“We don’t worship the Bible; we worship Jesus.”

This is true, but the Christian faith has been passed down to us from those who “saw and heard these things.” They continually warned us to not listen to others who think they know more or know better than the apostles or prophets of old. Even if they have claimed to receive something directly from Jesus. This has always been a problem, even in Old Testament times. It is easy to stray from what has already been given by God. We learn who Jesus was and is, based on those who actually knew Him and His apostles. As much as the Christian faith is about trusting Jesus and His message, it’s about trusting that those who wrote the Scriptures properly passed down Jesus’ message.

As time goes on, however, the Church strays away from the original teachings of the apostles/prophets. It happens to all of us, including me. Recently, I came across an article that was written by Keith Green about thirty years ago. So much of what he said challenges me and confirms much of what I have been processing through for the past year on this blog.

As you read the article, you might think, “I thought the Gospel was supposed to be easy to understand–why complicate it?” I don’t think Keith Green is complicating it. Yes, the Gospel is easy to understand, but it is also easy to twist. It is important that we continually re-examine what it is we are teaching others. Are we passing along the Good News from God? Or is it some tabloid gossip that’s coming from less credible sources?

If you claim to be a Christian, but feel you cannot trust the Gospel as given to us in Scripture…tell me: what other sources do you feel have more credibility? Your gut? Your pastor? The latest book out? Keith Green? What makes them more credible?

Where is the Holy Spirit in my church?

That’s a question I’ve asked myself often, for as long as I can remember understanding the purpose and power of the Spirit from Scripture. And I hear many other church people who are hungry for the Spirit in their lives and churches asking the same question.

Where is the boldness that’s supposed to come from the Holy Spirit?

That’s another similar question. Isn’t the Holy Spirit supposed to make a difference in our lives and in our churches? Why does it seem as though our churches are filled with people who are relatively the same as the non-believers around them? Where is that spiritual “oomph” that’s supposed to be evident in the lives of people who have received the Holy Spirit?

Where is the power of the Gospel?

Isn’t the Holy Spirit supposed to convict people’s hearts when the Gospel is preached, so that they are forever changed? Why so little transformation going on in our churches (even though 9 of 10 churches use that word in their mission statement)?

In 1 Thessalonians 1:5, Paul writes: “For our gospel did not come to you in word only, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and with full conviction; just as you know what kind of men we proved to be among you for your sake.” I want to see THAT Gospel at work in our churches! Why don’t we see it that often?

Ironically, I think the solution to all these questions is: OPPOSITION.

We face very little opposition. Even the opposition we might face, we try very hard to avoid it. We are always asking, “Where is the moving of the Holy Spirit that we see in Acts?” But we seldom ask, “Where is the opposition that we see in Acts?”

But wait, Tim…we don’t want opposition to the Gospel…we want supernatural display of and reception of the Gospel! This is our very problem, in my opinion.

In our efforts to avoid opposition to the Gospel, we distort the Gospel into something more palatable for everyone to receive, so that the masses will respond favorably to it. Of course, we can all point to the prosperity gospel as an extremely exaggerated example, but how about looking at our very own churches and lives. How closely does our preaching of the Gospel match up to Paul’s: “Turn completely away from your idols to serve the true, living God, and wait for His Son to come from heaven–the Son God raised from the dead. Jesus will deliver us from God’s coming wrath.” (1 Thessalonians 1:9-10) This is very similar to Peter’s sermon in Acts 2, “Be saved from this perverse generation!” (verse 40)

We don’t like to put ourselves at odds with the world. We don’t want to tell anyone that God’s wrath is coming to humanity, or that our generation deserves it because it is perverse, or that faith in Jesus is our only means of salvation. Granted, there are some people who thrive on pronouncing judgment on others. That’s not what I’m saying here. What I am saying, however, is that we shy away from the truth, or spin it, so as to avoid any kind of opposition. However, it seems to me that opposition is precisely what we need to experience the boldness and power in the Holy Spirit we are longing for. When we suffer for Jesus, we cling that much tighter to whom and what we are suffering for. We make a decision as to whether Jesus is worth the opposition. If we determine He is worthy of it, we trust in Him and His message that much more.

Let’s remember that most of the time in the New Testament, the masses didn’t respond favorably to the Gospel (the day of Pentecost is the exception). Most of the time, Christians were running for their lives, and few pockets of people believed in Christ. These churches in the New Testament weren’t megachurches. They usually met in people’s homes, because they were so small. What happens in Acts 4, after the disciples are beaten for preaching the Gospel? They return home to pray fervently, and then in verse 31 it says, “And when they had prayed, the place where they had gathered together was shaken, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and began to speak the word of God in boldness.”

There’s that boldness and Holy Spirit we want! But it came after opposition/persecution that we don’t want.

When I stood up for the Gospel at my former church, I was mocked and labeled narrow-minded for believing that Buddhists, Hindus and Muslims, etc needed to turn from their idols/false religions to serve Jesus. Now, I wasn’t beaten by religious leaders like the disciples were in Acts. I was just perceived as being misguided and the anti-Jesus way. This was very minor “persecution” comparatively. But do you know what happened as a result of some minor opposition and some minor financial struggling? I became MUCH more emboldened about the Gospel. Something supernatural occurred inside of me. God instilled a faith disproportionate to the little bit I endured. You can read about that experience here. Now this was very tiny opposition compared to what so many Christians have endured for their faith–it’s not even worth comparing–but even with such little opposition, I have seen great faith and boldness come out of it.

Let’s look back at 1 Thessalonians. Paul tells them in chapter 2, verse 2: “But after we had already suffered and been mistreated in Philippi, as you know, we had the boldness in our God to speak to you the gospel of God amid much opposition.” And then in verses 4-6: “…we speak, not as pleasing men but God, who examines our hearts. For we never came with flattering speech, as you know, nor with a pretext for greed–God is witness–nor did we seek glory from men, either from you or from others…”

Opposition keeps us from the dangers in church of trying to please men, fixate on money, or increase our church’s status. (This is what I see in so many churches and denominations.) When we face opposition, we don’t have time to play those games any longer. But as long as we can find ways to avoid opposition, this is what happens: Rather than seeking God, we continue seeking after what is most beneficial (i.e. comfortable) for our lives and the growth of our church. And no surprise that very little boldness or power of the Holy Spirit ever shows.

