Why Don’t Churches Preach the “Gospel”?
What IS the “Gospel”?
“Woe is Me if I do not preach the Gospel”
1 Cor 9:16
What is the Gospel?
Does preaching the gospel mean that we tell people they “must make a decision for Jesus Christ”? How can we “make a decision for Jesus Christ” when “all our righteousness is like filthy rags”? When there are “none righteous, no not one”?
When God says,“Look to Me, and be saved. . .” (Isa 45:22)
Getting saved is God’s sovereign work. We are condemned to salvation through the Cross of Christ because He died to “take away the sin of the world” (John 1:29) not just the sin from SOME people in the world.
In Timothy 4:2 we are told,
“Preach the word!”
The purpose of Pentecost was not to teach the disciples something, but to make them the incarnation of what they preached so that they would literally become God’s message in the flesh – as Christ was.
“. . . you shall be witnesses to Me. . .” Acts 1:8
Before God’s message can liberate other people, His liberation must first be real to you. When that happens, we will be unable to refrain from Preaching the Gospel because,
“He that believeth on Me, as the Scripture hath said, Out of his belly (heart) shall flow rivers of living water.” John 7:38
The men and women God uses to preach the Gospel are those in whom He has done everything. They have done nothing for themselves, “lest any man should boast.” Eph 2:9
“Grace” does not mean unmerited favor, as the churches like to teach, as though we don’t “deserve” to be saved because we’re so vile. God doesn’t look at us that way any more than we would look at our stumbling one year old child as he tries to walk. God did not create humanity, and then sit back in ignorance wondering how it would all turn out. Nor did He purposely decide in advance that the majority of the human beings (His children) whom He would create would turn out to be a failure that He would have to burn in hellfire.
“Grace” means Jesus Christ does it all. He brings enough trouble (fire) into our life that we finally become humble enough to understand our own poverty and destitution. Eventually we realize there is no place to turn but to Jesus Christ. He can only help us – when we are helpless. We must give up our right to ourselves, and give it over to God.
God does NOT “help those who help themselves.” That phrase is not in the Bible. It is often attributed to Benjamin Franklin, a member of the Hellfire Club (an Illuminati group), but the phrase originated much earlier, in ancient Greece.
God helps those who have finally given up on trying to help themselves, those who have finally given up on running their own life, and have given their life to God.
We are told to,
“Preach upon the housetops.” Matt 10: 27, and
“Don’t put the light of your candle under a bushel basket, but on a candlestick so it gives light unto all that are in the house.” Matt 5:15
The literal meaning of the word Gospel is Good News.”
So exactly what is this “Gospel” we are supposed to preach with such fervor?
Is it “Good News” that God created billions of people, most of whom, will be destroyed in hellfire?
Is it that God didn’t really have a Plan when He created the earth, and most of humanity will turn out to be failures?
Is the “Good News” that when Jesus died on the Cross, He was hoping He could save a lot of people, but certainly not everyone? In other words, “He died for ALL” – but He won’t be successful in “saving ALL.”
Is it “Good News” for those who are “in the church” who believe they will be saved, and care nothing for those who are “lost” BECAUSE “They had their chance and they made the wrong choice”?
Until the salvation of everyone in the world is as important to you as your own salvation, you are NOT safe to save – because you do NOT have the “heart” of Jesus Christ.
Obviously, none of those options are “Good News” to humanity, and certainly cannot be “Good News” to God.
So, what IS the “Good News”?
God DID have a Plan before He created the earth – a Plan for every single person that would live on the earth. He tells us in Luke 14:28:
“For which of you, intending to build a tower, does not sit down first and count the cost, whether he has enough to finish it. . .”
Jesus did “count the cost” before He created humanity. “The cost was those thirty years in Nazareth, those three years of popularity, scandal, and hatred, the unfathomable agony He experienced in Gethsemane, and the assault upon Him at Calvary – the central point upon which all of time and eternity turn. Jesus Christ has counted the cost. In the final analysis, people are not going to laugh at Him and say, “This man began to build and was not able to finish.” Luke 14:28 O Chambers, May 7
Obviously, Jesus had worked it all out from beginning to end.
So what is His Plan? What is the Good News of His Plan?
We are told in 1 Timothy 4:10 and 11:
“For therefore we both labour and suffer reproach, because we trust in the living, God, who is the Savior of ALL MANKIND, especially (not ONLY) of those who believe.
“These things command and teach.”
God tells us in His word that we are to “teach” that “God is the Savior of ALL mankind.” And He can’t be someone’s “Savior” if He doesn’t save them.
“I came not to judge the world, but to save it (the whole world.” John 12:47
“Behold, I make ALL new.” Rev 21:5
There shall be a “restitution of ALL: which “God hath spoken by the mouth of all His holy prophets since the world began.” Acts 3:21
“ALL creation, which now groans, shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God.” Roman 8:19-23
“God was in Christ reconciling the world unto Himself.” 2 Cor 5:19
“As in Adam ALL die, even so in Christ shall ALL be made alive.” 1 Cor 5:22
“That in the name of Jesus, every knee shall bow, of things in heaven, and things on earth, and things under the earth; and that every tongue shall confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” Phil 2:10,11
“God WILL have all men to be saved, and come to the knowledge of the truth.” 1 Tim 2:1-6
Behold, the Lamb of God, who TAKES AWAY the sin of the WORLD.” John 1:29
“And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, WILL draw ALL unto Me.” John 12:32
“God is Love” (1 John 4:16) and “Love Never Fails.” 1 Cor 13:8
“Is anything too hard for the Lord?” Gen 18:14
“The Lord is not willing that ANY should perish, but that ALL should come to repentance.” 2 Peter 3:9
Universal Restoration
Universal Restoration is the belief that God eventually is going to save everyone, as He states repeatedly in His Word, but only after each person has reaped what he has sown. God will save them FROM their sins, not IN their sins.
“God will not be mocked. Whatsoever a man sows, that shall he also reap.” Gal 6:7
(Universalism is the belief that God is going to save people IN their sins, not FROM their sins.)
Everyone who loves the Lord will have to admit that IS Good News – in fact, the Best News in the world, that God IS going to save everyone, eventually. No one will be destroyed in a literal hellfire, although God will test us with “fiery trials.”
If you think that is “too good to be true,” then why does the Lord say the following?
“Now unto Him who is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think. . .” Eph 3:2
Again, “Is there anything too hard for the Lord?” Gen 18:14
The churches do NOT preach the “Gospel”
It is clear that the churches are not preaching the Gospel, nor do they ever intend to preach the true Gospel – the Good News that God is going to save everyone – because it’s not good for Business.
If everyone, eventually, is going to be saved whether or not they’re a member of a church, and if there’s no hellfire, then how can people be frightened into joining the “church”?
The doctrines of Hellfire and Selectivity (you’re “saved” if you’re in the church) are great marketing tools, but they are not in the Bible. God is “no respecter of persons.” Acts 10:34 He loves everyone the same.
You win some: you lose some
In this carnal world, man always thinks there must be winners and losers. But in God’s Kingdom, there will be no “losers” because God is not a “Loser.”
He would be the Biggest Loser of All if He were unable to accomplish what He set out to do: to Save the Whole World!
“God is NOT WILLING that ANY should perish (be lost), but that ALL should come to repentance.” 2 Peter 3:9
It is God’s WILL that ALL will be Saved!
How wonderful it would be if the churches decided to
“Preach the Gospel!”