The Gospel Doesn’t Need Add-Ons or Subtractions

Theology
1

Jesus wasn’t just correcting the religious leaders of His day in Matthew 16. He was launching a flare into the heart of every generation to come.

They will come for signs. Bread. Miracles. Comfort. Ease. Not truth. But they’ll balk when Scripture begins to slice into their hearts. Jesus says it exactly how it is. “A wicked and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign” ~Matthew 16:4. The issue has never been lack of evidence. It has been love of control and love of resistance.

False teaching rarely comes disguised as denying Jesus. That would be too easy. False teaching comes cloaked in spirituality while subtly shifting definitions of obedience, faith, and truth. That is why Jesus said what He did about leaven. It works unseen and slowly over time. It transforms everything from within.

Some add to the gospel. Rules that God never gave. Requirements Jesus never said were necessary. Others take away. They water down sin. Negate God’s power. Or drain Scripture of any authority. Opposite approaches. Same threat. Leaven both ways. Paul warns us about this when he says, “If any man preach any other gospel unto you than that ye have received, let him be accursed” ~Galatians 1:9.

They will call for signs while God has already spoken. But Jesus gives us the standard. “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God” ~Matthew 4:4.

Intelligence. Background. Sincerity. This is not about any of those things. This is about who we are submitting to. The warning stands. Beware of leaven. Guard the purity of the gospel. Stay tethered to Scripture and not religious rhetoric.

2

I actually agree with the warning Jesus gives about leaven—but where we part ways is what counts as leaven and who gets to define it.

In Gospel of Matthew 16, Jesus is not rebuking people for obeying Scripture or responding to conviction. He is rebuking people who demand signs while refusing submission. The irony is that obedience to what God has already spoken is never called leaven by Jesus—resistance is. When Scripture “slices into the heart,” the proper response is not to redefine obedience as legalism, but to yield.

You’re right that false teaching rarely comes by openly denying Jesus. But it also doesn’t only come by adding rules. It just as often comes by redefining faith until obedience is optional, repentance is minimized, and the Spirit’s work is assumed rather than received. That too is leaven—quiet, respectable, and cloaked in spiritual language. When the gospel is reduced to mental assent alone, Scripture’s own commands are slowly drained of force while still being quoted.

Galatians 1 is a serious warning—but Paul’s concern there is not obedience to Christ’s commands. It is human merit replacing Christ’s work. Repentance is never presented as earning. Baptism is never presented as payment. Receiving the Holy Spirit is explicitly called a gift. Calling those responses “rules God never gave” only works if we first decide that the apostles didn’t mean what they said when they answered sinners under inspiration.

And this is where the appeal to “sign-seeking” becomes misplaced. No one is asking for new signs. The issue is whether we allow Scripture to testify to what God did when the Spirit was received. Pointing to biblical evidence recorded by Luke is not demanding miracles—it is refusing to pretend the record doesn’t exist.

When Jesus says man lives by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God, that includes the words spoken through Peter on the day of Pentecost, through Ananias to Saul, and through Paul to new converts—not only Paul’s later theological summaries written to churches already established in Christ. Staying tethered to Scripture means letting all of it speak, not elevating some portions as “definition” while dismissing others as “mere report.”

So yes—beware of leaven. But leaven isn’t careful obedience.
Leaven is redefining faith so that conviction has no demanded response.
Leaven is calling apostolic instruction “error” because it won’t fit a system.
Leaven is warning against “adding” while quietly subtracting what Scripture plainly records.

Guarding the purity of the gospel doesn’t mean stripping it down to the minimum we’re comfortable with. It means letting the whole counsel of God stand—even when it cuts.

3

The world has decided that they want the truth to be relevant. Why? Because if they can change the truth whenever they become uncomfortable, then all is good. Used to be this country was founded on the Gospel of Jesus. Then we got the fictitious wall of separation. Used to be God is God. Now, any god or no god is ok.

If you accept the world’s attempt to make truth relative, then you join them in celebrating sin. You must be careful, child of God.

“The LORD is near to all who call on him, to all who call on him in truth.” Psalms 145:18

This does not mean my truth, your truth, or their truth. It means THE Truth. Not swaying with the world and trying to figure out what to believe. That was wrong, but now it is right? This was sin, now there is no sin? No.

“Dear children, let us not love with words or speech but with actions and in truth.” 1 John 3:18

I know, I know, sometimes when you are trying to witness someone, they tell you that your truth is not for them. They try to tell you things like it’s this or that year. You are old-fashioned and out of date in your beliefs. Truth has changed, and this or that is not acceptable, and if you say differently, then YOU are the one with the problem. You are hateful.

This is the whole reason we are called to be children of God.

“He chose to give us birth through the word of truth, that we might be a kind of firstfruits of all he created.” James 1:18

How can you have the right mind if you know nothing of God, Jesus, The Word, etc? You truly can’t. First, you must have a solid foundation. What is Spirit? Who is God? Who is Jesus? Is this stuff real? Did Jesus really rise from the dead? Without a foundation, you will never grow in faith. Most likely, you will fall for the lies.

Peter

4

This warning about adding to the Word is found in Revelation 22:18

“For I testify to everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book: If anyone adds to these things, God will add to him the plagues that are written in this book;”

In the beginning of Revelation there is a blessing to anyone who reads or hears the message and in the end there is that warning to anyone who adds to the message. As far as I know, this is the only book in the Bible to carry such a blessing and warning. Why do you think that is??

6 
Johan,

By doing the "code within the code"
is causing glitching on my end. 

I see what you're trying to do, but
beware the issues. 

Up to you though.
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7

Was worth a try though @Joe-Also thank you brother.

J.

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9

I believe that it is because it has not happened yet. To be “blessed” is to inhabit a state of divine favor that remains untouched by the chaos of the world. While happiness is a fickle emotion tied to external events, true blessedness is an internal anchor. It is a self-contained peace granted by God rather than earned through earthly knowledge.

Those who are blessed find their sufficiency in the Divine, making them immune to the shifting winds of circumstance or the hollow promises of worldly allure. We are not fear the ever increasing chaotic world. Because this quality originates in God’s own nature, it is a spiritual wholeness that the world neither provides nor can take away. Jesus made these statements to us.

“I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world, you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.” John 16:33

“Then if anyone says to you, ‘Look, here is the Christ!’ or ‘There he is!’ do not believe it. For false christs and false prophets will arise and perform great signs and wonders, so as to lead astray, if possible, even the elect. See, I have told you beforehand.” Matthew 24:23-25

We have the foreknowledge of what is to come, how it is to come, and the fact that it is coming. The world will get more chaotic, the world will be confused, and in fear, we shall be blessed.

Peter

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