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Galatians 1:6-10

6 I am astonished that you are turning away so quickly from the one who called you by the grace of Christ to a different gospel, 7 not that there is a different gospel, except there are some who are disturbing you and wanting to distort the gospel of Christ.

What would cause Paul to be astonished at those in Galatia?

We learn that some in the church began to be deceived. He tells them in the being of this passage that the one who called you by the grace of God and now you have fallen into a different belief about the one who called. Perhaps they began to believe in a different Jesus than the one they were first taught about. Some within the church and those outside the church began to take some of Jesus' teaching and changed it to fit what they believe. We often refer to this today as heresy.

lg.php

This shouldn't be a surprise to us even today. Though for Paul it was a shock because he had been in contact with them since his first visit and kept in contact with them as they began to grow. The thing to remember is we like those in Galatia are able to become deceived if we do not get rooted in the soil Christ spoke about when He gave us the parable of the sower.

Something to keep in mind is all four groups can very well be in the church.

There were four places where the seeds fell. The path who are people that hear but the evil one snatches away all the understand of the Word. There is also rocky ground and these people hear it yet when hard times come lose their joy. There is also those who have the seed among the thorns, the sad reality for these people is they are consumed with the world and all it has to offer. Finally there are those who have the seed planted in good soil and the result is they hear the word, they understand the word and they bare fruit.

Why do you suppose people can be easily fooled and deceived? Are some passages of scriptures just to hard to follow? There began to have outside influence come into the church. Teachings which do not line up with what God said.

8 But even if we or an angel from heaven should proclaim a gospel to you contrary to what we proclaimed to you, let him be accursed!

In the next verse he wants there to be no mistake at all what he is saying. When he says “if we” he means any of the apostles or himself. When the apostles finally left Jerusalem to take the message of Christ to the world they were the ones who knew the truth, so to make sure those in Galatia and the surrounding churches understood he included the apostles and himself. He then goes on to say that even if an angel from heaven. Now first off understand that no angel from heaven would proclaim a falsehood of Christ to anyone but because the devil, Lucifer which means angel of light, can disguise himself as a beautiful creature and yes even an angel of light, he wanted them to know not even to believe an angel.

Don't you find it at all interesting that he mentions this in his letter and yet even today we have people who are fooled in a religion and/or cult because of a so called angel who deceived the founder of that faith. For instance Mormonism began because Joseph Smith had an encounter with an angel of light who proclaimed a “new” gospel truth. Not only does Mormonism have this belief but even the Islamic faith has the very same teaching. The angel Gabriel came to Mohammed with a truth that was distorted, according to that religion.

You see the devil and those who work at distorting the Bible do not come to men with pitchforks and devil outfits like the world would have you believe. They come to distort and speak ever so gently that you could be fooled if you were not walking fully with Christ. A simple message like “God is love, do not judge those in the fellowship because that isn't what God wants” is now actually a half truth. You see God is love, and its written all over the Bible.

When Jesus says, “Judge not,” He is forbidding what is harsh (Isa 29:20), hurtful (Rom 12:19–21), uninformed (1 Cor 4:3–5), hasty (Prov 18:13), and hypocritical (Rom 2:1). He does not forbid all judging, for elsewhere in Scripture believers are instructed to judge (cf. 1 Cor 6:1–6). The Lord approves of both discriminatory and disciplinary judgment. Examples of discriminatory judging would be ascertaining whether a person’s teaching is true or false (Matt 7:15; 1 John 4:1), whether a person is worthy or unworthy (Matt 7:6; 10:11), whether a person is right or wrong (Acts 15:1–29; Gal 2:11–21), whether a statement is truth or error (Acts 17:11; 2 Tim 3:16–17), whether an action is right or wrong (2 Tim 3:16, 17), and whether a Christian’s liberty should or should not be exercised (1 Cor 6:12; 10:23). An example of disciplinary judgment is recorded in 1 Cor 5:12–13. Such judgment is reserved for believers, not unbelievers.

