| | What does the Bible say about false gospels?
Galatians 1:6 I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting him who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel— 7 not that there is another one, but there are some who trouble you and want to distort the gospel of Christ. 8 But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed. 9 As we have said before, so now I say again: If anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to the one you received, let him be accursed. 10 For am I now seeking the approval of man, or of God? Or am I trying to please man? If I were still trying to please man, I would not be a servant of Christ. 11 For I would have you know, brothers, that the gospel that was preached by me is not man's gospel. 12 For I did not receive it from any man, nor was I taught it, but I received it through a revelation of Jesus Christ.
Galatians 2:4 Yet because of false brothers secretly brought in—who slipped in to spy out our freedom that we have in Christ Jesus, so that they might bring us into slavery— 5 to them we did not yield in submission even for a moment, so that the truth of the gospel might be preserved for you.
The KJV translates Galatians 2:5 this way:
To whom we gave place by subjection, no, not for an hour; that the truth of the gospel might continue with you.
See what Paul is saying there, we did not yield in submission even for a moment...no, not for an hour... We are to be concerned about the truth of the Gospel. We are not to give way for a moment. We are not to yield submission or give place to any other gospel for an hour, for even a moment.Does it sound here like it doesn't matter to God how we worship Him? Does it really matter to God if we give way to teachers of false gospels? 
This was a problem in the New Testament church and it is problem today. When Jesus spoke to the churches of Pergamos and Thyatira He called them out for compromising on doctrine and corrupting doctrine. He didn't mince words. Paul tells us we must be rooted in doctrine and speak the truth in love, so we might be mature, and we must also be rooted else we'll be tossed to and fro. We read the same thing in Hebrews 2:1; the writer tells us we must pay close attention (ESV) or give earnest heed (KJV) to doctrine, otherwise we will drift away. God has called us to be mature and solidly rooted and established. Yet today many Christians continue to insist doctrine doesn't matter. Oh, but it does! I hope you are not one of those Christians. If we neglect doctrine, what do we have left? We have no foundation to stand upon. Yes, certainly, there are disputable matters about which we can agree to disagree about but we can never compromise on the truth of the Gospel! We can never give way on the essentials of our faith. We cannot allow Satan to get a foothold in this, we can not give way to Satan and his false gospels. We cannot allow the Gospel to be compromised or corrupted in any way.
Are you concerned about the truth of the Gospel? Do you even know the truth of the Gospel? This was Paul's concern and it ought to be our concern. The glory of God and the strength and stability and maturity of the Church depends on it.
WE ARE IN A WAR ZONE
Remember, we are in the midst of a war: a war for souls and a war for truth. Who is God's enemy and our enemy? Satan. What is his intent? To tear down or corrupt or undermine Christ's work. This includes blinding people from believing the true Gospel as well as confusing those who have already believed. What is the devil's expertise? Well, let me ask you: what did Jesus call the devil? A liar and the father of lies. How can we battle the devil if we don't know the truth and if we are not rooted and grounded in the truth? A large part of the devil's work includes corrupting the Gospel and God's Word. If Satan can't get people to persist in blatant sin, he will deceive them into believing false gospels. He delights to get people to believe they're saved yet they're not really saved. He keeps people blinded to the glory of the Gospel by deceiving them into thinking they must work to earn salvation through their religious observances and good works; they cannot grasp the simplicity of the Gospel: we are blessed when we cease from our works and trust God will justify the ungodly, our faith is credited as righteousness. It seems too simple to us: we believe on Christ and receive God's free gift of eternal life through Jesus Christ, but that's the glory of the Gospel! And Satan does all he can to keep people from believing the Gospel and receiving eternal life.
We must study to show ourselves to approved and unashamed workmen. In this day and age, most of us have so much ready access to the Word of God. If we are Christ's disciples, we will love to spend time in His Word and abide in the Word and soak in it, meditate on it, chew on it. Our enemy is constantly making war against Christ and His Gospel and Christ's children. We must know God's truth in order to recognize his lies. We must know God's truth in order to combat his lies. We must know God's truth so we will not give way to false gospels. We must know God's truth so we might become mature. We must know God's truth so we won't drift.
WHAT IS THE TRUE GOSPEL OF JESUS CHRIST?
