Half the Gospel
With scores of Christian sects proclaiming a myriad of different belief systems, clearly few if any of today’s denominations present the whole Gospel. If the Bible is authentically the word of God then might even well intended errors of omission and/or addition prove hazardous? Can we discern among the many Christs the One true? If we believe, teach and/or obey half a gospel, does it matter which half?
Amidst the hustle and bustle, not to mention the temptation and deception of modern life, belief in the authority of Scripture is in sharp decline. All the more so since the scientific age seems to have relegated some, if not most the Bible, to nearly mythological status.
In actuality there are at least ten great reasons to believe in Biblical inspiration. There are amazing scientific discoveries described millennia ago in Biblical passages. These include a testable model of creation that encompasses modern discoveries in the areas of astronomy and physics, chemistry and biology, human origins and understanding the universe.
Within modern Christianity, even among those claiming to embrace the whole of Scripture there are sharp disagreements as to its correct interpretation and emphasis. Just a few major areas of contention include the definition and importance of such foundational principals as faith and works, repentance and salvation, righteousness and sanctification, morality and discipleship, worship and communion, prayer and Bible study, the Holy Spirit and Satan, spiritual gifts and prophecy…
Major and minor diversity regarding spiritual truth, which by nature is seems subjective, presents a challenge. With so many religious philosophies from which to choose there is something for everyone. Add tolerance to the mix and we have the kind of inclusivity that reduces the likelihood of offense. And yet, according to Scripture, truth is not based on consensus. In the same way the answer to a calculus calculation is rarely the average of even educated guesses, so too Biblical truth does not change to suit personal points of view.
Given the manner and nature of human existence, spiritual truth while itself objective is primarily subjectively discerned. Even the objective teaching of Scripture must be subjectively interpreted and applied. For this reasons utmost care should be taken throughout the process of considering and discussing potentially divisive, albeit important topics. On the one hand, we hardly wish to be unnecessarily Procrustean in our thoughts or dealings with others, demanding that one size fits all. On the other, sacrificing truth merely to avoid upsetting the status quo is foolish and self defeating.
While Biblical Christianity allows for flexibility in the understanding and practice of unessentials, the Scripture repeated requires unity and obedience to its core teachings and principals. With hell to loose and heaven to gain it’s easy to see how vital it is that our version of Christ and His Kingdom be as accurate as possible. Christians, as earthen vessels, are not to be cracked pots yet statistically hundreds of millions believe, teach and obey only a portion of the Gospel. One can carry some (living) water in half a jar but only if it’s the bottom (most foundational) half. The top portion or a vessel spilt vertically carries little or nothing.
Tellingly, the first and final chapters of the Bible’s last letter to the churches warns against failing to accurately understand and appreciate not only the Book of Revelation, but by extension the entirety of Scripture:
- “A revealing of Jesus, the Messiah. God gave it to make plain to his servants what is about to happen. He published and delivered it by Angel to his servant John. And John told everything he saw: God’s Word— the witness of Jesus Christ! How blessed the reader! How blessed the hearers and keepers of these oracle words, all the words written in this book! Time is just about up.” Revelation 1:1-3 The Message
- “I give fair warning to all who hear the words of the prophecy of this book: If you add to the words of this prophecy, God will add to your life the disasters written in this book; if you subtract from the words of the book of this prophecy, God will subtract your part from the Tree of Life and the Holy City that are written in this book.” Revelation 22:18-19 The Message
- “The Lord says: “These people come near to me with their mouth and honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. Their worship of me is based on merely human rules they have been taught.” Isaiah 29:13 NIV
- “But don’t look for someone to blame. No finger pointing! You, priest, are the one in the dock… You stumble around in broad daylight, And then the prophets take over and stumble all night. My people are ruined because they don’t know what’s right or true. Because you’ve turned your back on knowledge, I’ve turned my back on you priests. Because you refuse to recognize the revelation of God, I’m no longer recognizing your children. The more priests, the more sin. They traded in their glory for shame.” Hosea 4:1-7 The Message
- “Don’t suppose for a minute that I have come to demolish the Scriptures—either God’s Law or the Prophets. I’m not here to demolish but to complete. I am going to put it all together, pull it all together in a vast panorama. God’s Law is more real and lasting than the stars in the sky and the ground at your feet. Long after stars burn out and earth wears out, God’s Law will be alive and working. Trivialize even the smallest item in God’s Law and you will only have trivialized yourself. But take it seriously, show the way for others, and you will find honor in the kingdom. Unless you do far better than the Pharisees in the matters of right living, you won’t know the first thing about entering the kingdom.” Matthew 5:17-20 The Message
