Ethan Hoover & Matthew Maher kick off the podcast by discussing the topic for Season 1, The False Gospel. Join them as they briefly tease out the four main false gospels circulating in today's Church: the Prosperity, Psychology, Progressive, and Political gospels.
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Ethan Hoover & Matthew Maher kick off the podcast by discussing the topic for Season 1, The False Gospel. Join them as they briefly tease out the four main false gospels circulating in today's Church: the Prosperity, Psychology, Progressive, and Political gospels.
What’s Covered in This Episode:
Other Resources:
Learn More:
To learn more about the podcast and your hosts, visit our website.
Looking to sponsor Rechurched? Apply to be a sponsor!
Follow Your Hosts:
Explore more from Coastal Christian in Ocean City, NJ, by visiting ccoceancity.com.
Follow us on Instagram!
Learn More:
To learn more about the podcast and your hosts, visit our website.
Looking to sponsor Rechurched? Apply to be a sponsor!
You are listening to research, a podcast aimed at instigating Christians to be Christian.
Ethan hoover:Hey guys, welcome to our new podcast read church where we inspire conscience and instigate conviction. So people in today's church may truly know God in His Word, and show God to those around them. My name is Ethan, one of your hosts, and I'm joined by my good friend and Pastor Matthew Mayer. Hello, hello. How are you feeling today? Feeling? Well, yeah, awesome. Well, this is our first official episode ever. season one, episode one. So congrats. If you're joining us from the very start, we really appreciate it and really hope this podcast impacts your life for Christ. If you didn't listen to the past episode, it was our welcome episode. And we're not really counting it as our official first episode. More as like a channel teaser. But I would recommend pausing this, going back to the welcome episode listening to that, and then re listening to this episode, because I think it'll give a good synopsis and overview of what we're going to be talking about, and the purpose behind the podcast, the heart behind it, as well as the fire behind it as well. So I think that one thing that would really help this podcast from the jump is to, as always follow subscribe on any platform you're listening to. So please do that. Turn the notifications on, on whatever platform you're on. And share this with a friend, a family member. Heck, blasted out to your network blasted out on social media. Whatever, whatever you you're feeling, you know. Anyway, I think the best place to start in today's episode is the start, which is the goal and focus of the podcast, we'll give a just a very brief summary about the podcast. And Mayor if you're able to kind of just give us a breakdown, just like a simple breakdown of what research is all about. Sort of like a teaser to the channel teaser. That'd be awesome. Yeah, very simple. For me. I believe that in a day and age where the church has been commercialized, the Christian has been secularized. And the cross unfortunately has become sanitized. recharged is about returning to a Biblical faith that knows our life should be crucified. Paul would write in First Corinthians chapter two, verse two, I have determined not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ, and Him crucified. So we're going to build on the timeless brick and mortar of the Bible, we're going to call out nominal Christianity for what it is right? That's Christians by name. And the reason I'm passionate about that Ethan, is because for a long time in my life, I was a Christian by name only, or you go to church, yeah, I'm a Christian. And I didn't really know the weight, or the substance of what that meant. So I said, In our previous episode, as introductory that, to where the name Christian, is, to bear the nature of Christ, there should be no disconnect between the two, and in fact, not bear the nature of Christ. And yet where the name of Christian is a contradiction by nature. And the reason why I'm passionate about this is because how many people go to church and aren't necessarily Living for Christ, right? Because it's one thing to come to church. It's an entirely different thing to come to Christ. Yeah. And I think that's really the heart behind the podcast, inviting believers to come experience a renewed faith that has them living out their faith in the public space. Yeah. Because what good is it to say I believe in God and yet reduce or diminish my faith, to a Sunday morning, 90 minutes, maybe. And then live however, I want Monday through Saturday. So that's really the goal. And we believe the only way to live out our faith is to know truth, the truth of the gospel, the truth of God's Word. So we're gonna spend a lot of time looking at scripture, talking about what does it mean? How does it apply to my present life? How am I living in light of eternity? How is my life a reflection of God's glory? And I guess at this particular point, I'll say a line that I always say it's like, you Christian may be