November 30, 2009 @ 10:56 AM EST | Category: Gospel Theology
"The brilliance of the gospel light is dimmed by error. The clearness of the testimony is spoiled when doubtful voices are scattered among the people, and those who ought to preach the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, are telling out for doctrines the imaginations of men, and the inventions of the age.
Instead of revelation, we have philosophy, falsely so-called; instead of divine infallibility, we have surmises and larger hopes. The gospel of Jesus Christ, which is the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever, is taught as the production of progress, a growth, a thing to be amended and corrected year by year. It is an ill day, both for the church and the world, when the trumpet does not give a certain sound; for who shall prepare himself for the battle?"
November 20, 2009 @ 10:50 AM EST | Category: Gospel Theology
Colossians 2:8 says, "See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ."
I have listed here, for anyone interested in the ministry, things you will never hear us say when sharing/preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ.
I wrote that list because of the fact that I have heard so many people describe a "summary" of the gospel as asking Jesus to do things, or accepting Jesus into your heart (at this point I interject, "Well, why not into my liver?"), or giving Jesus something. All are concepts that stem from a lack of understanding of the true message and nature of the gospel. All are concepts that I will not use because it is clear from scripture, not from my feeble-brained reasoning, that those concepts, which use words and have theology behind them -although it may not be accurate theology- are unbiblical.
How you speak about something shows what you know about something. The words that you use are important. If someone uses unbiblical terminology when sharing the gospel then I would have to assume one of two things. One, the person really doesn't know the gospel intimately or two, they have something up their sleeve (producing numbers for church growth etc).
I once heard a great analogy of the difference between accurate gospel preaching and quick short-hand unbiblical preaching that try's to get it done in a succinct, quick way and "dumbs it down" (as mentioned above). This is a paraphrase, as much as I can remember, of that analogy.
There was once a parachute making factory. They made the best parachutes out there. Every time a soldier yanked the rip cord the parachute opened like a charm. They took their time with every fold of the parachute making sure the folds were precise and there was no slack. When they packed the parachute, they made sure that every part of the parachute went into the backpack nice and neat so that when the soldier pulled the cord there would be no snags or rips. There numbers were low, but so were the number of deaths from failed parachutes. That number was almost non-existent.
Well someone came in and demanded that the parachute factory pick up the pace of production because there were more parachutes needed and the factory on the west coast is making twice as many parachutes in a month as they are. So, the factory picked up the pace, sacrificing quality and reliability for volume and raw dollars. Each fold of the parachute was glazed over and packing it into the backpack was done in a sloppy manner. As the soldiers deployed the parachutes many were not opening correctly, hanging and ripping. Soldier's were falling to their death. Their parachute numbers were high, but so were the number of deaths associated with their lack of care for the job.
Their negligence lost them the war.
On that note, I wanted to share a message with you from the church Stephanie and I attend.
As you listen to the message, think to yourself about whether or not you have been taken captive by worldly philosophy and ask yourself exactly how are you packing the parachute?
