“I am jealous for you with a godly jealousy.  I promised you to one husband, to Christ, so that I might present you as a pure virgin to him.  But I am afraid that just as Eve was deceived by the serpent’s cunning, your minds may somehow be led astray from your sincere and pure devotion to Christ.  For if someone comes to you and preaches a Jesus other than the Jesus we preached, or if you receive a different spirit from the Spirit you received, or a different gospel from the one you accepted, you put up with it easily enough” (2 Cor. 11:2-4).

How can the church keep herself as a pure virgin, uncompromisingly devoted to Christ?  How do we recognize a false gospel when we hear it?  Since it is easy enough to fall for the false we need some guidance.  I believe that some guidance can be found by considering a passage in Isaiah 36-37 (paralleled in 2 Kings 19).  [The Old Testament narrative is given to us so that we might have lived out examples to follow (1 Cor 10:11).]  What connects these two passages is the word ‘virgin’.  The church is a virgin and Israel is also called ‘virgin.’

To begin with, in both instances the people of God are given the designation ‘virgin’.  In the case of Israel, the nation is the ‘virgin daughter of Zion’ (Isaiah 37:22) or virgin Israel (Jer 18:13; 31:4, 24; Amos 5:2).  She is the virgin betrothed to Yahweh.  Much of the Old Testament uses the metaphor of marriage to explain the relationship between God and his people.  The virgin is expected to save herself exclusively for her husband.  Yahweh promises in Hosea 2:19-20, “And I will betroth you to me forever.  I will betroth you to me in righteousness and in justice, in steadfast love and in mercy.  I will betroth you to me in faithfulness.  And you shall know the LORD” (Hos. 2:19).  In ancient Israel betrothal was much more than engagement.  It was almost the equivalent of marriage, but the betrothed couple were yet to consummate the relationship.[1]  So virgin Israel must await the consummation of her relationship with Yahweh, and in the mean time she is to be a virgin.  That is to say, Israel was to have no other gods.  Frequent references to Israel prostituting herself to other gods makes it clear that she often did not act like a pure virgin (Exod 34:15; Lev 17:7; 20:6; Isa 1:21; Jer 2:20; Ezek 23:3, 8).  The church also must be singly devoted to Christ and not follow any false gospels.

The story in 2 Kings 19 and Isaiah 36-37 provides an object lesson for us in knowing what a false gospel looks like and in knowing how to deal with it.  In chapter 36 Sennacherib king of Assyria sends envoys to deliver a message to king Hezekiah of Judah.  The message which they delivered has many features which I believe point to what a false gospel looks like.  (I won’t quote it all as it takes us most of chapter 36.)  The first thing to notice is that the message was alleged to be backed with the authority of Yahweh.  “Furthermore, have I come to attack and destroy this land without the LORD?  The LORD himself told me to march against this country and destroy it” (Isaiah 37:10).  It is made clear later on that this is not true, but it certainly sounds authoritative.  Who can question the will of the LORD?  The same kind of authority is claimed in 2 Cor 11 by those who proclaim a false gospel.  “For such men are false apostles, deceitful workmen, masquerading as apostles of Christ.  And no wonder, for Satan himself masquerades as an angel of light” (11:13-14).  Those who proclaim a false gospel frequently do so with an air of authority.  It is impossible to tell the truth of a message simply on the basis of the confidence of the speaker, since many will bolding and confidently claim that they have authority from God, even when the message is false.

The second feature of the false gospel is that it contains an element of truth.  The envoys say, “Do not let Hezekiah mislead you when he says, ‘The LORD will deliver us.’  Have the gods of any nations ever delivered their lands from the hand of the king of Assyria?  Where are the gods of Hamath and Arpad?  Where are the gods of Sepharvaim? Have they rescued Samaria from my hand?  Who of all the gods of these countries have been able to save their lands from me?  How then can the LORD deliver Jerusalem from my hand?” (Isa 36:18-19).  This statement is true to a point.  The gods of the other nations could not deliver them from the Assyrian army, since the gods of the other nations are no gods at all.  They are idols and unable to do anything at all.  But notice that they extend this truth into falsehood, “How then can the LORD deliver Jerusalem?”  The trick to telling a plausible lie is always to include as much truth as possible.  That way it is much harder to pick that it is a lie.  A false gospel will contain much that is true, but that truth will be mixed with the lie.

