Blog

by Charlie Wolcott

The Gospel has been watered down to at most 4-5 doctrines and at the least, “Jesus loves you and you are going to heaven.” In the best-case scenario, this is not the Gospel. It is a summary of the Gospel. The seven posts I wrote to open this series were not the Gospel; they were a more detailed summary of the Gospel. The plan of salvation is not the Gospel. It is a central, key part, but it is just a part of it. The moral lifestyle that is expected out of believers is not the Gospel; it is supposed to be fruit of the Gospel having done and doing its work. Yet today, the most people can give are the four major parts of the Gospel: creation, original sin, Jesus and the cross, and the consummation of all things. There is nothing wrong with that, as long that is not the limit of your understanding of the Gospel.

The Gospel is so big and so deep that it can never be exhausted in a lifetime of preaching or writing, let alone in the span of a single sermon or book. But we have to be able to preach it in order to fulfill one of the key commandments given to believers: to go and make disciples. But most have lost sight of that and confused it with “make converts.” To make a disciple is to teach someone how to follow Jesus on their own. To make a convert merely gets someone to agree to some teachings. The whole world is about making converts, whether it be Islam, Hinduism, Communism, Evolution, Science, or whatnot. These false teachings only want a few disciples because the deeper you go into a false teaching, the more blatantly wrong it shows itself to be. They want the masses to know just enough to believe it, but only the most dedicated to be full disciples. But few are making disciples, teaching people how to pursue and go after Jesus. One reason why is because we stopped preaching the Gospel and instead started preaching doctrines instead. And instead of making disciples who follow and pursue Christ, we seek to lower the bar to bring in as many people as possible.

It's not just the reducing the Gospel to a bare bones structure with no substance to it and no relation to reality that is a problem. It’s a literal changing of the message that is even worse. Instead of a message that calls for “repent and believe” that we see throughout the New Testament, we get a message of “Jesus loves you and want to help you accomplish your sinful, selfish dreams.” Instead of a message of denial of self and taking up of Christ in our place, we are giving a message of adding Jesus as final accessory to complete our lives.

The drive in all this is to take the sting out of the Gospel. Yes, the Gospel has a sting, and to wear the name Christian (as it is supposed to be worn) gives us a stigma in our culture that we are not like them, we are not of their kind, and we bring a message to this culture that it will burn in judgment. That’s not a popular message. Newsflash: the United States is not heaven. It may be, or was, the closest we could have gone on this sin-cursed earth, but the US is going to burn in ashes, along with every other nation and ideology. It will all be destroyed. All that will remain is what God allows to remain. So why are we, who are supposed to be looking forward to true paradise, so concerned with what God-hating sinners think about us? We are no longer part of their world. Or are we? I think that’s one of the real factors going on here.

Most who proclaim Christianity have not died to self, have not died to the lusts and desires of this world, and simply want a free ride ticket to heaven where they can enjoy utopia without God. Take notice of that statement. Most professing evangelicals today will talk about heaven as a glorious paradise but God, if there at all, is just a secondary character that lets us all in. Listen to all those who boast about having been to heaven and come back. How are they talking about God? And how are they talking about actually how to get to heaven? It’s nearly absent from their presentations. They only talk about the perks of heaven and God is just a “figure” that opens the door. He’s not their focal attention and any attention given is extremely casual and nearly if not actually irreverent. And that’s not the heaven that the Bible describes where heaven is about God and about the worship and loving and enjoying God forever. Our purpose, as mankind, is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever.

Due to the fear of man, evangelists, apologists, and pastors will do anything they can to keep their congregations happy, and they may never preach a real word from God as a result. For fear of offending certain congregants who could easily rally the “troops” to remove the pastor, many messages are watered down, the tone made easy, and the message soft-peddled. Fortunately, there are still a few pastors who are not concerned about that and have surrounded themselves with sound elders who know their job is to protect the sheep.

The church never had permission to lighten up the message of the Gospel. Paul, when he is absolutely livid about what happened in Galatia, tells this church that for him to seek the praise of man he would cease being a servant of Christ. That’s a serious point that need to be emphasized more. Those who are seeking the praise of men are not serving Christ. It’s one or the other. We are commanded to give the message that God gave and not something that will make the people happier. If the message is judgment, then it is judgment. If the message includes mercy, then it includes mercy. But it must be the message God gives as He gave it. It is not unfair to call giving something less than that to be cowardice. It is also not unfair to call giving something more to be presumptuous. In both cases, God treats them as grievous sins.,

God has a fierce judgment for those who speak for the Lord and say what the Lord does not say. That is why those who preach have to take that pulpit very seriously. Don’t ever water down the Gospel. You may get more people liking you, but if you give them the wrong Gospel, you have done them no favors and have reserved condemnation upon yourself in the process.

This forum is meant to foster discussion and allow for differing viewpoints to be explored with equal and respectful consideration.  All comments are moderated and any foul language or threatening/abusive comments will not be approved.  Users who engage in threatening or abusive comments which are physically harmful in nature will be reported to the authorities.