I Never Knew You!

I. Introduction

In this article I wish to challenge you about whether or not you have a form of counterfeit Christianity, or a real and biblical relationship with Christ in the way He described the kind of relationship which results in eternal life. If you were given a Rolex watch and an expensive counterfeit, would you know the difference? If you were given a counterfeit $100 bank note, would you, without the proper training, be able to tell if it was real or worthless? 

In the same way, if you were involved in a form of counterfeit Christianity that has no power to save you, would you know and be able to find the real thing? At the beginning of 2025, 31% of all the people in the world claim to be ‘Christians’, about 2.4 billion. The vast majority of these people have traditions, rituals, sacraments, their specific denomination, they may own six bibles, or no Bible and just observe festivals, holy days, and various religious practices, but still have no biblical relationship with Jesus Christ. In Matthew 7, Jesus said this:

13 Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. 14 But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it. (Matthew 7:13-14)

2.4 billion people is not a few, therefore, either Jesus got it wrong, or most professing Christians have not passed through the small gate onto the narrow road that leads to life. And let’s be clear. Destruction means being destroyed in hell, and life means eternal life, there is no third option. Matthew 7 contains some of the most sobering warnings from the mouth of Jesus. Consider these words.

21 “Not everyone who says to me ‘Lord, Lord’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. 22 Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and in your name perform many miracles?’ 23 Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’ (Matthew 7:21-23)

Jesus is speaking of the Day of Judgment when every person will stand before Him. Those defending their salvation point to three acts; prophesying, casting out demons and performing miracles, all of which necessitate a form of supernatural power. In this case, these people claim that the power they used to perform these acts was authority in the name of Jesus. But Jesus calls these people ‘evildoers’ and orders them out of His presence because He did not know them. Many Christians, if they see a person performing these kinds of acts in Jesus’ name, not only assume they are genuine Christians, but put them on a pedestal as powerful Christian leaders. In truth, most of them may simply be ego-centric people obsessed with spiritual power and demonically deceived.

II. Two Principles

For our purposes, I want us to see two principles in these verses.

1. That only those who do the will of God will enter the kingdom of heaven.

2. That if you do not know Jesus Christ personally, you may hear the words, ‘away from me’ or ‘depart from me’. Such people were on the wide road that leads to eternal destruction.

In His prayer in John 17, Jesus said:

Now this is eternal life: that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent. (John 17:3)

These two principles of knowing Christ and doing His will are intrinsically tied together, for unless we truly know Christ, we will not be filled with Christ and have His strength to live in His will. Furthermore, we can say that if a person does not truly know Christ, they will not love Christ, He will not be their ‘first love’, and therefore, they will not be fulfilling the greatest commandment to love the Lord with their whole being.

Why is it that so many professing Christians, have no real and intimate relationship with Christ? My answer is that they have never experienced new birth, never experienced being ‘born again’. And right now, there are some listening to or reading this who are saying, ‘new birth is not an experience, it’s a condition’. Not surprisingly, all those, such as Calvinists, Lutherans and Catholics, who deny that new birth is an experience, are simply testifying they have never experienced new birth. 

Calvinists don’t know the difference between regeneration, a word meaning new birth, and revelation, and claim one has to be regenerated before they can even seek God or exercise faith in any way. They criticize anyone who claims they actually communicate with the Lord and tell people that God speaks only through the Bible. This means that until about 1500 years after the Church began, 99% of Christians could not communicate with God as none had a Bible. Contrary to Calvinist claims, those who have experienced new birth know what it means to be ‘led by the Spirit’, taught and counseled by the Spirit, as Jesus promised we would. The New Testament was never written as an alternative to being led by the Spirit, but much of it was written to correct those who were being deceived. Jesus wasn’t exaggerating or lying when He said, ‘my sheep hear my voice’.

Lutherans post dozens of videos trying to prove that regeneration, new birth, comes about through water baptism, a doctrine I will address in a later video. They also criticize evangelicals for focusing on their experience of new birth and proudly emphasize their Augustinian traditions. They believe that babies are born again when baptized and fundamentally, their entire doctrine of salvation is based on rituals, traditions, and sacraments. One can watch and listen to dozens of sermons from Lutherans and never hear about knowing Christ personally, loving Christ as first love, or being led by the Holy Spirit. Again, those who teach that new birth is not a powerful existential experience of meeting Christ, being filled with Christ and loving Christ, are always those who have never met Him, been filled with Him, or passionately love Him.

Catholicism, in my opinion, is one of the worst examples of counterfeit Christianity in all of Church history, and like the Calvinists and Lutherans, is grounded in Augustine’s heretical ideas. This so-called ‘church’ is responsible for banning the Bible from people, for murdering those who tried to translate it for the common people, a power hungry institution with the blood of millions of innocents on its hands. 

For many centuries, pagans were usually given two options: submit to a corrupt, power hungry pope, or lose your head. The vast majority of Catholics put their faith in dead saints, relics, Mary, confessing to a priest now and again, and are forced to ‘pray’ as a form of penance. To find a born again Catholic is more difficult than finding a needle in a haystack. 