9 As we said before, and now I say again, if anyone is proclaiming a gospel to you contrary to what you have received, let him be accursed!

Now Paul proclaims that if anyone proclaims a different gospel message other than the one that they first heard DO NOT receive it, DO NOT accept it, that the one proclaiming this new gospel is cursed.

Ultimately there is something about this warning that we must understand. Warnings are not in the Bible to scare us but they are there for us to be on guard when we encounter them. Do not think that we will not encounter them. Many times Christians believe what they are told without researching. Many Christians are split when it comes to Mormonism thinking it is just another denomination. They have slowly began to embrace it as such. Mark my words here and now. The Mormon faith is NOT another denomination. The Word of God is the Only Word given to men from our heavenly father as instructions and directions. If we take the time and see what they believe about Jesus we'll see there are many differences between it and the Christian faith. For instance Jesus of Mormonism married Mary Magdalene and traveled to the Western world having children.

Now just based on this one issue we can conclude that the two are completely different.

The same is true of the Muslim faith. Today there is a movement to bring together Christianity, and Islam. Some teach that Jehovah and Allah are one in the same. DO NOT BE DECEIVED. Allah is NOT God, Jehovah is the ONLY God there is none beside Him. This belief of the merging of faiths has been label Chrislam. Folks please listen up, I don't care which high influential Christian leader says that Jehovah and Allah are one in the same. They are not and the Bible teaches that those who claim this falsehood shall be accursed.

10 For am I now making an appeal to people or to God? Or am I seeking to please people? If I were still trying to please people, I would not be a slave of Christ.

The conclusion of this passage is a declaration to the church that to please people is not what the Christian faith is about. It all comes back to God. It is God who reached down from heaven to bring us Salvation through Jesus Christ. The Church in Galatia had many problems that needed to be dealt with. Sin was evident in the form of false doctrines and teachings, many moved away from the true message of Salvation for a more accepting message self and pleasure. This is no difference from today. Preachers and teachers continue to spread lies from the pulpits, they write books and produce CD's and DVD's which contain half truths.

What makes this worse is that members within the church today live according to their wants and desires. They live there life and want to be left alone. They want to come to God's house of worship and act as if everything is fine that and there walk with God is great, however all they continue to do is fool themselves.

We must heed the letter of Paul because we all need to be listening and watching. We must do what we can to keep in line with the commands of God. To be living a holy and acceptable life following after Him. Otherwise we may hear something that is dark and so terrible. “I never knew you, depart from me you who practiced lawlessness.”
 
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St_Worm2

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Hi C_F, it seems to me that, unlike Corinth (where many were choosing to live "according to their wants an desires" apparently), the church at Galatia faced a different kind of problem, that they were being led away from salvation by grace through faith, and back to one that sought to achieve a righteousness/salvation before God by works (by observing the Law/doing the things the commandments require .. i.e. circumcision). In fact, in Chapter 2, St. Paul rebuked St. Peter for that very thing.

Chapter 3 may be helpful, so I'll post part of it here (please take note of the highlights in bold):

Galatians 3
1 You foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you? Before your very eyes Jesus Christ was clearly portrayed as crucified.
2 I would like to learn just one thing from you: Did you receive the Spirit by observing the law, OR by believing what you heard?
3 Are you so foolish? After beginning with the Spirit, are you now trying to attain your goal by human effort?
4 Have you suffered so much for nothing—if it really was for nothing?
5 Does God give you his Spirit and work miracles among you because you observe the law, or because you believe what you heard?
6 Consider Abraham: “He believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.”
7 Understand, then, that those who believe are children of Abraham.
8 The Scripture foresaw that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, and announced the gospel in advance to Abraham: “All nations will be blessed through you.”
9 So those who have faith are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith.
10 All who rely on observing the law are under a curse, for it is written: “Cursed is everyone who does not continue to do everything written in the Book of the Law.”
11 Clearly no-one is justified before God by the law, because, “The righteous will live by faith.”

