Accept All or Separate and Expose?

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.

The President and His Men!

Years ago when I was working in camp ministry we had the opportunity to go to a camp conference every year.  At these conferences we discussed many things regarding the camp ministry. One year a camp demonstrated their new paintball course.  They had us play a game called the president and his men.  The game was set up as follows:  One team had five people from which the president was chosen; the other team had 15 people.   The job of the team with the president was to get the president through the course without being shot by the opposition.  I remember going through this course having been chosen as the president and getting tackled by my own guys with them laying on top of me – giving their “lives” in my place.  At the time it was a little disappointing because I never got to shoot in that game. J

When we finished the game we sat down to discuss what we had learned from it.  The challenge was do you protect your pastor in the same way.  When people come to attack the pastor do you listen and take part or do you take a stand to protect the truth and the pastor.

Now I can say it is not a game, but real life.  What I had previously experienced in the outdoors classroom I experienced in reality.  In the last couple of days I have had the experience of Godly men and women stopping with words of encouragement and support as they have stood to protect their pastor.   In this I am truly blessed and truly thankful. 

May God continue to work to bring glory to himself in spite of opposition from the evil one!