Let me begin with this question: Is the Gospel you believe the true Biblical gospel - or for those of you who have been skeptical about God and Jesus and the Church and Christianity and all that...is the Gospel message actually the true Biblical Gospel? Or have we either put our faith in, or have outright rejected, something that we have actually very different...something we have MISUNDERSTOOD?
That’s an important question to ask. British theologian J.I. Packer made an assessment of modern Christianity and said this: “There is no doubt that evangelicalism today is in a state of perplexity and unsettlement and if we go to the root of the matter, we shall find that these perplexities are all ultimately due to our having lost our grip on the Biblical Gospel without realizing it.” He goes on to say that in the 20th Century, over time, we Christians traded the Biblical Gospel for a substitute. Now the substitute LOOKS similar...there are points here and there that RESEMBLE the Biblical Gospel message...but because it doesn’t actually produce a deep reverence, a deep repentance, and a deep humility. In other words, today’s Christianity may be informational and even inspirational, but because it is NOT God-centered and God-glorifying, it will never be TRANSFORMATIONAL as God designed it to be.
