Introduction
    False teaching can harm brethren’s faith, and so this is a warning to be aware.
   Be diligent to present yourself approved to Elohim as a workman who does not need to be ashamed, accurately handling the Word of Truth. But avoid worldly [and] empty chatter, for it will lead to further unrighteousness, and their talk will spread like gangrene. Among them are Hymenaeus and Philetus, [men] who have gone astray from the truth saying that the resurrection has already taken place, and they upset the faith of some. Nevertheless, the firm foundation of Elohim stands, having this seal, “Yahweh knows those who are His,” and, “Everyone who names the Name of the Master is to abstain from wickedness,” 2 Timothy 2:15-19. (New American Standard Bible used throughout, unless otherwise noted.)
   Worldly and empty words lead to unrighteousness. Hymenaeus and Philetus are named as two having departed from the truth, saying, the resurrection had already occurred – either the false Greek teaching an immortal soul is gone to heaven upon death of the physical being, or the idea that those who had died have already been raised, in which case those who are alive are left behind. Paul asserts this spurious doctrine overthrows the faith of some, that is, sets them on a course apart from the proper understanding of the truth of Yahweh’s Word. The Apostle Paul needed to address this false teaching of “going to heaven when you die” which is become so prevalent among Christianity.
   And so, we might ask, “Where do these false teachings come from?”

The Mystery of Lawlessness
   Now we request you, brethren, with regard to the coming of our Master Yahshua Messiah and our gathering together to Him, that you not be quickly shaken from your composure or be disturbed either by a spirit or a message or a letter as if from us, to the effect that the day of Yahweh has come. Let no one in any way deceive you, for [it will not come] unless the apostasy comes first, and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of destruction, who opposes and exalts himself above every so-called deity or object of worship, so that he takes his seat in the temple of Elohim, displaying himself as being Elohim … For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work; only he who now restrains [will do so] until he is taken out of the way. Then that lawless one will be revealed whom the Master will slay with the breath of His mouth and bring to an end by the appearance of His coming; [that is], the one whose coming is in accord with the activity of Satan, with all power and signs and false wonders, and with all the deception of wickedness for those who perish, because they did not receive the love of the truth so as to be saved. For this reason Elohim will send upon them a deluding influence so that they will believe what is false, in order that they all may be judged who did not believe the truth, but took pleasure in wickedness, 2 Thessalonians 2:1-4, 7-12.
   “The mystery of lawlessness is already at work,” is speaking of the man of sin who is yet to be fully manifested as the one whose coming is with the activity of Satan. When Yahweh says He’ll send “a deluding influence,” He is saying, He will allow the mystery of lawlessness to take place, that is, Satan’s influence will be allowed. Those who forsake Yahweh will be deceived by Satan in various ways. In the meantime, Satan as the prince and power of the air (Eph. 2:2), disguised as “an angel of light” (2 Cor. 11:14) is deceiving the world (Rev. 12:9). And his ministers are countering, corrupting, deceitfully handling, and making private interpretation of the Word of Yahweh, but they and their false, abominable doctrines are, and will be, exposed.

Behind the Scenes
   Behind the scenes we know there are both good and evil spirits. Indeed, where good is, evil is also present. There are angels, for example, that hold back the winds of wrath (Rev 7:1). But there are also doctrines of demons promoted in the latter times (1 Tim. 4:1).
   The way to counter error is to proclaim the Truth. Darkness is exposed by light and questions are answered with the truth (Acts 8:30-31). But those under the influence of Satan and their own flesh, and who deny Yahweh’s Word, end up unable to understand the truth (Rom. 8:7). Yahshua made it clear when He said, “he who has an ear to hear, let him hear” (Rev. 2:7, ff). In other words, some are not going to understand, but not everyone has an ear to hear the truth – neither in the first century, nor yet in the 21st century. But during this time, ‘willing’ deafness is worse.
   But the Spirit explicitly says that in later times some will fall away from the faith, paying attention to deceitful spirits and doctrines of demons, by means of the hypocrisy of liars seared in their own conscience as with a branding iron, 1 Timothy 4:1-2.
   Deceitful spirits? Doctrines of demons? What do they look like? Paul gives a couple of examples:
      • men who forbid marriage, and who
      • advocate abstaining from foods which El has created to be gratefully shared by those who believe and know the truth (1 Tim.4:3).
