The guardians of ‘free-will’ have exemplified the saying: ‘out of the frying-pan, into the fire.’ In their zeal to disagree with the Pelagians they start denying condign merit, and by the very form of their denial they set it up more firmly! By word and pen they deny it, but really, in their hearts, they establish it, and are worse than the Pelagians upon two counts. In the first place, the Pelagians confess and assert condign merit straightforwardly, candidly and honestly, calling a spade a spade and teaching what they really hold. But our friends here, who hold and teach the same view, try to fool us with lying words and false appearances, giving out that they disagree with the Pelagians, when there is nothing that they are further from doing! ‘If you regard our pretences, we appear as the Pelagians’ bitterest foes; but if you regard the facts and our hearts, we are Pelagians double-dyed.’ (Luther, Bondage of the Will)
There were false prophets in the Old and New Testaments. False prophets also point to true preachers of the Word and call them false prophets, so it is not something that is easy. However, Luther tells us that in the name of fighting Pelagianism some actually were worse than Pelagians. Assuming that is true, and we can point to the Pharisees in the days of Christ where their closeness to the truth in religion made them worse, then we can simply assume that men today who claim not to be Pelagian but actually are Pelagians are worse than those who are unashamed Pelagians.
Many times shepherds in the Old Testament who were called out by God. Jesus warned to beware of false prophets. They will come in sheep’s clothing, but that is not who they are. Those who have the title to be shepherds (elders, pastors) but are not seeking the face of the Lord themselves or intending to lead the people to seek the Lord are indeed false shepherds. It does not matter how nice, gracious, kind or outwardly helpful people are, if they teach the things that are not biblical despite orthodox words they are false teachers. If they pretend to preach and teach the truth and yet end up teaching error, they are wolves in sheep’s clothing.
Jeremiah 10:21 “For the shepherds have become stupid And have not sought the LORD; Therefore they have not prospered, And all their flock is scattered.”
Jere 23:1 “Woe to the shepherds who are destroying & scattering the sheep of My pasture!” declares the LORD.”
Jeremiah 50:6 “My people have become lost sheep; Their shepherds have led them astray. They have made them turn aside on the mountains; They have gone along from mountain to hill And have forgotten their resting place.”
Ezek 34:2 “Son of man, prophesy against the shepherds of Israel. Prophesy & say to those shepherds, ‘Thus says the Lord GOD, “Woe, shepherds of Israel who have been feeding themselves! Should not the shepherds feed the flock?”
Mat 7:15 “Beware of the false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves.”
Acts 20:29 “I know that after my departure savage wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock.”
When we take a careful and sober look at the verses above, we should know that in our day of theological confusion there are many wolves in our midst. There are many nice men and women who have taken the mantle of prophet or of shepherd upon them who are actually doing great damage to the souls of people. True mercy and true kindness have to do with real benefit (God in Christ) to the souls of human beings. It is not just making people feel better about themselves or about who God is, but it is the truth of who God is and a person’s truly being made to grow in the faith that is beneficial to the soul and to the glory of God. It is easy to take the name of God on the lips and do nice things, but that is not the same thing as true spiritual benefit. It is easy to get busy with activity in a church and do a lot of evangelism, but a natural man can do those things. It is easy for a person with personality to move people to do a lot of activity and even religious activity, but that is not the same thing as doing it all out of love for God. It is easy to do some external good and say we have done that to the glory of God, but that is not in the power of a human soul to do that. It is easy to be the means of destruction to souls, but it costs a person great pain to be a means of spiritual good to souls. Gracious and nice men in our day are teaching heresy but doing it in the words of orthodoxy. Pelagianism is heresy when it is openly taught and even worse when those who are Pelagians down deep hide it with the cloak of orthodoxy. Luther also thought that Arminianism was little better (if any) than Pelagianism. In fact, he thought it was Pelagianism in disguise. If Armianism is really Pelagianism in disguise, what then of the men professing to be Reformed who say that Arminianism is simply another expression of the Gospel and are happy to work with them?
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