- “Knowing the correct password—saying ‘Master, Master,’ for instance—isn’t going to get you anywhere with me. What is required is serious obedience—doing what my Father wills. I can see it now—at the Final Judgment thousands strutting up to me and saying, ‘Master, we preached the Message, we bashed the demons, our God-sponsored projects had everyone talking.’ And do you know what I am going to say? ‘You missed the boat. All you did was use me to make yourselves important. You don’t impress me one bit. You’re out of here.’” Matthew 7:21-23 The Message
- “After this a lot of his disciples left. They no longer wanted to be associated with him. Then Jesus gave the Twelve their chance: “Do you also want to leave?” Peter replied, “Master, to whom would we go? You have the words of real life, eternal life. We’ve already committed ourselves, confident that you are the Holy One of God.” John 6:66-69 The Message
- “Repeat these basic essentials over and over to God’s people. Warn them before God against pious nitpicking, which chips away at the faith. It just wears everyone out. Concentrate on doing your best for God, work you won’t be ashamed of, laying out the truth plain and simple. Stay clear of pious talk that is only talk. Words are not mere words, you know. If they’re not backed by a godly life, they accumulate as poison in the soul… Meanwhile, God’s firm foundation is as firm as ever, these sentences engraved on the stones: God knows who belongs to him. spurn evil, all you who name God as God.” 2 Tim 2:14-19 The Message
- “For the word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart. Nothing in all creation is hidden from God’s sight. Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of him to whom we must give account.” Hebrews 4:12-13 NIV
- “But there were also lying prophets among the people then, just as there will be lying religious teachers among you. They’ll smuggle in destructive divisions, pitting you against each other—biting the hand of the One who gave them a chance to have their lives back! They’ve put themselves on a fast downhill slide to destruction, but not before they recruit a crowd of mixed-up followers who can’t tell right from wrong. They give the way of truth a bad name. They’re only out for themselves. They’ll say anything, anything, that sounds good to exploit you. They won’t, of course, get by with it. They’ll come to a bad end, for God has never just stood by and let that kind of thing go on.” 2 Peter 2:1-3 the Message
- “Dear friends, do you think you’ll get anywhere in this if you learn all the right words but never do anything? Does merely talking about faith indicate that a person really has it? For instance, you come upon an old friend dressed in rags and half-starved and say, “Good morning, friend! Be clothed in Christ! Be filled with the Holy Spirit!” and walk off without providing so much as a coat or a cup of soup—where does that get you? Isn’t it obvious that God-talk without God-acts is outrageous nonsense? I can already hear one of you agreeing by saying, “Sounds good. You take care of the faith department, I’ll handle the works department.” Not so fast. You can no more show me your works apart from your faith than I can show you my faith apart from my works. Faith and works, works and faith, fit together hand in glove. Do I hear you professing to believe in the one and only God, but then observe you complacently sitting back as if you had done something wonderful? That’s just great. Demons do that, but what good does it do them? Use your heads! Do you suppose for a minute that you can cut faith and works in two and not end up with a corpse on your hands?” James 2:4-20 The Message
- “Dear friends, I’ve dropped everything to write you about this life of salvation that we have in common. I have to write insisting—begging!—that you fight with everything you have in you for this faith entrusted to us as a gift to guard and cherish. What has happened is that some people have infiltrated our ranks (our Scriptures warned us this would happen), who beneath their pious skin are shameless scoundrels. Their design is to replace the sheer grace of our God with sheer license—which means doing away with Jesus Christ, our one and only Master.” Jude 1:3-4 The Message
The questions then become what are the most prominent variations of the Gospel? Which offer the most Biblically accurate Jesus? On which tenants of Scripture does the Bible place the greatest emphasis? The answer to these questions determines to what degree we as individuals and churches possess the whole gospel or even half. And if half, which.
Discussing such research is problematic for a variety of reasons. These include allegiance, for better and worse, to religious tradition and theological training, sense of community and lifestyle choices, subjective emotionalism and spiritual experience. Among two billion confessing Christians there are millions of personal variations of how and why, not to mention what, we believe. Some base their faith on feelings, educated or not. Millions of well meaning “touchy feely” believers can cite a handful of the Bible’s over 1,000 promises but fail to note Scripture’s even more numerous conditions and commands.
