The Gospel Gone Wrong

I came across an article today on Fox News' website by Cal Thomas. The article was about the true meaning of Christmas. In the article Cal wrote

"The true meaning of Christmas is this: God took on the form of a human to die in our place, paying for our sins, so that humans who receive Him might be forgiven and be with Him forever."

There is just one problem with this statement; This is not the Gospel. Everything is fine until you get to the phrase, "so that humans who receive Him might be forgiven..." The problem here is that God's forgiveness was for the whole world, not just those who receive Jesus as Savior. You see the Bible says in 1 John 2:2

And he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world. - 1 John 2:2

You need to understand that the war between humans and God is at an end. That is why the angles came and proclaimed,

"Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men."
- Luke 2:14

So if God forgave the sins of the whole world, of anyone whoever lived, does that mean everyone is saved? No.

Salvation comes by grace through faith. (Ephesians 2:8) We have to choose to accept the gift of salvation. Faith is our positive response to what God has already accomplished.

And, if God forgave the whole world of it's sin, then the only thing sending people to hell is their rejection of Jesus; not their sins. For we are told to confess Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior.

John 16:8-9 says, 

“And when he is come, he will reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment: Of sin, because they believe not on me.” (This is sin in the singular, not the plural.)

Andrew Wommack said it best,

"The singular sin the Holy Spirit reproves us of is the sin of not believing on Jesus. That’s it. That’s not to say that the Holy Spirit will not show us that things we do are wrong. But He uses them to illustrate that we don’t believe on Jesus. The Holy Spirit isn’t nailing us every time we sin; He loves us back into faith and trust in Jesus. That’s the whole issue with God. 

What difference does it make in our lives if we accept forgiveness as something that has already been accomplished or not? There is a huge difference! It gives us security and peace, knowing that God isn’t mad at us and won’t be mad at us. Our sins are already forgiven—and not just the past sins we committed before we were born again. All of our sins—past, present, and even future ones—are already forgiven."

Now that's good news!

 

Why God Wants Me Sick: The Theology of Convenience

For some reason, God's people would rather slander the name and character of God than accept our own shortcomings. Instead of believing scripture that says that Jesus healed all that were sick, (Matt 12:15) we will go to great lengths, to the point of taking scripture out of context, to prove we're right and the Bible is wrong.

Before I continue, I want to make it clear that I do not belittle anyone who is suffering from on going health issues. I fully understand how frustrating and demeaning it is to have someone come up to you and say,"If you only had more faith." I also want to say that this is not a teaching on healing. This is an observation on human nature.

So why would we, as believers, rather justify our unbelief than face the fact that we fall short? The short answer is pride. We care so much about how we are perceived by others we would rather blame God then look bad. Think about it. Which position is easier to defend when you're standing in front of other people praying for the sick and you see no results? The position that the Bible says Jesus heals everyone and I just suck at doing my job or that God chooses to heal some and not heal others for His Glory?

You see, we like to think that because we were saved we are now somehow qualified and worthy do do God's work. We tend to get into a place where we start to think we are the chosen like it's a elite club. And for those of you who choose to grovel in your "unholiness," you can just stop now; for that is false humility and is a form of pride. I'm here to tell you that God hasn't had anyone qualified working for him yet and you aren't the exception. True humility is relying on God for everything and doing what he told us to do.

That includes healing the sick, raising people from the dead, opening blind eyes and deaf ears.

If you would like more information on God's unconditional provision for health and healing, visit God Wants You Well.

The Sovereign Heresy

Sovereign (adj.): Superlative in quality, of the most exalted kind; possessed of supreme power, absolute, enjoying autonomy. 

Until the NIV bible was published, the word sovereign was never used in the bible.  However, because of the misuse of this word, the notion of God controlling everything is one of the worst heresies taught and propagated by the church today.

Let me start by saying that not everything which happens on this earth goes according to God's will. I know that this is a tough idea to swallow; especially if you've been raised in today's church. Yet, nowhere in the new testament will you find this idea taught. In fact, there are many places in the bible where you find God's perfect will not coming to pass.

"The notion of God controlling everything is one of the worst heresies taught and propagated by the church today."

For example, when God led the nation of Israel out of Egypt and into the promised land. God was going to take them directly to their new home. However, the people rebelled against God and were stuck wandering the desert for 40 years(Numbers 14).  Or how about the passage in scripture which says, "...not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance."(2 Peter 3:9) And yet Jesus said that wide is gate which leads to destruction and narrow is the gate to salvation. He goes on to say that few will enter into salvation.( Matt. 7:13-14) This happens regardless of the fact that God wants everyone to be saved.

So why, if there are multiple scriptures showing that God's perfect will doesn't come to pass, embrace this teaching? The reason is simple, it's a convenient theology. It allows people to take no responsibility for their actions and places all the blame for things going wrong on God.

There's just one problem; anyone who professes this way of thinking doesn't really believe it. One example of this is believers who are sick who will comfort themselves with the notion that God made them sick to teach them a lesson. This allows them to not face the fact that they are directly responsible for their health. However, if they really believed that God gave them or gave permission for their sickness, they wouldn't go to the doctor to get well. If they really did believe that God gave them their illness, then they would embrace the sickness because it was God ordained. No one, however, really believes this because they don't truly practice this.

This religious teaching of a "sovereign" God is not found in the bible. It is a tradition of man which makes God's word void in people's lives. And it is teaching like this I aim to destroy; for it does more harm than good.

