A modern example might be a preoccupation with the Shroud of Turin or yesterday’s predicted Rapture, generated through Harold Camping’s fixation with numbers in Scripture rather than the clear teaching of Scripture that “no man knows the day or time of His coming.”
You can imagine the issue, right? One group within the Christian community starts focusing so much on these strange teachings that they start leading others astray and also become uninterested in the core Gospel acts of ministry and mission.
You could have substituted anything for Shroud of Turin, anything you don’t agree with: The Simpsons, dancing the Lindy, Calvinism. Read Good Shepherd Sermons: Internal Issues (1 Timothy 1.1-17)