Why Preach The Gospel?

Why preach the gospel? For those in the fellowship of the saints in a Bible-believing and Bible-preaching church, this question might seem overly simplistic or simply redundant. But even in Paul's day there were those who had already strayed from the basic task given to His churches of preaching the gospel. Paul wrote to the church at Galatia about this problem.

Our world is daily bombarded with a variety of gospels. Some preach a social gospel. A gospel that is focused upon the social ills of our culture. This gospel is based upon the false concept that life in the here and now is what really matters. After all, they contend, those who believe in hell, judgment and life beyond the grave, are just wistful dreamers looking for the panacea of pie in the sky by and by.

Others preach a revolutionary gospel. A gospel that advocates violent change at the end of a gun barrel. This is an egalitarian gospel. Strangely equating real happiness with the concept of everyone possessing an equal amount of material goods, no matter how little each might have. During the cold war era much of the budget of ungodly ecumenical groups was expended in support of revolutionary movements in Central and South America, Africa and Asia. Movements dedicated to the violent overthrow of governments to achieve change. The fall of the Berlin wall made it obvious that this gospel just doesn't work. Those who might be puzzled by the position of the present pope on social issues, need look no further than his nurturing in the revolutionary gospel prevalent in Latin America in his earlier days.

Some preach a gospel of humanism. This gospel begins with the false premise that man is innately good. That he has within him a tiny spark of divinity. A bit of judicious fanning will bring out the divine. The spark will then flame into a roaring collective fire that will ultimately bring about a materialistic utopia on the earth. It doesn't take an academic or scholar to observe the practical failure of such a theory in our world today.

There are those who are more Biblically based who preach a good works gospel. A gospel of working one's way to heaven through the keeping of God's laws, observing rituals and liturgies and ultimately establishing their self-righteousness . Some of the most popular preaching today is focused upon yet another gospel. One might term this the feel good gospel. This gospel presents the basic proposition involved in the power of the positive. This gospel emphasizes the value of an individual. It proposes that if people can be given a positive self-image, then all will be well with them and the world. It ignores many of God's eternal moral absolutes such as, sin, repentance and all negatives. The power of this gospel is in positive thinking and positive preaching.

Why is the true gospel of real repentance and absolute faith not often preached in the power and boldness of God today? Perhaps there is fear of scorn and ridicule or loss of popularity. Such neglect only emphasizes the urgency we should attach to the preaching of the true gospel.

God Or Caesar

In the battle between our Judeo-Christian culture and secular humanism the lines of battle are clearly drawn and the issues of freedom are crystal clear. But it does not seem many Christians are aware of the ramifications of this ongoing struggle.   Just what are the Biblical parameters that should govern and guide godly Christian behavior in our contemporary culture? Just how do we apply general Biblical principles and particular precedents to the specifics of our daily dilemmas? Just where do we draw that fine line of distinction between obeying God and/or Caesar? Has the distinction between legitimate laws, legislative tyranny and bureaucratic authoritarianism been so blurred and obscured that good and brave men hesitate, vacillate, and sincerely mistake compromising collusion for commendable cooperation and craven cringing for cautious courage?

What does the example of such great men as Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego say to us in our circumstance  today? Is their unwavering obedience to a prior claim of the law of God and their subsequent refusal to obey the law of their land to be equated at all to the prior claim of the law of God today that we rear and educate our children in the way of God and protect them in the battle for their minds from the evils of secular humanists? Does our commission and imperative to promulgate God's Word, especially in our families and Churches, encompass the concept that our children belong to us rather than the state?   To God rather than to Caesar?   There are those in places of power today who seem to sincerely believe that Caesar has the prior claim!

Can we justify refusal to obey unjust and tyrannical laws and unjust bureaucratic degrees, standing on the same ground Peter and John occupied when they defied authority and cried, "It`is better to obey God than man," when they were denied the right and freedom to proclaim and teach the. Word of God?  Or does the mere fact that a law has been duly passed by a Parliament or promulgated by a bureaucrat make it sacred and sacrosanct and deny Christians the right of legal and orderly challenge lest they be accused of refusal to submit to ordained authority? In the dichotomy of God versus Caesar today, how do we render unto both their lawful and scriptural due?

Although specific answers would be as difficult and varied as the circumstances demanding  a response, it is obvious that the concerned and committed Christian citizen must re-examine his orientation and motives and do his utmost to ensure he responds as his fathers in the faith have responded throughout the ages.   Christian citizens must not be intimidated by governmental authority or authorities.

Surely even in our politically correct, post-modern culture  today there are certain things over which the state is not absolutely sovereign. There must be certain circumstances that not only justify, but demand,  a Christian citizen's resistance of tyrannical laws and regulations. There must be a time when we must rise up and cry out, "Enough!" This much we know, Caesar is not sovereign over God, His Church, His Gospel, or the spiritual life and ministry of His people. Caesar is not sovereign over the Christian's family or Christian parents as they seek to rear their children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.

Happiness Is

We Americans take our guarantee of the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness rather seriously. Our founding fathers, in graphic language, wrote the guarantee on paper and successive generations have attempted to prove the validity over and over again. The din and confusion and hustle and bustle of their relentless pursuit of that elusive mirage called happiness is an all consuming passion of our time. "Ever seeking, but never coming to," is an apt description of our society.

A song making the rounds these days 'Happiness Is..," is an amusing yet sad commentary on the paradox of our pleasure mad contemporary society. It seems the whole world is engaged in a frantic headlong chase of that deceptive phantom called happiness.

Life in our twentieth century is graphic reflection of this obsession with the trivial. A clown is hired to make us laugh and then a melodrama is viewed to make us cry,. A stimulant is taken to pep up the sagging torso and then a depressant to calm it down. A sleeping pill is swallowed to induce a blissful slumber and a beanie is gulped for a state of artificial alertness. As millions are spent on cancer study, tens of thousands daily and habitually commit suicide in defiance of all conclusive evidence and in the name of happiness. Rock and Roll, designed to tickle the savage foot patting instinct, ripples and rumbles over the air waves and then Beethoven is wafted along to soothe the savage breast.

Thousands ascend to the mountain to escape the savage heat as other thousands descend to the valley to escape the fierce cold. Whole population centers move to suburbia to elude the deafening den of the city and then build shopping malls all around themselves. A whole phalanx seek the cultural advantages of the suave metropolitan centers and yet plant gardens atop their penthouse patios to bring a bit of country to town. A host daily pack their bags and head out West, following Greely's advice, on the road they meet an equally disgruntled crowd heading East.

We are a nation on wheels. We demand more power plus economy, an insoluble problem the mechanical engineer claims to have solved, especially to the satisfaction of the automobile manufacturer. He says we can have our cake and eat it too. We dash down the street at breakneck speed only to come to a screeching, grinding halt to wait five minutes at a red light. The younger set takes the cue from the oldsters. They zip up and down roads in their hopped up, stripped down versions of mobile joy wagons, accelerating and decelerating in a mad frenzy and whirl until Mom and Pop hardly recognize them when they do drop by to replenish dwindling funds.

Happiness Is?? Perhaps to the old broken down mule that used to walk the circle of the old syrup mill it was the little enticing tidbit of corn tied to the end of the pole forever just out of reach .... that is if he could have ever reached it. Perhaps to the racing greyhound it is that mechanical rabbit that somehow always seems to just barely beat him to the wire ..... that is if he could ever catch it. Perhaps to a carnal man it is his endless fruitless, futile attempts to sate the desires of a fleshly appetite .... if he could ever satisfy them. But to the true Christian it is to, " Know that we Know HIM... " That's what HAPPINESS IS!"