   Some religious bodies forbid marriage of their priests which has resulted in some having become sexual predators among children. Others forbid, or at least frown upon, eating meat or drinking alcoholic beverages which result in countermanding what Scripture allows and, subsequently, producing an aberration of the Word and creating traditions that make for factions and a falling away from the faith.
   We can marry, but we are not to defile the marriage bed by deviant sexual behavior. Deviant behaviors like adultery and sodomy and perversion of gender identity are listed in Scripture as prohibited, banned, and forbidden. And everything created by Yahweh and sanctified by His Word to be clean is good, and not to be rejected.
   The “mystery of lawlessness,” is an interesting term. It is a mystery why anyone would commit lawlessness against the Creator of the Universe, yet that is what we see today. And false doctrines are part of this lawlessness which inflict damage to the Holy Scripture and to people whom the Scripture is purposed to sanctify.

False Prophets and False Teachers
   To the Law and to the Testimony: if they speak not according to this Word, it is because there is no light in them, Isaiah 8:20, KJV.
   An identifier of false teachers is what they teach. For if what they teach is not according to the Word of Yahweh, then it is said they have no shaw-khar’r, Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance, H.7837, (literally, dawn or day (-spring). The understanding implied here, is that false teachers have no light, teaching correctly the Laws and Testimonies from Scripture, but only darkness.
   Beware of the false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves. You will know them by their fruits. Grapes are not gathered from thorn [bushes] nor figs from thistles, are they? So every good tree bears good fruit, but the bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot produce bad fruit, nor can a bad tree produce good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. So then, you will know them by their fruits, Matthew 7:15-20.
   Fruits here, is deeds. If someone is not following the teachings of Scripture, you’ll see it in their deeds which, by the way, all mankind will be judged (Rev. 22:12).
   Moreover, Yahshua, after explaining false prophets will be known by their fruit, declares, “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Master, Master,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father Who is in heaven will enter. Many will say to Me on that day, ‘Master, Master, did we not prophesy in Your Name, and in Your Name cast out demons, and in Your Name perform many miracles?’ And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; DEPART FROM ME, YOU WHO PRACTICE LAWLESSNESS,’” Matthew 7:21-23.
   We are instructed to turn away from, and give no attendance to, those not teaching the truth of Yahweh’s Word as it leads to death, even if they proclaim good works in Messiah.
   Thus says Yahweh of hosts, “Do not listen to the words of the prophets who are prophesying to you. They are leading you into futility; they speak a vision of their own imagination, not from the mouth of Yahweh,” Jeremiah 23:16.
   For there are many rebellious men, empty talkers and deceivers, especially those of the circumcision (pharisaical Jewry), who must be silenced because they are upsetting whole families, teaching things they should not [teach] for the sake of sordid gain, Titus 1:10-11.
   The pharisaical Jews promoted false doctrines and so also, did the Sadducees.
   And Yahshua said to them, “Watch out and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees.” They began to discuss among themselves, saying, “[It is] because we took no bread.” But Yahshua, aware of this, said, “You men of little faith, why do you discuss among yourselves that you have no bread? Do you not yet understand or remember the five loaves of the five thousand, and how many baskets full you took up? Or the seven loaves of the four thousand, and how many large baskets you took up? How is it that you do not understand that I did not speak to you concerning bread? But beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees.” Then they understood that He did not say to beware of the leaven of bread, but of the teaching of the Pharisees and Sadducees, Matthew 16:6-12.
   Then, and now, some teach for hire … tickling itching ears, telling them what they want to hear in exchange for making merchandise of their substance. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires, and will turn away their ears from the truth and will turn aside to myths, 2 Timothy 4:3-4.
   The Apostle Peter corroborates Paul’s warning:
   But there were false prophets also among the people, even as there shall be false teachers among you, who privily shall bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Sovereign that bought them, and bring upon themselves swift destruction. And many shall follow their pernicious ways; by reason of whom the way of truth shall be evil spoken of. And through covetousness shall they with feigned words make merchandise of you … 2 Peter 3:1-3, KJV.
   This is the time we are in today, and they (false teachers with false doctrine) are saying the same things they said to deceive the people in the past.
   And so, who despises Yahweh, if it’s not the very ones who are willing to disregard His admonitions?
   They keep saying to those who despise Me, “Yahweh has said, ‘You will have peace’; and as for everyone who walks in the stubbornness of his own heart, they say, ‘Calamity will not come upon you,’” Jeremiah 23:17.
