This status from Joel Osteen Ministries was recently
shared with me. “Galatians 5 says, “Don’t think that your group is the only
one that’s right.” We’re all missing it somewhere. The main thing is that we
agree that Jesus is the Son of God, He rose from the dead, and now He’s our
Savior. Let your love for others be bigger than what church they belong to.”
At first glance it seems to be a neat statement that would
bring peace to many a situation, yet as I considered it I felt I needed to
respond to it. Here is my response.
Joel,
Yes, we are thankful for those who minister the gospel of
Jesus Christ, and for those who have Jesus Christ as their Savior. Unfortunately it is not as simple as this
quote makes it sound.
I do not want to come across as proud, in fact, I humbly
realize that those who teach will receive a stricter judgment (James 3:1) yet
this is where God has lead me. As a
teacher of scripture I have a great responsibility and do not want to hear what
Christ told the Pharisees in that they were making their followers “twice
children of hell.” (Mt. 23:15) So if I am missing it somewhere I want
someone to come along and show me the scripture I am violating and help me to
understand it because I do not want to lead anyone astray.
Yet, Jesus (Mt. 7:15) and Paul (Acts 20:29) both warned of
wolves who would come in sheep’s clothing.
Paul warned twice in two consecutive verses in Galatians 1:8-9 about
those who would preach a different gospel.
You see there are churches that teach that because Jesus died on the
cross all are going to heaven. This is
universalism and it is contrary to the truth of John 3:16 and many other
passages. Christ’s blood is sufficient
for those who have put their faith in Christ for salvation but not for those
who do not. (Rom. 5:1ff) There are also
those churches that teach that you must have works on top of your salvation so
they are not trusting in Christ alone but Christ and works too! This seems to be the entire theme of
Galatians.
There are churches that do not believe that Jesus was born
of a virgin. If He was not born of a virgin then he too is a sinner and therefore
was not the perfect sacrifice for us.
Rom. 5:12ff.
There are churches also that do not believe that Jesus is God
(John 1:1). If he is not God he is a
liar and therefore would once again not be able to be our sacrifice.
You see, we are encouraged by the Bereans of Acts 17:11 who
searched the scriptures to see if what the preachers were preaching was
consistent with what the prophets had written.
We too need to search the scriptures to make sure that the preachers today
are preaching truth as well. Yet, there
are many pastors who seldom refer to scripture and many professing believers
who do not even take their Bible to church open it or open it when they get
home to see if the preacher is really speaking the truth of scripture. In regards to this I just read through ten
different translations/paraphrases of Galatians 5 (NKJV, AV, NEB, NAB ESV, NET,
LEB, HCSB, NLT, NRSB) . The point of the
passage is not to accept anyone else’s view of how to get to heaven, rather
Paul is rebuking the Galatians for being lead away from the truth and is
challenging to come back to the gospel.
The fruit of their lives would reveal whether they were walking in the
flesh or in the spirit and we are challenged to walk in the spirit!
So in closing we are grateful for those who teach the whole
counsel of God faithfully proclaiming the gospel of Jesus Christ and challenging
those who repent to live lives that bring glory to God because of their separation
from the world. But regarding those who
twist the truth and preach another gospel we have to separate from them and
expose them.
Sincerely,
Larry, a country preacher.
