Keep Away from a False Gospel

Act 2:40 And with many other words he bore witness and continued to exhort them, saying, “Save yourselves from this crooked generation.”

There are many professing Christians who do not wish to be full-blown hypocrites. They adhere to sound doctrine – to a point. But their half and half Christianity reveals itself when they are challenged to publicly renounce the errors and false teaching which characterizes the local church they are in. They balk. They have been in that church for many years. They have friends there. To depart would be accompanied by a heavy price.

I recently read a challenge to such people issued long ago by John Calvin. He was referring to people who acknowledged the false gospel of the Roman Catholic church, but who refused to separate from it. He said:

Must we not cry out, ‘Keep yourselves from this perverse generation,’ when we realize that everyone is going to hell?

Sermons on Acts

Further, we see the impudence of such [half and half preachers/Christians] when they accuse us of excessive severity and say, ‘You do not need to lash out this way against the pope and his people and call him Antichrist. You can preach the gospel well enough without such accusations. What good does it do to say that priests are ravenous wolves who will devour the flock of Jesus Christ and poison everyone with their false doctrine?’

Such men are really dreadful teachers. They should have been born sooner so they could have taught Peter how to preach and instruct him what to say.

Not so for us. We preach what we have been taught by God and if we wish to come to him through our Lord Jesus Christ, we must rid ourselves of this perverse generation. We cannot do that unless we separate ourselves from their lies and deceits.

Ibid