Symptoms Of False Doctrine, J.C. Ryle

Just yesterday I cruised by something on Facebook that made me scrunch up my face and go "Hehrm?"  It was the announcement of a special guest at the church of someone I know.  After a perusal of this speaker's writings and teachings, I found myself seriously questioning what any of it had to do with Jesus Christ or the Gospel. I was uncomfortable and confused by the description of one of his books that would help me to "obtain God's Higher Wisdom " and teach me how to "engage Heaven's Host in a completely new dimension." .....  Now, maybe the choice of words was just a real disaster and it's actually completely orthodox and harmless.  I don't know, but it all kind of weirded me out.

I don't know enough about this fella to make a judgment about him or his ministry; one thing is for certain though: it's easier to discern right from wrong than it is to discern right from almost right. 

J.C. Ryle has given us some guidance when it comes to false doctrine:

Many things combine to make the present inroad of false doctrine peculiarly dangerous.
1. There is an undeniable zeal in some of the teachers of error: their “earnestness” makes many think they must be right.
2. There is a great appearance of learning and theological knowledge: many fancy that such clever and intellectual men must surely be safe guides.
3. There is a general tendency to free thought and free inquiry in these latter days: many like to prove their independence of judgment, by believing novelties.
4. There is a wide-spread desire to appear charitable and liberal-minded: many seem half ashamed of saying that anybody can be in the wrong.
5. There is a quantity of half-truth taught by the modern false teachers: they are incessantly using Scriptural terms and phrases in an unscriptural sense.
6. There is a morbid craving in the public mind for a more sensuous, ceremonial, sensational, showy worship: men are impatient of inward, invisible heart-work.
7. There is a silly readiness in every direction to believe everybody who talks cleverly, lovingly and earnestly, and a determination to forget that Satan often masquerades himself “as an angel of light” (2 Corinthians 11:14).
8. There is a wide-spread “gullibility” among professing Christians: every heretic who tells his story plausibly is sure to be believed, and everybody who doubts him is called a persecutor and a narrow-minded man.
All these things are peculiar symptoms of our times. I defy any observing person to deny them. They tend to make the assaults of false doctrine in our day peculiarly dangerous. They make it more than ever needful to cry aloud, “Do not be carried away!”

~ J.C. Ryle