False Gospels Articles

Nowhere does the Bible say the gospel is that Jesus Christ came to die for our sins! Instead, the true gospel tells us why He did so. More than that, it reveals the momentous purpose that God is accomplishing, what it means to be born again, how to receive eternal life, what salvation is, and the reason reconciliation through the blood of the Lamb is necessary.


Another Look at the Prosperity Gospel 
Summary: At one time or another, we have probably heard a preacher quoting scriptures that guarantee prosperity through God’s largesse. One huckster I saw some time ago said he needed three hundred ... 

Apostasy and Faith 
Summary: Biblically, apostasy is rebellion against God or the abandonment of faith in God by those once enlightened by the truth. In the Old Testament it always relates to rebellion against God. In Israel, apostasy was a capital offense. One who sacrificed to another god was stoned to death. ... 

Beware of Philosophy 
Summary: In the end, philosophy is merely man's search for answers without God. Mike Ford exposes philosophy's fundamental faults and directs us toward real truth, found in God's Word. 

Can Angels Marry Women? 
Summary: Genesis 6:1-4 has confounded many Bible students through the centuries. Most often, they have trouble determining who the "sons of God" were, leading them to fantastic and very unbiblical interpretations of the passage. John Reiss examines these verses in light of the rest of Scripture and posits an explanation that conforms to both biblical and scientific principles. 

Caught Up in the Rapture 
Summary: Is the rapture biblical? If so, when will it occur? Where do the saints go? Richard Ritenbaugh clarifies this sometimes confusing subject from the Bible. 

Damnable Heresies 
Summary: Indeed, many heresies crept into the church over the past several years. John Ritenbaugh explains the difference between heresy and apostasy, how Satan works to introduce heresy into the church, and most importantly, what we can do about it! 

Deceivers and Antichrists (Part One) 
Summary: By the time the apostle John penned his gospel and epistles, he had witnessed the ministry of Jesus Christ, the crucifixion, the resurrected Messiah, and the founding of the church of God. ... 

Deceivers and Antichrists (Part Three) 
Summary: In II John 7, the apostle John identifies an antichrist as one who denies that Jesus Christ is presently in His followers. ... 

Deceivers and Antichrists (Part Two) 
Summary: The apostle John gives various descriptions of the antichrist spirit that was prevalent at the end of the first century and continues today. ... 

Deceptions of the End Time 
Summary: Our world is full of lies and liars, and many in God's church are ignorant of just how much deceit is out there. Jesus tells us, however, that the best way to resist deception is being convicted of the truth. 

Did the Early Church Practice Socialism? (Part Two) 
Summary: As Part One closed, we found that the members of the nascent church began to liquidate their assets — lands, homes, goods — under God’s inspiration for two reasons: 1) their conversion had made them reprioritize the ... 

Do We Have 'Eternal Security'? 
Summary: Are we "once-saved, always-saved"? Once God grants us His grace, are we assured eternal life? Richard Ritenbaugh exposes the fallacies of this Protestant doctrine of "eternal security." 

God Has Not Called the Atheist 
Summary: Atheism is alive and well in post-Christian society. Much of nominal Christianity believes it is their sacred duty to convince atheists to drop their unbelief and commit themselves to Christ. But is it? Scripture says otherwise. Richard Ritenbaugh, mulling a recent encounter with some atheists, asserts that no amount of persuasion will change an atheist's mind unless God Himself enables him to believe. 

God's Plan and the False Immortal Soul Doctrine 
Summary: Most nominal Christians and their denominations believe in the Doctrine of the Immortal Soul, but it is a weak reed on which to lean. The Bible does not support it; instead, it teaches the exact opposite, contradicting Satan's argument to Eve that she will not surely die. Craig Sablich explains that it also fails to mesh with God's revealed Plan for humanity, based on God's perfect judgment and His gift of eternal life. 

