A Christian Challenge

"I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting him who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel— not that there is another one, but there are some who trouble you and want to distort the gospel of Christ. 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 1:6-9

A Christian, in an effort to promote his "2019 Easter Conference: Answering Atheists," said, "I challenge Christians to be more vocal in this battle, boldly proclaiming the gospel to unbelievers and calling Christians back to the authority of the Bible." I have no problem with this comment. However, I did want to call attention to one thing mentioned. Therefore, I responded with, "I challenge Christians to know the Gospel. The rest will fall into place after that." In my opinion, there is an assumption made by many Christians who desire other believers to preach the Gospel. That assumption is that other Christians know the Gospel at all or preach the same Gospel being advocated. Not surprisingly, there were a few examples of exactly what I am talking about in the responses to my comment. One person said, "...when we say Gospel, we mean all four books." This is in reference to the Bible books of Matthew, Luke, Mark, and John, which are commonly referred to as the gospels. The Gospel is contained in these books, but the books aren't the message. Another individual offered up a lengthy explanation of what they believe the Gospel message to be. In short, they finished up by saying, "Anyone who rejects God's escape plan and would rather still lie, hate, and sin as he wants, will suffer eternal punishment." I have often referred to preaching the Gospel as Christians being "rescuers" going behind "enemy lines" in order to save people. So, I agree with their reference to "God's escape plan." However, when they mention someone who "would rather still lie, hate, and sin as he wants, will suffer eternal punishment," I get the feeling they are saying that a person's sins are still being held against them and will be the reason they end up in hell. If that is the case, and I don't know for sure, I would disagree because all sins have been forgiven. Even the sins of unbelievers. The only sin that was left unforgiven when Jesus died on the cross was the sin of unbelief in Him (see John 16:9). A person goes to hell because they are spiritually dead; without the life of God indwelling them. And as has been said, "What do you do with dead things? You burn them." We should expect a change of behavior after a person accepts Jesus Christ as their savior. However, this is a side effect of being born again; coming alive to God through His indwelling Spirit. It is not the direct indicator of saving faith. If someone appears to have no change in their behavior, it is not their behavior that is ultimately the problem. It is that they may still be dead to God and in need of His life. The final example was this comment. "Many of you are replacing the cross of Christ with YOUR interpretation of Genesis. Stop it." When a person says "the cross of Christ," and leaves out the resurrection, I can only think that they believe the Gospel to be something like, "Jesus died for my sins so when I die I can go to heaven." While this is true, it is incomplete. Jesus dying on the cross doesn't save anybody. It is necessary for salvation, but it is not salvation itself.  The death of Jesus was necessary in order to pay the price for our sins and take them away from the eyes of God, never to be remembered. However, as previously mentioned, it is the restoration of the life of God, made available through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, that saves.  Otherwise, the Bible would not say, "And if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith (1 Corinthians 15:14)."

One individual "challenged" me, if you will, by asking me, "Which Gospel? More than one in the Bible," and to offer scripture to support my belief. Here is my response. I offer it because my prayer is that it offers clarity to what I believe the Gospel of Jesus Christ is and why it was necessary for Jesus to do what He did for us. "In Genesis 2:7, God breathed His life into Adam and Adam became a living being. That means that God put His Holy Spirit into Adam. God then told Adam in Genesis 2:17, that the day he ate the forbidden fruit, he would die. Adam ate the fruit in Genesis 3:6. But, Adam didn't die physically, he died spiritually; God removed His life from Adam. Adam and Eve did not have any children prior to this. Therefore, when they had children, they were born in the image and likeness of Adam (Genesis 5:3). Children are born spiritually dead to God, but alive to the world. All of us were born in the same condition. But, before God could restore His life to us, Jesus, God in the flesh, had to die for our sins (i.e. 1 Peter 3:18). Now, through the resurrection of Jesus, God can offer His life, the Holy Spirit, back to those who accept Jesus as their savior (Romans 5:8-10). We become born again, having the life of God restored to us. And because of the cross, no sin will cause that life to leave; an eternal life (Hebrews 9:12). The Gospel; sin, death, forgiveness, and the restoration of life." It has been my experience that many Christians, unbelievers, and even those who claim to have walked away from the faith, never knew the full Gospel in the first place. The questioner is correct that there is more than one Gospel in the Bible. Now, this doesn't mean there are different ways to be saved. Only by being born again of the Spirit of God through faith in Jesus Christ is a person saved. However, because of poor understanding of the problem between man and God (spiritual death) and God's solution to that problem (the restoration of His life), combined with our own understanding of scripture and personal beliefs, you can have different Gospels. You see it all throughout scripture, including having it directly mentioned by the Apostle Paul. Different gospels are best explained as people having bits and pieces of the full Gospel and proclaiming what they know, as well as straight up false teachers who pervert the truth for their own gain. False teachers aside, in the Bible you have people who believed a person had to become a Jew before they could get saved, some believed you had to be circumcised, others who had never heard of the resurrection, and so on. Today you have people who believe you have to be water baptized, speak in tongues or belong to a particular denomination in order to be saved. This doesn't mean that if you believe such things you aren't saved. God knows a person's heart and I trust He can make the determination as to who has truly turned to Him in faith. But, that doesn't mean that there isn't only one, true Gospel of Jesus Christ. Once you know and understand what that is, you will have no problem accepting and meeting the challenge to proclaim it, whether to atheists, or whoever you cross paths within your daily life.