Should We Include Rejecting False Doctrine in the Salvation Process?
My answers might surprise you!
Written by Dale Ebel
[2 Timothy 4:3-5 ESV]
3 For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, 4 and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths. 5 But as for you, always be sober-minded, endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry.
My purpose in this teaching is to help us understand the importance of leaving false ideologies and doctrines in order to live a productive and transformative life in Christ.
If you have read my last two articles titled “Approve That Which Is Good” and “Extending Happiness,” this teaching will be a significant contrast.
From my perspective, it demonstrates one aspect of maturity: when we choose to receive challenging teachings on difficult subjects as well as affirming ones. Both are needed for living a prosperous and victorious life in the Lord Jesus Christ.
I am reminded of Nancy Pearcey’s comment:
“A religion that ignores the intellectual task of explaining the Faith and retreats to the therapeutic realm of personal relationships and feelings will not survive in today’s spiritual battlefield.” (Total Truth, page 127)
I thank you in advance for reading this, absorbing it, and—more importantly—attempting to apply it. We’re in this together, and we can move forward incrementally.
Of course, I also benefit from your constructive biblical responses, additions, or corrections to these teachings.
The World Has Gone Awry
If you look across the cultural landscape, we are discovering more perceived conservatives and/or so-called evangelicals who are promoting false ideologies. We must be aware and understand when people are teaching the doctrines of demons.
[1 Timothy 4:1 NKJV]
1 Now the Spirit expressly says that in latter times some will depart from the faith, giving heed to deceiving spirits and doctrines of demons.
A Significant Shift in My Thinking
In the last four months (January–April 2026), the Holy Spirit has given me several corrective paradigm shifts regarding my previous understanding of Scripture.
[2 Timothy 3:16 KJV]
16 All Scripture (the Old and New Testaments were not yet canonized) is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness.
My first “correction”—which I called a “paradigm shift” in the paragraph above—is the necessity of including one’s doctrine in determining one’s salvation. Pretty radical, wouldn’t you say?
Loyalty and following Christ must include the rejection of any false ideological or theological belief system that opposes the whole counsel of God and Jesus Christ’s teaching. Would we expect a Muslim steeped in the ideology of the Koran, or a Mormon, or a Jehovah’s Witness to simply believe in Jesus Christ and His teaching without first rejecting their doctrines of demons? Repentance must include forsaking other false belief systems!
[2 Chronicles 7:14 LSB]
14 …and My people who are called by My name humble themselves and pray and seek My face and turn from their evil ways, (ways includes teachings) then I will listen from heaven, I will forgive their sin, and I will heal their land.
I have come to believe it is best to address potential heresies when attempting to lead someone to Christ—and certainly before they might be considered a leader in the Church or any Christian organization. Historically, I have not done this enough! 😕
[1 Timothy 1:3 NIV]
3 As I urged you when I went into Macedonia, stay there in Ephesus so that you may command certain people not to teach false doctrines any longer.
In the Timothy passage, people within the Church were teaching falsehoods. Paul commanded (the Greek means “to order with strong instruction”) Timothy to call these individuals out and tell them not to teach such error. To allow such teaching only weakens the Church, which is meant to be “the pillar and support of the truth” (1 Timothy 3:15).
[Deuteronomy 8:11 NKJV]
11 “Beware that you do not forget the LORD your God by not keeping His commandments, His judgments, and His statutes which I command you today.”
The above verse covers Yahweh God’s doctrines (teachings).
[Deuteronomy 10:12 KJV]
12 And now, Israel, what doth the LORD thy God require of thee, but to fear the LORD thy God, to walk in all his ways, and to love him, and to serve the LORD thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul?
Walking in His “ways” means walking in His teachings. God’s will (what to do) and God’s ways (how to do it) are inseparably linked. This is one reason that, when Christianity was in its infant stage in the Book of Acts, it was identified as “the Way.” It was known for its teachings!
[Acts 19:23 NLT]
23 About that time there arose a great disturbance about the Way.
I find it very illuminating that Christianity was identified by its instructions. Don’t you?
[Acts 24:14 NLT]
14 “But this I admit to you, that according to the Way, which they call a sect, I do worship the God of our fathers, believing everything that is in accordance with the Law and that is written in the Prophets.”
Here Paul, before Felix, recognizes that Christianity was called a cult (sect) based on its teachings and instructions. It is also powerful that Paul believed in all “the Law!” Do you? I sure do!!
A Side Comment
Most people believe performing a voluntary act is on a higher moral plane than performing an obligatory one. Yet the Scriptures take precisely the opposite view.
I believe that how we act is the only accurate sign of our faith.