21 Is the law, therefore, opposed to the promises of God? Absolutely not! For if a law had been given that could impart life, then righteousness would certainly have come by the law.
22 But the Scripture declares that the whole world is a prisoner of sin, so that what was promised, being given through faith in Jesus Christ, might be given to those who believe.
23 Before this faith came, we were held prisoners by the law, locked up until faith should be revealed.
24 Therefore the law has become our tutor to lead us to Christ that we might be justified by faith.

We Christians "do what we can to keep in line with the commands of God"/live "a holy and acceptable life following after Him", not to become (or even remain) saved, rather, we do these things because we already are .. His workmanship/masterpiece .. Ephesians 2:10/born again .. John 3:3; cf Ezekiel 36:26/new creatures in Christ .. 2 Corinthians 5:17 :amen:

Perhaps I misunderstood what you meant in the OP however, so please let me know if I did (but I thought I should check, just to be sure ;)).

Thanks!

In Christ,
David

Romans 11
6 If it is by grace, it is no longer on the basis of works; otherwise grace would no longer be grace.
.
 
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You did well my Brother... I was simply implying there us a "modern church" movement around us which perverts the Pure Gospel message.... They twist the Word to allow a super grace theology to trump what God made clear.

Your in line
 
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St_Worm2

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You did well my Brother... I was simply implying there us a "modern church" movement around us which perverts the Pure Gospel message.... They twist the Word to allow a super grace theology to trump what God made clear.

Your in line
:oldthumbsup: - He is both Savior AND Lord.

This is an interesting place, isn't it, with full-blown Pelagians on the one hand, Super Grace adherents on the other, and a seemingly endless array in between.
 
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Jipsah

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Today there is a movement to bring together Christianity, and Islam.
A movement which has attracted very few Christians - or Muslims, for that matter. Personally, I'm keen to unite Muslims and Christians, by persuading all the Muslims to embrace the Christian Faith. :crossrc:
 
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tdidymas

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You did well my Brother... I was simply implying there us a "modern church" movement around us which perverts the Pure Gospel message.... They twist the Word to allow a super grace theology to trump what God made clear.

Your in line
:oldthumbsup: - He is both Savior AND Lord.

This is an interesting place, isn't it, with full-blown Pelagians on the one hand, Super Grace adherents on the other, and a seemingly endless array in between.

IMO what is being called "Super Grace" is no grace at all; but are you talking about antinomians (libertines)? Those Jude mentioned who "turn the grace of our God into licentiousness"?
(general question to both)
TD:)
 
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Wordkeeper

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Hi C_F, it seems to me that, unlike Corinth (where many were choosing to live "according to their wants an desires" apparently), the church at Galatia faced a different kind of problem, that they were being led away from salvation by grace through faith, and back to one that sought to achieve a righteousness/salvation before God by works (by observing the Law/doing the things the commandments require .. i.e. circumcision). In fact, in Chapter 2, St. Paul rebuked St. Peter for that very thing.

Chapter 3 may be helpful, so I'll post part of it here (please take note of the highlights in bold):

Galatians 3
1 You foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you? Before your very eyes Jesus Christ was clearly portrayed as crucified.
2 I would like to learn just one thing from you: Did you receive the Spirit by observing the law, OR by believing what you heard?
3 Are you so foolish? After beginning with the Spirit, are you now trying to attain your goal by human effort?
4 Have you suffered so much for nothing—if it really was for nothing?
5 Does God give you his Spirit and work miracles among you because you observe the law, or because you believe what you heard?
6 Consider Abraham: “He believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.”
7 Understand, then, that those who believe are children of Abraham.
8 The Scripture foresaw that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, and announced the gospel in advance to Abraham: “All nations will be blessed through you.”
9 So those who have faith are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith.
10 All who rely on observing the law are under a curse, for it is written: “Cursed is everyone who does not continue to do everything written in the Book of the Law.”
11 Clearly no-one is justified before God by the law, because, “The righteous will live by faith.”