   Though this also spoke to Judah before the Babylonian captivity and destruction of Jerusalem, we may understand it speaks to those who will, at the end of the age when tribulation shall come upon the whole world because of their disobedience to His Word, presume to say, “Hey, there’s no harm that will come to us.” “We are covered by grace!” “The law has been done away with!” “Just believe!”
   But to them who know not they are but opposing themselves, we say, as the prophet, Behold, you are trusting in deceptive words to no avail. Will you steal, murder, and commit adultery and swear falsely, and offer sacrifices to Baal and walk after other deities that you have not known, then come and stand before Me in this house, which is called by My Name, and say, ‘We are delivered!’— that you may do all these abominations? Has this house, which is called by My Name, become a den of robbers in your sight? Behold, I, even I, have seen [it],” declares Yahweh, Jeremiah 7:8-11.
   “Deities you have not known.” Could this describe all the sports figures and Hollywood ‘players’ to whom people today, give their undivided attention? More attention is accorded them – even by believers, falsely so-called) – than to proper worship of Yahweh. Given the choice, many, more than a few, too, would prefer watching a 2-3 hour movie featuring their favorite ‘player(s)’, or watching a 2-3 hour ball game, than sitting and giving audience to a 1-hour, Scripturally correct message. This is the society we live in today, and only a precious few are coming out, and becoming separated from, the false teachings which held them in captivity.
   And of abominations? simply defined: utterly detestable, and forbidden by Yahweh – stealing, murder, adultery, giving false witness, etc. – things contrary to, and at enmity against, His Laws.
   No discussion about false prophets/teachers, however, would be complete apart from speaking about some prominent misunderstandings among religious circles today, concerning the Apostle Paul’s writings which Peter, his peer, affirms some things are hard to understand which the unlearned and unstable twist, as they do all the rest of the Scriptures (2 Pet. 3:16).
   We’ll next focus our attention to Romans, Chapter 14, and recommend a combined study on the Apostle’s other writings in Colossians, Chapter 2 and Galatians, Chapter 4.

Romans 14
    One person has faith that he may eat all things, but he who is weak eats vegetables [only] … and he who eats, does so for Yahweh, for he gives thanks to Elohim; and he who eats not, for Yahweh he does not eat, and gives thanks to Elohim, Romans 14:2, 6b.
   For everything created by Yahweh is good, and nothing is to be rejected, if it is received with gratitude; for it is sanctified by means of the Word of Yahweh and prayer, 1 Timothy 4:4-5.
   I know and am convinced in the Master Yahshua that nothing is unclean in itself; but to him who thinks anything to be unclean, to him it is unclean. For if because of food your brother is hurt, you are no longer walking according to love. Do not destroy with your food him for whom Messiah died, Romans 14:14-15.
   First of all, one cannot sanctify by prayer what has not first been sanctified by the Word of Yahweh. Concerning foods, Yahweh has defined what constitutes food. What He forbids as food, we pay attention to. It doesn’t mean we can’t be vegetarian. After all, ‘green food’ – “every plant yielding seed” and “every tree which has fruit yielding seed” (Gen. 1:29) – was commanded to be eaten from the beginning. But as the ark was prepared for its sojourning, Yahweh, in His instructions to Noah, distinguished clean from unclean (Gen. 7:2). Only after the flood, and after Noah had disembarked from off the ark, did Yahweh allow clean animal meat in man’s diet (Gen. 9:3), (Request our in-depth study booklet, entitled, Yahweh’s Food Laws, Clean or Unclean.)
   These letters were addressed to them who would have understood the message. The customs and manners of the pagan cultures of the time provided for offerings made to a pantheon of deities, and that what was not consumed by sacrifice, was then marketed in the public square. But Paul did not, and would not have, nullified the dietary laws of the Torah which clearly delineates what is acceptable as clean from what is not (Lev. 11; Deut. 14). The Scriptures, which included Torah, made the food laws clear to those coming into the faith in Messiah.
   Nevertheless, with respect to eating meat, Paul says in 1 Corinthians 8:8, “we are no worse if we do not eat, and no better if we do” (NIV). For “the kingdom of Elohim is not meat and drink” (Rom. 14:17, KJV). The main point of Romans, Chapter 14, is not harming one’s brother because of his opinions.
   But take care that this liberty of yours does not somehow become a stumbling block to the weak. For if someone sees you, who have knowledge, dining in an idol’s temple, will not his conscience, if he is weak, be strengthened to eat things sacrificed to idols? For through your knowledge he who is weak is ruined, the brother for whose sake Messiah died, 1 Corinthians 8:9-11.
