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The Many and the Few
- 02/14/11
- 24
This weekend I spent a little bit of time reflecting on a couple of seemingly random books: Michael Horton’s Christless Christianity and Rick Warren’s The Purpose of Christmas. But they’re not random—they are in many ways books that approach an issue from opposite directions.
Throughout his book, Horton emphasizes the importance and transcendence of the gospel message--the pure, undefiled simplicity of the gospel. Warren, on the other hand, obscures that message with talk of purpose and rash generalizations about the nature of a person's relationship with God (though, thankfully, the heart of the gospel message is present despite that obscurity). Over the past couple of days I've found myself pondering the gospel message over and over again and asking myself why it is that this message is so unpopular even in Christian churches and among Christian authors. Why would an author or a pastor seek to soften the message?
I guess there is no great mystery here. Unbelievers hate the gospel message because it insists that things are true about them that they simply do not wish to believe. It insists things are true that they are unable to believe. The gospel message tells us that we are sinners. Many people are able to accept this information; only an incredibly dishonest and delusional person could pretend that he has done no wrong. The gospel message tells us that ultimately we have not sinned against others or against ourselves, but against God. This is more difficult to digest. Few of us care to think that we have sinned against the Creator of the world. The gospel goes on to tell us that our sin against God has offended him and filled him with wrath against us. Fewer people still are able to digest and accept this information. Few people are able to believe that God is justified in his wrath towards those who transgress his laws. But the gospel reaches its ultimate offense when it tells us that we are utterly unable to do anything about all of this. None of our deeds, however noble and good, are able to make the least dent in the debt we owe to God. Furthermore, none of us would pursue any kind of reconciliation with God were it not for his prior action in our hearts. We are, in our heart of hearts, God-haters. Without God's grace we are helpless and hopeless.
This is some exceedingly bad news. And this is why so many churches seek to soften the news. It's better, they think, to welcome into church the many people who will accept a softened message than the few who will accept such a tough message. And so they tamper with it, taking the edge off. Yes, we have sinned, but let's think of it as just doing bad things or making mistakes. And though God has noticed these mistakes, he is willing and eager to overlook such offenses. What kind of Father would he be if he really insisted that we face eternal damnation for some mistakes? Soon the message is watered down into watery, tasteless baby food. Having covered this not-too-bad news, these pastors and authors offer good news. If you turn to God, you can have your best life now. He will bless you richly, giving you all the things you want and need. He will make your life better and promise you the reward of heaven where you will be reunited with all of the people and the things you held dear here on earth.
There is, of course, a direct correlation between the weakness of the bad news and the weakness of the good news. The weaker we make the bad news, the weaker is the good news in comparison. The badder the bad, the gooder the good (and I apologize to my English teachers for that sentence)! When we understand--truly understand--the precariousness of our position; when we understand just how badly we have offended God and how we justly deserve his wrath, the good news becomes so much sweeter. Gone is the man-centered view of the benefits of God's salvation and in its place arises an understanding that the greatest benefit of salvation is Christ himself! Rick Warren presents the benefits of being reconciled to God primarily in terms of personal benefit. "Wrapped up in Jesus are all the benefits and blessings mentioned in this book--and so much more! In Jesus, your past is forgiven, you get a purpose for living, and you get a home in heaven." All of these things are amazing, but they pale in comparison to Christ himself. John Piper says it well. "The critical question for our generation--and for every generation--is this: If you could have heaven, with no sickness, and with all the friends you ever had on earth, and all the food you ever liked, and all the leisure activities you ever enjoyed, and all the natural beauties you ever saw, all the physical pleasures you ever tasted, and no human conflict or any natural disasters, could you be satisfied with heaven, if Christ was not there?"
Good news is only good in relation to what is bad. If we soften the bad news, we necessarily soften the good news. Our job is not to analyze the news we are called to herald to the world. Faithfulness to God requires faithfulness to the message--the whole message. We dare not soften the bad news; we dare not lessen the offense of the cross. Instead we preach the message faithfully and fully, letting people see first the depth of their debt to God and then the unsurpassed worth and beauty of Christ.
I am a follower of Jesus Christ, a husband to Aileen and a father to three young children. I worship and serve as a pastor at 
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Comments (24)
Excellent.
I like how Mark Dever puts it:”You will never find out how much God is till you realize how much you are not.”
Thanks again for your ministry, Tim.
Good thoughts. I read Horton’s book. Good book.
