The Vanishing Gospel

First published February 1, 2004

One of the greatest sorrows for lovers of God is the fact that the vast majority of mankind selfishly and ungratefully lives day after day without even thinking of the Creator to whom they owe their existence and who holds their eternal destiny in His hands. So it is even with many who claim to know Him. How often do you tell God you love Him, and thank Him for His love and grace and the salvation He has given you in Christ? When was the last time?

The miracle of our bodies, with their trillions of unfathomable cells and chance-defying organs such as the eye and brain, the ingenious design displayed in nature, and the mystery of soul and spirit, loudly declare: “[I]n the beginning God created the heaven and the earth” (Genesis:1:1In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.
See All...) and He made man “in his image” (1:26-28). Yet most people embrace the outrageous fraud of evolution.

This world’s contemptuous disregard of its Creator makes me weep for His sake; and, as the old song says, “causes me to tremble, tremble, tremble” for the judgment that is coming upon mankind! “The wicked shall be turned into hell, and all the nations that forget God” (Psalm:9:17The wicked shall be turned into hell, and all the nations that forget God.
See All...). And forget God they surely have.

Paul declared: “…even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind...[to] all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness.... [They are] haters of God...inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents...without natural affection...who knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death...do the same, [and] have pleasure in them that do them” (Romans:1:28-32 [28] And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient; [29] Being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity; whisperers, [30] Backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, [31] Without understanding, covenantbreakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful: [32] Who knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them.
See All...). The connection is undeniable between the evil foretold for “the last days” (2 Timothy:3:1-7 [1] This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come. [2] For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, [3] Without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, [4] Traitors, heady, highminded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God; [5] Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away. [6] For of this sort are they which creep into houses, and lead captive silly women laden with sins, led away with divers lusts, [7] Ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth.
See All...) and the godless “lifestyles” popularized on trendy TV shows.

Hollywood has long glorified and exported all manner of ungodliness. The marketing of evil provides billions of dollars in profits through promoting youth rebellion; sexual “freedom” and wanton perversion; mutilation of the body; obscene, suicidal, and murderous lyrics, gangland, and satanic clothing. Could Sodom and Gomorrah have been much worse?

Homes are invaded and families destroyed by immoral, corrupting media, leaving consciences “seared with a hot iron” (1 Timothy:4:2Speaking lies in hypocrisy; having their conscience seared with a hot iron;
See All...). Many Christians enjoy what would have shamed and embarrassed them a few years ago. An estimated 50 percent of professing Christians have been attracted to internet pornography.

And to attract those thus corrupted, many of the largest and fastest-growing churches mimic the world in “seeker-friendly” and “youth-oriented” services that exploit sensuality and compromise the truth. The Christian Science Monitor (12/30/03) reported that “megachurches are good at reaching young people raised in an entertainment-saturated culture.... Many have...a rock-concert feel to them.... [At the] largest congregation in the United States, with more than 25,000 attendants each weekend...Victoria Osteen steps to the podium in front of 16,000 cheering Sunday worshipers and proclaims: ‘We’re going to rock today!’”  And Worship Leader (Nov-Dec ’03) reported, “...the Jesus People erected [a] worship ritual...from the preeminent communal ceremony of their generation—the rock concert.”

Through “contemporary Christian music” and “contemporary worship,” the church has been converted to the “religion” of the world! Some of the largest presumably evangelical churches have designed their Sunday morning services based upon what the ungodly want. Missing are the fear of a holy God’s wrath against sin, trembling repentance, and grateful faith in Christ, the eternal God, who became man through the virgin birth to suffer the full penalty of God’s judgment in our place. Seeker-friendly churches must not “offend” with the Truth but pamper with the flattering “gospel” of self-esteem, self-love, and positive thinking—a “gospel” that cannot save. As Paul foretold, “they will not endure sound doctrine...” (2 Timothy:4:3For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears;
See All...).

