There are two legitimate gospels in the New Testament: the Gospel to Israel (called the Gospel of the Circumcision), headed up by Peter, and the Gospel to the Nations (called the Gospel of the Uncircumcision) headed up by Paul.  The former gospel concerns works, the latter grace. The former calls for right behavior, the latter insists that one’s calling has nothing to do with behavior. The former gospel calls for repentance and baptism, the latter calls for no works or ceremonies whatsoever. The former gospel heralds the law of Moses; in the latter gospel the only “law” is “grace without works.”

But there is a third “gospel” which is not a gospel at all. It is the “gospel” Paul warns about in Galatians chapter 1. There, he calls it “a different evangel,” explaining in the same context that it is a message that “distorts the evangel of Christ,” that is, it mixes elements of the law with grace. It mixes God’s message to Israel with God’s message to the nations, creating a cauldron of confusion that breathes peace in one breath, fire in the next. Paul so hates this false, bastardized gospel that he pronounces a curse upon anyone proclaiming it. In the context, the word is “anathema.”

Unfortunately—tragically—both Johnny and Kaitlin Greene are announcing this false gospel. One moment they talk about salvation by grace and a new creation, but in the next moment they import condemnation and conditional salvation from the Israel gospel in order to announce “a certain fearful waiting for judgement” to anyone who keeps sinning.

Anyone announcing the “different evangel” is playing with fire. This is not a game. I am calling upon Johnny and Kaitlin Greene to delete every single video or post having to do with this false and confusing message. They need to delete this posts and regroup until they learn how to distinguish that which God carefully distinguishes. Unless they do (and here’s a real threat, not a fake one), Paul’s “anathema” applies to them—and to anyone else thus engaged.

I pray that Johnny and Kaitlin Greene—and anyone else heralding the mixed gospel (which includes nearly everyone in Christianity) takes this warning and exhortation for what it truly is, which is tough love.