The Half-Gospel.

[mailmandan]

Thats because "religion: is not of God, its all from men, and men love following men, few willing to walk away from It all to follow Him. Narrow is the way few there find it.

 

[charity]

The problem doesn't lie with the wonderful provision of the true gospel. It's that people neglect so great a salvation because they are unwilling to pay the price. So people will settle for just the free and easy stuff....and ignore the full measure of grace. These will claim to have all the promises of God when they have very little indeed. Downgrading the gospel makes this seem right. But a sample of a product is not the same as having purchased the product itself.

So people are opportunists just looking for the free samples. And those samples are meant to taste and see that the Lord is good...so good that people forsake all things including their lives in order to enter into the kingdom life.

What we read about in the bible is the whole gospel...which is glorious.

But what we see in the modern churches is half a gospel. So unless people offer a false testimony you don't hear very much about the full victory over sin or the heavenly walk in Zion...to walk as Jesus walked. So then the faith that makes that possible is unacceptable to the free-loaders in the church. These function as unbelievers who claim to believe.

'And many other signs truly did Jesus
in the presence of His disciples,
which are not written in this book:
But these are written, that ye might believe
that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God;
and that believing
ye might have life through His name.'
(John 20:30-31)

Hello @Episkopos,

I have only now seen this response, which I thank you for.

In the wee small hours of last night I was thinking of how doctrine and practice go hand in hand and that both are needed for a balanced Christian life. In each of the epistles of Paul there is both doctrine and it's practical outworking. Never the one without the other.

However, when I was made aware of my condition before God, and therefore my need of a Saviour, I was made aware also of God's provision for my salvation, in the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ, through His death and resurrection. I prayed in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ that God would forgive my sin, and cleanse me from all unrighteousness, on the basis of Christ's one all-sufficient sacrifice for sin. That was all I knew at that time, but the seed had been sown, and the work of God began in me.

A drowning man knows his need of a Saviour and gratefully grasps hold of the one who has the power and means to save him, he doesn't stop to ask for the man's credentials. He learns all that there is to know about him after he is safely on solid ground. In the case of the one who is saved from his sin by God's grace, that solid ground is Christ as His foundation. He has passed from death to life. It is then that doctrine is received and acknowledged, and it's practical outworking begins in heart and life.

Thank you
In Christ Jesus
Chris

 

[Truman]

We were never called to build churches. Jesus said "I will build MY church."
So what are we building? We are to make disciples. But do we know what that looks like? Or are we so religious that we are unable to see beyond the physical world?

The gospel, the kingdom and the church are spiritual in nature. God is Spirit. They who seek to worship Him must do so in Spirit and truth.

And then there's what we do in the name of Jesus...things we are not competent to do...yet this is where we choose to put our focus.

Here is an excerpt from a book that is pertinent to the discussion.

"The church, as well, is understood by New Testament apostles and prophets as heavenly, something that is not of this world but which is being built by Jesus Christ in the heavenly realm. This reality is not able to be seen by the naked eye, only by eyes of faith. It is not and never has been something He is building on this earth, verifiable by any of our natural senses. That this is true is verifiable by our natural senses which can plainly see all the lovelessness, the judgment, the division, the hatred and the fleshly behavior that goes on within the earthly reflection of the heavenly reality.
Nothing done on this earth by any Christian or group of Christians will ever reflect perfectly the reality of what is being built by Jesus Christ in heaven.
The church being built by Jesus Christ is a beautiful bride, spotless, and wrinkle free, a church perfectly pleasing to its Lord. Obviously, there is no church on this earth that can make this claim, there never has been and never will be. This is only true of the church built by Christ.
Jesus said, 'I will build my church.' Only He can build it. Man cannot. Christ never commanded His disciples to build the church. Christians are called to serve Christ, and the works resulting from that true, abiding relationship, i.e., the fruit of that union, are the materials Christ uses to build His church in the heavenly places." Stuart W. Peterson The Agony of The Narrow Way

I used to say that the church was the people and not a building. Then I learned what the word church really meant. It means "a building of a lord." The word congregation is translated from the Greek word ekklesia. It was removed from scripture and replaced with the word church and this was done by the translators of the King James bible, A.K.A. the KJV. They did this 113 times. Due to its context, the word congregation was left 3 times.
The word congregation is about people. The word church is about a building. We are meant to minister to people, not a building. And yet I think there are very few people who don't know what I mean. Instead of helping build some guy's kingdom, we should be building each other up. Which, is God's Kingdom.
Instead, we are given 2-dimensional salvation or as you put it, the half-gospel. The false doctrine of instant sanctification is the work of the enemy. If he can't stop you from being saved he will try and stop you from maturing. Since his power is limited, he is very strategic about what he does.
Christian maturation is brought about by dying in Christ so He can live in us. "I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me." Galatians 2:20 NIV Shalom.