1/9. If the church loses the gospel, we might as well shut our doors & go out of business. A church without the gospel message is utterly irrelevant to everyone & everything.
What is the Gospel? It is the message that God can transform your life by the power of Jesus Christ.
What is the Gospel? It is the message that God can transform your life by the power of Jesus Christ.
2/9. The Gospel is about how this world is God's good creation & the problems we see - everything from violence to oppression to bitterness & despair - is the result of humans rejecting their Creator & seeking to worship idols or even become gods themselves.
3/9. This bleak analysis is actually pt. of the good news because the Gospel goes on to say that God sent his Son into the world to die for our sins so that we could have eternal life. What is eternal life? It is a restored relationship with the Creator that makes everything new.
4/9. Drunks become sober, promiscuous people become faithful, prejudiced people open their hearts to people they used to hate as a group. Even when healing is not instantaneous, grace is given to endure the pain, the harsh circumstances of life & the weakness of dying bodies.
5/9. Christianity is a message of hope for real transformation of hearts. And when your heart has been changed you are already free in the most important sense, regardless of your outward circumstances. You have eternal life starting today.
6/9. Christianity knows that sinful humans generate social structures of oppression & that sin manifests itself in institutions, politics, laws & prejudice. But Christianity also knows that trying to fix social structures can never get to the root of the problem.
7/9. This doesn't mean that Wilberforce gives up fighting the slave trade. It doesn't mean that we don't continue to fight for laws to protect human life from conception to natural death. But it means that such work is mitigating symptoms not curing the disease.
8/9. Yes, we need better laws & we need to protect the vulnerable from exploitation. But this will continue to be true until Jesus returns to earth. There is no possibility, despite what the Marxists say, that laws & government policies can really bring justice to earth.
9/9. The message of this thread is that the ch. must believe the Gospel, preach the Gospel, be transformed by the Gospel & refuse to give up, water down or compromise the Gospel.
Cultures rise & fall. Heresies come & go. But "the Word of our God stand will forever" (Isa.40:8).
Cultures rise & fall. Heresies come & go. But "the Word of our God stand will forever" (Isa.40:8).
