This is the gospel. That all who believe in Him shall have eternal life. Not those who vote Republican. Before this past election you had prominent apostate preachers like Mario Murillo and Greg Locke write that unless you were planning on voting as they ordered you to, you were going to hell. Literally. Jack Hibbs took it even further by saying even if you chose to not vote at all, you were hell bound. Even the recently disgraced Dr. Michael Brown wrote that he saw no way a Christian could not vote Republican. What this does is flip these verses on their head. The gospel is simply he who believes in Him, not he who votes for Donald Trump, or any political candidate. Likewise, the gospel is not all of the other things we make it in this country. It is not about my authority, my power, or my money. The truly sad verse here is when Jesus says - you have seen me and yet do not believe. The path that leads to destruction is broad because there are a lot of people on it.
41 So the Jews grumbled about him, because he said, "I am the bread that came down from heaven." 42 They said, "Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How does he now say, 'I have come down from heaven'?" 43 Jesus answered them, "Do not grumble among yourselves. 44 No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. And I will raise him up on the last day. 45 It is written in the Prophets, 'And they will all be taught by God.' Everyone who has heard and learned from the Father comes to me-- 46 not that anyone has seen the Father except he who is from God; he has seen the Father. 47 Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes has eternal life. 48 I am the bread of life. 49 Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died. 50 This is the bread that comes down from heaven, so that one may eat of it and not die. 51 I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. And the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh." 52 The Jews then disputed among themselves, saying, "How can this man give us his flesh to eat?" 53 So Jesus said to them, "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. 54 Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day. 55 For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink. 56 Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him. 57 As the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so whoever feeds on me, he also will live because of me. 58 This is the bread that came down from heaven, not like the bread[c] the fathers ate, and died. Whoever feeds on this bread will live forever." 59 Jesus[d] said these things in the synagogue, as he taught at Capernaum. 60 When many of his disciples heard it, they said, "This is a hard saying; who can listen to it?" 61 But Jesus, knowing in himself that his disciples were grumbling about this, said to them, "Do you take offense at this? 62 Then what if you were to see the Son of Man ascending to where he was before? 63 It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh is no help at all. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life. 64 But there are some of you who do not believe." (For Jesus knew from the beginning who those were who did not believe, and who it was who would betray him.) 65 And he said, "This is why I told you that no one can come to me unless it is granted him by the Father." 66 After this many of his disciples turned back and no longer walked with him. 67 So Jesus said to the twelve, "Do you want to go away as well?" 68 Simon Peter answered him, "Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life, 69 and we have believed, and have come to know, that you are the Holy One of God." 70 Jesus answered them, "Did I not choose you, the twelve? And yet one of you is a devil." 71 He spoke of Judas the son of Simon Iscariot, for he, one of the twelve, was going to betray him.
The bread of life. Yet one of the saddest verses in the bible is verse 66 - After this many of his disciples turned back and no longer walked with him. How profoundly sad. The exclusivity of Jesus Christ will always drive people away because we like being our own god. They had just seen the feeding of the five thousand. They had seen the miracles. They had heard the teaching. One tough lesson and they turned back and no longer walk with Him. The reason why hundreds and thousands of people follow a Joel Osteen is because there are no tough lessons. The reason why so many are trapped in Hillsong, Bethel or Elevation is because there are no tough lessons. It is always a blessing chasing, stupidnatural, God wants to bless your socks off theology. The very first word Jesus spoke in His ministry was repent, but most preachers today will never say that word. Or they will pay the purpose driven life lip service to it. Seven words and a cloud of dust followed by arrogantly welcoming them to the family of God. They are promised heaven in exchange for ten percent of their money, service in a ministry, and a promise that they never have to actually change anything. No tough lessons to speak of.
What do we say to that then? Jesus is saying to us all, do you want to go away as well? We need to remember Simon Peter's answer. When the prosperity hucksters try to sell you all the wealth of this world, our answer needs to be why would we go away from Jesus since He has the words of eternal life? When the dominionist charlatan tries to sell hate and the division of carnal politics, we need to respond, why would we go away from Jesus since He has the words of eternal life? When Bethelites and their ilk try to sell us false signs and lying wonders we need to respond, why would we go away from Jesus since He has the words of eternal life? When the NAR heretic tries to sell us on false authority paradigms and lofty titles, we need to respond, why would we go away from Jesus since He has the words of eternal life? The sugar-coated gospel saves no one. When Paul said goodbye to the Ephesian elders in Acts 20, he said he was innocent of their blood because he did not hesitate to declare to them the entire gospel. The inference is clear. Less than the entire gospel results in the opposite of eternal life. Jesus gave us the words of eternal life. Yet we abandon the gospel so quickly chasing the carnality of this world brought to us by false teachers preaching a false Jesus contained in a false gospel.
Do you want to go away as well?
Where would I go?
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