Tools of the Trade

"Stand, therefore, having your loins girt about in truth, and having put on the breastplate of the righteousness, and having the feet shod in the preparation of the good-news of the peace; above all, having taken up the shield of the faith, in which ye shall be able all the fiery darts of the evil one to quench, and the helmet of the salvation receive, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the saying of God, through all prayer and supplication praying at all times in the Spirit, and in regard to this same, watching in all perseverance and supplication for all the saints." -- Ephesians 6:10-18 Young's Literal Translation (YLT)

Regardless of your trade, it's always a good idea to be familiar with the tools you will be using to do your job. This past week, the Holy Spirit corrected my understanding of one of the pieces of armor of which Paul speaks. This encouraged me to review this passage in Ephesians. As a warrior, I want to make sure I'm preparing myself properly.  

"If you don't know a tools purpose, you could be in for a long and disappointing day."

While being able to name your tools is a good start, if you don't know a tools purpose, you could be in for a long and disappointing day as you work on whatever task is before you. If a carpenter would try to use a hammer to drill a hole; well you get the idea. Most christians, however, fail to learn how to use the tools provided for them, let alone their names.

Belt and Breastplate

Paul begins by instructing us to gird our loins with truth. There are two questions that come to my mind; what truth and why a belt? The first question is relatively easy; John 17:17  tells us that, "Your word is truth." As to the belt, it was the foundation of Roman armor. An article on www.freebiblestudyguides.com states the following about this piece of armor.

"The belt—known as the cingulum or balteus—played a crucial role in the effectiveness of a soldier's armor. It was the belt that held the scabbard, without which there would be no place to put a sword. Imagine an overzealous soldier, fired up and charging out into battle—but without his belt, and consequently without a weapon!
In addition, the Nelson Study Bible says from the belt "hung strips of leather to protect the lower body." The Matthew Henry Commentary says the belt "girds on [secures] all the other pieces of our armor." Truth should cleave to us as a belt cleaves to our body."

 As we can see here, just as the belt was the foundation of the Roman's armor, so also is God's word to be the foundation of our armor.

Continuing on, Paul says we are to put on the breastplate of  righteousness. This righteousness is the righteousness of Christ; which we receive when we accept Jesus as Lord and Savior.

Shoes

"If we are to be effective in fighting the enemy, we must learn how to abide in God's shalom."

The third piece of armor which Paul talks about is perhaps the most misunderstood; "and having the feet shod in the preparation of the good-news of the peace."  Most who teach on this would say that this means to have ready your testimony and to be ready to share the gospel at any moment.

This common teaching comes from a poor translation found in many newer renditions of the bible. This is because the wording is a bit odd in the Literal Translation and the Kings James versions. So many newer translations have opted to replace the word 'preparation' with the word 'readiness.'

Sadly this confuses the matter even more. A better translation into modern English might look something like:  "Prepare yourself by abiding in the shalom which the 'nearly too good to believe news of Jesus Christ' provides." 

According to Strong's Concordance, 7965 Shalom means completeness, wholeness, health, peace, welfare, safety soundness, tranquility, prosperity, perfectness, fullness, rest, harmony, the absence of agitation or discord. Shalom comes from the root verb shalom meaning to be complete, perfect and full.

Only the good news of Jesus Christ and the freedom from sin for which He provided can bring shalom.  And if we are to be effective in fighting the enemy, we must learn how to abide in God's shalom.

A great picture of what this looks like can be found in Mark 4:38:

And he was in the hinder part of the ship, asleep on a pillow: and they awake him, and say unto him, Master, carest thou not that we perish? 39 And he arose, and rebuked the wind, and said unto the sea, Peace, be still. And the wind ceased, and there was a great calm. 40 And he said unto them, Why are ye so fearful? how is it that ye have no faith?

Shalom comes not because circumstances change or that the storm has left. It is a supernatural peace in which every christian can learn to abide regardless of what is happening around us. It is this shalom which will give us a firm footing when in battle.

"Above all, having taken up the shield of the faith, in which ye shall be able all the fiery darts of the evil one to quench," 

Shield and Helmet

We are to pick up the shield of faith. But from where does this faith come? Romans 10:17 says that "Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word." That's right, God's supernatural faith comes from his word. Knowing God's word produces the faith necessary to accomplish God's will.

Accompanying the shield is the helmet of salvation. This too can be a bit confusing. As this letter is being written to believers, surely this doesn't mean that we need to be saved; for we are already saved. The answer can be found in 1 Thess. 5:8-11.

8 But let us, who are of the day, be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love; and for an helmet, the hope of salvation. 9 For God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ,10 Who died for us, that, whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with him.11 Wherefore comfort yourselves together, and edify one another, even as also ye do.

Paul tells us that we are to take hope in our salvation and we are to build each other up in the midst of our struggles. Because we have been saved, we can overcome anything the enemy throws at us. Even physical sickness and disease.

Sword

The final piece we are to equip is the "sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God."

"For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart." -- Hebrews 4:12

God's word is a powerful weapon indeed. Hebrews 4:12 tells us that it is so sharp it can separate spirit from soul and it can damage flesh. God's word will also discern the thoughts and intentions of the heart.

For me, learning to stay in God's rest, his shalom, is one of the more difficult tasks. By nature my life is chaos. I pray that God will help me rest in is perfect peace so that I can have a firm footing each and every day.