Groping for Jesus 
Summary: The media keeps Jesus in the public eye through new movies and television shows, but are viewers getting the truth about mankind's Savior? No. Usually, they are "interpretations" of Him, slanted by personal biases and aims. Even scholars cannot agree on Him because they, like most others, reject the only true record of His life and teachings, the Bible. In addition, Richard Ritenbaugh argues that they lack God's Spirit to guide them into the truth. 

How Does Christ Fulfill the Law? 
Summary: Matthew 5:17 poses a major headache for Bible translators who believe that Christ's sinless life and sacrificial death did away with the law, so Christians do not need to keep it. Jesus, however, consistently teaches that God's law is still in force. By defining a few critical Greek words, Charles Whitaker explains that our Savior meant exactly what He said: He came to fulfill the law, not destroy it. 

How Revelation Enters the Church 
Summary: ...Only a little more than a generation had passed since the founding of the church, yet false gospels, perversions of the truth, were making serious trouble for those early Christians ... 

Inventing Goddesses and Demons (Part Three) 
Summary: Parts One and Two in this series covered the ancient Babylonian myth of the demon goddess Lilith, who became enmeshed in Jewish folklore with her companion, Samael. Lilith was imagined in the ... 

Is God a False Minister? 
Summary: John Ritenbaugh exposes the deplorable contradictions in the arguments of those who advocate doctrinal change. By their reasoning, they portray God as a confused and false minister who lacks the power to instruct his chosen leaders to "get it right." But that is not the way the Bible portrays Him! 

Is Heaven the Reward of the Saved? 
Summary: Most of Christianity believes humans go to heaven or hell after death, but is this so? This belief does not originate in the Bible—and in fact, the Bible reveals a very different Christian destiny. 

Is the Christian Required to Do Works? (Part One) 
Summary: Why do so many nominal Christians reject works and obedience to God's law? John Ritenbaugh posits that they do this because they fail to gather God's whole counsel on this subject. In doing so, they miss vital principles that help to bring us into the image of God. 

Is the Kingdom of God Within You? 
Summary: Luke 17:21 has tripped up Protestants for centuries. Using the context and the meaning of the Greek, Richard Ritenbaugh explains that this verse's meaning is very plain! 

Jesus and 'the Spirits in Prison' 
Summary: Peter's statement that Jesus 'preached to the spirits in prison' (I Peter 3:19) has for years baffled many a Bible student. Richard Ritenbaugh examines this verse in context, showing that the traditional interpretation is woefully off-base to the point of suggesting a totally unbiblical conclusion. 

Let No One Deceive You 
Summary: We live in a day of increasing knowledge—to the point that we are increasingly overloaded with information. Richard Ritenbaugh argues that these and other modern factors lend themselves to deception, yet this is one of the primary end-time trends that Jesus warns us against! 

Nicolaitanism Today 
Summary: Three of the seven churches of Revelation 2 receive warnings from Christ to beware Nicolaitanism. What is it? Richard Ritenbaugh shows how Nicolaitanism—a form of Gnosticism—still plagues the church today. 

Religious Confusion and You 
Summary: Nothing is more confused than the state of religion today. God's people can stay above the fray by being firmly grounded in His Word. Included are seven principles of Bible study. 

Rightly Defining the Word of Truth 
Summary: One of the ways the “unlearned and unstable wrest” Scripture (II Peter 3:16) is to misapply the meaning of a word they find there. Wrongly understanding some word's denotation ... 

The Fifth Teacher (Part Three) 
Summary: Even though the Corinthian congregation had four exceptional teachers—including Jesus Christ Himself—its members' manifest carnality demonstrated that they were paying more heed to a fifth teacher than to God's servants. The works of the flesh on display among the members indicated beliefs whose source was outside of God's way. 

