The Partial Gospel

Apostasy in the Church Part 7

……By Jim Allen……Grace is a theological word we often toss around without thinking too much about what it means. Although many of us give lip service to understanding grace, we barely know what it is, what it does, or why anyone would want or need it. Evangelicals agree grace is unmerited favor from God and that He is dealing with us favorably because He is good, kind, and gracious. Grace is time for us to sort things out regarding personal accountability to Him. God is calling us out from darkness into His marvelous light (1 Peter 2:9). For some evangelicals who have stepped into the light, they are using their time of grace to sort out (what they decree as) bad doctrine from good doctrine. Accordingly, they have crafted another gospel that is unrecognizable to the faithful and useless to everyone else. While this modern, partial gospel looks and sounds good, it is a Trojan horse on wheels with its “deadly cargo” hidden inside. With church doors swung wide open, evangelicals have rolled the wooden gift on wheels into the church unaware of what they have done, wholly unmindful of the darkness and deception they have unleashed.……Although the modern, partial gospel has been around for a while and has since mutated into many forms, I first learned about it during the 1990's while researching the Alpha Course and Promise Keepers movement. Hidden within the partial gospel's framework is "easy believism," which is nothing more than a slick marketing maneuver to repackage the gospel in a way that makes Jesus easy to receive and a blessing to follow. Interestingly, a common thread running throughout these mutated, partial gospels is the single objective to reduce Jesus' priestly role as "Savior and Lord" to a moral example for all to follow. These mistaken evangelicals reprehensibly glossed over, with full intent, foundational truths they believe downbeat and antiquated. They share, so it would seem, the single objective of making church a “seeker-friendly haven” for all. Motivated by misguided principles, they set out to make attending church an "all positive experience" by getting rid of the law and any other doctrine deemed offensive, and herein lies the partial gospel. The apostle Paul said of this matter, "Therefore the law was our tutor to bring us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith. But after faith has come, we are no longer under a tutor (Galatians 3:24-25)."……Ironically, what these evangelicals fail to understand is that the law is both a compass pointing people to God's holy and righteous nature and a road map leading lost souls to the foot of the Cross. Believers who understand the need for the law in the process of sharing the gospel are those who have met the tutor face-to-face and know first hand the agony of coming to grips with "who and what" they are without Christ. The apostle Paul said, "├ö├ç┬¬For godly sorrow produces repentance leading to salvation (2 Corinthians 7:10). While born-again believers no longer need the law, and are no longer under the law, there are those in the church who do need the law. If anything, the partial gospel is a strong sedative to keep the unregenerate in a deep slumber, apathetic to the call to wake up and come into the light.……Evangelicals who insist on a modern, partial gospel without the law are preaching a dead gospel in a dead church. The loudness of the worship music and ranting of the preacher are not signs of life nor of the anointing. Jesus is not looking down kindly on dead churches, given they do more harm than good. In fact, Jesus severely rebuked the church of Sardis when he said, "├ö├ç┬¬I know your works, that you have a name that you are alive, but you are dead (Revelation 3:1). To carry this thought a little further and to make my point about the partial gospel, try to imagine the world of professionals who work with dead people every day. Morticians who prepare bodies for burial have some interesting facts to share about dead people. Rich Mabof told about one of these facts when he wrote, "(2)Often while preparing a corpse for burial, air trapped in the lungs can escape and in the process vibrate the vocal cords producing a frightening postmortem sigh." Although a frightening event, evangelicals who share visions for a lawless, partial (all positive) gospel are producing walking zombies with postmortem sighs.………To continue reading about The Partial Gospel and how to avoid it, click here.……In my next and last post in this series of eight, I want to talk about The True Gospel and how to discern it from the many false gospels.