the only Bible somebody reads, that's researched. People might not come to church, unchurched. People might not respect Christians or the church because they've been turned off by the church. That's de churched. So here's the line. In order to reach the unchurched and the D church. The church needs to be recharged. Let's get back to Biblical thinking about the things of God Alright guys, buckle up. We're gonna start with a doozy right off the bat, like we said in the welcome episode, we're gonna start by addressing the false gospel. And this is a hot topic. And really, it kind of surfaced I guess the I mean, the false gospel has been around for a while, but but I think at least, I personally was more aware of the false gospel when documentary came out American Christianity Sure, which we're not we're not really going to address or talk about in this episode on think but I think that's when I really started like seeing how far we've come, yep, are gone, rather. And it really opened my eyes. And so I think Matthew Mayer and I are both aligned on the need to know the true gospel. But in order to get there, we need to make sure that we don't have any hints or aspects of the false gospel in our lives. And to know that we got to look into what the false gospels are. And so that's what we're really going to tackle. And we're really going to be asking the question, what is the false gospel? But also, you know, where did where did it come from, where it might be at play in today's church and how we can respond or apply the knowledge that hopefully we'll learn in this episode to our daily lives. So let's get into it. Let's start from I guess, like a high level, and we'll just dive into the nitty gritty. But what could the false gospel I guess be defined as I want you to remember this definition? You might not find it anywhere else, but this will help us tease out what I believe would be there's so many parts to the false gospel, you can replace the word false with lies like it's a gospel that's filled with lies, good news, but there's some lies in it and counterfeit. Right? It looks like the gospel. Right? The gospel is the word un Galleon, it means to herald we say it's good news. So when we say the word gospel on this podcast, we're talking about the good news. So it's good news will good news of what the gospel of Jesus Christ that He came, that he died, and that he rose again from the grave. That is literally the basis of Christianity. And it's built upon contract a lot of people, what they think it's built upon Judaism, like, so the Old Testament, the Jewish Scriptures, the Old Testament prophets, the Old Testament books, Christianity was birthed out of the basis of Judaism, Christ came as a Jew. And he laid down his life as the Messiah, the Christ, the Son of the living God. And he had to do that, because without the shedding of blood, which is the entire Jewish Jewish system was built on sacrifice without the shedding of blood, there's no remission of sins. So Christ came literally as the Lamb of God, to lay down his life, sinless sacrifice. And then he rose from the grave validating everything he said, in his life and his ministry. 33 years, we believe, and, and that's what Christianity was birthed out of. That's where the church church came from. And from the inception of the church, there has always been counterfeit messages. There has always been lies that have crept in. That is why As believers, we must know the Word of God so well, that we can discern the lies of hell. Right? Some have used an illustration. It's an overused illustration, but it's appropriate, right? How do you teach bank tellers how to identify counterfeit money, while you'd be interested to know that they don't look at the counterfeit? They don't. They don't really like spend time sniffing and smelling and touching the counterfeit. They spend time knowing the real real deal. Yeah. And I wonder why it's probably because there's so many counterfeits that are always changing, right? So it would, it would be silly to try to like figure the false gospel out rather than just know the true gospel. That's the point. When you get the true gospel, the pure gospel, you can identify the false gospel. Yeah, so your eyes are going to define the false gospel because we want you to know what we're talking about. But if you're out there, and you're like, we're going to touch on some things that might literally blow up your theology. And, um, we're going to make sure the Bible does it. You know, yeah, I want the word of the Lord to be the hammer. And I'm praying that this podcast draws you closer to Christ than ever before. So let's define the false gospel. Here it is. It is the message of salvation that wants a cross less Christ or a Christ Lois cross. So that will return. The false gospel is a message of salvation right? So you can be saved. Okay. God loves you. You know, God has for you. But the message once a cross LIS Christ, let's let's stop there. What is a cross less? Christ? Well, I want Jesus without the suffering. Yeah. I was Jesus