Some Marks of False Preachers
Well not all of them have to be present but here are some I've seen whether these false preachers be pro-Catholic or anti-Catholic. Preachers like Paul Washer and John MacArthur are in the same boat with me whenever I want to emphasize that false preachers will pay. Here are the common marks to look out for:
1.) Teaching works salvation.
Yup this is true. I have noticed that you can get seriously crazy with this one. Many pastors who teach works salvation are hypocritical at best, liars who get itchy whenever they are being attacked. Many of them teach the heresy of conditional security. One, eternal security or better yet known as the PERSEVERANCE of the saints does not teach the Christian can live any way they want. The works salvation group puts the cart before the horse, denies the preserving power of Christ that allows the saints to persevere to the very end and wishes to take credit for salvation. It's a very self-centered Gospel of "Me, myself and I." or from all the garbage from Unevangelical Outreach, one of its comics write, "I made it." No, I go to Heaven not by my merit but by the merit of God through Christ His Son. I will continue doing good works not because I'm persevering for salvation, I'm persevering because I'm now saved. True Christians do not fall away. It's pretty sad to see preachers like John F. Macarthur and Paul David Washer to be attacked as "Antinomians" even if they stress the differences of saved vs. unsaved. Clearly these preachers are so deluded in their pride.
2.) Teaching antinomianism and condoning sin.
If works salvation isn't the only one I am being wary of, it's antinomianism or false conversion. They have their easy believist doctrine that once you are saved, you are always saved but they pervert the truth of eternal security with the lie you can live the way you want. Friends, possessing eternal security does not permit one to live like devils, no it changes one's life. Ephesians 2:8-10 is clear that though salvation is not of works yet works validate faith. Martin Luther, Charles Spurgeon, John Bunyan, John Knox and John Calvin were among the strongest Protestant preachers who affirmed this, "Salvation is by faith alone but not by a faith that is alone." In fact, if you profess you are saved and I DO NOT even see the slightest change in your life, I really dare question your salvation. In fact, I have no reason to believe such people who live very sinfully without any remorse or chastising to be brothers and sisters in Christ. I was even disturbed at how many times I hear that, "You can be bad all you want and still enter Heaven." which is as heretical as works salvation. No, if you are saved, you definitely will change by God's grace! Wayward members have to be put away (1 Corinthians 5).
3.) Attacking the fundamentals of the Bible like the Deity of Christ, blood atonement of Christ, the bodily resurrection of Christ and the necessity of Christ's death and sanctification which is the heresy of modernism. It's absurd to how false preaching has even altered much of the Bible. Even those other translations like the New International Version or Good News still say that Jesus is Jehovah. In fact, if you are preaching a wrong Jesus, it's not salvation at all. Many of these quack preachers today have even gone as far as to even deny Hell to exist like when I was disheartened to learn how can a preacher who's so respected now believe there is no Hell? When this happens soon enough you'll see results like open tolerance of sins like homosexuality, pedophilia, pornography and adultery to name a few.
4.) Engaging in seeker sensitive preaching.
This is a reality that was attacked in the book "Hard to Believe" by John F. Macarthur. Seeker sensitive preachers is all about "feel good" and "feel better". A strong warning is that such preachers focus on a Madison Avenue Jesus, never mind the hard part of discipleship or you may want to focus on the prosperity gospel of The Baal Network. These preachers because of their seeker sensitive preaching use the prosperity or feel good gospel to make a quick dollar. While I definitely believe a church needs money to survive but these people operate unethically. You might want to think about how these people only preach what people want to hear. I am sick and tired of such preaching. In fact, you might want to consider many of these pastors are also Freemasons. The Bible calls them in 2 Timothy 4:3 will not endure sound doctrine but go after lusts. Jeremiah 5:31 is a very strong condemnation of this! This is what gets them popular and super wealthy. They even get invited to secular talk shows without getting angry comments.
5.) Ecumenical yokes with the wrong crowd.
