The Jesus that can’t save

It’s one of those stories that makes me want to cry and, at the same time, visit one of those rage rooms that will let me go to town on stuff with a sledgehammer.

A recent Wall Street Journal article detailed the tragic case of Richard Whitacre who got swindled out of his $750,000+ 401(k) retirement fund by a shady investment company called Next Level Holdings. “I figured this is an amazing opportunity and I’ll be set for life,” thought the 60-year-old Whitacre.

The financial opportunity put forward to Whitacre looked like other investments and those promoting it sounded like other financial advisors, but both were fake. And the ones running the masquerade did this to a guy who not only just lost his job but was also recently diagnosed with cancer.  

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Rage room anyone?

As I’m sure you’re aware, Whitacre’s case is not unique as countless have been financially conned, but it is still nonetheless heartbreaking. It’s a good reminder to all of us that horrible results can occur when you depend on something that’s bogus.

Take the wrong medicine and your physical malady won’t improve. Act on fake news and you’re likely to get an embarrassing and rude awakening down the road.  

And here’s the thing: If disastrous consequences exist for being fooled in the physical world, why think anything different will result from being tricked in the spiritual realm? While cons in this life can be temporal, lies suffered in the next life are eternal.

And the deadliest scam the enemy offers in this vein is to slide across the table a Jesus that can’t save.

Another Jesus

There’s an old proverb that says there are many tools in the devil’s toolbox, but a lie is the handle that fits them all. This is why spiritual discernment is elevated so much in Scripture and why warnings about it are found in 26 of the 27 books in the New Testament.

Paul touches on this subject interestingly in his second letter to the Corinthians when he says: “For if one comes and preaches another Jesus whom we have not preached, or you receive a different spirit which you have not received, or a different gospel which you have not accepted, you bear this beautifully” (2 Cor. 11:4). He goes on to tell them that such people are “false apostles, deceitful workers, disguising themselves as apostles of Christ. No wonder, for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light” (2 Cor. 11:13–14).

“Another Jesus”? Isn’t there only one?

The word “another” is a Greek adjective — allos — and it typically means another of the same kind. Interestingly, the same can be true of the “anti” portion of the term “antichrist”; it also can mean “another”.

In the context of the Corinthian letter, Paul was most likely referring to an imposter Jesus preached by those who are referred to as the “Judaizers” who attempted to meld Christianity along with Jewish laws and customs. In their commentary on 2nd Corinthians, Kistemaker and Hendriksen point out that such teachers would often refrain from depicting Jesus as the Christ. Needless to say, such an imitation would be devoid of any saving power.

The disturbing thing is, there are a lot more counterfeit christs out there who won’t be able to help you either. Maybe this is why Jesus warned us three times in His Olivet Discourse that “many will come in My name, saying, ‘I am the Christ,’ and will mislead many” (Matt. 24:5).

One of these fakes is the Christ of Islam. Initially, the Jesus of Islam seems to resemble the Jesus in the New Testament. The Koran says Jesus was born of a virgin (Sura 3:47), proclaimed to be the Messiah (Sura 3:45), performed miracles (Sura 3:49), was confirmed to be righteous (Sura 6:85), sinless (Sura 3:46), had disciples (Sura 3:52-53), was sent with a gospel (Sura 5:46), his words should be believed (Sura 4:171), was taken to Heaven by God (Sura 4:156-159), and will come again (Sura 3:55).

But look closer and you will find the Islamic Jesus was created out of dust (Sura 3:59), is not the Son of God or God (Sura 4:171), was not crucified and did not die (Sura 4:157), was not resurrected (because he did not die), was not a Jew nor were his disciples (Sura 5:48, 53, 5:111), prophesied the coming of Muhammad (Sura 61:6), should not be worshipped (Sura 5:116), and will return, die and be judged (Sunan Abu Dawud Book 37, Number 4310).

The imitation Islamic Christ can’t save you.

Neither can the Christ in Hinduism (Jesus was a great man who attained God-realization) or Buddhism (Jesus was a “bodhisattva”, one who has achieved enlightenment), or similar religions.

The Christ of the cults is equally bad. To the Jehovah’s Witnesses (who follow in the footsteps of the heretic Arius), Jesus is a created little “god” in their rewritten Bible but not God. To Mormons, Jesus is Jehovah, but different than their god Elohim, and not part of any Trinity with their teachings saying: “[Joseph Smith] knew that the long-heralded trinity of three Gods in one was a myth, a deception. He knew that the Father and the Son were two distinct beings with form, voices, and … personalities.”

The various occultic religions also have a fake Christ. Their typical pattern is one of separating Jesus from “the Christ” as is done in the Aquarian Gospel: “When we say ‘Jesus the Christ’ we refer to the man and to his office; just as we do when we say Edward, the King, or Lincoln, the President. Edward was not always King, and Lincoln was not always President, and Jesus was not always Christ. Jesus won his Christ-ship by a strenuous life.”

There’s more, but let’s end with the warning that the Bible gives us that in the future will come the ultimate and last imitation who will attain to such a height that “the whole earth marveled as they followed the beast. And they worshiped the dragon, for he had given his authority to the beast, and they worshiped the beast, saying, ‘Who is like the beast, and who can fight against it?’” (Rev. 13:3–4).  

All these phony Christs and others like them can’t save you only the Jesus found in the Bible is capable of doing that, just as Peter said: “There is salvation in no one else; for there is no other name under Heaven that has been given among men by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:12). It’s why Jesus said, “unless you believe that I am He, you will die in your sins” (John 8:24). 

It’s awful that Richard Whitacre may have lost his life savings to a fake financial advisor, but it’s much worse if he or anyone else falls for a counterfeit Christ. Avoiding that error takes spiritual discernment and wisdom just like A. W. Tozer said: “So skilled is error at imitating truth that the two are constantly being mistaken for each other. It takes a sharp eye these days to know which brother is Cain and which Abel.”