Jude's Top 20 Traits of False Teachers

From Jude 8-16:

1. Dreamers - their spiritual truth is not reality
2. Pollute their own body
3. Reject apostles teaching
4. Slander celestial beings
5. Speak abusively against special revelation available in the Scripture (things not understood) and against natural revelation revealed to all men (things understood)
6. Take the way of Cain - kill truth with man's religion, false world view and human effort
7. Rush for profit into Balaam's error - use their talent and gifts for their own profit
8. Destroyed in Korah's rebellion - reject and overthrow God's established spiritual leadership
9. Blemishes at your love feasts - they are still in church and leading churches
10. Shepherds who feed only themselves - they do not teach the people but they do collect money from the people
11. Clouds with out rain, blown by wind - their teaching has no truth, but their teaching is driven by popular opinion and considered to be culturally relevant
12. Autumn trees, twice dead - a) barren with no fruit at the end of summer, b) uprooted, and no longer alive
13. Wild waves of the sea - all appearance with no shape, substance or lasting impact
14. Wild waves of the sea foaming up their shame - the only thing the false teachers can leave behind is the pollution in their souls similar to the ocean waves leaving the oceans trash on the beach
15. Wandering Stars - people can not use them for life's navigational purposes because they are not stable, if you base your ships position on them you will get confused and lost
16. Grumblers
17. Faultfinders
18. Follow their own evil desires, not the Word of Truth or the Spirit of God
19. Boast and promote themselves, not the Word of God or Jesus Christ
20. Flatter others for their own advantage - as always, if you are their friend or partner in ministry it is for their advantage

These are found in Jude verses 8-16:

In the very same way, on the strength of their dreams these ungodly people pollute their own bodies, reject authority and heap abuse on celestial beings. ⁹ But even the archangel Michael, when he was disputing with the devil about the body of Moses, did not himself dare to condemn him for slander but said, “The Lord rebuke you!” ¹⁰ Yet these people slander whatever they do not understand, and the very things they do understand by instinct—as irrational animals do—will destroy them.¹¹ Woe to them! They have taken the way of Cain; they have rushed for profit into Balaam’s error; they have been destroyed in Korah’s rebellion.¹² These people are blemishes at your love feasts, eating with you without the slightest qualm—shepherds who feed only themselves. They are clouds without rain, blown along by the wind; autumn trees, without fruit and uprooted—twice dead. ¹³ They are wild waves of the sea, foaming up their shame; wandering stars, for whom blackest darkness has been reserved forever.¹⁴ Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied about them: “See, the Lord is coming with thousands upon thousands of his holy ones ¹⁵ to judge everyone, and to convict all of them of all the ungodly acts they have committed in their ungodliness, and of all the defiant words ungodly sinners have spoken against him.” ¹⁶ These people are grumblers and faultfinders; they follow their own evil desires; they boast about themselves and flatter others for their own advantage.

Galyn Wiemers
Generation Word
http://www.generationword.com