Now, for all of Paul’s boldness, was he some mean, vindictive preacher to those Thessalonians when he arrived? On the contrary, in verses 7-8, he says: “But we proved to be gentle among you, as a nursing mother tenderly cares for her own children. Having thus a fond affection for you, we were well-pleased to impart to you not only the gospel of God, but also our own lives, because you had become very dear to us.”

We’re not talking here about trying to stir up opposition like those Westboro hatemongers from Kansas or an attitude that wants to send everyone to hell. We are talking about such a plain conviction in the Gospel message that our hearts are continually amazed and burning with the truth we see in the Gospel and we are eager to share it at all times and in all places. It becomes all we live for.

If you read the book of 1 Thessalonians, you will learn that as a result of Paul’s boldness and the power of the Gospel through the Holy Spirit:

The Thessalonians receive the Gospel as God’s words, not man’s words (When you received the word of God which you heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of men, but for what it really is, the word of God, which also performs its work in you who believe. -1 Thessalonians 2:13)

They suffer opposition for the sake of the Gospel like the apostles did (For you, brethren, became imitators of the churches of God in Christ Jesus that are in Judea, for you also endured the same sufferings at the hands of your own countrymen, even as they did from the Jews, who both killed the Lord Jesus and the prophets, and drove us out. -1 Thessalonians 2:14-15)

And they do not give in to the opposition ([We are] constantly bearing in mind your work of faith and labor of love and steadfastness of hope. -1 Thessalonians 1:3)

Now isn’t that the kind of life you wish you could see more often? Wouldn’t it be a great joy to know a church like this? Paul is overjoyed for sure. He writes this letter to tell them how thankful he is to hear that they are indeed strong in God in the face of great opposition, and to let them know that their testimony of standing strong is spreading throughout many other provinces.

The next time we ask the question, “Where is the power of the Holy Spirit? Where is this boldness that’s supposed to come?” …let’s ask ourselves, “Where is the opposition?”

I find it funny that so much effort is being utilized to convince other Christians that there is indeed a hell. I’ve devoted several blog posts on the issue since leaving my former church. At times, I’ve grown frustrated in this endeavor, since Jesus and Scripture talk very clearly about its existence. I feel like I’ve written more about it than ought to be necessary. I wish we could stop debating its existence and move on to the implications. It’s like continually debating with someone whether there’s a God or not. There is, so let’s move on to what that means for our lives.

This morning, I woke up to discover that David Platt (author of the book Radical) gave his take on the Rob Bell / Robbed Hell controversy. (Man, there are so many plays on words to make regarding this controversy, LOL.)

Check out his video response here.

His response reminded me of the same conclusion I came to myself when faced with people who laughed at me for my convictions regarding the Gospel and the reality of hell. Read it here.

Like I said at the conclusion of that post, Christians have three options when it comes to the reality of hell:

1. Reject the idea of hell, because it is too intolerable to believe any longer
2. Somehow convince ourselves that everyone around us going to hell is tolerable
3. Find it intolerable that everyone around us is going to hell, and do something about it

Today, I’ll add a fourth option that is very similar to #1: Believe that there is a hell but that very few people are going there (just the “really, really bad” people throughout history that we don’t want to see in heaven).

Sadly, that’s the opposite belief that Jesus taught (few are on the narrow road, and many are on the road to destruction). The lack of evangelization in my life is as disconcerting as those who reject the idea of hell.

According to the Christian faith, what is required for one to receive salvation from God?

First, we must look closely at the wording of that question: salvation is something to be received. That means it comes from something/someone other than ourselves. We do not have the possibility of saving ourselves. We don’t save ourselves by deciding to obey God or by professing any creed. Rather, the only way we can be saved is if someone else saves us. We can’t take care of the problem ourselves.

So if we can’t save ourselves, who can save us? Can my neighbor? No, because they too need saving just as much as myself. Everyone is in the same predicament.

This is an important place to stop and reflect: Everyone is in the same predicament. We must remember this when we consider who goes to heaven and who goes to hell. Every one of us is under the rule of Sin, and as a result, eternal death is our fate. There are not evil people and good people. Under God’s standard of righteousness, there is NO ONE who is righteous, no not one.

As a result, no one can be considered righteous–even if from this point on, I never sin again, my record is still blemished. Not only this, but that scenario is not at all possible, as sin is much more than just an act or deed done in isolation. Rather, sin has also changed the nature of who I am as a person. I am totally screwed up. (If you can’t admit this, that’s called pride.) The illustration of someone who has taken heroine is a good illustration of what sin does to us. Once you’ve taken it once, it alters your brain in such a way that you are now under its control, and as much as part of you realizes that an addiction to heroine is wrong/destructive, there is now another part of you that is under the control of its power. Imagine a world full of heroine users–where every single person in the world is an addict to it. What a hopeless picture!

Even if someone were to somehow never take heroine again, they can’t erase their past. But sin is even worse than heroine. It is conceivably possible for someone who used to be a heroine user to choose to never use it again (although extremely difficult to do). As such, one could say, “I’m no longer a heroine user,” and it might feel a little uncomfortable to punish such a person for using it 20 years ago. There is nothing morally wrong with a person whose brain has been altered to crave heroine but doesn’t illegally use it.

Yet there is something morally wrong with us because of what Sin has done to us as people. Sin has put a rebellion in our heart against God. We now feel we have the right to decide whether God’s ways are right or not. So even those of us who are “moral” people choose to follow God as long as we determine it is productive to society or our own lives. Us “moral” people don’t murder people, because we see the problem with it.

But what about those things where we don’t fully understand the problem: issues of personal sexual choices (sex outside of marriage, homosexuality, etc.) or personal lifestyle choices (accumulating hoards of wealth for ourselves, laziness, etc.), or issues of religion (does it matter which god/religion you follow or does it matter whether you worship him or not, etc.). Sin has put a rebellious heart against God in every single person who lives.

But what if someone decides, “I no longer want to be in rebellion towards God”? Enter many of the religions of the world. They are man’s attempts to align ourselves back to God. What a noble effort! Surely, God would be pleased with our intentions, even if they are misguided. Surely, He will look past our errors of belief and see our heart, right?

The problem is, this idea is predicated on the notion that we can somehow save ourselves from our rebellion of God. We cannot. Even our own attempts at making things right with God fall flat on their face. That means that regardless of how “good” you live your life and how “moral” your religious beliefs are, you cannot do anything to change the fact that you have a rebellious heart toward God, and you can no longer be considered righteous in His eyes. This rebellious heart is a gift to you–given by our ancestor, Adam. Thanks, Adam.

While Adam chose to have a rebellious heart, and thus gave this gift to all humanity in a representative/corporate way–it happens in each of our own lives as well, so we can’t find ourselves faultless. When you rebelled from God yourself and chose sin, you exchanged God as your lord, and chose “Sin” to be your lord. (You thought you were crowning yourself as lord, but just like Adam, you were deceived. Like father, like son.) That’s a decision that has no reversal. God values a voluntary love relationship–if you choose to leave him, He lets you. While God allowed you leave him, Sin is a tyrannical dictator. It refuses to give up its power over you. You are its subject forever, and unlike God, it will never let anyone leave its grip.

Although God is a God of love and is willing to allow you to choose to leave him, He has made it clear that there really is no other viable choice. Those who choose to leave Him, He turns them over to the power of Sin, which is death. This is the definition of the wrath of God–turning us over to Sin’s evil and destructive rule. In other words, God says, “You either play by my rules, or you play by Sin’s rules. Sin’s only rule is that you must die. And Sin, unlike me, will never let you break its rule. Sin will never let you leave.” God has no toleration for our sin, and in His wrath, He turns us over to Sin’s rule of death for our rebellion against Him.

So although you might try your best to return back to God, Sin won’t let you. It has no love for you. You are hopelessly screwed. Everyone is. Yes, Rob Bell, even Ghandi. And even me.

Now, people today don’t like that concept. “How can you say Ghandi is going to hell? How can you say the whole world is going to hell? How insensitive! How offensive!”

This attitude is just further proof that we have a rebellious heart toward God. We are in denial, just like any other drug addict. “I’m ok, you’re ok!” Anyone who would say anything different is labeled judgmental. (By the way, this is how “religious” people treated the Old Testament prophets as well.) The same things were being said when Noah built his ark and warned everyone that God was going to destroy the world. Jesus warned us that the end of days would be the same as the days of Noah. The theology being propagated among many Christians today questioning if the world really is going to hell just proves Jesus’ words. 2 Peter warns us that God’s judgment is indeed coming, just like it came in Noah’s day.

So what are we left with? Everyone is in the same predicament of being under the judgment of God, and no matter what we humans do to try and get out of it. Even when we try to correct ourselves so that we are no longer under His judgment–we cannot escape the rule of Sin. We are all now subjects of Sin, and Sin has the right to destroy us. And Sin will have its way with every single one of us, no matter what we try to free ourselves.

If we stop here, we have no hope whatsoever. There is absolutely nothing we can do–being deceived by Sin, we have already left God, and Sin refuses to let us ever return back to Him.

But there is one thing that can happen: While Sin has complete control over us, and we are no match for its power, there is one Person who isn’t in the same predicament: God. The only one who can do anything about our condition is Him. Consider the following:

1. God has never given himself over to the power of Sin like the rest of us have. So the power of sin (death) has no right to Him. He remains free.
2. The power of Sin and the power of God are not equals. They’re not even worth comparing. The power of Sin is like a toothpick in the palm of God’s hand.

Adam made Sin a “relative” of the human family. Everyone on earth who is born has Adam as their father, and as a result is in relationship with Sin as well. But what if God started over? Is that possible? What if He decided to once again make a Man in His own image? What if He could make a way for us to be born all over again? If that would be possible, we would be born both of Adam and born of the new Man. We would then have both Sin and God claiming rightful possession of us. And if the two propositions I’ve made in the paragraph above are true, even though both would claim rightful possession of us, who do you think is going to win that claim?

Could this work? Could God do something to save us, even though there’s nothing we can do to save ourselves? A Christian believes so. A Christian believes that what we couldn’t do for ourselves, God did it for us. While we could do nothing to break Sin’s rule over us, God did it for us. When Adam sinned, Sin claimed rule over humanity. Jesus said to Sin, “If one man and his sin can represent the rest of humanity for you, then allow Me–one man–to represent the sin of humanity. Unleash all your power on me.” And God, in His wrath, said to Sin, “Have your way with Him” (just as we said earlier that the wrath of God is defined as Him letting Sin have its way with us). Jesus felt the wrath of God, as God turned Him over to Sin and did nothing for Him. God abandoned His Son, giving Sin free reign for destruction.

The power of sin is death. And so Jesus died while being under God’s wrath. But remember, unlike us, Jesus did not deserve God’s wrath and didn’t deserve Sin’s consequences. And remember, the power of Sin and the power of God are not equals. They’re not even worth comparing. The power of sin is like a toothpick in the palm of God’s hand. Death is supposed to be final. But Jesus showed that death doesn’t have to be final. He did not remain dead for long.

He, unlike us, was righteous. Sin’s power of death was not superior to Him, as it is to us. God cannot be ruled by Sin. While we are subjects of Sin, He is not. And now humanity no longer has to be subjects to Sin. Because a righteous Human represented all of humanity when He died and rose again (just like a sinful Adam represented humanity when he sinned), humans are no longer forced to be under the rule of Sin and once again have the freedom to choose. It’s now back to the same choice we’ve had from the beginning: be ruled by God or be ruled by Sin. Except this time, we don’t find ourselves being currently ruled by God–we find ourselves currently being ruled by Sin. But the choice is now there to return to God.

While Sin currently rules all of us, God has provided an “escape clause” where there was none to begin with. (Sin itself would never have provided such a clause.) For those who choose the escape clause, Sin can no longer claim a rightful claim on us–Jesus as our representative gave Sin what it claimed over us. We are now free to return to God’s lordship–if we want to.

Why wouldn’t anyone want to? Well there are plenty of people who refuse to believe that they are currently subjects of Sin. Sin has done a good job of deceiving them–just like Sin deceived the first humans, Adam and Eve. That is the real power of Sin–deception. Sin convinces us that we are our own lords. Sin makes us think that returning to God means no longer having control over our own lives (as if we really are in control now). Sin gives the perception of free will. “Don’t do what God wants you to do–do whatever you want to do!” Meanwhile God warns, “There really is no such thing as free will: there’s My will or Sin’s will.”

So what is God’s will for us who find ourselves under the rule of Sin? His will is that we return back to Him through the way He made possible–the escape clause. It is the only way out–not because Christians are arrogant or narrow-minded, but because Sin refuses to give us a way out–only God’s way accomplishes it. Those who would take the escape clause are those who are willing to be born again of God–those who are willing to also be identified with Christ, not just Adam. Sin says we are sinners who deserve death–because we are born of Adam. The escape clause says that we will no longer be born only of Adam, but we will now let Christ be born in us.

Jesus is willing to freely give us His righteousness. He says, “Let Me and My righteousness be born in you. Stop rebelling from Me. Submit yourselves to me once again, and I will give you My righteousness. Stop trying to make things right with God by your various religions and moral behavior. Recognize that if you are going to be freed from the rule of Sin, it will have to be God who saves you, not yourself. By my subjecting Myself to Sin and letting Sin have its way with me, there’s no reason for Sin to have its way with you, if you will be identified with Me. If you make Me your Lord, Sin will no longer be able to claim any lordship over you anymore.”

Most people don’t take Jesus’ offer, because Sin has convinced them that there is no looming death for their “free will” against God. Sin has convinced them that they are not in rebellion against God. If there is a God, surely He is a good God, and is willing to look past the little things we’ve done, as long as we do our best to be decent human beings. How could God be “good” if we are all going to hell? Sin has convinced them that they are free to do as they choose with no consequence.

That’s not fair, is it? That we are so easily deceived. Yet it is the truth. We are so helplessly deceived. Those who have never heard of Christ are also helplessly deceived. We are all in the same boat, remember? Sin has us all convinced that we don’t need God to save us. Instead, Sin tells us that we can solve this problem ourselves.

But that’s not fair at all that people who’ve never heard of Christ would go to hell! God should let them all into heaven! We are mistaken if we think all those people who’ve never heard are good, innocent people. Just look at those of us who have already heard the Gospel–how many of us “good people” choose Christ? Very few. Even the large numbers of us who claim to have chosen Jesus–Jesus warned us that many who know of Him and claim He is their Lord haven’t really done so. Imagine what is like in places of the world who have not even heard of Christ yet. Imagine how much darker and lost those people are. Before you jump to their defense, try living among them for awhile and see for yourself if they have received Christ’s righteousness without ever having heard of Him. Sin’s rule is on all of us–those of us who have a better understanding of its rule, and those of us who don’t. It’s Sin’s goal to keep people confused, lost, and ignorant. As Christians, it’s our goal to share the Gospel. To bring light, clarity, and freedom to those who are helplessly in bondage and in a darkness that won’t let them see the truth.

Can we skip hell because we simply follow a life similar to the one Jesus teaches about in the Gospels? No, salvation can only occur when the righteousness of Christ is credited on our behalf. The Bible is clear that His righteousness is not credited to us based on how well we follow Jesus’ teachings. It’s credited to us when we make Christ our Lord and recognize that our only hope is HIS righteousness, not ours. As long as we put our hope in our own righteousness, we have not returned back to God.

But doesn’t it matter to God how we live our lives on this earth? Yes,. But also I think there’s a difference between saying: “It matters to God how you live your life on earth” and “What matters to God is how you live your life on earth.”

What matters to God is that you receive Christ’s righteousness that He so much wants to give to you. To those who receive it, of course it DOES matter to God how we now live. He does want us to reflect the righteousness Christ freely gives us. How can we claim that we’ve been freed from the rule of Sin and have returned to God’s rule if we continue to live the same life when we were under Sin’s rule? How does this make any sense whatsoever? Those who claim to have received His righteousness but do not reflect it…I am not your judge, God is. He may be more or less tolerant than I imagine. But I think the Bible is pretty clear that those who haven’t yet received Christ’s righteousness, and those who don’t put their trust for salvation in His righteousness, remain lost no matter how “righteous” their lives appear to be. We all have left God’s rule for Sin’s rule. Because of Christ’s gift, there is now a way out. The world must know there’s a way out. If not, how will they ever find their way out of Sin’s rule?

What the shell? (that’s the only other word I could think of that rhymes)

For me, the question is: Where the hell does Rob Bell stand? Hahahaha.

A lot of controversy surrounds Rob Bell’s new book, and thanks to friends who have kept me in the loop (I have to rely on them, since I never got into Nooma, his books, or Bell himself), I’ve done my share of thinking about it.

Without reading his book, and just judging by the interviews I’ve heard from him since he wrote his latest book, here’s what I conclude Rob Bell believes: If you’re an all-around nice person (i.e. obeying the golden rule, etc.), it doesn’t matter so much whether you believe that Jesus is the “Savior of the world” or not. After all, if you’re being kind to people like Jesus taught, you are actually bringing heaven to earth like Jesus wants you to. In the end, that’s really what matters to Jesus, not your religious affiliation. So don’t worry about all the nice people out there who have never heard of Jesus or all those nice people out there who refuse to believe He’s the savior of the world. They’re nice people–they will have made the world a little more like heaven, showing that they belong to heaven, regardless of their religious affiliation. Those who are not nice to people on earth are trying to make earth more like hell. They won’t succeed, because the power of love is stronger than their efforts. All they will be able to do is make their own life on earth more hellish. If you truly love people, it doesn’t matter what they try to do to make your life hell, they won’t be able to. In the end, those people who are trying to make life on earth more hellish will realize that it was a losing battle. They will then be forced to admit they were wrong and give in to the side of love.

Two questions to consider now: Is this really what the Bible teaches? Is this really what Rob Bell teaches?

Perhaps I’m wrong about what Bell believes. However, I think you’ll have a much easier time proving that the Bible doesn’t teach this than you will trying to prove that Rob Bell doesn’t teach this.

The current bishop, Will Willimon, believes that a large part of the problem is poor leadership. While I can agree that there is a problem w/poor leadership (and I think this can be said for all denominations to a smaller or larger degree), the agreement stops there. Because how he measures leadership is different from me. For him, the best way to tell if a church has spiritual vitality is by looking at church attendance numbers. Click here to read his words on that matter. This idea is also mentioned in this other article. Here’s another. To those who would say it’s not about the numbers, he would disagree in yet another article.

My response? While I disagree with the bishop, that doesn’t make him a bad person–it just makes him pretty much like so many other modern church leaders out there. I think we would all do ourselves a favor if we remembered that the same Jesus that said, “You will know them by their fruit,” (but clearly isn’t talking about numbers there) also said, “Many will come to me saying, Lord, Lord did we not do these many great things?” And Jesus says that He will say, I never knew you.” I think we are on dangerous grounds when we think we can judge a ministry by quantitative measurements. If we do that, Jesus’ ministry ended up a failure. He kept turning away crowds and could have had a much grander church than what was left when He died on the cross.

Oftentimes, a church is dwindling in size because it is indeed not a spiritually healthy church. If that is indeed the case, and it is apparent that the church refuses to get healthy, close it down! But isn’t it possible to have a spiritually healthy church that is currently declining in attendance? I can think of a number of scenarios where this would be the case. And there are also spiritually unhealthy churches that are thriving when it comes to the numbers. In my opinion, those churches should be shut down just as much as the one that’s dwindling—and maybe even more, because its spiritual unhealthiness is spreading like wildfire. Only when we are in relationship with a congregation can we determine whether it is a spiritually healthy church or not; otherwise numbers are all we can go by–and numbers often don’t tell the real story.

If we want to judge-by-number (sorry for the intentional correlation to another childish activity) to determine spiritual health, let’s all renounce our Savior and start following Mohammed. His religion is the fastest growing one out there, while we complain about our declining churches.

But as bad as the numbers are for Methodists, I don’t see the decline in membership as the biggest danger for the future of Methodism. Instead, the biggest danger I see is in the face of such decline, a desire to re-affirm our culture’s false sense of spiritual security in order to attract more people into the Church. It’s a theology that teaches we are all brothers and sisters in Christ, regardless of whether you believe in Him or not. Do your ears feel tickled yet? This lie degrades the Gospel and Scripture–the very foundation of the Christian faith. It’s what I encountered personally, and the latest example has been the Bishop’s reaction to the remarks of the new governor of Alabama.

I didn’t personally witness the governor’s remarks, and I’m not convinced it was the wisest thing to do in his position. An unbelieving nation isn’t going to understand his intentions (although I would expect Church leaders to get it). I’m sure Governor Bentley believes that God created us all, therefore we are God’s children in that sense of the word. But that is different than being brothers and sisters “in Christ.” Now we’re talking about God’s spiritual/eternal family. Of course, the governor could have just been saying these things to appeal to all those Southern Baptist constituents in his state. I wouldn’t be surprised. But that’s not my point here. The Bishop’s reaction wasn’t based on the appropriateness of the governor’s remarks, but instead the Bishop claims his remarks were theologically incorrect. Bishop Willimon believes that we are all “brothers and sisters in Christ” whether we believe in Him or not. If you read the comments that follow his article, you will see that Methodists are divided on the issue as to whether you must believe in Christ in order be a fellow brother or sister in Christ. (Most of the time, the Bishop’s posts get 1 or 2 comments, not 34!) I was one of the ones who were very disappointed to learn that the Bishop is convinced we all are brothers and sisters in Christ regardless. I was also expecting better exegesis (interpretation) of Scripture from someone as schooled in theology as he is. Clearly, when Jesus teaches us to pray by saying “Our Father,” the context reveals He’s referring to all of His followers who are praying together. Didn’t Jesus say that some of us humans were sons of the devil? Didn’t He say that some of us are “goats,” who will be cast into outer darkness where there is weeping/gnashing of teeth? Didn’t He say only a few of us would find the narrow way? Didn’t He say that those who do the will of His Father were his brothers and sisters? Didn’t Paul say that the wrath of God will be poured out on those who are disobeying God? The Bishop isn’t so much disagreeing with the governor as much as he apparently disagrees with Scripture.

I think Willimon’s real concern is that the unchurched people his denomination would like to attract to their churches might perceive Christians to be mean if we teach that everyone isn’t part of Christ’s spiritual family. If I said that you are not part of my family, but I want you to become part of my family…is that being mean or is that a loving way to say the truth? It’s not like the governor said, “You’re not part of my family, and I don’t want you to be!” He said the opposite.  Didn’t Jesus at some point say to the people of Jerusalem, “How long have I desired to gather you together as a hen gathers her chicks, but you would not let me”? Is Jesus being mean for saying that some of us refuse to be part of the fold?

It’s clear from Scripture that the Gospel teaches us that we are eternally lost without faith in Christ. The Bishop seems uncomfortable to accept this. Regardless of whether the membership of the North Alabama Conference is growing or declining, evaluating our faithfulness to the Gospel is a better way to evaluate our spiritual vitality. As long as we make numbers the priority, we will continue to see such “politically correct” statements in the attempt to grow our denomination or our churches. If it works and our numbers increase, are we comfortable in saying we are now increasing our “spiritual health”?

Maybe I and several others have misunderstood the Bishop as much as he seems to misunderstand Scripture. If what the Bishop seems to state in that article is indeed his theological position, it is precisely this sentiment and denial of the Gospel and Scripture that is the biggest danger for Methodism. John Wesley would vehemently disagree with the Bishop (see my comment #31). The Bible and Jesus’ own words completely stand against such a “feel-good” theology. Let the numbers continue to dwindle until the Gospel as preached by Wesley returns to the Methodist pulpits. Even if a poor, helpless congregant has nowhere else to turn except to those God-forsaken Southern Baptists.

The Son of God didn’t need to come in order to give people money who were in poverty. If so, He did a poor job fulfilling His mission. The poor Guy (pardon the pun) had no money of His own. He did, however, instruct us to take care of the poor and give them money.

But if the Son of God had never come to save humanity from our sins, we would all still be lost and eternally separated from God. That was the reason why He needed to come.

Jesus did, in fact, perform “social” acts of justice. But these “social” acts of Jesus were done in the context of declaring that the Savior of the World had come. Not just as acts of social justice. For example, when Jesus would heal people, He often told them their sins were forgiven, and they would be healed. In one instance, Jesus tells a paralyzed man that his sins are forgiven. The leaders get upset at Him for claiming to have such authority. So Jesus proves it to them by telling the guy to rise up and walk.

It’s no different today. Today, we declare a Gospel that itself declares that Jesus is the only Son of God, and that only He is worthy of worship. That all other gods and religions are just man-made. And just like back then, today’s leaders (even within supposed “Christianity”) object. These proponents of a social gospel get upset: “How dare you claim that He has such authority! What narrow-mindedness! Jesus was about loving the poor and feeding the hungry–THAT is the gospel.”

Case in point: Audra and I met a lady several months back in Alabama who left her denomination, and the last straw for her was the that denomination’s response in the relief effort in Haiti. According to her, churches were encouraged to provide much-needed packages for the survivors of the earthquake. However, they weren’t allowed to provide Bibles or any Christian literature in their packages.

Maybe the Haitian government wouldn’t allow religious literature, but apparently her experiences within that denomination up that point had convinced her that social issues were more important than sharing Christ as the one true Savior and Lord. If so, it is a sad commentary. Although Jesus definitely had compassion and met the needs of the hurting, it was in the context of letting them know that salvation was here–not just from our earthly plights.

I saw this quote from a proponent of the social gospel on someone’s Facebook profile the other day. The quote’s author objects to the term “social gospel” as an accurate description of his faith:

I don’t preach a social gospel; I preach the gospel, period. The gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ is concerned with the whole person. When people were hungry, Jesus didn’t say, “Now is that political or social?” He said, “I feed you” because the good news to a hungry person is bread.  –Desmond Tutu

I strongly disagree with part of what this author is implying. Yes, at the moment, bread is very good news to a hungry person. And we should provide the hungry with bread. But bread does not satisfy as much as we’d like to think it can. For example, I just ended my fast. During the fast, food seemed like the greatest thing ever. “If only I could have food, I would need nothing more!” That wasn’t true. I have food now. But it doesn’t satisfy as much as I had hoped. I need it, for sure. But I need something else even more. Nothing in this world satisfies as we think it ought to, except when one comes to know Christ. I become more satisfied with Him every day. I still haven’t experienced all the satisfaction that comes from knowing Him.

Please don’t misunderstand: It was hard, if not nearly impossible for me to worship Christ when I was without food. I’m NOT saying we shouldn’t give the hungry food. That is ludicrous. We must alleviate the real, earthly needs of suffering people. But merely having food (or shelter/money/whatever) once again isn’t enough to cause people to worship Jesus and come to know Him as Savior and Lord.

It didn’t surprise me to learn that Tutu believes that only parts of the Bible can be trusted, but other parts are not from God. I too have encountered this belief, and with it comes a devaluing of the truth of the Gospel.

This all indicates that there may be many people within “Christianity” who have yet to experience the Gospel or Christ himself. When they do, I am confident their understanding of Him will be enlarged and they will see Him for who He truly is. That’s why we must do more than just uncover the social gospel for what it is, we should pray. Pray that the light of the Gospel would reach everyone.

And those of us who have come to know and experience the Gospel in our lives should not shirk our responsibility to feed the hungry, help the poor, shelter those without homes, etc. While this can’t fix anyone’s eternal predicament, they do serve as band-aids–they help alleviate the earthly predicaments people find themselves in.

We need band-aids. They have their place. But the Gospel is more than a band-aid–it is the promise of complete healing. Can we save anyone? No, only Christ can. But we can help save them from whatever earthly predicaments they are stuck in, and then share about Jesus who can save them from much more!

Next, we can smile with the love of Christ and ask, “Now, are you satisfied with just a band-aid, or do you want to be totally healed?” Jesus has come so that every soul who breathes might come to know Him as Lord and Savior, and may worship Him as such!

While most people we help may not believe that total healing is possible for them, that’s indeed the Gospel–and no exaggeration of it!

I felt like that was a very difficult, yet exciting period of my life. Yet, when I look at the circumstances, they weren’t really mind-blowingly difficult compared to what people face all the time in their lives. It was actually pretty mild, if you look at it objectively (although that’s hard for me to do, since I was the one who experienced it). That made me feel kind of bad. How would I have handled a much greater crisis? Something that could be genuinely labeled a crisis? But then I continued thinking about it. You know, it was like I had a taste of having to trust God during a relatively minor unsettling time. It was just a taste. Kinda like a vaccine.

