Here's One Thing Wrong with the Evangelical Church: A message to Preachers.

Here is a meme photo that I saw on my Facebook page the other day. I'm sure the person meant well but it is just plain false. In fact, it is precisely what is wrong with evangelical Christianity today. Nowhere in scripture are we told to preach the bible. The fact is we are told to preach the gospel and that is a very different thing. This photo assumes that one should have a legal constitutional focus on the scripture and that is incorrect. Jesus and his first century followers that wrote the New Testament demanded that the scripture have a redemptive focus. It was a solely redemptive focus John 5:39-40.  The did not see the value of scripture beyond the redemptive message.

So then, what is the great commission? Mar 16:15  "And he said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature." Nowhere does it say preach the scripture. The gospel is the message that God wants spread abroad. The example that we all should follow is that of the Apostle Paul. He stated in 1 Cor 2:2 that he determined to know nothing among the Corinthian believers except Jesus Christ crucified. By that he meant Jesus Christ risen in glory. By that he meant Jesus Christ has overcome the world and the devil. It is preaching the bible and not the gospel that has Christianity so schizophrenic.

The scripture is the redemptive narrative and it portrays various stages of unfolding revelation about God's purposes in the earth and his plan for humanity. It was always written to a specific people with specific situations. Therefore, much of the scripture is situational and not universal. Can we learn from those situations? Absolutely! Are they a legal constitutional formula that needs to be followed as a statute? Absolutely Not!

Preacher, if you will listen to me this day, then I beseech you, by the mercies of God, determine this day to only present the gospel. What is the gospel for the different stages of the biblical narrative? It is clear that God wants us to know that he is merciful and he rewards faith in the fact that he is merciful. You only need to look to God's dealings with Noah, Abraham, Moses, and David to see his mercy and his rewarding of faith. Yes, sometimes the faith expressed itself in actions, but that also changed based upon the revelation that had unfolded.

The gospel message for today is best expressed in 2 Cor 5. There is not a clearer explanation of the gospel than this: 2Co 5:14-21 NASB  "For the love of Christ controls us, having concluded this, that one died for all, therefore all died;  (15)  and He died for all, so that they who live might no longer live for themselves, but for Him who died and rose again on their behalf.  (16)  Therefore from now on we recognize no one according to the flesh; even though we have known Christ according to the flesh, yet now we know Him in this way no longer.  (17)  Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come.  (18)  Now all these things are from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation,  (19)  namely, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and He has committed to us the word of reconciliation.  (20)  Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were making an appeal through us; we beg you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.  (21)  He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.

Preacher, today your sole responsibility is to preach/proclaim reconciliation. People need to be reconciled to God! That simply means that though it is difficult to do, they must BELIEVE without wavier that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself. That he has declared us righteous, not by our ability to obey the Law but by our willingness to believe the message preached, and if you are preaching the bible and not the gospel, you will have to answer for it one day.





 

The importance of the gospel in Spirit Filled expressions of Christianity

Why was Paul’s focus on the gospel so strong? Why did he insist on knowing nothing amongst the Corinthians save Jesus Christ and Him crucified? Again, the gospel was the reason. I believe this answer might shock you but I know it is right. The gospel is important for the believer to use as a plumb line, as a level, and as transient to keep the lines straight. Otherwise, it is easy to get unbalanced. That’s right, the gospel keeps the believer balanced in the Spirit.

Most, if not all expressions of Christianity is unbalanced because the gospel is not made the top priority, is not kept in focus, and is not the overriding force in Spiritual experience. For the purposes of this article you have essentially two factions. One I will call Spirit-Filled and the other I will call cessationists. Both of these groups have lost proper focus because of not putting the gospel first and foremost. Yes, it must always be first, and yes it must always be foremost. If one does not have the gospel first and foremost it is easy to fall into either spiritualism which leads to witchcraft, or dead letter Christianity whereby the accuser of the brethren himself creates a dead religion. Don’t get me wrong, the so called Spirit-Filled group works for the accuser as well. Both groups perpetuate accusation and bondage.

If you attend a spirit filled group, you will undoubtedly encounter spiritualism that is not in and of the Holy Spirit, and if you attend a cessationist group you will undoubtedly encounter judgmentalism that is not in and of the Holy Spirit. The only thing that will combat this is having the gospel of Jesus Christ be put first and foremost. When the gospel is first and foremost then you will automatically have Spirit-filled saints that are balanced, level and straight forward. So what is the gospel then?

