Many professed believers do not know the Word of God nor do they know how to discern and therefore are in danger of being deceived. Here are 10 simple points to get one started. www.nopews.blogspot.com

1. 10 POINTS TO LEARN BIBLICAL DISCERNMENT
In our time as born from above Christians, we have striven for
and really learned (all via God's Holy Spirit and Word / no
credit to us) to discern biblically everything, all doctrine, ideas,
people and groups we come across as to not be deceived or
swept away into spiritual error ourselves. Like us once, many
people we encounter need to learn this valuable skill and so we
wanted to do a post about it to point out some of the basic
tools to help others in their own biblical discernment. Many
people don't seem to understand this important topic, why we
focus on discernment or why we feel the need to expose error
and lovingly correct it for solid doctrines of the faith. One
reason could be that they are not "made new" themselves in
Christ but are false converts. Our Rock must be eternal life in
Christ via the biblical gospel. You can read or listen to that here
to make sure your in Him today:
http://nopews.blogspot.com/p/how-to-be-redeemed.html
Next, we know that God's Word tells us to discern so let us look
at a few scriptures that point us to always strive for His truth:
Colossians 2:7-10
As you therefore have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in
Him, 7 rooted and built up in Him and established in the faith, as
you have been taught, abounding in it[b] with thanksgiving.

2. 8 Beware lest anyone cheat you through philosophy and empty
deceit, according to the tradition of men, according to the basic
principles of the world, and not according to Christ. 9 For in Him
dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily; 10 and you are
complete in Him, who is the head of all principality and power.
1 Thessalonians 5:21-22
Test all things; hold fast what is good. 22 Abstain from every
form of evil.
John 4:24
But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers
will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for the Father is
seeking such to worship Him. 24 God is Spirit, and those who
worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.”
Ephesians 4
And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some
evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, 12 for the equipping
of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the
body of Christ, 13 till we all come to the unity of the faith and of
the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the
measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ; 14 that we should
no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with
every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning
craftiness of deceitful plotting, 15 but, speaking the truth in love,
may grow up in all things into Him who is the head—Christ—

3. 16 from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by what
every joint supplies, according to the effective working by
which every part does its share, causes growth of the body for
the edifying of itself in love.
The basic root/foundation of discernment is to know God's
Word and Truth so that is the place to start once you're in Christ
through faith and repentance. Without the knowledge of the
Word you can't really discern much of anything then your
feelings, the culture and other people/groups will influence you.
That will never turn out well in God's Truth or eternity will it?
2 Timothy 2
Be diligent to present yourself approved to God, a worker who
does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.
16 But shun profane and idle babblings, for they will increase to
more ungodliness.
Sadly, man made denominational religion and its leaders today
are not focused on teaching biblical discernment as they are not
discerning or even fully biblical themselves. This makes a
situation where the religious blind are leading the blind into
many ditches (Matthew 15:19) that our website documents that
often as a warning in godly love. Discernment is not really hard
once it is learned. A good example maybe that of riding a bike.
When you don't have that simple skill it seems almost
impossible to do but once you master it, it comes easy and
natural and you do it without even realizing you are. Over time

4. they say you never forget how it do it especially if you ride a
bike often or in this case: are in the Word daily as we should be.
While our list of discernment basic points could be huge I have
complied the main ones we feel have been a mainstay for us and
allowed us to test and then refute many false groups and ill
teachings so they have never affected us in our walk for Christ.
The list would be as follows and then we will explain them one
by one for you:
1) What does God's FULL Word say about it? (does it pass the
scripture test)
2) Don't ever take the bait until the complete DEEP testing of it.
3) Who are those proclaiming it and who are they untied with?
4) Is it in biblical context?
5) Did they use proper exegesis to get there?
6) Can scripture EVER contradict scripture?
7) Is it apostolic? (did the first century saints teach and live it)
8) It their timing correct?
9) What does History teach us about them or it?
10) Is there anything new under the sun?

5. 1) What does God's FULL Word say about it? (does it pass the
scripture test)
All true believers would agree that God's Word is our sole
source of truth so this must be our number one discernment tool.
While this may seem so simple and basic, trust us that it can get
very in depth so please beware. Notice we said the FULL Word
of God needs to be in play here. Many groups or people will
have a doctrine that seemingly meets a part of God's Word but
when you take in ALL of God's Word, it cannot stand. Your
solid testing will always expose this. A good example may be
universalists (who believe everyone will go to heaven) and they
can use John 3:16 as their proof text. (God so loved the world
He gave His only Son) If you were to read just that verse they
could deceive many but if you just test it to all of God's Word it
fails as a poor devilish teaching and it is not in line with the
Word. So number 1 is to scour God's Word to find all relevant
scriptures about that topic and test it to them. Obviously to do
this you must be in the Word and know it well or you can be
deceived. This is why it is biblical to be gathering with those
who are more mature than you and they can disciple you in this
process. Just make sure you test them along the way and please;
test us as well at every turn will you?
2) Don't ever take the bait till the complete DEEP testing of it
If you hear of a new teaching you don't know or a practice some
claim you must do as a Christ follower use wisdom first and
don't just run into doing it. Jesus told us to be wise as serpents

