Whatever Happened To The Church And The Gospel?

WHATEVER HAPPENED TO THE CHURCH AND THE GOSPEL?

Has anyone noticed that the modern church bears little to no resemblance to the one established by Christ and the apostles?  What we see in today's church has been going on for so long that most people just take it for granted. However, it's worth noting that a whole lot has changed. As we look into this and discuss why it's a problem, we need to go back and see what the church is supposed to be about in the first place....the gospel.

There are many good Christian churches today that definitely do proclaim the gospel, but there are too many churches that have changed the message so smoothly that  people believe they're hearing the gospel when they're really hearing something else.  So for the sake of clarity, let's look at what the Bible has to say about the gospel.  Scripture tells us that God created our world and mankind. Satan tempted man to sin in the Garden of Eden and man succumbed to that temptation. God, who is holy and righteous cannot be in the presence of sin, and so the relationship between Creator and His creation was severed. Mankind was now lost and stood no chance of being forever with God as God desired, so God unfolded a plan of redemption. God would take on human form in the person of Jesus, live a sinless life, minister on this earth for three years, be put to death to atone for our sins, be buried and raised from the dead on the third day.  All those who would believe in Him and repent of their sins would be saved and thus spend eternity in His glorious presence. And there, I've attempted in my own feeble way to summarize the message of the entire Bible in a nutshell; the gospel is God's message of salvation through Christ. 

What follows the gospel message in scripture is a series of writings that help us understand what life should look like for the believer; how to live as a child of God and spread the message of salvation to others.  The church was established to both spread the gospel as well as provide a fellowship for believers who could support and encourage each other as they strived to  grow in the faith.

Life was not easy for the early Christians, nor is it easy for many believers around the world today. Jesus promised a glorious future for us in eternity but He also warned that following Him would come at a price. He cautioned his disciples that they would be persecuted, mocked and made to endure hardships on His behalf. The reason is simple. The system that governs this world is under the influence of Satan and Satan hates the gospel. He will do all he can to discourage believers from spreading the truth and he has done his best towards that end since the beginning of time.

Thus the early church was not always a very comfortable thing to be a part of. Believers no doubt had the joy of knowing they would spend eternity with their Lord, but at the same time they were indeed persecuted. The original apostles suffered beatings, stonings, imprisonment, all - except for John - died martyr's deaths.
The lives of many early Christians followed a similar pattern. The gospel message was never a popular one. 

What is the point, you may ask? Where are we going with all this? The point is we need to look at what has changed in Christianity over time and has it changed in a good way? Is the message being proclaimed by today's celebrity pastors the same gospel that  was proclaimed by the apostles or is it a different message all together?

Once again, there are good churches today, proclaiming the truth. But there is a large movement within modern evangelicalism that bears little or no resemblance to biblical Christianity.  Imagine if you will, some representatives of modern Christianity interacting with the first century saints and how such meetings might go down...*What follows is fictitious*...

The Apostle Paul was confined to chains in a harsh Roman prison. The Roman authorities were not fond of Christians to say the least. Paul took his sufferings in stride, knowing full well that Jesus had said those who wished to follow Him would have to take up their cross; carry their own burdens and sufferings. Paul used his time in prison to write letters to fellow believers and encourage them in the faith. 
One day as he was studiously composing a letter to the Corinthian believers, describing all that he had suffered for the cause of Christ, suddenly he was startled by a loud banging on the door to his cell.

"You have a visitor!" shouted the Roman guard.

"Who is it?" asked Paul.

"Hi!" said the smiling visitor, flashing a bright, white smile and extending a hand. "I'm Joelius Osteenius and I've heard about you, so I thought it might be nice to come visit!"

"Oh," said Paul. "I've not heard of you. Are you likewise part of a persecuted fellowship?"

"Oh, no," said Joelius. "We've moved past all that and I thought you could use some encouragement!"

"I am quite encouraged in the Lord already. I know I will be with Him forever in eternity. Has the Lord given you some special word for me?"

"Yes, indeed Paul! I see you're writing there and I like to write, too. I've written some things you should find encouraging and it looks like you really need it! Can I see what you're writing, Paul? Hmmm....

 "Thrice was I beaten with rods, once was I stoned, thrice I suffered shipwreck, a night and a day I have been in the deep....,"

" Wow, Paul - you really are missing out on God's best! You've been stuck in all sorts of trials, troubles and mediocrity when you could be stepping into your destiny and having your best life now!"

"Joelius - I consider these present sufferings as nothing compared with the glory that is to be!"

"But you're missing the point, Paul. God has not appointed you to be miserable. You're a child of the King! Now is your time to step into what God has for you; favor, promotion and increase! You just need to declare it! C'mon, say it with me...declare - I AM not a prisoner! I AM blessed! I AM gonna ride out of here in a royal chariot I didn't even pay for!"

Paul shot Joelius a withering look, "Do you even know Jesus?"

"C'mon Paul! Hold up your Torah! Say it like you mean it...."

