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Transcript 343B — What is the True Gospel?
HC: Good evening. Welcome to Open Forum.
CALLER: With all the religions and doctrines there are in this world today what do you think is the true Gospel?
HC: The question that is raised is, what is the true Gospel? The Bible indicates that it alone and in its entirety is the divine Word of God. This is particularly underlined in Revelation 22:18 and 19. There God declares that if anyone adds to the words of this book, He will add to him the plagues written herein. Or if anyone takes away from the words of this book, He will take away from him his share in the Tree of Life.
Effectively God is saying there that the Bible alone and in its entirety is the divine Word. It is the Gospel. It is the articulated message of salvation that God wants mankind to hear. Now when we examine any sect or cult or gospel or religion, we can examine it in the light of this information.
There are two kinds that we're going to find. There are many that say, "Yes, the Bible is the Word of God, and we're ready to be obedient to it. But we also believe that there are other sources of divine truth. There is another book here that we look upon as being inspired. There is the possibility that God is still speaking today in revelations, or visions," or whatever. "This too is a source of divine truth." Therefore, that particular gospel, or religion, or whatever, regardless of how it may use the language of the Bible, or speak confidently of salvation, by definition is not the Gospel of the Bible. It has an authority that is more than the Bible, because the Bible is their authority, and also other utterances, that come by visions, or in other books, or from the church, or whatever have authority. It therefore is not the true Gospel.
By the same token, there are those groups that say, "Yes, we believe the Bible is the Word of God. It is our authority." But in practice they deny that certain parts of the Bible are relevant for them today. There are churches, for example, who deny the historicity of the first 11 chapters of Genesis. They look upon this simply as some kind of a parabolic statement, without any substance in history. That then becomes another gospel, because they are denying that Genesis is what it really is.
There are those who deny that the Old Testament has any relevance at all. They say it's for the Jews, it's not for us today. Then you begin to walk in the direction of another gospel.
There are those who pick and choose from the Bible. They read certain verses that seem to teach that the Holy Spirit is not a person at all, but only a force or an energy of some kind. And they simply set aside and disregard those verses that specifically address themselves to the question that the Holy Spirit is indeed a person, a person of the Godhead. And by this denial of these passages we begin to see another gospel rather than the true Gospel.
The easiest way to evaluate any gospel at all is by seeing what they do with the Bible. If they do not accept the Bible alone and in its entirety as the divine Word, then by definition you have another gospel. And when you continue to search out the doctrines that are going to be forthcoming from this other gospel, you'll find that more and more of their teachings deviate from what the Bible really teaches.