[1 John 5:3 NLT]
3 Loving God means keeping his commandments, and his commandments are not burdensome.
This is clearly a break from much of modern Christendom, which is steeped in Hellenism and on many occasions detaches behavior from one’s theology or belief system. For example: “It doesn’t matter what you do; God still loves you and accepts you.” This is contrary to the whole counsel of God. For some reason we have myopically co-opted this false notion by detaching our behavior from our biblical intellectual belief system. This is extremely convicting for me personally, as I have found it too easy to teach Truth and at the same time respond to the lure of this world. I believe this false separation has severely handicapped us in modern Christendom.
[John 7:17 NASB95]
17 “If anyone is willing to do His will, he will know of the teaching, whether it is of God or whether I speak from Myself.”
How can a person demonstrate genuine saving faith when they have embraced and adhere to false gods? (Exodus 20:2-3)
[Exodus 20:3 LSB]
3 “You shall have no other gods before Me.”
False gods such as reason, power, control, education, false belief systems, intellectual superiority, self-absorption, etc.
I believe a person who speaks for God—as we all should do—must call for repentance from immoral behavior and from untrue beliefs and false ideologies as a precondition for forgiveness. One reason the Church is so ineffective today is that even though we speak against personal sin, we often choose not to challenge the falsehoods and destructive ideologies that our society believes in, nor the false teachings that sneak into the Church from unprincipled tares. In America we find evangelists and pastors teaching against personal sins but rarely against idolatry, which is manifested in allegiance to false ideologies that replace God. Of course, this is prohibited in the First Commandment (Exodus 20:3: “You shall have no other gods before Me.”). As Erwin McManus says, America is not a country of no God; it is a country of many gods.
Yet false beliefs and false ideologies are the foundation of many human miseries and much corruption in society as well as in one’s personal life. For example, the falsehood of the caste system and the sacredness of the cow in Indian culture—all the gods are believed to reside in the body of Kamadhenu, the generic cow. Or the infanticide of the second girl born to a family, reinforced by Hinduism’s acceptance of Buddha’s First Noble Truth: “Life is suffering.”
Proclaiming Jesus Christ as the King of heaven does not generally result in persecution or kickback. But when we start proclaiming Christ as the ruler of the kings of the earth, we invite trouble. Because then we automatically judge the world around us by the yardstick of Yahweh God’s justice and righteousness as taught in Scripture. When we teach and take brave action to combat these ideologies, there will be repercussions.
[Matthew 5:10-12 NKJV]
10 Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. 11 “Blessed are you when they revile and persecute you and say all kinds of evil against you falsely for My sake. 12 Rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.”
I believe that in the Lord’s Prayer (better named the Disciples’ Prayer), Christ was expecting His followers to advance the spiritual Kingdom of God here on earth.
[Matthew 6:9-10 LSB]
9 “Pray, then, in this way: ‘Our Father who is in heaven, Hallowed be Your name. 10 Your kingdom come. Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.’”
In a small way I learned this from my own experience by teaching the biblical view of creation, abortion, and homosexuality while pastoring Rolling Hills. I received kickback—not persecution—from the Portland media (the religious columnist from the Portland Oregonian newspaper) and a few local neighbors who vented their disapproval to me personally for supporting the “right to life.” Of course, some people left our church, but that was fine.
[1 Corinthians 11:19 KJV]
19 For there must also be heresies among you, that they which are approved may be made manifest among you.
I did not label it as such, but I was practicing “civil disobedience”—an intentional, deliberate, courageous, and compassionate condemnation of the institutionalized evils of “state”-dominated laws legitimizing abortion and homosexuality. To my surprise and disappointment, I also received kickback from about five decision-making men in the leadership of the church I pastored and established. This was sobering and disappointing, to say the least. 🙁
An Illustration of a Prophetic Witness
Suppose you witnessed a murder committed by a gang of drug dealers who have powerful political and police connections. Could you stand in the witness stand and testify that this gang (similar to the gang of chief priests, Herods, and Pilates of Christ’s day) killed an innocent man? You may know and believe the truth, but daring to be a witness requires power, courage, and bravery—especially if your witness is aimed at uprooting or holding at bay a wicked and brutal power structure wedded to wickedness and injustice. It takes significant strength and discernment to render a biblical opinion against the powers and principalities that are committed to false ideologies, corruption, and cowardice. Gulp!
After I left the church I pastored an influential man in leadership looked at me, shaking his head, and said, “Dale, be careful. Don’t be so extreme.” His comment was in the context of thinking I was too radical.
