v. 18 They said to you, “In the last time there will be scoffers, following their own ungodly passions.”

Devotional:

As a student of the scriptures, I have always found it fascinating that the apostles spoke often of the “last times”. It has always seemed to me that they were convinced they were living in the last days and that Jesus’ return to earth was right around the corner. I guess in an eternal sense they were right, but inside the chronology of time, as we are currently experiencing it, there have been more than 2000 years that have passed since they wrote of the last times and still we wait. The eager expectation of Christ’s return was not only something the apostles were marked by; it has marked every generation of believers that has followed since. It is typical of the New Testament author’s writings about the anticipation of Christ’s return to be accompanied by a warning, just as Jude is doing here in our verse today.

We would do well to pay attention to these warnings and be reminded there are countless influences – both physical and spiritual – in this world trying to lead us away from the Gospel of Jesus Christ and toward a false gospel. The dominant false gospel of Jude’s day was one that preached a cheap grace
that gave way to license for a lifestyle of permissible sin. This led people to indulge all the desires of the flesh while believing it was what God wanted for them. Needless to say, it was a destructive false gospel that led many astray. And unfortunately, this false gospel is still alive today as well as many others.

Now, just as it was then, false gospels are built upon the deception that there is something that needs to be added to or re-interpreted in the message of Jesus (and the apostles) that we are saved by grace alone through faith alone. Some preach the false gospel that baptism or communion is a necessary requirement for salvation. Others preach a gospel that says Christ is not the only way to be reconciled to God; He is merely one of many ways. There is also a growing false gospel within the “Christian” church whereby people chase experiences that heighten emotion or intellect (or both) regardless of a lack of doctrinal purity and consistency and consider that to be faithful.

Of all the false gospels out there, I can think of none that has led more astray in recent decades than the gospel of moral therapeutic deism (MTD). That sounds fancy but here is what it teaches. Moral therapeutic deism is the belief that,

• A god exists who created and ordered the world and watches over human life on earth.
• God wants people to be good, nice, and fair to each other, as taught in the Bible and by most world religions.
• The central goal of life is to be happy and to feel good about oneself.
• God does not need to be particularly involved in one’s life except when God is needed to resolve a problem.
• Good people go to heaven when they die.

Unlike the heretics in Jude’s day, this kind of heresy rarely comes through the mouth of a scoffer but rather through the soft lips of someone who is “enlightened” about or “in touch” with our modern culture. They are usually highly intelligent, seem incredibly caring, and are very believable. You will find this false gospel across countless self-help books that litter the best buy lists. It has flourished inside our culture’s focus on our individualism teaching us that we have all we need inside us to be happy and safe. It also teaches us that what is inside us is what God wants for us so all we need to do is get in touch with our real self through right behavior and when we need God we can call on him.

However, the gospel of Jesus Christ is squarely built on the foundation of a supremely sovereign God that has placed His glory at the center of all created things and has done this because it is only His glory that can produce eternal joy for Him and for all created things. MTD subtly teaches that we are sovereign. Now it doesn’t say that outright, but it trains us to subconsciously believe this by teaching us to filter all of life through the lens that we are in fact at the center of our universe.

This is not an organized religion, but it has become a normative assumption being made by many church leaders today and believed by and acted upon by many fellow believers. And ultimately, many people believe their chief end is to make themselves happy through consumerism, experiences, or by any means necessary to garnish that happiness.

This is a dangerous distortion of truth. As He faithfully equips the saints in right thinking, the apostle John wrote, “Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, for many false prophets have gone out into the world” (1 John 4:1).

A simple and surefire test to see if something is a false gospel or not is to ask the question, “Who or what is at the center of this belief?” If at the center of the belief is not the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob that incarnated Himself into flesh as Jesus of Nazareth to be born of a virgin, live sinlessly, die on a Roman cross, and rise from the dead three days later, the belief is heretical. It is a false gospel.

By grace, we stand tall and firm on the testimony of Jesus Christ as revealed to us through the Holy Bible and we stand against all false gospels knowing that the true gospel is light and life for all who will believe.

REFLECTION:

In your observation, what have false gospels cost the modern church? How can you make sure you avoid the dangerous deception of believing a false gospel?