21 Is the law, therefore, opposed to the promises of God? Absolutely not! For if a law had been given that could impart life, then righteousness would certainly have come by the law.
22 But the Scripture declares that the whole world is a prisoner of sin, so that what was promised, being given through faith in Jesus Christ, might be given to those who believe.
23 Before this faith came, we were held prisoners by the law, locked up until faith should be revealed.
24 Therefore the law has become our tutor to lead us to Christ that we might be justified by faith.

We Christians "do what we can to keep in line with the commands of God"/live "a holy and acceptable life following after Him", not to become (or even remain) saved, rather, we do these things because we already are .. His workmanship/masterpiece .. Ephesians 2:10/born again .. John 3:3; cf Ezekiel 36:26/new creatures in Christ .. 2 Corinthians 5:17 :amen:

Perhaps I misunderstood what you meant in the OP however, so please let me know if I did (but I thought I should check, just to be sure ;)).

Thanks!

In Christ,
David

Romans 11
6 If it is by grace, it is no longer on the basis of works; otherwise grace would no longer be grace.
.
Wright says the problem in Galatians is the insistence on circumcision and food laws. Do you disagree?

Quote
Allow me, if you will, a moment of autobiography, for reasons similar to those of Paul in Galatians 1 and 2. In my early days of research, before Sanders had published Paul and Palestinian Judaism in 1977 and long before Dunn coined the phrase ‘The New Perspective on Paul’, I was puzzled by one exegetical issue in particular, which I here oversimplify for the sake of summary. If I read Paul in the then standard Lutheran way, Galatians made plenty of sense, but I had to fudge (as I could see dozens of writers fudging) the positive statements about the Law in Romans. If I read Paul in the Reformed way of which, for me, Charles Cranfield remains the supreme exegetical exemplar, Romans made a lot of sense, but I had to fudge (as I could see Cranfield fudging) the negative statements about the Law in Galatians. For me then and now, if I had to choose between Luther and Calvin I would always take Calvin, whether on the Law or (for that matter) the Eucharist. But as I struggled this way and that with the Greek text of Romans and Galatians, it dawned on me, I think in 1976, that a different solution was possible. In Romans 10.3 Paul, writing about his fellow Jews, declares that they are ignorant of the righteousness of God, and are seeking to establish ‘their own righteousness’. The wider context, not least 9.30–33, deals with the respective positions of Jews and Gentiles within God’s purposes – and with a lot more besides, of course, but not least that. Supposing, I thought, Paul meant ‘seeking to establish their own righteousness’, not in the sense of amoral status based on the performance of Torah and the consequent accumulation of a treasury of merit, but an ethnic status based on the possession of Torah as the sign of automatic covenant membership? I saw at once that this would make excellent sense of Romans 9 and 10, and would enable the positive statements about the Law throughout Romans to be given full weight while making it clear that this kind of use of Torah, as an ethnic talisman, was an abuse. I sat up in bed that night reading through Galatians and saw that at point after point this way of looking at Paul would make much better sense of Galatians, too, than either the standard post-Luther readings or the attempted Reformed ones.

New perspectives on Paul

New Perspectives on Paul
 
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Lexham English Bible

Galatians 1:6-10

6 I am astonished that you are turning away so quickly from the one who called you by the grace of Christ to a different gospel, 7 not that there is a different gospel, except there are some who are disturbing you and wanting to distort the gospel of Christ.

What would cause Paul to be astonished at those in Galatia?

