One of the most effective deceptions that Satan has foisted upon Christians is the idea that certain groups are more spiritually mature than less-enlightened believers. The endless game of, “I am more approved in the Lord’s eyes than you,” divides the Body of Christ and gives non-believers a negative opinion of the Christian faith. Few people would ever openly say, “I’m a better Christian than you.” It is through their beliefs and deeds that they proclaim their superiority. Listed below are six common ways people use to promote spiritual elitism.

1. Members of the One True Church

The trademark of this belief is that a particular group has a stranglehold on the truth and that there is no salvation outside of its organization. The groups hold that leaders are specially anointed by God, are in many cases infallible in interpretation of holy writings and, more importantly, are above reproach. These groups believe in what they feel are superior interpretations of scripture and they are more concerned about the doctrines and traditions of man than the Word of God.

Special revelations from God are a trademark of the One True Church. In most cases, the luster of the revelation can be found to have been tarnished by failed prediction. Bible requires 100 percent accuracy rate for all predictions that are claimed to have originated from God.

One-true-churchism leads to people questioning their salvation and spending more time worrying about their actions than on studying the Word of God and enriching their personal walk with Him.

Mark 7:9: “And he said unto them, Full well ye reject the commandment of God, that ye may keep your own tradition.”

2. The Keepers of the Law

This group of people believes in keeping Torah observance. While I see no problem with people choosing to keep the levitical kosher (dietary) laws or the Sabbath, there is a fine line between personal choice and self-righteousness.

These groups maintain that Jesus never intended for the law to go away. They base this belief on Matthew 5:17 and John 14:15, which say, “Think not that I have come to destroy the law,” and “If you love me, you will keep my commandments,” respectively.

What they are missing, however, is that Jesus clarified what He was referring to and it had nothing to do with the 613 laws of Torah. When Jesus was cornered by the Pharisees and asked which of the commandments were the greatest, He replied:

Matthew 22:37-40: “Jesus said to him, ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the first and great commandment and the second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.” What was He referencing?

Isaiah 29:13: “Therefore the Lord said, Inasmuch as these people draw near with their mouths And honor Me with their lips, But have removed their hearts far from Me, And their fear toward Me is taught by the commandment of men.”

Jeremiah 31:33: “But this [shall be] the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After those days, saith the LORD, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people.”

It is impossible for the Judaic law to save anyone. The standard is too high for anyone to follow the law to perfection. The law said, “Don’t do it.” Jesus said, “You’re guilty if you even think about doing something that is wrong.” Paul warned us in Galatians that we can fall from grace by trying to follow after the law.

Galatians 2:21: “I do not frustrate the grace of God: for if righteousness [come] by the law, then Christ is dead in vain.”

Galatians 5:4: “You have become estranged from Christ, you who attempt to be justified by law; you have fallen from grace.”

3. Legalists

Scripture tells us that we are to exhort fellow believers (1 Thess. 4:1). So where is the line between assisting a believer in his walk with the Lord and condemning a believer for his every thought and action?

Common sense dictates that a believer should not dress wantonly and get drunk, but common sense is not enough for the legalist crowd. That crowd feels a duty to protect people from themselves, so it creates measuring sticks in order to maintain its role as its brother’s keeper.

Based on 1 Thessalonians 5:22, which says to abstain from all appearance of evil, popular legalisms promoted are: no drinking, smoking, dancing, going to movies, or attending sporting events (because beer is sold). Women can’t cut their hair or wear makeup, jewelry or slacks. Women’s skirts or culottes must be at least below the knee in length. Men must wear trousers at all times, regardless of the weather. No eating out on Sundays. Everything must be approved by a minister. The list is endless.

While I am not advocating a free-wheeling lifestyle, I am saying that we are to walk in the Lord’s light. Our deeds are like filthy rags to Him; it is what is in our hearts that matters. Legalism pits believers against one another in an unending cycle of condemnation. Additionally, it can turn people away from understanding the grace of Christ when they are made to feel that they have bigger shoes to fill than they can wear.

Matthew 23:24: “[Ye] Blind guides, who strain on a gnat and swallow a camel!”

4. KJVOnlyism

Some Christians proclaim that the 1611 King James Version (KJV) is the one and only true English version of the word of God and that all other versions were corrupted by Satan.

While Rapture Ready uses the KJV for Scripture references, it is only because this version is the mostly widely quoted. Nothing is dramatically wrong with other versions of Christian Bibles such as the New King James Version, New American Standard Version, and the Revised Standard Version. However, some versions, such as the Clear Word Bible of the Seventh Day Adventists or the New World Translation of the Jehovah’s Witnesses, were specifically rewritten to accommodate private interpretations, but even these versions contains the heart of Biblical truth.

