Gospel of Salvation
The results of this gospel are tragic and there for all to see. Now, point by point, let’s compare it with Jesus’ true gospel.
- Pray the sinner’s prayer with someone so you can be fully assured your ticket to heaven is punched. After that all you need to do is go to church, tithe, take communion, and hang out with God an hour or two a week.
- Be certain to come to temple events such as weekend services, a Bible study and other various meetings that won’t take you away from worldly pursuits for more than an hour or two, where pastors always teach and you always learn. Find other ways to serve in the temple, attend a few retreats and seminars, and perhaps do a service day or a mission trip. But keep it all within the confines of the temple. Moreover, this gospel encourages an event-driven mindset where faith can be compartmentalized from the rest of life.
- Seek to evangelize, for the most important thing of all is getting others to pray the Sinner’s Prayer like you did, saving souls, and making new converts who can join in temple worship like you did, for the gospel of salvation is first, foremost, and always about saving souls. If you get really good at that, you can build your own temple and the world’s riches and fame will surely come your way. But if you don’t want to be fully sold out to Jesus, make disciples and not converts, and follow Him above all else, not to worry because once you’ve “been saved” by praying the prayer you cannot possibly fall away from God’s grace and forgiveness, no matter your level of faithlessness and disobedience.
- Teaching and preaching is for professionals, and if you want to be one of them you need to go to seminary so you can be certified to uniquely handle God’s Word. Furthermore, ministry is for the truly spiritual among you who are called to it “full time.” But if you don’t want to be burdened not to worry because, again, grace covers all.
- Moreover, somehow [mostly through temple involvement] scratch and claw your way through this sinful world until you die and can finally go to heaven. That is when you will finally meet Jesus and understand His kingdom.
- Finally, there is no obligation on the part of either the one evangelizing nor the one being evangelized to actually live out their gospel. The purpose of this gospel can be accomplished, for both, through preaching and teaching with the tongue, listening with the ear. It’s a gospel of knowledge passed down through words alone. John said, “Little children, let us not love with word or with tongue but in deed and in truth” (1 John 3). Yet, there is no requirement for setting an example by those teaching or obedience by those following. Converts are made with preaching and pacified at weekly meetings with word teaching, and any requirement for obedience in deed and in truth is dismissed as offensive to grace. Thus, there is no discipleship to bring converts into the kingdom.
The results of this gospel are tragic and there for all to see. Now, point by point, let’s compare it with Jesus’ true gospel.
Gospel of the Kingdom
- There is really nothing wrong with saying “The Sinner’s Prayer,” for we must begin the journey somewhere. But to tell someone they have automatically and forever punched their ticket to heaven because of a few words mouthed to Jesus is to do them a great disservice. John talked about those receiving Him “bein given a right to become children of God” (John 1) and that is all initial repentance and confessing Him as Lord does. Then must come that process of maturity that grows us from “babes in need of milk” to “those ready for solid food who are mature through the practice of their faith” (Heb. 5).
- One of the beauties of Jesus was He never taught a single truth He did not also set a living example of, and that cannot be done at events in buildings once or twice a week. This gospel encourages a lifestyle driven mindset because that’s what Jesus displayed. It must be lived out every day in our homes and the marketplaces of the world. It cannot be compartmentalized from the rest of life, it becomes life!
- This gospel does not promote evangelizing for the sake of saving souls, but rather evangelizing for the sake of making disciples “who do all Jesus commands.” This places an absolute responsibility upon both to actually live it out “in deed and in truth.” The difference between these two mindsets is profound because the kingdom saint treats the seeker as a future kingdom saint, from the initial message to the personal mentoring he knows is his responsibility thereafter. The preacher of this gospel wouldn’t think of birthing a new child and leaving it alone on the sidewalk while he goes off looking for another babe to birth. To him, there is only one standard, the one set by the Great Commission.
- The very definition of grace, “unmerited favor,” employed by modern Christendom is wrong. That is not at all what the Greek word “Charis” means. The correct definition is the divine touch upon the heart and the evidence of that touch witnessed in the life. Radically changes the definition, right? Unmerited favor requires nothing from the one getting it because it is “unmerited.” Ah, but evidence being required in the life of the one getting grace because that grace was given? The gospel of the kingdom demands a testimony of God’s presence in our lives.
- The kingdom, along with all God’s gifts, are available to every man, even more so to those the world does not consider worthy. Jesus said those who gave to “the least of His brothers” would be blessed. In 1st Corinthians 1, Paul goes to great lengths to relate how God uses those the world shuns to shine in His kingdom. The Bible is replete with story after story of normal people being used by God to do extraordinary things, and he tells us more honor is given to the lesser members of the body. In the kingdom there are no spectators or students sitting passively in the pews wishing they could be like the folks up front.
- Jesus is here, now, and as real in presence as if he was standing right beside us. In John 15, He speaks of “abiding in us and we in Him.” Abiding, by the Greek definition, is the most complete and intimate form of loving relationship possible. Paul said it was no longer he who lived, but “Christ lived in him,” and therefore the life he now lived was no longer his own, but Christ’s. Through the Holy Spirit Jesus comes to dwell directly and fully in our hearts. No waiting required. We can know what it is to walk with Him and feel His presence right here, right now on earth.
- One does not enter the kingdom with any amount of knowledge or teaching ability without evidence that ability is bearing fruit in the form of love and service. Jesus did, “in deed and in truth” everything He spoke “with word and tongue,” and then said, “Follow Me!” In John 15, He divided up those who followed Him into two camps: those He called His friends “those who did what He commanded [per the Great Commission],” and all others He referred to as “slaves who did not know what He was doing.” How would one describe those who have supposedly known Him for years, yet do not hold Him nor their faith as any sort of real priority in life? Paul said we were to present our bodies to God as living and holy sacrifices, and called that our “Spiritual service of worship” (Rom. 12). The gospel of the kingdom is a gospel of show and tell.
Recent Comments