I doesn’t happen only on car lots—it can happen in the church as well. A church advertises that it offers the very latest in Christian wares, only to try to offer you something else when you arrive at its door. The cults do it. The liberals do it. Shallow church marketers do it. Indeed, when you come to think of it, there are few-other than the scrupulously biblical churches—that don’t.

I don’t say that it is always intentional—though it may be with some of the fringe groups out to make a buck—or a thousand!

Yes, it happens.

For instance, the Mormons are in the business of purporting to be Christians these days. But when the story of Mormonism is told, you discover that it is supposed to be the restoration of a faith that had been lost for centuries. That can’t be Christianity, or what the Bible talks about. Jesus said that the gates of hell cannot prevail against true Christianity. It didn’t disappear from the earth for centuries. Moreover, biblical Christians believe in one God; not in an infinite number of gods as the Mormons do. I could go on citing the differences. But you get the idea.

Now, as I said initially, it isn’t only the cults that do this. You can find it in other places as well. The liberals claim to be Christians but their writings and preaching make it absolutely clear that, as J. Gresham Machen, put it, they teach another religion. They are not Christians though they misrepresent themselves as such. To deny every major tenet of the Christian faith and then call yourself a Christian—especially if’s to reap the benefits that such deception provides—is a bait and switch maneuver of the rankest sort.

I could go on but you get the point. If you want to know what true Christianity looks like, and avoid the bait-and-switchers, then you need to determine whether or not what any given group teaches is biblical. That’s the Berean approach to the question, and if you are wise it will be yours.

What’s a Berean? Start your Bible search right there-read Acts 17:10-12 and find out.