Creating large, rich churches is not new. In A Woman Rides the Beast, we show that the Roman Catholic Church—the world’s largest and wealthiest—grew out of a marriage between the Roman world and the church, making “Christianity” the state religion. Historian Will Durant explains, “...the world converted Christianity.... [Paganism] passed like maternal blood into the new religion, and captive Rome captured her conqueror” (Caesar and Christ, 657, 672).

Roman Catholicism grew by wedding itself to the dominant pagan religion in Italy, Spain, Latin America, Africa, the Philippines, etc. Haiti is said to be 85 percent Catholic and 110 percent Vodoun. New Orleans, “the most Catholic city in America” (Our Sunday Visitor, 10/15/95), is its voodoo capital.

And now, “Protestantism” is creating megachurches by merging with the “new paganism” in today’s culture—a culture that is becoming ever more anti-Christian and anti-Israel. In blatant defiance of God and His Word, the nations have robbed Israel of most of the land God gave His chosen people as “an everlasting possession” (Genesis:17:8And I will give unto thee, and to thy seed after thee, the land wherein thou art a stranger, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession; and I will be their God.
See All...). In further insolence, and sadly under the leadership of America’s [then] Christian president, the world is determined to give more of Israel’s land to Arabs/Muslims as a reward for their hatred of Christ and religious vows to exterminate the Jews. And Islam intends to take all.

Today’s world doesn’t need more entertainment and “positive” messages assuring the “hurting” that God loves, forgives, “accepts them as they are,” heals their “inner child,” and has an exciting plan for their lives. Mankind needs the changeless convicting truth that leads sinners to repentance and salvation. God’s holy character has not changed; the separation between man and God caused by sin—and the judgment to come—have not changed; nor has God’s remedy in Christ been outdated and revised. On these basic facts the Bible is clear and uncompromising.

Like the father with the “prodigal son” (Luke:15:11-32 [11] And he said, A certain man had two sons: [12] And the younger of them said to his father, Father, give me the portion of goods that falleth to me. And he divided unto them his living. [13] And not many days after the younger son gathered all together, and took his journey into a far country, and there wasted his substance with riotous living. [14] And when he had spent all, there arose a mighty famine in that land; and he began to be in want. [15] And he went and joined himself to a citizen of that country; and he sent him into his fields to feed swine. [16] And he would fain have filled his belly with the husks that the swine did eat: and no man gave unto him. [17] And when he came to himself, he said, How many hired servants of my father's have bread enough and to spare, and I perish with hunger! [18] I will arise and go to my father, and will say unto him, Father, I have sinned against heaven, and before thee, [19] And am no more worthy to be called thy son: make me as one of thy hired servants. [20] And he arose, and came to his father. But when he was yet a great way off, his father saw him, and had compassion, and ran, and fell on his neck, and kissed him. [21] And the son said unto him, Father, I have sinned against heaven, and in thy sight, and am no more worthy to be called thy son. [22] But the father said to his servants, Bring forth the best robe, and put it on him; and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet: [23] And bring hither the fatted calf, and kill it; and let us eat, and be merry: [24] For this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found. And they began to be merry. [25] Now his elder son was in the field: and as he came and drew nigh to the house, he heard musick and dancing. [26] And he called one of the servants, and asked what these things meant. [27] And he said unto him, Thy brother is come; and thy father hath killed the fatted calf, because he hath received him safe and sound. [28] And he was angry, and would not go in: therefore came his father out, and intreated him. [29] And he answering said to his father, Lo, these many years do I serve thee, neither transgressed I at any time thy commandment: and yet thou never gavest me a kid, that I might make merry with my friends: [30] But as soon as this thy son was come, which hath devoured thy living with harlots, thou hast killed for him the fatted calf. [31] And he said unto him, Son, thou art ever with me, and all that I have is thine. [32] It was meet that we should make merry, and be glad: for this thy brother was dead, and is alive again; and was lost, and is found.
See All...), a gracious God is ever eager to embrace repentant sinners. But His holiness and justice allow pardon only for those who accept the blood of Christ poured out upon the Cross on their behalf.

