The Validity of the Message

Galatians 1:6-12 6I marvel that you are turning away so soon from Him who called you in the grace of Christ, to a different gospel, 7which is not another; but there are some who trouble you and want to pervert the gospel of Christ. 8But even if we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel to you than what we have preached to you, let him be accursed. 9As we have said before, so now I say again, if anyone preaches any other gospel to you than what you have received, let him be accursed. 10For do I now persuade men, or God? Or do I seek to please men? For if I still pleased men, I would not be a bondservant of Christ. 11But I make known to you, brethren, that the gospel which was preached by me is not according to man. 12For I neither received it from man, nor was I taught it, but it came through the revelation of Jesus Christ.

Paul founded the Galatian churches about A.D. 45-48 and revisited them during his second and third missionary trips, during his time with them he preached the gospel of salvation through faith in Jesus Christ. Meanwhile, in his absence Judaizers crept into the church and began to undermine the gospel of grace by claiming that in order for gentiles to become Christians they must first convert to Judaism, be circumcised and keep the Jewish law. Given the strong wording Paul uses and his amazement at their quick turning from the truth we can easily deduce that the Galatians bought into the Judaizers false teaching hook, line and sinker. Paul states it twice that if anyone preaches any other gospel to you than what we have preached let him be accursed, he goes on to say that he is not trying to win the approval of those who might take offense to such strong words, he is only concerned with doing the will of God. So, what is the will of God? Simply that none should perish but that all should come to repentance, so a double curse upon those who teach a false gospel is well in order since those folks who are led astray may never come to true faith in Christ Jesus.

Now, in verses 11 and 12 Paul once again reaffirms the origin of the gospel that he preaches because the Judaizers were claiming that Paul was not a true apostle, thereby undermining the validity of the message. Once the validity of the message could be questioned and doubt could be established it seems it was easy for the Galatians to be led astray to false doctrine. But how?

Suppose for a minute that an individual was taught by his mom and dad that cows were black and white or brown but he had never actually seen a cow so he had nothing concrete to solidify his belief in the color of cows. Now, suppose someone were to come along and tell him that cows were green and red, he might not believe it at first, but… suppose several others came along and said the same thing over and over, he might eventually begin to believe that cows were actually red and green and as this false belief slowly replaced the truth he might someday tell others that cows are red and green too. Friends what just took place? Our subject was brain washed. Unfortunately we are not talking about being brainwashed into believing that cows are green and red, rather, we are talking about folks being brainwashed into believing that the word of God is incomplete, inaccurate or irrelative to society. Today, there is a growing populous that no longer believes that the bible is inerrant, infallible or complete and some churches and denominations are capitalizing on this belief, striking verses and entire chapters from the word of God so that they might ordain homosexuals, have affairs, have multiple wives or whatever else they might desire to indulge in. So….While we’re at it, since the bible is believed to be incomplete let’s throw in a bit of the best of mans wisdom and mix it with some Greek mythology or Hindu deities and while we’re at it let’s just pray to allah, after all we worship the same God, right! Friend, if you believe any of that nonsense you have been brainwashed. Looking back to Galatians, the Judaizers told the Galatian Christians that the cows were red and green, long enough and often enough that they bought the farm.