The Social Gospel Exposed / The Prosperity Gospel Debunked

Thank you for listening to this message from the ministry of Morse Corner Church in Leverett, Massachusetts. Morse Corner is a non-denominational church that is committed to the preaching and teaching of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Our church was founded in 1896 by two students of the famous evangelist D .L. Moody. We seek to encourage and edify the body of Christ through the proclamation of God's word through the ministries of the local church.

The Prosperity Gospel and the Social Gospel as False Gospels

If you'd like more information, visit our website morsecornerchurch .com. We hope you enjoy the message. Alright, so let's talk about some false gospels. What's the false gospel that was being spread in the churches in Galatia?

Salvation by faith plus the works of the law. Faith plus circumcision. That's not really a big problem today. But there are other false gospels. So what are they? And I like to say, you know, you need to take the Bible and apply it to the modern day.

We should know about what happened 2 ,000 years ago. But what does this mean for us right now? We need to be on guard. We need to know. So what are some false gospels? Some of you know. Probably a few of what I'm going to talk about.

The Prosperity Gospel and Its Appeal to the Flesh

Number one, there is the notorious prosperity gospel which really took hold 20 years ago, 30 years ago, whenever it was. This is the idea that Jesus came to earth to make you healthy and wealthy. Now that's a popular message because that's what everybody wants.

You could be the most lost, heathen in the world, the most wicked, but you still want to be healthy and wealthy. This is a message that appeals to the flesh. So it's no surprise that it was popular. So basically Jesus came to make you healthy and wealthy.

So if you just do the right things, God is going to give you all of this money. Which is what the televangelists were saying. Thankfully though, many people started to realize as time went on that the only people getting rich were the televangelists.

So thankfully this movement is falling out of favor or has fallen out of favor. But there's still millions and millions of people who are deceived by it. And we need to show grace to them. I'm not going to show any grace to Kenneth Copeland.

That man is a false teacher, an arch heretic at the highest level. But the people deceived by him, we need to be gracious. We need to try to reach them with the truth. So that's the prosperity gospel.

The Social Gospel and Social Justice

So while that is not as much of an issue, there is another false gospel that really is more likely to be something we would find a problem, especially going forward. So there's the prosperity gospel. Now there is a new movement, really a resurgency of what is known as the social gospel.

The social gospel has seen a resurgence through the last few years, especially with the social justice movement, which has been gaining steam. We all know that. Basically you say, well okay, what's the social gospel?

Well, it looks a lot like socialism. That's an easy way to remember it. So here's what's happening. Pastors say, how could this ever creep into a local church? Well, it's very simple. Pastors, they pick this stuff up in college.

You know, if they don't pick it up from their friends or TV, they certainly pick it up in college or maybe even in seminaries. And then they bring it into the local church, and then it kind of trickles down from there.

So somewhere along the line, many people, even in evangelicalism, have embraced this political movement that's going on today with big government and secular values. And what they're trying to do is they're trying to blend it together with Christianity.

And that comes out in the preaching. My friends, it doesn't work. You can't blend the two because one is completely secular. And whatever your thoughts are on policies of the government, that's the secular world.

You can't blend it together with the gospel of Jesus Christ, and yet many are doing that. Some have even said, and I've heard it with my own ears, that if you are not involved in quote unquote social justice, you don't have the full gospel.

So what is this? It's adding to the good news of Jesus Christ, trying to blend the secular with not even the religious, just the truth of the true gospel. Okay, so this is what's happening today. Even if they profess faith in the cross and the resurrection, even if you profess faith in Jesus, if you add to it, what happens?

That's something else. If you take away from it, that's not the true gospel. You can't add. You can't take away, even if the thing that you're adding is good. It still corrupts the message. I mean, obeying the law of Moses, at least the Ten Commandments, that's good, right?

But if I say you need to keep the Ten Commandments to be saved, that's bad because that's adding to the one true gospel of Christ. Everybody understand? Okay. So this idea of the social gospel, and I'm going to spend a little more time on this than I did the prosperity message because this is something that's all around us, really.

And this is the idea, prosperity gospel, Jesus came to make you healthy and wealthy. People look and I don't buy it because, well, we talked about that. This other idea is that Jesus came to improve society.

This is why Jesus came to reform society. Well, why did Jesus come? He came to save souls. He came to save from sin and its penalty, not to save society. Now, in fairness, if men and women get saved and the Holy Spirit changes their life, the more people saved, that will improve society.

Amen. And that's what we want. So that's good, but you can't mix the two. But it wasn't Jesus' message. That's not why he came to improve society. You cannot add it to the gospel. So they may have good slogans attached to some of the things that they're saying, but when you dig down underneath it, you find that it's totally and utterly corrupt.

Classic Liberal Theology and Denominational Drift

Basically, the social gospel is just another form of classic liberal theology, which Dr. R .C. Sproul, if you don't want to take my word for it, take Dr. Sproul's word for it. He said about classic liberal theology, he called it a wolf in sheep's clothing.

