The word “gospel” bombards the American churchgoing public from every quarter. Yet there appears to be very little analysis of what the Bible means by the Gospel. There is no more important and urgent matter demanding our attention than this: to discover what Jesus and the Apostles taught as the Gospel. Believing the Gospel is everywhere in the New Testament directly connected to salvation. Salvation means gaining immortality in the future resurrection and helping to supervise a new world order, with the returned Messiah as its governor.
There are cosmic forces at work attempting to prevent us from understanding the vital message of salvation. In Luke 8:12 Jesus brilliantly describes what happens when some hear the biblical Gospel. The Messiah’s intelligence report lifts the lid on Satan’s counter-Gospel activity: “Then the Devil comes and snatches away the message [the Gospel of the Kingdom, Matt. 13:19] which was sown in their hearts, so that they may not believe it [the Gospel] and be saved.”
Another devastatingly destructive system, known as ultra-dispensationalism, boldly proclaims that the Gospel of the Kingdom is not for us today at all! It claims, contrary to the plainest biblical evidence, that Paul introduced another and different Gospel for us now: the Gospel of grace. Paul however makes the Gospel of the Kingdom identical with the Gospel of grace. For this fact, simply read Acts 20:24, 25. Paul here summarizes with crystal clarity his whole Gospel-preaching career. It was to proclaim the Gospel of the grace of God which in the next breath he says is the preaching of the Kingdom!
Salvation, we learn, is gained by believing and obeying the Gospel message. The linkage of the Gospel of the Kingdom (Matt. 13:19) and salvation is obvious. Satan aims to obstruct belief in that Gospel. One strategy open to him is to remove the Gospel from the heart of the potential believer. Another clever way of achieving his goal is by distorting the message.
Paul warned his Corinthian converts that it is all too easy to believe in a pseudo-Jesus, a counterfeit spirit, and a fake Gospel: “If he who comes preaches another Jesus, whom we have not preached, or if you receive another spirit, which you have not received, or a different gospel, which you did not receive, you bear this beautifully!” (2 Cor. 11:4).
Christians are to be alert and instructed. If they are not, they will fall for “other gospels” and “other Jesuses.” There are lots around and they can be very appealing.
“Another Jesus. Another spirit. A different gospel.” Paul here “blows the whistle” on the Satanic methods. He unmasks the Devil’s subtle tactics. Satan’s seductive plan is to “preach Jesus, Spirit and Gospel,” using these New Testament terms as a camouflage for his own twisted message. Satan’s Gospel will sound biblical enough. The name “Jesus” will be prominent in the message. Yet in a subtle way this pseudo-gospel will divert its well-meaning recipients from the real message of the real Jesus.
According to another translation of 2 Corinthians 11:4, Satan offers “another way to be saved.” Observe that Satan’s business is “salvation.” But it is “salvation” on his terms. The reason why the yet inexperienced Corinthians were, as Paul said, “putting up with the pseudo-gospel beautifully” was that they could not see the difference between the true and the false versions of the Gospel.
In these immensely instructive verses Paul exposed Satan’s deceptive techniques. Paul was giving his own commentary on the warning words of Jesus in Luke 8:12. Satan’s business is to get rid of the saving Gospel as Jesus preached it.
Paul went on to say that Satan “dresses himself up” as an angel of light (implying that he is actually an angel of darkness), and that he works through his ministers, who also appear to be ministers of light, to mislead the unwary: “And no wonder, for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light. Therefore it is not surprising if his servants also disguise themselves as servants of righteousness” (2 Cor. 11:14, 15).
Nothing alarmed or angered Paul more than the preaching of a distorted Gospel — and with good reason. For a message of salvation which is untrue to the teaching of Jesus and the Apostles inevitably lulls its recipients into a false sense of security. They will think they have “received Jesus,” but the Jesus presented to them will be a cunningly devised misrepresentation of the real Jesus who alone can save. When Paul found Satan at work among young believers whom he had reached with the true message, he rushed to their rescue:
“I am amazed that you are so quickly deserting Him who called you by the grace of Christ, for a different gospel; which is really not another; only there are some who are disturbing you and want to distort the Gospel of Christ. But even though we, or an angel from heaven [suggestive of the ‘angel of light’ of 2 Cor. 11:14] should preach to you a gospel other than the one which we preached to you, let him be accursed” (Gal. 1:6-8).
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