What is the Gospel? (Part 1)

I posed this question in a Bible study last night and the responses begged for clarification. One response was something to the effect of, “Jesus died for people.” While this is certainly true, as Scripture affirms over and over again, it does not provide enough of an answer to save a person. Mormons, Jehovah’s Witnesses, and Roman Catholics all would affirm that statement and yet each of those sects propagate very different messages about what those words mean. Similarly, many from other world religions would also affirm the words, “Jesus died for people.” Many Hindus, Buddhists, and Muslims have no problem affirming that Jesus was an outstanding human being, perhaps even a prophet from God, who truly did lay down his life for others in a myriad of ways including, but not limited to, at his physical death on the cross of Calvary. Many would say that Jesus’ life and death provided a moral example for the rest of humanity to follow and, in that sense, provides salvation from sin if we will simply do as he did. There are even Atheists who can and do affirm that position.

So, is that good news? Specifically, is that THE good news that is presented in the Bible? I would argue that it is not unless one gives themselves over to Universalism which is not compatible with biblical Christianity. This is why doctrine matters and cannot be diminished and/or dismissed (I actually believe that the individuals with whom I had this interaction with ultimately believe this too).

The idea that everyone should simply be allowed to believe whatever they think is right about Scripture is moral relativism made manifest in the visible church. This is no different than the bumper sticker ideologies and worldviews that insist that everyone should simply “Coexist” or that “Love is Love”. This is utter foolishness (in the biblical sense) and everyone knows it. That said, those who hold to this nonsense are doing precisely what the Apostle Paul tells us they will do which is suppressing the truth in unrighteousness.

To be clear, I am not saying that the people with whom I had this interaction with are lost. I do not presume to know anyone’s heart and affirm that salvation does not require perfect knowledge and/or consistency in regard to Scripture. What I am saying is that those who promote unity at the expense of truth are not acting in accord with their own professed worldview (a.k.a, biblical Christianity). From the lips of our Savior, “…if a house be divided against itself, that house cannot stand.”

This insistence upon ambiguity is the precise reason that there are endless divisions in the visible church which does nothing but bring reproach upon the name of Christ Jesus. Many have bought into Satan’s lie that “doctrine divides” and they have given themselves over to (or God has given them over to) a godless ecumenism. Many do not take that ecumenism to it’s fullest extent or logical conclusions. Rather, they try to hold onto certain “fundamentals” of the faith while at the same time undermining the very foundation upon which those fundamentals have been built and understood. The idea that Scripture is inerrant and infallible means absolutely nothing if everyone is allowed to make up their own mind about what it actually says and means.

That said, much like the secular “Coexist” and “Love is Love” crowd/s it doesn’t seem as though the “doctrine divides” crowd practices what they preach. My family and I have been ran out of two local congregations that have insisted upon this “to each their own” mentality as a defense against the faithful preaching and teaching of the Bible. Yet, the true prevailing doctrine of our persecutors (not everyone in each of these congregations would fall into that category) was and is the doctrine of “My/Our Way or the Highway”. Ironically enough, this is the very thing that me and those of my theological persuasion are slanderously accused of propagating ourselves. However, let me say emphatically (as I have always done) that it is not “MY Way or the highway”. To the contrary, I unabashedly declare that it is “GOD’S Way or the Highway!”

“How do we know what God’s way is?” one might ask. By following Paul’s admonition to Timothy:

“Study to show thyself approved unto God, a workman that has nothing to be ashamed of, rightly dividing the word of truth.”