I. The Lie Masquerading as Light
The Apostle Paul warned the churches in the region of Galatia:
“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. But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed.” Galatians 1:6–8
Westboro Baptist Church embodies this very distortion, which the Apostle Paul rebuked. Cloaked in religious vocabulary, misquoting isolated verses out of context, and employing the name of Jesus, they proclaim hatred as holiness, distortion as doctrine, and condemnation as gospel. They mimic the tone of the prophets but lack their anointing; they thunder about sin but are strangers to grace.
Like the serpent in Eden, they begin with a sliver of truth — that God is holy and hates sin — and then twist that truth until it becomes a lie. Satan’s first words were not denial but modification: “Did God really say…?” (Gen. 3:1). Westboro repeats the pattern, altering the truth just enough to pervert the character and charter of Christ.
II. The Nature of Their Error
Hatred Misrepresented as Holiness
Westboro’s slogans (“God hates…” followed by a place, a people group, or a nation) betray a fundamental misunderstanding of divine hatred. Scripture declares, “The LORD examines the righteous, but the wicked, those who love violence, He hates” (Ps. 11:5). But that hatred is not capricious malice — it is judicial opposition to sin, not personal animus toward the sinner as an image-bearer (2 Peter 3:9). God’s holy hatred is not arbitrary wrath; it is His immutable justice toward all that defiles His creation.
Yet the same God who “hates all evildoers” (Ps. 5:5) is the One who “demonstrates His own love for us in this: while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Rom. 5:8). Westboro strips God of His compassion, presenting Him as a cosmic executioner rather than a Redeemer. Their theology is perverse and perverted. They view everything through a skewed lens of hatred and wrath. But wrath in the Bible is referred to as God's strange work (Strong's Hebrew 2114)... His disturbing or foreign task (Strong's Hebrew 5237).
For the LORD will rise up as at Mount Perazim. He will rouse Himself as in the Valley of Gibeon, to do His work, His strange work, and to perform His task, His foreign task. -Isaiah 28:21
They proclaim judgment without mercy, law without gospel, wrath without the cross. This is not Christianity — it is Pharisaism baptized in the Serpent’s deadly venom. And Satan's felicity erupts to ecstacy therein, because nothing repels the lost from the true Christ with greater vigor than a counterfeit bearing His name in emptiness. The adversary does not build idols of wood and stone anymore; he fashions them out of Scripture twisted, doctrine partly true, and zeal devoid of agape-love. Westboro’s message is his masterpiece of inversion—an anti-gospel crafted to make grace look weak, holiness look cruel, and God Himself to appear as the tyrannical overlord the Serpent has always accused Him of being.
By parading hatred beneath a banner of holiness, the enemy poisons the public conscience against the true Church, causing unbelievers to equate fanaticism with faith and hypocrisy with holiness. Thus, the name of Christ is blasphemed among the nations, not by pagans, but by those who claim to be His spokesmen (Rom 2:24). Their noise drowns out the melody of redemption, leaving only the shrill echo of judgment without hope—a sound that drives wounded souls further from the cross they so desperately need.
Distortion of Sexual Sin and Divorce
Westboro’s teaching that divorce and remarriage automatically equal adultery disregards the contextual exegesis of Christ’s own words. In Matthew 19:9, Jesus says:
“Whoever divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, and marries another, commits adultery.” -Matthew 19:9
The term porneia (sexual immorality) indeed is a blanket term encompassing all forms of sexual immorality — adultery, pre-marital sex, fornication, incest, bestiality, homosexuality, and more, i.e., anything apart from God's design of one man and one woman within the context of marriage. But the exception clause clarifies that divorce on the grounds of sexual immorality is permissible, though not commanded. The goal of divine law has always been redemption and restoration, not eternal condemnation of the repentant (see Deut. 24:1–4; Matt. 19:8; 1 Cor. 7:15).
