Tidings for Tuesday
I marvel that ye are so soon removed from Him that called you into the grace of Christ unto another Gospel. Galatians 1:6
A man named Frederick Franz is apparently the only member of the so-called translation team for the New World Translation who actually had any working knowledge of Greek or Hebrew; the other members of the team had no more knowledge of those Biblical languages than you or I do. Even Mr. Franz was hardly what one could call an expert. And yet these men produced a so-called bible that is riddled with distortions of the truth, as they sought to pervert the fundamental doctrine of Jesus Christ as eternally one of the three Persons of the trinity. They sought to produce another gospel, one that did not include the grace of Christ. As Paul points out in today’s text, the grace of Christ is the essence of the Gospel. Anything else, as the next voice declares, is not the Gospel.
It is true that the New World Translation is not the first attempt to pervert the Gospel, nor will it be the last. But as the next verse points out, all who do so are under a special curse from God. They have twisted the truth into damnable heresies. But why do such evil men seek to do so? Because they are the pawns of Satan, who hates to have us come to the truth. As Christians, it is imperative that we recognize the distortions of those who pervert the Gospel, and have nothing to do with them. This is why we reject false translations of Scripture. This is why we have no traffic with those who deny the Gospel or who add to or take away from it. This includes not only the blatant liars of the cults but also the peddlars of the easy-belivism gospel that is prevalent in what used to be evangelical circles of denominationalism. Anything that is not founded on the grace of Christ is not the Gospel.
Many of those who preach another gospel seek to minimize the differences between themselves and true Christianity. Even the moslems profess to believe in the one true God, as we do. But even a casual study of their doctrine reveals a god who bears no resemblance to the God of the Bible, and who in fact is Satan. The true Gospel is based on grace. That means nothing of ourselves in terms of our relationship with God. The grace of Christ permits no religion. It permits no works or ordinance to cleanse sin or satisfy God’s claims against us.
Do we tolerate or accommodate those who hold to and preach another Gospel. Let us be careful that the grace of Christ is not only the centrepiece but also the totality of our Gospel. -Jim MacIntosh