(Blog) False Prophets & Wolves - Ep. 969 - September 1, 2026

False Prophets and Wolves: The Whole Counsel of God

False teaching does not always arrive with an obvious denial of Jesus. It can sound spiritual, intelligent, and familiar while adding to the gospel or leaving out what God has said.

Alan and Jeff Smith and Rowland return to Paul's warnings about wolves, legalism, secret knowledge, and leaders who feed on the flock instead of feeding the church. Their central conviction is that believers need the whole counsel of God to recognize what is true.

Difficult truth is rarely popular

The episode opens with a lighthearted complaint about being sponsorless. The hosts had tried to attend conferences and attract sponsors, but they recognized that messages about wolves, false teaching, heresy, seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils do not make easy promotional material.

People often prefer messages that feel encouraging and celebratory. Yet Alan and Jeff argue that teaching on spiritual error is necessary, even when it is not "hurrah" material.

The warning about itching ears

They connect the lack of interest in hard messages with the biblical warning about people who heap up teachers for themselves because they have itching ears. When people give heed to seducing spirits and doctrines of devils, the hosts say, they become the sponsors of that kind of teaching themselves.

A message can gain support because it makes people comfortable, not because it is true. For that reason, the discussion keeps returning to one question: Does a teaching agree with the full message of Scripture?

The whole counsel of God guards against error

Paul told the Ephesian elders that he had not withheld the whole counsel of God. In the episode, that phrase becomes the standard for recognizing false teaching and avoiding heresy.

Alan and Jeff say a person can become attached to one narrow segment of doctrine while refusing the rest of Scripture. That narrow commitment leaves room for error because it does not let the Bible speak as a complete testimony.

More than a theological corner

The hosts discuss the tension between charismatic and non-charismatic traditions. R.T. Kendall reportedly described himself as too charismatic for non-charismatics and too non-charismatic for charismatics. Alan said he had once described himself as too Baptist for charismatics and too charismatic for Baptists.

They see that tension as one result of holding to the whole counsel of God. A person who refuses to fit neatly into a religious segment may not receive full acceptance from every group.

"God's love is huge."

Still, they say God loves people across Christian traditions and uses people where they are. The broader story of Scripture helps believers see the size of that love without becoming captive to one group or one expression.

Their view of dispensational teaching

Alan and Jeff state that dispensational teaching accounts for the whole counsel of God because, in their view, it includes covenant theology rather than excluding it. They contrast that approach with theological systems that focus on only one portion of the biblical story.

This is the theological position they present in the episode.

For them, the whole story of God, Genesis through Revelation, expands a believer's understanding of grace, mercy, and God's love.

Paul's warnings to Timothy identify false teaching

Paul prepared Timothy to serve in Ephesus, a place where false teachers had already become a concern. In 1 Timothy, Paul gives warnings that Alan and Jeff treat as identifiable signs of teaching that has gone wrong.

The issue is not only whether someone wants to teach. It is whether that person understands the gospel and has the character that should accompany Christian ministry.

Fables, endless genealogies, and empty talk

Paul told Timothy not to give heed to fables and endless genealogies. The hosts treat these as distractions that can pull attention away from the central message of Christ.

They also point to Paul's description of love from a pure heart, faith without pretense, and a good conscience. When people swerve away from those qualities, Paul says they turn to vain jangling, or empty talk.

The warnings discussed in the episode include:

• Giving attention to fables and endless genealogies.
• Departing from love, sincere faith, and a good conscience.
• Speaking with confidence while failing to understand the claims being made.
• Desiring to be teachers of the law without understanding the law.

A teacher can sound certain and still misunderstand Scripture.

Teachers of the law who do not understand it

Paul writes of people who desire to be teachers of the law while understanding neither what they say nor what they affirm. Alan and Jeff connect that warning to legalism, systems that make righteousness depend on rules and requirements rather than God's grace.

They also mention false teachers associated with the early church, including Hymenaeus and Alexander. Their concern is that false teaching does not always deny every part of Christianity. Sometimes it removes a central truth while retaining familiar religious language.

