A Form of Godliness (The Social Gospel)

Dan Corner

Counterfeit Social Gospels

Dangerously, there exist multiple cheap powerless counterfeit so-called gospels (or social gospels) in our dark day. Such have produced religious unsaved people with only a form of godliness, but nothing better since they deny the power of godliness. Those social gospels have no spiritual ability to change a person from within and set him free from sin addictions.

CLICK To Learn What A Social Gospel Lacks

Scriptures Related To A Form Of Godliness

One of the horrible signs of our times is:
People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God -- having a form of godliness but denying its power. Have nothing to do with them. (2 Tim 3:2-5)
Other common Bible translations say the same:
Holding to a form of godliness, although they have denied its power; Avoid such men as these. (NASB)
Having a form of godliness but denying its power. And from such people turn away! (NKJV)
Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away. (KJV)
NOTE: From 2 Tim. 3:2-5 we observe:

* There are many people who claim to be Christian, but have only a form of godliness! They actually deny the power of godliness (the ability to get free from sin's addictions and live holy). Such are filled with sin. That is the perfect description of an eternal security Christian,- not a real Christian, but the product and victim of the once saved always saved security-in-sin gospel -- the popular social gospel, which has made the preachers rich. The proponents unwittingly admit to having only a form of godliness by the teachings they declare:

Rom. 7:19 (continously doing evil) is the normal Christian life,

Paul was the worst of sinners,

Deny themselves to be righteous,

Insisting they are a sinner and not a good person,

Think everyone is lustful [adulterous], liars, etc., thereby implying they themselves are those things.

The same Greek word translated power in 2 Tim. 3:5 is found in Rom. 1:16 and 1 Cor. 1:18, dunamis. In fact, the Greek word for power associated with the power of the real gospel is the same one from which we get our English word for dynamite. That Greek word is dunamis and it can be found in the following Scriptures:

I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile. (Rom 1:16)
For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. (1 Cor 1:18)
In other words, false teachers deny the real gospel can give them power to live above sin. The Bible is clear in speaking of the miraculous power of the real gospel. It has the ability to change a person into a new creation and set him free from sin's addictions to live holy NOW.

The chief problem in our day is, the devil has many counterfeit, easy-to-listen-to gospels that share a common trait. They are all powerless to change a person into a new creation. They are social gospels with only a form of godliness - designed not to offend even the sin-loving, God rejecters. Such appease sinful people with itching ears, but do nothing for their SOULS. Such false gospels are not only worthless, they are dangerous. In spite of their great danger, they are rampant, even in Bible believing churches - shocking but true! It is a horrible day. While false doctrine leads to sin addictions, the truth leads to genuine godliness:

Paul, a servant of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ for the faith of God's elect and the knowledge of the truth that leads to godliness (Titus 1:1)
Another pivotal Scripture to this is Col. 2:23:
Such regulations indeed have an appearance of wisdom, with their self-imposed worship, their false humility and their harsh treatment of the body, but they lack any value in restraining sensual indulgence.
The counterfeits can't restrain sensual indulgence. Since the proponents think they themselves are Christians, but know they are ensnared by various sins, they consequently think one can be a Christian and be addicted to pornography, etc. like they are!

Just A Form Of Godliness and Social Gospel

Remember, false teaching lacks the power to restrain sensual indulgence (Col. 2:23), because it is only a form of godliness. Rom. 8:13b clearly states, by the Spirit of God, a real Christian can put to death the sinful nature (or flesh). That truth is a key in answering why so many in religious circles are looking at pornography and committing adultery that way (Mt. 5:28), fornicating, etc. yet thinking they are Christians. Folks, do not be deceived: If there was no radical change and deliverance from these sins, there was no salvation. You were only taught a worthless form of godliness, which will not save you! The social gospel is not from God. The form of godliness gospel is from demons.

Furthermore, if you are in sins as cited in 1 Cor. 6:9,10 again, after being set free through the real gospel, you are no longer saved and are now worse off than you were before you were saved (2 Pet. 2:20-22):

If they have escaped the corruption of the world by knowing our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and are again entangled in it and overcome, they are worse off at the end than they were at the beginning. 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. Of them the proverbs are true: 'A dog returns to its vomit, and, A sow that is washed goes back to her wallowing in the mud.'
If that describes you as a modern day prodigal son, then you are back on the road to hell again and need to repent for salvation's sake again. God wants you back, backslider.

Lordship Salvation vs The Social Gospel

The real gospel centers exclusively around Jesus and putting him first in your life as Lord and King. That means turning from your many idols, including your favorite sin (greed, illicit sex, lust, drunkenness, hate, etc.) You must get committed to the Lord Jesus to where you follow him first, not the crowd who are going to hell. You must submissively trust 100% in Jesus for your salvation, who died for you. To believe on Jesus means to obey Jesus. Below are examples of various false, powerless and dangerous gospels, which come in various flavors, but are only a worthless form of godliness:

A person becomes born again and a child of God when infant baptized. (Catholicism, Lutheran and others)

You must keep the Saturday Sabbath to have salvation. (Seventh Day Adventism and most other Sabbatarian groups)

You must be part of our group or organization to get salvation or retain salvation. (Jehovah's Witnesses, International Church of Christ, etc.)