We must preach the gospel everywhere to everyone (Mark:16:15And he said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature.
See All...). It must be believed for anyone to be saved from eternal separation from God: “the gospel of Christ...is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth” (Romans:1:16For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek.
See All...); “[T]here is none other name...whereby we must be saved (Acts:4:12Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.
See All...); “[W]hat must I do to be saved? Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ...” (Acts:16:30And brought them out, and said, Sirs, what must I do to be saved?
See All...,31). The warning is solemn and clear: “[H]e that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him” (John:3:36He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him.
See All...).

Yet Robert Schuller (whose Hour of Power reaches 20 million viewers weekly) once declared, “We have to find God in our own way...” (Larry King Live, 12/19/98).

Rewriting the Bible, Schuller turned God’s solemn warning, “Thou shalt have no other gods before me,” into Believe in the God Who Believes in You (Thomas Nelson Publishers). Paul had “no confidence in the flesh” (Philippians:3:3For we are the circumcision, which worship God in the spirit, and rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh.
See All...)—but God believes in us?

“Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners...” (1 Timothy:1:15This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief.
See All...). Yet Schuller, self-proclaimed “founder of the church growth movement” (his annual Institute for Successful Church Leadership attracted tens of thousands of pastors from around the world), claimed that “attempting to make people aware of their lost and sinful condition” is an “unchristian strategy,” which is “destructive [and] counterproductive to the evangelism enterprise...” (Christianity Today, 10/5/84)!

David F. Wells writes, “In another age, Robert Schuller’s ministry...might well have been viewed...as comedy.... ‘Sin,’ he says with a cherubic smile, ‘is not what shatters our relationship to God [but] that we do not esteem ourselves enough. In the Crystal Cathedral, therefore, let the word ‘sin’ be banished.... Christ was not drawing a profound moral compass in the Sermon on the Mount; He was just giving us a set of ‘be (happy) attitudes’...” (No Place for Truth, p. 175).

We are commanded to “preach the word...reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine” (2 Timothy:4:2Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine.
See All...). God’s Word is the foundation of our faith—yet that foundation is being undermined. “Christian psychology” takes the theories of atheists such as Freud, Jung, Rogers, Maslow, et al., and repackages their lies as “truth that improves” God’s holy and perfect Word.

Bruce Narramore, following in his uncle Clyde’s footsteps, admits, “Under the influence of humanistic psychologists like Carl Rogers and Abraham Maslow, many of us Christians have begun to see our need for self-love and self-esteem. This is a good and necessary focus” (You’re Someone Special, Zondervan, p. 22). Yet Paul warned against thinking too highly of oneself (Romans:12:3For I say, through the grace given unto me, to every man that is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think; but to think soberly, according as God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith.
See All...) and urged, “[L]et each esteem other[s] better than themselves” (Philippians:2:3Let nothing be done through strife or vainglory; but in lowliness of mind let each esteem other better than themselves.
See All...)! But that was before today’s church surrendered to the surrounding culture.

Attempting to build large and successful churches, many of today’s pastors draw upon secular motivational speakers’ advice designed to foster worldly success. Tragically, this is the basis of much that is offered by Rick Warren (a graduate of Schuller’s Institute), the most popular and influential “church growth” guru today, whose methods and example are being followed by literally tens of thousands of fellow pastors worldwide—and by millions of lay readers of his books.

Warren does offer much sound advice in The Purpose Driven Church and The Purpose Driven Life. Commendably, he attempts to support most points with “nearly a thousand quotations from Scripture” (Life, p. 325). But the “scriptures” he quotes are speculative paraphrases such as The Message (see TBC Q&A Oct. ’95) by Eugene H. Peterson (NavPress).

“Every word of God is pure” (Proverbs:30:5Every word of God is pure: he is a shield unto them that put their trust in him.
See All...), we “live...by every word of God” (Luke:4:4And Jesus answered him, saying, It is written, That man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God.
See All...), and are “born again...by the word of God...which by the gospel is preached...” (1 Peter:1:23-25 [23] Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever. [24] For all flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of grass. The grass withereth, and the flower thereof falleth away: [25] But the word of the Lord endureth for ever. And this is the word which by the gospel is preached unto you.
See All...). Yet The Message, like other paraphrases, substitutes man’s words for God’s words! In his introduction, Peterson says that The Message is “not...a word-for-word conversion” of God’s Holy Word into modern language but what he thinks God’s Word means—not a translation but an interpretation. What audacity, to rewrite the Bible! Yet such shameless perversions of God’s Word are Warren’s major support for his thesis.

