DOCTRINE, FALSE

I once saw a card that said: “Old fishermen never die—they only smell that way.”

That surely describes false Christianity. It never dies—it only smells that way.364

Fire ants have virtually taken over the southern United States since they were accidentally transported here a few decades ago. They are amazingly adaptable, fiercely aggressive, and multiply seemingly overnight. Worst of all, insecticide sprays generally can’t destroy the mound’s inhabitants. Like a mighty army they have marched in, impervious to brute force.

Scientists have now found a rather crafty way to wipe out whole colonies. Pellets of the ants’ favorite food are tainted with a special tasteless, odorless poison and sprinkled around the mound. The worker ants immediately begin gathering up the tainted treasure and take it down into the heart of the colony. Then they unwittingly feed the poisoned pellets to their queen, slowly killing her! When the queen dies, no more workers are produced, and so in a couple of weeks the entire colony starves to death. How ironic! Food that looked so good caused their starvation.

That is how it is with false doctrine. Those who lack discernment import it into the heart of the church, thinking it is harmless and in fact quite good. If any wise “ant” smells the poison and protests, he is ridiculed! And in the end the next generation starves to death spiritually.365

In an examination at a Christian school, the teacher asked the following question: “What is false doctrine?”

Up went a little boy’s hand, and there came this answer: “It’s when the doctor gives the wrong stuff to people who are sick.”

Although the little boy had obviously confused doctrine with doctorin’, he arrived at the correct definition.366

The seriousness of errant doctrine can be compared to a missile aimed a mere one degree off target. The difference seems slight and negligible at first, yet the results of the error increase dramatically throughout the flight of the missile, until it totally misses its intended target.

So it is with false doctrine. At first it may seem to be a tolerable mistake, a little error—but not that serious. But, as with all errors, the effects compound over time until they become so serious that they may not be correctable.367