Lie #1: The Gospel Goes Forth by Political Power
Lie #2: The Gospel of the Sinner’s Prayer
Lie #3: Prosperity and Power Prove the Gospel

It’s the Easter season, the fifty days in which Christians celebrate Jesus’ resurrection from the dead. The Acts of the Apostles, the “history book” of the New Testament, is remarkably consistent when it comes to conveying the core message of Christianity.

Jesus of Nazareth was the Son of God promised by the prophets, who was crucified, and who rose again. New life with God is now to be preached in his name to all nations.
But there are a lot of weeks in the church year, which means a lot of sermons to prepare, bible classes to teach, small group topics to cover, and themes to expound on.

”Christ has died, Christ is risen, and Christ will come again” can’t be all there is to this new life with God, can it? It’s not difficult when walking the way of this new life to miss the narrow path, and to pass by the narrow gate (Matthew 7:13-14). Soon, we’re teaching things and saying things that have gotten pretty far afield.

A few days ago I came across a video called “Three Lies of the Modern Church.” You can watch the video at the bottom of the post. Since the speaker in the video is from the Anabaptist tradition, I passed it on to “Peace Pastor” and suggested we both reflect on it together. Although we come from two different wings of the Reformation, we agree with the speaker that these are three significant “false paths” down which too many Christians are walking. Whether we agree on how to get back on track may be a matter for debate!

Lie #1: The Gospel Goes Forth by Political Power
In other words, as the speaker puts it, too many Christians believe “The Gospel can be brought forth in nations by politics.” Jeffersonians might call this an issue of the separation of church and state. Lutherans call this “confusing the two kingdoms.” It results when Christians confuse the power, authority, and purposes of earthly government with the power, authority and purposes of the Church.

God rules through the former in a hidden way, restraining evil and promoting good. God rules openly through Christ in the latter, forgiving sins and proclaiming eternal life. Earthly governments are institutions of law. The Church exists to proclaim the Gospel. As a Lutheran, even a conservative one, I agree that too many Evangelicals spend too much time worrying about the kingdoms of this world.

But as a Lutheran I also carefully distinguish between God’s law, which describes sin, and the Gospel, which proclaims forgiveness. The Sermon on the Mount is mostly law, seen from a human point of view. It is predominantly Jesus’ exposition of the 10 Commandments. Jesus shows us what we would look like if we were holy. It reveals the kind of perfect holiness that God expects from us (Matthew 5:48). But we cannot become these people apart from God in Christ (Matthew 19:26). Our speaker calls this law “the Gospel,” which it really is not.

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