without the judgment. It's a sanitized, it's right cross really right. And this is where we get the hyper Grace movement where you abuse grace. This is the false gospel. Right grace is not a license to sin, Ethan. Right. God gave me grace, that's a free gift. If I think that I can just take his grace and abuse it and misuse it. That'd be as if I, I am happily married. Right? I made a covenant at the altar with my wife. That's a that's a that's a grace of sorts. And then I just go off and cheat on her and come back and go, Well, there's a covenant, right? You said I do to me? No, that would be resistive and crazy. And that would be that would be literally abusing this grace of the covenant. So there's a message out there that says, God loves you no matter what, and he does. But my question is, if you're still living in sin and justifying it, do you really love God, that's recharged. Do you really love God? So we clean up the cross? Don't talk about suffering, don't talk about sin. And don't you dare talk about Satan? There's the literary. They'll talk about those things. Because, you know, they're threatening. Just let me enjoy my grace, my hyper Grace walk. And it's like, no, grace is not a license to sin. Grace, gives you access to the sun. Think about that. People think that Jesus is just known for his love. And I always say he's the God of grace, right? Yeah. He's the Lord of love. Yeah, he's the master of mercy. Yeah. But he's also the one that's going to come and judge the living in the dead. Yeah, he's also the one that said, Hey, don't think I came to bring peace. I came to bring a sword, which means I'm going to I'm going to divide mother, from son and son from Father, like, the households are going to be split based on who they think I am. So he comes first, to lay down his life. And the Bible is very explicit when it said he's coming again to judge. So I can't just tread lightly on a gospel that is built on flowers and cotton candy. Now there's so much more beneath the surface of what we call grace. So the false gospel is, is a gospel of that abuses grace. That's what we're saying. Yep. All right. And we'll read the Bible verse in a moment. Okay. And then what else does like the false false gospel? Now, let's say they will finally slip cross crisis, right? So we often identify the cross as the way of salvation. So they want the cross they want to get to heaven, but they don't want Christ. I don't want his teachings. I'm not gonna follow him. He's not the Lord of my life. Oh, he's my savior. Right? I see the cross somewhere on my neck. See, I'm saved some good person. Yeah. It's a hall pass. God loves me. Yeah. All paths. So I want I want salvation. I want to be able to go up the mountain to heaven. And everybody can climb the mountain, by the way, we're all on our way to God. And it's like, no, no, Christ came down from heaven. So what does he have to say about life and death? And the afterlife about submission and obedience and holiness? What does he call sin? Where's humility at in my Christian walk, like, I want Christ and the cross? Yeah, yeah. Right. How I quoted earlier, Paul said, I am determined not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ, and Him crucified. That is the pure gospel. Yeah. And also the false gospel if they want to Christ was cross really what they're saying is, we want to be dead to sin, but alive to ourselves. Right? Which doesn't make sense because it's a contradiction, because we're sinful, right? You know? So that in itself is is when you break it down. It's kind of ridiculous, but, but really thinking about that, I think it gives us a better I guess, point of reference of like, if we are, if the cross has paid for our sin that we couldn't pay for ourselves, then the true gospel would be, then we need to be alive to someone else other than us. And that is Christ. Right? So that's, that's great, bro. So Paul would write to the church at Galatia, the Galatians, we call them and it's Galatians chapter one. He jumps right into the intention of this letter. He identifies Himself Paul an apostle, not from men, nor through man, but through Jesus Christ and God the Father, who raised him from the dead in one One verse in his introductory statement, he's saying, I'm coming sent by God. This is not by man, and all the brethren who are with me to the churches of Galatia. Listen to this Ethan, Grace to you and peace from the from God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ, who gave Himself for our sins, that he might deliver us from this present evil age according to the will of our God and Father, to whom be the glory forever and ever. Amen. Now, here it is. For six. I'm Marvel, like, Hey, guys, hope you're well. Just checking in. I'm astonished. He said that you are turning away. That's where we get the word apostasy. Did you know The word heretic or heresy means just opinion. Oh, so when somebody is a heretic, it's they're propagating their own opinions and their own emotions, their own feelings, their own messages, right? When we say somebody's a