SEVEN DOCTRINES THAT DENY CHRIST

 Introduction

In a world where there are many different christian doctrines, it becomes important to know, at what point can we draw the line, and say this doctrine is now a matter of salvation.

There are doctrines where we can say, we are all christians with a different view, then there are others where we say, if you believe this then you are no longer a Christian.

Before we can look at the doctrines that Deny Christ, we need to quickly look at what is the Fundermental Doctrine of Christ.

This doctrine has to do with the Identity of Christ (Who he is) and the Work of Christ (What he has Done for us)

This Doctrine of Christ is also known as The Gospel of Christ. It is this Gospel that saves us, if we hold on to it.

 1 Corinthians 15:1-2 (NKJV)

 1 Moreover, brethren, I declare to you the gospel which I preached to you, which also you received and in which you stand, 2 by which also you are saved, if you hold fast that word which I preached to you—unless you believed in vain.

 7 Tenets of The Gospel

I am going to give, 7 essential tenets of the gospel that we must believe in order for us to be regarded as Christians who are born again. Even if you believe in 6 of these things, but reject only one then still you can’t be regarded as a Christian. Because all these 7 tenets are essential to establish an aspect of our new birth and salvation.

  1.) Jesus is the Son of God.  

To be saved, you must believe that Jesus is the son of God. 

 1 John 4:15 (WEB)    Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God remains in him, and he in God.

 John 3:18 (WEB)   

 He who believes in him is not judged. He who doesn’t believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the one and only Son of God.

  2) Jesus is the Christ  

This means he is the one chosen and anointed by God to save all human beings.

 John 20:31 (WEB)

 but these are written, that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in his name.

 1 John 5:1 (WEB)   Whoever believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God. Whoever loves the Father also loves the child who is born of him.

  3) Jesus is Lord  

 This means he is our master and ruler.

 Romans 10:9 (WEB)  

 that if you will confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.

  4) Jesus died and was raised from the dead  

This is a very important factor. We are born again through the resurrection of Christ.

 1 Peter 1:3 (WEB)   Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to his great mercy caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,

 Romans 10:9 (WEB)  

 that if you will confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord, and  believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.

 5) Baptism

Jesus Christ tells us that we must believe and be baptized to be saved.

 Mark 16:15-16 (NET)

 15 He said to them, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature.

 16  The one who believes and is baptized will be saved,  but the one who does not believe will be condemned.

 Matthew 28:19 (NET)   Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit,

Baptism is an act of faith, where we unite our bodies, by faith, in the likeness of the death and resurrection of Christ.

 Romans 6:3-4 (NET)

 3 Or do you not know that as many as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?

 4 Therefore we have been buried with him through baptism into death, in order that just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too may live a new life.

…..

 6) Jesus is the Judge of The Living and The Dead

Jesus commanded specifically that wherever the gospel is preached, it must be preached that HE is the one appointed to judge the world. People must be warned that God is going to judge the world through him.

 Acts 10:42 (NET)

 He commanded us to preach to the people and to warn them that he is the one appointed by God as judge of the living and the dead.

Jesus as judge, is an aspect of his Lordship.  It is in his role of judge  that he gives gives us eternal life.

 7) There is One God

It is essential that we believe that there is one true God. If you believe in other gods, besides the one true God then you can not be saved.

 John 17:3 (NET)  

 Now this is eternal life – that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you sent.

If you do not believe in the one true God and his son Jesus Christ, then you can not have eternal life.

 In Summary

It is essential to believe in this doctrine of Christ for us to be Christians. To be disciples of Christ.

If we don’t believe that Jesus is Christ, that he is Lord, that he is the Son of God, that he died and rose from the dead, then we cant be saved.

If we don’t believe in his baptism, or that he is able to judge us, then we cant be his disciples.

We may argue about many other subjects of the bible, but as long as it does not affect our faith in who Christ is and what he has done for us  then we are all Christians.

It’s only when we deny these fundamentals that we seize to be Christians.

 DENYING THE DOCTRINE OF CHRIST

The seven tenets we have given above are actually common in most Christian denominations  and therefore you will find that most Christian churches preach a doctrine that leads people to salvation.

Whilst some preachers, preach these things on the surface, there are some doctrines that when introduced, they will effectively cancel out and make void these tenets of faith.

 1.) Denying The Resurrection of the Dead

Paul tells us that we are saved, if we hold on to the message of the gospel.

Yet in his time, there were people already teaching that there will be no future resurrection of the dead.