Orthodox Christians, where I serve in Ukraine, are baptized as infants, most have never owned or opened a Bible, are told if they get ‘born again’ as evangelicals are and get baptized again, they are going to hell. They put their faith in priests, kiss icons, view relics, celebrate some pseudo-pagan traditions, but have no real relationship with Jesus Christ whatsoever, indeed most think that is just for the priests.

But we also have modern extremes, especially in America, those such as the Free-grace movement. These people teach that a person can, quote, ‘just believe, live any old way they like, and still go to heaven’, unquote. They also claim that apostates, those who later deny Christ entirely, will also go to heaven. In this cult, a person is not required to repent, not required to obey Christ, can reject Christ as Lord, and yet, God must grant them eternal life because they believe He died and rose again. The bottom line of Free-grace adherents is this: ‘I will submit to God only as I see fit, but He must give me eternal life for believing Jesus died and rose again for my sins’. Their condemnation is deserved.

Another popular extreme is the New Apostolic Reformation, hyper Pentecostals who are absolutely obsessed with supernatural power. These people claim that they have the power to raise the dead, heal the sick on command and basically do everything Jesus did, indeed they sound like the many from Mathew 7:21-23. In reality, most of their claims are simply lies, such as that angel feathers and gold dust fall on them during meetings, yet, for some reason not a single feather has been produced for DNA testing. Such ‘evildoers’ will hear the words, ‘away from me’.

As I asked at the beginning of this article, how do you know whether or not you have a form of counterfeit Christianity, or a real and biblical relationship with Christ in the way He described the kind of relationship which results in eternal life. The first thing you need to ask yourself is if you truly want a real relationship with Him? In a recent video/article explaining Jesus’ parable of the hidden treasure and pearls, I explained Jesus’ requirements for finding and knowing Him. He will not be found by those who do not seek with all their hearts, and also, He will require you submit your life, your will, and your future to Him as Lord and Savior.

Eternal life in Christ could be described like a courtship and marriage. We may spend years seeking the person we want to court, then months getting to know this person, and only then do we commit our life to them until death. We are joined to them in marriage because we love them and cannot imagine living our lives without them. Christ calls us to seek Him, get to know Him, and then submit our lives to Him as Lord and Savior, by faith. This will require us to deny self, take up our cross and follow Him. The gate is small and the road narrow, but this is the road to eternal life in Christ. If we ask Him, He will reveal Himself to us, we will see our hopeless slavery to sin as He sees it and we will want nothing more than to be free. Jesus said, ‘if the Son sets you free you will be free indeed’.

The moment you unconditionally surrender to Christ as Lord and Savior, you will experience His immeasurable love, His peace and a joy you cannot express. The divine nature will take up permanent residence within you and you will know the leading of the Holy Spirit, guiding, teaching and also convicting you when you sometimes fail. You will know assurance of your salvation because your life no longer belongs to you, it belongs to Jesus Christ and you are ‘God’s own possession’.

But be warned. The Lord will not compromise. If you come to God with conditions then essentially you are demanding that He submit to you. He will demand that you trust Him to walk away from that sinful relationship, or risk losing fellowship with those who will turn against you. You may also be at risk of persecution, even the possibility of death from those who hate Christ. This is the practical act of denying self, taking up our cross and following Him (Mark 8:34). This has been the case for millions throughout Church history and still is in countries such as China. There are only two choices: either you belong to Christ or you are still ruling your own life. That choice is yours. Those who trust Him are filled with His love and become His precious children and heirs of all that belongs to Christ. Love becomes the ground of their relationship and they love being in His presence and long for His return. As the apostle Paul warned:

If anyone does not love the Lord, let that person be cursed! Come Lord! 

(1 Corinthians 16:22)

And finally, how can you know if your ‘christianity’ is a poor counterfeit. Let me ask you these questions.

III. Testing Ourselves

1. What exactly are you relying on for your salvation? Rituals, priests, sacraments and traditions or the possibility you are one of the chosen few? You may have all of these, but still hear the words, ‘depart from me, I never knew you’.

2. Do you long to be in His presence? Do you love to worship Him, do the Scriptures come alive when you read them, does your heart break when you sin and you know you have grieved the Holy Spirit? A real Christian cannot live in secret sin as the Spirit demands we repent.

3. What are your priorities…money, career, or knowing Christ? Is your main focus on Christ and heavenly things, or is the world your first love? 

4. Would you deny Christ to save your physical life? None of us know if we will face severe tribulation and trials, but many theologians believe we are moving towards such times globally.  

And finally. Understand that we were created to be in relationship with the Lord. I have given you a few of Jesus’ words in this video, but the entire Bible shouts out this same message. God wants you to know His love and enjoy your love for Him. If loving Him is not your first priority, then it is very doubtful that you know Him. You may know a great deal about God, you may know the Bible well and Christian theology, or you may just enjoy religious rituals and traditions. But if you hear the words ‘I never knew you, away from me’ when you stand before Him, it will be too late. Please, stop and evaluate where you stand while you still have time.

I pray this article has been enlightening for you and challenged you to seek the Lord with all your heart. Please share it with those who may benefit from its message.

Steve Copland