In these last days, God has spoken to us and revealed to us His one and only Gospel of salvation: salvation comes to men by grace through faith in His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. Our salvation is all of God and none of us.
"I am a bad person. I stand guilty and condemned before a holy God. I am under God's just wrath and righteous condemnation. I can do nothing to save myself. No amount of works can save me. No amount of religious observance can save me. Only because I have believed on the Lord Jesus Christ am I saved. Jesus Christ was God incarnate. He willingly came to earth where He lived a perfect sinless life. Then He render himself an offering for sin and He was crucified on the cross. Jesus Christ died in my place. He took my sin upon Him and took the punishment I deserved for my sin. When I believe on Jesus Christ, I am forgiven and I no longer stand guilty before God because God has punished my sin in Him. I am cleansed from all my sin. God also credits His life of perfect righteousness to me. God no longer sees my sin but now sees Christ's righteousness. And Christ's blood continues to save me from God's wrath. Also, because I have believed, I have received God's Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Christ has come to dwell in me. Because God has given me a new nature, Christ's nature, I now desire to live a holy life and now have the power to do so. I increasingly find myself doing God's will because God is the one who is working in me the desire and the ability to do it! My faith produces good works, but any good works I end up doing are only to God's credit, not mine because apart from Him I can do nothing. And I know my good works cannot save me but they are proof God has already saved me. My good works can never cleanse me. My good works can never atone for one sin. My good works can never give me a new nature. Those are all things God alone has done for me through the cross of Christ."
Notice that the true Gospel all points to Jesus. From beginning to end, it's all about Jesus. From our justification through our sanctification to our final glorification. Jesus saves us from the penalty of sin and Jesus saves us from the power of sin and one day we will finally be delivered from the presence of sin. In other words, Jesus Christ is our justification (he paid the penalty for our sin) and our sanctification (he freed us from the power of sin); He is our whole redemption.
Here's Paul fleshing it out for us:
For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. 17 For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, The righteous shall live by faith.
–Romans 1:16-17
But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, 5 even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— 6 and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, 7 so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, 9 not a result of works, so that no one may boast. 10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them. –Ephesians 2:5-10
Now we know that whatever the law says it speaks to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be stopped, and the whole world may be held accountable to God. 20 For by works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin. 21 But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it— 22 the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction: 23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24 and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, 25 whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God's righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. 26 It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus. 27 Then what becomes of our boasting? It is excluded. By what kind of law? By a law of works? No, but by the law of faith. 28 For we hold that one is justified by faith apart from works of the law. 29 Or is God the God of Jews only? Is he not the God of Gentiles also? Yes, of Gentiles also, 30 since God is one. He will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through faith. 31 Do we then overthrow the law by this faith? By no means! On the contrary, we uphold the law.–Romans 3:21-31
He is the source of your life in Christ Jesus, whom God made our wisdom and our righteousness and sanctification and redemption. 31 Therefore, as it is written, Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.
–I Corinthians 1:30-31
HOW CAN WE DISTINGUISH THE FALSE GOSPELS OF THE WOLVES FROM THE TRUE GOSPEL OF THE GOOD SHEPHERD
Brothers and sisters, we need to be on guard because Satan appears as an angel of light. There are plenty of wolves in sheep's clothing in the midst of the church.
There are many people who are caught up in the middle of this battle. They may be young believers, or they may have been in the church a long time, and many, in fact, be saved, but they continue to be oblivious to false gospels or may be confused about what they believe. They hear some teaching and they think it sounds good because there is mention of Jesus Christ. They hear some teaching and they think it sounds good because those who teach it are nice people and claim to be Christians. Just because the message sounds good and just because the messengers look good doesn't mean the message is true and is actually good. We are to test and try all things.
1. THE FALSE GOSPEL MESSAGE SOUNDS GOOD
Remember that the devil is wily and deceptive. He is all about taking what is God's and twisting it just a little bit. And He does that with the Scripture. Think back to the serpent in the garden and his conversation with Eve. Or remember Jesus' encounter with the devil in the wilderness. Satan knows the Scripture better than any of us. He can use it to deceive us. That's why this issue of false gospels is so frightening. If Satan were to come into the midst of any of our churches and simply say, "You know Jesus Christ didn't do enough for you. His blood wasn't sufficient. His cross wasn't sufficient. You need to save yourselves," I think most of us would recognize that. Or if he were to come in and say, "Buddha saves," or "Mohammed saves," or whatever, we'd also recognize that. Of course, he's not coming in with a neon sign which is blinking: "Caution! False Gospel! Do not give way!" Or course not! His attempt is to deceive. He is not on our side. He is clever; he comes in and makes false gospels look good. But false gospels are counterfeit gospels, yet, like many counterfeit bills, they're often very, very, very close to the original, which makes them very hard to distinguish.
