Read, Do, & Tell

Ep 27: Heresies Against the Gospel

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Welcome back to the Read, Do, & Tell podcast!

In episodes 23, 24, and 26, Amy and I (Becky) began a discussion of heresies in the church. Just as a quick reminder, we need to remember that heresy is a SERIOUS matter to the church AND to God!

Heretical teaching is teaching that intentionally distorts or contradicts God or the pure gospel as revealed in Scripture. Those who teach heresies are "heretics."

In episode 26, we discussed heresies against the one true God. Today, we're going to explore heretical teaching related to the pure gospel of Jesus Christ.

We will discuss some common false gospels such as the prosperity gospel as well as call out a few teachers {by name} who teach or at the very least go along with these false gospels. We'll also call out a few false movements/religions that teach a false gospel.


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SPEAKER_00

Welcome back to the podcast. My name's Becky.

SPEAKER_01

I'm Amy. Thank you all for joining us again. And we want to remind you of the podcast plus membership that we have. It is $5 a month to access the monthly Bible reading plans, the guided notes, and the different visual tools and resources that are created. These will help you teach the content that we provide in the podcast. So if you're a mom, a dad, a grandparent, a Sunday school teacher, we hope that you will partner with us and join the podcast plus membership.

SPEAKER_00

Over the last few episodes, we've been talking about false teachers and false teaching. And we would say a false teaching is a teaching that intentionally distorts or contradicts God or the pure gospel as revealed in Scripture. Last week we focused on false God, false Jesus, and today we want to focus on the false gospel.

SPEAKER_01

So before we do this, we do want to read what Scripture says about the true gospel. You can find this in 1 Corinthians 15, 3 through 4. It says, For what I received, I passed on to you as of first importance, that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that He was buried, that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures. And so as we go into the podcast today and we mention different religious groups, we do want to mention that we are not saying the people who are involved in these religious groups are the false teachers or that they themselves are heretical because they believe what they're being taught.

SPEAKER_00

I love how Mike Winger says it. He talks about it's in a video he talked when he talks about Catholicism, but he says that it's important that we ask them questions about what they believe and that we stick to the important issues. But he says the same is true of Muslims, Jehovah's Witnesses, Mormons, even other Christians. He says, ask them, hear them, respond to them rather than the ism. And he also says that they are not the inventors of the ism. They are often not the preachers of the ism. Most often the people who follow these religious groups are the victims of the ism. And I thought that was a good way to sum it up. So the first one we want to talk about is of a false gospel would be Jesus plus fill in the blank. Jesus plus anything gospel. And I like how you said a few episodes ago that it's Jesus plus fill in the blank is Jesus plus fib. It's a lie. Our pastor said something, and I don't know if he was quoting somebody specifically, but I wrote it in my Bible when he was preaching through the book of Galatians. He said, if you add anything to the pure gospel, you take something away from the gospel. So by adding, we're actually subtracting. We see this in scripture, really in Matthew 23, when Jesus is preaching against the scribes and the Pharisees. This is a chapter where he has some very strong words against these people. He calls them hypocrites, all kinds of names. And in verse 4, specifically of Matthew 23, he says that they, this is the scribes and the Pharisees, tie up heavy loads and they're hard to carry, and they put them on people's shoulders. And of course, they're not willing to carry them themselves. This would be a form of legalism. It's where you're adding man's rules, not God's rules, to how you get saved. So when we have Jesus plus anything, we are adding conditions or requirements to salvation. So right there in scripture, we have an example. Mormonism would be another example of this, where in the second book of Nephi 25, 23, I think that's the chapter in the verse. I'm not um well versed in the book of Mormon, sorry, it says this for we labor diligently to write, to persuade our children and also our brethren to believe in Christ and to be reconciled to God. This is a long verse. For we know that it is by grace that we are saved. And that sounds great, but there's more to the verse. After all we can do. So you can see there it's grace, but it's also works, salvation. Catholicism has something very similar where you have the you're you're not saved by grace alone. And Mike Winger, the the video that I quoted from earlier, I can link that below because he really goes through this the sacrament sacraments of the Catholic Church and what you have to do to either keep your salvation or to be saved. So it is a works, very much a works-based gospel.

