Is the Mormon Jesus, the Jesus of the Bible? The Moslem Jesus? The Roman Catholic Jesus? The Jewish Jesus? The Charismatic Jesus? Is the evangelical Jesus the biblical one?
There is only one Jesus, the One in scripture. However, the Apostle Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 11:4,
For if he that cometh preacheth another Jesus, whom we have not preached, or if ye receive another spirit, which ye have not received, or another gospel, which ye have not accepted, ye might well bear with him.
Someone may preach “another Jesus,” just like there are other “gods,” according Exodus 20:3, “Thou shalt have no other gods before me.” John writes in 1 John 2:18,
Little children, it is the last time: and as ye have heard that antichrist shall come, even now are there many antichrists; whereby we know that it is the last time.
Antichrists will exist, even as they have through history since actual Jesus Christ. The doctrine of Christ relates to knowing and believing the right Jesus unto which John again writes in 2 John 1:9,
Whosoever transgresseth, and abideth not in the doctrine of Christ, hath not God. He that abideth in the doctrine of Christ, he hath both the Father and the Son.
Just because other Christs were invented in previous ages and in different occasions of time doesn’t mean that more of them will not still come. The false Christ relates to the imagination unto which Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 10:3-5,
3 For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh: 4 (For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds;) 5 Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ.
Someone can have a false Christ crafted in his own imagination. A common apostasy is the creation of an idol. The idol doesn’t need to be a physical one, but also can be a spiritual one in someone’s mind. He invents a Christ in his mind and that Christ conforms to himself, just as communicated in the warning of Romans 1:21-23:
Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools, And changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man.
What are the characteristics of man to which he would turn his god or his Jesus? He would turn God or Jesus into the image of his own lust. He would create a Jesus, who not only tolerates his lust, but accepts false worship characterized by lust, which is against the nature of God or the Lord Jesus Christ. This is “another Christ.”
The perversion of Jesus into another Jesus either adds or takes away from the true Jesus. One commonality of a false Jesus is He might not completely save or cannot do so, requiring then good works to save in addition to what he has done. Many Christian denominations or religions do this. Peter, John, and Paul all three in their epistles deal with what I’m addressing here. John has much in his three epistles and in every chapter.
Just as an example, in 1 John 2:9, John writes:
He that saith he is in the light, and hateth his brother, is in darkness even until now.
The person John describes is either deceptive or deceived. He says he’s in the light. He either knows he’s not or he thinks he is and he doesn’t know that he isn’t. Two verses later (v. 11), John says this person is deceived:
But he that hateth his brother is in darkness, and walketh in darkness, and knoweth not whither he goeth, because that darkness hath blinded his eyes.
This person doesn’t even know that he isn’t walking in the light, because darkness has blinded his eyes. He thinks he’s right and he’s not. Many professing Christians think they are right for various reasons. What I’ve noticed in many of the instances is that they compare themselves with other professing Christians. They must be right, because they know other people who are like them or worse.
Is this above described hate just something arbitrary or ambiguous, just a feeling or impression? Does he detest this person? It’s not like that in verse 10:
He that loveth his brother abideth in the light, and there is none occasion of stumbling in him.
John brings two characteristics. The one who loves his brother abides in the light, that is, he abides in doctrinal and practical light. He is believing and practicing according to scripture. Second, he brings no occasion of stumbling. He doesn’t want to cause a brother to stumble. How does someone cause someone else to stumble? This is not a synonym of not walking in the light. Someone can cause someone to stumble, according to the Apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians 8, by abusing a Christian liberty. Paul said that eating meat offered unto idols caused someone to stumble. Jesus mentions this same cause of stumbling twice in Revelation 2-3 and forbids it both times.
If someone dishonors and disobeys his parents, he is not walking in the light. By dishonoring and disobeying his parents, he could also be causing someone to stumble. Those two can overlap. Paul says that someone hates his brother by not walking in the light and then by causing someone to stumble. This is how someone hates someone.
John says much more in his epistle, but many people are deceived into thinking that have a true Jesus when they don’t. Their Jesus approves of those who don’t walk in the light and those who also cause others to stumble. Jesus is the light of the world. We walk in the light as Jesus is in the light. God is light and in Him is no darkness at all.
I see perpetual disobedience to the Word of Christ, to scripture, by professing Christians, and yet they think they are walking in the light. They are walking in darkness. This is why they have no problem with sensual, worldly, and fleshly worship. It’s not even that their Jesus accepts it. They aren’t thinking about whether He receives it, because they are thinking about what it does for themselves. They are shaping their music according to their own lust, and they think it’s good because they like it. Those singing it look and act like secular performers and their style is one that conforms to the world. This is unacceptable to the Lord (Romans 12:1-2).
If a professing Christian as a practice engages in false worship, is that walking in the light? Is that loving a brother? Is that causing others to stumble?
The only thing worse than a false Jesus to those with a false Jesus is pointing out their false Jesus. They love the Jesus they can conform to themselves, not the one in the Bible.
What I'm writing is that some reading here have a different Jesus. They might have a wonderful statement, absent all the necessary content to be actual Jesus, about their Jesus, which is confusing. Jesus does not accept lust. He doesn't accept this jam sessions from worldly people with sensuality with "Christian words," almost always superficial, self-serving words. They talk about "Jesus," without the person actually receiving true Jesus. This is where the most effective deceit is occurring today with professing Christians. They are saying, Lord, Lord, and Jesus is saying, Depart from me, I never knew you. That is a crucial moment that I want to avoid with this kind of piece.
