Are You Accepting a Different Gospel?

[Christsfreeservant]

2 Corinthians 11:1-4 ESV

“I wish you would bear with me in a little foolishness. Do bear with me! For I feel a divine jealousy for you, since I betrothed you to one husband, to present you as a pure virgin to Christ. But I am afraid that as the serpent deceived Eve by his cunning, your thoughts will be led astray from a sincere and pure devotion to Christ. For if someone comes and proclaims another Jesus than the one we proclaimed, or if you receive a different spirit from the one you received, or if you accept a different gospel from the one you accepted, you put up with it readily enough.”​

When we believe in Jesus Christ with God-persuaded faith in him, we enter into a marriage covenant relationship with our Lord, not unlike the Jewish marriage covenant of the Scriptures. For there a man and a woman entered into a covenant of marriage, and so they were considered married, but then the husband would go prepare a place for his bride so that she could be with him, and then he would come and get her and they would have the marriage banquet, and then they would consummate their marriage relationship (this is what I remember). But they were to remain pure until that time.

So it is with our marriage to Christ. And our Lord Jesus is presently preparing a place for us, his bride, and one day he is going to come back for his faithful ones and he is going to take us to be with him, and then our marriage to Christ will be spiritually consummated, i.e. that is when our salvation will be complete, and not until then. In the meanwhile, we have been saved (past), we are being saved (present) and we will be saved (future) provided that we continue in Christ in walks of obedience to him and that we do not return to living in sin and not in obedience to his commands.

For the grace of God, which is bringing us salvation, instructs (trains) us to renounce (say “No!” to) ungodliness and fleshly and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives while we wait for our Lord’s return. For Jesus Christ “gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works” (see Titus 2:11-14; cf. Ephesians 2:10).

So, this is what Paul was talking about here. Since he is the one who preached the gospel of our salvation to these who became believers in Corinth, he saw that as him marrying them to Jesus Christ, much like a pastor would marry a man and a woman to one another. He performed the marriage ceremony, essentially, and so he felt kind of like a dad to them, I would assume. So he was jealous for them with a godly jealousy, for he had married them to Christ to present them as a pure virgin to Christ.

But he was concerned that they were being deceived and that their thoughts would be led astray from a sincere and pure devotion to Christ. He was concerned that they would commit spiritual adultery against their Lord, in other words, because they were putting up with those who were teaching lies. For they were listening to people who were proclaiming another Jesus other than the one of the Scriptures, and they were receiving a different spirit from the one they had received, and they were accepting a different gospel from the one they had accepted, as coming from Paul’s teachings.

And this is happening in the American church today BIG TIME! For so many professers of faith in Jesus Christ are sitting under the ministry of charlatans and wolves in sheep’s clothing and those who twist the Scriptures and who make them say what they do not teach. So many of them are listening to smooth talkers and charmers who are saying what itching ears want to hear, but who are not telling people the truth. For many are teaching a half-truth gospel message absent of God’s requirements for repentance, obedience to God, and holy living as required for salvation and for eternal life with God.

So many today are altering the divine character of God/Christ in order to appease human flesh. And they are altering the gospel of our salvation for the same reason. And they are altering the character of God’s true church, his body, and they are making it into the image of man and not of God, and in order to draw in large crowds of people from the world into their gatherings. For they are turning the church into businesses of men, being run like other human-based businesses, and they are marketing these “churches” to the people of the world, but in the name of God.

And people are flocking to these charlatans and these wolves in sheep’s clothing because they are telling the people what they want to hear. And many of them are not teaching repentance, obedience, and holy living at all. And many who do are not teaching the consequences if we choose not to obey our Lord and if we choose to continue in deliberate and habitual sin. And they are also not teaching God’s stipulations and his requirements for his promises to his people to be fulfilled. So they are filling their minds with lies from Satan to keep them from walking in obedience to the Lord.

But Jesus taught and his NT apostles taught that we must die with Christ to sin, not just once, but daily, and that we must walk in holiness and in righteousness and in obedience to our Lord, in practice, and not in sin, or we do not have salvation from sin, and we do not have eternal life with God. This is taught all throughout the NT, and yet so many of these pastors are willfully skipping over those passages of Scripture and are still feeding people lies which tell them that heaven is guaranteed them when they die regardless of how they live. So, please know the truth:

[Matt 7:21-23; Matt 24:9-14; Lu 9:23-26; Rom 1:18-32; Rom 2:6-8; Rom 6:1-23; Rom 8:1-14,24; Rom 12:1-2; Rom 13:11; 1 Co 6:9-10,19-20; 2 Co 5:10,15,21; 1 Co 1:18; 1 Co 15:1-2; 2 Tim 1:8-9; Heb 9:28; 1 Pet 1:5; Gal 5:16-21; Gal 6:7-8; Eph 2:8-10; Eph 4:17-32; Eph 5:3-6; Col 1:21-23; Col 3:5-17; 1 Pet 2:24; Tit 2:11-14; 1 Jn 1:5-9; 1 Jn 2:3-6,24-25; 1 Jn 3:4-10; Heb 3:6,14-15; Heb 10:23-31; Heb 12:1-2; Rev 21:8,27; Rev 22:14-15]

My Sheep

An Original Work / June 24, 2012
Based off John 10:1-18 NIV

My sheep hear me. They know me.
They listen to my voice and obey.
I call them and lead them.
They know my voice, so they follow me.
They will never follow strangers.
They will run away from them.
The voice of a stranger they know not;
They do not follow him.

