Modern-day vs. Biblical
God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life. Therefore, follow these steps and you can be saved.
Sounds nice, huh? Sounds like the gospel in a nutshell, yes? This is the modern-day presentation of the gospel we are so familiar with.
And it’s oh-so-wrong, says mega-church pastor David Platt in his book Radical.
The biblical gospel is the opposite, he writes. “The biblical gospel says, ‘You are an enemy of God, dead in your sin, and in your present state of rebellion, you are not even able to see that you need life, much less to cause yourself to come to life. Therefore, you are radically dependent on God to do something in your life that you could never do.
The former sells books and draws crowds. The latter saves souls. Which is more important?”
I am reminded of the movie Field of Dreams where the “voice” says “Build It and They Will come” which seems to be the direction from which mega-churches and so many others are building their ministries. Construct the most fantastic edifice, hire the coolest, most charismatic “feel-good” preacher and the hottest music ministry act and light them all up with Hollywood-style state of the art sound and lighting and how could anyone not want to come in the door to hear God’s message?
In Mark 16:15 we are told “And he said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature.” We are to GO into the world and preach. Not stand and wait for those who need the Good Word to come to us. Seems to me, it would be more appropriate that when we think about growing the body of Christ, for us to listen to the voice that says “Come, let us build it.”