An Altered Gospel Is Creeping Into The Church

In February, I saw a short videoclip of a young, charismatic pastor preaching to members of his congregation. I want you to listen to what he said.

“I don’t beat nobody up for smoking, drinking and having sex and doing all that, not because I did it, but because I can relate. I can relate. If you ever notice, preachers who get up and beat people for doing it because conviction you into the presence of God. Condemnation pushes you out of the presence of God.

“I’m not the Holy Spirit. It’s not my job to convict you. I’m God’s servant and it’s my job to relate to you. And if I can relate to you, I can pull you out of depression. I can pull you out of pain. I can pull you out of homosexuality. I can pull you out.

“So this is why when I get calls and say do you know they’re living together and having sex, I say yeah and I don’t care, because I am the pastor, not their parent. It’s my job to cover you, not control you.”

Now don’t get me wrong. I understand the notion of relating to people but not because I did the same things. For example, I have never taken an illegal drug in my life. Does that disqualify me from ministering to someone who has? According to this pastor, it does. Jesus never committed any type of sin. None! Was He disqualified from ministering to people who did? According to this pastor, He was.

Ladies and gentlemen, this man is not a pastor. Now listen to me. I am going to tell you when you’re in the presence of a true pastor. A true pastor will use the Bible, not his or her own personal experiences, to teach about sin, to identify it in the flock, and then show the flock how to stop it.

What I have just described is what we see in 2 Timothy 3:16. “All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine (to teach what God expects of us), for reproof (to chastise us if we sin) and for correction (to show us how to stop the sinful behavior), for [which is] instruction in righteousness.”

But we don’t see this in this pastor and I pray for him because, if he continues down this road, he and those who follow him, are in danger of losing their salvation. Listen to me ladies and gentlemen. They will walk right out of their salvation into the lake of fire for all eternity. This is how horrible this type of teaching is.

Turn with me to Matthew 18. The disciples have asked Jesus who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. He says the one who humbles himself like a little child will be the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. But he didn’t stop there. I’m reading from the New King James.

(5) Whoever receives one little child like this in My name receives Me.

(6) Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in Me to sin, it would be better for him if a millstone were hung around his neck, and he were drowned in the depth of the sea.

Do you see what Jesus is saying? He says it would have been better for the person who teaches a new convert or an immature believer to sin to have drowned before opening his mouth. Because, he would at least have had a chance to make to heaven. But once you start teaching something that Jesus didn’t teach, oh my God! The Bible says heaven will not be your final destination. Ladies and gentlemen, please let that sink in. Take it to heart.

Now this is what’s so sad. What this pastor said is not all that uncommon in the Church today – not by a long shot. Many Christians are buying what he, and others like him, are selling. And the more they buy this “altered gospel,” the more spiritual darkness they’re purchasing for themselves. And, if they continue this buying spree, eventually the “light of life” that they received from Jesus will be extinguished and they will once again be in eternal darkness.

I know I just hit a sacred cow. Far too many Christians believe that once they get saved, they will always be saved. If words many anything, “once saved always saved” is not true. We won’t get into that today but let say this: A Christian can walk away from God. Second Thessalonians 2:3 calls it “falling away.” Again, this is not my focus, but it begs the question: how can you fall away from something that you were never a part of? I leave that for you to think about. Let’s move on.