SPEAKER_01

The prosperity gospel is another false gospel. Many times you'll hear it as the name it and claim it, or as Becky may say, it's the personal genie. Like you just you tell God what you want, and he's gonna pop out and give you exactly what you're asking for. But this is not a new false gospel. This is something we see back in Job. Some people may say that Job was even written before Genesis. So it certainly isn't anything new. I'm gonna read from Job 22, the verses 21 through 22 are where one of his friends is saying to him, What is true about God? And so he says, Submit to God and be at peace. Be at peace with him in this way, prosperity will come to you. So if you do what's right, God is gonna bless you with prosperity. Remember, Job was very well off and he lost everything. And so they're trying to get him to see this is all your fault. But if you do what's right, then he'll bless you with prosperity. The next set of verses is 27 through 30, and you'll hear the name it, claim it here as I read through. You will pray to him and he will hear you, and you will you will fulfill your vows. What you decide on will be done, and light will shine on your ways. When men are brought low, and you say, Lift them up, then he will save the downcast. He will deliver even one who is not innocent, who will be delivered through the the cleanness of your hands. So he's saying, You say it to God because you're a good person, God will do it. So name it and claim it. And how do you say it, Becky? Blab it and grab it. Blab it and grab it. So some of the religious groups that you may hear that fall under the prosperity gospel, and there's multiple teachers that kind of mix in with the prosperity gospel and other false gospels. But the first thing that I want to talk about is the word of faith. So, word of faith is basically where they take that we are created in the image of God. And if God spoke all things into creation, then we too, since we're created in his image, are little gods. And we have the power in our tongue to use our words to create things. So, but we have to believe enough for that to happen. Um, so they use things like positive confessions, the I am and the I declare. Joyce Meyer would be one of those teachers that uses those types of um, I want to say sermons, but it's more like a positive feel good about yourself because God loves you and He's going to give you everything you want if you have enough faith. Then you also have Nar, which is known as, well, Nar stands for the New Apostolic Reformation. And Bill Johnson would fall under this because it is a teaching that says there is authority that is set up according to God, where you have prophets, your modern-day prophets and apostles, and you have to fall under their authority in order for God to hear from you or for you to receive a word from God. Um, and then you also have Andrew Womack. Andrew Womack has a ministry, it's called a healing ministry, and he says on his website that this ministry is to set people free from sickness, disease, and pain. And I have a really hard time with this one because the apostles that Jesus selected, they went through a lot of pain and they died in pain because of their faith. So that right there tells me this is false. But he also says on his website, God wants you well. And if you properly understand scripture, then you can release God's power and you can receive your healing.

SPEAKER_00

Goodness gracious. You know, it makes me think this is off the cuff here, and I'm like, it may not sound right, but it makes me think, you know, sometimes God allows things to happen in your life for you to have a ministry in the hospital where you are in the hospital bed. You may be able to reach a nurse, a doctor, another patient where you would not have been able to if you'd been well.

SPEAKER_01

And what's interesting is Andrew Wilmack addresses that exact perspective on his website where he says, you're actually hindering your healing if you believe that. Wow. Wow.