No Bible version says that Satan died for our sins. The King James Only crowd implies that positive magical qualities are attached to the KJV version, and that negative energies indwell all non-KJV Bibles. I have never found a need to go digging into the meaning of the original Hebrew and Greek. Whenever I encounter a passage that seems unclear to me, most of the time, I’m able to find some other verse that resolves the confusion.

The King James Version was written in Elizabethan English (a la Shakespeare), and can be rather difficult for people to read, especially for those new to the faith. What is more important: encouraging people to read their Bibles to learn about Jesus, or overwhelming them with language that makes understanding the text more difficult, causing them to turn to commentaries of man rather than the Word of God?

Hebrews 5:12: “For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the first principles of the oracles of God; and you have come to need milk and not solid food.”

5. Word of Faith Proponents

This group promotes the doctrine of “name-it-claim-it,” which says that the Lord has a storehouse full of blessings in heaven just waiting for the faithful to claim while they’re here on earth. It teaches that those in the Lord’s favor are blessed with health and wealth and that those who are struggling in life are not blessed because of their inferior relationship with the Lord and their inferior faith and trust in Him.

The biggest question here is the one of universal application. Is this teaching practical and accessible to all? Is a teaching of the Lord if it only applies to affluent suburbia but not the underdeveloped nations of the world? What application does the teaching have for believers imprisoned for their faith by atheistic, Islamic and other repressive governments?

Word of Faith promotes elitism between the “haves” and the “have nots” by claiming that those who “have not” are inferior Christians of inferior faith and the Lord is treating them as such.

Matthew 6:19-20: “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal; but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal.”

Mark 10:31: “But many who are first will be last, and the last first.”

6. The Intellectuals

One of the most basic human desires is the praise of mankind. Many Christians like to impress other believers with their intellectual capabilities. Some go as far as proclaiming themselves spiritually superior to anyone who doesn’t share the same level of academic achievement.

The intellectual crowd is very harmful to the spreading of the Gospel. They motivate fellow Christians to try to master a lofty vocabulary that is often above the heads of average people. They hold the general philosophy that it is better to appear to be intelligent than it is to be understood by your audience.

The Bible repeatedly warns against trusting in the flesh for wisdom. Because Satan is a spirit being, with nearly unlimited intellectual skills, no man is able to match wits with him. Anyone who strays from the Word of God to rely on his own understanding is making a terrible mistake.

1 Corinthians 3:18-19: “Let no man deceive himself. If any man among you seemeth to be wise in this world, let him become a fool, that he may be wise. For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God. For it is written, He taketh the wise in their own craftiness.”

Romans 1:21-22: “Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools.”

Bottom Line

Individuals who hold to an “I’m a better Christian than you” mindset can always find Scripture that will support their stance. What they need to do is examine their rationale for holding to this view. If their offering of correction is not sparked from love, then one can only conclude vanity is their only motivation.

Philippians 2:2-3: “Fulfill my joy by being like-minded, having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind. Let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit, but in lowliness of mind let each esteem others better than himself.”

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In the book of Ecclesiastes, there is a simple statement about the world in general that has become my core defense against false doctrine. From the Revised Standard Version we read: “What has been is what will be, and what has been done is what will be done there is nothing new under the sun” (ECC 1:9 RSV).

If there is nothing new under the sun, how is it possible for people to keep finding new interpretations of Scripture? If the Bible is said to be sealed up (Rev. 22:18-19), why does God supposedly keep providing new information to select groups of people? The only valid answer I can think of is that this new stuff is just the same old lies and deceptions repackaged.

“For I testify unto every man that heareth the words of the prophecy of this book, If any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book: And if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life, and out of the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book” (Rev. 22:18-19 KJV).

The Bible is God’s complete and exhaustive manual on how to maintain a good Christian life. There is no need for us to go on a quest for higher understanding. Any difficulty on the part of man’s understanding rests with his inability to just accept the boring truth. Satan keeps trying to say, “You’re missing something,” or “There’s a better way.” He told this lie to Adam and Eve, and we all know what happened to them.

“All scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work” (2 Tim. 3:16-17 NIV).

Standing On The Word Of God

Christian apologists spend a huge amount of time refuting every new teaching that springs up. Because the devil is continually on the job, erroneous doctrine tends to encroach upon us like jungle vines. In the early Church, every time Paul turned around, he had to combat some new falsehood that was creeping into the body of Christ.

Because an unlimited number of false doctrines is circulating in the world, rather than reading up on what everyone else believes, I think it’s a far easier task to focus on what we should believe concerning God’s Kingdom.

In many cases, heretical doctrine can be very difficult to detect. A lie can be wrapped in 95% truth and still be a lie. This is why we need to use the Word of God like a Geiger counter. And we don’t just need to use it to help us discern the truth about what others believe, we also need to use the Bible to help us evaluate what we believe because deceived people are often led to believe that everyone else is in the grip of deception.

