In Galatians Paul addresses the churches of that region about their defection from the gospel. It shouldn't sound that odd to our ears. We have it everywhere in our time.
We have the Mormons (LDS) who teach the gospel that salvation is through faith in Christ. Well, baptism is required; you can't be saved if you've never been baptized. And more. We have the Jehovah's Witnesses that deny the deity of the Christ in whom they say we need to be saved. According to jw.org, "To gain salvation, you must exercise faith in Jesus and demonstrate that faith by obeying his commands." That is, "faith and." Faith in Christ and obedience will get you in. (They also specify that God, not Jesus, is our Savior.) The Roman Catholic Church holds that the Church distributes salvation to men through their sacraments. That requires Baptism, Confirmation, Mass, Penance, and, more. And, of course, we have the common belief that salvation comes by being good. "Good" is relative, and, apparently, "good enough" is something around "better than the worst example I can think of." ("I'm not that bad.") There are, as it turns out, lots of "other gospels" out there.
But, look, can't we all just get along? I mean, Mormonism and Catholicism both teach "faith in Christ" and the JW's go with "faith in God," so can't we just agree to disagree on the peripherals? Paul says no. Paul calls it "not another gospel" (Gal 1:7). Paul says it is "damned to hell" -- anathema. According to Paul, if it is true that we require the Law in order to be saved, then Christ died for nothing (Gal 2:21). And that, he says, makes Christ a minister of sin (Gal 2:17). There is no other gospel than "a man is not justified by the works of the Law but through faith in Christ Jesus ... since by the works of the Law no flesh will be justified" (Gal 2:16). Don't be fooled.
2 comments:
That JW quote is so close to being correct. But any religion that says there is an action you must do to be saved doesn't understand sin or God or justice. It is not justice if God ignores all the sin we've done as long as that sin is balanced by a heavier weight of "good". They fail to realize that even that good is still sin if not done for the glory of God. You can't be a mostly "good" person, hating God all along the way, and expect to get into heaven.
Yes, David. It's interesting. They said, "To gain salvation, you must exercise faith in Jesus and demonstrate that faith by obeying his commands." We would have put a period after "faith in Jesus." Their "and" clause, since it adds to "gain salvation," makes it "another gospel" that is not another gospel. But they fell apart earlier when the Jesus they say we need to put our faith in is not the Jesus of the Bible -- is not God the Son.
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