SPEAKER_00

That blows my mind. Another false gospel would be we would call it the social gospel. Now, this one has a flavor of Marxism in it. We have physical, we're meeting people's physical needs. Those are given priority over meeting people's spiritual needs. And really, in this movement or in this quote unquote gospel, we're wanting to be winsome. We want to, we don't want to offend people. Heaven forbid we offend people. And I'm not saying we need to be offensive people, but the gospel is offensive. And so if we're avoiding that, we have the social gospel here. Again, this is nothing new. When you look at John 4, 13 through 14, when Jesus is talking to the woman at the well, he's talking about he goes to the well and he's asking for a physical drink of water. He doesn't stop there. He goes into the part where he says, if I can find it, everyone who drinks from this water, and he's not, he's not, well, he's talking about the physical water. Everyone who drinks from this water, the physical water, will get thirsty again. But whoever drinks from the water that I give him will never get thirsty again. In fact, the water I will give him will become a well of water springing up in him for eternal life. So he doesn't just stay focused on the drink and the physical. He gets straight to the point that we're talking about it's spiritual is important. Now, we're not also, we're not saying that the physic that the physical is not important because James 2, 14 through 16, I'm very much paraphrasing here, but if I remember correctly, it's where you see a per brother or sister who has a physical need, and you just say, Oh, God bless, and you walk away and you don't help them address that need. That the need, the physical need is important, but we can't stop there. I think about Stephen Furtick. For example, I think it was elevation on their website or some kind of publicity they put out a couple years ago about Easter. They were saying that we can't use the word blood because that could offend people. I think about Andy Stanley when he did his unconditional conference, where he really embraced the gay lifestyle and lifestyles that were sodomy. I mean, just awful lifestyles that people were embracing and saying it's okay. Um, he did a sermon. We actually got some pushback on that conference. And then he actually did a sermon, it might have been the next Sunday, where he really spelled out, no, this is what I believe. And it was Michael Moore from the Honest Youth Pastor who did a review of Andy Stanley's sermon that week, and it was spot on fantastic. So I would have I'll find that link and I'll probably put it in the show notes. JD Greer would be another one. He's with the summit in 2020. I mean, I could scroll back and find it on my Instagram again, probably, but he was one of the ones, he's not the only one, but he was one of the ones marching with your Black Lives Matter people who really aren't making people's lives better. They're just, it's just a slogan that said, but it's it's that social gospel of we got to make life better here on earth. Am I saying that he doesn't believe in the salvation of Jesus? No. Again, we're not we're not singling these people out to say they not don't necessarily believe in the saving work of Jesus. But when you have a leader that like Andy Stanley or Stephen Furtick or J.D. Greer, who are so well known, they are muddying the gospel of Jesus Christ. They are distorting it by adding these extra things to it. And it becomes a stumbling block to people who need the saving faith of Jesus Christ. And then lastly, we've got progressive Christianity. So this is another one of those things that falls underneath the social gospel label. Progressive Christianity is one that Elisa Childers really focuses on. She has a wonderful book about deconstruction and those kinds of things. So I would encourage you if you really want to, that's a very popular one right now. It's very, it's a huge movement that's growing. I would encourage you to check out her resources for progressive Christianity.

SPEAKER_01

Another false gospel would be the get out of hell free. So this is a gospel that uses God's grace to justify your sin, or it's an excuse for you to sin. And Romans 5 through 6 speaks to how we should not use God's grace as an excuse to continue in sin. And I'm only going to read a portion of that. I'm going to read one verse in the chapter, in chapter six of Romans. It says, What shall we say then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? By no means. By no means. That is not what the gospel is. It is not an excuse for you to sin. And so people will hear, Becky and I were talking about this. What church would preach the get out of hell free gospel? Really, no church actually preaches this because they wouldn't have anyone sitting in their pews. Because if you just have to say, I believe in Jesus, then you don't need to go to church. You don't need to fellowship with the saints. You don't need to learn about the Bible. So really, this would pertain to people who hear about the forgiveness of sins and maybe ask themselves or the question, is there a heaven and a hell? Okay, well, just in case, then yes, I believe in Jesus. And so I'm forgiven and I can live however way I want to live. So this would be someone who doesn't understand what the Bible says, someone who is biblically illiterate. They've heard something, but it is your responsibility as someone who professes faith in Jesus to go into the word and read it and understand it and apply it in your life. And many people will operate under the banner of being a Christian, but a Christian believer is someone who believes that Jesus is God, not just, I believe that Jesus lived. Jesus is God. And they believe in the true gospel, which we read in in the very beginning of the podcast from 1 Corinthians 15, 3 through 4.

