In the late 1940s, Charles Templeton was a close friend and preaching associate of the famous evangelist, Billy Graham, and he effectively preached the gospel to large crowds in major arenas. However, intellectual doubts began to nag at him. He questioned the truth of Scripture and other core beliefs. Templeton finally abandoned his faith and made an unsuccessful attempt to persuade Billy Graham to do the same. 

Years later, a journalist interviewed him for a book he was writing. Templeton was 83 years of age at the time. The journalist asked him about Jesus, and this is what he said:

(Jesus) was the greatest human being who has ever lived. He was a moral genius. His ethical sense was unique. He was the intrinsically wisest person that I’ve ever encountered in my life or in my readings. He’s the most important thing in my life. I know it may sound strange, but I have to say I adore him! Everything good I know, everything decent I know, everything pure I know, I learned from Jesus. He is the most important human being who has ever existed. And if I may put it this way, I miss Him.

– Lee Strobel, The Case for Faith (Zondervan, 2000), pp. 7-23

And then Charles Templeton began to weep….

In Galatians 1:6, Paul says he was astonished that the believers in Galatia were quickly deserting the grace of Christ and turning to a different gospel. Templeton had turned to a different gospel – one that reduces Jesus to a great human being, a moral genius, a wise person.

In the opening verses of Galatians 1 Paul gives us a very quick, yet comprehensive outline of the Good News. “(Jesus) gave himself for our sins to deliver us from the present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father, to whom be the glory forever and ever.” The death of Christ was a substitutionary sacrifice. He died in our place and paid for our sins to deliver us, to rescue us, because we cannot save ourselves. That is the gospel.

The biblical gospel is Paul’s gospel, and Paul’s gospel is the biblical gospel, which makes it clear that the gift of salvation, from first to last, is God’s doing. It is His calling; His plan; His action; His work; His grace.  When you move away from that gospel, when you add something or subtract something from that, you promote a different gospel, which is really no gospel at all, according to Scripture. To change the Good News in the smallest amount is to lose it so completely that the new teaching has no right to be called a “gospel.” 

So what do we say to people who believe that all religions lead to heaven? We would say that’s another gospel…. What do we say to our church friends who teach that we’re saved through baptism and good works? We would say that’s another gospel…. What do we say to our friends who teach that salvation comes to those who trust in Jesus Christ and keep the Ten Commandments? We would say that’s another gospel….

What would we say to our friends who teach that you cannot be saved unless you give up smoking and drinking, that you can’t go to movies, listen to country music, or play cards if you want to be saved? I think we would say that is another gospel….

“I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting him who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel— not that there is another one, but there are some who trouble you and want to distort the gospel of Christ” (Galatians 1:6-7 ESV).

We must guard against every subtle, cunning, distorting, obscuring shift away from biblical gospel truth – those rooted in certified heresy and the so-called “prosperity gospel,” as well as those rooted in good intentions and cultural Christianity. There’s too much at stake.