In my recently published book The Gospel Truth, I expose the religious inaccuracies of several pseudo Christian organisations and examine their doctrines under the microscope of scripture, concluding they are indeed false gospels. They are false because they contradict the New Testament and teach principles that are not found in the teachings of Christ and in fact are counter to what Jesus preached.
Paul encountered false gospels as early as two decades after the crucifixion and wrote to the church at Galatia regarding the dangers of turning from the true gospel. “I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting the one who called you by the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel – which is really no gospel at all. Evidently some people are throwing you into confusion and are trying to pervert the gospel of Christ. But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel other than the one we preached to you, let him be eternally condemned.” (Galatians 1:6-8).
Paul’s strong language illustrates the serious nature of following false teachers. Not only do these followers accept the false message, they desert the true gospel in doing so! Furthermore, Paul says these false teachers ought to be eternally condemned. Their sin is unforgivable!
No doubt Paul was aware of the words of Jesus, “I tell you the truth, all the sins and blasphemies of men will be forgiven them. But whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will never be forgiven; he is guilty of an eternal sin.” (Mark 3:28-29). I am sure that it grieves Jesus to see His words twisted and manipulated to mean something else, in what constitutes the slanderous use of His holy name.
Paul warned that in the last days people would be accepting of false teachers and false gospels in 1 Timothy 4:1, “The Spirit clearly says that in the later times some will abandon the faith and follow deceiving spirits and things taught by demons.” And he adds in 2 Timothy 4:3, “For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear.”
In the modern era, many professing Christians have drifted away from following the Bible and have become gullible to teachers and preachers who quote scripture out of context in order to profit from it. Today we are inundated with the messages of the prosperity gospel, progressive Christianity, Mormonism, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Seventh Day Adventists and others. All with their own twist on the gospel contrary to what the Bible teaches. These movements began with misguided individuals who thought they had received new revelations.
False Teachers In These Last Days
Joseph Smith was a mere fifteen years old when he claimed to have had a vision from God the Father and Jesus Christ. His lack of discernment resulted in him being led to believe many things that contradict the word of God. God does not contradict Himself. He does not lie and he does not change His mind (Numbers 23:19), and Jesus remains the same forevermore (Hebrews 13:8). Smith was duped into believing a spirit of antichrist at his young age. 1 John 4:1-3 would have served him well had he been more mature in his faith. Today 17 million Mormons (LDS) believe Smith’s fallacious claims.
Similarly, Ellen G. White claimed to have had visions she believed were from God which she published and taught in her congregations. She was among the founding members of the Seventh Day Adventist Church which predicted the second advent of Jesus would occur between March 1843 and March 1844 when Christ would return. This denomination also erroneously promotes Saturday Sabbath keeping and anti-trinitarian views in what is believed to be a concerted effort to distance itself from Catholicism. Indeed, today’s SDA Church teaches that Sunday worship was instituted by the Catholic Church, despite biblical evidence to the contrary (Acts 20:7; 1 Corinthians 16:2) and labels it as the “mark of the beast.”
Sadly, by preaching that Sunday worship is sinful and focusing on observing the Mosaic laws, the SDA church negates the gospel by observing parts of scripture while ignoring others, such as James 2:10: “For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles at just one point is guilty of breaking all of it.” Jesus chastised the Pharisees for similar conduct, taught that He was Lord of the Sabbath and revealed that God desires worshippers who seek Him in truth in the Spirit (John 4:23-24). And Paul confirms that Jesus superseded the Mosaic laws (Colossians 2:13-16). God values and accepts all worship that is sincere and glorifies Him, any day of the week.
The Jehovah’s Witnesses teach comparably heretical theologies, denying the divinity of Jesus, embracing Saturday worship and also erroneously predicted the return of Christ on several occasions. They teach that Jesus is actually Michael the archangel who assumed the name of Jesus when he came to earth and that Jesus did not resurrect physically. They have altered the word of God by publishing their own version of the Bible with notable omissions that don’t concur with their philosophies. It is counterintuitive that God would insist on the anglicized version of “YHWH” be used to refer to Him when He calls Himself many other names in scripture (Exodus 3:13-15; Revelation 1:8, 1:18, 22:13).
