HOW FALSE PIETY UNDERMINES SOUND
DOCTRINE
A Call to Repentance by
Gary Ray Branscome
“I fail to do the good that I want to do: but do the
wrong that I do not want to do” (Romans
One of the problems that Christ had to deal with was false piety; that is the
outward show of piety by those who were trying to please God by following
certain rules or doing certain things. Because these men (the Pharisees)
followed a strict set of rules they seemed very holy in the eyes of their
contemporaries, but God was not the least bit impressed (Matthew 23:25-26). The
Pharisees claimed to be keeping the Law, but they totally ignored and explained
away any part of the Law that revealed their sin or called on them to confess
their sin and seek God’s mercy. The entire system of animal sacrifice was set
up as a way of requiring them to admit their sin and look to God for mercy
(Hosea 6:6). However, they were so intent on making themselves righteous that
and they blinded themselves to that fact and turned animal sacrifice into
another work aimed at earning God’s favor (Matthew 9:13).
Since that time human nature has not changed. Today we
have people who make the same mistake. I am not talking about false religions
and cults that teach works-righteousness, but about the members of Christian
churches, and even entire congregations, who claim to trust in Christ while
looking to their own efforts, and the rules they follow, to please God and
bring His blessing. These are not evil people. In most cases they sincerely
want to be righteous, but are struggling with the flesh. And, because of that
struggle they want to be motivated by the law. They want to believe that God is
pleased with them because they do not give in to the flesh. And, that is where
they are double minded. They know that all of their “righteousnesses
are like filthy rags,” (Isaiah 64:6). Yet they delude themselves into believing
that those filthy rags will bring God’s favor.
Once when I was explaining this, I was asked, “What
should we do, just let go and let God?” To that question I say, No! We should
resist the flesh. The Bible teaches that (Romans 8:13 and 13:14). However, we
should never deceive ourselves into believing that our puny efforts will bring
God’s favor. The minute we start believing that our own efforts bring God’s
favor, we are trusting in those efforts to bring God’s favor instead of
trusting in Christ. It is the blood of Christ and Christ alone that cleanses us
of all sin, and it is that cleansing that brings God’s favor, not what we do.
How False Piety Leads to Self-Deception
Because the Law was given to show us our sin and need
of God’s mercy, the Law will always condemn us no matter how many rules we keep
(Romans 3:19-20). Therefore, the only way that we can ever please God is by
admitting our sin, being sorry for our sin, and looking to Christ for
forgiveness (Hebrews 11:6). For that reason, those who have convinced
themselves that God is pleased with them because of the rules they keep are
deceiving themselves.
People are usually quick to point out the sins of
others, while excusing their own faults. They condemn others, but if they fail
to keep all the rules they usually have some “reason” that they use to justify
themselves (Luke 16:15). However, God is not fooled by their self deception
(Job 9:20). Instead of justifying themselves, they need to ask themselves,
“What if God has a much higher standard of right and wrong than I do? What if
His standard is so high that He would condemn all my efforts at making myself
righteous?” They need to ask themselves those questions because that is exactly
what the Bible is saying when it says that, “all of our righteousnesses
are as filthy rags” (Isaiah 64:6).
Paul’s Epistle to the Galatians was written to condemn
and expose that sort of self-deception. Because the believers in Galatia were
eager to do God’s will, they were easily taken in by those who said, “If you
really want to be righteous you need to keep the Law” (Galatians 2:2 and 3:10).
That claim seemed very pious to them. But, they failed to see that by trusting
in the Law to make them righteous, they ceased to trust in Christ (Galatians
5:4, Romans 9:31 – 10:4). Nevertheless, there are many who make the same
mistake today. Because of what Paul wrote to the Galatians they may not try to
keep all of the Jewish laws, or claim that keeping the rules is what makes them
righteous, but they often delude themselves into thinking that the rules they
keep are what pleases God or what makes them “holy” in God’s sight and that is
self deception (1John 1:10, Hebrews 10:10).
How Self-Deception Leads To Rebellion
Because those who are trusting in their own efforts to please God look only at
the rules they keep, while blinding themselves to those sins that make all of
their efforts at righteousness “as filthy rags” in the sight of God, they are
in rebellion against God (Isaiah 64:6). I have encountered numbers of people,
who profess to trust in Christ, but live in fear of God’s wrath; because they
have convinced themselves that God guides them through “a still small voice” in
their head, or by feelings and impressions, and that they will experience His
wrath if they do not “obey” these spiritual directions. In fact, I heard one
pastor tell a congregation that when God called him to preach he did not want
to preach so God caused his son to die, as punishment for refusing to “obey”.
Have you ever heard anything worse? If that man did not want to preach, then he
was not called by God to preach (1Timothy 3:1). And, because he chose to “obey”
imagined spiritual directions rather than God’s Word, he has slandered God over
and over again by portraying Him as some evil ogre who kills babies in order to
force people to “obey” unwritten directions.
The people who are under this delusion are worse off than the believers in
Galatia. At least the believers in Galatia had a written Law to go by, and,
therefore, could see where they fell short. But the people under this delusion
do not have anything to go by other than feelings, impressions, and voices
which they think may be some sort of communication from God. Nevertheless,
because they regard “obedience” to such communication as pious, they will often
follow it even when it directs them contrary to God’s written Word.
