I was greatly disturbed this week as we had a guest speaker at our church doing "revival services" and the purity of the gospel was not proclaimed. I had an open mind as the services began because, for one I had never heard him speak and had no reason to be skeptical, but in the very first message a red flag was raised as he said in opening "If someone has a faith that they think will take them to heaven but doesn't take them to church, I wouldn't trust that faith." I had hoped that I had misunderstood him but in questioning him afterwards, he meant exactly that: Christians who are not doing christian activity were probably never saved from hell to begin with.
A follow-up message on "bring a friend night" was on Mark 10:17-24. He entitled the message "What Jesus would say you need to do to be saved". If you read the passage you will understand that his message can be summarized to the following: When faith in Christ gets you to the point in your life where you give up everything to follow Christ, that is genunine faith.
I find all of this extremely disturbing. Unlike the popular title "The Gospel According To Jesus" would have you believe, nothing has to be given up to be saved. Being declared righteous by God is by faith alone in Christ alone. Do I need to remind anyone of Abraham? Or the phillippian jailor? Unfortunately this is where many people are in explaining the gospel to people. It's getting harder for me to listen to a false gospel preached, one that would have us look to ourselves for the commitment and resolve to live for Christ and that being what saves us rather than simply looking at the fact that Christ died on the cross for my sins, paid the price for me, and satisfied God's wrath completely with that act. Nothing is left for me. All is done. That moment I believed that to be true, God saved me giving me His Spirit. However all of this reminds me of the lack of telling others the gospel. Hearing the gospel preached incorrectly reminds me that I'm not preaching it at all, and that is sin.
In all this God is working on my heart. One to not be divided against my brothers because God is not a God of division. The body of Christ is not divided, and secondly that I need to be preaching the gospel constantly. I pray God give me half the passion of half the peopel in the church.
2 comments:
We understand how you feel when you hear preachers twist grace and add to the gospel. We will be praying that God gives you both direction in your lives. Love ya!
Amen... amen!
-- Chris --
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