SIGNPOST Contending for the Faith
In season and out of season
Discerning the signs of the times
THE RELEVANCE OF THE GOSPEL
When we are told the Bible is not enough
Resourcing Today’s Church
In recent years there has sprung up many ministries headed by well-known names and funded by many sincere and
generous church members, declaring it God’s remit to reach the many who are subject to the old traditions of a bygone
age. With their generous funding and new way of working they are seeking to fill the gap between the older generation
of believers who are used to sitting through lengthy explanations of God’s Word and the younger generation who are
used to “pop” psychology, mobile phones and “sound bites”.
We are told that without a new way of reaching this “Generation X” the churches will not grow and the Gospel message
will be lost to this ignored generation. As with all declarations of our presently apostatising leaderships such statements
are partially true, but rather than listen to the arguments based on secular statistics and psychology, why do our leaders
struggle to follow the clear teaching of the scriptures?
If the scriptures were silent on the issue of shrinking attendance and evangelistic method, we could understand our
leaders seeking to find out by some other means, what God’s plan for this generation actually was; but they are not
silent. In fact, the scriptures – the timeless Word of the Living God – do show us how to reach the lost. There are many
examples of God-inspired evangelism in the Newer Testament, written down for our instruction. According to God, ALL
scripture is His inspiration and is given for the proper instruction of His church (2 Timothy 3:16), so why do so many try
to convince us that the Bible is out of date? Why do so many feel the need to sell us their own methods which are not
found within the free Word of God, but in the costly teachings of men?
The first lie of the devil was to substitute his own version of the meaning of God’s word to counter that which God had
clearly and plainly spoken. If the modern methods are saying God’s word is out of date, we are faced with the same
choice that Adam faced: what has God said, or what does man say? What then, are the examples in the scriptures?
Jesus the Jew
In our discussion of the relevance of the gospel, we should first look at the Lord Jesus Christ. He began His ministry to
the lost sheep of Israel at about the age of thirty and started off by giving one of the longest sermons known to
believers. In Matthew 5:1 to 7:29, Jesus sat down to teach the crowd. Many in that day were idol worshippers, following
Baal, not YHVH. Not only that, but these were people who had been badly taught by their religious leaders, so that their
understanding of the truth of God’s word was distinctly lacking. Did He start with a simple homily just to get them
interested? Hardly! His teaching was in the style of Moses, delivering the teaching (Law) of God from Sinai. Our Lord’s
teaching makes difficult reading for those who are filled with the Spirit and moving on with God, so for those who did not
understand God’s word it must have seemed daunting, to say the least.
Jesus taught about loving one’s neighbour, forgiving others and blessing those who persecute us, and so on. If this was
to be a method of reaching the lost sheep, it could hardly have been more difficult to follow. Yet our Lord and Saviour
still did not hesitate to say it. This to Him was supremely relevant, or He would have omitted to do it in such depth.
In His style and in the content of the message, Jesus did not flinch from telling the Truth, the whole Truth and nothing
but the Truth. It was neither shallow in its application, nor did it contain any worldly elements just to bridge the gap
between Him and His listeners. In both the length of time it must have taken Jesus to speak and with the newness of
His ministry still in the people’s minds, He still went ahead and taught them as we see it in the scriptures.
Now, we may observe that Jesus was a Jew of Jews, sent to Jewish people. They were His primary focus, but He
shared the gospel with gentiles also. In such cases He made no attempt to alter the message of repentance from sin,
forgiveness and the grace of the God of Israel (Matthew 4:17; Matthew 15:21-28; Luke 13:1-5; John 4:1-42; John 8:11).
To those who displayed faith in Him, He made no attempt to repeat the steps of salvation, but to those who questioned
Him; He was direct and certain in the Truth He stood for. This is the example of God Himself. Nowhere does He
attempt to limit the application of His teaching to certain categories of people. Nowhere does He say that certain future
generations should be treated differently. His method, the method of the Eternal God, is recorded for eternity for us to
learn from and follow.
