<> A SHADOW OF ITSELF

The Gospels that are shared today are so short that it becomes like a casual invitation. It is short for a good reason as it is meant to be passed to passerbyers in a form of leaflets, cards, and tracts; but that is all that are taught to Christians. The two most common Gospel presentations are: The Four Laws, 5 Things God wants to Know, and the Romans Road.

In its most simplest form, the Gospel is the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ and so the said presentations have. However, without depth, it remains a shallow message almost flippant, and the sender is no better for that is all that s/he are taught.

While they are also taught the Bridge Illustration, an effective tool indeed and sin is properly defined (missing the mark, and serves as a debt and a wall), but again, nothing more than that. And the thing they all have in common is that God is hardly mentioned, only that He loves them.

<> GOSPEL WITHOUT GOD

God is not just the reason why Jesus is sent, but why sinners are condemned. Why is He so loving but also so vehement against sin? And in the bible no other doctrine is more hated then the doctrine of Hell & yet it is in scripture. The only answer as to why it exists is within the character/attributes of God

We all agree that God is love. But what makes Him so loving in the first place? It's not love, or else love can be carried into irrationality; He is love because He is GOOD (Psalm 136:1). There we agree again; who would disagree with a God who is good. But that still doesn't answer the reason for His utter hatred for sins. The answer to that question lies within... the meaning of good. What does it mean to be good?

If God is good, then He is of course loving, but also merciful, kind, longsuffering, etc. But guess what... that makes Him also Just... & Holy.... which therefore accounts for His hate for sin (Exodus 34:6-7). So if God is good, He hates evil, and so He must punish all guilty of sin..

<> MESSAGE WITHOUT SIN

The Gospel by definition is "Good News", so what makes it good? Yes, God loves us & yes God sent His son down to save us. But save us from what? Hell. But why do we need saving, isn't He love?

It is because the gospels do not detail in the message about but quoting Romans 3:23, we don't know what sin is. And because of the failure in the lack of detail, how many are actually convicted of Sin? The Bible says that those who have godly sorrow, repents & are saved (2 Corinthians 7:10).

So what is sin? It is missing the mark of God's righteousness, but it's more than that: it is an act of rebellion against God. And sin has grave consequences

Adam & Eve, inclined to disobey God by eating the forbidden fruit. It was the single act of disobedience & rebellion that threw all of creation in disarray. Not only this, the children after them had inherited an inclination to sin. Man thus have a sinful nature, not just the temptation to sin (Romans 5:16-17), but a mind to sin (8:7).

Readers, the fact that now you know how terrible sin is, magnifies the Gospel message. It is through the knowledge of sin makes the Gospel truly good news, because it is the message that will save us if we believe it.

Not only that, it makes us much more thankful to God & love Him all the more , because of the knowledge of how much we're forgiven (Luke &:47)

This part is the problem is one that is outside of the Evangelical Church; now it is the problem that it is one of two things that most characterizes false gospels. The first is the diminishment of Jesus & the second is adding to the Gospel.

<> THE DIMINISHMENT OF JESUS

On the streets you will not just encounter unbelievers who does not believe in God, but also those who do... but in the wrong god. It is because they have a wrong god they also have the wrong Jesus.

The most common group that disseminates the false Jesus are the Jehovah's Witnesses & others like them, They believe in the unitarian god in that God is one person, which demotes Jesus from being God to a created being.

The problem with that in relations to the Gospel is that if Jesus is not God, then He could not pay for sins, let alone, for the entire world. A single man cannot do that but neither can an Angel because Angels though more powerful, are not anymore greater than man.

<> THE PRICE HE PAID

Back to the Evangelical gospel; most pastors give more detail about the message but not only they frequently forget the attributes of God, they limit the price Jesus paid for our sins.

While all acknowledge that Jesus was whipped with a Cat of Nine-Tails Tails teariing his back, made to carry the heavy beam on His shoulders, then being nailed to it & left to sufficate & bear the torture of the nails wounding him.... all of which is part of that price. However, there is actually so much more that He had went through & it isn't due to physical suffering

When Jesus was praying at the Garden of Gethsemane He asked His father "...Let this cup pass from me, not as my will but yours be done." (Luke 22:42) His request was so that he was drops like blood. What was in the cup that made Him so terrified in drinking it?

If you do a word search, "Cup" you'll eventually find "Cup of God's wrath". That cup he pleaded not to drink was Hs Father's wrath. And what it means to be in God's wrath is when He turned His face away. In the Bible when God turns His face to you, it means blessings, but the opposite means cursing.

And so when Jesus bore our sins on the cross, God turned His face away because the Son became sin. He became a curse to where every condemnation in Deuteronomy 27:14-26 for law-breakers fell upon Him (Deuteronomy 21:22-23). This is why He cried out "My God my God, why hast thou forsaken me" (Matthew 27:46) & when the cup is emptied, He said "It is finished" (John 19:30)..

<> ADDING TO THE GOSPEL

Finally the second most common in the false gospel outside of Evangelicalism is a gospel that has conditions added to the message. Those condition(s) comes in a form of the Law.

I've made mention earlier that God being good hates sin & sin is an act of rebellion. Because of this, He imposed upon sinful man His laws, a standard of righteousness which first came by conscience
(Genesis 1:26) & then by the letter (Exodus 20:1-4... Romans 2:14-16). This not only to establish order and morality but also for them to do if they wished to enter into His kingdom (Psalms 5:4-5).

However, none were worthy of as all have sinned coming short of the glory of God as the gospels of the Evangelicals well used (Romans 3:23). But while they've failed to keep the law there was a purpose to it. He didn't impose the law for the sake of condemning them, but to show them that they needed a savior (Romans 3:9-20).
Because of the impossibility of the law for which all were bound Jesus came a died to free us from it so that we can instead come to God by mere faith.

And yet ... there are those who've missed that whole point. This & for other reasons they've placed conditions which once again imposed the law. Their gospel is no gospel at all, but the reimposition of the curse (Deuteronomy 27:26). Ephesians 2:8-9 says for by Grace.

<> REMOVING THE EXCLUSIVITY

Finally, if Jesus is made to where He is no longer "the" way, "the" truth, & "the" life... the Gospel becomes nothing more than an optional selection, "a" way to heaven than "the one way" to God.

That also makes the God of the Bible also an option, as He becomes one of the many gods & goddesses to chose from. As Jesus has said, the word of God cannot be broken (John 10:35).

Jesus thus must be the only way the truth & the life or He is nothing at all, & the Gospel utterly false.

<> THE IMPERATIVE

It is imperative therefore to establish, uphold, & defend the right Gospel. It is through the Gospel that people are saved.

It is not the Gospel without God;

It is inapporpriately called the Gospel without our full guilt being the factor

It is not the Gospel if the message stopped short on detailing the entirety of Christ's sacrifice

The Gospel is not without God the Son for He alone can pay for our sins

The Gospel is no longer is if the Law is added to it

And finally, the Gospel is nothing if the message is not exclusive.

We must defend the Gospel as it is the only hope for salvation

Amen.

SydneyB. it's been quite a while since I've seen you; how are you? :)

Eh, not too bad, thanks. Just kind of sad about moving away from my church and church family. My church where I live is church lite and not worth going to and I'm forgetting so much.

I'm sorry you had to leave your home church.

You've said that your church is "Church Lite", not worth going and your forgetting thing; is there a deficiency in theology or is it too much of it where you can't keep up and remember?

Well, I had to move. It was in a town of under 10,000 population.

No, it was because the church I was baptized in at 30, was just so impactful and brilliant. Alot of the elders were construction business owners or talented trademen who gave unbelievable sermons, linking book after book, strengthening their point and tying everything together. Looking into ourselves and getting more personal human insight then any self help book. It's hard to explain but I heard world class sermons week after week, besides a few guests. Then I went to my town's church and it was just a pathetic feelgoodery joke. I know it's an excuse tho.

The pathetic feel-goodery that you've seen in your church is what is exactly wrong with the church today. When the church begins to compromise for the sake of unity, and then care about what the community thinks, that's the end result.

I'm glad you're leaving it; I'm sure it has been a lot of sacrifice as you've been there for a long time with people you've known all your life there. But you need to fed, you need to grow, and those pastors are doing you a great disservice.

Have you ever heard of a DVD series called "American Gospel" and "The Calvinist"? The beginning of the latter tells of how the mainstream church got to where it is now, while the former ("American Gospel: Christ Crucified") tells of the two opposing groups: the Emergent and the Conservative. Your home church appears to be of the Emergent group.

They're often characterized by a heavy emphasis in entertainment, community catering, a de-emphasis in doctrine, purity, and accountability.

Yep, the first time I went there the majority of the service was some girl showing slides from a trip to Africa, doing missionary work. No scripture at all. But like I said, my old church was really special.

No, I've never heard of that.

Oh wait, your old church is a very good church correct, and the current one is not the old church you were talking about?

Yes, I can see that. Did she ever talk about what they're teaching to the indigionous people or just the fact that they're helping those people out by building homes, wells, raising pigs, etc?

Yes.

Nope, just humble bragging really. But I just went a few times.

Sorry about the delay, things have been hectic.