Westboro ignores that the gospel announces forgiveness of all sins (apart from blasphemy against the Holy Spirit), not eternal branding or shaming. Christ’s blood cleanses repentant murderers, adulterers, liars, fornicators, and idolaters — not to license sin, but to liberate from it (1 Cor. 6:9–11). Their selective literalism amputates Scripture’s own heartbeat: grace. In doing so, they crucify the mercy of God while pretending to defend His holiness. King Jesus came to call not the self-righteous, but sinners to repentance (Luke 5:32).
The fools of Westboro are the embodiment of the Pharisee in the story of Luke 18, saying to themselves, “God, I thank You that I am not like other men—swindlers, evildoers, adulterers—or even like this tax collector.” But King Jesus clarified, “I tell you, this man (the repentant tax collector), rather than the Pharisee, went home justified. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.” The parable is prefaced with: To some who trusted in their own righteousness and viewed others with contempt, He also told this parable:
“God Hates Hawaii” — A Blasphemous Absurdity
To proclaim “God hates Hawaii” is not prophetic boldness; it is theological nonsense. God cannot “hate” a geographic location any more than He can love a boulder or forgive a cloud. Hawaii is neither moral nor immoral. What Westboro truly despises is not Hawaii but humanity — and in so doing, they demonstrate the abhorrence for the God who made humanity in His image (Gen. 1:26–27).
Yes, God hates sin — the raÊ¿ of Genesis 6:5, the total corruption and consequences of fallen humanity. But He so loved the world (kosmos, John 3:16) — the very humanity infected by that corruption — that He gave His Son. To proclaim hate while denying the offer of grace is to speak for the Serpent, not the Savior.
III. The Theological Root: Unregenerate Religion
Jesus warned of those who “honor Me with their lips, but their hearts are far from Me” (Matt 15:8). Westboro’s words drip with Scripture but lack the Holy Spirit's discernment, wisdom, and grace. They are the unregenerate religious—the very kind of legalistic Pharisees who crucified Christ in the name of righteousness. They have zeal without knowledge (Rom 10:2), judgment without mercy (James 2:13), and doctrine without love (1 Cor 13:2).
“I have told you these things so that you will not fall away. They will put you out of the synagogues. In fact, a time is coming when anyone who kills you will think he is offering a service to God. They will do these things because they have not known the Father or Me.” -John 16:1-3
Their (bad) fruit exposes their root: hatred, division, pride, and self-righteousness—the works of the flesh, not the fruit of the Spirit (Gal 5:19-23). Like Dan Brown’s The DaVinci Code fiction, their theology begins with facts but devolves into fictitious fantasy. The difference is that Brown admits his story is fiction; Westboro demands theirs be received as gospel truth!
In doing so, they fulfill the warning of 2 Cor 11:3-4, 13-15—another Jesus, another spirit, another gospel—all under Satan’s disguise as an angel of light. Their payment will be the same as it was for the nation of Israel, which the LORD rebuked in Isaiah 5:
Why, when I expected sweet grapes,
did it bring forth sour fruit?
He looked for justice,
but saw bloodshed;
for righteousness,
but heard a cry of distress.
Woe to those who call evil good
and good evil,
who turn darkness to light
and light to darkness,
who replace bitter with sweet
and sweet with bitter.
IV. The True Gospel: Grace and Truth, Not Hatred and Pride
The true gospel is not the denial of sin, but neither is it the denial of grace.
“For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.” — John 1:17
Grace and truth are inseparable; remove either and you destroy both. God’s hatred of sin culminated in the cross—His wrath poured out on His own Son so that sinners might be forgiven. To preach hatred without the cross is to preach hell without hope.
Christ’s command is not “condemn sinners,” but “disciple all nations” (Matt 28:19). His followers are to “speak the truth in love” (Eph 4:15), not weaponize Scripture to justify cruelty.
V. The Final Verdict: Anathema
Paul’s words apply verbatim:
“If anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to the one you received, let him be accursed.” — Galatians 1:9
Westboro Baptist Church’s message is, without doubt, another gospel—a graceless distortion birthed not by the Holy Spirit but by the accuser of the brethren. Their campaign of hate does not flow from divine regeneration but from spiritual death. They may bear the name “Baptist,” but they deny the very baptism of the Holy Spirit that produces love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, and self-control.