Paraphrases based upon “dynamic equivalency” partake of two destructive errors: 1) instead of translating the words of Scripture, they interpret in modern language what they believe are the ideas presented; and 2) they dumb down the language to make it “understandable.”

Interpretation is proper in sermons and commentaries, which listeners/readers can compare to the Word of God. The Message, however, is offered as “This version of the New Testament...” (p. 7), misleading readers into thinking they have the Scriptures in their hands. Even J. I. Packer and Warren W. Wiersbe praise The Message as Scripture (on back cover)—which it is not.

John:3:17For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.
See All..., for example, “that the world through him might be saved,” reads, “He came to help, to put the world right again.” “Saved” means redeemed from the judgment we deserve for our sins, and fitted for heaven—but “to help” merely assists our efforts. And “to put the world right again” sounds like social or political reform! Such flagrant perversion of God’s Word permeates The Message—and Warren turns to it for support.

Such paraphrases rewrite Scripture in simple language to make the ideas understandable. But there is much depth in God’s Word that even the most mature Christian finds difficult. The “deep things of God” are revealed by the Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians:2:10But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit: for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God.
See All...), not by simplifying God’s words. Peter said that in Paul’s epistles were “some things hard to be understood...” (2 Peter:3:16As also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things; in which are some things hard to be understood, which they that are unlearned and unstable wrest, as they do also the other scriptures, unto their own destruction.
See All...). Obviously, the depth of Scripture is lost in simplifying it.

The Purpose Driven Life never presents the biblical gospel that alone saves. Readers are told to “learn to love and trust God’s Son, Jesus” (p. 37); that if they “have a relationship with God through Jesus,” they needn’t fear death (p. 40); that “your identity is in eternity, and your homeland is heaven” (p. 48); and that “Real life begins by committing yourself completely to Jesus Christ. If you are not sure you have done this, all you need to do is receive and believe” (p. 58).

None of the essential elements of the gospel—that man is a sinner under God’s judgment, that Christ is God and man through a virgin birth, that He paid the penalty for our sins, that He resurrected the third day—is given (see 1 Corinthians:15:1-4 [1] Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel which I preached unto you, which also ye have received, and wherein ye stand; [2] By which also ye are saved, if ye keep in memory what I preached unto you, unless ye have believed in vain. [3] For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures; [4] And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures:
See All...). Readers are offered “friendship” with God through believing in a “Christ” who went to the cross because He “would rather die than live without us” (p. 79)! That is not the gospel!

The reader is told that his genetic makeup, physical features, talents, personality, the details of his daily life, etc., are exactly what God has foreordained: “God prescribed every single detail of your body.... He planned it all for his purpose...” (pp. 22, 23). “You’re just what he wanted to make” (p. 25). Not so! The cumulative effects of man’s rebellion have created a pool of genetic distortions in humanity resulting in a deformed world with distorted beings that God never intended.

Warren justifies this fatalistic view from The Living Bible: “You [God]...scheduled each day of my life before I began to breathe” (Psalms:139:16Thine eyes did see my substance, yet being unperfect; and in thy book all my members were written, which in continuance were fashioned, when as yet there was none of them.
See All...)—not even close to what that verse actually says, which is: “Thine eyes did see my substance, yet being unperfect; and in thy book all my members were written, which in continuance were fashioned, when as yet there was none of them.” Is every sinful thought and deed exactly what God has planned?! Men are not sinners but puppets if everything is exactly what God has decreed.

Let us be careful to “preach the word” and “obey the word” and allow Christ, the “living word,” to live through us as we offer sinners the biblical “gospel of God” (Romans:1:1Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, separated unto the gospel of God,
See All...) that truly saves. And let us “earnestly contend” for this unchangeable faith (Jude 3).

TBC