Or how about Balaam (Num. 22)? Balak, the king of the Midianites, was afraid of Israel, so he sent to hire Balaam, the prophet, to curse them. God told Balaam not to go. Balak sent more people with more money and after a couple of entreaties, Balaam went on. He encountered some problems with his donkey who, as it turns out, saved his life. When Balaam went to curse Israel (Num. 23), he ended up blessing them instead. In the end, however, he told Balak how to disable Israel. He told Balak to introduce them to foods sacrificed to idols and to sexual immorality (Rev. 2:14). For a few dollars, then, the prophet of God conspired with the enemy of the people of God to cause them harm.
And everyone remembers Cain (Gen. 4). Everyone thinks that Cain was rejected because he offered grain rather than animal offering. I tend to disagree because no one had ever said that animal offering was the way to go, and because grain offerings are actually commanded later for Israel. The distinction between Cain's offering and Abel's offering, according to Hebrews, was that Abel's offering was by faith (Heb. 11:4). Cain knew this (Gen. 4:7), but instead of remedying the problem of faith, he chose to kill his faithful brother.
So ... what does this have to do with anything? Jude writes about false prophets. It's important to note that these are false prophets in the Church. These false prophets "pervert the grace of our God into sensuality and deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ" (Jude 1:4). Jude lists certain characteristics of these false teachers -- ways to recognize them. Because they prefer to follow their own plans and imaginations, they defile the flesh, reject authority, and blaspheme those whom God has glorified (Jude 1:8). He lists, also, the three I've listed above.
Woe to them! For they have gone the way of Cain, and for pay they have rushed headlong into the error of Balaam, and perished in the rebellion of Korah (Jude 1:11).What are these three distinguishing characteristics of a false teacher? They go through the motions of religion without faith, resenting the fact that true believers have God's attention. They want riches and power and, while appearing on the surface to follow God's instructions, ally themselves with the enemies of God's people to do harm to God's people. They rise up against God's appointed authority and claim their own authority in outright rebellion against the established authority.
The thing that bothers me is that this sounds so much like the most popular approach today to church. The "Church Growth" and "seeker friendly" strategies have us going off in marketing directions, asking people, "What do you feel will make you come to church?" "Feel." Then we make it a "sensual" experience. No, not a sexual one, but one that appeals to the senses. Make it look nice. Make it sound nice. Make it feel nice. And whatever you do, do not say anything about sin! And grace is perverted, and the Master is denied. Following their own dream instead of anything remotely biblical, they focus more on the flesh, push the Bible farther out the door, and dismiss those who cry out that this is wrong. Like Cain, they go through the motions of "church" without actually inquiring if that is what it should be. They look for numbers rather than spiritual growth and, like Balaam, determine success by purely earthly means. Their methods are purely worldly, the enemy of God's people. And when challenged, they refuse to bend like Korah. "Go along with us or get out."
Now, I'm always cautious about naming names or jumping to conclusions ... but these sound an awful lot like the characteristics in Jude for false teachers. Read the entire book of Jude. (It's only one chapter.) I think it's amazingly close to what I see is very prevalent in the "Church Growth" movement. And Jude urges us, instead, to "contend for the faith." When do we start?
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