Wolves may leave out part of the gospel

Jesus warned that wolves come in sheep's clothing. Alan and Jeff emphasize that wolves can bring information that sounds biblical and spiritual. The problem may appear in what they leave out as much as in what they say.

A message that omits a central truth is not the full gospel.

Leaving out the resurrection

The hosts refer to teachers who took parts of the Christian faith but denied the resurrection. That omission matters because the resurrection is part of the gospel itself.

They reject any attempt to preserve the appearance of Christian teaching while removing a truth that Scripture treats as central. A person cannot leave out part of the gospel and still claim to present the full gospel.

Adding rules and secret requirements

False teaching can also add to the gospel. Legalism adds human requirements to grace. Gnosticism adds secret spiritual knowledge. Both approaches take attention away from the finished work of Christ.

"You don't have to quit talking about Jesus to do away with Jesus."

According to the hosts, Jesus can be pushed aside when people crowd the message with spiritual formulas, intellectual systems, and extra conditions that God did not give.

When leaders feed on the sheep

In Acts 20:28, Paul tells the Ephesian elders to take heed to themselves and to the flock. The Holy Spirit had made them overseers, and they were called to feed the church of God, which Christ purchased with His own blood.

Alan and Jeff draw a sharp contrast between a shepherd and a wolf. A shepherd is called to feed the church. A wolf is feeding on the sheep.

They say church leaders must be willing to identify teaching that adds to Scripture, denies central parts of the gospel, promotes legalism, or excuses conduct that Scripture condemns. In the episode, they directly apply that warning to leaders who justify and ordain people in behavior the Bible condemns.

Legalism and the Noahide laws

The hosts return to Paul's warning about teachers of the law and connect it to the Noahide laws. They say that Jewish teachers developed the Noahide laws for Gentiles and presented obedience to those laws as a way to become righteous before God.

Alan says this developed around the fourth century. The episode presents the Noahide laws as a system that tells Gentiles they can become acceptable to God by keeping prescribed laws.

Grace is the final word

Alan and Jeff reject that message because it conflicts with grace and mercy. They argue that no legal system can replace the gospel or make a person righteous before God through human obedience.

For them, the final word of the whole counsel of God is the grace of God. The message is not human achievement, but God's grace and mercy.

If righteousness depended on successfully keeping a set of laws, then the gospel's message of grace would be lost. That is why they see legalism as more than a disagreement about religious practice. It changes the message of salvation.

Gnosticism offers secret knowledge instead of grace

Alan gives a definition of Gnosticism as an umbrella term for diverse ancient religious and philosophical movements from the first and second centuries. These groups taught that salvation came through gnosis, meaning knowledge.

That knowledge was presented as secret, direct, mystical knowledge of the divine, rather than faith or traditional authority.

A counterfeit mystery

The hosts say the grace of God was once a mystery revealed through the Apostle Paul. Gnostic teaching then adopted the language of secrets and mysteries, claiming that people needed further hidden knowledge.

Alan's point is direct: the revealed mystery is the grace of God. There is no additional secret spiritual system required for salvation.

They believe modern searches for mystical experiences and hidden spiritual information can repeat the same error. A person may begin to think that possessing uncommon knowledge makes them more spiritual.

The Gnostic idea of a divine spark

The episode also describes the Gnostic belief in a "divine spark." In this view, human beings possess a trapped spark of divine light in their physical bodies, and that spark longs to return to its spiritual home.

Alan and Jeff interpret this as a claim that everyone has a divine good within them that needs to be awakened. They reject that idea as a substitute for the gospel's message about sin, grace, repentance, and Christ.

Gnostic thought, as they describe it, reduces Jesus to a divine messenger who reveals the secret knowledge needed to awaken the spark. That portrayal removes Jesus from His place as the Savior who died for sin and rose again.

Knowledge must reach the heart

The hosts warn against having a head full of religious data while the heart remains empty. A person may know information about Scripture, theology, history, or spiritual experience without knowing the life of Christ.

They say that knowledge alone does not prove spiritual life.

