The Gospel of Christ…

Five or six weeks ago, give or take a week or two (you know how memory works, or sometimes doesn’t work), I had the opportunity to hear a lesson entitled, “Reasons Why People Do Not Obey The Gospel.”  The lesson explored a variety of excuses that, according to the speaker, people use to explain or justify their refusal to obey the gospel of Christ.  At the end of the lesson, the speaker offered two invitations:  [1] to obey the gospel, and [2] to offer suggestions as to additional excuses that could be included in his lesson.   Needless to say, with me in the audience, offering the second invitation was probably not the wisest thing to do. 

I’ve spent quite a bit of time the past five or so weeks thinking about his lesson and the excuses he suggested that people offer for rejecting the gospel; all of which I had heard before.   But, the more I thought about his lesson, the more it began to dawn on me that the primary reason people are not obeying the gospel may simply be because we are not presenting the gospel to them.  In fact, the speaker who presented the lesson that prompted this post did not even present the gospel during the course of his message.  To say the least, this was quite disappointing and very telling.

So, for today, I would like you to give your thoughts on the following questions:  [1] what is the gospel, [2] are we guilty of not presenting the gospel in its purity, [3] what are some of the ways we pervert the gospel, and [4] is your congregation currently experiencing decline or growth in membership?   

Then, as the week progresses, I am going to devote a short post dedicated to each of those questions and the thoughts you present.

Free In Christ — Chapter Eight

In chapter eight, Hook suggests that the revealed word of God in the New Testament contains two kinds of messages to accomplish two different purposes.  He states, there is the gospel which brings us to life and the teachings (doctrine) which direct our lives.  According to him, the gospel brings us into fellowship while the doctrine/teaching guides those in fellowship.

In light of the apostle Paul’s declaration that the gospel is the death, burial and resurrection of Christ, the power of God to save those who believe, whether Jew or Gentile; it makes sense to think that the gospel message is what needs to be preached to those outside of Christ, for obedience to the gospel brings us into fellowship with God.  And, as Paul also declared, God will punish those who have not obeyed the gospel.

Admittedly, the idea that the New Testament contains two kinds of messages to accomplish two different purposes was foreign to me; because I was trained to believe that the Bible does not make the distinction between gospel and doctrine, in the sense that one should only be preached to the lost and the other taught to the saved.

Those who oppose Hook’s line of thinking do so, in my opinion, primarily because of the perceived ultimate consequences of it.  As one author states, since Paul expressed deep concern about those who would preach another gospel, and not doctrine, then those with whom we fellowship are to be determined by whether one is properly enrolled (by the gospel) or not.  If he has been properly called by the gospel, he is to be accepted with open arms of fellowship whatever he might teach as doctrine.  In other words, irregardless of what one believes and teaches about the use of instrumental music in our worship to God, about premillennialism, tongue-speaking and other teaching that should be considered as doctrinal in nature and not as a matter of opinion, they are to be accepted with the open arms of fellowship.  According to this teaching, that which determines one’s faithfulness to the Lord is not doctrine, but gospel.

Hook, however, indicates that if all of the New Testament writings are the gospel (as opponents of his view would suggest) then a sinner could not be saved without being taught it (the New Testament) in its entirety, and every teaching correctly understood for that matter, for he must believe the gospel before he can be saved (non italics mine).  He suggests that a failure to recognize this distinction has added to our confusion and led us away from any practical basis for unity among those in Christ.

He writes, new creatures in Christ who are saved and in fellowship must be fed, confirmed, and matured so they will continue in fellowship and salvation.  From the point of spiritual birth there will be diversity in disciples in knowledge, understanding, strength, ability and maturity.  Their justification is in being made right by an act of grace, not because they are right in all things.  He continues, fellowship is not destroyed by failure to understand all the scriptures and to hold the perfect interpretation of them.

He concludes, and I concur, that fellowship is established when the gospel is believed and obeyed.  Fellowship is sustained with God and man by following the other teachings of the word.

My suggestion is that we read this chapter to understand what it says, not what one may perceive it to say.

What are your thoughts?

 

Free In Christ: Fear Before Freedom???

The date of my previous post was January 26, 2009.  As you can clearly see, I haven’t written anything for my blog in quite some time.

I wish I could blame my absence on writer’s block, which according to Wikipedia is a condition in which an author loses the ability to produce new work.  But, in all honesty, the reason behind my absence has more to do with a lack of desire to produce a new post rather than with my inability to do so. 

Please don’t interpret the above confession as an indication that I did not want to share my thoughts with you, for such was not the case.  In fact, I have truly missed communicating with you through this blog.  For the record, however, my lack of desire had to do with my need to better grasp and comprehend the changes that were taking place as far as my understanding of Scripture was concerned.  As you might expect, it is rather difficult to want to write about spiritual things when your understanding of those things are in the process of changing; for what you think you believe today may change in a week as you continue to work your way through your studies.

