Have you ever scrolled through a Christian community on facebook, casually reading the posts, and using them as an indicator to assess the health of the Church? It’s a different tension than talking to someone at your local congregation, for on social media they lack conversational inhibitions and simply present tidbits of their theological makeup. It’s like reading someone's spiritual diary, in that you learn a lot about their foundation or lack thereof.
What’s troubling is that many of the posts that garner the most unanimous applause are also the ones that are the most antithetical to Christianity. They present an alternative god to the Lord as revealed in Scripture, and they present a false Gospel. Sure, they may have truth sprinkled in their cocktail, but striking error poisons the drink.
Allow me to present one such post. I will not show the poster's name, or the community. What I want you to do is read it with this thought in mind, "Is this a good post reflective of my beliefs?", "Would I thumbs up it?", or "Do I agree with it?”
Here it is:
"No matter how you feel today, my brothers and sisters, don’t worry, you are loved. Your feelings may tell you otherwise, but God loves you with His unconditional love, just the way you are, everyday of your life. He never changes, He never leaves you. Never. Receive His love today and let it change your life. I pray you do. - Hebrews 13:5 Psalm 136:1"
There is a lot of truth here, but the truth it speaks of isn't what concerns me, it's the error sandwiched amidst it. There is a permissive heresy that has entered the Church and is spreading like cancer, and I see it in this post. A false Gospel is being preached on many pulpits, and we can see how widespread a problem this is by the number of times it rears its ugly head in these communities. And worse, it is applauded as admirable.
This post is an offence to God almighty. Let us zoom in on the problematic teaching:
God loves you with His unconditional love, just the way you are, everyday of your life.
This is unbiblical. God does not love you unconditionally. He has conditions. Repentance is necessary unto salvation. If you refuse to repent of your sin you are damned and will burn in hell. This is a major component of the Gospel, and without it, you are left with an alternative gospel that leads to death. Satan is the father of lies and the progenitor of false gospels.
What is the consequence of this teaching? It teaches that a pedophile doesn't have to stop being a pedophile. A sodomist doesn't have to stop sodomizing. An adulterer doesn't have to give up his mistress. A serial killer doesn't have to stop killing. Why do you have to stop? God loves you unconditionally, even if you don't stop.
No. He doesn't. If He did, there would have never been a
flood. There are consequences to willful disobedience: dire consequences. Consequences
that cast another dispersion on something stated in the end of that post:
He never leaves you. Never.
"Hell" is God leaving you. It is spiritual death: separation from God. So don't be a fool. REPENT. And don’t give heresy a thumbs up.
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