Test Everything — Hold Fast to What Is Good (1 Thessalonians 5:21)
Biblical discernment is not cynicism or suspicion. It is the Spirit-enabled, Scripture-grounded ability to distinguish between truth and error, between the genuine gospel and its many counterfeits. The Bereans of Acts 17 are our model: they received teaching eagerly — they were not closed-minded — but they measured everything against the Word of God. This is the Berean spirit: love for truth, not love for controversy.
Jesus warned that false prophets would come in sheep's clothing (Matthew 7:15). Paul warned the Ephesian elders that savage wolves would rise even from within the church (Acts 20:29-30). Peter warned of false teachers who would secretly introduce destructive heresies (2 Peter 2:1). The New Testament is saturated with warnings about false teaching — not because God is paranoid, but because the stakes are eternal. Souls are at risk.
This directory is written with grief, not glee. There is no pleasure in naming teachers who have led millions astray. But love for souls demands that we speak plainly. The goal is not to mock or slander, but to warn, to equip, and to point people to the genuine Christ of Scripture.
The prosperity gospel — also called the "health and wealth gospel" — teaches that God's will for every Christian is physical health and material prosperity, and that faith (often operationalized as declaring or "claiming" promises) releases God's blessing. This teaching reverses the biblical gospel: instead of sinners needing rescue from condemnation, God becomes a cosmic vending machine who owes health and wealth to those with sufficient faith.
Joel Osteen is the senior pastor of Lakewood Church in Houston, Texas — the largest church in America. His books, including Your Best Life Now, have sold tens of millions of copies. Osteen is engaging, personable, and consistently positive — and that positivity comes at the cost of the biblical gospel. His sermons rarely if ever address sin, repentance, hell, or the atoning work of Christ. When pressed by Larry King on whether non-Christians would go to hell, Osteen refused to give a clear answer. Scripture, by contrast, could not be more clear: "Whoever does not believe stands condemned already" (John 3:18).
Kenneth Copeland is among the most extreme prosperity teachers in America. He teaches that God is the "biggest failure in the Bible" (his words), that believers are "little gods," that Jesus died spiritually as well as physically and was tortured in hell, and that Christians can "call things into existence" as God did. These claims contradict Scripture at every point. The God of Scripture does not fail (Isaiah 46:10); believers are not gods (Isaiah 43:10); Jesus' death on the cross was sufficient for our sins (Hebrews 1:3; 1 Peter 2:24). Copeland has become extraordinarily wealthy through his ministry — which Jesus explicitly warned against (Matthew 23:14).
Creflo Dollar (who legally changed his name) of World Changers Church in Atlanta teaches that prosperity is the will of God for all believers and that poverty is a form of spiritual bondage from which Christians should be liberated — primarily by giving to his ministry. He infamously asked his congregation to fund a $65 million private jet for his personal use. Scripture calls leaders to be "not greedy for money" (1 Timothy 3:3) and warns that those who preach for financial gain are corrupt (Titus 1:11).
Word of Faith teaching holds that faith is a spiritual force, that words carry creative power, and that believers can "speak things into existence" by making positive confessions. This framework comes not from Scripture but from late 19th-century metaphysical movements. Its theological DNA is more closely related to New Thought philosophy than to biblical Christianity.
Benny Hinn is known for his healing crusades in which he claims to heal the sick through the power of the Spirit. Investigative journalists and medical researchers have repeatedly found that claimed healings cannot be verified and that many people who came forward at his crusades died shortly afterward of the conditions they were supposedly healed of. Hinn has also taught bizarre doctrines, including that the Trinity consists of nine persons and that Christians will one day be able to kill people by pointing at them. His lavish lifestyle has been subject to Senate investigation.
Kenneth Hagin (1917–2003) is considered the father of the modern Word of Faith movement. His teaching on "positive confession" and the spiritual force of faith formed the foundation upon which Copeland, Hinn, and others built. Scholars have documented extensive plagiarism in Hagin's writings from earlier New Thought teachers. His core teaching — that the words of believers carry creative power when spoken in faith — has no basis in Scripture and distorts the nature of prayer, faith, and God's sovereignty.
Joyce Meyer is one of the most popular Christian speakers in the world, particularly among women. While she has produced much content with general Christian themes, she has also taught Word of Faith doctrines, including the claim that Jesus "stopped being the Son of God" on the cross, that He was "born again in hell," and that He suffered there for three days before rising. These claims contradict the clear teaching of Scripture: Jesus is eternally the Son of God (Hebrews 13:8; John 8:58); His death on the cross was sufficient and complete ("It is finished" — John 19:30).