The gospel is summed up in the following: God has reconciled humanity to himself and is not imputing sin. God is our Father and loves us as a perfect Father would love Children. God has adjudicated humanity just and right by the sacrifice of Jesus. God wants us to embrace this truth, and put complete trust and faith in Him. The believer IS the righteousness of God in Christ. Nothing else will help us gain right standing with God, any obedience we ever have results from believing the gospel and resting in God’s grace. If you want chapter and verse get a hold of me by email or comments. If you read your bible a lot you will know that what I have written is right and the Spirit of God will bear witness with your spirit that it is..

Without the gospel being always in the forefront, FIRST and FOREMOST. You end up with spiritualism where prophets and prophetsesses become accuser’s of the brethren or dead assemblies where the book is worshipped as an idol and used to accuse the brethren night and day. By brethren, I mean both brothers and sisters. I use the word because it is the most familiar to those who hold the KJV bible in hightest esteem… let me repeat this, if you want chapter and verse contact me, and if you read much at all you know this is right!

I am not ashamed of the gospel, but exactly what is it? Part 4

Paul's famous words from Romans chapter one are widely known and quite often quoted. However, this begs the question that if we are truly not ashamed of the gospel why is it so neglected on Sundays from the pulpits across the country? Why is it that so seldom one hears the gospel message? Is it the assumption that the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus is well known by all, and the saved saints in our churches need to hear more law so they can become better kingdom dwellers? Why is it that Paul claimed to know nothing among the Corinthian believers save Jesus Christ and Him crucified? Why was the proclamation of the resurrection so important to them back in the first century, and so apparently unimportant to us here in twenty-first century? Does it seem the least bit odd that 20 centuries later one hears so little about the resurrection and resurrection life? I dare say that in most churches the resurrection is relegated to a couple of weeks out of the year. I have to laugh that some churches today are so against what they call tradition that they don't even speak of the resurrection on the day it is celebrated.

You want to know what I think? I think that they are not exactly sure what the gospel is. I think that they believe that the gospel is merely a step in salvation that makes it necessary to explain all the rules and regulations that will allow the saint to grow stronger as a Christ follower, and that the focus needs to be on improvement in the accepted regulations. Forget about the fact that Jesus paid it all. Forget about the fact that it is already done, not only so, but already done from before the world was created. Forget that because of the death, burial and resurrection that those who believe the gospel message are adjudicated the righteousness of God, possessing the righteousness of God, and all the blessings of Abraham. I know, the gospel is really hard to believe. It can't be that simple can it? Certainly I must do something to show how worthy I am of blessings and salvation, that only makes sense right?

Stop right there!!! Read this carefully!!! (I'm shouting).... YOU WILL NEVER BE WORTHY OF SALVATION OR THE BLESSINGS!  Awh now, let me repeat myself.... You will NEVER be worthy of the blessings and salvation! That is the gospel. That is the good news. God was in Christ Jesus; reconciling the world to Himself; not counting sin against us because of Jesus Christ, and He made Jesus who did not even understand the concept of sin, become sin for us that in Him we might be made the RIGHTEOUSNESS OF GOD in Him. That's the gospel! That is all there is.

This brings peace with God and causes real, true, love for God. This is the gospel. Our real, true love for God will then begin to help us transform into beings of love, that is precisely what the scripture means by the phrase "faith working through love." It is Jesus faith in the Father that demonstrated the love of God by the cross. Apprehending Jesus faith by the measure of faith given to us by the Holy Ghost upon hearing the gospel message is what transforms us into disciples of Jesus.

If you don't hear this clear concise explanation of the gospel every time you meet then something is amiss. If you are hearing how you can be better, have more faith, be more obedient, be more like King David or the Prophet Daniel, then you are NOT hearing the word of God which is the gospel. Your faith comes from hearing the gospel of Jesus Christ Romans 10:17. Study that chapter in a few versions of the bible and do not stop until you know for sure that the word of God for new covenant saints is the gospel of Christ. 