person's a heretic, we're basically saying they are producing a message that is made of their own opinion has no basis in the Bible, okay? So apostasy means to fall away to depart like you know the truth, you were raised in the truth. You've been exposed to the truth, but you've left the truth. He says, I marveled that you are turning away so soon from him, who called you in the grace of Christ, to a different gospel. He's like I am, I am completely astonished that those of you who tasted the grace of Jesus, that He died for you, that He rose from the dead, that he deposited His Holy Spirit within you, I'm so baffled that many of you are turning away to a different gospel. So this is where we get this idea behind a false gospel, which he says is not another. But there are some who trouble you and want you to pervert the gospel of Christ. So we've got a gospel that's been perverted. Remember, it's the same message they're giving. They're telling people you can be saved. They're just adding to it methods by which you can be saved, works. Status, yeah, steps to take, make sure you're a good person, make sure you're not as bad as your neighbor. He then says, but even if we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel to you than what we have preached to you. Let him be accursed. You wonder how serious he was about this message. Verse nine, ready, as we have said before, so now I say, again, if anyone preaches any other gospel to you, then what you have received, let him be accursed. Let him be cursed. That's crazy. That's strong language. You have any idea, just looking at Galatians? One and one eight, where he talks about? But even if we or an angel from heaven, do you? Was he just kind of adding the angel from heaven to like, add, like severity to it? Or was there a particular reason that like out of that or I think he was saying, not only in a prophetic fashion? I don't care if an angel shows up from Heaven carrying a message if it's different than the message Jesus gave us. It's a false gospel. And if you receive it, you are cursed. Gotcha. That makes sense. But like he's saying, you can be so impressed by a revelation that somebody gave. It's so heavenly. And it sounds so good. There's no way that person could have gotten that message unless God gave it to him. But it contradicts the pure gospel. Yeah, it goes against the teachings of Jesus. It's not based on the Bible. Well, guess what? It's false gospel. Right? So it's built on lies, it might look good, it might sound good. And this is why Paul called out he's like, there's gonna be teachers, there's coming a time where people are not going to endure sound doctrine anymore, which is solid biblical teaching, like, they're going to be offended. So what are they gonna do? They're going to accumulate for themselves, teachers, who tickle their ears, feel good, seeker, sensitive, soft, pedaling, you know, flashy, charismatic, make you feel good, everything's good. And that is the opposite of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Let's go. So do you want to dive into sort of the different alliterations that Ps of the different gospels that we see within the false gospel or do you want to maybe approach it from the history of what like where the false gospel started? I just think there's probably so many different markers in the Bible, biblical history or church history that we could look at that would start lies that have have crept into the church. Right, John, one of the disciples, he wrote to the early church in a fashion that highlighted what we call Gnostics or Gnosticism. Yeah, right, because it was a movement that was counter to the church movement, now remind you, they're in the church, but they're not necessarily of the church. And they're causing division in the church. And they're propagating a different message. But their message, which is also a false gospel, was about special knowledge. Right? Like you can be initiated into our movement, if you have special knowledge. That's what the word Gnosticism means special knowledge. So you can know. And like, it was like, Wait a second, the gospel was given to all of us. The gospel of grace was given to all of mankind, the Jew first and then the Gentile. And that was the message that Paul and Peter and John and the disciples in the early church, they were sharing. And slowly but surely, at different times in the church history, you see a different form of a false gospel. Paul's writing about the gospel of grace that was compromised by works, right, the Galatians fell back on their works like, wait a second, we're free from the law, Old Testament law. But they were saying, no, no, you gotta get circumcised. Or you got to do these certain things, these rituals, these traditions, it's Christ, and works. Now there's a debate about, Well, shouldn't we be doing good works? And it's like, you missed the point. The point is this. You are saved by grace alone, through faith alone. In Christ alone. Yeah. And if that is true, and that's you, you will want to do good works for God. Your