Progressive Christianity represents an attempt to reconstruct Christian faith along the lines of contemporary progressive culture, typically by reinterpreting or denying core doctrines including the authority of Scripture, the exclusivity of Christ, the reality of hell, and the biblical definition of sexual ethics. It is less a coherent theological movement than a direction — a drift away from historic orthodoxy toward theological accommodation with the spirit of the age.
Rob Bell's 2011 book Love Wins argued that hell is not a place of eternal conscious torment but that all people will eventually be reconciled to God — a position called universalism. Bell's reading of Scripture is highly selective, minimizing or ignoring the passages where Jesus Himself speaks most plainly about eternal punishment (Matthew 25:46; Mark 9:43-48; Revelation 20:10-15). Bell has since left organized Christianity and leads retreats focused on spirituality without the historic Christian gospel.
Rachel Held Evans was a popular author who chronicled her journey away from evangelical faith. She questioned the authority of Scripture, traditional sexual ethics, and the exclusivity of salvation in Christ. Her books were widely read among those experiencing doubts, and she modeled a kind of progressive Christianity that prioritizes inclusion and cultural relevance over doctrinal fidelity. Her early death at 37 was a tragedy; this critique is of her teachings, offered with genuine sorrow.
Brian McLaren is one of the founding voices of the "emergent church" movement. He has denied penal substitutionary atonement ("cosmic child abuse"), questioned the exclusivity of Christ, and embraced an inclusive vision of salvation that contradicts John 14:6 ("I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me"). McLaren's theology is shaped far more by postmodern philosophy than by the Scriptures he claims to expound.
The New Apostolic Reformation teaches that God is restoring the offices of apostle and prophet to the church today, that these apostles have special authority over Christians and nations, that Christians are to "take dominion" over culture and government, and that certain believers have supernatural powers including the ability to "transfer anointings." These teachings have no biblical basis and represent a dangerous distortion of church authority, church history, and eschatology.
Bill Johnson leads Bethel Church in Redding, California — one of the most influential charismatic churches in the world. Bethel teaches that Christians can "download" heavenly experiences, that gold dust and gemstones appear miraculously during worship, that "grave soaking" (lying on the graves of deceased Christian leaders to absorb their anointing) is a valid spiritual practice, and that ordinary believers can perform miracles like Jesus did. When investigated, the miraculous claims consistently fail scrutiny. More seriously, Bethel's approach to Scripture is highly selective, and its authority structures — centered on apostles and prophets above Scripture — are deeply concerning.
The International House of Prayer in Kansas City, led for decades by Mike Bickle, has been the subject of serious abuse allegations. Beyond the structural concerns, IHOP's theology of continuous "prophetic worship" and its authority claims for modern prophets create environments vulnerable to spiritual abuse and doctrinal drift.
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is not a Christian denomination. Despite using Christian vocabulary, Mormonism teaches a different God (a glorified man with a physical body), a different Jesus (a created being, the spirit-brother of Lucifer), a different gospel (grace plus works plus temple ordinances plus loyalty to the LDS institution), and a different Scripture (adding the Book of Mormon, Doctrine & Covenants, and Pearl of Great Price as equal authorities to the Bible). The God of Scripture is eternal, spirit, and without a body (John 4:24; Numbers 23:19). Paul's warning in Galatians 1:8-9 is directly applicable: "But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel other than the one we preached to you, let them be under God's curse."
Jehovah's Witnesses deny the deity of Jesus Christ, teaching that He is a created being — the first creation of Jehovah God. They use their own translation (the New World Translation) which has been altered to support this view, most notoriously rendering John 1:1 as "the Word was a god" rather than "the Word was God." The historic Christian faith, grounded in Scripture, has always affirmed the full deity of Christ: "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God" (John 1:1); "My Lord and my God" (John 20:28). A Jesus who is a created being cannot save sinners — only God Himself can accomplish salvation.
Islam is a major world religion with over 1.8 billion adherents, and it deserves respectful, honest engagement. Muslims and Christians share many common affirmations: both believe in one God, in the reality of divine revelation, in moral accountability, and in the importance of prayer and justice. We deeply respect Muslim neighbors and friends.
However, the differences are not peripheral — they concern the identity of Jesus Christ and the nature of salvation. Islam teaches that Jesus (Isa) was a great prophet and messenger of God, born of a virgin, who performed miracles — but who was not crucified, was not the Son of God, and did not rise from the dead. The Quran explicitly denies the crucifixion (Surah 4:157). Christianity stands or falls on exactly these claims: "If Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins" (1 Corinthians 15:17). The Jesus of Islam and the Jesus of Scripture are different figures making different claims with different implications for salvation.
These ministries provide biblical, careful, and gracious discernment resources: