"Upon a life I did not live, Upon a death I did not die,
Another's life, Another's death, I stake my whole eternity"

"I declare to you the gospel which I preached to you, which also you received and in which you stand, by which also you are saved, if you hold fast that word which I preached to you -- unless you believed in vain.  For I delivered to you first of all that which I also received: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day.... He was seen by over five hundred brethren at once...."

1 Corinthians 15:1-10

The gospel is the "good news" of the historical event of Christ's death, burial, and resurrection -- all for our salvation.

   But today there is a growing counterfeit gospel.

In the place of the cross, many popular churches are celebrating their visible "good deeds" -- the kind of "works" and ethical living that draw man's applause, not God's approval. [Galatians 1:10]

  One well known pastor summarized it well:

       "The first Reformation was about belief; this one's going to be about behavior.... The first one was about creeds; this one's going to be about our deeds. The first one divided the church; this time it will unify the church."

This new "reformation" focuses on human goodness and ignores human depravity. It leads to pride and blindness, not humility and repentance. It assures sinners that their good deeds merit God's approving smile, while it hides their actual need for the cross.
But Jesus told His followers that "repentance and remission of sins should be preached in His name 'to all nations'" (Luke 24:47)  Are we ready to "obey God rather than man"? Acts 5:29

Only because He took my sins to the cross and joined me to Himself could I ever be such a witness. Only because my life is forever "hidden in Him" can I face each future challenge with confidence in His triumph! For -                    

"I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me:
and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me." Galatians 2:20

From many directions, the Cross of Christ is once again under growing attack:

 1. Dr. Jeffrey Philip Hywel John, an Anglican priest in England, Dean of St. Albans, believes that the church's traditional understanding of the cross of Christ is both "repulsive" and "insane."

He says that pastors who preach that Christ was sent to earth to die in atonement for the sins of mankind are "making God sound like a psychopath",

        Dr. John continues: For me… this above all is the meaning of the Cross: that God is one with us in our    sufferings, and not just 2000 years ago but through all time…. On the cross God absorbs into himself our falleness and its consequences and offers us a new relationship. God shows he knows what it's like to be the loser; God hurts and weeps and bleeds and dies. 

Writing in The Guardian [London], Giles Fraser says,

“…the idea of God murdering his son for the salvation of the world is barbaric and morally indefensible. It turns Christianity into "cosmic child abuse".

_________________________

Tuesday, March 18, 2008

What is Oprah Teaching About the Death and Resurrection?

James Bell continued . . . Another's Live, Another's Death

Grace to all in Christ!   James Bell, Pastor of the Southside Baptist Church - Gallatin, TN   www.southsidegallatin.org

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