False teaching by churches or held out by a church denomination is like a strangling vine. It needs the true church, like the strangling vine needs the true tree, to climb up and grow and prosper.

It is the preaching of the true gospel, which creates the true church - a community gathered around Jesus. These people, this true church, give their time, their love, their money and their very lives to see the gospel go out and go in. As the gospel goes in deeper, Christians mature becoming more like Jesus. As it goes out, more people become Christians. It is that simple. And so the church is built. The tree grows.

False teaching doesn’t bring people to Jesus. And it doesn’t change hearts, turning them to God. It may change people, but it is a bad change. That’s why Jesus argued so fiercely with the religious leaders of his day. In his mind they were false teachers offering a false understanding of God that led people away from God.

These churches really exist. A couple of years ago I listen to 10 talks online of a very large church on the south side of Brisbane. That was nearly 350 minutes of preaching. How much of this was about Jesus? About 10 minutes or perhaps, even less. In total. So what was the church teaching? Not Christianity is the answer. False teaching is the answer.

But as false teaching and false belief grow they, like a vine, choke the true church. The light is blocked. The church is crushed. Resources are stolen. Eventually the true church dies. No matter how mighty it is. As long as false teaching prevails.

Some strangling vines take decades to prevail over true trees. But eventually, they do. Then the vine can’t sustain itself and comes crashing down. False teaching kills churches.

Is your church teaching the truth? Or falsehood? Does your church have the work of Jesus and the word of God (the teaching of the Bible) at the centre of its preaching and teaching? If not, your church is probably engaged in false teaching. Please leave before you are strangled.