Counterfeit Gospels

Counterfeit money looks like genuine money; it has to, if it is going to fool anyone. Counterfeit gospels look like the real thing, and they fool many people.

Paul warns about false gospels in two of his letters to churches in Greece and Asia. In his second letter to the Christians in the Greek city of Corinth, he condemns preachers and evangelists who “preach another Jesus whom we have not preached…or a different gospel which you have not accepted.” And in his letter to the churches of Galatia, Paul wrote, “I marvel that you are turning away so soon from him who called you in the grace of Christ to a different gospel, which is not another; but there are some who trouble you and want to pervert the Gospel of Christ.”

Paul became angry at what some men were preaching, and he warned the Galatians: “But even if we, or an angel from Heaven, preach any other gospel to you than what we have preached to you, let him be accursed. As we have said before, so now I say again, if anyone preaches any other gospel to you than what you have received, let him be accursed.”

That warning should make preachers think twice about the gospel they preach, but many continue to preach false gospels. Many religious leaders are confused about the Gospel of Jesus Christ. They think that the Gospel is “You must be born again.”

It isnít. Nor is it the Gospel, “You must be filled with (or baptized by) the Holy Spirit.”