We must be on guard against false gospels creeping into the church. Just as God warned the nation of Israel not to intermarry with the tribes of Canaan, we cannot "intermarry" with false gospels. We can't ever settle for anything less than the genuine article: the Gospel of Jesus Christ and nothing but the Gospel. Again Satan's false gospels may be very close to the original gospel, but they're false all the same. As the saying goes, close only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades. When it comes to the true Gospel, close isn't good enough. Satan tries to dress up his false gospels. He sassies up the pig and puts the lipstick on her, so to speak, but it's still only a pig. But he's hoping to deceive us and trip many of us with that pig.
2. THE MESSENGERS OF FALSE GOSPELS LOOK GOOD
We must also remember that the people who are bringing these false gospels are often very nice people. They are most likely people you admire and people who live a very righteous lifestyle and morally upstanding citizens. This is what makes it even more difficult for us. They appear to be dedicated to God. Yet we must also remember that these people are dupes of the devil. They are genuinely deceived. Their eyes are blinded to see the light of the gospel of the glory of God. They truly believe they are doing God's work in the same way the apostle Paul traveled around arresting and persecuting Christians, they genuinely believe they are in the right, but sadly they are deceived. They are sincere, but they are sincerely wrong. And we must speak to them the truth about the Gospel and pray for God to open their eyes so they might receive that truth.
WHAT IS THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE TRUE GOSPEL AND FALSE GOSPELS?
Though false gospels will most likely mention Jesus Christ and the cross, the false gospel of the wolves continues to boast in and harp on what man can do. Jesus Christ is not given the preeminent place, and therefore God does not get the glory. False gospels focus more on outward conformity than inner heart change, on man's works rather than God's work for us. Those who teach false gospels may claim Jesus saves you, but then they insist you must continue to do things to be certain you are really justified in the eyes of God. Of course, that means they believe Christ's work was not sufficient, that it isn't quite enough to save. That's saying Jesus' blood and His death on the cross is not sufficient to save! Of course, they don't generally put it that bluntly because, again, most of us would see right through that.
What are some false gospels?
Moralism: "I will be saved if I am a good enough person."
Legalism: "I will be saved if I adhere to a particular code of behavior."
Religion: "I will be saved if I engage in all the right religious exercises."
We can work and work and work. We can do and do and do. But absolutely none of it will justify us in the eyes of God. God declares us righteous by faith in Jesus Christ alone. None of our good works can take away sin. None of our good works can atone for sin. None of our good works can give us a new nature.
We are saved by grace not by works. God alone saves us. God the Father put forth Jesus to be the atonement for our sin. Jesus Christ is God's perfect provision of salvation for sinners. We have no reason to boast. And this is the same gospel for all people. In the first three chapters of Romans, Paul reminds us that because everyone has sinned, everyone is guilty before God and everyone stands condemned before God. In and of ourselves, we are powerless and we have no means to save ourselves. Yet man is always tempted to try to save himself through morality, legalism and religion, which is exactly what Paul is writing about in Romans 2 (see also Colossians 2), but in Romans 3-5 Paul reminds us those human means can never save us. We are only saved by trusting in the Lord Jesus Christ. If you've not read those chapters lately, I would encourage you to do so (well, while you're at it, back up and why not read the whole book of Romans!).
The true gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ always makes Jesus Christ, His cross and His blood central. The blood of Christ is not only necessary to save but it is wholly sufficient to save. Jesus Christ is not only our justification, He is our sanctification, our whole redemption. The true gospel never puts the focus on us or on our works. Jesus Christ is always boasted in, never men. We have nothing to boast in for apart from Him we can do nothing. Yes, if we are saved, we will do good works because we have His nature and therefore good works are a fruit of our salvation. But it is the indwelling Spirit alone who gives us the desire and the power to engage in good works. The true gospel of Jesus Christ is concerned with the inner transforming work of the Holy Spirit in the believer's life, for it is only through that inner work can we produce fruits of righteousness that are pleasing to God.