Christ’s Church must not be silent in the face of such blasphemy masquerading as boldness. The truth must be proclaimed clearly:
God is holy—and therefore hates sin.
God is love—and therefore sent His Son to redeem sinners.
God is just—and will judge those who deny, blaspheme, and pervert His gospel.
VI. The Reason Satan Uses Such Counterfeits
Westboro proclaims judgment without mercy, law without gospel, wrath without the cross. This is not Christianity—it is Pharisaism baptized in the Serpent’s deadly venom of lies and deceit. And Satan delights in it, because nothing repels the lost from the true Christ more effectively than a counterfeit masquerading as Him.
The adversary no longer builds idols of wood and stone; he fashions them from twisted Scripture, half-truth doctrines, and religious zeal devoid of love. Westboro’s message is his masterpiece of inversion—an anti-gospel crafted to make grace appear weak, holiness seem cruel, and God Himself appear as the tyrannical overlord Satan has accused Him of since Eden.
By parading hatred beneath a banner of holiness, the enemy poisons the public conscience against the true Church, causing unbelievers to equate fanaticism with faith and hypocrisy with holiness. Thus, the name of Christ is blasphemed among the nations, not by pagans, but by those claiming to be His spokesmen (Rom 2:24). Their noise drowns out the sweet melody of the GOSPEL'S redemption, leaving, like nails on a chalkboard, only the shrill echo of judgment without hope—a sound that drives wounded souls further from the cross we all so desperately need.
VII. The Opposite Counterfeit: The Gospel of License
If Westboro’s false gospel is law without grace, the modern “hyper-grace” movement is its mirror image: grace without law, mercy without truth, “love” without holiness. Both are satanic distortions; both deny the regenerating power of the cross.
Across much of the modern West, pulpits are now filled with self-appointed voices preaching a Christ who demands nothing, a salvation that costs nothing, and a holiness that transforms nothing. They speak of “love,” but strip it of repentance; they call for “inclusion,” but exclude obedience. They celebrate “authenticity” while rejecting the crucifixion of the flesh. In their gatherings, sin is not confessed—it is affirmed, proudly paraded, and rebranded as identity.
“Having purified your souls by obedience to the truth for a sincere brotherly love, love one another earnestly from a pure heart.” — 1 Peter 1:22
Love that is not purified by obedience to the imperishable truth of God's WORD is not love at all—it is sentimentality baptized in rebellion. The “love” that tolerates sin mocks the love that died to destroy it. King Jesus did not endure the cross to affirm sinners in their sin, but to redeem sinners from it. Grace is not moral amnesty; it is divine transformation.
“What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it?” — Romans 6:1–2
“For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation… training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age.” — Titus 2:11–12
Grace that does not train, sanctify, and crucify the old man (our fleshy former selves born of the perishable) is not biblical. It is spiritual anesthesia—numbing sinners in their death rather than raising them to newness of life. The hyper-grace gospel denies regeneration just as surely as Westboro denies compassion. It exalts self-expression over self-denial and calls rebellion “authenticity.”
“If anyone would come after Me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow Me.” — Luke 9:23
The Same Serpent, Different Mask
Westboro’s venom and the hyper-grace delusion flow from different sides of the same serpent’s forked tongue. One perverts holiness into hatred; the other perverts love into license. Both blaspheme the Word of God—one by legalism, the other by libertinism. One proclaims wrath without mercy; the other proclaims mercy without wrath. But the gospel of Jesus Christ is neither indulgence nor intolerance; it is incarnational—the Word made flesh, full of grace and truth (John 1:14). There is no balancing act. It's not about what percentage of each makes a culturally acceptable gospel. It's 100% grace, and 100% truth. Everything else is an abomination... an anathema.
