The Fake Gospel

Title: The Fake Gospel

Central idea: Many protestant denominations are engaged in a spiritual war.

Think with me for a few minutes about the state of American’s churches. Many have forsaken the Word of God and embraced worldly views of right and wrong. These churches conform both in language and practices to what the World would have people believe contorting Christian love to include sinful acts.

The results, in the past 20 years protestant churches have seen a 20-percent decline in attendance. The decline is accelerating with large numbers of our younger generations abandoning Christianity altogether. Consequently, there is a growing addiction to money, to drugs, and to pornography. Indeed, sexual immorality has become acceptable with such things as premarital cohabitation, “no-strings-attached” sex, and parents subjecting their children to sex changes.

Further, of the seven mainline churches, four have split, one is splitting and the other two are considering it. The primary reason listed for the splits is homosexual and/or related issues. I, however, believe the decline and the splits are about far more than homosexuality. I believe the decline and the splits are due to a falling away from the Word of God and the embracing of worldly values. The Word of God is never changing; the world’s values are ever changing. People want a faith based on something substantial, something concrete; unfortunately, many churches no longer offer that. I have to wonder if this is a time foretold in 2 Timothy 4:3-4, “For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths.” Listen to these last phrases again, “they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths.” Many churches have twisted and warped scriptures until they support popular opinion rather than basing their teachings on the Word of God. They have accumulated “teachers to suit” their own passions. Do you know a pastor or worse a bishop that has turned away from the “truth” of the Word and “wander off into myths”?

Listen to these scriptures: In Numbers 15:39, God says that we are to follow His law “so that you do not follow your own heart and eyes in your lustful urges.” The King James Version is blunt, “that ye seek not after your own heart and your own eyes, after which ye use to go a whoring.” Paul list some of these “whoring” urges in 1 Corinthians 6:9-10, “9 Do you not know that wrongdoers will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor men who have sex with men 10 nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God.” Yet, some church leaders dismiss “whoring” urges with silly notions like, “Sex is a complex issue; we must make allowances for that.” God knows that sex is a complex issue; He invented it. He also gave us rules to follow: sex is a part of a Holy union between one man and one woman united together to be one flesh. Has your church embraced another definition of marriage?

The Apostles John and Paul warn us about church leaders that teach fallacy. I John 2:4, “Whoever says, ‘I know him,’ but does not do what he [Christ] commands is a liar, and the truth is not in that person.” Romans 16:17-18, “17 I urge you, brothers and sisters, to keep an eye on those who create dissensions and hindrances, in opposition to the teaching that you have learned; avoid them. 18 For such people do not serve our Lord Christ but their own appetites, and by smooth talk and flattery they deceive the hearts of the simple-minded.” “Those who create dissension and hindrance” certainly describes those creating turmoil in our mainline protestant denominations. John and Paul say these teaching come from liars and are “in opposition to the teaching that you have learned [from Paul]; avoid them.” Are you avoiding the teaching of those that are in “opposition” the Word?

Isaiah 29:13 speaks of “merely human rules”. “The Lord says: ‘These people come near to me with their mouth and honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. Their worship of me is based on merely human rules they have been taught.’” Jesus issued frightening words warning those who have claimed to “do many mighty works in your [His] name”. They are in trouble. Matthew 7:21-23 records these words, “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’” Is Jesus saying that some in the Church are going to hell?