   Eat anything that is sold in the meat market without asking questions for conscience’ sake; FOR THE EARTH IS YAHWEH’S, AND ALL IT CONTAINS. If one of the unbelievers invites you and you want to go, eat anything that is set before you without asking questions for conscience’ sake. But if anyone says to you, “This is meat sacrificed to idols,” do not eat [it], for the sake of the one who informed [you], and for conscience’ sake; I mean not your own conscience, but the [other] man’s; for why is my freedom judged by another’s conscience? If I partake with thankfulness, why am I slandered concerning that for which I give thanks? Whether, then, you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all to the glory of Elohim. Give no offense either to Jews or to Greeks or the assembly of Yahweh, 1 Corinthians 10:25-32.
   Sacrificial food was an issue for both gentile assemblies living in the pagan polytheistic societies of Rome and Corinth, both of which marketed meat offered to their deities, and needed to be addressed. Some brethren chose to just eat vegetables, because it was a safer option. They may have even considered how the animals – clean animals – were sacrificed. Was it done in a kosher way? Were the clean, separated from touching the unclean, etc.?
   A secondary issue might have been that some, perhaps arrogant, wise in their own conceits, were passing judgment upon others whose faith-convictions were not as strong. Paul charged these rather, Now we who are strong ought to bear the weaknesses of those without strength and not [just] please ourselves. … Now accept the one who is weak in faith, [but] not for [the purpose of] passing judgment on his opinions, Romans 15:1, 14:1. In other words, they should shut their mouths and not make mountains out of molehills, neither major in minors but respect the brethren.
   Fasting is also addressed in chapter 14 of Romans.
   One person regards one day above another, another regards every day alike. Each person must be fully convinced in his own mind. He who observes the day, observes it for Yahweh … Romans 14:5-6a.
   The message is clear and consistent in these verses. Love the brethren, and don’t be arrogant.
   For other concerns raised by antinominalists – those who teach the Law was blotted out, taken away, and nailed to a cross – we would recommend our Combined Study entitled, Paul and The Law, which discusses many of Paul’s writings used by some to justify lawlessness, and which also affirms that Paul was in agreement with the Law, and with the Messiah, Who also uplifted the Commandments of Yahweh. Let’s finish with what the Apostle Peter has to say.

Paul’s Writings Used to Justify Lawlessness
    But according to His promise we are looking for new heavens and a new earth, in which righteousness dwells. Therefore, beloved, since you look for these things, be diligent to be found by Him in peace, spotless and blameless, and regard the patience of our Master [to be] salvation; just as also our beloved brother Paul, according to the wisdom given him, wrote to you, as also in all [his] letters, speaking in them of these things, in which are some things hard to understand, which the untaught and unstable distort, as [they do] also the rest of the Scriptures, to their own destruction. You therefore, beloved, knowing this beforehand, be on your guard so that you are not carried away by the error of unprincipled (wicked, KJV. Original word means lawless) men and fall from your own steadfastness, 2 Peter 3:13-17.
   But the writings of Paul, like the truth, needs no defense. The Apostle Peter here warns unequivocally, that untaught and unstable, unprincipled men – neither spotless, nor blameless, but sinners teaching the Law was blotted out, taken out of the way, and nailed to Messiah’s stake – will employ trickery, craftiness, deceitful scheming and promises of liberty, perverting and distorting the Scriptures by which, they toss men to and fro, and carry them about diverse, strange doctrines (Eph. 4:14; 2 Pet. 2:19). And which of his writings are customarily used to try and show the abolition of the Law? These are principally, the letters to the Romans, Galatians, and Colossians.

Conclusion
    By this we know that we love the children of Yahweh, when we love Yahweh and observe His Commandments. For this is the love of Yahweh, that we keep His Commandments; and His Commandments are not burdensome. For whatever is born of Elohim overcomes the world; and this is the victory that has overcome the world – our faith. Who is the one who overcomes the world, but he who believes that Yahshua is the Son of Yahweh? 1 John 5:2-5.
   We overcome the world, as our Master Yahshua, by our obedience to His Law. Satan, and alternatively, his ministers, teaches against Yahweh’s Laws and walks contrary to them as do his followers.
   Though many are following the broad way that leads to destruction, may Yahweh help us to keep the narrow path that leads to eternal life.