Commentary on 5 Distortions of the Gospel
These are some thoughts about James MacDonald’s 5 Distortions of the Gospel in Our Day and inadvertently about my friend’s commentary.
James’ commentaries are very simplistic. It seems that he treats the issues very black and white when they could be more complex gray issues. I will treat each as black and white, then go into a more detailed explanation if necessary.
The first issue is what is the Gospel. I’ll go w/ what my friend says, ‘God’s redemptive plan’ specifically: ‘Mankind is sinful, falls short of God’s holiness, and will end up in eternal torment. However, God loves people and sends his son Jesus to die on the cross. Jesus rises from the dead, conquers sin and if we believe, love, and follow him, we will have eternal life in Heaven instead of in Hell’. I think (and hope) that’s a good summary of the Gospel. On w/ the 5 distortions.
Cake Mix Gospel
If we leave out key ingredients our souls will never “rise” to God. We don’t need the message reduced to some irreducible elements, we need the whole gospel.
I take this to mean that we cannot leave out any of the components I described in my summary. Specifically, this could be leaving out the part about Hell. (People don’t like hearing they’re going to Hell.) The gospel needs all its parts; parts cannot be left out. We cannot focus on ‘Heaven’ and forget ‘Hell’. We cannot focus on ‘following and love’ and forget the ’sinful’. We absolutely cannot forget about the cross. The Gospel needs all its components to be a complete balanced package. Forgetting one aspect skews the focus, distorts the message, and damages the hearers.
The Cultural Gospel
Understanding the ‘culture’ is much less important than knowing what the Bible says about every human heart separated from God. We don’t need slick sales people giving out the gospel. We need bold, Spirit-filled messengers with a deep heart of compassion for lost people.
I agree with this statement. The gospel transcends cultures. The same relevant message applied to Adam and Eve (They were sinful and needed the serpent head crusher), Noah (preacher of righteousness), Abraham, Egyptian culture, Assyrian culture (Jonah’s message of repentance), Babylonians, Medes and Persians, Romans, Modern, and now Post-modern cultures. The message in its core should not be changed; it is always relevant.
However, this isn’t to say that culture is not important. Culture should be kept in mind while the Gospel is presented however it does not trump the gospel in terms of importance. Culture should be examined, redeemed, and used for the expansion of the Gospel. It can influence how we share but not what we share.
The Cool Gospel
We don’t need to ’spin’ the message, we need to say it. We need to stop shaping Jesus in some misguided effort to make Him appealing.
I agree. We should not be repackaging Jesus to make him appealing to people. Jesus does not need PR people, he wants followers. The message does not need to be made ‘more’ appealing. It IS appealing in of itself. We don’t need to ‘add’ anything to make it more appealing.
Jonah is a good example of how the Gospel transcends culture and ‘cool factor’. Jonah was an Israelite sent to preach to Ninevah (Assyrian culture). He did not care for the Assyrians and did not want them to receive the Gospel. It’s highly probably that he did his best not to contextualize the message nor present it in an appealing way. He sat on a hill and waited for them to burn (Jonah 4:5); I doubt he wanted them to receive God’s mercy. Nevertheless, God worked through the message and Jonah’s half-hearted preaching. The Ninevites repented and God turned away his wrath.
The power of the Gospel trumps cultural delivery. God can work through anything. Our pastors instructed us on Missions that if we were ever in a situation when we didn’t know what to say – just present the Gospel b/c there is power in the Word of God. The Gospel is always relevant. The key importance of culture and delivery is presenting the Gospel in a way that the audience understands the message. They need to understand the Gospel so they can believe the correct message. Whether it’s presented in a skit, or preached, or in a video, in a town hall, home, or huge auditorium is of minor importance to the message itself. To elevate the delivery style of the message to the point where it is crucial for the message to be accepted is to diminish the Gospel and God’s ability to save; it is to say that we can limit what God can do by how we act.
The Carnal Gospel
The selfish gospel that promises things Jesus doesn’t promise is a lie and is sentencing the lost who listen to a shocking surprise in eternity.
I assume James is talking about the Health and Wealth Gospel or Prosperity Theology. Honestly, whenever I hear this, I get steaming mad. It corrupts the true message of the gospel into some self-exalting, lamp rubbing, blasphemous self-help seminar. It gives hungry people rocks to eat and thirsty people mud. God isn’t interested if we are rich or even healthy. He gives us suffering and discipline because what He really wants for us is to become more like Jesus. Wealth and Health are temporary; we’ll have all we need in Heaven. What we need right now is to become like Jesus and whatever is necessary for the spreading of the Gospel and the expansion of his kingdom.
The Careful Gospel
The gospel of “get them to church, and in time everything will come together as long as we don’t offend them” is a dangerous gospel.
I think the keyword here is dangerous. It is dangerous because this can cause a church to ONLY focus on what will get them into church and keep them in church. The Gospel is offensive. It tells people they are sinners and need a savior. It tells people all their good deeds cannot save them. The Gospel needs to be preached in it’s entirety (See Cake Gospel). I don’t think it’s wrong to preach a message that will get people in the door but at some point, the whole truth must be presented. A church cannot make a habit out of only preaching that which people want to hear. It needs to preach what people must hear and that will include things that are not ‘careful’.
It should be the Gospel that offends them, not us. They should see us as people who love them and want to rescue them from the fires of Hell. Christians should not be the reason why people turn away from God; it should be because they reject God’s message. Non-Christians (and even Christians) need to hear that they are living in rebellion to God. They also need to hear that God loves them and offers them forgiveness. Fire and brimstone MUST be accompanied by the Cross. The Cross is central and it is our sins which is the reason for the cross. To preach anything less elevates the desires of people and what they want to hear over the desire of God to preach the Gospel unashamed and unhindered.