You must believe you are getting forgiven in the waters of baptism to be forgiven. (Church of Christ)

God understands our weaknesses (sins). He knows our failures and accepts us as long as we are sincere and try. (Many churches of different denominations)

You must read the King James Bible to learn the truth to have salvation. (Some, but not all, King James Only groups)

You must speak in tongues and be water baptized in Jesus' name. (United Pentecostal also known as the Jesus' Only or Apostolics)

Yeshua is the only name in which salvation is found. Jesus is a pagan name. (Various groups)

Mentally assenting to the historic death, burial and resurrection of Jesus will bring salvation without repentance. (Many liberal churches)

Turning away from sins is not necessary for salvation. Just ask God to forgive you.

Those are just some of the demonic ideas about salvation floating around in various groups which call themselves Christian. With so many clashing ideas, many people remain frustrated in their effort to know what to believe, which was part of the devil's plan to begin with.

Again, the truth is: All false gospels lack the spiritual power to transform a sin-addicted, hell-deserving person into a purified, truth and people loving, holy, new creation and child of God. Remember that key truth.

Any counterfeit gospel (social gospel, etc.) is so dangerously wrong and harmful that Gal. 1:8,9 declares that all who preach such lies will be damned just for preaching such - even a person once saved!

But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel other than the one we preached to you, let him be eternally condemned! As we have already said, so now I say again: If anybody is preaching to you a gospel other than what you accepted, let him be eternally condemned! (Gal 1:8,9)

Eternal Security Social Gospel

One rampant doctrine taught as being associated with the gospel (or even the gospel itself) is easily exposed by its lack of power to deliver from sin. It is called once saved always saved (also known as eternal security, the perseverance of the saints or the preservation of the saints). That doctrine is the most rampant doctrinal danger in Bible preaching circles. It is a false gospel and also the mother of various other false concepts about God, sin, grace, etc. Eternal security's imputed righteousness is a license for sin.

If any will take issue with that statement about the powerless form of godliness called once saved always saved, he should ponder how those grace-changing, scripture-distorting teachers twist Rom. 7:14-25. In that passage they openly teach the normal Christian life is described there! Imagine that. The truth is, what is described there is the sinful nature personified (v. 18) as constantly doing evil and not doing good. Notice verse 19:

For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do this I keep on doing. (Rom 7:19)
Some who use the Rom. 7:14-25 passage also overlook the fact that the evil in v. 19 is a continuous, habitual practice, yet deny such is possible at other times for a real convert! They teach multiple double messages, but their followers can't seem to notice these or even care. Regardless, they say the one described in Rom. 7:19 is a Christian, based on their own personal sin addictions. NOTE: The eternal security version of a Christian, as described by them, is a weak, powerless, continuously evil-doing, religious person, yet one bound for heaven in his wickedness - so they think! Again, they have only an empty form of godliness with their social gospel.

Changed Lives

Changed lives which shine forth the evidence of saving grace (Acts 11:23) consist of freedom from sin's addictions, a heart of love for God and people and a hatred for deception and sin, among other things. Some examples of true conversions and evidence of saving grace in people include Zacchaeus, the Philippian jailer, the unnamed in 1 Cor. 6:9-11 and Paul:
But Zacchaeus stood up and said to the Lord, "Look, Lord! Here and now I give half of my possessions to the poor, and if I have cheated anybody out of anything, I will pay back four times the amount." Jesus said to him, "Today salvation has come to this house."... (Luke 19:8,9)
Then they spoke the word of the Lord to him and to all the others in his house. At that hour of the night the jailer took them and washed their wounds; then immediately he and all his family were baptized. The jailer brought them into his house and set a meal before them; he was filled with joy because he had come to believe in God he and his whole family. (Acts 16:32-34)
Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived. Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals, nor sodomites, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners will inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you. But you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God. (1 Cor. 6:9-11, NKJV)
Paul's example was most noteworthy:
Even though I was once a blasphemer and a persecutor and a violent man, I was shown mercy because I acted in ignorance and unbelief. (1 Tim 1:13)
In each of the aforementioned cases there is observable evidence of the grace of God and a changed life. It is reflected in one's behavior:
This is how we know who the children of God are and who the children of the devil are: Anyone who does not do what is right is not a child of God; nor is anyone who does not love his brother. (1 John 3:10)
Paul went from Christian-hater and persecutor to Christian lover and helper. He was the greatest example of Christianity. He too, like all others, had a radical change, which reflects the grace of God in the new creation.

The gospel that the Lord Jesus and his Apostles believed in and preached had power over sin and an ability to change people. They were not a mere form of godliness like the predominant, popular, social and politically-correct dangerous gospels of our day! They lack that power because they are not the word of God. They are not true. They are based on lies from demons, which are trying to deceive and damn souls to hell.

You Can Get Free

When you sincerely, from the depths of your heart, cry out to God for mercy and forgiveness, and turn from your sins to serve God, God's power will radically change you and set you free, regardless the sin addictions which are holding you bound and dragging you to hell. Come sincerely, humbly and with a repentant heart to God in prayer to place JESUS FIRST in your life and above all others. Anything less will lack the power and you will remain unchanged. That describes what has happened to many, who now wrongly think they are irrevocably going to heaven, when addicted to sin. NOTE: If you are not living holy NOW, you are not a Christian NOW. You must endure to the end and sow to please the Spirit to enter God's kingdom (Mt. 10:22; Heb. 3:14; Gal. 6:8,9, etc.). Do NOT be deceived like many church people with a mere form of godliness! For much more truth on a form of godliness, consult the NO eternal security book entitled, The Believer's Conditional Security (quick shipment and free materials included with each order).

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