https://youtu.be/P8YGZdjHtHA

To The Unknown God

Acts 17:22-34

Paul begins to explain to the Athenians who God is, who Jesus is, what is expected from men and their response to God’s plan of salvation, and judgment to come. They had false ideas of God and of salvation. Paul begins to relate to them the full gospel of Jesus, not a quip phrase to lure them into serving dumbed down definition of God. Paul wanted them to know the fullness of truth, so that they would not mingle their ideas/philosophy with Christianity. They did anyway. As we see, immediately, false teachers entered the church preaching another Jesus and another gospel

2 Corinthians 11:4 New King James Version (NKJV)

4 For if he who comes preaches another Jesus whom we have not preached, or if you receive a different spirit which you have not received, or a different gospel which you have not accepted—you may well put up with it!

Better, the adverb being emphatic, and intensely ironical, “you put up with it!” Paul means, of course, that they have done much more than tolerate the preachers of the false gospel, but have paid them an extravagant respect.

The gospel is not John 3:16 This is a portion of the gospel, as is Acts 2:38 or John 3:5. The gospel is not, “Good news! You do not have to live under Jewish law because the OT was really really bad!”

These Scriptures are all key ingredients, but they are incomplete. Say I was to give you two ingredients in a recipe:

2 eggs

1 stick of butter

What am I making? You have no idea.

The gospel is not just “Good news, God loves you, believe in Jesus”. It is much more than that. The gospel includes all of the teachings of Jesus and the apostles recorded in Scripture. If you don't share the full truth, the full gospel then you are skipping steps and only giving others a part of what they need-

If you do that then you are considered to be a thief and a robber keeping part of what they need back from them. It'd be like attempting to give someone a gift but you only give half of it- what if I said I was going to give you a car? You would be super excited until the car I gave you had no tires and no engine. But hey, the brakes work great! What good is it? It is incomplete. So they have part of what they need but not the whole thing. Don't give partial truths and don't give just part of the gospel. Give the full gospel and the full truth.

Why do I tell you this? Because you must become acquainted with the genuine so that you can immediately recognize a fake

There are a bunch of “gospels” mentioned in the Bible:

Doctrine of the Nicolaitans (Rev 2:15)

the doctrine of Jezebel (Rev 2:20)

doctrine of demons (1 Tim 4:1)

doctrine of Balaam (2:14)

These are perverted gospels- which all stemmed from Christians who mingled with worldly ideas and concepts and entered the church in the first and second century. The perversion of Christianity started immediately.

Galatians 1:6-7 I marvel that you are turning away so soon from Him who called you in the grace of Christ, to a different gospel, 7 which is not another; but there are some who trouble you and want to pervert[a]the gospel of Christ.

Many these above so called “gospels” have their origin in Gnosticism- Note they did not see themselves as “anti Christian”, they saw themselves as inspired, charismatic teachers with a “new revelation”. They taught a progressive doctrine of accommodation to the surrounding culture mixing in Greek, Roman and other pagan belief ideas about God and His plan of salvation

Gnosticism "developed in the same places as dawning Christianity and the Judaic religions. Gnostic teachers claimed to have secret knowledge about the creation of the world and the purpose of life and competed with the Apostles on the same ground.  Gnostic groups seized on bits of Christianity, but tended to cut it off from its historical source  (challenging or redefining Scripture)