A watered-down gospel

So prevalent is the post-modern, cultural directive to not offend, that many of our churches have adopted the philosophy and, as a result, completely compromised the Word of God — though they would deny this claim. “Oh no,” they would say, “We merely present a ‘positive gospel.'”

A “positive gospel.”

This is a gospel designed not to offend the sinner. One that doesn’t really confront a sinner with their sinful nature and true standing before a holy God. People don’t like to hear that. People don’t like to hear that they are helpless to save themselves and face an eternity in hell for having transgressed against a holy and just God. Instead, Christ’s sacrifice on the cross is characterized as something other than a necessary atonement for our sin. Rick Warren, the pastor of Saddleback Church in California, characterizes it as our opportunity for a “do over.”

He’s careful not to offend.

I am convinced this “positive gospel” is no gospel at all. It is a false gospel and contrary to Scripture. The gospel is inherently offensive. And if we want to preach and teach God’s Word in it’s entirety we need not be concerned with the delicate sensibilities of sinners and dare to offend them.

The late Paris Reidhead, a pastor and writer of some note, was convinced we had allowed humanism to influence our presentation of the gospel and said the following about what current church leaders call a “positive gospel”:

“If I had my way, I would declare a moratorium on public preaching of ‘the plan of salvation’ in America for one to two years. Then I would call on everyone who has use of the airways and the pulpits to preach the holiness of God, the righteousness of God and the law of God, until sinners would cry out, ‘What must we do to be saved?’ Then I would take them off in a corner and whisper the gospel to them. Such drastic action is needed because we have gospel-hardened a generation of sinners by telling them how to be saved before they have any understanding why they need to be saved.”

That about sums it up.

Thideology News of the Day:

The Iowa Caucuses are today and the 2008 presidential race will finally have it’s first official vote. I continue to be a staunch supporter of Ron Paul. However, those who characterize themselves as evangelical Christians are getting behind Mike Huckabee in large numbers. Bill Barnwell has written an excellent essay on why this is a mistake and makes the good case as to why Christians should be supporting Ron Paul instead.

State administered Grace

Hillary Clinton — the senator “from” New York and candidate for president — was invited to speak at an AIDS conference at Rick Warren’s church in California. Now, Rick Warren insisted that he was not giving a candidate the pulpit because the meeting was not a church service it was a conference. Nevertheless, the members of his church were inundated with socialist propaganda advocating all manner of state-controlled benevolence programs.

Hillary, along with every other Democrat candidate for president, advocates “universal healthcare.” That means government-controlled socialized healthcare.

In the first place, government-controlled healthcare is the opposite of liberty. It is the government telling you how to use your money. John Edwards — also a Democrat candidate for president — has already said you would have no choice in the matter. He has now gone on to say that if you try to refuse to participate in the program the government will garnish your wages to force you to comply. In both cases the government would be stealing your money.

In the second place Hillary’s message to Rick Warren’s church resonated with many of the members. Despite the fact that the Bible clearly teaches the only legitimate role for government is the restraint of evil (Romans 13) and that God’s chosen instrument of grace in this world is the church, many of the members of Warren’s church embraced Hillary’s notions of mandated, state-sponsored distribution of grace.

It doesn’t surprise me that the members of Warren’s church are unfamiliar with the biblical concept of doing good works so that God is glorified (as opposed to government good works where people come to think they are entitled to the fruits of another’s labor — also an unbiblical idea). Warren has jumped on a number of new age, emergent church-type bandwagons that have abandoned firm biblical teaching for the siren song of a worldly social gospel.

It’s long past time Christians awakened to the abuses government intervention has caused on the mission of the church. The church is to be God’s instrument of grace and government is to be limited specifically to the restraint of evil. This concept is both biblical and constitutional and our government has ignored both documents for far too long.

Bumper sticker of the Day:

Note: Libertarianism is a political philosophy of liberty. In a typical presidential election there will be a libertarian party candidate running. This year there is a liberty-minded congressman running for the Republican Party nomination — Ron Paul (hence a bonus bumper sticker).

Thideological News of the Day

“SEEKER SENSITIVE” CONFLICT
Recent reports indicate Bellevue Baptist Church in Cordova, Tennessee, one of the largest churches in the Southern Baptist Convention, is dividing over the implementation of “Seeker Sensitive” principles most notably made popular by Rick Warren’s book The Purpose Driven Church. Complete articles on the situation may be found here and here.

It always troubles me to see brothers and sisters bickering but this one hits very close to home as I had the privilege of serving as an intern on Bellevue’s staff while attending seminary in Memphis. It is even more troubling to see a spat like this when Scripture speaks clearly on the matter. Romans 3: 10-13 says, “There is none righteous not even one; There is none who understands, There is none who seeks for God…”

There is no such thing as a “seeker.” And I pray that Bellevue will conform to the biblical view of sinful man, abandon any “seeker sensitive” nonsense, and set an example for many other churches who look up to her.

AN ENCOURAGING TREND
Many young Christians are beginning to rediscover the rock-solid foundation of the Reformed faith. This article in Christianity Today explains.

A WORD ABOUT POLITICS
With the mid-term elections fast approaching it is difficult not to hear the latest predictions of results and speculation on what it all means. I make no secret of my conservative leanings in this area (although my brand of conservatism is more akin to the libertarian style established by the likes of Thomas Jefferson than it is to the big-government style we see today). Here is an article that examines what happened to the conservatives who used to represent my beliefs. It’s a bit depressing, but…

If you are like me and long for a much smaller government then here is a candidate we can truly get behind.