Rick “deeds not creeds” Warren hinders the Gospel, more than he helps it go forth.It’s the pragmatic gospel. Jesus died for your problems, and will fix them, if you accept Him, which he is longing for you to do by the way. So please accept him, won’t you. Of maybe you could fake it until you make it.
Wonderful post Tim! Amen!:-)
So is the issue Me loving God, or God loving Me?
Tim:
Thanks for your thoughts. Until the realities you describe in your third paragraph are understood, the true and full Gospel will not presented.
I attribute much of the softening of the Gospel to the extreme lack of expository preaching. Until Christians are fed a complete diet of Biblical Theology, they will be unprepared to profess a complete and genuine Gospel.
The question ending your fifth paragraph reminds me of Paul Washer’s remark that “most people want to go to heaven, as long as God ins’t there when they arrive.”
Hi Tim,
“Unbelievers hate the gospel message because it insists that things are true about them that they simply do not wish to believe. It insists things are true that they are unable to believe.”
Amen. And the unbeliever is both unable and unwilling to believe the gospel because it disrupts their self-absorption and self-preoccupations with themselves - the obsession that they are intrinsically good and noble and perfectly able to turn from their sin and evil heart at anytime. Our self-love IS the sickness, the cancer and the root blindness that we call unbelief.
Hi Jeremy, in answer to your questions: Yes.
Absolutely true! The better I know how truly awful my sin and I, the more I want my precious Christ. Love so amazing, so devine, demands my soul, my life, my all.
“Why would an author or a pastor seek to soften the message?”
I am convinced that we are in a spiritual battle and satan knows that the gimmicks of man cannot be substituted for the drawing power of God the Father.
John 6:44 No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him; and I will raise him up at the last day.
Tim,
I appreciated your analysis but did want to offer one caveat. I am not a fan of softening the message but I want to rejoice when the message of the gospel is proclaimed. Warren did not proclaim it the way you or I would have liked, but he proclaimed it and we should rejoice. That is the approach Paul took in Philippians 1:15-18 - “whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is proclaimed, and in that I rejoice.” My prayer is that God will take this book and “hit a straight lick with a crooked stick!”
Tim,About softening the message of the Gospel, check the lyrics for Michael Card’s song “Scandalon.”Peace
I needed this today, sir. Thank you for holding my feet to the fire.
Providential. This was a topic just yesterday and the Warren-ites went away unphased. My dear wife whispered to me, “This is a new legalism.” Clear teaching is set aside in favor of recruitment for “compassion ministries”. And those of us asking for solid teaching-food are told theat we’re “overfed” and that “it’s not about you.” Thank God for BSF.
I totally agree with what you have said; it is not that people are unable to believe they can be forgiven but that they don’t even know they need forgiveness. As a mother to three young children and in charge of our church’s VBS curriculum I wonder how to teach them that they, too, have “sinned against the creator of the world”? Are we teaching our young in the wrong order, Jesus died for you! (But why? they must wonder).
Michael, Paul is taking about people who preach faithfully from different motives, whether they preach Him out of envy and rivalry or good will. He is not talking about those who do not preach the Good News of Christ - he warns the Philippians against such people in 3:2 and calls them for what they are, saying: Look out for the dogs, look out for the evildoers, look out for those who mutilate the flesh.
Piper has always had a way of asking good questions such as the one mentioned in the main post.
“…[Rick] Warren…proclaimed it…”
Oh, you mean like when he told Alan Colmes to “try Jesus for 60 days”?
Or when he told Sean Hannity that the way to get to heaven is to “give as much of myself as I understand to as much of Jesus Christ as I understand at that moment and you keep growing in it.” Do we need a risen Savior for that? Good grief, it sounds like he’s channeling Professor Irwin Corey.
Or when he prayed (at one of our president’s pep rallies) in the name of “Isa”, which is a false jesus made up by the Mohammedans.
Shall I go on?
Every time I hear this man speak, he becomes a yoke factory: Law, law, law; and not good, convicting law.
Great post! Agreed with it entirely.
To add an other factor in answering your question:”Why would an author or a pastor seek to soften the message?”I would also add that most likely the pastor also doesn’t really, really believe the Gospel message.
We all get like this sometimes (for me, like every week). But then we hear the pure Gospel message preached in the power of its fullness and we remember again - the faith that saved us, what we believe and why we believe it, etc..
Which is why I usually like to ask who an author or preacher listens to and who he reads. Seems to me, Mr. Warren (by his own admission) is listening to and reading mostly secular influences.
