(Blog) Alan Smith: False Teachers, Freedom, & Noahide Laws - September 16, 2026

False Teachers, Freedom, and the Noahide Laws

Teaching that produces spiritual control, fear, or burdens that stifle life in Christ must be examined by Scripture. Alan Smith's standard is clear: truth brings freedom, while false teaching brings bondage.

Jesus Christ frees believers from sin, which brings bondage. That freedom does not come through religious systems or human traditions, but through Christ and His atoning sacrifice.

Truth in Christ Brings Freedom

Jesus' promise in John 8

Jesus said that those who continue in His word are His disciples, and they will know the truth. His promise in John 8:31-32 places truth at the center of Christian freedom:

"Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free."

The greatest freedom available is freedom from sin. Sin binds people, but Jesus Christ is the truth who sets them free. This promise provides the standard for examining teaching, especially teaching that creates fear, spiritual control, heavy burdens, or strife over a believer's identity in Christ.

Truth can be uncomfortable, yet it must still be measured by the Word of God. A teaching that brings bondage needs close examination because truth in Christ brings freedom.

Relationship with God and religious bondage

Smith draws a distinction between relationship and religion. A believer's relationship with God is not based on religious bondage.

Studying religion and learning what believers have been set free from is not wrong. However, false teaching can place people under burdens without them recognizing how those burdens restrict their life in Christ. The focus must remain on freedom through Jesus Christ rather than righteousness through a religious system.

The New Birth and the Spirit's Voice

Born of the flesh and born of the Spirit

Jesus taught that people must be born again. Human beings are born of the flesh, yet they must also be born of the Spirit.

Smith describes the new birth as the renewal of the soul and spirit through God. Adam was not born of the flesh because God created him. In that sense, those who are born again have been born of God.

Through that commitment, the Holy Spirit enters a believer's life. The Spirit helps believers understand the Scriptures they study and gives spiritual life to those who were dead in trespasses and sins.

Becoming familiar with Christ within

The Holy Spirit often speaks through a still, small voice. That guidance may come as an inward nudge toward something uncomfortable, including something a person would rather avoid.

Because Christ is in the believer, the goal is to become better acquainted with who Jesus is within. The question "What would Jesus do?" should remain on the heart of every believer as they consider their choices, conduct, and responses.

Paul's Call to Guard the Church

Leaders must watch themselves and the flock

In Acts 20:28, Paul told the Ephesian elders to take heed to themselves and to the flock placed under their care. The Holy Spirit appoints overseers, and the church belongs to God because Christ purchased it with His own blood.

Paul's instruction begins with the leaders' own lives. Before guarding others, leaders must watch themselves. Personal conduct matters because spiritual control and false teaching can take root when leaders stop examining their own hearts and actions.

Acts gives an honest account of the early church. It does not present a church without problems, conflict, false teaching, or challenges. Paul's warning addresses that reality.

Wolves can come from outside or within

Paul continued in Acts 20:29-30 with a warning that grievous wolves would enter among the flock. He also said that men would arise from within the church, speaking twisted things to draw disciples after themselves.

Outside attacks can sharpen believers through honest debate. Internal damage takes a different form because it works against the church from within. Smith identifies several behaviors that can weaken or destroy a church:

• Self-seeking behavior can shift attention toward a person rather than Christ.
• Negative talk and complaining can damage fellowship among believers.
• Speaking against fellow believers can create division.
• Twisting doctrine can draw disciples after a teacher rather than after Jesus Christ.

The church does not belong to a leader, teacher, or movement. Christ purchased it through His blood.

Why Christ's Blood Atonement Remains Central

The sacrifice of Jesus is the focus

Smith identifies Christ's blood atonement and sacrifice as central to the gospel. Therefore, he believes attacks against the church will focus on undermining or changing the meaning of Christ's sacrifice.

False teaching can be seductive enough to alter the meaning of God's Word. When a teaching shifts attention away from Jesus' atoning blood, it must be tested against Scripture.

The gospel centers on Jesus Christ as the sacrifice for sin. Any teaching that moves that sacrifice to the side changes the message believers are called to receive.

Righteousness comes through Christ

The issue returns to John 8 and the freedom found in truth. A system that teaches righteousness through keeping laws places people under bondage.

Smith's position is that only one was righteous, and that one, Jesus Christ, died in the believer's place. Through Christ, believers are found blameless and righteous before God.

Freedom comes through Christ, not through religious systems.

Gnosticism and Claims of Secret Knowledge

Spiritual guidance is different from secret revelation

Smith affirms that the Holy Spirit speaks to believers. However, he distinguishes the Spirit's guidance from claims that a person has received a secret revelation that no one else knows.

Gnosticism takes the belief that God can speak today to an unbiblical extreme. A person can claim special knowledge, build a teaching around it, gather a following, and draw disciples after themselves. That pattern echoes Paul's warning in Acts 20.

