Can a church be wrong in terms of doctrinal teaching? If they are in those areas that are less fundamental, will it do them any eternal damage?<\/p>\n\t
The answer should be obviously “yes.” In the letters to the seven churches in Asia in Revelation 2-3, only one didn’t have anything said negative about the group. These churches were warned that they would no longer be Christ’s if they did not straighten up soon. “Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent and do the first works, or else I will come to you quickly and remove your lampstand from its place–unless you repent<\/em>” (Revelation 2:5).<\/p>\n The problem when someone says these teachings are important and those are not so important is that it is a man who is deciding what God should see as important or not. When a group is willing to go against God’s teachings on matters, even on things you might consider minor, it shows a preference to put man’s wants above God’s. “For do I now persuade men, or God? Or do I seek to please men? For if I still pleased men, I would not be a bondservant of Christ<\/em>” (Galatians 1:10). And yes, changes to God’s teachings are always damaging. “I marvel that you are turning away so soon from Him who called you in the grace of Christ, to a different gospel, which is not another; but there are some who trouble you and want to pervert the gospel of Christ. But even if we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel to you than what we have preached to you, let him be accursed. As we have said before, so now I say again, if anyone preaches any other gospel to you than what you have received, let him be accursed<\/em>” (Galatians 1:6-9). That is why Paul warned, “For I know this, that after my departure savage wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock. Also from among yourselves men will rise up, speaking perverse things, to draw away the disciples after themselves. Therefore watch, and remember that for three years I did not cease to warn everyone night and day with tears<\/em>” (Acts 20:29-31).<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Question: Can a church be wrong in terms of doctrinal teaching? If they are in those areas that are less fundamental, will it do them any eternal damage? Answer: The answer should be obviously “yes.” In the letters to the seven churches in Asia in Revelation 2-3, only one didn’t have anything said negative about…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[20],"tags":[300,34],"class_list":["post-28256","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-answer","tag-denominations","tag-false-teaching"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":22322,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/are-small-group-meetings-in-place-of-the-sunday-evening-assembly-or-midweek-study-scriptural\/","url_meta":{"origin":28256,"position":0},"title":"Are small group meetings in place of the Sunday evening assembly or midweek study scriptural?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"April 4, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Hello. I appreciate your work and respect your knowledge of the Word. I have a question concerning the small group phenomenon in the Lord's church. Is there a scriptural basis for the small group to not assemble at the appointed times (mostly Sunday evening worship and Wednesday Bible study)\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":42001,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/is-it-wrong-to-solicit-funds-from-congregations-that-have-different-doctrinal-views\/","url_meta":{"origin":28256,"position":1},"title":"Is it wrong to solicit funds from congregations that have different doctrinal views?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"February 28, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Is a Christian allowed to solicit funds from a congregation with which his home congregation has no fellowship for evangelistic works? For example, one is a conservative church and the other a liberal church. Answer: Sending funds to support the preaching of the Gospel is a form of fellowship\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":91371,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/why-wasnt-the-church-in-thyatira-told-to-withdraw-from-the-jezebel-in-their-midst\/","url_meta":{"origin":28256,"position":2},"title":"Why wasn’t the church in Thyatira told to withdraw from the Jezebel in their midst?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"October 18, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Dear Jeffrey, I hope you are well. I have a question concerning the church at Thyatira in Revelation 2:18-29. The letter to the church mentioned a Jezebel. Some compared her with the wife of Ahaz, who instilled and practiced evil. In the Revelation case, Jezebel teaches false doctrines, leading\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":67110,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/are-the-churches-of-christ-the-only-correct-church\/","url_meta":{"origin":28256,"position":3},"title":"Are the churches of Christ the only correct church?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"March 19, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Hi Jeffery, In the article \"Wasn't Babel the city of Eridu?\" you mentioned, \"You will not find any claim that the churches of Christ are the only correct church on this site.\" Do you no longer believe in the one true church? I understand that not every church with\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":13455,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/it-seems-obvious-to-me-that-nicolaitans-refers-to-the-clergy-system-in-the-roman-catholic-church\/","url_meta":{"origin":28256,"position":4},"title":"It seems obvious to me that Nicolaitans refers to the clergy system in the Roman Catholic Church","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"December 26, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Regarding the word \"Nicolaitan\".\u00a0 Indeed many definitions from lexicons simply say something that doesn't really lend any specific information to what it means.\u00a0 However certain things should be glaringly obvious here from the start. It's mentioned twice. Romans Catholics claimed it was just some short-lived sex cult with some\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":46286,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/devaluing-the-local-church\/","url_meta":{"origin":28256,"position":5},"title":"Devaluing the Local Church","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"April 15, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"by Glen Young via\u00a0Gospel Power, Vol. 15, No. 25, June 22, 2008. The local church occupies an important position in God's scheme of things. It is through the local church that Christians execute certain works. These are works that God commands that can only be accomplished as a group in\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28256","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28256"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28256\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28256"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28256"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28256"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}