Week 11: A New and Improved Gospel

 

People get jaded with things as time passes.

A bottle of Horlicks not sporting the colourful “new and improved” label is slow to move off the shelf. The content may well remain the same; but the cosmetics are compelling.

Actresses past their prime resort to Botox or other means to freeze their facial muscles in order to remain relevant in the industry.

The Israelites liberated from Egypt did not take long to forsake Jehovah and go instead for a golden calf.

So, it is with religious faith.

While on the one hand, we see people content with conservatism, on the other, there is a whole new breed of people thirsting for something new, something different. The former group delights in singing songs like:

Tell me the old, old story
Of unseen things above,
Of Jesus and His glory,
Of Jesus and His love.
Tell me the story simply,
As to a little child,
For I am weak and weary,
And helpless and defiled.

That the 1866 hymn written as a poem by Katherine Hankey is still sung unchanged in churches today about a hundred and fifty years later, is testimony to the enduring quality of the old, old story.

Jonathan Aigner, writing in Patheos, fairly castigates Chris Tomlin for hybridizing old hymns and marketing them as new. According to him, Tomlin writes poor, theologically shaky, biblically nebulous texts that subvert, sentimentalize, steal, and are shady, wordy, as well as rhythmically obscure.

But we are digressing. What I want to focus on, is quite neatly encapsulate by Paul in 2 Timothy 4:

² Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all long suffering and doctrine.

³ For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears;

⁴ And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables.

The great apostle doing a review of the churches he planted  laments:

I am astonished that you are so quickly turning away from the one who called you into the grace of Christ for another gospel—Galatians 1:6

Yes, over time, people seek to bend the gospel to the mould of their contemporary world view. While you cannot fault the Hallelujahs and Amens that resound mainly from the non-mainline churches, it would be sad if they are merely used as fillers or stop-gaps while the preacher is groping around for the right words. Howsoever high you may jump in ecstasy, the real test is the depth of your faith.

ERWIN LUTZER, writing in Christianity.com talks about 5 false Gospels within the Evangelical Church:

1. The Gospel of Permissive Grace

2. The Gospel of Social Justice

3. The Gospel of New Age Spirituality

4. The Gospel of My Sexual Preference

and

5. The Gospel of Interfaith Dialogue

While some of the above may seem harmless on the surface, an in-depth study lays bare their doctrinal falsities. So even as we make some room for modernity of views and perspectives, we need to be cautious that these changes do not come at the cost of a sound and stable foundation. For

Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever (Heb. 13:8)

Talking quite acerbically about the entry of different gospels, Paul thunders (Galatians 1):

6 I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting him who called you in the grace of Christ and turning to a different gospel— 7 not that there is another gospel, but there are some who trouble you and want to pervert the gospel of Christ. 8 But even if we, or an angel from heaven, should preach to you a gospel contrary to that which we preached to you, let him be accursed. 9 As we have said before, so now I say again, If any one is preaching to you a gospel contrary to that which you received, let him be accursed.

Watch Johnny Cash and June Carter as they sing: “Gimme that Old Time Religion” and don’t miss the part about the uncompromising faith of Shadrach, Meshak and Abednego.