So, I tell you the truth that
I am the gate, so you enter in.
Whoever does enter
Will find forgiveness and will be saved.
Nonetheless whoever enters
Not by the gate; other way,
He is the thief and a robber.
Listen not, the sheep to him.

Oh, I am the Good Shepherd,
Who laid his own life down for the sheep.
I know them. They know me.
They will live with me eternally.
The thief only comes to steal and
Kill and to destroy the church.
I have come to give you life that
You may have it to the full…

They know my voice, so they follow me.

 

[B Griffin]

In the meanwhile, we have been saved (past), we are being saved (present) and we will be saved (future) provided that we continue in Christ in walks of obedience to him and that we do not return to living in sin and not in obedience to his commands.

For the grace of God, which is bringing us salvation, instructs (trains) us to renounce (say “No!” to) ungodliness and fleshly and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives while we wait for our Lord’s return. For Jesus Christ “gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works” (see Titus 2:11-14; cf. Ephesians 2:10).

For many are teaching a half-truth gospel message absent of God’s requirements for repentance, obedience to God, and holy living as required for salvation and for eternal life with God.

And many of them are not teaching repentance, obedience, and holy living at all. And many who do are not teaching the consequences if we choose not to obey our Lord and if we choose to continue in deliberate and habitual sin. And they are also not teaching God’s stipulations and his requirements for his promises to his people to be fulfilled. So they are filling their minds with lies from Satan to keep them from walking in obedience to the Lord.

But Jesus taught and his NT apostles taught that we must die with Christ to sin, not just once, but daily, and that we must walk in holiness and in righteousness and in obedience to our Lord, in practice, and not in sin, or we do not have salvation from sin, and we do not have eternal life with God.

I condensed your OP to the sentences that present "the gospel" from your point of view. You are saying that we must be holy, righteous, and obedient to the Lord in order to escape His wrath.

While it is true that there are many lengthy NT passages that call born again Christians to godly living, the call to godly living is not technically part of the gospel. The gospel is that Jesus created the world and everything in it, He became a person, He lived a sinless life, He died on the cross with all our sins laid on Him, He rose from the dead because of His righteousness, He ascended into heaven where He sits today, He sends His Spirit into the hearts of those who place their trust in Him, and He will one day return to do away with sin and death once and for all. The gospel has a central figure, and His name is Jesus.

Christians who hold your position (that right standing with God is through obedience to Him) are always forced to give it up when they realize they themselves do not live up to the requirements they preach. They bail on their position and run to Jesus for forgiveness when the weighty requirements of all God's laws are forced upon them to obey (Gal 5:3). Sadly, when they find the relief they seek, instead of staying on their knees at the feet of Jesus receiving His grace, they often pick up the law again to obey it... until it breaks them again.

When confronted about their hypocricy (preaching that rightness with God is through obedience, but seeking rightness with God through forgiveness of their own sins), they say complete obedience 100% of the time is not required. They are forced to soften their stance to allow for their form of disobedience to not count against them. They will say things like, "you must regret it when you sin", "you can't habitually sin", or "you must repent when you sin". They don't realize that doing this throws their doctrine under the bus, and replaces it with another doctrine (i.e., rightness with God through regret, non-habitual sin, repentance, etc).

I don't know what non-Christians do with their sins. Maybe they hope their good deeds outweigh their bad deeds.

 

[Christsfreeservant]

I condensed your OP to the sentences that present "the gospel" from your point of view. You are saying that we must be holy, righteous, and obedient to the Lord in order to escape His wrath.

While it is true that there are many lengthy NT passages that call born again Christians to godly living, the call to godly living is not technically part of the gospel. The gospel is that Jesus created the world and everything in it, He became a person, He lived a sinless life, He died on the cross with all our sins laid on Him, He rose from the dead because of His righteousness, He ascended into heaven where He sits today, He sends His Spirit into the hearts of those who place their trust in Him, and He will one day return to do away with sin and death once and for all. The gospel has a central figure, and His name is Jesus.

Christians who hold your position (that right standing with God is through obedience to Him) are always forced to give it up when they realize they themselves do not live up to the requirements they preach. They bail on their position and run to Jesus for forgiveness when the weighty requirements of all God's laws are forced upon them to obey (Gal 5:3). Sadly, when they find the relief they seek, instead of staying on their knees at the feet of Jesus receiving His grace, they often pick up the law again to obey it... until it breaks them again.

When confronted about their hypocricy (preaching that rightness with God is through obedience, but seeking rightness with God through forgiveness of their own sins), they say complete obedience 100% of the time is not required. They are forced to soften their stance to allow for their form of disobedience to not count against them. They will say things like, "you must regret it when you sin", "you can't habitually sin", or "you must repent when you sin". They don't realize that doing this throws their doctrine under the bus, and replaces it with another doctrine (i.e., rightness with God through regret, non-habitual sin, repentance, etc).

I don't know what non-Christians do with their sins. Maybe they hope their good deeds outweigh their bad deeds.

Read the Scriptures noted. They speak for themselves.

 

[B Griffin]

Read the Scriptures noted. They speak for themselves.

That is an odd response. If they speak for themselves, why did you need to add 12 paragraphs and a video?