The Right Way to Check Out Christian Teachers

I regularly read or hear scathing reviews of Christian authors, teachers, and pastors.

While it's right to judge Christian teachers (1 John 4:1), we must judge them fairly, without assumptions, sarcasm, exaggeration, or mockery (Colossians 4:6).

Don't trust information from critics who:

1. Accuse other Christians based on words or phrases taken out of context.
2. Accuse others based on what they "meant," not what they said.
3. Accuse others based on a random sentence or two instead of their overall teaching.
4. Use sarcasm or mockery to expose false teachings.(1)  

When someone criticizes a teacher (or anyone else) in any of these four ways, they are violating Scripture, and we cannot trust their motives (Ephesians 4:29; Galatians 6:1).

If I want to know whether a well-known Christian is teaching error, I find a source that explains their false teaching with gentleness, grace, maturity, and well-documented quotes given in context.(2) 
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(1) If you start listening to a video or reading an article, and the speaker/author starts resorting to sarcasm or mockery, you can be sure that he has very little Christian concern for the person he's critiquing. It's an immature, manipulative form of argumentation.
 
(2) My favorite resources for this purpose are Got Questions, Christian Research Institute, and Bible Thinker because I have always found their critiques fair-minded, well-documented, and balanced. They will often share positive things about the person being critiqued, even if they must conclude that the person's overall teaching is unhealthy.

See also:  Discernment or Slander and Government Courts Shouldn't be Fairer than Christians. 

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