How to Use Discernment

1. Introduction

2. The Two Types of Teaching

• Prophetic/Pastoral teaching is teaching aimed at a prophetic and/or pastoral purpose. It’s NOT aimed at teaching you about the Bible, how to read the Bible, or anything about what it says *in particular*, but that doesn’t mean it’s not scriptural. 
• Proper teaching is teaching specifically aimed at teaching you what the scripture says, how to read it properly, and *maybe* how it applies to your own context. Usually it is not concerned with any contextualized purpose, but rather at teaching you the truth that comes from the scriptures.

3. Pastoral/Prophetic Teaching

• You are not actually learning the thoughts and viewpoints of the Bible when listening to a prophetic/pastoral teaching, you’re learning about the thoughts and opinions of pastors/prophets; that’s not to say you aren’t growing spiritually or that you shouldn’t value them. In fact, it is good to listen to a lot of these teachings! Just be aware you are NOT learning anything straight from the Bible though, it’s filtered through the pastor’s/prophet’s thoughts and opinions.
• They may or may not be theologically robust, so critical thinking is necessary, but the overall message should encourage you to adore Jesus and obey Jesus’ commands.
• 4 categories of prophetic teaching:
  1. Holy
     • These are people who have a healthy relationship with God AND are anointed with the Holy Spirit to speak. 
     • Moses, Samuel, Jeremiah, Daniel, The Apostles, Paul 
     • House Church Pastors
  2. Immature 
     • These are people who have an anointing from Jesus to speak with power, but their personal walk with the Lord is lacking in some key ways.
     • King Saul and Judas are the prime examples, as are most of the judges in the book of Judges. King David also fits the category. 
     • Lonnie Frisbee, the 2nd great awakening.
     • New Believers at Roots Church (we empower everybody to do ministry even if they’re brand new believers)
  3. Charlatan 
     • These are people who are NOT anointed by God to speak in any way, but they are faking an anointing from God to build a ministry and/or make money (or any number of reasons). This doesn’t mean that God won’t providentially do things here or there despite the charlatan’s blatant sin, but the general fruit of the ministry is oppression for the poor and puffing up the ministry with pride. God is NOT pleased with these ministries and you should NOT learn from them.
     • The prophets in Jeremiah’s day (stealing words and prophesying vain imaginations)
     • Mike Bickle, Benny Hinn (https://youtu.be/X2Ip_3A32W0?feature=shared)
  4. Demonic
     • These are people who are anointed with power by demons to speak on behalf of demons. Typically, these false prophets won’t outright try to force false teaching down your throat. They tend to take a “wolves in sheep’s clothing” approach and disguise themselves as “angels of light” to subtly subvert loyalty to Jesus. They’ll say things like “Jesus is Lord” at just the right moments to make you think that they’re legit, but the fruit of their ministry is disobedience to Jesus and darkness. 
     • Balaam, Simon the Sorcerer, Jezebel (Revelation 2:18-25)
     • False Prophet Passion Java, False Prophet Lovy Elias, False Apostle David E. Taylor
     • We haven’t had any examples in Roots Church to my knowledge, but if you see any, confront them and let leadership know.

4. Q+A and a 5-minute break

5. Proper Teaching:

• Remember that the goal is to learn specifically about the scriptures themselves, not someone’s opinion or someone’s passionate discourse about a certain subject. We’re trying to learn about the context of the Bible and the best way to interpret the words on the page of scripture (remember last week’s teaching).
• Three steps to checking the quality of your source
  1. First, check their level of education. If you want to actually learn something about the Bible, you have to use a source from someone who is actually well trained in interpreting the Bible (someone academically trained); also, make sure you check for fake degrees
  2. Second, check their biases. All interpreters have a bias, so check their biases (the easiest biases to find on academic sources are denomination and education, but if you know of any others, take that into consideration as well)
  3. Third, check their logic. It’s important to remember that if you picked a good source, there’s a 99% chance you do not know more about the Bible than they do. Approach criticism with humility (knowing that you are also subject to error and are not as well trained), but also don’t be afraid to thoroughly examine the logic that your source uses to defend their points, and compare their logic with other quality sources that you know to formulate a logically cohesive conclusion.
•  Examples
  • Bad:
    • Pastors who throw in random context that isn’t well-researched
    • “Greek Magic”: the practice of looking up a greek word and applying multiple definitions of the word to the verse you’re studying
  • Good pastoral teaching, but not exactly what we’re looking for:
    • Remnant Radio
    • Dr. Gavin Ortlund (Truth Unites)
    • Dr. Michael Brown (Line of Fire and more)
    • Roots Church
    • Church History
  • Good proper teaching:
    • Expository sermons
    • Bible Project (especially the podcasts)
    • Dr. Michael Heiser/The Naked Bible Podcast (and the nonprofit he inspired)
    • Craig Keener
    • Gordon Fee
    • *For Nerds* Good Commentaries
      • Cultural Backgrounds Commentary
      • Word Biblical Commentary
      • Expositor’s Bible Commentary
    • *For super nerds* 2nd Temple Jewish Literature
      • 1 Enoch
      • Apocrypha
      • Other writings

6. Q+A and Conclusion