You know what I’m talking about. When they give you a vaccine, they give you a taste of the virus or whatever in order to trigger antibodies to build up in your body so that the full-blown virus won’t be able to overcome you if you come into contact with it later in life. And then it dawned on me…faith is the antibody. For some odd reason, my faith in God has intensified greatly over the past period of my life–disproportionately, I would add, to the circumstances. It’s like a little hardship came my way–and I reached down deep, and found God, and a whole bunch of faith was released.

And so now I feel I have all these antibodies in my system disproportionate to the injection of the vaccine’s virus. That leads me to believe that there’s very good reason for all these antibodies. I’m going to need every single one of them. God knew that, and gave me a vaccine so that I would be prepared for what lies ahead.

The task set before me right now–without the type of faith I have in God right now, I’d be turning to this or that to grow the church or try to become successful. But with all these antibodies of faith floating around, I just can’t bring myself to do that. There’s only one way to stand strong in the Lord, and that is by putting one’s faith squarely in Him. That’s what I learned during this past period of my life, and I fully intend to put that into practice during this next chapter.

And if I say that I feel like I have a lot of faith in God, it’s not coming from arrogance, or as if I regard myself higher than I ought. I know full well where this faith came from, and it didn’t come from me. It is God’s working in my life, and I’m not ashamed to say it. He has indeed done something in my life, and it’s not arrogant to say that either. Rather, it’s praise to God, because He will receive much glory from what He has done, is doing, and will do in my life. If there’s any faith here, it’s all from Him alone and for His purposes alone.

I’m not claiming perfection or anything near it. I’m simply saying: God gave me a vaccine, and it worked.

In earthly terms, many people would probably dismiss us. We are small in number, and we don’t have anything “exceptional” or “noteworthy” going on. To put it plainly, if our churches explode in numerical growth in the next couple of years, there is nothing to put your finger on to say why it happened. It would have to be a move of God’s Spirit–like the stuff you read about in the Bible.

And I guess that’s what I feel I’m being tested to believe can happen. I’m tired of standing around while people try to play the church game. I’m frustrated that so many church leaders can be simply concerned with church growth, and then put a spiritual spin on it, to make it look like it’s a “God thing.” Or that leaders can feel confident they can achieve a successful church by following this method or that one.

I don’t want that to happen here. Yet, I’m tempted like everyone else. That’s when I need to go deep, and test if I’m for real or not. I know myself and I know my church. We aren’t anything special. I’m not a gifted preacher; we don’t pride in ourselves in being talented at anything. Of course, we really don’t know these things yet, as we’ve not explored them.

But I’m also not so sure that trying to explore them is the way to go. Deep down inside, I want to set up an experiment. An experiment where a church puts their entire faith on God and Scripture–on the power of the Gospel and the Holy Spirit. And then prove that all this modern thinking about successful churches is bogus. And more importantly, prove that we can be, and must be faithful to God, and that He is a faithful God himself.

I want us to return to a simple, yet profound, trust in God that really steps out in obedience to what God is calling us to deep down on the inside. Can we turn off the noise all around us, and step out blindly in uncharted territory? It really isn’t uncharted, as we have the example of the early church in Scripture. But for our time…uncharted. Just what exactly might happen if we went in with both feet with no way to turn back? Would we suffer the embarrassment of being a fool, or would God come through? If God won’t come through, then this is all just a game, and I don’t want any part of it.

I don’t believe that’s what’s going to happen. It just can’t happen that way. That would destroy everything I believe in. If Jesus is real, and the Gospel is what it claims to be, the spiritual life in all its fullness awaits.

I think part of the reason is that I hadn’t heard it expounded on for such a long time. The things that I’ve written in my blog on the Gospel–those things haven’t been taught to me for quite some time. Perhaps some of you read my blog, and think–”Well, duh. You’re not saying anything new here, Tim. We all know this about the Gospel and have moved on from this a long time ago. This is milk, not meat” Well for me, it’s new all over again. New in a way that it’s never been like before. This is the closest I’ve ever been to what it must feel like for someone who has lived all their lives as a non-believer, and then 30 years later, they come to faith in Christ for the first time, and what a dramatic change it brings–eyes opened, joy floods, a new mind in Christ, etc. Those aren’t just words or phrases to me right now. Sure, I’ve heard songs that sing about it, and I’ve even expounded on it myself in lessons to the youth when I was the youth pastor–but I’ve recently realized in a new way that everyone needs to have the Gospel preached to them–even ministers like me. I am convinced there is something that happens on a spiritual level (something I can’t quite explain right now) when one chooses to submit oneself to the preaching of the Gospel. But you can’t do that unless it is preached to you and you come literally face-to-face with it. It’s one thing to preach the Gospel to someone else, it’s another thing to have it preached to you and for you to soak it in. This is one of my greatest fears of becoming a pastor–I can’t let myself preach the Gospel week after week, without it being preached to me week after week. I am currently praying that some way this will happen (perhaps via podcasts or connecting with a local pastor there). I guess what I’m trying to say is that it’s like going without water for a long time, and then having a drink of it and wanting more and more and more and more. It’s like you realize how life-giving the water is, and how nothing else even comes close in comparison to filling that void. Not merely religion, not merely trying to live more like Jesus; nothing else comes close to understanding the mystery and power of the Gospel and all its implications. It truly does change everything.

When I tried to explain this to a friend about a month ago, I felt like I couldn’t explain it fully. It was like this explanation for why I keep fixating on the Gospel just wasn’t enough to explain the phenomenon. I’ve since realized that, although this is one strong reason for why I find myself in such a predicament, there’s something equally–if not greater–that has caused me to keep clinging to the Gospel. Something else that makes it so valuable and life-giving.

