ANOTHER GOSPEL?

By Mary Ann Wray

“I am astonished and extremely irritated that you are so quickly shifting your allegiance and deserting Him who called you by the grace of Christ, for a different [even contrary] gospel; which is really not another [gospel]; but there are [obviously] some [people masquerading as teachers] who are disturbing and confusing you [with a misleading, counterfeit teaching] and want to distort the gospel of Christ [twisting it into something which it absolutely is not]. But even if we, or an angel from heaven, should preach to you a gospel contrary to that which we [originally] preached to you, let him be condemned to destruction! As we have said before, so I now say again, if anyone is preaching to you a gospel different from that which you received [from us], let him be accursed (anathema, devoted, doomed to destruction, and condemned to eternal punishment)!

Galatians 1: 6-9

Here are a few modern day Old Covenant “rites” that false teachers are telling the church we need to abide by as New Covenant Christians. Instead of requiring circumcision, they are requiring other Old Covenant ordinances. These are the things that the gospel of Jesus Christ is not:

1. Emphasis on and loyalty to a building(temple) rather than the Body of Christ (universal and local)

2. Loyalty to a pastor/ priest/ pope or denomination

3. Tithing as a requirement

4. Observing a particular Sabbath Day

5. Need for a pastor/ priest as mediator and a covering between you and Christ. His word is equivalent to God’s and should be followed.

6. Adhering to a church leader’s rules/ ordinances (mostly unspoken but understood) as practice and as if this defines your spirituality and mark of a true disciple (Mark 23: 13-15)

Explanations:

1. We are the temple of the Holy Spirit under the new covenant. The temple was destroyed in 70 A.D. as Jesus prophesied.(See Acts 17: 22-27 1 Cor 6: 15)

2. Our loyalty and allegiance has shifted from all Old covenant laws, rights and traditions to the person of the Lord Jesus Christ, and His pre-eminence, Who fulfilled all the law and the prophets (Colossians 1: 12-20 & Matthew 5:17). Men who have their head covered by another man/ law are under the law not walking in the Spirit (1 Cor 11: 7). 

3. We are to give generously as we are able, and as we purpose in our hearts. Tithing was an agricultural requirement of priests under the old covenant. Jesus never taught his disciples to tithe. Neither did any of the apostles require or teach tithing in the New Testament church. (2 Cor 9: 6-11)

4. Under the New Covenant, Jesus is the Lord of the Sabbath. Every day is a Sabbath unto the Lord. We have ceased from our own works and have entered into the rest of God. See Hebrews 4 & Colossians 2: 8-19

5. Under the New Covenant, there is no need for a priest. Jesus has become the mediator between God and man. He has provided ministry gifts in leadership, but they are secondary to the Headship and Lordship of Christ in the individual believer and corporate body of Christ.

6. The only four Old Covenant ordinances that have carried over to the new covenant are as follows: (See Acts 15:29 & Acts 21: 25)

“But as for the Gentiles who have believed, we have sent a letter with our judgment that they should abstain from what has been 1. sacrificed to idols, and from 2. blood, and from 3. what has been strangled, and from 4. sexual immorality.”

He whom the Son has set free from the law and death is free indeed. Don’t be brought under bondage again by wolves in sheep’s clothing.

“For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death.” Romans 8: 2