Because if one of their ministers came in here and started teaching, some of the things he would say would be good. I mean, it's good to help the poor. That's true. But it would cause division in the church because he's not really preaching the true gospel.

He's adding something to it. So what happens with this false gospel? Basically, the Christian message now becomes a message not of saving souls, not of turning away from sin. It's a message on how to improve society.

And in the process, the cross of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, takes a back seat. And then maybe in the next generation, it's abandoned completely. Pastor, I don't know. I shouldn't talk about this.

It has something to do with politics. Don't talk about it. Okay, and I could leave you vulnerable because some of you already know. But if there's someone in here who doesn't know, it's my job to warn about these things.

You think when Paul was warning the churches of Galatia about the circumcision issue, some people, we just read it. I marvel that you've turned away. They bought into it. They were probably mad when they heard Paul say it.

But that was, I'm not trying to please you. And don't take this the wrong way. I'm not trying to please you. I am not here this morning or any Sunday morning preaching, trying to please you. In my flesh, I probably want to.

But I need to please God. So what's happened with this social gospel, this is basically corrupted the mainline Protestant denominations. Classic liberal theology, it first attacked the authority of scripture.

Then evolution was accepted even by churches, if you can believe that. They said, well, we still believe in Jesus. We still believe in the cross. But after a while, it kind of, again, took a back seat.

And then they dropped it completely. Our church, some of you know this, some of you don't. Our church broke away. We used to be Congregationalists. Back before most of us were born. But back in the day, this church used to be part of the Congregationalist denomination.

And the church leaders who were men of God, obviously, because they did it, they broke away from the Congregationalist denomination. Why? Because the denomination said, stop preaching about the blood.

Do away with the blood of Christ. And they bought into another gospel. So they said, we need to leave this denomination. So that's not good, this message of the social gospel. It has almost destroyed the mainline, completely destroyed the mainline Protestant denominations.

Where you look at them today, and they're so far off in left field. Many of these places used to preach the truth. Maybe it was 50 years ago, 100 years ago, 200 years ago. It's very sad. It's very sad.

And that kind of thing is allowed to happen when pastors stop warning. And stop preaching against things. Pastors, just preach about love. Love, love, love. And God loves you. Don't you already know that?

Who knows that God, hey, God loves me. Who knows that already? And I'll preach another message on that at some point, I'm sure. But I don't want to preach the same things that you already know every Sunday.

Then you'll probably get a little bored. So in conclusion, let's just start to wrap this up. Paul says, I marvel that you are turning away so soon from him who called you in the grace of Christ to a different gospel.

The word soon can either refer to them turning away so quickly or so easily. Or both. Either way, Paul is really astonished that they would turn away from the gospel of grace in exchange for legalism.

This doesn't make any sense. But you know what? Legalism appeals to the flesh. That I am saved because I did this. Or I am saved because I am doing the right things. It actually appeals to the flesh. Again, the Judaizers taught that you are justified by keeping the law of Moses in particular circumcision.

So maybe that's hard for us to relate to today. Hopefully you can relate to the other things because you see it all around us. And just one more statement. If just one thing, let me remind you. If just one thing is added to the gospel, it's no longer the true gospel.

This is a glass of pure water. As far as I know, unless somebody did something to it while I wasn't watching. This is a glass of pure water. What if somebody took a dropper and it's one drop of cyanide.

It's still water, right? Do you want to drink it? That's the illustration here. You add just one thing to the gospel, it is no longer the gospel. You take away one thing, it is no longer the gospel. Paul says, which is not another because there is only one.

But there are some who trouble you and want to pervert the gospel of Christ. And here is one of the strongest statements you will ever hear on this subject. He could not make it any more clear. He says, but even if we or an angel from heaven preach any other gospel to you than that which we have preached to you, let him be accursed.

Even an angel from heaven. And by the way, the gospels of Mormonism and Islam, both Joseph Smith and Muhammad said they received those gospels from an angel. Paul says, as we have said before, in case you missed it, as we have said before.

So now I say again, if anyone preaches any other gospel to you than that which you have received, let him be accursed. And the Greek word translated accursed is anathema, and it means they are to be eternally doomed.

There is only one gospel that saves. Faith alone in the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ. Accept no substitutes. Let's close. Father, I thank you for the clarity of your word. And I thank you for each one here who has been saved by that message of grace.

Grace to you. And Lord, I believe that through your servant, Paul, many of those who were deceived were drawn back in. And Lord, I could say, well, I don't think that would ever happen here, but well, it does happen to people.

So, Lord, if there's anyone in this room who has drifted or maybe bought in a little bit to one of these gospels, false gospels, or maybe something else, that this message would set them right, not because I said so, but because you say so in your holy word.

It's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Thanks for listening. I'm Pastor Michael Grant from Morris Cornet Church. If you'd like to listen to the complete message or if you'd like more information about the ministry, visit our website, MorrisCornetChurch .com.

And we'd love to have you join us some Sunday morning here in Leverett. Until next time, may the grace of God be with you.