We learn that some in the church began to be deceived. He tells them in the being of this passage that the one who called you by the grace of God and now you have fallen into a different belief about the one who called. Perhaps they began to believe in a different Jesus than the one they were first taught about. Some within the church and those outside the church began to take some of Jesus' teaching and changed it to fit what they believe. We often refer to this today as heresy.

lg.php

This shouldn't be a surprise to us even today. Though for Paul it was a shock because he had been in contact with them since his first visit and kept in contact with them as they began to grow. The thing to remember is we like those in Galatia are able to become deceived if we do not get rooted in the soil Christ spoke about when He gave us the parable of the sower.

Something to keep in mind is all four groups can very well be in the church.

There were four places where the seeds fell. The path who are people that hear but the evil one snatches away all the understand of the Word. There is also rocky ground and these people hear it yet when hard times come lose their joy. There is also those who have the seed among the thorns, the sad reality for these people is they are consumed with the world and all it has to offer. Finally there are those who have the seed planted in good soil and the result is they hear the word, they understand the word and they bare fruit.

Why do you suppose people can be easily fooled and deceived? Are some passages of scriptures just to hard to follow? There began to have outside influence come into the church. Teachings which do not line up with what God said.

8 But even if we or an angel from heaven should proclaim a gospel to you contrary to what we proclaimed to you, let him be accursed!

In the next verse he wants there to be no mistake at all what he is saying. When he says “if we” he means any of the apostles or himself. When the apostles finally left Jerusalem to take the message of Christ to the world they were the ones who knew the truth, so to make sure those in Galatia and the surrounding churches understood he included the apostles and himself. He then goes on to say that even if an angel from heaven. Now first off understand that no angel from heaven would proclaim a falsehood of Christ to anyone but because the devil, Lucifer which means angel of light, can disguise himself as a beautiful creature and yes even an angel of light, he wanted them to know not even to believe an angel.

Don't you find it at all interesting that he mentions this in his letter and yet even today we have people who are fooled in a religion and/or cult because of a so called angel who deceived the founder of that faith. For instance Mormonism began because Joseph Smith had an encounter with an angel of light who proclaimed a “new” gospel truth. Not only does Mormonism have this belief but even the Islamic faith has the very same teaching. The angel Gabriel came to Mohammed with a truth that was distorted, according to that religion.

You see the devil and those who work at distorting the Bible do not come to men with pitchforks and devil outfits like the world would have you believe. They come to distort and speak ever so gently that you could be fooled if you were not walking fully with Christ. A simple message like “God is love, do not judge those in the fellowship because that isn't what God wants” is now actually a half truth. You see God is love, and its written all over the Bible.

When Jesus says, “Judge not,” He is forbidding what is harsh (Isa 29:20), hurtful (Rom 12:19–21), uninformed (1 Cor 4:3–5), hasty (Prov 18:13), and hypocritical (Rom 2:1). He does not forbid all judging, for elsewhere in Scripture believers are instructed to judge (cf. 1 Cor 6:1–6). The Lord approves of both discriminatory and disciplinary judgment. Examples of discriminatory judging would be ascertaining whether a person’s teaching is true or false (Matt 7:15; 1 John 4:1), whether a person is worthy or unworthy (Matt 7:6; 10:11), whether a person is right or wrong (Acts 15:1–29; Gal 2:11–21), whether a statement is truth or error (Acts 17:11; 2 Tim 3:16–17), whether an action is right or wrong (2 Tim 3:16, 17), and whether a Christian’s liberty should or should not be exercised (1 Cor 6:12; 10:23). An example of disciplinary judgment is recorded in 1 Cor 5:12–13. Such judgment is reserved for believers, not unbelievers.

9 As we said before, and now I say again, if anyone is proclaiming a gospel to you contrary to what you have received, let him be accursed!

Now Paul proclaims that if anyone proclaims a different gospel message other than the one that they first heard DO NOT receive it, DO NOT accept it, that the one proclaiming this new gospel is cursed.