Pastor Bradenburg,
(Part 1)
Thank you for writing this. It is extremely important, and the dangers you outline are far more common than I fear many would want to admit.
Hopefully it goes without saying amongst professing Christians that the Mormon Jesus, the Jehovah’s Witness Jesus, the Moslem Jesus, and the Jesus of a host of other false cults and religions is a false Jesus. Not all professing Christians would say that the Roman Catholic Jesus is a different, or false Jesus, although he most certainly is.
But what concerns me most as a missionary, and to which you alluded to, is the multitudes of professing Christians within the Evangelical/Fundamentalist movements who are probably worshipping a false Jesus.
Personally, I believe the root cause of this is un-biblical evangelism. The Gospel has been watered down so much by those who ought to know better, and masses of people are accepting and receiving “a Jesus” who is not the Jesus of the Bible. This un-biblical evangelism that leads to a false Jesus says that repentance is only changing the mind from unbelief to belief; that one only has to accept Jesus as Saviour, with little to nothing said about his Lordship; and that Jesus’ terms of discipleship are only to be addressed to those who have already believed and are born-again.
Because of that, everything else is symptomatic.
*People want the worldly music that appeals to the flesh because they have been offered a Jesus who is OK with it. If they had been presented, and received the Real Jesus of the Bible, God’s Spirit would have taught them from the onset that that music is not of God.
And it’s not just the music, but many other forms of ungodly entertainment that most professing Christians think is perfectly OK, because the Jesus that has been proclaimed to them is one who winks at the world.
Jason
(Part 2)
So in essence, what I am saying is that unbiblical methods of evangelism have encouraged people to receive a false Jesus who is not the Jesus of the Bible, and as a result, multitudes of people “profess that they know God, but in works (how they live their lives) they deny him, being abominable, disobedient, and unto every good work reprobate” (Titus 1:16).
I have often said that I believe we are beating a dead horse by continually trying to reprove and rebuke professing Christians for their love and lust for the things of the world, which they clearly have no interest in forsaking; music perhaps being the main thing that you addressed. Maybe if we just presented Jesus Christ for who he truly is, and we told people, as Christ told people, to receive him for who he is as presented in Scripture, in all of his offices, then we would not have as many false professions of faith, because people would understand at the onset what the Jesus of the Bible is really all about, and what kind of worship he receives, and what kind he rejects. (Obviously I am not saying that we don’t need to be preaching to believers about the sins of the flesh, only that it is too often profitless when we insist on treating so many people as saved who more than likely have never been born-again because of a false view that they have of Jesus.)
So yes, we still live in a body of sinful flesh, and sanctification is a process, but I am not seeing a whole lot of sanctification taking place in the lives of professing Christians within the New Evangelical, Emerging church, Charismatic, fundamental, and even Independent Baptist movements. The worldliness is rampant, but where is the hunger and passion for the things of God (Matthew 5:6; 6:33); where is the desire to be holy as God is holy (I Peter 1:15-16); and where is the pilgrim spirit and mentality that is supposed to characterize God’s children (I Peter 2:11)?
The question that you posed in the title of your article was: “How far does someone need to be “Off” about Jesus for him not to be Jesus anymore? Well, according to what I read in Scripture, if you are “Off” at all, meaning that you openly reject certain things that Jesus taught or claimed about himself, then you have a false Jesus. I thought that is what believing on Jesus was all about: we receive him completely for who he truly is, and likewise all he taught. Picking and choosing leads to the reception of a false Jesus. Jesus himself said in (Matthew 12:30) – “He that is not with me is against me;”
Jason
Jason,
I agree with you. I think the gospel issue is the issue. In a sense, I believe I am writing to two people:
1) The person who thinks he's saved, but isn't, hopefully getting the attention, because he's sold himself on this false gospel you talk about. Jesus was doing this on the Sermon on the Mount, because He was the King, but they were looking for a different one.
2) Those who might be saved, but are being lax with this, so that they know what their laxness is doing. It is a gospel issue.
Thanks.
Hi Kent. Thank you for this. Eternal life is to know the true Jesus Christ (John 17:3), and to have the true Son of God (1 John 5:12).
John Newton wrote an excellent hymn based on that most critical question: "What think ye of Christ?" Sadly it is not included in modern hymnals. The fourth stanza deals with the false Christ of the antinomians.
What think ye of Christ? is the test
To try both your state and your scheme;
You cannot be right in the rest,
Unless you think rightly of him;
As Jesus appears in your view,
As he is beloved or not,
So God is disposed to you,
And mercy or wrath is your lot.
Some take him a creature to be,
A man, or an angel at most:
Sure these have not feelings like me,
Nor know themselves wretched and lost;
So guilty, so helpless am I,
I durst not confide in his blood;
Nor on his protection rely,
Unless I were sure he is God.
Some call him a Saviour in word,
But mix their own works with their plan;
And hope he his help will afford,
When they have done all that they can;
If sayings prove rather too light,
(A little they own they may fail)
They purpose to make up full weight,
By casting his name in the scale.
Some style him the pearl of great price,
And say he's the fountain of joys,
Yet feed upon folly and vice,
And cleave to the world and its toys;
Like Judas, the Saviour they kiss,
And while they salute him, betray;
Ah! what will professions like this
Avail in his terrible day?
If ask'd what of Jesus I think,
Although my best thoughts are but poor,
I say he's my meat and my drink,
My life, and my strength, and my store;
My shepherd, my husband, my friend,
My Saviour from sin, and from thrall;
My hope from beginning to end,
My portion, my Lord, and my all.
Brendon,
Thanks for the comment and the hymn. I appreciate it.