I am not ashamed of the gospel, but what exactly is it? Part 3

Rom 1:15-17 So, as much as in me is, I am ready to preach the gospel to you that are at Rome also. (16) For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek. (17) For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith: as it is written, The just shall live by faith.

This begins the third installment of this series about the gospel. I believe that it is necessary for two reasons; 1) it is difficult to identify what the content of the gospel is when asking people to define it, even church leaders are somewhat unsure; 2) It is not shared as regularly as the first century apostles insisted, especially Paul. For example, Paul claimed that he had determined to know nothing amongst the Corinthians except Jesus Christ and Him crucified, (1 Cor 2:2.) In that statement, one can see how important the gospel was to Paul. It is also important, to note that according to Paul, the full message of the gospel was the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus (1 Cor 15;1-4.) I will develop this more in further posts, but for now, it will suffice it to say that the gospel in Paul's mind was very simple.

Let's look at the clause, for therein the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith. Last time I wrote about the righteousness of God, being two fold, first being a quality of God for providing the gospel, and second it was a state of righteousness that was provided to humanity because of faith in Jesus' faith. Jesus' mission to earth was to have faith. Let me repeat this for effect... *Jesus main mission to earth was to have perfect faith.* How can I be sure you ask? Well it is really quite simple. The first Adam did not believe God and brought about death. The *Last Adam,* (Jesus Christ,) believed God. That was his important obedience. It was the obedience of faith. That is what Jesus did for humanity as the incarnation. He believed against all odds, and it is obvious that he was tempted far beyond anything most people experience, and still believed that God was his Father.... I want this to really sink in.... He was born to Mary, Joseph claimed him as a son, think about that. He grew up with everyone thinking that he was born as normally as the next person. Still at the age of 30 he believed against all odds that he was the Son of God.

It does not stop there however, look at another example... In Luke's gospel we are provided a scene where Jesus has alienated many people with his claims. This was to the extent that his mother, his brothers and sisters were outside trying to take him home to rest. They thought he had lost his mind, think about it... this was his entire family. Still, he believed. He went so far as to say that the ones who believed in Him were is real mother, brothers and sisters. He still believed against all odds that He was the unique Son of God. I want to repeat for effect that Jesus faith was perfect, and yet He still was tempted to doubt. In the garden prior to his arrest, He had seen a glimpse of what He was to face and yet He had to hold on to the faith knowledge that He was the unique Son of God. Think about Jesus faith for a minute. It was indeed perfect faith. I say it was the only thing that would right the wrong of Adam's lack of faith... again I hate to sound like a broken record but, pick this up... if you got it right away, forgive me my folly. Jesus perfect obedience was His perfect faith. I want to repeat this one more time to make sure that I have gotten this point across; *Jesus perfect obedience was His perfect faith.* This is how by one man sin entered into the world and death by sin, and how obedience entered by one man and by that came life eternal.... Now, our faith, apprehends Jesus perfect faith by believing this gospel message. This is what is meant from faith to faith, it was from Jesus perfect faith to our faith... more to come.

I am not ashamed of the gospel, but what is it exactly? Part 2

Rom 1:16-17 NASB  "For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. (17) For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, "BUT THE RIGHTEOUS man SHALL LIVE BY FAITH."

Here is the second in this series, I am not ashamed of the gospel, but what is it exactly. You can read the first one here, but I would suggest you do so after reading this. I am going to use a different version in each one of these for the sake of allowing you to see the subtle differences in translation. The first was the HCSB, and now I have used the NASB. These are a couple of my favorite translations, but most are good.

In this particular post, I want to focus our attention on the phrase from verse 17, "for in it the righteousness of God is revealed." I think the "righteousness of God" has at least two meanings in this passage. The first meaning that I will look at is God's justice or the justness of God, and the second meaning is a quality that allows one to stand righteous before God, guiltless and righteous. Paul uses the term in both ways off and on through-out the epistle to the Romans, and I believe that he uses it that way in all of this epistles. The context determines which use is appropriate and I would like to further suggest, to broaden our understanding that both meanings are inextricably linked.

