not a gospel at all

I'm having a lot of trouble honing down my sermon this week. I think so far I've chopped it down to about 220 minutes. The first chapter in Galatians reminds me of Chinese noodles. The more I dig into it the bigger it gets- just when I think I might have made a dent, I look at my plate and more noodles are falling off the side.

It's in this chapter that Paul teaches the Galatians that if someone teaches another gospel other than the one they have been taught, then that person who teaches it should be eternally condemned. Which is a nice way of saying something else that no Bible translator would actually want to say.

Paul wasn't much on mincing words.

One of the things that cracks me up about the structure of the introduction in this letter, is that Paul goes right from a salutation to this:

"I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting the one who called you by the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel."

No "How ya doin?" or "I am thankful for you Galatians" or "I thank God every time I think of you..." No"Tell brother so and so or sister so and so I said 'Hi'".

None of that. Just, "you guys are killing me!"

In every other letter he wrote in the New Testament, Paul spends time buttering up the recipient before he plunges into the real subject. But not for these Galatians.

He gets right to the point. It is kind of our equivalent of,

Dear Galatians,

I can't believe you are so clueless!

So... what is it that Paul is so upset about? He is upset that they have so quickly been hooked into something that is so obviously NOT the gospel. He is upset that after they have been so clearly and forcefully taught the truth of the gospel- that Christ has come to them and rescued them by His grace according to the will of the Father. He just can't believe that they have so quickly latched on to something that is so obviously a perversion of the gospel. He just can't believe how easy it is for people to buy into something that is so clearly not the gospel at all.

And that is the problem that I am having in honing down this Bible study. The problem is not that we don't have enough application here in American Christianity, the problem is that we have so much.

Let me give you two quick examples (and these were just the first two that came into mind):

Example 1: What if I told you that a very popular and influential celebrity in America today was encouraging people to do a daily devotional with her that includes some of the following teaching:

"There is no sin. . . "
A "slain Christ has no meaning."
"The journey to the cross should be the last 'useless journey."
"Do not make the pathetic error of 'clinging to the old rugged cross."
"The Name of Jesus Christ as such is but a symbol. . . . It is a symbol that is safely used as a replacement for the many names of all the gods to which you pray."
"God is in everything I see."
"The recognition of God is the recognition of yourself."
"The oneness of the Creator and the creation is your wholeness, your sanity and your limitless power."
"The Atonement is the final lesson he [man] need learn, for it teaches him that, never having sinned, he has no need of salvation."

I am sure you would be surprised by this - and would probably think that such a person must be a nut-case and not have much influence. What if I told you that this person calls herself a Christian and has the largest television audience BY FAR in America among women and has endlessly more influence than any pastor- her name is Oprah Winfrey and the book she is promoting is “A Course in Miracles” written by Helen Schucman. She likes it so much she is encouraging people to do the devotions with her each day for 365 lessons in 2008.

Example 2: What if I told you that the pastor of the largest evangelical church in America and one of the most popular television evangelists in the world recently said this about Mormonism to Chris Wallace on Fox News Sunday:

Chris Wallace: Is a Mormon a true Christian?

Joel Olsteen: Well, in my mind they are. Mitt Romney has said that he believes in Christ as his savior, and that's what I believe, so, you know, I'm not the one to judge the little details of it. So I believe they are.

In case you are wondering- Mormonism teaches that God is only one of many gods and that Jesus is NOT God, but a manifestation of God and salvation does not come through the substitutionary sacrificial work of the cross but by following the teaching of the book of Mormon.

These are only two of the most obvious examples.

If the Apostle Paul was astonished by the Galatians- imagine what kind of surprise he might have with American Christianity.

Do you see my problem? I haven't even gotten out of the first half of his first sentence yet- and the plate just keeps getting bigger.