KEY SCRIPTURE:2Ti 1:13 ISV Hold on to the pattern of healthy teachings that you have heard from me, along with the faith and love that are in the Messiah Jesus.”

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Over the years, it has become a known fact that false teachers are more dangerous than false prophets. A false  prophecy may normally affect  a generation ,a period or an event, while a false teaching can be trans generational. Arius, who lived between 256 and 336 AD, taught  that the Lord Jesus was a created being who was not co- eternal, or coequal with God, but was the highest of God’s creation. This is the very teaching the Jehovah’s Witnesses hold about Jesus today. Just consider  the multitudes that this erroneous doctrine has ruined. It is therefore a very important instruction given to Timothy and, by extension, to all pastors and Christians as well that they keep to sound doctrine.

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It is, therefore, very proper for every pastor or presenter of the word of God to hold on to very sound doctrines.

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What is the cause of wrong, erroneous doctrine? Most wrong doctrines proceed from error in the interpretation of the scriptures. These often come from the following reasons.

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1. Interpreting the scriptures from a preconceived  idea without observing the scriptures fairly, critically, and in an unbiased way. If one reads the scriptures through the lens that Jesus is just a created being, one would interpret the scriptures from that point of view.

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2 Secondly, people interpret  wrongly  because they do not read extensively to have a conclusive thought of the passage in question. They only have part of the whole thing. For example, in Ecclesiastes 3:19 the bible states that just as animals die ,so does man die,and there is one breath in each of them, giving man no preeminence above beasts. This is the interpretation given by Jehovah’s Witnesses. Reading further in the next two verses, it is explained that man’s spirit goes upwards while that of the beast goes downwards.

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3 Another reason why people go into error is when they carry certain doctrines too far or to the extreme limits. Any teaching taught without  a balance can veer into error.

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4 The next source of error is teachings that claim to be a new revelation that no one has taught before. Such teachings come with lots of excitement to the proponents of these teachings. The  excitement can make them overlook certain simple truths that could have kept them from continuing in that line of thought.

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What then is the way out of such erroneous teachings? The way out is always within the listed causes. If one carries a doctrine to its extremes, then he or she must avoid that and  stay within a balanced approach. Pray that the Holy Spirit would always help you to hold to sound doctrines.

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THOUGHT:DOCTRINAL ERRORS COULD BE AVOIDED BY BEING FAIR IN YOUR INTERPRETATIONS

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FURTHER STUDIES

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2Pe 3:16 KJV “As also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things; in which are some things hard to be understood, which they that are unlearned and unstable wrest, as they do also the other scriptures

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2Pe 2:1 KJV But there were false prophets also among the people, even as there shall be false teachers among you, who privily shall bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them, and bring upon themselves swift destruction. scriptures, unto their own destruction.”