The third feature of a false gospel found in Isaiah 36 is that the promises of the false gospel closely resemble those of the true gospel.  “Do not listen to Hezekiah.  This is what the king of Assyria says: Make peace with me and come out to me.  Then each of you will eat fruit from your own vine and fig tree and drink water from your own cistern, until I come and take you to a land like your own– a land of grain and new wine, a land of bread and vineyards” (Isa. 36:16 -17).  God promised Israel a spacious land flowing with milk and honey (Exod 3:8).  The land they were given had clusters of grapes so large that they had to be carried on a pole by two men (Num 13:23).  There was abundant provision in the land, hence the manna in the wilderness stopped the day they entered the land (Joshua 5:12).  What Sennacherib offered in his false gospel sounded very much like the promises of God.  Yet the promise was false.

The last feature of the false gospel is the demand to turn away from the true gospel.  The message from Sennacherib insisted, “Do not let Hezekiah mislead you when he says, ‘The LORD will deliver us’” (Isa 36:18).  We find this demand made those who preach the necessity of circumcision in addition to belief in Christ.  They caused even the apostle Peter to be afraid to live in freedom (Gal 2:12).  Paul insists that the circumcision group “must be silenced, because they are disrupting whole households by teaching things they ought not to teach– and that for the sake of dishonest gain” (Tit. 1:10).  The demands of the false gospel drag us away from the truth and cause us to do things contrary to trust in the true God.

Chapter 37 gives us some clues about how to deal with a false gospel.  “When Hezekiah heard this, he tore his clothes and put on sackcloth and went into the temple of the LORD” (37:1).  Hezekiah humbled himself.  God exalts the humble but opposes the proud (James 4:6; 1 Pet 5:5).  Humility is both the position from which to proclaim the true gospel and the one from one to understand it.  In the passage in 2 Cor 11 I began with Paul asks the church, “Was it a sin for me to lower myself in order to elevate you by preaching the gospel of God to you free of charge?” (11:7).  In this he contrasts himself with the so-called ‘super-apostles’ (11:5).  In chapter 12 Paul boasts not in his abilities and revelations, but in his weaknesses.  “Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me.  That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties.  For when I am weak, then I am strong” (12:9b-10).  Contrast this to the obvious arrogance of Sennacherib who boasted that he had conquered many nations.

Do not be afraid of the supposed authority of the arrogant who preach a false gospel.  Hezekiah sent word to the prophet Isaiah to ask for him to pray (Isaiah 37:2-4).  Isaiah responded, “This is what the LORD says: Do not be afraid of what you have heard – those words with which the underlings of the king of Assyria has blasphemed me” (37:6).  Although the purveyors of a false gospel act as if this has real authority it does not.  This why it can only ever fail to deliver on the false promises which it makes.

Hezekiah took the message from Sennacherib to the temple and prayed.  In his prayer he affirmed what is true.

“LORD Almighty, the God of Israel, enthroned between the cherubim, you alone are God over all the kingdoms of the earth.  You have made heaven and earth.   Give ear, LORD, and hear; open your eyes, LORD, and see; listen to all the words Sennacherib has sent to ridicule the living God.  It is true, LORD, that the Assyrian kings have laid waste all these peoples and their lands.  They have thrown their gods into the fire and destroyed them, for they were not gods but only wood and stone, fashioned by human hands.  Now, LORD our God, deliver us from his hand, so that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that you, LORD, are the only God” (Isa. 37:16-20).

Hezekiah worshipped the LORD.  He knew the God of Israel and rejected the false gods of other nations.  He was not fooled by the lie which Sennacherib had wrapped up in a little truth.  It is from the position of knowing what the scriptures say about the true God that Hezekiah was able to pray and see what is true.  This too is always Paul’s position regarding the gospel.  He insists that he proclaims only Christ and him crucified (1 Cor 1:23, 2:2).  When we know the scripture and know God relationally through prayer we are much less likely to fall for a false gospel.

The conclusion of the matter is that we must be people who continue in sincere devotion to Christ.  The word translated ‘sincere’ by the NIV is literally ‘simplicity’.  This suggests that a sincere devotion to Christ means having eyes for him only.  There is nothing else which can hold a candle to Jesus: no false gods; no false and empty promises; no imposing authority.  Only Jesus is worth holding on to.  So let us fix our hearts on him alone and refuse to embrace a false gospel.