First off, God is completely just in his dealings with mankind. The gospel proves it, and is the vehicle with which God meets out his justice to humanity. Secondly, and equally as important, being just, He has through Christ Jesus, that is, through the resurrection from the dead, reinstated his first claim about humanity after creating male and female (Gen 1:31.) Through the gospel he has declared that humanity is very good. That is why, when one apprehends the gospel by faith they are adjudicated righteous. I believe that the truth of the matter is that in Christ, the whole world was declared very good, righteous, but we only apprehend it during our days here on planet earth by faith.

This is why it is from faith to faith. Yes, in some translations it states from faith for faith but I guess both are correct. Here is what I believe Paul meant by the phrase from faith to faith. I will expand on this in the third post which is to come, but I must mention it here to help increase understanding of what the gospel actually is. Jesus alone had perfect faith. His faith, that God was His Father; that He was from God; that God was willing to forgive and save; that he could bring peace with God to all; that He was setting to rights what had been lost in the fall... He had faith in all of the above and more I have not mentioned or thought of for that matter.

If the first Adam brought death through unbelief, then it only follows that the *LAST ADAM* would reinstate life from belief. So then, two things are accomplished by this gospel. (1) God is justified and shows his justice by providing a way of escaping the fall, and (2) through the resurrection from the dead, God has proven that Jesus is righteous for his faith. Everyone can then apprehend His faith by faith. It is really quite simple. The gospel is simple. We will see this more and more as this series progresses, stay tuned!

I am not ashamed of the gospel, but what is it exactly? Part 1

Rom 1:16-17 For I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is God's power for salvation to everyone who believes, first to the Jew, and also to the Greek. (17) For in it God's righteousness is revealed from faith to faith, just as it is written: The righteous will live by faith.



I want to begin a series that addresses the question; what exactly is the gospel? I hope it will be informative, and cause us to examine what we mean when we use the word gospel in our writing or in our speech. We must look into what Paul meant by the gospel. Why you ask? The answer is simple. His mission was to the Gentiles. Therefore, all Gentile believers especially, must of necessity, be interested in the gospel according to Paul. Paul lays it out in Romans like no other epistle.

Rom 1:1-7 " Paul, a slave of Christ Jesus, called as an apostle and singled out for God's good news-- (2) which He promised long ago through His prophets in the Holy Scriptures-- (3) concerning His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord, who was a descendant of David according to the flesh (4) and who has been declared to be the powerful Son of God by the resurrection from the dead according to the Spirit of holiness. First of all Paul was singled out for the gospel. It was promised by the prophets in the sacred writings, but it was a story about God's Son Jesus Christ, who is Lord, descended from David, but was declared to be the Son of God by the resurrection.

(5) We have received grace and apostleship through Him to bring about the obedience of faith among all the nations, on behalf of His name, (6) including yourselves who also belong to Jesus Christ by calling: (7) To all who are in Rome, loved by God, called as saints. Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Paul was made an apostle to bring about the obedience of faith to the Gentiles. The Greek word, translated as nations is ethnos and it is the word that is used when you see the word Gentiles translated. Take notice that Paul calls it the obedience OF faith. The King James Version erroneously translates it as obedience to the faith in Romans 1:5, but then, takes the exact same phrase and translates it the obedience of faith in Romans 16:26. That in and of itself is interesting and I have written blog posts on that alone, but that is not for this one at this time.

Rom 1:13-17 " Now I want you to know, brothers, that I often planned to come to you (but was prevented until now) in order that I might have a fruitful ministry among you, just as among the rest of the Gentiles. (14) I am obligated both to Greeks and barbarians, both to the wise and the foolish. (15) So I am eager to preach the good news to you also who are in Rome. (16) For I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is God's power for salvation to everyone who believes, first to the Jew, and also to the Greek. (17) For in it God's righteousness is revealed from faith to faith, just as it is written: The righteous will live by faith." Here is verse 13 it is spelled out that Paul's ministry was to bring the gospel to the Gentiles. This makes Paul's explanation, definition, and description of the gospel most important to us here in the 21st century who make up a mostly Gentile Church.

In looking at Paul's claim here in this passage, I think it becomes important and instructive to understand a little bit about the Emperor Cult, the religion of Rome. Caesar was known as the Savior of the world, who had brought salvation to the world, and he was also believed to be the son of God, and they called him Lord. The reason for this is that he had brought peace to the world Pax Romana but it was done by military force. It is interesting to me that Jesus, his followers, and finally Paul, use this same language about Jesus. In Paul's gospel Jesus is Savior; Jesus is the Son of God; Jesus is Lord, and Jesus saves the world by bringing peace to it.