The simplicity of Jesus Christ crucified

Alan and Jeff return to Paul's statement that he determined to know nothing among the Corinthians except Jesus Christ and Him crucified. They see that as the center of the gospel and the place where the power of the Holy Spirit is found.

The discussion does not reject biblical knowledge. Rather, it rejects knowledge that adds to the Word, distracts from Christ, or never reaches the heart.

Souls can be lost when people trust information in their minds without experiencing a changed life. The hosts say that complicated spiritual equations may make someone appear intelligent, but they do not replace the simplicity of the gospel.

The Holy Spirit's present emphasis

Jeff says the Holy Spirit may emphasize different works in different seasons. He names worship, teaching the Word, physical healing, and deliverance from addiction as examples.

However, he believes the present season is one in which the Holy Spirit is drawing people deeper into the Word and the power of the gospel of Jesus Christ. A search for something outside of that, he warns, can lead back to fables, endless genealogies, and intellectual speculation.

The need is not deeper information without Christ. The need is to know the life of Christ.

The Holy Spirit calls and qualifies overseers

Acts 20:28 says the Holy Spirit made the Ephesian elders overseers. Alan applies that personally, saying he is convinced that the Holy Spirit placed him where he serves.

The office of an overseer carries responsibility for the church of God and for the flock Christ purchased with His own blood.

Desiring the office is a good work

The hosts also refer to Timothy's teaching that anyone who desires the office of an overseer desires a good work. They reject the idea that such a desire is automatically prideful or performative.

Their view is that the Holy Spirit gives both the desire and the qualification. The work may be difficult, but the call comes from God.

That calling also requires discernment. Overseers must protect people from teachings that remove the resurrection, add extra spiritual requirements, trade grace for legalism, or obscure Christ under layers of religious ideas.

Revival requires repentance, not perfection

Alan mentions hearing a preacher claim that revival had not come because people were not living right enough for God to send it. Both hosts reject that claim.

A perfect person would not need revival. If revival depended on human perfection, they say, there would be no hope.

Repentance brings restoration

The hosts connect revival to repentance. Sin creates the need for repentance, and repentance opens the way for restoration and refreshing from God.

Their order is clear:

1. People recognize the reality of sin.
2. They repent and turn back to God.
3. God brings restoration.
4. Refreshing and revival become possible.

This conviction fits their larger emphasis on grace. Revival does not come through self-made righteousness. It comes as people repent and return to God.

A personal encounter with God changes a life

Near the end of the episode, Alan tells a story he heard from country singer Ella Langley. He describes her as someone whose music had risen to the top of the country charts and whose down-to-earth manner had drawn people to her.

He says she has resisted the distance and protection often associated with stardom. After concerts, she reportedly walks among the crowd and speaks with people.

Her testimony during a panic attack

According to the testimony Alan recounts, Langley had been raised Baptist but had moved away from God. As her popularity grew, she experienced what Alan first called a nervous breakdown and then clarified as a panic attack.

She felt surrounded by darkness and was riding in an Uber with a friend while trying to get help. At a stoplight, she looked at the cars around her and saw black cars, which intensified her sense of darkness and evil.

She then called out to God. As she sat there, white cars began pulling up among the black cars. Alan says she understood that moment as God meeting her, helping her, and setting her free.

A changed desire

The hosts connect that story to the simplicity of a personal encounter with God. They say it was not a complex theological argument. It was an encounter that changed a life.

Alan says Langley now speaks during concerts about how she would not be on stage without God. The point, for both hosts, is that a true encounter with God produces change.

They return to the questions they believe matter most: Has your life changed? Do you desire the Lord? Do you desire the things of God?

A preacher Alan heard once put it this way: when a person comes to Jesus, the person begins to want to change. That desire is part of the evidence of a life touched by Christ.

Hold to the Gospel That Changes Lives

The episode's warning about false prophets and wolves begins with the whole counsel of God. Teaching becomes dangerous when it adds legalism, seeks secret knowledge, removes the resurrection, excuses sin, or feeds on the flock.

The gospel remains centered on Jesus Christ and Him crucified, His resurrection, God's grace, and repentance that brings restoration.

A changed heart and a growing desire for God carry more weight than a head full of spiritual information.

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