Paul explains that by denying the future resurrection of the dead, they are effectively denying the resurrection of Christ, and by denying the resurrection of Christ, they are still in their sins.

 1 Corinthians 15:12-14, 16-17 (NET)

 12 Now if Christ is being preached as raised from the dead, how can some of you say there is no resurrection of the dead?

 13 But if there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised.

 14 And if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is futile and your faith is empty.

 16 For if the dead are not raised, then not even Christ has been raised.

 17 And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is useless; you are still in your sins.

So you see, a person will say, I believe Christ was raised from the dead, yet I don’t believe there will be a resurrection of the saints from the dead.

The bible is saying, if you deny that there will be a resurrection of the dead, then it means you are denying the resurrection of Christ. So the issue of resurrection is a salvation issue. Our salvation is based on our faith in the resurrection.

Even Today, there are preachers who preach that there will be no resurrection of the dead. They are actually denying the resurrection of Christ, and what they are preaching takes people out of Christianity.

 2) Demanding People to Obey The Law of Moses To Be Saved

The apostle Paul also deals with another doctrine which he calls another gospel.

There were people in the early church who taught the saints a new doctrine. They preached that if you do not follow the Law of Moses, you can not be saved.

 Acts 15:5 (NET)  

 But some from the religious party of the Pharisees who had believed stood up and said, “It is necessary to circumcise the Gentiles and to order them to observe the law of Moses.”

The apostles rejected this.

 Acts 15:24 (WEB)   Because we have heard that some who went out from us have troubled you with words, unsettling your souls, saying, ‘You must be circumcised and keep the law,’ to whom we gave no commandment;

Salvation comes by faith in Christ, who he is and what he has done. If we teach people that they must follow the law of Moses to be saved, then we are effectively nullifying the grace of God.

Paul explains this to the church of Galatia, where this New Gospel had been accepted. If people’s righteousness is determined by following the law of Moses, then Christ died for nothing.

 Galatians 2:21 (WEB)  

 I don’t reject the grace of God. For if righteousness is through the law, then Christ died for nothing!”

 Galatians 5:4 (NET)

 You who are trying to be declared righteous by the law have been alienated from Christ; you have fallen away from grace!

When people teach that you have to observe the law of Moses in order to be saved, they are now taking people away from the new covenant and placing them back in the old covenant.

They are actually  denying the power of the death and resurrection of Christ.

Paul calls this, another gospel.

 Galatians 1:6 (NET)

 I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting the one who called you by the grace of Christ and are following a different gospel

Just as it was in the days of Paul, today there are preachers who will tell you that you can not go to heaven, if you do not follow the law of Moses.

In doing that they are rejecting the grace of God, and Paul says, they have been alienated from Christ.

If you want to be circumcised, that’s fine.

If you want to keep the Sabbath, that’s fine,

If you want to pay tithe, that’s fine.

If you want to keep the feasts of Pentecost and Passover, that’s fine.

If you want to avoid eating pork and other meats, that’s fine.

The problem comes, if you start teaching these things as part of the gospel. If you start telling people that if they don’t observe these laws, they won’t be saved. Once you teach that, you have nullified the grace of God. You have preached another gospel.

If you believe that you have to keep the Sabbath for God to accept you as his child, then you have believed another gospel.

If you believe that you have to tithe, for God to accept you as his child, then you have believed another gospel.

If you believe that you have to eat certain foods, for God to accept you as his child, then you have believed another gospel.

We are not saved by the law of Moses, we are not saved by rituals, we are saved by faith in Jesus Christ.

 3) You can not be saved without our leader/ church

The bible says there is only one name given, by which men can be saved. That is Jesus Christ.

 Acts 4:12 (WEB)

 There is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven that is given among men, by which we must be saved!”

Some preachers will say, they believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Saviour.  But they then introduce, another doctrine which effectively cancels out their so called faith in Christ.

If you teach that people can not be saved if they don’t believe in prophet so and so, or pastor so and so, It means you have now introduced another name, by which people must be saved. You are now effectively diverting people’s faith in Christ as Saviour, to your prophet, pastor or church leader.

It is not Christ + your leader.

It is not Christ + your church.

This is called preaching Another Christ.

 2 Corinthians 11:4 (WEB)  

 For if he who comes preaches another Jesus, whom we didn’t preach, or if you receive a different spirit, which you didn’t receive, or a different “good news”, which you didn’t accept, you put up with that well enough.

The moment you say, people can not be saved, if they don’t follow Methodist, or Anglican, or if they don’t follow this messenger or that prophet…

Then that church, or preacher is now another Jesus to you. Its a salvation issue. If you are in such a church, then you are in what is called a cult, and you are in danger of being alienated from Christ.