Change, regardless of the area in which it is to take place, is not something that is easily accepted, even when the proposed change is for the better.  This is especially true concerning things that pertain to our faith, our understanding of things related to God and Scripture. 

The challenge facing me this year has been that of accepting a new understanding of Scripture; one born of a new understanding of grace.  The problem I had with accepting this new understanding is that it was so different from the old understanding of Scripture that at times I found myself questioning my sanity.  The “freedom” that I was beginning to experience as a result of my new understanding was so uncomfortable to me that I literally began to long for the old, more comfortable understanding even though I was beginning to see it as nothing more than a form of bondage.   In many ways I began to understand “how” it could be that the Israelites longed for Egyptian bondage rather than continuing in the freedom provided by God.  As weird as this may sound, freedom can be a scary thing to those who are not ready to experience it.

I would like to state that I am back and will be posting on a regular basis, but I fear making that promise as I am still learning to live in my new skin, so to speak.  But, I now have the desire to be back and my plans are to spend more time sharing my thoughts through my blog.

I hope those who were reading haven’t given up on me and deleted the link to my site. 

So, now that I have revealed my life for the last year, what have you been up to?

I believe in God, but not the church (part 2)…

This past week my blogsite became the object of critical and curious eyes.   But regardless of the circumstances that brought these new readers in my direction, I welcome the opportunity to share my faith and answer any question that comes my way.

 

One person, who will remain nameless until a time when he reveals himself, asked me to develop my thoughts more fully regarding one of the statements I made in my post entitled I believe in God, but not the church.   This post is dedicated to that purpose.

 

The phrase I have been asked to develop is found in the following sentence:  The more I think about the frustration and disappointment expressed by many toward the modern version of the church with all of its man-made baggage and theological pollution, the more I understand their cry and identify with their feelings. 

 

What do I consider man-made baggage and theological pollution?   This is a great question, one with a rather surprisingly simple answer.   

 

Used as a contrast to the pure, unpolluted living water of Jesus; the phrases man-made baggage and theological pollution describe the rules, regulations and interpretational laws that man has added to, mixed with or used in place of the pure teachings of Christ and his apostles.   The result of this man-made baggage and theological pollution is a tainted gospel and distorted image of the Savior.   Shame on us!

 

One person suggested that if the church can’t comfort the broken-hearted, put its arm around the woman who chokes on her loneliness, give strength to the addict who struggles everyday with his addiction, can’t be a family to the widow, give hope to the single mom who feels overwhelmed, if it can’t give peace, joy and purpose for this life, then call it something else, but don’t call it church.

 

Amen, and amen again!

 

But, I am almost positive that the one who questioned my usage of those terms is looking for more; for me to list some of the baggage and pollution that I feel is tainting the gospel message and distorting the image of the Savior.   If he returns to my blog and requests such a list I will be more than happy to provide one for him.

 

However, for now, I would like to know what you think.   Do you think there is man-made baggage and theological pollution tainting the pure message of Christ?   If so, share your thoughts with me.

I believe in God, but not the church…

During a recent lunch time around-the-table discussion in which the topic of conversation became belief in God one of my coworkers voiced his belief in God but quickly and adamantly expressed negative feelings toward the church, or organized religion as he referred to it.   His negative feelings toward the church didn’t surprise me; in fact, over the past several years I have heard the same basic negative feelings of disappointment and frustration expressed by a number of different people who have declared themselves as being spiritual people who want nothing to do with the church.

 

The more I think about the frustration and disappointment expressed by many toward the modern version of the church with all of its man-made baggage and theological pollution, the more I understand their cry and identify with their feelings.  Shouldn’t one of our goals as Christians be to help people set aside their negative ideas about the church long enough so that they can clearly see and experience the pure, living water offered by and through Jesus?

 

In all honesty, the church is guilty of polluting the pure water of Jesus.   We’ve been so focused on being correct in our doctrine and pointing out the interpretational errors of others that we’ve failed to inspire hope and offer a vision of the beauty that exists in living the Christian life.   Statements such as the one expressed by my coworker should encourage those of us who are Christians to look within and question whether or not our lives are truly reflective of the Lord we claim to love and serve.  These statements should lead to a renewed determination within us to be no less or more than simply Christians – cleansed of man-made baggage and theological pollution.

 

At the same time, statements such as the one mentioned earlier should also motivate us because such statements indicate a desire within modern man to know and experience relationship with God.  These types of statements reveal that there are people who are thirsty for truth and discovering meaning to life; and indicate the importance of our returning to and refreshing our own souls in the source of the pure, living water so that we may be more able to lead them to Jesus, the pure, unpolluted source of life for all who trust in him.

 

These are my thoughts, what are yours?