good works, don't get you to God, your good works. Don't validate favor from God. Your good works are a byproduct of God's good work for you on the cross. Yeah, that's the point. Because if you saved me, Ethan, your human, are made of the same stuff. Yeah, if you saved me, like literally, and we always use this analogy, but I think it's appropriate. I'm about to walk out into the street, I don't really look both ways a cars come in, and you put your body in between me and the car, and I literally am spared you get hit by the vehicle you live. You're in the hospital in a coma? What type of person would I be if I just went on with my life? Like didn't visit you? Didn't think your family did it? Thank your fiance. Like, I'm indebted to Ethan. Matt's not only not appreciative. Imagine if I went out and it was like, that didn't happen. It didn't save me think about think about that. That's just a human example. Yeah, that's, that's and Christ did something infinitely greater. When he took the the truck of death he stepped, but he stepped in front of it. It took his life. And he spared my life. Yeah, like, so to live in light of the work he did. I just want I want to show my appreciation. And every time I do I do good work to show my appreciation because you don't have to do that. I know, I don't have to do that. I want to do that. Does that make sense? Yeah. It's a hard shift. It's a hard shift. Yeah, let me just kind of read where I left off in Galatians. Because after we talk about Paul calling out what is called the false gospel, or a different gospel doesn't matter, who comes and how it's packaged, even an angel from heaven, if it's contrary to the biblical gospel of Jesus Christ, as the early church received it, even Paul, who was previously a persecutor of the church known as Saul, he continues. And the reason I want to read this verse, and you'll see why in a second, Ethan, and our listeners as well, he says this, For do I now persuade men or God, like the reason I'm willing to call you out when you're wrong, and you're off? And you're receiving a false message? Because I'm not persuaded by you? Right? I think this is extremely important for us to understand is if I'm worried about people's feelings today, especially, I'm not going to tell them the truth. No, because the truth is offensive. The Gospel Jesus Christ is offensive first, yeah. My heart isn't that it becomes offensive and you depart from from God. My heart is that it becomes redemptive and you draw closer to God. Yeah, your heart just like Paul's heart isn't to offend. But the truth in nature, to a sinful person is offensive. So that's what you're saying. Yeah. The intention isn't offensive, offensive, but it can be received that way. That's what Yes, he asked the question again rhetorically, or do I seek to please men, for if I still please men, I would not be a bondservant of Christ. If I was seeking man's applause, man's approval, I would not be following Jesus, and I would not share with you the truth. But I make known to you, brethren, that the gospel which was preached by me is not according to man, for I neither received it from And nor was I taught it, but it came through the revelation of Jesus Christ. I love that. That's awesome. And then you can read the rest of Galatians on your own guys. It's an awesome build up of Paul shows us how he didn't confer with flesh and blood. He'd even go to the super apostles, right? Peter, James and John. He didn't go to Jerusalem, the home of religion. It says he went to the wilderness. And this is where many believed Jesus met him. And for three years he spent time I believe honeymooning with Christ, and all the things that he knew about Judaism because he was, he was a Pharisee. He was a Jew of Jews. He was a Jew of Jews. He knew all this stuff in a cool how God just kind of took his wiring. Yeah, yeah. And rewired it. And then all the things he knew about his his past faith, came to life like, Oh, my goodness, the sacrificial system pointed to Jesus. Oh, my goodness, goodness. The temple pointed to Jesus. That's crazy. Oh, my goodness. The priesthood pointed to Jesus. Oh, my goodness, the prophets. Were talking of Jesus. Oh, my goodness, the entire lineage of the Kings was a picture of Jesus and like, can you imagine? Yeah, it did. Oh, my gosh, Paul's able to just he had the same, the same passion to persecute the church. That's right. And God just is like, I am taking like, it's so it's so fascinating. Yeah, it's so fascinating that he doesn't he doesn't strip that away from Paul. He doesn't go, I'm taking your passion. I'm taking this ferocity this, I'm just repurposing it. I'm just kind of shifting it around giving it a different focus. Right. Like it's so so cool. So cool. So I think it's true for your life. It's true for everybody. Yes, podcasts lives that God. He's, he's a faithful God. And there's nothing in your life that is wasteful, in essence, because he's gonna take even a disposition that might be ornery and he's like, not, trust me. There's some things I'm going to rearrange. Once