Paul the Jew
Paul was specifically sent to the Gentiles. Do we notice any difference in the plan of God in this respect? Hardly! Firstly,
to plan to send a Jew to Gentiles would sound like suicide to our new resourcers of the modern church. Most gentiles
would find it hard to accept that God has chosen a Jew to lead and teach us. But that is what He did. Paul was sent to
Damascus, Cyprus, Lystra, Antioch, Philippi, Thessalonica, Athens, Corinth, and Ephesus – places where Jews were
not easily accepted by the Gentile population.
Not only was Paul sent to Gentile places, but also he preached a message that most Gentiles did not wish to hear. At
Lystra Paul and Silas were stoned and left for dead. In Philippi they were flogged and imprisoned. In Athens Paul went
to Mars Hill (Acts 17:22) where he observed the idols of the Greeks. The Greeks were people used to much philosophy,
learning, visual theatre and pleasure. Yet what did Paul do? He stood up in the Areopagus and spoke the Word of God
to the assembled crowd.
Paul used a Jewish method of presentation in a Gentile setting. Paul observed their many idols and proceeded to refer
to them. But he did not use them nor did he give them any credence. He actually rubbished them. He knew that the
scriptures say that idols are nothing so he referred to them as the “imagination of men’s hearts” – an ignorant and
vacuous nonsense (Acts 17: 29-30).
Paul also referred to the writings of the Greek poets. But he again did not give them credence. In so far as they told the
written truth, Paul noted that those poets’ writings agreed with the scriptures. But it was the scriptures he was preaching
from and he was upholding. Paul knew that the scriptures warned that something unclean could never be made clean
by bringing it into contact with God’s word. Everything unclean only defiles the clean and makes it unacceptable to God
(Haggai 2:11-14). So Paul upheld the truth of God’s word, he did not preach from worldly writings.
Paul, like Jesus, did not mince his words. A spade was a spade; an idol was an idol. Repentance was preached and so
was resurrection. Many at that point ridiculed him and left. Was this an example of an excellent method? In the
terminology of our present resourcers of the modern church – No! But in the terminology of the example of God and
His chosen servants – certainly!
Enculturalising the Gospel
So are Jesus and Paul (or, Timothy, Titus, John Mark, Barnabus, Peter, etc.) ever recorded in scripture as altering the
message or its presentation to suit the fallen hearts of their audience? In the scriptures, has God ever said we should
use a different method? There is no specific instruction anywhere that our presentational methods should change. Paul,
as we have already noted, was sent to the Greeks among others. Greeks were used to visual theatre. Why did Paul still
present the gospel verbally? Because he followed Jesus’ method. He did not try to appease their culture. In fact he met
it head on, by following Jesus’ example.
At Lystra he again met them head on, rubbished their idols and caused a riot (Acts 14:15). Our new evangelists would
say his method was obviously wrong. But theirs’ is the wisdom of this world, which is foolishness in the sight of God (1
Cor. 3:19 )
In today’s New Age world where psychology substitutes for spirituality, enculturalising means making the church
environment as appealing as possible. Robert Schuller’s Crystal Cathedral is a prime example of the mixture of
psychology and Bible-sounding phraseology. Schuller’s “preaching” however, is needs-based psychobabble. Closely
allied to Schuller – sharing pulpits - is Hybels’ Willow Creek. Not based on scripture – although the psychologically
oriented Bill Hybels tries to justify his methods by attempting to make scripture fit into them – but based on Hybels’
background in Management psychology, the Willow Creek church is also a mixture between truth and psycho-
paganism. It is a mixture of the clean and the unclean, and likewise is unacceptable to God.
The Hybels’ model informs us that everything has to be non-threatening. To do this the church has to find out how the
world wants us to be, so that the transition from unbeliever to believer will have no barriers. The theory is that the
traditional church turns away people by its use of (biblical) jargon, outmoded practices and methods of evangelism,
which rely on preaching. Hybels’ approach is laced with business psycho-marketing: in reality, the watering-down of
God’s truth, by mixing with it things that please the unsaved.
