or
The Many Faces of a False Gospel
The gospel is good news, which by the way, must be ranked as the understatement of all time. The undisputed fact that God Himself died for our sins and rose from the dead is colossal in its implications and immeasurable in its glory. It is the very message that Christ commanded us to bring to the uttermost parts of the world and share with every sinner. That commission must never be diluted or compromised.
But, sadly, that gospel has been maligned and even attacked by all sorts of movements and theologies. Some are blatant while others are much more subtle. Let me first address the more obvious ones.
There are men like Marcus Borg, John Crossan, and the blasphemous archives over at the Jesus Seminar that do not mince words. They deny the gospel, and interpret it as some kind of metaphorical fairy tale invented by ignorant and superstitious men. It is almost an understatement to insist these men are liberals, because just by their bold apostasy they deserve a much more descriptive moniker. It’s almost as if they got together and said, “This church needs a better class of apostates and we’re going to give it to them!” So they have earned the gold medal of apostasy.
But there are those who can be called “liberals’ who dissect the Scriptures with the scalpel of their own fallen intellect and remold truth in a more kinder and gentler way. Their gospel comes as a Rodney King-esque quality that pleads with the world to just get along. Some even acquiesce to the validity of Christ’s death and even some tacitly embrace the resurrection, but they claim the meaning was to present an example of selflessness and to illuminate the vicious acts of mankind. These people are cousins to the apostates I outlined previously. They certainly have a seat at the apostasy buffet.
And I would be remiss if I did mention the legions of evangelical church members who never witness to anyone and whose embrace of the gospel is more of a religious cultural ascent rather than a life changing truth to which they are constant servants. The comfortable throngs of evangelical believers present a conundrum to the lost world in that their gospel is so unremarkable in the midst of a fallen culture. And of course there are the legalist of all stripes who add some kind of human works or religious ceremony to the gospel and thereby nullify its power and saving grace.
And there are a host of orthodox gospel believers who spend countless hours and much energy defending the literal interpretation of the gospel. No one could claim they have even a hint of liberalism or even a doctrinal malaise, because they are bold and relentless of their pursuit and ferreting out of every hint of Biblical compromise or gospel dilution. They have original language skills and they use them to reveal all sorts of doctrinal mischief from all over the ecclesiastical world. Yes, they present an impeccable fort of doctrinal orthodoxy and usually present a well researched treatise on the current gospel departures of today. However, in their sincere effort to defend God’s truth they many times fail to share such gospel truth through their lips and their lives.
Defending the doctrinal integrity of the gospel is altogether different than sharing that gospel with lost sinners around the world. There is a place for doctrinal defense, but it must never replace the going forth of the message itself, and it surely cannot be seen as proof of a Christlike life. And the enormous challenge of boldly defending God’s truth while simultaneously cultivating an observable humility is mostly ignored.
But among all these there is another, more clandestine, mischaracterization of the gospel and one that has increasingly found refuge among evangelicals. I call it the moral gospel and it is every bit as insidious and deadly as denying the gospel itself. It is championed by people who profess faith in Christ but whose spiritual commission includes all sorts of moral, political, and even economic banners that obscure the gospel and present a quasi-gospel that is void of the redemption that we are called to trumpet.
This post links to an example.
As you can see, moral issues like homosexuality often present a platform upon which believers can exhibit their orthodox plumage and receive the obligatory “Amens” from the ecclesiastical community in which they live and breathe. I suspect the word "lavender" is a subtle slight. The lady whose name appears on the post, Marsha West, told me that believers who speak out against homosexuality, regardless of their own obvious cultural compromises, are “brave”.
I object. You want brave? Read the Foxes Book of Martyrs. You want brave? Read this! You want brave? Read this! We are brave when we post an article that aggressively outlines the sin of homosexuality without a shred of the gospel or redemption? That is not brave, that is self righteous. And it is secular articles like that one that do despite to the gospel and completely ignores the redemptive nature of God as well as the purpose of the Incarnation.
Can you imagine what such people would have done to the woman at the well? They would have written an article decrying the breakdown of the marriage covenant and the moral decay as illustrated through such a woman. And when Goliath defied the armies of Israel with a sword, they would have carried the sword offered unto them and fought “fire with fire” while acknowledging the doctrinal purity of the five stones. We are not called to collectively pounce upon the dirtiness of the outside of the cup. We are called to preach the gospel to sinners of all persuasions.
This culture war has crept into evangelical circles and the enemy has convinced us to place the gospel upon the shelf of orthodox theology and take up arms against moral decay. But the only panacea for moral decay is the gospel! And this moral crusade is nothing more than a departure from the gospel and does nothing but serve to energize the flesh, restate the obvious, and make us feel “brave”. How pitiful.
You want brave? Go preach the gospel in Pakistan. You want brave? Go minister the gospel to the millions of AIDs sufferers in Africa. You want brave? Go to a gay pride parade and with tears in your eyes love them and share Christ with them in abject humility. And give them a cold drink if the weather is hot!
Moral crusades are another form of humanism. This culture can only change when men’s hearts are redeemed. So go ahead and wear your badges of courage and bravery while you write and speak out against the sin of homosexuality from air conditioned pedestals and without the pathos of a sincere concern for men’s souls. And only when we have a deep and personal understanding concerning the grace wherein we now stand can we reach the darkened souls among whom we were once found.
Brothers and sisters, this is no insignificant squabble among believers. This issue cuts to the very core of what it means to be a servant of Christ and His gospel. The ship has long since swerved off course. Let us pray that God will strip us all of our self serving moralistic religion and go without the camp, bearing His cross, and kissing the souls of spiritual lepers who stand in need of God’s good news.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment