De-powering The Gospel
Birth defects, diseases, genocides, suicides, atrocities, crimes, famines, starvation, plagues, wars, tyranny, natural disasters, accidents and all the nightmares of this world are all God’s doing if “there are no accidents,” “there are no coincidences,” “nothing ever happens by chance,” “everything happens for a reason” and “all things happen for the good.” Mindlessly reciting such clichés associates God with poverty, lawlessness, insanity and worse. That’s not good news!
Our maker is the hero of creation, not the villain. The Savior God gave us is the ultimate superman who defeated the thief. Thoughtlessly broadcasting “God’s in control” catch-phrases, makes God the diabolical origin of evil, destroying His power like verbal kryptonite.
The Power Of The Gospel
The power of the Gospel is in revealing how God remains “right,” in a world gone wrong. Paul said,” I’m not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ for it is the power of God unto salvation, for therein is the righteousness of God revealed…” Rom.1:16-17.
When the creation makes sense, its Creator is welcome. It’s the “question marks of life” that suspend that welcome.
The ABCs
The ABCs of the Gospel of Christ answer all the “why God?” bewilderment of man. These elementary facts provide the zoomed out satellite view of the world that brings everything into “God is right” focus.
A. This is a fallen world.
B. God didn’t make it that way.
C. In His Son, God has provided the fix for all its ills starting with the worst one of all, death.
The truth opens the door of man’s heart to his maker. The Gospel of Christ is that truth and its power is that cure that all mankind has been searching for. That’s good news.
Christ’s Gospel
Christ’s message was a proclamation of life-giving power, backed up in tangible demonstration, not just words. His Gospel not only taught the Kingdom, it brought the Kingdom. This is what exposes the real source of the world’s woes hiding in the stealth of philosophical gibberish.
Jesus enlightened the world with insight and inspired it with reality instead of sly jargon compensating for dead religion’s impotence. He said, ” the thief comes only to steal and to kill and to destroy.” Then He valiantly challenged, “but I have come that you might have life and that more abundantly.” Whose heart isn’t open to that?!
“His Great Commission”
Christ commissioned his disciples with the same objective, “go into all the world and preach the Gospel. Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out devils.” He didn’t say, tell the world God never gives you more leprosy than you can handle, and God meant your demons for good, and sickness is a gift.”
Preaching Christ’s “Gospel ” is a rude eviction of the powers of darkness. It offensively unmasks them by executing God’s counterpower against their works. By destroying them, death, sickness, and bondage appear as what they are, the defiance of “God’s control.” Redefining those works of darkness as examples of His control is the highest form of espionage. It sabotages God’s power by forging His signature onto evil.
How dare we aid and abet the works of darkness by rewording the light of the truth that eliminates them. The gates holding hell’s captives are to be crashed, not whitewashed with “a new perspective.”
“his” gospel
Devious spin-doctoring is the strategy that effectively robs man of his diagnosis and thus “his cure.” Innumerable sayings, catchphrases, slogans, and adages, misguide a world groping in the darkness for any kind of a navigational compass. The vulnerability is exploited toward a “counter gospel” which is the ultimate objective of evil.
“Since all things happen for the good, there’s no need for salvation,” says the thief. “The challenge of life is your “attitude,” nobody had to die for that. Who needs a savior if God’s in control?” Just change your “perspective.”
Misapplied, “God’s in control” misrepresents God as the source of all things, including evil things. Such miss-direction makes the innocent, and the weak, and the defenseless seem like the helpless “forgottens” of an indifferent Creator. That’s nobody’s hero, and the suggestion closes human hearts to Him.
“Mission accomplished!” boasts hell’s spin-doctor.