FAULTY DESIGN
Jesus gave his life for our sins, just as God our Father planned, in order to rescue us from this evil world in which we live. I am shocked that you are turning away so soon from God, who called you to himself through the loving mercy of Christ. You are following a different way that pretends to be the Good News but is not the Good News at all. You are being fooled by those who deliberately twist the truth concerning Christ. Let God’s curse fall on anyone, including us or even an angel from heaven, who preaches a different kind of Good News than the one we preached to you. I say again what we have said before: If anyone preaches any other Good News than the one you welcomed, let that person be cursed. —Galatians 1:4, 6-9
“WASHINGTON — Safety investigators on Thursday singled out undersized steel plates as the chief cause of last year’s deadly collapse of a highway bridge in Minneapolis.” http://www.seattletimes.com/nation-world/minneapolis-bridge-collapse-blamed-on-faulty-materials/ With improper materials and implementation destruction occurs.
So it is with the Good News of the Gospel. The above verse in context clearly states that “Jesus gave his life for our sins, just as God our Father planned, in order to rescue us from this evil world in which we live.” The rescue of us from this evil world comes from Jesus giving His life for our sins on the cross. This engineered plan of God does not include Jesus dying on the cross for our sins plus something else. Nothing else is to be added to the Good News or it becomes faulty and is no longer Good News, but will bring destruction- a structural failure!
Paul tells us in the context that if anyone, even one of the apostles or an angel comes along preaching a different Good News than the one he had preached to them then that person would be cursed forever! All Good News messages other than the original are faulty and not adhering to God’s Word. Just as those who built the bridge above did not adhere to engineering guidelines— “Investigators said the half-inch-thick plates were inadequate to handle traffic and other stress factors and did not meet engineering guidelines when the bridge was built in 1967. The safety board, as far back as January, had identified design flaws in the plates as a critical factor in the collapse.”— So a faulty Gospel portrays a false Good News that is actually bad news that will bring eternal destruction to the one intentionally changing the message of the Good News and will cause the eternal destruction of others as well.
Who are some of these that bring a false Good News? Jehovah Witnesses, Mormons, Christian Science, Baha’i, Unitarian Universalism and the list goes on which would include any of the world religions such as Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism etc. All these seek to put forth a Good News that is contrary to the Good News that Paul is speaking about— that “I passed on to you what was most important and what had also been passed on to me. Christ died for our sins, just as the Scriptures said. He was buried, and he was raised from the dead on the third day, just as the Scriptures said. He was seen by Peter and then by the Twelve. After that, he was seen by more than 500 of his follower at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have died. Then he was seen by James and later by all the apostles. Last of all, as though I had been born at the wrong time, I also saw him. For I am the least of all the apostles. In fact, I’m not even worthy to be called an apostle after the way I persecuted God’s church” (I Corinthians 15:3-9). Any message that adds to or takes away from this Good News is false.
Dear Father, help me to hold to and proclaim the Good News about Jesus’ rescue of us!