Jul 30, 2026 4 min read messages from the Outpost!

Part of the Problem, or Part of the Solution?

Calling out error is the easy part. Pointing people back to Christ is the real work…

A question worth asking

There is a question worth asking, and it is not a comfortable one. Those who spend their days calling out false teachers and false doctrine — across the pulpits, across YouTube, across every social feed — are they part of the problem, or part of the solution?

It is a fair question, because the answer is not automatic. Standing against error is not the same as standing for the truth. A man can spend his whole ministry pulling down and never once build up. He can name every wolf in the field and still leave the sheep hungry.

So let us think this through plainly, the way Scripture would have us think it.

The Bible never tells us to stay silent

First, let us be clear: there is nothing unspiritual about exposing what is false. The New Testament does not hand us a soft gospel that smiles at everything and confronts nothing.

Paul warned the Ephesian elders with tears: For I know this, that after my departing shall grievous wolves enter in among you, not sparing the flock [Acts 20:29 KJV]. He told Timothy to reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine [2 Timothy 4:2 KJV]. John told us to test what we hear: Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world [1 John 4:1 KJV].

And the Lord Jesus Himself said, Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves [Matthew 7:15 KJV].

So no — sounding the alarm is not the problem. A watchman who stays quiet while wolves move in is a watchman who has failed. There is a real place for marking those who twist the Word: Now I beseech you, brethren, mark them which cause divisions and offences contrary to the doctrine which ye have learned; and avoid them [Romans 16:17 KJV].

But here is where it can go wrong

Here is the danger. A man can begin by defending the truth and end up building a platform for himself. The wolves become his subject matter. The errors become his content. And little by little, the camera turns from Christ to the critic.

That is the moment the watchman becomes part of the problem. Not because he spoke — but because he stopped pointing past himself.

You can tell the difference quickly. Ask one question of any teacher, online or in the pulpit: when he is finished, are you looking at Jesus, or are you looking at him?

John the Baptist gave us the only safe posture: He must increase, but I must decrease [John 3:30 KJV]. Paul said it without flinching: For we preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord [2 Corinthians 4:5 KJV]. The man who is part of the solution is the man who grows smaller as Christ grows bigger.

Tearing down is only half the work

Anyone can knock something over. It takes no grace, no Spirit, no maturity to criticise. But the calling of the New Testament is not merely to demolish — it is to feed, to edify, to build.

Let all things be done unto edifying [1 Corinthians 14:26 KJV]. The truth is not a hammer to swing at people; it is bread to put in their hands. And it must be carried a certain way — speaking the truth in love [Ephesians 4:15 KJV]. Strip out the love and you have only noise. Strip out the truth and you have only flattery. We need both, held together.

So if all a man does is expose, expose, expose — and never lifts a soul one step closer to the Saviour — then for all his correct doctrine, he has left the flock no better fed than he found them.

The only solution there has ever been

Here is the heart of it. The cure for false teaching is not louder critics. The cure for false teaching is true teaching. The answer to error is not endless outrage — it is the Word of God set plainly before people, with Christ held up in the centre of it.

That is why Paul charged Timothy: Take heed unto thyself, and unto the doctrine [1 Timothy 4:16 KJV]. Watch your life. Watch your teaching. Keep both clean. Because right doctrine is not a weapon to win arguments — it is the food that keeps the sheep alive.

This is exactly what we are about here at Back to Basics. We are not here to make a name by pulling other men down. We are here to point you back — back to God's Word, back to Jesus Christ, back to our Heavenly Father, through the Holy Spirit. Back to basics. That is the whole work.

So — problem, or solution?

Bring it down to where you live. Whether you ever stand in a pulpit or only ever speak across a kitchen table, the test is the same.

If you correct error and leave a person staring at you — admiring you, following you, depending on you — you have become part of the problem, however right you were.

If you correct error and leave a person looking to Christ, opening their Bible, walking one step closer to the Father — then you are part of the solution, and your words have done eternal good.

And it cannot stop at knowing this. But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only [James 1:22 KJV]. Test what you take in. Refuse to follow men who only tear down. And whatever you give out, make sure it ends at the feet of Jesus, not at your own — that ye might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work [Colossians 1:10 KJV].

That is the difference. That has always been the difference…