Even among those claiming to base their faith on the Bible almost any point of view can seemingly be substantiated. With over 30,000 verses to choose from it’s far too easy to cherry pick favorite passages, often under or over emphasizing important Scriptural truths. Clergy and laity alike frequently confuse the comforting and familiar with God’s Spirit and truth. Failing to appreciate the full context and meta messages of Scripture has left hundreds of millions vulnerable to a myriad of bad doctrines, including the ever popular cheep vs costly grace.
Another mitigating factor is the degradation of societal norms. With morality having been all but inverted in a single generation, Christian standards are in deep decline while Me-ism enjoys a meteoric rise. Sadly, even in the face of such recent ethical upheavals as previously inconceivable levels of promiscuity and affairs, abortion and divorce, few modern Christians seem to be the wiser. Much like those aboard a vast ship may feel little or no sense of momentum, so too the vast majority of believers have hardly noticed the progressive disintegration of Christianity into Churchianity.
Sadly most modern believers would rather simply embrace the concept of “peace, peace” even “when there is no peace” than diligent discern the difference between the story we tell ourselves and the hard truth of Scripture. This long standing tradition among the people of God is warned against by such notables as Ezekiel and Jeremiah:
- “Because they lead my people astray, saying, “Peace,” when there is no peace, and because, when a flimsy wall is built, they cover it with whitewash…” Ezekiel 13:10 NIV
- “Everyone’s after the dishonest dollar, little people and big people alike. Prophets and priests and everyone in between twist words and doctor truth. My people are broken—shattered!—and they put on Band-Aids, Saying, ‘It’s not so bad. You’ll be just fine.’ But things are not ‘just fine’! Do you suppose they are embarrassed over this outrage? No, they have no shame. They don’t even know how to blush. There’s no hope for them. They’ve hit bottom and there’s no getting up. As far as I’m concerned, they’re finished. God has spoken.” Jeremiah 6:13-15 MSG
In the case of “good old church goin’ folk” the reason for the disconnect from both Scripture and reality is an often well meant yet foundational mistake regarding to whom, how and why the “exceedingly great and precious promises of God” belong. By and large believers today are taught to view Biblical warnings and conditions through the rose colored lens of presuposing they possess the promises of God. Unfortunately, as is too often the case, Scripture teaches the exact opposite. The promises of God are received and kept not by presumption but by heeding the Bible’s warnings and conditions.
The current permissive mindset is the result of Churchianity being caught in the dangerous riptide of the original sin of entitlement popularized by various forms of Me-ism. Billions have and continue to reason, “surely modern Christians enjoy favor and forgiveness through the love and mercy of God, not to mention the costly atonement of Christ.” While having a ring of truth, such a vast over simplification of Scripture omits the clear and concise instruction of at least half the Old and New Testaments, including such unpopular topics as conditional salvation and additions to faith, presumption and the fear of God to name just a few.
So how does the average church attendee often reverse the emphasis of Scripture? Through Biblical illiteracy and the auspice of “cheep grace.” A graphical representation of such inversion might look like this:
Yet prophetic Christians know the Biblical church is a battle not a cruise ship. Christians are called to be alert and on watch, “wise as serpents and harmless as doves” in what Scripture describes as an all out knock down fight to the finish:
- “God is strong, and he wants you strong. So take everything the Master has set out for you, well-made weapons of the best materials. And put them to use so you will be able to stand up to everything the Devil throws your way. This is no afternoon athletic contest that we’ll walk away from and forget about in a couple of hours. This is for keeps, a life-or-death fight to the finish against the Devil and all his angels. Be prepared. You’re up against far more than you can handle on your own. Take all the help you can get, every weapon God has issued, so that when it’s all over but the shouting you’ll still be on your feet. Truth, righteousness, peace, faith, and salvation are more than words. Learn how to apply them. You’ll need them throughout your life. God’s Word is an indispensable weapon. In the same way, prayer is essential in this ongoing warfare. Pray hard and long. Pray for your brothers and sisters. Keep your eyes open. Keep each other’s spirits up so that no one falls behind or drops out.” Ephesians 6:10-18 The Message
- "Endure suffering along with me, as a good soldier of Christ Jesus. Soldiers don’t get tied up in the affairs of civilian life, for then they cannot please the officer who enlisted them. And athletes cannot win the prize unless they follow the rules. And hardworking farmers should be the first to enjoy the fruit of their labor. Think about what I am saying. The Lord will help you understand all these things." 2 Timothy 2:3-7
Of the three the least dedicated is likely to be the athlete. Soldiers have the most to loose, putting their lives and those of their units on the line. Farmers must also be diligent or face eventual bankruptcy or starvation. Athletes, particularly non professionals, have only the the honor of winning "the prize" at stake. Even so, many high school amateur athletes train 15-20 hours a week.