One of the easiest ways to identify false doctrine is to constantly remember that there is nothing new under the sun. If someone comes to you with a new revelation or a vision he or his organization claims to have received from God, this new doctrine needs to parrot what is already plainly written in the Bible in order to be considered truth.

New doctrine also must stand up against any opposing passages. Several years ago, a group in California claimed that the Bible granted the right to smoke marijuana. They cited Genesis 1:30: “I have given every green herb for meat.” The local police allowed this band of potheads to get away with smoking grass in public on the grounds of religious freedom until they caught some of them selling the green herb to undercover agents.

Genesis 1:30 does say that God has given us every green herb; however, elsewhere in the Bible it says we should be sober-minded. Taking a stand against man’s first choice of drugs and alcohol, the Word of God says, “For they that sleep sleep in the night; and they that be drunken are drunken in the night. But let us, who are of the day, be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love; and for an helmet, the hope of salvation” (1 Th. 5:7-8 KJV).

My 1,000-Cults Rule

Many cults have sales pitches that sound very compelling. With recruitment being their primary goal, it should come as no surprise that most cults use a number of enticing tactics.

When approached by a cult member, you might get the hard sell: “If you don’t join us, you’ll end up getting tossed into the Lake of Fire with the rest of the harlot church. Or you might hear the soft sell, which might go like this: “Don’t you want to be a part of God’s perfect will?”

Before you get stressed out from trying to figure out whether they’re right, you need to realize one very important fact. If 1,000 cults are active in the world, with each one claiming to be the one true religion, the law of mathematical improbability should put the burden of proof on them, and not you.

Your average cultist just assumes his group is the lucky one out of 1,000 that holds a monopoly on the truth. It should be obvious that they all can’t be right. If it were legally possible to patent religious slogans, I’m sure there would be quite a fight at the U.S. Patent Office over who gets to claim the right to “the one true religion.”

“Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world” (1 John 4:1).

Where Do People Keep Coming Up With This Stuff?

It never ceases to amaze me how people can hold firmly to beliefs they never bother to verify. When we get into the shower, we first check to see if the water is too hot or too cold. When we go on an extended trip in our cars, we make sure the gas tanks are full. How in the world can people just blindly assume they have it right without first checking the Bible?

I fear many people must think the spiritual world runs exclusively on the power of positive thinking. Those blank pages at the back of your Bible are for dedications; they’re not there for us to write in our own opinions of what constitutes biblical truth.

When men decide to implant their own ideas into the Bible, false doctrine results. And once it’s conceived, the author of the false doctrine will often bend Scripture to support his new interpretation. Quite often, false doctrines are so much in conflict with the rest of the Bible that huge portions of Scripture need to be given special interpretation.

One of the worst cases of Scripture bending I’ve seen is the “Jesus only” doctrine. This cultic teaching says there is no God or Holy Spirit; there’s only Jesus Christ. It is based on Acts 2:38, which records Peter telling people to be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ.

The Oneness people have an incredible task in trying to explain away hundreds of passages that imply oddities like God talking to or sitting next to himself. If Jesus is the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, then who was praying to whom at the Garden of Gethsemane?

“For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears. And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables” (2 Timothy 4:3-4).

The Best Of Times; The Worst Of Times

With prophecy being fulfilled every day and with the rapture of the church ever closer, we could easily say we are living in the most exciting part of the Church Age. Because the end times are predicted to be times of gross apostasy, we are also living in very spiritually dangerous times.

We have the opportunity to be the first generation to not experience physical death, but we also have the same opportunity to come under God’s unrestrained wrath. It behooves us to choose very wisely which path we intend to follow.

As we near the conclusion of this age, who knows what kind of tricks the devil has up his sleeve. It’s not just the well-identified cults we need to worry about. Deception is erupting in some of the most unlikely areas of the Church. Denominations that once stood firmly on God’s Word are now suddenly falling victim to false doctrine.

So what do you do when you hear some new teaching that sounds as delicious as homemade ice cream on a hot summer day? Remember to verify it against the Bible, first keeping in mind that there is nothing new under the sun.

Warnings From Scripture

“Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils; Speaking lies in hypocrisy; having their conscience seared with a hot iron; Forbidding to marry, and commanding to abstain from meats, which God hath created to be received with thanksgiving of them which believe and know the truth” (1 Timothy 4:1-3).

“For there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall show great signs and wonders; insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect” (Matthew 24:24).

“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. And many shall follow their pernicious ways; by reason of whom the way of truth shall be evil spoken of. And through covetousness shall they with feigned words make merchandise of you: whose judgment now of a long time lingereth not, and their damnation slumbereth not” (2 Peter. 2:1-3).

“Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition; Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God. Remember ye not, that, when I was yet with you, I told you these things? And now ye know what withholdeth that he might be revealed in his time. For the mystery of iniquity doth already work: only he who now letteth will let, until he be taken out of the way. And then shall that Wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming” (2 Thes 2:3-8).

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