DAMNABLE PREACHING!

(Galatians 1:1-10)

"But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel other than the one we preached to you, let him be eternally condemned!" (v8)


The 11 September email: 'Today would be a good day to bury bad news' caused outrage. But Paul's statement in v8 (quoted above) in his letter to the churches of Galatia is much more shocking. He's condemning an angel from heaven to eternal condemnation (ie Hell). And Paul is not speaking hastily. He carefully repeats his statement in the following verse. He really means it. What could possibly justify such a shocking suggestion?

According to Paul the preaching of a different gospel would justify such a curse. Different from what? Different from the Gospel that "...we preached to you..." Paul is referring to the Gospel that he and his fellow apostles preached - the authentic apostolic Gospel. That Gospel is described in many places in the New Testament (see for example 1 Corinthians 15:1-4). It's also summarized in vv3-4 of Galatians 1: "...Jesus Christ, who gave himself for our sins..." The Galatian churches had been disturbed by the preaching of a gospel that advanced the keeping of regulations (ie human merit) as a basis of God's salvation. Paul regards such teaching as a perversion (ie a reversal and corruption) of the true Gospel. And he's outraged because this different gospel was causing the Galatians to desert God. To turn to a false gospel is to turn away from the true Gospel - which is to turn away from God himself. And to turn away from God is to turn to the power of Satan. It leads eventually to eternal condemnation (ie Hell). That Paul should wish such a fate upon the purveyors of a different gospel is nothing other than poetic justice, given the consequences of their actions.


But what has all this got to do with us? Why should a two-millennia old problem in Galatia be relevant to us? Consider. How would a national survey answer the question: How do people get to Heaven? Would not 99% of those surveyed express some version of 'live a good life and do your best' as the means of seeking to gain admission to Heaven? Has not our nation embraced "a different gospel" - a gospel of personal merit, of works, of earned salvation that isn't just found in the street but in many churches too? Perhaps our situation isn't so different from the Galatians after all? The different gospel caused the Galatians to desert God. Don't we see the identical result in our own society? As a nation we have, by and large, deserted God. Our churches are largely empty since so few of them preach the true apostolic Gospel. Generally speaking, the "different gospel" holds sway - both in the street and in the churches it has emptied.

But who are the damnable preachers that purvey this spiritual ruin? Galatians 1 gives a powerful clue. Paul's road to absurdity in v8 depicts an apostle or angel from heaven preaching a false gospel. This suggests that it might have been the leaders of the Galatian churches that were sending their flocks astray. If so, it's difficult to miss the parallel in our own time. Corrupting and liberalizing influences usually enter churches through their most senior ecclesiastical leadership.

Galatians is a living Word for our church today. It speaks exactly into our own situation depicting and explaining our desertion of God under damnable preachers that purvey a different gospel. And it tells us that the authentic apostolic Gospel is the sole criterion of a preacher - whoever he or she is. Paul tells us to judge the messenger by their message - not vice versa. However impressive the preacher's status or credentials, that preacher is to be judged by whether or not he or she preaches and teaches the true Gospel - the Gospel that shuns concepts of human merit and proclaims what God has done in the death of Christ as the only means of salvation.

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