When the Declaration of Independence was created, how many versions were there? Just one. Declaring the American colonist’s independence from England, it is the signing of this document that marked the birth of what is now known as the United States. But what if someone told you that there was a different document that was signed on July 4,1776? What if instead of the Declaration of Independence, they told you that it was actually something called the “The Document of Separation” or “The Dividing of Nations” that was signed. Would you believe them?
The creation of the thirteen colonies and the birth of the United States is something that every child learns at a very young age in school. We learn about the Pilgrims who came across the ocean and started the very first colonies, the disagreement between the colonies and England over the taxes of certain commodities, and the ensuing war between the two countries. We all learn this, and we all know that the name of that document that was signed is known as the Declaration of Independence. This is what we have been taught, this is what we have learned.
You will find that for nearly all questions there will be one of two answers, right or wrong. Fact or fiction. Yes or no. Something is either correct or incorrect. And the things which we learn from the Bible are no exception.
When we learn from the Bible, everything in it is the truth. Everything in it is accurate, and it is the basis on which our faith is founded. Each word given by the inspiration of God, and what we all look to for Spiritual instruction.
So, if we read the Bible, and know what it says, we should be able to discern when someone is preaching something that is not correct according to the Bible, right?
Well in the book of Galatians, Paul was warning the church there to not be led astray by those preaching another gospel other than what they had learned.
Galatians 1:6-12 “I marvel that ye are so soon removed from him that called you into the grace of Christ unto another gospel:
Which is not another; but there be some that trouble you, and would pervert the gospel of Christ.
But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed.
As we said before, so say I now again, If any man preach any other gospel unto you than that ye have received, let him be accursed.
For do I now persuade men, or God? or do I seek to please men? for if I yet pleased men, I should not be the servant of Christ.
But I certify you, brethren, that the gospel which was preached of me is not after man.
For I neither received it of man, neither was I taught it, but by the revelation of Jesus Christ.”
The word of the Lord is not of one many spirits, but one. The Holy Spirit. The same Spirit that was in Christ also dwelled inside His apostles, Peter, James, John, Paul and all of the others. The same Spirit that was in Christ was the same Spirit that filled the writings that those men of God wrote, and became known as the Bible that we have today.
But it seems that not everyone preaches from the Bible today. Instead some have begun injecting their own views and teaching their own philosophy, contrary to what is found in the Holy Scripture. They teach things that go against what we have already learned from the Bible. In fact, those who did these kinds of things greatly upset the apostle Paul, as you just read earlier. “Let him be accursed” Paul said about those who perverted the gospel of Christ.
To “pervert” means to have a twisted sense of morals or values. Notice the word “twisted.” Many people today have twisted the true meaning of God’s word and have tried to change it to mean something else other than what it’s true meaning is. Instead of showing the love and forgiveness that Christ commands us to have, for example, some people will try to find any verse that they can in an effort to avoid doing just that. They will try to twist or pervert the meaning of a scripture so that it fits their lifestyle. But the Christian life doesn’t work that way. We serve the will of Christ, not ourselves.
One Lord. One faith. One baptism. One, not many. When the Bible says that Jesus was born in Bethlehem, He was born in Bethlehem. When it says that Jesus turned water into wine, that water was changed into wine. When it says to forgive, we need to forgive, or else we will not be forgiven. It is as simple as that.
One gospel.
In Christ,
Andrew
Teufer Lake King James Bible Church 