Schuller’s and Hybels’ methods are nothing more than New Age religion under another guise, the christianising of
paganism, rather than repentance and separation from it. Such methods bring lukewarmness to the church through
promoting the mixture. In the scriptures the mixture of lukewarmness is anathema to Jesus, who warns He will vomit it
out unless there is repentance (Rev. 3:16).
The scriptures do not teach us that the old wine is unacceptable, just that it should be renewed. Filling a lukewarm
church with a mixture of saved and unsaved people is Roman religion, not the way of Jesus; but preaching the
uncompromising truth to those with ears to hear, is God’s way. It is the way of scripture. History and prophecy shows
that Rome will be judged wanting, but revival has always come through uncompromising, apostolic preaching.
Faith comes by the hearing of the Word
The truth was Jesus’ focus. The truth was Paul’s focus. It is the truth that should be our focus. Mix it with worldly
presentations and it becomes the Word plus. Add a few scriptures to a worldly presentation and it becomes the Word
minus. Speak and proclaim the gospel and the Holy Spirit will honour the heart that is true to the Word. Where does the
Bible specifically say anything else? But the books, courses and techniques published by men certainly do.
Our new preachers and teachers make much of the lack of new converts in this age, as the church steadily forsakes
God’s word in favour of the teachings of men. The Lord Jesus Christ had quite a lot to say about the teachings of men –
and none of it was good. To deliver the teachings of men is condemned outright as not coming from God, but from
hypocritical liars. It is a warning that all of us who teach God’s word would do well to heed, but many seem to be
ignorant of Jesus’ concern for Truth.
Many today have bought into the lie that the bible is somehow insufficient, even though the scriptures say they are
sufficient. Many believe that the teaching methods outlined in scripture are not given as examples to follow, but are only
applicable to time past. Yet we note from church history that in earlier times of ignorance of God among the unsaved, it
was the solid forthright preaching of the truth which brought people to the point where God revealed Himself to them
and brought non-churchgoers to faith in the Living God. The underground church in so many places in the world today
use just that method. With so much Biblical and historical example to learn from and follow, only the devil and his
children want to alter the method.
From which scripture do we read that God has a different method of saving this particular generation from the methods
He used in all others? Where does He say that faith comes from the seeing of multimedia presentations, clips from
Hollywood films and upbeat pop music? But the scriptures DO say faith comes from the hearing of the word of God
(Romans 10:17; Galatians 3:2). Hearing, not seeing. Seeing pictures are a distraction; the modern equivalent of
stained-glass windows, statues and candles, etc. It is the hearing of the Word that God says He uses to bring people to
faith in Him. It has been the same in all generations and in all cultures. It has been the same in Israel, Greece, China or
England.
Apostasy in the Guise of Relevance
So if people are not coming to Jesus, what is the reason? From scripture, the reasons are two-fold:
1. The unsaved are like the people of Ephesus, who preferred idols to God. No amount of Biblical preaching will change
their situation. If we compromised the truth and sought to christianise their paganism we would probably fill our meeting
halls, but not with the saved;
2. The church has ceased to believe the truth and is making excuses for its apostasy. God is fed up with us apologising
for His word. He is seeking repentant believers who will stand on the truth, no matter what the world says.
Both of the above scenarios are to be found in scripture. Our Lord and Saviour has given many signs lately that indicate
we should repent and return to His word. The second of the above should be the reason for our repentance. If the first
is also true we have no means of altering what God has not chosen to change Himself. Either way, therefore, it is the
truth that we should be seeking, not the teachings of men.
Failure to follow the examples in God’s word amount to unbelief. Unbelief that God knows best; unbelief that the Word
is sufficient; unbelief that that the Eternal God could have foreseen the times in which we live, and provided for them.
Unbelief sets aside the Word of God and substitutes the teachings of men, just as the Pharisees did (Matthew 15:9).
God’s word calls us to repent of our unbelieving attitude to His word. It is important to read it regularly and thoroughly,
and get on with it before something worse overtakes us. God is giving many signs of His displeasure in these days; He
calls His church to heed the signs and return to His word, before it is too late.
Kyrios.org
2007