This is something where many (not all) works salvation preachers end or how many popular preachers land into that crowd. In fact, many of these false pastors are openly Jesuit agents. You see Jesuit priests in their pictorials, you see them have fellowship with the Pope, you see them preach an ecumenical doctrine and embrace Roman Catholics as brothers and sisters in Christ.
6.) Making up quack prophecies.
The Bible warns in Deuteronomy 18:22 about false prophets and not to be afraid of them. It's the same with the New Testament, the only law that was repealed was the ceremonial law. What I am aware is that quack prophets are always more popular than true prophets. The prophets of the Bible speak accordingly to what God wants them to speak. These quack prophets have managed to gain some popularity with some "supposedly correct predictions" which they may have artificially fulfilled. In fact, what's also so amazing is how even if their predictions fail, they still are popular because they "prayed that the world will not end". Who remembers these dates? You have 1/1/2000, 5/21/2011, 10/21/2011 and 12/21/2012 which were said to be end dates or should I say supposed Rapture dates? The late Harold Camping's death may be the only thing the Mayan Calendar got right.
7.) Quarrelsome attitudes can mark them as well. Pastors are required not to be quarrelsome but false pastors can be very quarrelsome and abrasive. The reason is this- if you know what you are preaching is the truth you don't get so offended when you are questioned compared to those who are preaching a lie. When false preachers are questioned, they tend to be very quarrelsome and start picking fights, writing bad articles about others, etc. In fact, some of them even love to debate and if you refuse to agree with them or to debate with them, they write they won and brag all they want. I really have no business dealing with pastors who are highly chaotic individuals with abrasive personalities. In fact, why they get itchy whenever they are questioned is because they know they are lying for their own convenience. I usually leave them alone rather than hit back at people. In fact, I would even dare say a preacher who hates people and preaches hate like, "I pray that Obama will die and got to Hell." or "Thank God Michael Jackson is in Hell." is also a false preacher. Anti-Catholic or pro-Catholic, it's the same heresy.
8.) Double-standard lifestyle.
Works salvation preachers are also very double-standard which is why I pretty much get irritated by their presence. I am amazed at how some opponents of eternal security turned out to be a homosexual preacherm another was guilty of pedophilia with various girls in his old age, another makes up stuff about people he hates showing himself like he's the unforgiving servant, another was guilty of covering up some diamond smuggling operations- all these prove they CANNOT keep the whole Law. The problem is is also that because of the grace of God really absent in their lives, they cannot practice true holy living. In fact, even one Arminian pastor I have read about was really guilty of several financial frauds. On the other hand many salvation by faith preachers are polite and humble. In fact, I've seen Paul Washer never taking credit for anything or as Ray Comfort loves to stress, "The true convert blooms in good works yet remains believing his salvation is by grace through faith." In fact, their double standard proves I don't need to mention their names, they're mentioning it themselves!
9.) Hoarding wealth from the pulpit.
While I believe in giving tithes and offerings as the standard of giving however pastors should NEVER hoard them for themselves. The tithes and offerings are meant to be meat at the storehouse for the use of evangelization NOT the pastor's bank account. The pastor has to distribute the money among deacons and allocate the rest for the necessary expenses. Pastors should be living modestly and humbly, not living in beautiful mansions or having private jets. That's been my issue with the Jesuit coadjutor preachers- they openly has all that wealth and use their private jets to visit the Vatican. In fact when John Paul II died, how easy was it for Benny Hinn and Joel Osteen (with their friends) to attend the funeral of the late Pope that time because they had a private jet! It's no surprise that many of them are also with the Vatican considering the Vatican has amassed a lot of ill-gotten wealth as well.
Closing words:
Well I have presented some of my cases. In fact, let's really get the Gospel preached as it should really be- only Bible-based. Rather than get mad, I can only pray for their salvation because I mean if a false preacher like Saul of Tarsus can be saved and become Paul of Tarsus, I find no reason not to pray for these heretics either.