Flee Heresy!
Flee Heresy Whatever You Do! | Galatians 1:6-9: “I marvel that ye are so soon removed from him that called you into the grace of Christ unto another gospel: Which is not another; but there be some that trouble you, and would pervert the gospel of Christ. But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed. As we said before, so say I now again, If any man preach any other gospel unto you than that ye have received, let him be accursed.”
Paul is here attempting to deal with the Galatians in reproof for their instability of the Gospel teachings. This is important to understand these truths, for being well established in the Gospel brings great blessing, but those who teach a false gospel bring curses upon themselves. Think about this right now carefully… If you teach about the efficacious Gospel of Jesus Christ, you are going to be ministering about the marvelous grace that He bestows on each of us that allows us utter enjoyment already: justification, sanctification, peace, pardon, atonement, wisdom, joy, love, strength, comfort, and did we mention grace? Why would somebody want anything more than the marvelous riches from Jesus Christ? Those truly called by grace would not end up in perversion of heretics and false gospel preachers.
There are heretics and false teachers that seek to pervert the Gospel of Jesus Christ by distributing their own ideas about Christ Jesus, such as the following “gospels”: prosperity, new age, permissive grace, social justice, sexual preference, interfaith dialogue, suffer for success, poverty gospel, God is love only, therapeutic, formalist, moralist, socialist, communist, activist, churchless, judgmentless, mimeses, social-club, fraternity/sorority, mystic, quietist, and cults (such as Seventh Day Adventist, Jehovah’s Witness, Mormon, Roman & Russian Catholicism). Keep in mind these are all false gospels, as we think in the Church today, since those movements typify what the Bible says about discerning false doctrine, false gospels, false teachers, false prophets, etc. The movement of these things outside of the church that does not involve the church at all is a separate matter (such as fraternity and sorority, or activism can be a different matter).
The following Bible versions are not recommended: The Message Bible, New World Translation, New Living Translation, New Century Version, Good News Bible, God’s Word Translation, Contemporary English Version, etc. There are however, other trusted Bible versions.
If you are looking for a trusted Bible version, please feel free to choose The King James Bible, The Geneva Bible, Young’s Literal Translation, The Bishop’s Bible, Webster’s Bible, and KJV 2016 (New Testament only). For any other Bible version that has not been listed, either unrecommended or trusted, is okay to use, but use it as a secondary reference. It is recommended to use a trusted Bible as the first point of reference, and use a different translation as a secondary reference, which may help you define the verse a bit better.
Such false teachers and false Bibles, and other heretics would be a very large list that is quite exhaustive. While not necessary to list them here, it is necessary for you to be careful as a believer, especially as you instruct your fellow brethren.
Those who preach unbiblical things are cursed because of their heresy, which means they are to be excommunicated from the Church itself. The message of Jesus Christ is to be Salvation for the nations. We must not let false teachers and heretics in, but we must be aware that they are around to try to reel people in to their influence to siphon life, money, or time from good spiritual people.
In 1:8 above, accursed refers to the Greek word “anathema”, which involved a temple dedication ceremony involving a vow to a god, usually a false or heretical doctrine is used as tribute, such as a monetary gain. Eternal curse awaits those who do such things (who are not truly saved by Jesus Christ). Those who are truly saved may expect to receive some form of discipline from God, because those who are teachers are held strictly under God’s Dominion. If you are unaware of the scrutiny that could come resulting from your lack of attention to detail in your teaching or preaching the Gospel, you should avoid teaching and preaching (James 3:1).
