The war against the Gospel

I am not talking about the attacks on Christians by unbelievers. But preachers and so-called Bible scholars are rising up to attack the preaching of the Gospel brought by Jesus Christ. The Good News which Jesus brought was that He had made a way for us to be saved from our sins (Mt.1:21). Giving an appearance of exalting the value of the grace of God, these preachers are saying that those who teach repentance from sin as a requirement for salvation are heretics! If those who come to Jesus for salvation have no repentance from their sins, what kind of salvation are they looking for? It is very clear what Jesus taught. "Now after John had been taken into custody, Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the gospel of God, and saying, 'The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel'" (Mk.1:14,15). And yet, these preachers have the audacity to say that the only requirement for receiving the Gospel was believing!

The world does not want to give up sin. Its goal is to make sin acceptable and declared normal. Many people in the church who should know better are going along with it, probably because they want to be considered progressive. But this is not progress at all, but downright depravity. Jesus had no hesitation to call out people who followed Him merely for material benefits (Jn.6:26,27). But now the trend is to be inclusive and not to turn any away. As a result, even the Gospel is being stripped of its power. The modern 'gospel' is attractive to people, offering great music, fun and games, friendships (calling it fellowship). Who talks about sin these days? Where are the prophets who bring the word of the Lord to rebuke and convict people? So-called prophets these days are flattering the hearers and predicting a good future without any warning to turn away from sin.

The church is becoming so worldly that even the world is mocking it. The reason is that the word of the cross is not being preached in the church (1Co.1:18). You may say that is not true, because Jesus is still being preached as having been crucified. But what is not being preached is that we are to live crucified lives ourselves (Ga.6:14;2:20). Do we hear much in our preaching about taking up our cross daily, denying ourselves and following Jesus (Lk.9:23)? Aren't we having too many preachers telling us to follow our dreams, make up bucket lists, etc.? Instead of the world seeing us as being their light and salt, they see us increasingly as one of them. No wonder young people are wondering if all religions may be just different ways to the same God!

When we understand this trend, we can see why preachers are avoiding the preaching of repentance and turning to God. But if we don't see ourselves as sinners before God who need a Saviour, we don't see any need to repent, and we find it convenient to 'just believe'! We like singing songs, fun and games and meeting people, as long as no one is telling us to turn away from sinning!