“Do not turn to the right or to the left; keep your foot from evil.” — Proverbs 4:27
Here lies the narrow way of life—flanked on both sides by putrescence, destruction, decay, and death. Without the Holy Spirit’s guidance, every man drifts either into prideful self-righteousness on the right or permissive self-indulgence on the left. Both are deviations from the narrow path of truth; both are manifestations of the flesh, not the fruit of the Spirit. Legalism seeks righteousness apart from grace; license seeks grace apart from righteousness. But true obedience is neither human effort nor human excuse—it is the supernatural outworking of regeneration, the life of Christ formed in those born of imperishable seed.
“You have been born again, not of perishable seed but of imperishable, through the living and abiding word of God… for ‘All flesh is like grass and all its glory like the flower of grass. The grass withers, and the flower falls, but the word of the Lord remains forever.’” — 1 Peter 1:23–25
All false gospels—whether the harsh pride of Westboro or the hollow softness of hyper-grace—are perishable. They wither with the flesh that birthed them. But the true gospel endures because it is not of man but of God—the imperishable Word made flesh, crucified and risen, who alone regenerates the heart. Christ is not one option among many; He is the Way, the Truth, and the Life (John 14:6). Every detour to the right or left is death. Only the straight path of obedience to the living Word leads to life everlasting.
Truth without grace condemns; grace without truth corrupts. Only together, perfectly united in the Spirit, do they redeem.
“Strive for peace with everyone, and for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord.” — Hebrews 12:14
Therefore, the true Church must stand against both perversions—the legalism that kills and the license that corrupts. For neither hatred masquerading as holiness nor indulgence masquerading as love can save the soul. Only the unmodified gospel—the imperishable Word, the living Christ—has power to regenerate the dead and purify the heart.
VIII. The Church’s Call: To Proclaim the Unmodified Word
Both of these counterfeits—the venom of legalistic hatred and the sugar of lawless indulgence—are forged in the same infernal furnace. The enemy of souls is not creative; he merely counterfeits. He cannot extinguish the light of the gospel, so he floods the world with false lights. He clothes rebellion in religious garb, giving Pharisees pulpits and rebels microphones, so that each, in his own way, distorts the face of Christ before a watching world. One drives sinners from grace by cruelty; the other blinds them to judgment by flattery. Both lead to death.
Therefore, the Church of the living God must neither mimic the world’s hatred nor accommodate its sin. The saints are not called to be editors of Scripture but echoes of it—declaring the whole counsel of God without omission, addition, or apology. The call is not to modernize the message but to magnify the immutable Word, for:
“All flesh is like grass, and all its glory like the flower of grass; the grass withers and the flower falls, but the Word of the Lord endures forever.” — 1 Peter 1:24-25
Let the faithful remember: it is not enough to defend the truth intellectually (orthodoxy) if we deny it practically (orthopraxy). The unmodified gospel must be both proclaimed and embodied—our lips and our lives aligned under its authority. The saints’ holiness must expose legalism’s hypocrisy, and our grace must expose antinomianism’s deceit. The Bride of Christ must shine with a light that is not her own, reflecting the uncreated glory of the One who bought her with His blood.
For the world is not starving for a new religion; it is starving for reality—the reality of supernatural regeneration from above, the living, breathing, authentic witness of men and women crucified with Christ and raised to newness of life. When the Church ceases to modify, dilute, or market the message and simply declares, “Thus says the Lord,” the Holy Spirit does what no program or platform ever could: He awakens the dead (Ezk 36:26).
Let the Church return to her first commission—proclaim the gospel of the Kingdom with unbending fidelity, unmixed purity, and unashamed boldness. Let us preach Christ crucified, not as a slogan but as a summons. For in the end, there is no middle road between rebellion and regeneration, no third category of “almost-Christian.” There is only one name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved (Acts 4:12)... the name that is above every name... Jesus, the Christ, the Lamb slain from the foundation of the cosmos. He died not to shame or condemn, but to bless the underserving with the gift of everlasting life.
People everywhere know about Westboro and their lies, but the real question is, will anyone hear the truth from you?
Blessing & love,
Kevin M. Kelley
Pastor
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