SPEAKER_00

I had a youth pastor who used to say, just because you sit in church doesn't make you a Christian. Just like just because you sit in your garage doesn't make you a car. I thought that was really good. I don't know if that even applies to what you said, but sure. Another false gospel would be the myology gospel. We had self-help here, but really there's more to it. So the gospel is really about you. You're the center of the gospel. And it's a way, it can also be a way to gain a better version of yourself. We put that in quotes. Second Corinthians 5, 17 says something along these lines: that when you become a believer, you are a new creation. The old is gone and the new has come. John 17, 17 says that we are to sanctify ourselves in the truth, and God's word is truth, that Jesus praises for us. So in this situation here, we're not saying that once you become a Christian, you don't participate with God in the sanctification process. That that process of looking more and more like Jesus. There is that sanctification process until we die and we're glorified in heaven. But this is not a gospel that is I use God to just be a better person. No, we die to self in that sanctification process. It's not you become a better person. You die to self so that the Holy Spirit, you can walk in the Spirit and He lives through you.

SPEAKER_01

Romans actually says that you become more like Jesus. So his whole purpose is for us to take on the image of his son. Yeah, absolutely.

SPEAKER_00

Torrin Wells has a song that came out in 2022, and I heard it while we were thrift shopping one day, and I was like, I think I know who sings this, and I have no idea why he is singing this. And it the lyrics, it was called Crazy About You. And I would encourage you to go look up the lyrics and be prepared to throw up in your mouth because it's pretty disgusting. I was like, really? Like, I'm just gonna say a couple of these. For he says something like, Um, okay, he's never been mad at you speaking of God. He's only been madly in love. It's never been about what you do, it's always been about what he's done, which that part's true. I would agree with that. It's something you just can't hear enough. Oh, he's crazy about you. He didn't want to live without you. He traded the stars for a chance at your heart just to show you it's true. And I told my kids when I heard this song, I wanted to go look up the lyrics, and I said to my kids, this is a meology gospel. Yes, he mentions God. Yes, he mentions God's love, but it's it's there's no bad news. Like, really, he's not always been. We were destined to hell. We were, we were children of wrath, and God saved us from that. So I just, it's just so icky and so yucky, and but it sounds so great because it's put to song. And people love to sing songs. You know, Joel Osteen, he's got, I mean, some of these people we're mentioning really fit under multiple of these false gospels. They mix in a little bit of everything. Um, I think about his book, Become a Better You and Your Best Life Now. And I don't remember who said it years ago, but they said, really, if you're gonna die and go to hell, you are living your best life now, because that's very sad, but it is true. Joyce Meyer, she's another one of those, like you said, who just makes you feel good about yourself. The gospel is there to make you feel better about yourself. But the got the true gospel, we have to understand the bad news before we can embrace the good news. So when we skip that bad news, we have a myology gospel, really.

SPEAKER_01

We do want to be careful though that we are not an ex on the extreme side of one belief or the extreme side of the other. So one would be I rest in the work of Christ and that's it. What he did is enough. And the other would be the other extreme is I need to work for my salvation or to keep my salvation or for God's blessings. I need to do these things for you, fill in the blank that God will do. God harmonizes these two. We rest in the work that he has done, but I've heard it said before, and I don't know who to quote. I'm sure many people have said it, many Bible teachers. You rest in what Jesus has done for you, but there is work to be done. So the work that you do is because you you love God, you appreciate what he has done for you. And because of that, you want others to know about it. You want others to experience the joy that you have in a fallen world where you are constantly reminded, this is not my forever home.

SPEAKER_00

And one of the ways to prevent from being sucked in and being a victim, as Mike Winger said, of one of these isms or one of these false gospels is to read God's word, to be in God's word. Because a lot of these false teachers and these false gospels take one verse or one passage of scripture and twist it just enough to make it sound good, make it sound palatable. And they're very enthusiastic people, and a lot of them have bigger than life personalities, and they're great speakers. But if you're not in the word and you don't know it, it's very easy to fall victim to some of these isms or some of these false gospels.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, reminds me of Satan in the garden. It reminds me of Satan with Jesus and the his 40 days in the desert. That's right. He uses scripture and he distorts it just enough.

SPEAKER_00

So let's be like Ezra, determined to read, do, and tell the word of the Lord. Amen. Okay, that's enough. We got it. We're done. And we're done.

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Becky Spence

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