Gospel of Pervert Grace

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The Gospel of Pervert Grace- The Gospel of the Gentiles

For certain men have crept in unnoticed, who long ago were marked out for this condemnation, ungodly men, who turn the grace of our God into lewdness (lasciviousness/ licentiousness) and deny the only Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ. Jude 4.

We have considered previously the Ascetic Moralism or Gospel of the Hellenists, this one is closely linked and related.

In about 60AD, just prior to the death of Apostle Paul and Peter, the Christian folk was becoming absolutely Gentile populated as many of the Jews who felt they were not welcomed with their Jewish Moralism became disappointed, and many abandoned the faith while the Gentiles continued to embrace it. However, a new wave of doctrine crept into the church. It emanated from the Gentiles who were students of Philo’s Stoicism. (For more read information read the previous article on Ascetic/ Hellenistic Moralism). These gnostics teachers began to teach that since matter is evil and soul is good, then it doesn’t matter how a man lived his life, the corruption of the body has no impact on the purity of the soul. If the spirit is holy, it cannot be defiled by the pollution and influences of the body. As a result, the Christians could indulge in immoralities and idolatry and still remain pure (intact in their hearts).

Although these kinds of teachings were not yet prevalent during the ministry of Paul, he however warned the Christians in Ephesus that false teachers of this sort will spring forth from among them, Acts 20:28-30. Peter towards the tail end of his life wrote a second letter to the dispersed Jews telling them to beware of these kind of teachers. In 2 Peter 2, he gave a comprehensive analysis of these kinds of teachers or prophets. They secretly bring in heresies that denies the Lord that bought them and those who follow their doctrines would make the way of truth (Christianity) to be blasphemed. Verse 1-2. They are covetous and exploit by deceptive words. Verse 3. They are proud and talk about things beyond their comprehension, especially spiritual realities, verse 10-12. They are presumptuous and self willed. Verse 10. They are immoral and shameless (carouse in the daytime), verse 13, as well as adulterous, verse 14. They have been spell bound and held bound by sin. They are accursed children. Here Paul and Peter agree on the damnation of everyone who spreads false teachings. It is just in the same vein that God had declared woes on Old Testament prophets and priests who led the people astray from the living God to idols. So whether it is the Gospel of Moralism or Gospel of Licentiousness, both of them are damnable heresies and none can take anyone to the presence of God.

2 Peter and Jude seems to have a lot of similarities that some believed the one copied from the other especially that the later, Jude from the former but this is not my perspective about it. When Peter was about to die, the heresies was just beginning to spring up and if we look at his description, he said,”But there were also false prophets among the people, even as there will be false teachers among you…” 2 Peter 2:1. He was projecting into the future but around 80-100AD, Jude and John, the beloved who was the last surviving apostle witnessed these teachings fluorishing.

Although John was not explicit in his writing to confront this kind of error, it is clearly implicitly stated. 1 John 1:6, “If we say we have fellowship with Him (acclaim we are Christians), and walk in darkness (but keep on sinning), we lie and do not practice the truth (our profession of faith isn’t genuine). He further said again in response to these gnostics teachers:

Little children, let no one deceive you. He who practices righteousness is righteous, just as He is righteous. He who sins is of the devil, for the devil has sinned from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that He might destroy the works of the devil. Whoever has been born of God does not sin, for His seed remains in him; and he cannot sin, because he has been born of God. In this the children of God and the children of the devil are manifest: whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is he who does not love his brother. 1 John 3:7-10

John made it clear that those who continue with the practice of sin cannot claim to have been regenerated and transformed. They are still in their sins and do not belong to God. I admonish you to read the whole book of 1 John to have a clear understanding of what Christianity is all about and what the gospel of Christ is meant to accomplish in our lives.

© Purpose Media Publications, 2020