....Ok, I could have fun creating such fictional scenarios all day but I hope you get the point. Do you see how popular Christianity has changed and how the message has changed? Not every church or pastor is guilty but there's enough of them that we must address it. I'm mostly talking about what you'll see if you turn to Christian TV networks like TBN  and Daystar. The message of the church was once the gospel of salvation through Christ. Now it's how to have your best, most comfortable life right now while enjoying every day life.

I'm not saying Christians should be miserable; not by a long shot. Especially here in America, we have not endured anything close to the persecution experienced by other believers around the globe. Thank God horrors like imprisonment are not the norm for us as they were for the first century church.  But the message of the church has changed from the gospel of Jesus to a gospel of self and material comforts, and we need to recognize that as a huge problem.

Thousands of people flock to their mega churches each week and millions more watch on TV as smiling preachers tell them that God wants them happy, healthy and prosperous.  There is nothing inherently wrong with any of those things but that is not the gospel.
I started by picking on Joel Osteen so I might as well continue. His messages - like those of many other televangelists -  are extremely popular, uplifting and encouraging but they are not the gospel.  He is sending the unsaved in his audience home happy, thinking they are entitled to all the material blessings they desire, but he is doing them a great disservice by sending them home with virtually no knowledge of how to be saved! What good is it to have all these things and lose your soul when it's all over?  

I am planning to write some blogs and articles that will address these issues in greater detail but for now let's just look at some of the beliefs that I see creeping into today's church and why they are erroneous.

1: Living the Christian life is all about the blessings He wants to blow your socks off with!.....Um, no, yes and maybe but not really....Confused? Look at it this way. There is no reason to think that God does not want to bless you, but there is also no reason to think you're entitled to it!  God can and sometimes does choose to bless people with health and material goods, but that is never what the Christian life is all about. The Christian life is to be about holy living and spreading the gospel to others.

2: We can declare blessings over our lives.  There is much to be said for thinking and speaking positively, but no -  we can't just make things happen by declaring our wishes to be so. This falsehood stems from the increasing popularity and growth of the Word of Faith movement, a belief system that people like Joel Osteen, Joyce Meyer, Kenneth Copeland and many others promote. I plan to explore Word of Faith in depth in some future articles, but to summarize, one major tenet is the belief that our spoken words have supernatural power to create our reality, thus we hear terms like "name it and claim it!"  This belief actually stems from some New Age and occult beliefs that early proponents of WOF thought they could adapt to Christianity. There is nothing in scripture that supports such a notion. Joyce Meyer, in particular likes to quote Romans 4:17 as proof that we can speak things into existence so let's take a look at it: 

17 (as it is written, I have made thee a father of many nations,) before him whom he believed, even God, who quickeneth the dead, and calleth those things which be not as though they were.  

The verse is simply talking about Abraham and his faith in God, who can "calleth those things which be not as though they were."  Nothing in the verse - or anywhere else is scripture - implies that we can do the same thing! It's a twisting and misuse of the verse to imply that we can.

3: Jesus paid for our physical healing  in the atonement.  I'm tempted to just say, no - He didn't, but actually He did. However, we have no assurance or entitlement to physical healing this side of eternity. We will have our perfect, healthy bodies in heaven but not necessarily before.  Too many people are being told that Jesus purchased our physical healing for the here and now, and we just have to claim it by faith. They usually quote Isaiah 53:5 as a proof text; 

But He was wounded for our transgressions,
He was bruised for our iniquities;
The chastisement for our peace was upon Him,
And by His stripes we are healed.  

Most scholars I've researched say that the Hebrew word being translated as healed more accurately refers to being made whole spiritually. This error leads to an awful lot of people with damaged faith, thinking they're not getting healed because there's something wrong with their faith. There's not; there's something wrong with the falsehoods being promoted within the so-called Health and Wealth Gospel.

4: Experiences, signs and wonders over scripture. This is a big one. Too many people are believing false doctrines just because they were introduced to them in the presence of alleged miracles or they had a "powerful experience."  This topic will definitely be addressed in future articles, but suffice it to say that scripture is to be our final authority and arbiter of truth. Period. And we must remember that feelings can be subjective and misleading. 

Signs and wonders prove God's involvement.   No, they don't; at least not always. Scripture say that Satan will deceive many with signs and wonders.  (And remember that if the message being preached is false, the appearance of miracles does not make it true!) That means exactly what it says. It doesn't say he will deceive a lot of people except for - insert your name here. Too many people think they are above deception. None of us are. Satan will not come to you looking like the infernal embodiment of evil that he is. He may just appear as everything you've ever longed for....and quite possibly in a church service! The best way to watch out for fraud is by becoming intimately familiar with the real. That can only happen by immersing yourself in the scriptures and holding them to be infinitely more authoritative than any other source.



There are a boatload of other heresies being propagated within the modern Church and I plan on dissecting these in greater detail going forward, but I pray that for now I've at least given  some food for thought regarding the true gospel vs. what's being taught by so many so-called pastors today. Thanks for reading and God bless!