Religious Radicalism
The most influential of all false movements is none other than the Roman Catholic Church which has perverted the gospel beyond recognition and claims the Catechism has authority equal to the Bible, that the Pope is the “Holy Father,” that Peter was the first pope, the sacrament of the Eucharist is the actual body and blood of Christ, salvation can be obtained by purchasing indulgences, that Purgatory is a place where people go after they die to be purified, and condones worshipping statues of Mary and the saints, among other teachings contrary to scripture. The list is long that documents the egregious hypocrisy of Catholicism.
In this day and age, we have witnessed the rise of the mega-church and a long list of charismatic, motivational speakers of which Joel Osteen is perhaps the most recognized and known. He sits on the fence regarding the hard teachings of the gospel and is noncommittal to calling sin for what it is, not wanting to offend anyone holding a cheque book.
Joel Osteen’s Your Best Life Now teaches the exact opposite of the true gospel of Jesus Christ. By promoting a worldly gospel that promises your best life now, Osteen diminishes the promise of Christ that our best life awaits us in God’s kingdom. John MacArthur put it this way, it’s a worldly message about worldly things spoken to worldly people. It has nothing to do with the kingdom of God. If your best life is now, then you are destined for hell.
1 John 2:15-17 tells us, “Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world the love of the father is not in him. For everything of the world – the cravings of sinful man, the lust of his eyes and the boasting of what he has and does – comes not from the Father but from the world. The world and its desires pass away, but the man who does the will of God lives forever.”
Prosperity Gospel preacher Kenneth Copeland teaches that those who give generously will receive a hundredfold of their donation money in return in a twisted interpretation of Matthew 13:8 and Mark 10:29-30. In doing so, he insinuates that God is like an investment broker or banker. Nothing could be further from the truth. Copeland is one of many false teachers that have stored up treasures on earth at the expense of those least in the kingdom of God.
Today many professing Christians believe the Bible ought to be rewritten to reflect modern cultural values and choose to emphasize certain verses of scripture while downplaying those they disagree with. In doing so we now have congregations ordaining gay and lesbian pastors, performing gay marriages and celebrating gender change operations with new name baptisms. Loving our fellow man is expanded to include tolerance of sin and verses about sexual immorality are ignored.
Progressive Christianity leaders will be held accountable for leading many astray. James 3:1 warns, “Not many of you should become teachers, my fellow believers, because you know that we who teach will be judged more strictly.”
God Cannot Be Mocked
These grossly unbiblical teachings can only be inspired by the spirit of the antichrist who has driven a wedge into the Christian church in order to divide and conquer it. The church is called to be one body, united in the Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 12-14), therefore Satan through the spirit of antichrist is attempting to decapitate the body of Christ.
The gospel of Christ has been revealed to us by the Holy Spirit (John 14:26;1 Peter 1:12) therefore we must surrender to the Spirit and live by the Spirit, forsaking all others (Galatians 5:16). Any movement that does not follow the Holy Spirit is not the true gospel. False teachers make a mockery of the gospel through hypocritical dogmas that do not glorify God or His precepts.
The distorted teachings of these false gospels appeal to the sinful desires of fallen men and women by promising the very things they want for themselves. Health, wealth, success, sexual fulfillment. These are the very things that scripture teaches will lead one to hell (Matthew 19:24; Mark 10:25; 1 Corinthians 6:9-11). Just because Jesus has paid the penalty for sin, it doesn’t constitute a license to sin. The freedom Christians have in Christ is freedom from sin, not freedom to sin.
The apostle Paul appealed to the early church not to believe in any other gospel but the true gospel that he and the other apostles preached. Through hypocrisy, false teachers who do not understand the freedom we have in Christ have persuaded their followers to believe lies. 1 Timothy 6:3-5 teaches, “If anyone teaches false doctrines and does not agree with the sound instructions of our Lord Jesus Christ and to godly teaching, he is conceited and understands nothing. He has an unhealthy interest in controversies and quarrels about words that result in envy, strife, malicious talk, evil suspicions and constant friction between men of corrupt mind who have been robbed of the truth and who think that godliness is a means to financial gain.”
