I have heard this a lot lately. Danger! Alert, Alert!!! Watch OUT! What I have found interesting is what is labeled as a "false gospel". This leaves me with questions. What is a false gospel? What I have decided is that these two words have been manipulated in such away as to strike fear into certain sheep. I love the article that I found that talks about certain sheep trying to become the Shepherd and telling weaker sheep what to do. I think this is what has happened with the "false gospel" mentality. We have a sheep who wants to be able to control what sheep they have under them and what better way than to start throwing around words that would strike them into submission. Makes sense? I think it does.
So, I have seen these self-proclaimed shepherds labeling a lot of things a "false gospel". I want to list some of those:
- Arminians. Now a part of being an Arminian is the belief that you can lose your salvation. Now being raised in a church that taught this I have a fairly good understanding of this concept. Arminians to my knowledge do not deny the virgin birth of Christ, they do not deny Christ was the Son of God, nor do they deny the trinity, they do not deny Christ death and bodily resurrection. So, this is not a false gospel. At the very least it is a very bad understanding of grace. Which I know is slowly starting to apprear more and more in a lot of these circles. So what about not understanding grace is a "false gospel"? This I don't understand. I don't know that I ever will.
- Calvinism. Ok, again we can go through the list just as I did with Arminians: Calvinist to my knowledge do not deny the virgin birth of Christ, they do not deny Christ was the Son of God, nor do they deny the trinity, they do not deny Christ death and bodily resurrection. They only try to better define God's character, who He will save and why or why not, why God saved us, ect. Now what about this is a "false gospel"? I'm not a 5 Point Calvinist by any means, but having a husband who is I hear about it a lot. When talking to him I have yet to hear a "false gospel". Where exactly is the "false gospel"? Where is the big ole' buggie man?
- Postmodernism. Now this is a little different, but I want to address this just a little bit. postmodern is a philosophy, its the environment we are in. So a "false gospel" can and even will come out of this. Just as it would with modernism. But is a Postmodern Christian or an EC person preaching a "false gospel", I guess this would depend on the person and what they are preaching. You see on this notion you can't label an environment a "false gospel", but yet I have seen it done.
So, we are back to what is a "false gospel", to me and I guess I'm wrong with all the screaming I have heard lately, a "false gospel" is anything that teaches outside of 1. The virgin birth, 2. Jesus walked this earth, he was man,but fully God, 3. The Holy Trinity, 4. The Death, Burial, Resurrection of Jesus Christ, 5. The belief upon Him you will be saved. Now, I'm dense here, I'm not as smart as my husband, but I'm wondering is this a "false gospel"? And to end those who are so quick to label what is and what is not a "false gospel" can they not in turn be suspect themselves? Things that make you go "hhhmmm"
Blessings!
2 comments:
Jules, don't sell your mind short. Smart comes in lots and lots of different packages...
Good post, too.
well, I was mostly trying to make a point, although I should remember that anyway. :p
thanks ann! sorry I couldn't talk long tonight btw. :(
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