You don't have to be an evangelistt to be an Evangleical. Evangelicalism is a Christian fundamentalist response to the growing influence of Darwinism and theological liberalism. But one of its core belief is in the importance of evangelism.

Evangelism is not just what we call "Open-Air Preaching" or "Street Preaching" today, it is belief in the importance of sharing the Gospel. And every believer ought to do it. Some people invite their friends to hear the gospel preached; others do it themselves either by handing out tracts or speaking to the unsaved in person. Either way, the gospel is being shared

That's perfectly fine; we do have such days sometimes. :)

With that, I'd like to invite you to my own Stream:

imgflip.com/m/Evangelicalism

I know you have a lot you follow already so you don't have to join it, but in the stream i've created, I've included memes that teaches basic theology that you may not be aware of, because of the weak church that you are leaving.

Sure but I am a prot not an evangelist.

Both are worth watching, but I will say that the two documentaries primarily features Calvinists so the theology in those is Calvin-esque. Nevertheless they're still worth watching.

BTW: I had no idea that you are a Christian for all this time i've known you. We've first fought against each other with regard to counselling and then we've become friends from thence, and yet there was nothing to indicate to me that you're a fellow believer

It is probable also that you've felt the same with me. With that, I find that a bit sad. Neither one of us showed any signs of life.

No, I knew you were Christian. I just don't speak up on it much because I've forgotten so much.

That's too bad. Was it because of that church you're leaving? Because they've taught so little which caused your learning to become sluggish?

No, I never went to that church after leaving my first one. I just forgot slot over the 6 or so years since I left.

*alot

Hey I’m kinda new here and I was raised in an atheist household. I know giving His only son was a HUGE sacrifice for God to make, and there must have been a good reason that such a sacrifice was necessary, but I can’t quite seem to find what that reason is. Y’all seem to know the Bible pretty well, could someone maybe help me out?

HI AudreyM, welcome to ImgFlip!

The answer as to why the sacrifice is necessary is because God loves us that much (John 3:16-17).

We do not deserve that love however, as man have sinned from the very begiinning. Since Adam, we have a profound inclination to sin (Genesis 8:21) for we are sinners by nature (Romans 8:6-7). God being good (Psalm 136:1) in His eternal nature cannot simply allow our deeds to go unpunished (Exodus 34:6-7).

We must live righteously in order to go to heaven (Romans 2:6-7) but every one of us broke His laws.

He has every right to send all of us to Hell, but He also loves us. Nevertheless He simply cannot just forgive us our sins (Proverbs 17:15) because sin to HIm is that wicked (James 2:10 & 4:17). There must be payment for our sins.

If He would just overlook or forgive our sins He would be unjust, but if He gives us full justice then none of us will be saved [the sinful cannot dwell with Him in heaven (Deuteronomy 27:26 & Psalms 5:4-5)]. Thus, He gave His only Son.

Jesus is fully God but came down to become man for our sake (John 1:1-3, 14). God rquires that we all live in righteousness through the commandments but we're not able. Jesus lived in perfect righteousness (Hebrews 4:15) & went to the cross as a spotless sacrifice for us (1 Peter 1:19).

He took all our sins unto Himself [He became sin on our behalf (2 Corinthians 5:20)], took the full wrath of God on our behalf (Deuteronomy 27:26, 21-22-23, & Isaiah 53:5-6, 10), He died on the cross. On the 3rd day He rose again (John 20). Thanks to Him instead of coming to God through the Law, we can now come to Him by Faith Alone (John 5:24).

We do not deserve to be saved, but it is by His grace (undeserved kindnesss) we are saved (Ephesians 2:8-9).

I hope this answered your question.

Here are the verses that you can read online:

https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=John+3%3A16-17%2C+Genesis+8%3A21%2C+Romans+8%3A6-7%2C+Psalm+136%3A1%2C+Exodus+34%3A6-7%2C+Romans+2%3A6-7%2C+James+2%3A10%2C+4%3A17%2C+Deuteronomy+27%3A26%2C+Psalms+5%3A4-5%2C+John+1%3A1-3%2C+14%2C+Hebrews+4%3A15%2C+1+Peter+1%3A19%2C+2+Corinthians+5%3A20%2C+Deuteronomy+27%3A26%2C+21-22-23%2C+Isaiah+53%3A5-6%2C+10%2C+John+5%3A24%2C+Ephesians+2%3A8-9&version=KJV

You're doing God's work, my fren.

Thank you, SydneyB. :)

Okay that makes sense so Jesus was punished on our behalf thanks for explaining!

You're welcome, AudreyM. :) Feel free to ask me whenever you'd like.