False Jesus by Kent Chevalier
False Jesus
Why False Jesus?
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Why False Jesus?

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“PK, why does God hate gay people?” I sat across the table from a massive NFL player, and his eyes were sincere with a genuine curiosity that expressed an underlying emotional pain. I said, “Why do you think God hates gay people?" with an intuitive discernment of why he was asking. He shared that one of his family members was a lesbian and went on to tell me that he heard some Christians (including a pastor) say that God hates all homosexuals.

Ugh! This could not be further from the truth.

This is a real example of the “why” behind False Jesus. So many of us have an inaccurate view of God, Jesus, and Christianity based on someone’s opinion. In our social media culture, people are forming what I call a Twitter Theology. 30-second video clips of a sermon inform their belief about Jesus. 140 characters of misguided contextualization mold their opinion of Christianity. Instagram posts are full of false information about God, but many receive it as truth.

Twitter Theology is ruining generations for the true person of Jesus Christ. Biblical illiteracy is so pervasive in the Church and world today, and a lack of biblical understanding of who God is will continue to cripple our future neighborhoods and nations.

I am going to be digging deeper into this concept of Twitter Theology in future newsletters, so stay tuned.

I hope that False Jesus will become an online relational journey that points us back to what Jesus said about Himself, His character, His nature, and His ways. Of course, I’ll share my opinions and interpretation, and I assume you will too, but my goal will always be to point us to what God has revealed in the Bible, His inspired words to us. I want people to understand the character, ways, and mission of Jesus by reading the Scriptures for themselves. I don’t want you to take my word for it. I want you to take Jesus’ word for it.

When I was 18, a college professor challenged me to read the entire Bible. I had never done that before. It was an intimidating project, and it took me well over a year to complete. I didn’t understand most of what I was reading, so this professor spent every week for four years helping to explain what I was struggling to comprehend. I didn’t realize it at the time, but now I know that he was discipling me in the ways, character, and mission of Jesus. Once he helped me to understand the truths revealed in the Scriptures, he also gently guided me to obey what Jesus taught.

I have been a student of the Bible ever since, and I’ll be the first to admit that parts of the Bible are extremely hard to understand. The 66 “books” of the Old Testament and New Testament can be very frustrating to decipher, contextualize and comprehend. This is why you and I need trusted people to guide us into a clear understanding of what God actually said and how this impacts our lives today.

My mentor, Dave Buehring, shared this ☝🏽 truth with me. The major problem I want to address in this monthly newsletter is that most of us have an inaccurate “image of God” that has been passed on to us from someone with a false image of God, and we then base our beliefs and live our lives founded on their false portrayal. This is how an NFL player (and so many other people I know and love) can believe God hates gay people! No wonder there’s a ton of confusion and questions. It’s because they stem from deep pain rooted in a false image of God.

Answer the Question!

“PK, why does God hate gay people?” Here was my answer then, and it’s still my answer now. God does not hate gay people because God does not hate anyone.

How do I know this and how can you be certain of this?

Please don’t just take my word for it. Read God’s words for yourself…

“God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.” ~ John 3:16-17 ESV

"Your love, Lord, reaches to the heavens, your faithfulness to the skies. Your righteousness is like the highest mountains, your justice like the great deep. You, Lord, preserve both people and animals. How priceless is your unfailing love, O God! People take refuge in the shadow of your wings." ~ Psalm 36:5-7 NIV

“God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” ~ Romans 5:8 NIV

Notice that God’s love is for ALL people! There is no cultural label or lifestyle that God’s love doesn’t cover. God lavishes His love onto the LGBTQ+ community in the same way as the heterosexual community. God loves Pittsburgh Steelers fans in the same way He loves Cleveland Browns fans 😉. God’s love doesn’t have cultural barriers. God’s love is not limited to a certain race, economic class, nationality, or NFL fanbase. God loves ALL people.

Humans are the ones who hate other humans. We are the ones who label and disqualify people from God’s love, so the better question to ask is, “Why does God even love people?”

We learn in 1 John 4:8 that “God is love.” Love is God’s nature, and He has never created a person in this world He does not love. This includes my NFL buddy’s family member. God knows how to love us perfectly because God is love.

And therein lies the massive difference. We cannot love as God does. God’s perfect love is unbiased, and our love is not.

So, the next time a person with a twisted image of God in their heart and mind egregiously throws out that God hates a person, you and I can be 100% certain that they’re preaching and representing a False Jesus.


Before you go…

Before I end this first newsletter, I feel the need to say this. I believe there’s an inherent limitation in all of us to believe in a False Jesus. I want to be careful lest I portray that I have this all figured out. I don’t. And you don’t either.

You and I would be extremely arrogant to project that we know everything there is to know about God, Jesus, and Christianity. No one can know everything there is to know about God.

I am not a Bible scholar, and I will not pretend to be one in this space. There are many people who are a whole lot smarter and know so much more about theology than I do. You might be one of them, and I welcome your grace-filled feedback.

My heart in this False Jesus journey is to point us back to what Jesus said about Himself. May we all be disciplined to examine God’s word, the Bible, for ourselves.

Don’t take my word for it. Take God’s word for it.


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  • I will include a reflection or poem in certain newsletters. If you like it, share it. Just do me a solid and quote me. 👊🏽


Start with Me

A reflection on Psalm 139:23-24

by Kent Chevalier

Start with me. On my knees. Start with my heart before I try to do my part. If You see any offensive way, may I learn to stay in a posture of submission and join You on Your mission rather than to push my own agenda and spew my own opinion. May the words I say and the things I do be pleasing to You and honoring to those You’ve called me to...to love and respect. To cherish and embrace every color, nationality, voice, and race. In my disagreements may everything I do be laced with love and dripped with grace, re-presenting you in every space, because where I go, You go. When I speak, I do so on behalf of the One who keeps saving me. So, search me, God. I give you permission to call me out on the way I’ve been actin’. Cleanse me. Rebuke me. Correct me and change me because I know this world needs a lot more of You and a whole lot less of me.


The best way to help a person discover the character, ways, and mission of Jesus for themselves is to introduce them to God’s word, the Bible. We have more access to the Scriptures than at any other time in history.

However…

Did you know that 1 billion people live in Bible poverty? That’s billion with a B! Of the 7,000+ languages spoken around the world today, approximately 3,675 have little or no Scripture. illumiNations is working to change this reality.

illumiNations is a collective impact alliance of Bible translation partners and resource partners working together to eradicate Bible poverty in this generation. Their goal is to make the Bible accessible to all people by 2033!

I was made aware of this alliance at PAO’s Increase Conference a few weeks ago. I wanted to let you know about this organization in case you also wanted to get involved in this Kingdom advancing effort.

visit illumiNations

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False Jesus by Kent Chevalier
False Jesus
A podcast to examine Jesus and Christianity for ourselves. Together, we might discover many things we learned or think are simply not true.
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