I am not a Vlogger. I get self-conscious about how many chins will show up on camera and about halfway through the videos I’ve done in the past, I end up speaking with a syrupy Southern drawl. Apparently when I get nervous, I channel Paula Deen. It’s bad.

Sometimes you just have to stick with what you know, so I write. I often get the feeling I’ve been shadow-banned and no one can see what I post. Or maybe people just hate it and are too polite to say so, or conversely like it but are too afraid to publicly agree.

It doesn’t matter. I like “likes” as much as the next person, unfortunately, but if what I write honors the Lord, that has to be enough. It is actually the only thing that truly matters. Hopefully what I write will be helpful to someone along the way.

I write because deception is the name of the game these days. Call me crazy but when we call blatant nonsense “truth”, a pervasive spiritual blindness might be to blame.

There’s a lot of really great-sounding ideas out there grabbing hold of people right and left. People I love. Whether “the answer” to whatever of life’s problems seems most pressing right now is packaged in the form of social justice, or politics, or self-actualization, I am here to tell you that none of these things have the power to effect the heart-transformation and peace found in the gospel.

The truth of life: “Why are we here and what do we do?” is answered truthfully only in light of God’s word. Jesus says clearly, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father except through me.” Do you know what “no one” means? It means NO ONE. You might have the kindest heart or the lowest carbon footprint. You can stand for the marginalized or animal rights and be a devoted Buddhist, Muslim, or secular humanist. Maybe you even turn off the water while you’re brushing your teeth!

None of it will save you, and apart from Christ none of our good works will amount to a hill of beans in God’s kingdom. Would God rather you adopt an orphan than kick a puppy? Of course! But what I am trying to say is our best day of righteousness is still colored by self-congratulatory pride and sin of all kind. And if you murder someone but are a great person most every other day, you’re still a murderer who deserves punishment. This goes for all sin. None of us will walk (or float?) into heaven based on our own goodness or our own subjective measurement of morality.

In fact, there is no worldview, no matter how soft, no matter how shiny, that can oppose the gospel and not be from hell.

Why? Because any worldview not teaching repentance and faith in Jesus is not merely a harmless repackaging of the same truth. It’s a straight up lie.

We even see it in “Christian“ circles these days: the Hatmakers and Doyles and Bolz-Webers and Osteens and countless others platformed snake-charmers telling people that holiness is optional and the really important thing is not to hurt anyones’ feelings. “Don’t worry!”, they say to millions of impressionable,undiscerning sponges , “That ‘Go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Teach these new disciples to obey all the commands I have given you’ thing Jesus said is a actually a mistranslation of “Be a great human at the forefront of social issues and current events! ” and when he said ‘those who love me keep my commands’, he probably meant, “Keep sinning! You’ve got fire insurance and God really just wants you to find yourself! It’s ok if you land in a spot the Bible calls sin..no one actually trusts the authority of Scripture these days!” These twistings of Scripture echo the oldest deception in the book : “Did God really say…?”.

This type of Christianity isn’t Christianity any more than Islam is. It leads you to trust in yourself; either your outward good deeds or the “god(dess) within”. It might be new-age, or it might be activism, but it isn’t repentance and faith in Christ alone. It is not the gospel. Run from it.

Whatever makes little of Jesus and much of ourselves will ultimately betray us. The road to hell is shoulder-to-shoulder with people who think they know better than God. Don’t be one of them.

Faith in Christ alone, by grace alone. Park there, and don’t let anyone tell you anything different.

Angela