6. didn't He? (Matt 10:16) We fell into a little bit of this when we
were first new in Christ as we had none to guide us at all. So
when a new concept is brought to you, please do not chase after
doing it until you have taken the time to test it out
completely using good discernment. Also make sure you look
into each topic deeply and not at just a surface level. We have
had many discussion about things (like lady head coverings) that
are so very important and we find people only scratch the truth
surface when they need to go deep. That is why we see the need
for our site as it is is designed to do that for others and all for
God's glory.
3) Who are those proclaiming it and who are they united with?
Often when we hear of a teaching, idea or a doctrine that we
have not read in the Holy Word the next thing we do is to test
who is teaching it and who are they united with. This is just
good common sense. Often this can save you much time in
determining if this a real truth teller to consider or does it need
to be tossed out as error? Once again this is only as good as your
ability to know who is biblical and who is not. This only comes
with time/practice as you research groups and religious
organizations to God's Word. If you have a more mature
believer who has that knowledge/experience you can lean on;
that is a real blessing indeed so take advantage of that as well.
But let's say you hear about a friend or family member that is
listening to a man teach and they really like him and he has a

7. teaching such as: you must attend services on Saturday as that is
the true Holy day of God. You can and should research the
Saturday Sabbath topic but you can also go and see who this
man is and who does he link to? Often we find these men are
linked to other VERY unbiblical and heretical groups so we can
easily toss him out as a man NOT to be trusted. Paul said in
Romans 16:17 to NOT associate with those who leave sound
doctrine. So test not only what they are saying but who they are
at their core and it will tell you a lot. We at nopews do not
belong to any organization and will only point you to God's
Word alone.
4) Is it in biblical context?
The next good discernment tool is to check on biblical context.
This just means to make sure what is being taught is in the
correct contextual situation in God's Word. Many will pull out a
concept from Gods Word but they miss who it was for, when it
was taught and did it change. A example of this would be
teaching tithing for today. While it is in God's Word it is NOT
for gentile believers now as it was for the Israelites only (it was
not money but was produce/food and it was to go to the Temple
and priest) that no longer exist. This is a wrong context teaching
that must be rejected. (Go to our discernment site for detailed
article on many of the examples we gave here:
http://spiritandtruthdiscernment.blogspot.com/) So make sure in
your testing you are looking for context and that it is correctly
being applied in all things.

8. 5) Did they use proper exegesis to get there?
Recently we did a post on using proper exegesis and not
eisegesis in our biblical studies. Here is a link to that post that
has great detail on it.
http://spiritandtruthdiscernment.blogspot.com/search/label/Eiseg
esis%20or%20Exegesis
For this post we will just say that good exegesis means you go to
God's Word to find ALL the truth and then you form your
doctrine on that information. A poor Eisegesis goes into God's
Word and only finds what you need to make your current
doctrine work as you ignore other truth that defies your
doctrine. Obviously this is like only following some of the
traffic laws in your town. You may make it half way through
town but eventually the police will be in your future and you
will be a lawbreaker. Jesus said we live by every Word out of
the mouth of God (Matthew 4:4) so make sure you're using good
exegesis as most today are not doing that and that puts them
in great danger.
6) Can scripture EVER contradict scripture?
This is a trick question as the answer clearly is no. God's Word
never goes against itself so a good tool to discern any teaching is
does any of the Word refute that or go against it directly? This is
often the case we find and because people are only using part of
the Word thus they can't see the full truth. If someone asks "can

