Dr. Dan Hayden •
Bobby and Skippy enjoyed being identical twins. Looking alike gave them opportunity to fool people by pretending to be each other. As athletes, they were relatively small but very quick and deceptively fast. The visiting team often got confused when they played man-to-man coverage in the basketball game. Bobby’s number was 69 and Skippy’s was 96,so the mirror image numbers on their jerseys made the confusion even more amusing. Of course, the twins played it to the hilt. Running crisscross patterns zigzagging in and out, they created a maze of intrigue and deception. The guys were good, and it worked. It was all great fun.
The star of the team, however, was the center—a tall, Italian kid with a swarthy complexion draped over a competitive spirit. Vince wasn’t quick, but he was poetry in motion. He had an eye for the basket and rarely missed. Maneuvering around the key, he would patiently wait as Bobby and Skippy played havoc with the defense. Then a well-timed pass to Vince was all it took for two more points.
The twins and Vince were my friends, and I have great memories from those days. But my purpose in describing them is to emphasize the concept of comparison. In comparing Bobby and Skippy, we could say that each of them was another of the same kind—in fact, identical. Yet Vince was another of a different kind (when compared to the twins). He looked different and he acted different. You see, another can mean two separate things depending on who is being compared.
The Greek language has a way of making this distinction between similar things and things that are different. The New Testament writers could choose one of two words for another. The word allos means “another of the same kind.” Bobby and Skippy were allos when compared to each other. Heteros, on the other hand, is a word of contrast indicating something of a different nature or quality. In the basketball illustration Vince would be a heteros, another of a different.kind.
Now, understanding the distinction between allos (another of the same kind) and heteros (another of a different kind) is crucial when reading Paul’s words in Galatians 1:6-7. The King James Version simply says, “I marvel that ye are so soon removed from him that called you into the grace of Christ unto another gospel, which is not another, but there are some that trouble you, and would pervert the gospel of Christ.”
The phrase “another gospel, which is not another” seems a little confusing, doesn’t it? So, what did Paul mean by saying that? Well, Paul was writing in the Greek language, and he actually said “another [heteros] gospel, which is not another [allos].” Paul was warning the Galatians about versions of the gospel of Christ that were totally different (heteros) than the true gospel of grace. There was nothing similar (or allos) about them! The New American Standard version catches this distinction: “I am amazed that you are so quickly deserting Him who called you by the grace of Christ, for a different gospel; which is really not another…” (emphasis mine).
In our day, we need to heed this same warning. The Gnosticism of The Jesus Seminar and The Da Vinci Code are presenting themselves as the true gospel of Jesus Christ. But Paul would say that this so-called “Christian Gnosticism” is a heteros gospel rather than one that is allos. This new alternative gospel is an imposter peddling a fraud. Paul’s following words in Galatians 1:8 are worth remembering: “But even though we, or an angel from heaven, should preach to you a gospel contrary to that which we have preached to you, let him be accursed.”
That is Paul’s evaluation of “Christian Gnosticism.” It is a different kind of gospel that is not at all Christian. That being true, the gospel of The Jesus Seminar and The Da Vinci Code is “accursed.”
This article was first published in the Autumn 2004 issue of Sola Scriptura magazine.
For further study, read: The Grand Illusion – The Deception of Another Gospel