The Gospel of Christ is being revamped into a so-called more compassionate, tolerant, and inclusive gospel. This is the new and improved progressive Christianity. But is this a good thing? Scripture warns against revising God’s Word: “I marvel that you are so soon removed from him that called you into the grace of Christ unto another gospel” (Galatians 1:6). The idea behind removed in the original Greek text is to transpose two things, by which one is put in place of the other. For some, the grace of Christ has been turned into a mandate to accept every person’s point of view and moral standard, regardless of how un-biblical it is. Licentiousness has replaced true grace. The new grace is a license to sin.
“For there are certain men crept in unawares, who were before of old ordained to this condemnation, ungodly men, turning the grace of God into lasciviousness…” (Jude 4). Again, the idea in Greek is the switching of one thing for another: Grace for lustful living with no boundaries. They swap out holy grace for holey grace.
It is “another gospel.” In Greek, another is heteros which means another of a different kind. Paul continued in verse 7: “Which is not another, but there be some that trouble you, and would pervert the gospel of Christ.” When Paul said, “Another gospel which is not another,” it is not a contradiction of terms. He was saying that they had switched the true Gospel for another gospel—which is not really another gospel, because it is a perverted version that leads to damnation. The term for pervert actually means to turn around and go back in another direction.
Verse 8: “But though we or an angel from heaven preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed.” Paul was so confident that the Gospel he and the apostles preached was the only true Gospel, he pronounced anathema or curses upon those who preached any other. He was so serious, he repeated it: “As we said before, so say I now again, If any man preach any other gospel unto you than that you have received, let him be accursed” (v.9). This is extreme, because the ramifications of preaching a perverted gospel are the eternal souls hanging in the balance.
It was not an alternative gospel—but a distortion of the truth. It was not made from scratch with a new name for God. It used the names and ideas from the Bible that were familiar to Christians, but twisted them, making the message deceptive.
We might ask the question Why? Why change the Gospel?
The Gospel is deeply offensive to human nature. When people don’t want to obey its commandments of holiness and humility, they make alterations to fit their personal preferences. This is what Paul referred to in verse 10: “For do I now persuade men, or God? Or do I seek to please men? For if I yet pleased men, I should not be the servant of Christ.”
His meaning: “I am not persuading God to see things from my point of view! I am persuading men of this gospel! Neither do I seek to please men, but my obligation is to please God.” He was inferring that the other gospel was based on pleasing men. There are always preachers who seek approval and acclaim above all else. They want to be popular—famous rather than faithful!
Paul said that he could not please people and please God, so he was going to please God. He was a servant of Christ—not a Christian celebrity!
Paul Faced Legalists
The Judaizers sought to mix the works of the law with grace. They did this to please the messianic believers who wanted to keep the law of Moses. They were even forcing new Gentile believers in Christ to keep the law—something they had never done. The law was never given to them. This was a perversion of the Gospel. Galatians and the book of Hebrews were written to refute and correct this error.
Today’s Gospel Faces Liberalists
The greatest threat to the Gospel today is not Islam, or Mormonism, or Jehovah’s Witnesses, etc. They are so distorted and augmented, they do not resemble the Gospel once delivered unto the saints. Today, the Church is facing wave after wave of progressive Christianity from the Christian left. These liberalists focus on the universal love of God, social justice, tolerance for and even approval of lifestyles that do not adhere to biblical truth. Sin is not an issue. Neither is heaven or hell—basically, everyone is going to heaven.
The authority of Scripture is watered down or dismissed as obsolete and irrelevant for today’s society. It ignores God’s call to righteousness and obedience, allowing for permissive lifestyles as homosexuality and same-sex marriage. Abortion is not murder, but a caring way to deal with unwanted pregnancies, usually from unlawful sex. Transgenderism has decided that God messed up, so He won’t mind if you fix it. Beyond this, there is fluid sexuality which allows a person to go back and forth from male to female, according to their mood at the time. And signs indicate that we are on a slippery slope to accepting pedophilia for the same argument of homosexuals and transgenders: God made me this way. I can’t help it if I have these desires, and I should be free to fulfill them. Mark it down. I believe it is coming.
Essentially, Christianity is becoming a different gospel. Progressive Christianity paints biblical values and standards as oppressive and bigoted, judgmental, and outdated for a modern, excessively sexualized society. One of the current Democratic presidential candidates, also the mayor of a Midwestern city, is a homosexual man married to a man. He claims that his homosexual lifestyle is perfectly compatible with his Christian faith and said, “Marrying a man made me a better man and moved me closer to God. If you have a problem with who I am, your problem is not with me. Your quarrel is with my creator.”
The Wrong Right
It mirrors the culture that existed in the time of the Book of Judges: “Every man did that which was right in his own eyes” (Judges 21:25). Feelings trump Scripture. What a person feels is right for him, no matter how immoral or bizarre, replaces what divine truth teaches. Any faithful reading of Scripture denounces the perversions of the current sexual revolution. Yet there are denominations ordaining homosexuals and performing same-sex marriages.
Currently there are movements afoot, especially driven by the LGBT agenda, to force evangelical Christians to affirm their sexual revolution. Churches and denominations are caving in to their demands. Some because they don’t want to appear hateful and uncompassionate, and some because they are rewriting the Gospel. Others do not want to face the persecution that is skyrocketing against ministers and those who withstand this tide of evil persuasion. And indications are of what is coming: Not just persecution—but prosecution.
Let us not forget Jude’s passionate call: “It was necessary for me to write to you and to exhort you to earnestly contend for the faith that was once delivered unto the saints” (v.3). The meaning in the original text for delivered is that which was committed and entrusted to (the saints); and “once” means once for all time!
The ultimate tragedy, the new gospel—that is not the Gospel—does not contain the power of God to liberate those held in these bondages. It cannot set them free from damning sins, nor deliver them from the biblical consequences of eternal damnation. The Gospel comes with its own inherent power: “For I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God unto salvation unto everyone that believes” (Rom.1:16). It is the Gospel that was once delivered unto the saints. “For our gospel came not unto you in word only, but in power, and in the Holy Ghost…” (1Thess.1:5). Today, this is missing in the churches of progressive Christianity. Motivational speeches stir the pot, but when it comes time to serve up deliverance, there is no substance.
“And my speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of man’s wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power. That your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God” (1Cor.2:4-5).
Able ministers of the New Testament. Not of the letter, but of the spirit (2Cor.3:6).
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