9. I attend a violent worldly NFL football game?" and they read
Philippians 4 (I can do all things in Christ) the answer would be
yes they can go to the game. But if the look at other verses like 1
Peter 1:15 (be holy in all your conduct) or Romans 12:2 (don't
conform to the world) they will see God's Word cannot
contradict itself at all and they are not to partake in the world's
ways as a true believer. The point is, many teachings people will
offer you are a contradiction of scripture and our job is to find
where it is and expose it, in godly love. (Would you leave a
dangerous deep pit open for others to fall into?) We encourage
you to use many scriptures to fully root yourself in and not just
ones that seem to approve of certain doctrines and ways.
7) Is it apostolic? (Did the first century saints teach and live it?)
This is one of our favorite discernment tools in realizing
that Jesus Christ started His church in the first century and via
His Spirit and Word it functioned correctly. Yet most
teachers/denominationalism today look NOTHING like the early
biblical church. So why has man been allowed to change it so
much over time and pervert it into his own false system today?
If the early Apostles and Jesus did not teach it or practice it we
have no biblical grounds to hold to it today. One example of this
may be the modern pastors role we see all over America. It is
not found in the bible (one man doing all the teaching and in
total control on a box/pulpit) and so it must be rejected for God's
better way of many men stepping up to teach and use their gifts
vs one specially trained man. (1 Corinthians 14:26) See our link
to test your body here with 10 biblical points:

10. http://www.nopews.blogspot.com/p/test-your-faith-here.html
So this is a great test for you and for us. Why is anyone doing
today what the first century church never did? Please test what
you do and believe to their holy teachings and you will be on the
narrow road to eternal life in Christ and spirit and truth worship.
(John 4:24)
8) It their timing correct?
This is very simple and it involves looking at the
teaching/doctrine to see if it has a timing issue in God's Word.
Many things that were taught once in God's Word are no longer
for today. When was the last time you sacrificed an animal for
your sins? You don't as Christ fulfilled that for us. What if
someone told you that you must be circumcised today? You can
read about it in the Old Testament yes, but a quick reading in in
the New Testament where Paul says (Galatians 5:2) it is now
about Christ and that refutes any false teaching on the matter. A
doctrine must be correctly taught in God's perfect timing and not
man's, so beware will you?
9) What does History teach us about them or it?
Now this point you must be very careful in using all the time.
While history can be a good source of information it is NOT

11. God inspired and it can be faulty and even rewritten to deceive.
But it can give us a window into some areas that aid in exposing
false teaching as well. If history does line up with the inspired
Word; we are to embrace it as the truth. A common example of
this one is ladies head coverings. Not many are willing to study
and be fully obedient to this teaching and often they will just say
"it is a woman's hair or her husband". We can go right the 1
Corinthians 11 where Paul tells us it is indeed a "veil covering"
and then using history; we can see in the past for 1900 years that
the people that called themselves Christian's taught the veil as a
doctrine till feminism changed it all just recently. This supports
the biblical teaching of head coverings and in this case it aids in
your discernment skill task at hand. A quick history study will
also help you refute various religious groups/abhorrent
groups that have sprung up and often have very questionable
unbiblical pasts. Always be cautious if it is not found in the
Word; history has no authority or bearing on us who follow
Jesus Christ and His Truth.
10) Is there really anything new under the sun?
We believe the 9 points given above will get you well on your
way to correct biblical discernment in all things. On this last one
#10 we simply desire to leave you with is the fact that you must
know that there is nothing new under the sun. We are told this
is the book of Ecclesiastes 1:9
The thing that hath been, it is that which shall be; and that which
is done is that which shall be done: and there is no new thing
under the sun.

12. The point here is if someone or any group brings you some
"new" spiritual teaching (or one that just sprang up in the last
few hundred years or so) you can just ask yourself: is this a new
truth and is there any such thing as NEW truth at all? God's
Word says no there isn't! So a good discernment tool is to test
where was this truth was since the early New Testament church
existed and was God keeping men in the dark all that time till
now? The answer is no He wasn't and the truth is someone is
just making up new ways and teachings (maybe satan himself)
to deceive and destroy more people. Don't be led astray by this.
God's Holy Word is NOT new and so no teachings or ways are
new either. Cling to His Word as it is eternal and rest assured in
what Gods has said and done!
"If you do not biblically discern what is junk; you end up
living a spiritual pigsty"
We hope these points will set you on a course of more biblical
discernment and that you use it in all things and often. The bible
tells us to contend for the faith once delivered (Jude) and to do
this you must remain fully rooted in it and not be led astray in
trickery or deceit easily. The dangers are all around us are they
not? We at nopews.blogspot are standing on His Word boldly,
discerning all things fully and until someone comes by to knock
us off of that stance (using His Word to correct us) here we will
shall stand for God's glory! We pray that is where you want to
stand today. We also pray you will remain there boldly as you
grow your biblical discernment. This world is getting very
dark spiritually, it lacks truth and the ONLY way we who are

13. His will remain strong unto salvation to the end (Matthew 10) is
if we are walking in His LIGHT having tested out "all the
darkness and unbiblical ways" that could be in us and certainly
are all around us; for His glory.
Let us know how we can assist you in anyway at all.
God be praised
Jim and Debbie
http://nopews.blogspot.com
narroworad8711@hotmail.com
608-547-8162