The Flood Is Upon Us! 
Summary: In His Olivet Prophecy, Jesus likens the situation during the time of the end to the days preceding Noah's Flood. Later, in Revelation 12, He reveals another flood spewed from Satan's mouth, one designed to destroy God's people just before Christ's return. John Ritenbaugh gives insight into how this end-time flood is manifesting itself and what we can do to avoid being swept up in it. 

The Four Horsemen (Part Two): The White Horse 
Summary: At God's command, the white horse and its rider gallop over the earth 'conquering and to conquer.' Richard Ritenbaugh analyzes the symbolism of this horseman, a precursor of the destruction that is wrought by its fellows. 

The True Gospel (Part 1) 
Summary: The evangelist Mark begins his recounting of Jesus' ministry with these words: "Now after John was put in prison, Jesus came to Galilee, preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God, and saying, 'The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand. ... 

The True Gospel (Part 6) 
Summary: Maybe the most amazing fact gleaned from Christian history appears in Galatians 1:6: "I marvel that you are turning away so soon from Him who called you in the grace of Christ, to a different gospel. ... 

This Is Not God's World 
Summary: In several places in Scripture, God urges His people to come out of this world. Because He is the earth's and humanity's Creator, we may struggle with this command. But the world of which He speaks consists of society's anti-God religious, psychological, and philosophical systems whose beginnings reside in the Adversary, Satan the Devil. John Ritenbaugh suggests we thoroughly evaluate how much of this world still influences us. 

Trends in Global Religion 
Summary: Ron Sellers, a religious trend watcher, sees great instability in world religion, and it is mirrored in God's church. Richard Ritenbaugh shows how this dovetails with Bible prophecy of the end time. 

Was God's Law Nailed to the Cross? 
Summary: Many point to Colossians 2:14 to "prove" that it is no longer necessary to keep God's law, but is this really what the apostle Paul means? Was the law nailed to Christ's cross? What is the "handwriting of requirements" he writes of? Using the immediate context and supporting scriptures, Earl Henn untangles the apostle's intent in this verse. 

Was Jesus Married? 
Summary: Over the past century and more, critical scholars have worked to undermine God and the Bible. In concert with sensationalist fiction writers, they have foisted spurious gospels and outlandish theories on an increasingly irreligious public. Mike Ford analyzes a recent find, dubbed "The Gospel of Jesus' Wife," that claims our Savior was married to Mary Magdalene. But was He? 

What Evolution Really Means 
Summary: In the church, the argument over evolution was settled long ago, but such is not the case in the wider world. David Grabbe goes beyond the science to what embracing evolution actually says about a person's—and a society's—relationship with God. 

What Is a False Prophet? 
Summary: The Bible warns us that a great False Prophet will soon arise to sway mankind into idolatry. In addition, numerous passages speak of other false prophets and false teachers in the church and in the world. David Grabbe, in exposing the differences between false prophets and true ones, explains what we need to look out for as the end nears. 

Whatever Happened to Gnosticism? Part One: False Knowledge 
Summary: "Gnosticism" sounds like an old and very dry Greek philosophy, the subject of a somnolent college lecture. Not so, says David Grabbe. Gnosticism is very much in vogue today in books and movies—and in the belief systems of a great many people who profess to be Christian. 

Whatever Happened to Gnosticism? Part Three: Satan's Three Heresies 
Summary: When Satan confronted humanity's first parents, Adam and Eve, he fed them three heresies that he continues to promote to deceive the world today. David Grabbe expounds on these three lies, revealing how Gnosticism incorporated them into its parasitic philosophy and way of life. 

Whatever Happened to Gnosticism? Part Two: Defining Gnosticism 
Summary: For many of us, Gnosticism is difficult to pin down, and this is because it is not itself a religion but a philosophy that piggy-backs on religions. David Grabbe explains how we can see this in Paul's epistles to the Galatians and Colossians, in which he combats Gnosticism's twisting of the truth of Jesus Christ. 


For more on the true gospel, God's plan, mankind's destiny, and the coming Kingdom of God, see the Gospel Sermons page.



 
 
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