One obvious example of going contrary to God’s Word can be seen in the
prevalence of women preachers. Even though the Bible says that women are not to
teach men or hold authority over them in the congregation, those admonitions
are ignored by those who think that it is more pious to preach than to “obey”
God’s Word (1Timothy 2:11, 1Corinthians 14:34-35). This same rebellious
attitude toward God’s Word has led others to explain away what the Bible says
about creation (Exodus 20:11), the atonement (1John 2:2), the resurrection
(John 6:40), church discipline (1Corinthians 5:1-5), willful sin (Hebrews
10:26), and even homosexuality (Romans 1:24-28).
Although the people who are caught up in false piety can be very strict about
keeping certain rules, they blind themselves to many sins. I know of one couple
that was very strict about such things as tithing, church attendance, and women
dressing in a certain way. However, a neighbor of theirs told me that she could
hear them screaming at each other, and saying awful things to each other in
their home. That is one reason that I stress the fact that true Piety consists
of looking for our own sins, condemning our own sins, seeking God’s
forgiveness, and trying to remove those sins from our lives. It should be
obvious that we cannot correct a fault if we refuse to see it, or make excuses
for it. We need to be our own worst critic.
Those who are caught up in false piety often play free and loose with the
truth, as long as it seems pious to do so. They will often divide churches over
some issues they think are important, but will ignore false doctrine (such as
women preachers, or worse) in the name of peace. And, because they look for
spiritual communication outside of God’s Word (feelings, impressions etc.) wind
up reading unscriptural ideas into the text of Scripture, while explaining away
any passages of Scripture that contradict their ideas.
Now, before going further I want to clarify something. Those who read
unscriptural ideas into the text of Scripture, while explaining away any
passages of Scripture that contradict those ideas, undermine sound doctrine by
teaching others (by their example) to read ideas into the text and explain away
anything that does not fit. They also undermine sound doctrine by what they
teach, and by giving young people the impression that the words of Scripture
are no more reliable than these spiritual “voices,” feelings and impressions
that lead them first one way and then another.
Instead of looking at those truths of Scripture that are so clear they need no
interpretation, and then interpreting the unclear passages in the light of what
the clear passages teach, they are drawn to the unclear passages in the vain
hope of coming up with some explanation that no one else has. Of course, such
an explanation would be a private explanation (and therefore not of God, 2Peter
1:20) but that does not even enter their mind. They are so infatuated with
their own importance that they boldly teach their own “interpretations” as the
Word of God (thus lying in God’s name) while explaining away any passages that
contradict their ideas (thus rebelling against God). Yet they are blinded to
their rebellion, thinking of themselves as pious because of their works.
As a result, they tend to fight among
themselves over doctrines that do not consist of what the Bible says, but of
man made interpretations strung together, with every actual statement of
Scripture being twisted to fit those bizarre interpretations. Then when they
grow weary of fighting, instead of going back to what the Bible says they turn
against doctrine, calling it unimportant, while remaining oblivious to the fact
that the doctrine God wants taught is so clearly stated in Scripture that its
needs no interpretation. For example: the doctrine of creation is so clearly
stated in Scripture that the only people think it needs to be interpreted are
those who do not want to accept what God has said.
How God Exposes Them as False Prophets
Because those who are caught up in false piety blind themselves to anything in
the Bible that condemns them, they lack wisdom. And, one aspect of blinding
themselves to their own sin has to do with blinding themselves to the passages
that their interpretations contradict. Because they look outside of God’s Word
for direction they often place more importance on private explanations of
obscure passages than on what the Bible clearly says. For example: In the
thirteenth chapter of Revelation, John tells us of seeing (in a dream/vision) a
beast with “seven heads and ten horns”. In verse 3 he tells us that, “One of
its heads appeared to have been slain; but its deadly wound was healed”. I have
heard many end-times preachers claim that this head that, “appeared to have
been slain” is a future “world ruler” who will be killed and then rise from the
dead. However, anyone who is honest will admit that the Bible says no such
thing. It is all just an explanation that someone made up. But, those who are
caught up in this end-times mindset are blind to the obvious. They will stand
up and spout all of these explanations (which are the word of man), but ignore
the word of God when it tells us that the “head” on the beast (that has “seven
heads and ten horns”) is a mountain, not a world leader, (Revelation 17:7-10).
There are many other passages that they ignore or explain away, while being
totally oblivious to the fact that by explaining those passages away they are
rebelling against God. They rebel against God by explaining away the passages
that tell us that Christ will raise up “ALL” believers at the same time (John
6:40), that He will raise them all up on “THE LAST DAY” (John 5:28-29 and
11:24), or that He set up His kingdom at the time of the four kingdoms
mentioned by Daniel (Daniel 2:44) (See Matthew 3:2, 4:17, 6:33, 9:35 and 10:7,
Mark 1:14-15, 10:15, Luke 17:20-21).
Conclusion
The main point of this essay is the importance of being our own worst critic,
of looking for our own faults, of trying to see our own sins so that we can
more fully appreciate and see our need for the forgiveness we have in Christ.
And, because we cannot hope to correct our faults unless we admit that they
exist, when people try to put on a show of piety by following certain rules (or
by claiming to obey God, when the Bible tells us that there is no one who is
obedient, Romans 3:10-20) it is nothing more than self-deception.