Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you—unless you believed in vain.

For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures. (1 Corinthians 15:1-4)

When Good News Turns Into No Good News At All

As most of us already know, the word “gospel” comes from the Old English and refers to “good news.” Today we speak of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, although in the muddy and confused contemporary evangelical community today—believe it or not—there is considerable debate as to what this Gospel actually is.

Because so many weak-willed ministers jumped headlong into deceptions like Purpose Drivenism a la Rick Warren, and/or the Emerging Church, much of what purports to be the Body of Christ is now merrily marching down the ecumenical road that leads right back to the apostate Roman Catholic Church.

The truth is, having had their spiritual backbone removed through Contemplative Spirituality/Mysticism, they’re attempting to undo the Protestant Reformation and are once again more than ready to place themselves under the slavery and bondage of the Church of Rome with her sacramental system of works-righteousness.

However, this really should come as no surprise as the Apostle Paul warned us long ago of this kind of treachery when he wrote to the church at Corinth:

But I am afraid that as the serpent deceived Eve by his cunning, your thoughts will be led astray from a sincere andpure devotion to Christ.

For if someone comes and proclaims another Jesus than the one we proclaimed, or if you receive a different spirit from the one you received, or if you accept a different gospel from the one you accepted, you put up with it readily enough. (2 Corinthians 11:3-4)

So we can see here that God the Holy Spirit warns us that there is such a thing as a different gospel; and it isn’t the only warning of its kind in Scripture. So it becomes obvious that the Christian is to be on our guard about such trickery of the enemy of men’s souls.

Unfortunately so much of the Church has come under Satan’s spell of a twisted type of love, peace and tolerance (didn’t we learn anything from the 60’s) that they have simply laid down the weapons of our warfare (cf. 2 Corinthians 10:4) without so much as a token struggle.

Sad—very sad indeed; but the Lord be praised that He already anticipated this silly time of sappy sentimentality in which we now live and preserved the actual Gospel for His Church right within the pages of the Bible itself. And you know, it really couldn’t be any clearer.

Our opening text is the Gospel of Jesus Christ in its beautiful simplicity. The Gospel, I might add, that was faithfully preached by the Apostles and would cost all but John their very lives to fearlessly proclaim. Remember, God also told us through His inspired Apostle Paul:

But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you,let him be accursed. As we have said before, so now I say again: If anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to the one you received, let him be accursed. (Galatians 1:8-9)

Yet today we watch more and more leaders within mainstream evangelicalism falling one by one for the ecumenical cotton candy fluff being preached by false prophets. And how it sullies the memories of our dear brothers who paid the ultimate price so that you and I would know this Good News.

O how tragic that right before our eyes the Good News is being transformed into no good news at all.

Further reading

• AL MOHLER AND SBTS EXECUTIVE TEAM VISIT RICK WARREN
• PROPER DOCTRINE USED TO MATTER TO THE CHURCH
• CONCERNING FREE WILL OR THE BONDAGE OF THE WILL