Works Righteousness: The Most Popular (and Damning) False Gospel
Posted by David Wheaton | Saturday, September 19, 2009 | 8:00 am CT
Podcast: Download (9.1MB)
Guest: Mike Gendron, director, Proclaiming the Gospel Ministries
Works-righteousness. It is the unifying belief of all false religions that man can earn a better afterlife based on the good things he/she does on earth.
John MacArthur talked about it last Saturday on The Christian Worldview. He said, “The Pharisees, Sadducees, and Scribes of this day, this age or any age are those who misrepresent the truth. Those who proclaim, or purvey false religion, a false Christ, a false Gospel and there are a myriad: certainly you can start with the cults, the Jehovah’s Witnesses, the Mormons who have a false God, a false Christ, a false Gospel, a false everything.
You can talk about Roman Catholicism and sacramental religions that believe salvation is a matter of ceremony and ritual and works. You can talk about Judaism today which is a rejection of the Messiah, the Lord Jesus Christ, which is as pagan and damning a religion as Buddhism or the worship of a rock or a stick in some kind of Aboriginal culture.”
But is works-righteousness characteristic of non-Protestant Christianity only? If not, what kind of works-righteousness has crept into the evangelical mind? And most important, how can you be sure you’re putting your faith in the one, true biblical gospel?
Be sure to tune in to Hour 1 of The Christian Worldview this Saturday to understand the eternity-changing difference between works-righteousness and Christ-righteousness.