Here's a list of some differences between false gospels and the true Gospel:
FALSE GOSPELS
man is glorified
man is lifted up
man's righteousness
man's ability
we need to add to Christ's work (Christ + something)
man's works
man's work is the central thing
boasting in self
hard work
trying harder
doing
earning
obedience out of obligation
slavery (like the older son in Luke 15)
constant fear you're never doing enough
focus on externals
sense of superiority (I thank God I am not like ____.)
holier than thou attitude
critical, judgmental attitude
letter of the law
emphasizes outward conformity to their rules
| | TRUE GOSPEL
Christ is glorified
Christ is lifted up
Christ's righteousness
Christ's ability
Christ's work is both necessary and sufficient (Christ alone)
God's grace
Christ's work is the central thing
boasting in Christ
fruit bearing
walk by the Spirit
abiding
receiving
obedience out of love
sonship (like the prodigal who returned home)
confident assurance in Christ's completed work
internal transformation
humility ("God, be merciful to me, a sinner")
I am the chief of sinners
extends mercy and grace
spirit of the law
allows liberty of the believer in disputable matters
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I urge you to open your Bible and read and see what it really says about the Gospel. Use the Word to examine what you are hearing in your churches, what you are hearing on t.v. or internet sermons, what you are reading in books and on blogs (including mine). There are many people out there who seem to have a lot of credibility, but we must be checking all of what they say against the Scripture.
We must always test and try all things. The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of truth. We need to ask the Holy Spirit to give us discernment in these things. We must be like the Bereans and test all we hear against Scripture; that is why it is so vital for us to be prepared and to know what the Scripture says in the first place, so when we hear things, we will already a good foundation so we won't be deceived, so we won't drift or be tossed to and fro.
I once heard someone speak of a t.v. preacher. This person really appreciated his preaching and thought his teaching was so wonderful and watched him as much as possible. Well, I hadn't heard of this preacher, so I did a little research. Need I tell you but this man's preaching and teaching was not anything close to Biblical. There were lots of red flags, for example, he did not teach the doctrine of the trinity and he emphasized works over grace and then went into all sorts of other strange doctrines. I spoke to the individual about this. The reply was, "But he seems to know so much. He's on t.v. after all. He goes through the Bible verse by verse. My last church never taught that way."
The lion is prowling looking for vulnerable sheep to devour. Father, Son and Spirit, protect Your sheep! Guard us from the evil one. May the Spirit of truth guard us and lead us into all truth! Amen.
Have you ever been deceived by false gospels? How?What other distinctions might you add to my list contrasting false gospels with the true Gospel?
Related post: Links to my posts on true and false religionScripture quotations unless otherwise indicated are taken from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. Copyright ©2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved. |
I do have a Xanga idea proposed for them to provide the 15 min. edit window but they've not taken up that idea. I'll try to find the link and put it into a pulse so anyone who's interested can vote on it.) I've deliberated on switching to themes (which I have on my other blog, which does include the 15 min. edit time), but I'm really not as comfortable w/ editing w/ in themes. Though themes has some additional features/modules, I still find it cumbersome.
Karen:
WOW! WOW! and WOW! I have been personally prompted by God about warning after warning of FALSE teachers since January 2009. More and more I hear God telling us (me) to walk a blameless walk and we will never be shaken (Ps 15).
Romans 13:11-14 (Jan 3rd...Warning to CHRISTIANS: God's Judgment is coming to His church first)
I Peter 4:3,7,17 (Jan 3rd... Put away sinful deeds)
Jeremiah 23:16-22 (May 13th...DON'T listen to False Prophets)
Jeremiah 15:5-9 (twice... May 25th and May26th...To Jerusalem.. God's patience is at an end)
May 31st "Obedience now"...
I Samuel 15:22 (Obedience... June 3rd)
This is but the tip of the iceberg, so to speak.. (we have received many more Words concerning catastrophe) God has been warning us prophetically and increasingly so, to stay close to Him and we will get through whatever is ahead of us.
This confirms much for me. As the poster says above, I need to cut and paste it into another document to save it.
God bless you and your sensitivity to the Holy Spirit of God. May He increase and double your deepest spiritual wants and needs.
Jim