather blanket condemnation, but nonetheless, that’s what Scripture says. What strikes me is the first description that comes to Paul’s mind, as prompted by the Holy Spirit: before all else, a teacher of false doctrines is regarded as conceited. Why? I think it’s because he chooses his preferred doctrines over God’s revealed doctrines. And that is not just error, it is the ultimate conceit. It says, “I trust my own opinions and perspectives [which are often identical to the current drift of a person’s culture] more than I trust God’s.” Hence, he is putting himself in God’s place. He makes himself God.

The judgment upon the false prophet is serious indeed (capital punishment in Old Testament). The burden laid on Bible teachers in the New Testament is heavy: Titus 2:1 says, “You must teach what is in accord with sound doctrine.” That’s a good verse to put on our desks and screens. And hence, James says, “Not many of you should presume to be teachers, my brothers, because you know that we who teach will be judged more strictly” (James 3:1).

There is humility in submitting to God’s revealed truth even when we do not like its implications, or wish it were otherwise. The doctrine of eternal hell is a prime example—I do not “like” it, but I accept and submit to it, and recognize any of my instincts and arguments against it are but straw. Jesus spoke more of it than anyone—who am I to suggest some way around a doctrine that Christ embraced and taught?

Consider the vested interests that demons have in our not believing in Hell! If I were to join many people in saying “There is no eternal hell” or “No one will go to hell,” I might fancy myself civilized and compassionate, but in fact I would simply be a heretic, trusting in my insights and doctrines over my Lord’s—and hence proving that I or my culture, not He, is my real “Lord.”

When it comes to books, many imagine that nonfiction is teaching and fiction is not, hence that nonfiction relates to doctrine and truth, but fiction doesn’t. That’s simply not true. I have written several novels, and over the years I’ve discovered that fiction is a different form of teaching, less didactic of course, but sometimes even more effective. Fiction has a Trojan Horse effect, wherein the novelist’s worldview is allowed unguarded entry into the gates of the reader’s minds. Often that worldview subversively (for better or for worse) comes out and does its work under cover of darkness, sometimes overthrowing the mind that opened its gates, having no thought to what was hidden within the story. Perspectives are changed and belief systems are modified—sometimes radically—regardless of the author’s intent. Hence, not just pastors and seminary instructors, but novelists are the teachers of James 3:1 who will be judged more strictly.  

This is why I encourage all Christians to study sound doctrine. It will prove of strategic and eternal importance to ourselves, those we influence, and most importantly, our Lord.