 4) Jesus was Joseph’s Biological Son

This is a teaching I have heard preached by some churches.

Initially they will say, YES we believe Jesus is the son of God. But later on they will teach that Jesus is also Joseph’s biological son. They will then explain that Jesus sonship, is the same as that of David or Israel.  They say, Joseph slept with Mary, and she conceived and bore Jesus. That Jesus is God’s son only in the sense that he had God’s spirit upon him, and was obedient to God.

They deny that Jesus was begotten of the Spirit.

Jesus is the Only Begotten son of God, in the sense that he is the only human born of a virgin, through the spirit.

 Luke 1:35 (WEB)  

 The angel answered her, “The Holy Spirit will come on you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. Therefore also the holy one who is born from you will be called the Son of God.

We already see that if we deny that Jesus is God’s actual begotten son, then we can not be God’s sons, we cant be born again.

John calls this a teaching of the antiChrist.

 1 John 2:22-23 (WEB)

 22 …This is the Antichrist, he who denies the Father and the Son.

 23 Whoever denies the Son doesn’t have the Father. He who confesses the Son has the Father also.

  5) Christ Is The Anointing That Came Upon Jesus At Baptism  

This doctrine sounds very true, but it is a doctrine of the AntiChrist.

There are some preachers who preach this. They say Christ is the anointing, and when Jesus was baptized and anointed, that is when Christ came upon him.

This teaching says Christ, the anointing was performing miracles in Jesus. Jesus is the human body, and Christ is the Spirit, power and anointing within him.

This doctrine was preached by Gnostics in the early church  and is disputed by John.

Christ did not come upon Jesus. Jesus is The Christ.

What came upon Jesus was the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit is not The Christ. Jesus is The Christ.

The moment you separate Jesus and Christ. The moment you say Christ is the anointing within Jesus. You have automatically denied that Christ came in the flesh,

You have denied that Jesus is the Christ.

You have denied that Christ dies for your sins.

You have denied that Christ was resurrected.

Its a very clever way of denying that Jesus is the Christ.

 Matthew 1:16 (WEB)   Jacob became the father of Joseph, the husband of Mary, from whom was born Jesus, who is called Christ.

 Romans 14:9 (WEB)

 For to this end Christ died, rose, and lived again, that he might be Lord of both the dead and the living.

Teaching that the Holy Spirit, or the anointing within Jesus is The Christ, is denying that Christ came in the flesh.

 2 John 1:7 (WEB)  

 For many deceivers have gone out into the world, those who don’t confess that Jesus Christ came in the flesh. This is the deceiver and the Antichrist.

This AntiChrist teaching, is taught in many places. It’s a salvation issue.

The Holy Spirit is not The Christ who lived in Jesus.

The Holy Spirit is The Spirit of The Christ.

Jesus is The Christ

 6.) The Grace of God, Means There is No More Consequence for Sins

On one end you have people who say, we must keep the law of Moses in order to be saved. These people are nullifying the grace of God.

On the other end, you have people who teach that, because Christ paid for all our sins on the cross, believers can now sin, without consequence, without punishment, without judgment from God. Because all judgment was placed in Christ and by his grace, they can live in sin, without consequence.

The apostles call this a Perversion of the grace of God.

The apostles call this a false teaching, which denies the Lordship of Christ, and denies the Holy Spirit who makes us holy.

Let’s hear first from Jude.

 Jude 1:3-4 NLT

 3 Dear friends, I had been eagerly planning to write to you about the salvation we all share. But now I find that I must write about something else, urging you to defend the faith that God has entrusted once for all time to his holy people.

 4 I say this because some ungodly people have wormed their way into your churches, saying that God’s marvelous grace allows us to live immoral lives. The condemnation of such people was recorded long ago, for they have denied our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ.

So, by preaching a grace that allows people to live immoral lives, we are denying Christ, and we are entering into condemnation.

Jude then gives an example, that though our Lord Jesus saved people out of Egypt, he later destroyed those among them who were disobedient.

 Jude 1:5 (ESV)

 5 Now I want to remind you, although you once fully knew it, that Jesus, who saved a people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed those who did not believe

So, his point is that though you were saved by grace, if you live immoral lives, you will be destroyed.

Paul gives the same example and the same warning to the Corinthians in this passage. 1 Corinthians 10:1-12 (ESV). Please take time to read it.

Apostle Paul says if we begin to practice immorality as Christians, we have denied the Holy Spirit, who makes us holy.