Friends, in an earlier age when Protestants still believed in “social protest,” my above comments would not seem so strange. Why do many today consider it strange? Because for a few centuries now the world has heard the Gospel as articulated by the Western Church, which has enjoyed a position of privilege, safety, and security. The West has had little reason to examine biblical ideas and passages through the lens of totalitarian or state-controlled institutions, which are expressions of fascism. However, we are seeing a significant change toward more state-regulated institutions and the flexing of the arm of Big Brother. Many discerning Christ-followers feel it, se it, sense it, and are becoming aware of the state’s restraints on our Faith.
From my perspective, when I addressed tough issues, I was simply fulfilling my calling to be the bride of Christ, to bring forth the Truth from both the Book of the Covenant (Old Testament) and the Renewed Covenant (New Testament), to be salt and light, and to bring holiness into the broader culture. I believe this is simply manifesting the fruit of the Spirit into the public arena. Why should this be considered so radical and off-limits? I believe it is “normal Christianity.”
I am becoming more aware that I was serving as a pastor but had a Biblical Total Truth Worldview (BTTW) in which I see all of life through the lens of the Kingdom of God—not simply the local church. I was much more than a professional churchman. As I saw the world around us squeezing us into its mold (Romans 12:2, “And do not be conformed to this world”), I felt compelled to expand my teaching to address the false, aggressive world system. I did not realize it then, but I was functioning as a spiritual reformer attempting to influence Oregon culture for righteousness. I believe this is what the Lord Jesus Christ did in His ministry, and we understand this if we diligently assess His controversial messages and actions. However, the cultural elite (Jewish leaders) and—if I dare say it—many of our institutional church influencers today are blind enough not to recognize and embrace His expansive message of the Good News of the Kingdom of God.
[Proverbs 14:34 NIV]
34 Righteousness exalts a nation, but sin condemns any people.
Little did I know that my life verse, Matthew 6:33, would be my future plumb line to measure the world and my ministry.
[Matthew 6:33 KJV]
33 But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.
My adjustment in addressing the “kingdom of Satan,” I am now sure, was one of the contributing factors that led me to be cancelled by the leaders. They and many in our congregation were used to me ministering to their felt needs, personal interests, and teaching that stayed on the freeway of a comfortable message . But when I taught the Bible as to application to the broader culture, many felt negated and uncared for and preferred to stay in their holy huddle.
Captives of an Inadequate Gospel
From my perspective, the Good News of the Kingdom of God has been replaced by an inadequate salvation message centered on personal peace, well-being, God’s love for us, forgiveness, and grace. This false gospel loads believers with false assurances about their eternal state.
It focuses on Jesus as our Savior and marginalizes Him as our Lord and the Anointed One (Christ) on mission to heal the nations!
The overemphasis on individualism reads the Gospels with colored glasses and filters out anything that does not fit the presumption that Jesus died only to take our souls to heaven. This has resulted in a spirituality that Os Guinness says is “privately engaging but publicly irrelevant.” It has become the source of the cultural ineffectiveness of the Western Church.
However, the Good News of the Kingdom is far more expansive, much deeper, and more integrated in its application and power. Today our emphasis ought to be living Christianity as a Biblical Total Truth Worldview. (BTTW).
The best book I have read about worldviews is Nancy Pearcey’s book Total Truth.
As I survey many Evangelical churches, they are so skilled, successful, polished, financially stable, numerically thriving, and mission-minded. Yet in a significant sense they are captive—and if I dare say it—prisoners of their own success. They propagate the same institutionalized DNA even in their mission outreach.
By the way, I have been writing and teaching about this since I left Rolling Hills.
Three articles I have written on my blog (daleebel.org) will give you an idea about worldviews:
Page 5, dated November 10, 2021: “Building a Biblical Total Truth Worldview (BTTW)”
Page 5, dated March 5, 2022: “Is There a Gatekeeper of America?”
Page 6, dated October 9, 2022: “What Are the Implications of Accepting a Worldview?” (This article focuses on sexuality: the transgender view, the Darwinian view, and the biblical view.)
[Mark 1:14 AMP]
14 Now after John [the Baptist] was arrested and taken into custody, Jesus went to Galilee, preaching the good news of [the kingdom of] God.
How to Apply This Teaching
1. How have you seen the impact of false teaching influence the community of believers around you?
2. Would you consider yourself a Kingdom participant? Are you following the King who is the leader of the expansive message of the Good News of the Kingdom of God?
3. Muse over several of the verses above and write out brief comments about each.
4. Please articulate what it means to have a Biblical Total Truth Worldview.
5. List one demonstrative step of obedience you will take in view of this teaching.
Advancing God’s spiritual Kingdom with you,
Dale