So how do modern Christians compare with the amateur athletes Paul describes? Not well when the average church attender stops and prays or reads the Bible only a few minutes a day. This begs the question, if we continue to neglect such easy tasks as talking to God or studying His word, how will we ever grow strong enough to be as diligent on behalf of the Kingdom as athletes, farmers or soldiers?
Admittedly the rigors of the kind of radical discipleship described in many of the Biblical passages we tend to skip over are extremely demanding. A fact clearly noted by Søren Kierkegaard the celebrated 19th century Danish philosopher, theologian, poet, social critic, and religious author who is widely considered to be the first existentialist philosopher. He wrote critical texts on organized religion, Christendom, morality, ethics, psychology and the philosophy of religion:
- “The matter is quite simple. The Bible is very easy to understand. But we Christians are a bunch of scheming swindlers. We pretend to be unable to understand it because we know very well that the minute we understand, we are obliged to act accordingly. Take any words in the New Testament and forget everything except pledging yourself to act accordingly. My God, you will say, if I do that my whole life will be ruined. How would I ever get on in the world? Herein lies the real place of Christian scholarship. Christian scholarship is the Church’s prodigious invention to defend itself against the Bible, to ensure that we can continue to be good Christians without the Bible coming too close. Oh, priceless scholarship, what would we do without you? Dreadful it is to fall into the hands of the living God. Yes it is even dreadful to be alone with the New Testament.”
Kierkegaard reminds us: “It is true that a mirror (the Bible) has the quality of enabling a person to see his image in it, but to do this he must stand still.” To this end we do well to rethink what form of Christianity we espouse as well as our manner of life. Let us heed Paul’s advice to “Test yourselves to see if you are in the faith; examine yourselves! Or do you not recognize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you—unless indeed you fail the test?”
If Kierkegaard was anywhere close to being right about the state of Churchianity in the mid 1800’s image what might be true today, when by comparison morality has all but been inverted and seriously seeking and serving God has been replaced by hundreds of new temptations and the pursuit of the almighty dollar.
With both temporal and eternal issues at stake, let us by brokeness and repentance work through our issues with and approach the Everlasting God with reverent fear and due respect. Let us rightly study and be studied by Scripture to learn what God requires. Let us turn down the TV and invest hours as if they were minutes practicing the all but lost art of intercession, daily and strategically coming “before the throne of grace to find merciful help in our time of need.” Let us learn to listen and intercede with, wait on and wrestle with God in hopes of pre-revival repentance and a New Pentecost. Together let us set our sights on heeding the the Bible’s prophetic advice for such a time as this that we might have the wherewithal to call the much needed Sacred Assembly for the purpose of true Biblical unity and reformation. Above all, let us endeavor to keep the genuine bonds of faith in love, not growing weary in well doing:
- “Don’t be misled: No one makes a fool of God. What a person plants, he will harvest. The person who plants selfishness, ignoring the needs of others—ignoring God!—harvests a crop of weeds. All he’ll have to show for his life is weeds! But the one who plants in response to God, letting God’s Spirit do the growth work in him, harvests a crop of real life, eternal life. So let’s not allow ourselves to get fatigued doing good. At the right time we will harvest a good crop if we don’t give up, or quit. Right now, therefore, every time we get the chance, let us work for the benefit of all, starting with the people closest to us in the community of faith.” Galatians 6:7-10 The Message
- “My dear child, don’t shrug off God’s discipline, but don’t be crushed by it either. It’s the child he loves that he disciplines; the child he embraces, he also corrects. God is educating you; that’s why you must never drop out. He’s treating you as dear children. This trouble you’re in isn’t punishment; it’s training, the normal experience of children. Only irresponsible parents leave children to fend for themselves. Would you prefer an irresponsible God? We respect our own parents for training and not spoiling us, so why not embrace God’s training so we can truly live? While we were children, our parents did what seemed best to them. But God is doing what is best for us, training us to live God’s holy best. At the time, discipline isn’t much fun. It always feels like it’s going against the grain. Later, of course, it pays off handsomely, for it’s the well-trained who find themselves mature in their relationship with God. So don’t sit around on your hands! No more dragging your feet! Clear the path for long-distance runners so no one will trip and fall, so no one will step in a hole and sprain an ankle. Help each other out. And run for it!” Hebrews 12:5-13 The Message