“Jesus was going through all the cities and villages,
teaching in their synagogues and
proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom,
and healing every kind of disease and every kind of sickness.”
(Matthew 9:35)
teaching in their synagogues and
proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom,
and healing every kind of disease and every kind of sickness.”
(Matthew 9:35)
Jesus proclaimed the gospel of the kingdom!
My friend Dale Stole wrote in his recent book, Good News that Transforms, that there are several current versions of the gospel that are not authentic. Let me try and summarize the information he shares (pages 48-52).
The “Try Harder” Gospel: This gospel is all about what they do. They spend their lives trying to be religious and please God – to do enough to make him happy, so that when they die God will let them into heaven. This ‘works’ gospel promotes our good works that earn our way into heaven – hopefully we’ve done enough.
The “Just Believe” Gospel: In this gospel it doesn’t matter what we do; only what we believe. The gospel simply gets reduced to “Jesus died for your sins.” All we need to do is believe that. To the Hebrew, to believe in someone is to have faith in them, to entrust your life to them, to follow them. Today to believe in God is to believe abstractly and intellectually that he exists, not to trust him, obey and follow him.
The “Create you Own” Gospel: This gospel doesn’t actually lift up any particular scripture- because scriptures aren’t very important in this gospel. Dale Stole quotes one writer as she described her faith. “Mine was a patchwork God, sewn together from bits of rag and ribbon, Eastern and Western, pagan and Hebrew, everything but the kitchen sink and Jesus thrown in.” Proponents of this gospel may use a lot of the same language that other Christians do, but who knows what they really mean- maybe a little of everything?
The “Role Reversal” Gospel: is the result of the human-centered culture. Because we have become conditioned to seeing ourselves as the center of the universe, we are now the masters and God is the servant. Two sub-types of the Role Reversal Gospel are The “Magic Gospel” in which you think you can use the words that God has spoken to manipulate him into doing what you want. You basically try and hold God hostage with His words. (Mark 11:24) After all, this is the Word of God and God has to honor his word! The “Prosperity Gospel” is the idea that God wants you to be rich. This gospel transforms its followers into “men of corrupt mind, who have been robbed of the truth and who think that godliness is a means of financial gain” (1 Timothy 6:5). “For the love for money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many grief’s” (1 Timothy 6:10).
Reflect...
These examples of other gospels from Dale Stole’s book remind us of what we hear in our workplace or on television. We hear it from politicians, sports figures, business people and our neighbors. What we hear are the words of people who have adopted a different gospel with various parts of those identified above. Look them over again carefully, then-
Examine your thinking about these inauthentic gospels; are there strains of these in your own beliefs? Which are you most prone to embrace? Why do you embrace these beliefs and with what consequences in your life? If you find these types of beliefs within yourself, repent of those things before God.
My friend Dale Stole wrote in his recent book, Good News that Transforms, that there are several current versions of the gospel that are not authentic. Let me try and summarize the information he shares (pages 48-52).
The “Try Harder” Gospel: This gospel is all about what they do. They spend their lives trying to be religious and please God – to do enough to make him happy, so that when they die God will let them into heaven. This ‘works’ gospel promotes our good works that earn our way into heaven – hopefully we’ve done enough.
The “Just Believe” Gospel: In this gospel it doesn’t matter what we do; only what we believe. The gospel simply gets reduced to “Jesus died for your sins.” All we need to do is believe that. To the Hebrew, to believe in someone is to have faith in them, to entrust your life to them, to follow them. Today to believe in God is to believe abstractly and intellectually that he exists, not to trust him, obey and follow him.
The “Create you Own” Gospel: This gospel doesn’t actually lift up any particular scripture- because scriptures aren’t very important in this gospel. Dale Stole quotes one writer as she described her faith. “Mine was a patchwork God, sewn together from bits of rag and ribbon, Eastern and Western, pagan and Hebrew, everything but the kitchen sink and Jesus thrown in.” Proponents of this gospel may use a lot of the same language that other Christians do, but who knows what they really mean- maybe a little of everything?
The “Role Reversal” Gospel: is the result of the human-centered culture. Because we have become conditioned to seeing ourselves as the center of the universe, we are now the masters and God is the servant. Two sub-types of the Role Reversal Gospel are The “Magic Gospel” in which you think you can use the words that God has spoken to manipulate him into doing what you want. You basically try and hold God hostage with His words. (Mark 11:24) After all, this is the Word of God and God has to honor his word! The “Prosperity Gospel” is the idea that God wants you to be rich. This gospel transforms its followers into “men of corrupt mind, who have been robbed of the truth and who think that godliness is a means of financial gain” (1 Timothy 6:5). “For the love for money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many grief’s” (1 Timothy 6:10).
Reflect...
These examples of other gospels from Dale Stole’s book remind us of what we hear in our workplace or on television. We hear it from politicians, sports figures, business people and our neighbors. What we hear are the words of people who have adopted a different gospel with various parts of those identified above. Look them over again carefully, then-
Examine your thinking about these inauthentic gospels; are there strains of these in your own beliefs? Which are you most prone to embrace? Why do you embrace these beliefs and with what consequences in your life? If you find these types of beliefs within yourself, repent of those things before God.
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