It is very sad and it grieves to know that many professing church pastors and "evangelists" today are not faithful to their calling to make a full and accurate presentation of Gospel of Jesus Christ. Many present Jesus as simply a mean to an end. To suit to their whims and fancies of their own humanistic theology and bellies, they present a false "christ" and a perverted "gospel" like "Accepting Jesus as your Lord and Saviour will not only save you from sin and hell, but also give to you health, ....., favour, the power to get wealth, all good things you can think of and more." This perversion of the Gospel invitation sadly robs Christ of His true accomplishments in the Cross and the Glory due to God alone. This type of false and perverted Gospel invitation directs sinners away from true faith and repentance found in Jesus Christ alone. Such perversion of the Gospel turns sinners to seek a "lesser god", more like a "golden calf", definitely not the Lord Jesus Christ and God of the Bible .
For some faithful preaching, check this video out. This video on an open air sermon by a nameless preacher to the homeless community in Detroit that stay in a large underground plaza underneath the city of Detroit.
Preaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ to homeless of city of Detroit
Under the City Evangelism:
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Without Christ's finished work on the cross, there is no good news and no hope for all men and women before God. In this second short clip, Pastor Thabiti Anyabwile explained Why Did Jesus Have To Die? This is the central core of the Lord Jesus Christ's true accomplishments on the cross where He alone bore the sinner's sins and all its curse and all its penalty and all its wrath and provided the only acceptable satisfaction to God in order to reconcile condemned the sinner to an eternal life relationship with a Holy God.
2 comments:
Do you agree with me that material blessings in and of themselves are NOT evil?
Do you agree with me that money is not the root of all evil, but the LOVE OF money is the root of all evil.
Let's consider this: among the four persons described below, who do you think would LOVE money more - i.e. have his mind more pre-occupied with earning and keeping money for himself, rather than be generous in giving away what he has to help others?:
(1) a person who is materially impoverished, and who believes that God ONLY blesses spiritually but NOT materially; or
(2) a person who is materially well-off, and who believes that God ONLY blesses spiritually but NOT materially?; or
(3) a person who is materially impoverished, and who believes that God blesses BOTH spiritually AND materially?; or
(4) a person who is materially well-off, and who believes that God blesses BOTH spiritually AND materially?
I suspect a materially impoverished person who does not believe he should or could trust God for material blessings could only count on himself (or other human beings)to provide for his own material needs, and therefore he may be more pre-occupied with earning and keeping money for himself (i.e. love money).
I would think that someone who believes that God blesses BOTH spiritually and materially would find it easier to put his trust in the Lord for EVERYTHING and hence be less concerned about his own material well-being, and therefore be more willing to be generous and giving. It is therefore possible for a person to be generous and giving (i.e. not to love money) when he has faith in Christ and believes that he is already blessed with more than enough in Christ.
I would therefore suggest that a good way (or should I say the only effective way) to rid a person of the LOVE OF money, is to point that person to Jesus who is able and willing to provide for ALL his needs and wants - not just spiritually ONLY, but also materially.
By doing so, I am telling the person, "You can fully trust and depend on this Jesus for EVERYTHING, both is this world, and in the world to come. Jesus does not ONLT care for you spiritually, He ALSO cares for you materially. Jesus cares for you in EVERY area of your life. He is a GREAT God who cares for your whole person - spirit, soul, body!"
Am I telling the person that he will be a millionaire? No! Am I telling the person to look down on the poor and to judge the poor as being forsaken by God? No!
I am telling the person that he can trust Jesus for his physical and material needs. In fact, regardless of what he sees in his physical and material state, he is ALREADY blessed. So, he does not have to wait for the money to come in to start contributing and giving. He can walk by faith and start to contribute and give because he knows that he is already blessed, he is already rich in Christ.
I am teaching the person that wealth and prosperity is not measured by how much one accumulates, but by how willing one is able to give.
I am telling the person that he can encourage and inspire the poor to break out of their victim mindset, to stop thinking of themselves as helpless and hopeless, but to start looking to Jesus and start helping others and doing great things for Him.
I believe teaching and preaching that Jesus blesses BOTH spiritually and materially is biblical, Christ-exalting, God-honoring and life-liberating.
By believing that Jesus blesses me BOTH spiritually and materially, I do not think I am making him a "lesser god", but rather a BIG GOD, a MIGHTY GOD, a GREAT GOD.
Does my belief makes me a false or a lesser believer who perverts the gospel?
Am I wrong to believe and proclaim that God is the one who gives me the power to get wealth. (Deuteronomy 8:18)?
Is there anything wrong for me to say that because I am in Christ, I lack no good things, that I am rich in ALL THINGS (not merely spiritual or material, but both spiritual and material)?
Was it not Jesus Himself who taught us to seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness and all these things(referring to material blessings such as food and clothing) will be added upon us?
Did Jesus teach us to shun or reject material blessings? Or did He teach us to trust HIM for EVERY blessings (including spiritual and material blessings)?
Let's us NOT be too quick to critise others just because they are different or they believe or teach things that are different from us.
Let us learn to listen, to clarify, to understand, to help, to exalt Christ. :)
The issue is not whether a professing believer is right to be wealthy or poor materially. That is not the point, the issue at hand is perversion of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Through unfaithful and false presentation of what Christ has accomplished, of what the Gospel actually promises and then add a false "gospel invitation" to come to a a false "christ", this has led to an "Erosion Of Christ-Centered Faith" and "The Erosion Of The Gospel".
""God does not exist to satisfy human ambitions, cravings, the appetite for consumption, or our own private spiritual interests."
"As evangelical faith becomes secularized, its interests have been blurred with those of the culture. The result is a loss of absolute values, permissive individualism, and a substitution of wholeness for holiness, recovery for repentance, intuition for truth, feeling for belief, chance for providence, and immediate gratification for enduring hope. Christ and his cross have moved from the center of our vision."
"Unwarranted confidence in human ability is a product of fallen human nature. This false confidence now fills the evangelical world; from the self-esteem gospel, to the health and wealth gospel, from those who have transformed the gospel into a product to be sold and sinners into consumers who want to buy, to others who treat Christian faith as being true simply because it works. This silences the doctrine of justification regardless of the official commitments of our churches."
"We reaffirm that our salvation is accomplished by the mediatorial work of the historical Christ alone. His sinless life and substitutionary atonement alone are sufficient for our justification and reconciliation to the Father. We deny that the gospel is preached if Christ’s substitutionary work is not declared and faith in Christ and his work is not solicited."
THE CAMBRIDGE DECLARATION of the Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals
April 20, 1996
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