Very well written…and your perceptions about why pastors soften the gospel are accurate, at least from my experience. I was in a church for years who refused to preach the gospel (omitting the bad news). When I began to study the bible (outside of my church), and the Lord opened my eyes to the truth about who He is, who I am, and what was accomplished for me on the cross, I couldn’t wait to share the good news, over and over! It was an ongoing, constant battle (and I did it with as much love and grace as I could). Very few people could bear to hear that they were not “inherently good” (much less powerless). If you can’t get past that, how can there be an understanding of the gospel? There was conversation in Sunday School classes (supposed scripturally-based) of dropping “offensive” words such as “saved” in the teaching….I saw that as long as the gospel message was not being preached from the pulpit, I was not going to make a difference. So, I left - heartbroken and grief-stricken. The Lord led me to a gospel-centered church, and I am so thankful! It didn’t take long to see that -without realizing it - rather than leading others to the the gospel of grace, by staying to “make a difference”, I had strayed away from it - the enemy is subtle….lesson learned, thanks be to God! That was a little over a year and a half ago, and now hearing it preached from the pulpit and driving everything that is done in our church, I am growing more and more in awe of my Savior! I could not be more thankful for preachers who faithfully proclaim the entire gospel — the power of God to salvation for those who believe!!!!
The real issue here is that the gospel with the clear idea of our sinfulness left in is a stumbling block. If we want to please everyone or even most of the people most of the time we will try to soften it. Underlying this is the idea that we can serve Christ and still be respected by the world. This is not what Christ said would happen (John 15:18-21). But I think many times we are hanging on to the old days when Christianity was respected in Western Civilization, rather then accepting we are Christians in a pagan culture and building from there.
We’ve been members of one of the largest evangelical churches in the nation (perhaps the largest in the southeast) for the last six years and have recently been struggling with what seems to be a good motivational / self-help message without Jesus. It’s very disappointing, considering the church’s mission statement.
Not only are we struggling with that, but we’re struggling with what seems to be an over compensation by the seeker-sensitive churches to appease the “unchurched” by openly supporting liberal social causes or giving liberal political figures a platform for a “non-political” social causes such as childhood obesity. And when you challenge the decision, you’re met with, “How dare you, Pharisee!”
Ben,
I couldn’t disagree with you more. What constitutes as a faithful presentation of the gospel? How about:
“You can decide to keep living a self-centered life, separated from God, or you can choose to turn your mind and heart from going your own way to following Jesus (that’s called repentance). Then ask for forgiveness for all your sins, and put your trust in God’s Son, Jesus, and what he has already done for you!”
That sure sounds like the message of the gospel to me. It comes from page 83 of Warren’s book. As for Paul, his concern was that the message of the gospel was proclaimed. Warren’s motives (secular acceptance, seeker sensitivity, softness, etc.) aside, this is the gospel written down and I think Paul would rejoice.
Amen. It is the gospel, the good news what we should be preaching. Not a watered-down version, but the real thing with all the ugly details we don’t like.
Michael,Your example from Warren’s writing is not untrue, but it still lacks a focus on the Gospel Message itself, which is not what we need to do so much as what God has done for us and is doing in us. As is typical, Warren focuses too much on the me and you, instead of the Him part of the message.
Many comments on this thread about the Good News seem to show only one aspect of the Good News. Jesus seemed to have a different idea of what the Good News was in Luke 4:18, when he quoted Isaiah:
18 “The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor.He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind,to set the oppressed free, 19 to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”
Tim, I am a dedicated reader and a big fan. With that said, I simply cannot understand your animosity towards Rick Warren. This is not the first post of yours that i have read where you put him down and belittle his message. I do not see how you can label him a proponent of the “prosperity gospel”. I have read several of his books and frankly I have been fed by them.
I think we have to keep in mind who Rick’s target audience is.. the unbeliever or immature Christian. Even Paul changed his message depending on his audience (1 corinthians 3:1-2). You say Warren’s message is like baby food, well so was Paul’s on occasion! I applaud you for your zeal but I think you wrongly assume that all Christians are at your level of spirituality. Yes, Christians need to understand the full weight of what they are believing but I do believe that it is a journey and Christ is leading us step by step.
As Christians our greatest mission is to spread the good news not to perfect our faith (that is Christ’s job)! Whether you like it or not, Warren has done a tremendous job of spreading the Gospel! If I understand you right, maybe we should all just picket outside the mall with our signs that read “you are going to HELL!” I’m sure that will encourage a lot of people to find out who Jesus is..