However, Jesus does not do this by military force. He does it by resurrection from the dead, something that can not be said about anyone else including Caesar. Since Jesus followers lived in Rome occupied Israel, they were very familiar with the claims of Rome, and so it is not strange that they too would believe that Jesus meant to do it by military force. There are those today that still believe that ultimately Jesus will establish peace and his kingdom by military force. But, that was not what Paul or any of the writers of the New Testament were saying.

Paul was saying that what Caesar had accomplished in an imperfect way by imperfect means for the natural world, Jesus had accomplished on a cosmic, supernatural, spiritual level, that set to rights the world, and brought ultimate peace with God. It was a spiritual reality that transcends the natural. There is a lot more to be explored but this will do as a jumping off point with more to come in the next post.

Distorting the message and meaning of the scripture: Part I

Over the last six years, I have written many posts about the way that Jesus and His followers viewed scripture. They saw it as the redemptive narrative that pointed to Jesus the Messiah and His kingdom. Furthermore, they were removing the legal constitutional aspect of scripture that attended the old covenant and were installing a new and better way of achieving obedience. They were rejecting the read and do in favor of the believe and become. But even more importantly, they described a new and better catalyst for creating obedience. Paul called it the obedience of faith, and obedience of the heart.

You can find the operation and catalyst for the real transformation described in this among many blog articles found on this blog.  There are a lot more than just this one article so, if you find it interesting, and want more clarification, you can put "the transformation process" in the search box on the blog, and find several additional posts on this subject. It is my belief that understanding this process as it was explained by the first century apostles is the key to transforming the world around us, and bringing forth the manifestation of the sons and daughters of God.

However, current evangelical and orthodox doctrine ends up distorting the message and meaning of so many passages of scripture. The main reason for this is that current evangelical doctrine, and to a degree orthodox doctrine, focuses on a legal constitutional view of scripture. This makes it a law book and an instruction manual for all faith and practice. Doing this, actually voids the teaching of Jesus about the use of scripture, and leads away from the plan that will bring about supernatural transformation. As a result, we have many distortions of the scripture enshrined in evangelical doctrine.

This is the first blog post, in a series of the same name, that will serve as a guide and index for those to follow. I will briefly enumerate the distortions in this first post. Here is a list some of the verses that are distorted:


1. Hebrews 10:25 "Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another: and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching."

2. Hebrews 13:17 " Obey them that have the rule over you, and submit yourselves: for they watch for your souls, as they that must give account, that they may do it with joy, and not with grief: for that is unprofitable for you."

3. 1Co 14:40 " Let all things be done decently and in order."

4. 1Co 14:33 "For God is not the author of confusion, but of peace, as in all churches of the saints."

The above verses are used to distort the use of authority within assemblies, and bring about a kind of cultic obedience, elevating leadership way above anything that God intended. This is always the case with the legal constitutional view of scripture. It is problematic because it is used to control people in fairly abusive ways to allow the leaders to achieve their goals and keep people in subjection, in many cases, to their every whim. It brings about a kind of devotion that elevates men and women to the position that should only be held by God.

The truth of the matter is that all of the scripture was written to specific situations, and various different occasions. It is impossible to completely know the circumstances of the occasions, and therefore, it is impossible to know exactly what was intended in more than the way in which the literary and historical context allow. Yet, in the above passages of scripture, I hear pastors and leaders quoting them as though they are a hard fast principle that can be applied to every situation and that is just not so.

In fact, the common use of these scriptures in current evangelical doctrine brings about an unhealthy, authoritarian system that keeps individuals in bondage to their various assemblies, and prevents the atmosphere and teaching that leads to the transformation that I mention above in this post. It relegates the transformation process to a self reformation process that continually heightens guilt and fear.

Jesus said to the first century believers that "they would know the truth (Jesus), and the truth would set them free." Why are so many assemblies today putting people into religious and psychological servitude? Only the gospel, properly understood and proclaimed, will begin to overturn this sorry situation. I can no longer in good conscience remain silent. I am exposing the demon of religion in one of its worst manifestations. Stay tuned as this series will look at each of the scripture passages above, and show how they should be used.