Gnosticism is described as ancient religious and philosophical movements that teach salvation through secret spiritual knowledge rather than faith in the atonement of Jesus Christ.

Gnostic ideas compared with Scripture

Smith describes Gnostic teachings as presenting a high and distant god, along with a lesser creator god connected to the material world. These teachings also claim that people possess a divine spark trapped in the body.

That differs from the biblical teaching Smith presents. People were dead in trespasses and sins until the Holy Spirit gave them life. Salvation is not based on uncovering a hidden divine spark, but on the life God gives through Christ.

Scripture does speak about mysteries, including God's grace and Christ's blood atonement in Ephesians 3. Yet those mysteries are revealed in Scripture. They are not private knowledge reserved for one teacher or group.

How secret knowledge changes the gospel

Gnostic thought may accept Jesus as a messenger while refusing to place Him first as the sacrifice for sin. That change moves attention away from faith in Christ's atonement and toward secret knowledge.

For Smith, this is the central problem. When knowledge becomes the basis of salvation, the gospel's focus shifts away from Jesus Christ and His sacrifice.

The Noahide Laws and Talmudic Tradition

The source and purpose of the laws

Smith's final focus is the Noahide laws. According to Jewish tradition, these laws were given to Adam and Noah before Moses. The formal legal framework discussed comes from the Talmud, not directly from the Bible.

The Noahide laws were offered as a path for Gentiles to be considered righteous before God without converting to Judaism. At first reading, their wording can sound like a moral code that Christians would accept.

However, Smith's concern is not limited to the wording. He emphasizes the Talmudic definitions and penalties connected to the laws.

The seven Noahide laws

The seven Noahide laws discussed are:

1. Do not worship false gods or idols.
2. Do not blaspheme or curse God.
3. Do not murder.
4. Avoid forbidden sexual relationships.
5. Do not steal.
6. Do not eat flesh taken from a living animal.
7. Establish courts and systems of justice.

Smith also refers to Jewish rabbinic tradition adding 613 laws around the Ten Commandments, with further rules intended to keep people from breaking the original commandments.

Why Definitions and Penalties Matter

Personal definitions do not settle the issue

A person cannot apply personal definitions to the Noahide laws while ignoring how the Talmud defines them. Smith uses the prohibition against worshiping false gods as an example.

On its face, that command may sound familiar to Christians. Yet, under the Talmudic definition discussed, worshiping Jesus would be considered idolatry. Smith presents this example to show why the stated wording of a religious rule does not tell the whole story.

Examine the source, definition, and consequence attached to any religious rule.

The concern is what happens when extra-biblical tradition receives authority equal to or greater than Scripture.

Concerns about severe punishments

Smith also refers to claims that certain Talmudic legal discussions prescribe severe punishment for non-Jews who deliberately break the Noahide laws. He presents this as a serious warning about the consequences attached to a religious system.

The issue is not resolved by saying the laws appear moral at first reading. Their definitions, legal source, and penalties must be considered together. The larger question remains how a person is made righteous before God.

Smith returns to the New Testament answer: righteousness does not come through law-keeping. It comes through Jesus Christ, who died in the believer's place.

Test Every Teaching by Scripture

Truth may still be uncomfortable

Paul's warning about wolves is not a reason to ignore truth because it feels negative or uncomfortable. Truth can confront error, expose false teaching, and challenge traditions that have become accepted without biblical support.

Yet Christ's truth brings freedom. Paul's warning in Acts 20 calls believers to guard the Word of God against teachings that distort the gospel or draw disciples after people.

The test Smith applies

Every teaching, private revelation, tradition, and religious claim must be examined in the light of Scripture. Smith's message applies this test to Gnosticism, the Noahide laws, and any system that claims spiritual authority.

A teaching must be examined for whether it:

• Keeps Jesus Christ at the center.
• Honors His atoning blood and sacrifice for sin.
• Agrees with Scripture.
• Brings freedom in Christ rather than fear, control, or religious bondage.
• Depends on secret knowledge, private authority, or extra-biblical tradition.

The lasting standard is Christ and His atoning blood. Teachings that move people away from that center must be tested carefully.

Additional Materials from Kingdom Prophetic Society

Alan Smith directs readers to additional materials from the Kingdom Prophetic Society. The site is connected with the Kingdom Prophetic Society and the Smith and Rowland Show.

The passages at the heart of this discussion are John 8:31-32, Acts 20:28-30, and Ephesians 3. Smith's argument calls for these passages to remain the measure for claims about freedom, salvation, spiritual authority, and righteousness.

Keep Christ's Atonement at the Center

Freedom from sin comes through Jesus Christ. His truth does not place believers under bondage, and His atoning blood remains central to the gospel.

False teachers can arise from outside the church or from within it. Claims of secret knowledge, added traditions, and systems of law must be measured against Scripture and against the freedom Christ gives. Jesus Christ and His sacrifice set believers free.

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