By Coach Dave Daubenmire
April 2, 2009
NewsWithViews.com
I am astonished that you are so
quickly deserting the one who called you by the grace of Christ and
are turning to a different gospel— which is really no gospel
at all. Evidently some people are throwing you into confusion
and are trying to pervert the gospel of Christ.
Galations 1:6-7
My wife and I were returning home from church a few weeks ago and I
couldn’t get away from the gnawing sensation inside my soul.
It had been a typical service, one that is mimicked thousands of times
a week across America. You know how they go; you could probably print
the church bulletin. People slowly wander in, with a rush just before
the service starts, drop their children off in the “children’s
church”, give a courteous smile and a “God bless you” to several
people who’s names they can not recall, as they find their regular
seat in a certain section of the “sanctuary.”
Soon the “praise team” led by the “minister of worship” begins to play
as the words to the songs are flashed on the screen in front. After a
few songs (usually about being a friend of God…or wanting to see
Jesus), the worship leader encourages folks to mingle about and say
good morning to others, an offering is received as a soloist does a
“special” song, followed by “a time of prayer” where “unspoken
requests” are remembered, a “message” from the pastor, concluded by a
“time at the altar.”
“Has Coach, been to our church?” You may be asking yourself
right now?
Probably not, but I have been to hundreds just like yours. That is why
I had that gnawing feeling as Michele and I left the church that
morning. I know I am a little different than most, but that is what
makes me, me.
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For the life of me I can’t figure out why the feel good messages that we
hear from the pulpit make me feel so sick.
Spiritual Diabetes is the disease I suffer from. Too much of the
sugary sweet gospel makes me ill; especially with so much poison in our
midst.
As Michele and I were cruising home that day I asked her a question
hoping to keep the buzz-saw in my stomach from churning full bore.
“What is the Gospel sweetheart?”
“Well, I guess it is the Good News of God reconciling man to himself
through Jesus.” She answered. “The Kingdom of God has arrived.”
“What does that mean?” I prodded for an answer that would make
the rumbling stop.
“What are you getting at, Honey?” She knew that the questions I
was asking were not for her to answer, but rather a self-probing of my
own heart.
“Let me ask it another way.” I regrouped. “Does the Gospel
of the Kingdom apply to all people in all places? Should the gospel
preached from any pulpit, regardless of where you live, be applicable to
any other Christian regardless of where he/she lives? Does God have one
gospel for America and another gospel for the underground church in
China? Would the sermon we just heard bring life to the Christians in
the Sudan?”
We drove the next several miles in silence as we both considered the
obvious answer to the hypothetical that had just been proposed.
The American gospel is a “perverted gospel”…..and is “no gospel at all.”
I believe that the world is in a free-fall because of the false gospel
spewing from the pulpits of America today. For over two hundred and
fifty years America, and the Christianity we exported, was the fire-wall
against the ever-advancing
enemies of God throughout the world.
But the message of the American Church today is not the message of our
Christian-forefathers. The American gospel is a humanistic, man
centered, “meet my needs” gospel, designed to enhance one’s earthly
life, not transform it.
Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of
the world is enmity with God? whosoever therefore will be a friend of
the world is the enemy of God.
James 4:4.
Modern American Christianity is catering to “lovers
of pleasure more than lovers of God.” To paraphrase John F. Kennedy
most Americans go to church to “ask not what you can do for God, but
what God can do for you.”
Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any
man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that
is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and
the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world.
I John 2:15-16.
Is it possible that the American gospel is creating enemies of God by
catering to the flesh?
Turn on Christian radio and listen to the “gospel.” Settle in front of
your TV with a bowl of popcorn and embark on a
Trinity
Broadcasting Network marathon and watch the
Humanistic gospel that is reflected off of the satellite. No longer
is a sin-hating, turn from your wicked ways,
Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God gospel being trumpeted, but a
worldly, pop-psychology, Jesus is an ATM in the Sky, life-enhancement,
seeker-friendly, do not judge or offend gospel is being dished out. It
hasn’t always been this way.
The 18th Century gave us
The Great
Awakening through men of God such as
Jonathan Edwards,
George Whitefield,
Samuel Davies,
Devereux Jarratt. Their preaching of the Gospel of the Kingdom
rescued the morally decrepit American colonies, brought a sense of
national identity, and led to the American Revolution. The conversion of
hearts by their preaching produced such once-Christian institutions as
Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Dartmouth, and a myriad of other universities
founded for the advancement of the Kingdom of God.
The
Gospel of the Kingdom is a life-changing, world-altering, gospel.
Today it has become nothing more than a marketing technique designed to
give you all the things those in the world desire, only sanctified as
“blessings” of one’s Christianity.
The preaching of Edwards, Whitefield, Davies and Jarratt gave us
America, liberty, missionaries to the world, and George Washington.
Compare that to today’s gospel of Warren (look
at this), Osteen, Hybels, and Copeland. Their preaching has led to
AIDS taskforces, global warming, socialism, and Obama.
My thoughts go to a brief lunch I had a few years ago with a South
African missionary who was visiting Ohio. The meeting was so brief that
I cannot recall his name, but I will never forget what he imprinted on
my heart that day. As I stood and shook his hand to leave he looked deep
in my eyes and charged me with this.
“Please do not send anymore missionaries to my country. The American
gospel is making our job harder. When financial blessings and prosperity
fail to come to our people it is hard to open their hearts back up to
receive the life-changing Gospel of the Kingdom. Please keep your
version of the gospel in America.”
“For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the
power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth;
Romans 1:16…but we are, you know, ashamed of the gospel. Ashamed to
call sin, sin, to preach hell and repentance, holiness and sacrifice,
and the most intolerant of all messages…that Jesus is the only way…. “I
am THE Way, THE Truth, THE Life…”
The gospel has not changed, only the presentation of it has. Look at
this list of
top selling Christian books. I wonder how many
persecuted Christians in Iran are buying them. The American-gospel
is no gospel at all.
But he that sinneth against me wrongeth his own soul: all
they that hate me love death. Prov.8:36
Obama is the most freedom-hating, death loving President in American
history. The compromised goop oozing from the pulpits has paved his way.
The Gospel of Edwards and friends gave us the Great Awakening. Today’s
gospel has given us the
Great Apostasy. God is angry and his watchmen have failed to warn
us.
“If they had a social gospel in the days of the prodigal son,
somebody would have given him a bed and a sandwich and he never would
have gone home.” Vance Havner
We are a
prodigal nation, full of prodigal churches, led by prodigal pastors.
We could return home, if only our pulpits would show us how. But I am
not sure they know the way.
Where are the Edwards?
Where are the Whitefields? America needs revival.
The American gospel is no gospel at all.
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