I get your undivided attention. And I put a little bit of my Holy Spirit. Yeah, there, it will have a different outcome. So I say all that to say this, yes, the false gospel and some of the forms of it. We have first and foremost, I believe, a very prevalent false gospel. This was like probably the most talked about in that documentary that the American Christianity documentary, I think this was like the, the main one they really American gospel, Christian Gospel, I can't remember I think it's called the American gospel because the idea is that the word American, which is a adjective modifies the noun, which is gospel, so americanizing the gospel, like what is it about your aircon? I looked it up, think about what is about America. Yeah, that would infuse this message that would alter it? Well, we are the land of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. We are the land, we are considered to be like the wealthiest country in the world, the most powerful. So think about the entitlement that comes with the American context. So this gospel known as the prosperity gospel, this became attached to the American dream. And what is the prosperity gospel in its simplest terms, it is, you know, that there's this desire that God has to keep you happy, healthy and wealthy. That he always wants to prosper you that if you don't have wealth, then you're doing something that God is not pleased with, if you're not healthy, if you're sick, there's something in your life, that God is not pleased with their sin in your life. Like because God always wants to heal. So it's the prosperity gospel is really just material and physical, happy, healthy, wealthy. And here's what happens. Here's the error upfront, when you believe that false gospel and life does what life does it deals you a hand that you didn't see common? Yeah, seriously? Well, it could be with your health. Right? Wait a second, I was told that God wants to make me happy, healthy and wealthy, and I just lost my health. And what do we do? Who do we turn against? God, we turn against God, yeah. Where are you God. And then people leave their faith, because they're disappointed in the outcome, but it was never faith at all. So there's so many different origins of the prosperity gospel, but a lot of different people trace it back into the 40s, really, where print and media were picking up pace. And unfortunately, a lot of the research I did led to a guy named Oral Roberts, and he burst onto the religious scene, and he carried a message that allege he could heal. So he had crusades, and people were coming from all over to find healing. And he told his people that God wants to bless them financially. And a lot of the tricks and gimmickry was if you bless my ministry, God will bless you, right? So if you give to me, and the work that I'm doing for God, God will pay you back a hundredfold like, and people were buying into it. So now in the 80s, there was a television show that was Popular on all types of programs across the country, it was based on theology. And we were introduced to a guy named Kenneth Hagen, who was another propagator of the prosperity gospel. And you could follow the, you know, the lineage of Kenneth Hagen and to Kenneth Copeland, and what is currently known as the word of faith movement, which is the vehicle for spreading these false gospels, not only across the United States, Ethan but around the globe, around the globe. So it's sad. It is sad, but But here's the point. The point with the prosperity, gospel, health, wealth, and happiness is that it runs completely counter to the pure gospel, which is God's saving us from our wretchedness and moving us into His Holiness. And that might come through losing everything. That my story right, I had to go to prison to discover true liberty, like reconcile that I went to a physical prison to discover spiritual emotional liberty and that's how God works. So to say that God wants to keep you happy, healthy and wealthy but never bring up that he wants to make you holy is a false gospel. Yeah, so you know what took care of the prosperity gospel the reason why I really don't bring it up anymore Coronavirus did was read about it, because, you know, if you have the ability to heal, and God always wants to healed and then where are these healers at? Yeah, this is the perfect opportunity. Show it off. Let's go post up. Start healing. We only the vaccination, go to these prosperity gospel guys. Yeah, he'll, you know, they shut down their churches, they're healing rooms were closed. And you don't hear anything more about it because the economy was tanking. And and people started to go wait a second. This faith that I've been told that I've been tithing to, isn't reaping a reward, or a product. And that's when you know, it's a false gospel. Yeah. When there's no application in your life, in your crazy circumstances. Yeah. So we'll talk about the word of faith movement. We'll talk about you know, it's not a denomination. Word of Faith is basically it's like, the power of your words. Now, this is where