In David Platt’s book, Radical, that I’ve referred to in earlier posts, Platt recounts a time in his life in college regarding the Gospel, and I hope I get the general gist of it correct here on this blog. (I’m too lazy to go downstairs and find the part in the book again, so I’m recounting from memory. Hopefully, none of this is made-up.) He says something to the effect that for one of his assignments or something, he got in front of the entire class and shared the Gospel of Christ to everyone, and how there is no other way to heaven, except putting your faith in Christ, because only He can give us His righteousness. After sharing, one girl in his class came up to him and replied something to the effect of, “Are you telling me that you think I’m going to hell for eternity if I don’t believe in your religion? You are so narrow-minded and judgmental!” Platt then writes that as a result of this encounter, he went home and kept thinking to himself, “Do I really believe this? Is this really true? Cuz if not, I’ve just made a fool of myself!” This encounter forced him to decide on a deeper level if he really affirmed what he always believed. That wasn’t the end of the story. The next year, the same girl found David and told him how she had recently come to place her faith in Jesus and experienced for herself what he had shared with his class the year before. Now that she was a believer, her eyes were opened, and she saw the awesome truths that David was preaching that day. Her life was changed by the Gospel she had once derided.

When the Gospel costs you something, something powerful happens. When you have to let go of things in this life, you start to grab tighter on the Gospel, believing that it must be true even more. As Paul says, If it’s not true, Christians who believe in the Gospel are to be pitied the most of all men. I can relate with David Platt’s story. In my case, instead of my classmate responding in this way toward the Gospel, it was my pastor saying I was narrow-minded and judgmental for believing that everyone must put their faith in Christ, or else they remain eternally lost in their sins. I remember thinking, “If what I believe is not true, I’m an idiot. I’m walking away from a youth ministry that I love to death, I’m losing close friendships, I’m losing 33% of an already month-to-month income, I’m losing my church family, and I must be narrow-minded and judgmental like I’ve been accused of.”

By letting go of all these things, it’s like I felt like I was getting dangerously close to a situation where all I had left was the Gospel. Is the Gospel really true? Is it worth losing all these other things to? Is the Gospel really worth foreclosing my house and becoming dependent on family until something new comes along? Jesus, do you really mean this much to me? Am I crazy? So it forced me to start trusting and putting my faith in the Gospel like never before. Every time I heard it, it was REAL to me. I wanted more. I knew in a deeper way that Jesus really is all you need. And that there really is no way to the Father but through Him. There couldn’t be any other way. The Bible really is true. The world’s religions do not point to Christ, and the world is being deceived by them. And the world needs to know this. They ARE like that girl in David’s class–blinded to the truth and lost because of their sins. This ISN’T just something I’ve made up in my head. It doesn’t matter what other people think or say about me. After all, they aren’t really accusing ME of being judgmental and narrow-minded, they are accusing Scripture and the Gospel of being so. And here’s why I keep fixating on the Gospel: Inside of me, I just can’t reconcile how some people can feel that way about Scripture and the Gospel, while I find the same truths to be the most wonderful, miraculous gift and treasure ever given to us, so praise and thanks be to God!!!! How can anyone sing a song in church about what Christ has done or how we are made right with the Father through His work without something inside bubbling up with joy and appreciation and deepest humility? “I dare not trust the sweetest frame, but WHOLLY lean on Jesus’ name! On Christ the solid rock I stand, all other ground is sinking sand. All other ground is sinking sand.”

These are not just words to sing to fill in some time on a Sunday morning worship service. No, they are the truth, and beyond being true…they are incredibly and thankfully true. If you find that you wish that you had more faith in God or His Gospel, I encourage you: willingly let go of things in this life out of trust in the Gospel. Tell someone at your work or your school about how Christ saves us and how He has saved you. Put yourself in a place where you have to trust that the Bible is indeed true. Something will happen. You’re life may go downhill as a result. Maybe you’ll lose your job or you’ll lose friends at school. Or maybe not. I had hoped that God would honor my step of faith and provide me even more income than I had while at the church. That didn’t happen. It got worse, not better. I truly lost things in this life, but I gained something far greater: I gained a deeper faith in God. I take that with me as I pastor my first church. If anyone thought I was idealistic before, I’m even more so today. I believe we can simply trust in God’s power to save people instead of all of the trappings that modern churches feel they must have. I clearly see the power of the Gospel!!!  I don’t care that the church I’m going to doesn’t have a staff, nor the “stuff” to hire a “staff.” In what ways does that even come close to comparing to the power of the Gospel?? It many people’s eyes, this church has very little. I don’t see it that way. Do you want to know what I see? I see David with 5 stones and a sling and the Lord on his side. I’d rather have that than a large army and a giant who could easily wipe David off with his little pinky. I’d rather have less money, less friends, less of this world and more of Christ. As the Matt Redman song says, “Take the world, but give me Jesus.”

I hope one day I trust Jesus and His Gospel enough to give it all away. Right now, however, I have a choice–do I continue to trust God even more, or do I revert back to trusting in other things. It’s a daily question. I’m afraid many days, I revert back. In fact, I’m still scared to talk to people about my faith at work or at the grocery store or in my neighborhood. I’m still a faithless sinner who has been saved by God’s grace alone. But writing in my blog has been extremely helpful to bring me back around. So has the sermons I’ve heard and the discussions I’ve had with friends. This stuff must not go away, even though I am going away. As the writer of Hebrews says, “Let us not forsake the gathering of ourselves together, but let us encourage one another even more as the day approaches.” I need to be encouraged to continue stepping out in faith for God! I’m too prone to keep comfortable and safe. I continue to want this life to be about me, instead of about God. But one day, we will all realize that this life really should have been all about Him all along.

I believe the writer of Hebrews is right, and that day is approaching. And I don’t want to become like some who lose more of their faith in Scripture or the Gospel as time has gone on…I want to be like those whose faith is such that the Gospel is more true and more powerful to them than ever before. Where are these people in Colorado? I want their faith to be an example for me. And I want to be that example for others as well.