 1 Thessalonians 4:3-8 (NIV)

 3 It is God’s will that you should be sanctified: that you should avoid sexual immorality; 4 that each of you should learn to control your own body in a way that is holy and honorable, 5 not in passionate lust like the pagans, who do not know God; 6 and that in this matter no one should wrong or take advantage of a brother or sister.  The Lord will punish all those who commit such sins, as we told you and warned you before.  

 7 For God did not call us to be impure, but to live a holy life. 8 Therefore, anyone who rejects this instruction does not reject a human being but God, the very God who gives you his Holy Spirit.

Jesus himself tells us that even if Christians are confessing that He Jesus Lord with their mouths, and healing people in his name, and prophesying in his name, and casting out demons in his name, but are practicing sinful lives, he will reject them in the last day.

 Matthew 7:21-23 (NIV)

 21 “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. 22 Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and in your name perform many miracles?’ 23 Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’

The apostle Peter says, it is better to never know Christ in the first place, than for someone to know Christ, and then become involved in sinful lives. It will be worse for you. Peter says, people who teach this, act as though they are promising you freedom, but they are enslaving you to sin.

 2 Peter 2:19-21 (NIV)

 19 They promise them freedom, while they themselves are slaves of depravity—for “people are slaves to whatever has mastered them.” 20 If they have escaped the corruption of the world by knowing our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and are again entangled in it and are overcome, they are worse off at the end than they were at the beginning.  

 21 It would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than to have known it and then to turn their backs on the sacred command that was passed on to them.

Any preacher who preaches a doctrine of perverted grace (that says once you are saved, you can live in sin and immorality, and God will not punish you), is a false teacher, and scripture says such teachers will be destroyed. The bible has spoken.

 Hebrews 10:26-29 (NIV)

 26 If we deliberately keep on sinning after we have received the knowledge of the truth, no sacrifice for sins is left, 27 but only a fearful expectation of judgment and of raging fire that will consume the enemies of God. 28 Anyone who rejected the law of Moses died without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses.

 29 How much more severely do you think someone deserves to be punished who has trampled the Son of God underfoot, who has treated as an unholy thing the blood of the covenant that sanctified them, and who has insulted the Spirit of grace?

 7. Universalism

Universalism is the teaching that ultimately all people will be saved. Now there are many different forms of universalism. So I am going to specify a very specific type of universalism that actually denies Christ.

i) Teaching that all human beings will be saved regardless of whether they accept the gospel of Christ or not.

ii)Teaching people that God will not punish or torment anyone with suffering, hell or lake of fire.

iii) Teaching people that there is no individual/spirit called the devil or Satan, and no demons or evil spirits.

This doctrine effectively nullifies the work of Christ upon the cross.

Firstly, the apostle Paul debunks this whole teaching in just one passage of scripture.

2 Thessalonians 1:6-9 (ESV)

 6 since indeed God considers it just to repay with affliction those who afflict you, 7 and to grant relief to you who are afflicted as well as to us, when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with his mighty angels

 8 in flaming fire, inflicting vengeance on those who do not know God and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. 9 They will suffer the punishment of eternal destruction, away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his might,

a.) This teaching effectively denies that Jesus is the Christ.

There is only one way of salvation and that is through Jesus Christ. There are people who were Christians, who left the faith and chose to follow Bhudha, some rejected the gospel and followed Muhammad, some rejected Christ and worshiped science.

If people who reject Christ get saved, then it means Jesus Christ is not the only way to salvation, he is therefore not the Saviour, he is not the Christ.

 Acts 4:12 (NIV)

 12 Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved.”

 John 14:6 (NIV)

 6 Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.

b.) The main reason why God sent Jesus to die on the cross, was to save people from this eternal destruction, or eternal damnation.

 John 3:16 (NIV)

 16 For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life

If there is no punishment, no hell, no destruction, then there is no perishing, and therefore there was no need for Christ to die on the cross. Scripture says, God so loved the world that he gave his Son, so that those who believe shall not perish.

c.) Another reason Christ died, was to destroy the works of the devil. If the devil does not exist, then Christ died for nothing.

 1 John 3:8-9 (ESV)  

 8 …The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil.

So, this doctrine effectively nullifies who Christ is, and the work he has done. If there is no perishing, no hell, no punishment, then there is no need for a savior, no need for the cross. If you can reject Jesus to follow Muhammad and still be saved, then Christ is not really the one and only savior.

This form of universalism, is therefore a whole other religion, and not Christianity at all.

STAY BLESSED.

THE END.