PerryDox – BeJustAChristian

Like reverse engineering, we can take the book of Galatians and learn how people persuade others to follow false teaching:

1. Discredit Leader (1:1) – Paul immediately defends his apostleship because one way to dissuade people from believing what they already believe is to discredit those who teach it. Beware of those who insult and smear in order to make their point.
2. Be Secretive (2:4) – When people are unwilling to stand in front of all to teach, but would rather do some privately, behind the backs of others, they can be sadly effective. Beware of those who are secretive in how they teach.
3. Fear (2:12) – That Peter, an apostle of Jesus, was someone afraid of the party of the circumcision astounds me while frightening me. Beware of those who use fear falsely to peer pressure.
4. Divide and Conquer (2:12-13) – Dividing people into cliques is another way of conquering. This is even more effective when those who refuse to eat with others, as is the example in Galatians 2, do so based upon a false holiness.
5. Use Scripture (3:6-29) – False teachers will commonly misuse the Bible. I would not be surprised if the argument the Judaizers used was, “Abraham and Moses were circumcised; one received the Promises and the other the Law. If God wanted them to practice circumcision, then who are we to teach otherwise?” Beware of slick biblical arguments that sound good on the surface.
6. Boast About Others (6:13) – Everyone loves a compliment, but sometimes it is self-serving instead of building up of others. Beware of those who use you to get what they want.

There probably are more methods within Galatians. But beware, Satan can use the opposite of these too:

1. By applauding leaders while suggesting they brought you to a good spot, but now it is time to progress further.
2. By being open and bold about what they believe.
3. By supporting and building comradery.
4. By including as many as possible.
5. By causing doubt in scripture.
6. By destroying others through various methods.

Be aware of the lessons we learn from Galatians such as anyone can be turned away by any one of the above methods. Beware.

Tags:

This entry was posted by PHall on Thursday, April 8th, 2021 at 9:12 am and is filed under Galatians. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.