Ultimately there is something about this warning that we must understand. Warnings are not in the Bible to scare us but they are there for us to be on guard when we encounter them. Do not think that we will not encounter them. Many times Christians believe what they are told without researching. Many Christians are split when it comes to Mormonism thinking it is just another denomination. They have slowly began to embrace it as such. Mark my words here and now. The Mormon faith is NOT another denomination. The Word of God is the Only Word given to men from our heavenly father as instructions and directions. If we take the time and see what they believe about Jesus we'll see there are many differences between it and the Christian faith. For instance Jesus of Mormonism married Mary Magdalene and traveled to the Western world having children.

Now just based on this one issue we can conclude that the two are completely different.

The same is true of the Muslim faith. Today there is a movement to bring together Christianity, and Islam. Some teach that Jehovah and Allah are one in the same. DO NOT BE DECEIVED. Allah is NOT God, Jehovah is the ONLY God there is none beside Him. This belief of the merging of faiths has been label Chrislam. Folks please listen up, I don't care which high influential Christian leader says that Jehovah and Allah are one in the same. They are not and the Bible teaches that those who claim this falsehood shall be accursed.

10 For am I now making an appeal to people or to God? Or am I seeking to please people? If I were still trying to please people, I would not be a slave of Christ.

The conclusion of this passage is a declaration to the church that to please people is not what the Christian faith is about. It all comes back to God. It is God who reached down from heaven to bring us Salvation through Jesus Christ. The Church in Galatia had many problems that needed to be dealt with. Sin was evident in the form of false doctrines and teachings, many moved away from the true message of Salvation for a more accepting message self and pleasure. This is no difference from today. Preachers and teachers continue to spread lies from the pulpits, they write books and produce CD's and DVD's which contain half truths.

What makes this worse is that members within the church today live according to their wants and desires. They live there life and want to be left alone. They want to come to God's house of worship and act as if everything is fine that and there walk with God is great, however all they continue to do is fool themselves.

We must heed the letter of Paul because we all need to be listening and watching. We must do what we can to keep in line with the commands of God. To be living a holy and acceptable life following after Him. Otherwise we may hear something that is dark and so terrible. “I never knew you, depart from me you who practiced lawlessness.”
And I choose to leave them in their deceit rather than be called a trouble maker and disfellowshiped with in the group. If I am going to be alone anyway why bother at all?
 
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IMO what is being called "Super Grace" is no grace at all; but are you talking about antinomians (libertines)? Those Jude mentioned who "turn the grace of our God into licentiousness"?
(general question to both)
TD:)
Super Grace/Hyper Grace
The term hyper-grace has been used to describe a new wave of teaching that emphasizes the grace of God to the exclusion of other vital teachings such as repentance and confession of sin. Hyper-grace teachers maintain that all sin, past, present, and future, has already been forgiven, so there is no need for a believer to ever confess it. Hyper-grace teaching says that, when God looks at us, He sees only a holy and righteous people. The conclusion of hyper-grace teaching is that we are not bound by Jesus’ teaching, even as we are not under the Law; that believers are not responsible for their sin; and that anyone who disagrees is a pharisaical legalist. In short, hyper-grace teachers “pervert the grace of our God into a license for immorality”
What is hyper-grace?
 
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tdidymas

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Super Grace/Hyper Grace
The term hyper-grace has been used to describe a new wave of teaching that emphasizes the grace of God to the exclusion of other vital teachings such as repentance and confession of sin. Hyper-grace teachers maintain that all sin, past, present, and future, has already been forgiven, so there is no need for a believer to ever confess it. Hyper-grace teaching says that, when God looks at us, He sees only a holy and righteous people. The conclusion of hyper-grace teaching is that we are not bound by Jesus’ teaching, even as we are not under the Law; that believers are not responsible for their sin; and that anyone who disagrees is a pharisaical legalist. In short, hyper-grace teachers “pervert the grace of our God into a license for immorality”
What is hyper-grace?
yep, sounds like a euphemism for antinomian/apostate.
TD:)
 
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