03 January 2023
They've been told.
I'm sure God knew, but the Bible did not foresee a world where communications were ubiquitous. Corbett Report reviews the impact of communications; it's a sobering reminder of just how radically different our world today is from that of the New Testament times. But my point is that the Gospels all end with Jesus telling us to get out there and spread the message.
At least, that's how most church folks read it. The problem is that we are not in that first century context. The Bible does say spread the word, but it places that commission within the context of doing the Word first. Church folks aren't quite so good at that part. Yes, they talk about it endlessly, but they keep saying the wrong things about it. How often do you hear preachers talk about Covenant obligations and boundaries? When was the last time you heard a preacher or teacher suggest that, for example, you get only one shot at marriage? That's what Jesus and His Apostles taught, but we don't hear much about it these days.
Yet, we have all this noise about getting the message out there, as if there are people who've never heard. I'm willing to bet you cannot go out and find a single human on this planet who hasn't at least become familiar with one version of the gospel message. If they've got cellphones, they've seen/heard it. The problem is that it's always wrapped in terms that miss what Jesus actually said. Nobody talks about His Covenant.
Worse, it's always wrapped in western culture. In the minds of most humans on this planet, Christianity cannot be separated from western culture. To them, it's a single package, and they got that impression because western evangelicals themselves are completely pickled in that assumption. Thus, the real problem is that the world has heard the western neo-liberal "gospel" and are convinced that means they've heard about Jesus. Yes, even the most "conservative" churches are embracing the underlying principles of neo-liberalism.
It won't matter if you are among the Elect; if you don't embrace the Covenant of Christ, you don't know Him very well. You are not supposed to share ideas, but a Person. You need to know Jesus Himself so that you can share Him with your world. And because the ground has been plowed and seeded with cultural crap, the name of Jesus has been turned into a lie. The crop is worthless.
Yes, they've heard, but what they've heard is a lie. So, the emphasis for us today is no longer getting the message out there. We would have to tear it all down and change the message radically in terms of publicity, and that would be impossible. We won't do it with a countering publicity campaign. We already have a very high saturation of competing gospels out there, all claiming to be the exclusive truth. The only hope we have is to live the Covenant first, and then, when the Lord uses us to get someone's attention, we correct the lies. We have to trust His selection process, and that's also part of the gospel commission.
So, let me do you a favor: You have no obligation to publish the gospel. That is, within our context today, the false evangelistic push should just roll off your back. Don't buy into the guilt trip. You don't need the "Roman Road" or the "Four Spiritual Laws" or whatever, and you don't need to knock on doors or stand on public street corners yelling at passing cars. Indeed, you cannot share the Covenant gospel until the Lord opens the door. I'm not going to promote the "missionary" emphasis of church institutions. We aren't growing an empire of people; there's no franchise involved. The issue is not "getting saved" and carrying your holy fire insurance in your pocket. Stop the sales pitch. The issue is obeying the Covenant; that's the only way you can spread the word in our world today.
This is not the time to "spread the gospel" because that mission has been preempted. Rather, we have a massive job cleaning up a big mess and portraying the Covenant life of faith.
This document is public domain; spread the message.