The Gospel In Ten Words? Try Paul’s.

Posted on July 1, 2013 by Pastor Foley

WLO_proclaimgospelIn an intellectual contest of sorts last summer, the Christian Century challenged contributors to “boil Christian proclamation down to just a few words”–seven to be exact–in venturing an answer to the question, What is the essence of the essence of Christianity? The contest produced a number of thoughtful and novel responses along with multiple echoes throughout the blogosphere, including Michael Horton reissuing the challenge to his own readers at The White Horse Inn. (Horton’s own entry is a nine word effort rooted in Romans 4:25: “Crucified for our sins and raised for our justification.”)

The novelty and appeal of summarizing the gospel in as few words as possible seems to show no signs of fading. Paul Ellis opts for ten words (Loved/forgiven/saved/union/ accepted/holy/righteous/died/new/royal), Dare2Share for six in an acronym in their million-hit YouTube video (God. Our. Sins. Paying. Everyone. Life.). Meanwhile, D.A. Carson tackles the whole Bible in 221 words.

Leave it to the Apostle Paul to sober us all up by noting in Galatians 1:8 that the cost of an inadequate entry in this contest–the price of novelty, as it were–is eternal condemnation. As the venerable Thomas Oden observes:

At the end of this journey I reaffirm solemn commitments made at its beginning:

  • To make no new contribution to theology
  • to resist the temptation to quote modern writers less schooled in the whole counsel of God than the best ancient classic exegetes
  • To seek quite simply to express the one mind of the believing church that has been ever attentive to the apostolic teaching to which consent has been given by Christian believers everywhere, always, and by all — this what I mean by the Vincentian method (Vincent of Lerins, comm., LCC [Library of Christian Classics] VII, pp. 37-39,65-74; for an accounting of this method see LG [The Living God (volume 1 of his systematic theology)], pp. 322-25,341-51)

I am dedicated to unoriginality. I am pledged to irrelevance if relevance means indebtedness to corrupt modernity. What is deemed relevant in theology is likely to be moldy in a few days. I take to heart Paul’s admonition: “But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel other than the one we preached to you, let him be eternally condemned! As we [from the earliest apostolic kerygma] had already said, so now I say again: If anybody is preaching to you a gospel other than what you accepted [par o parelabete, other than what you received from the apostles], let him be eternally condemned [anathema esto]!

So at the start of this month’s focus on the Work of Mercy of proclaiming the gospel we eschew originality, novelty, and creativity and recall that for the Apostle Paul the gospel was a specific message with specific content–not the essence of Christianity but rather the announcement of it, which he lays out soberly and in precise detail in 1 Corinthians 15:1-8:

Now, brothers and sisters, I want to remind you of the gospel I preached to you, which you received and on which you have taken your stand. By this gospel you are saved, if you hold firmly to the word I preached to you. Otherwise, you have believed in vain.

For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, and then to the Twelve. After that, he appeared to more than five hundred of the brothers and sisters at the same time, most of whom are still living, though some have fallen asleep. Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles, and last of all he appeared to me also, as to one abnormally born.

153 words in all, which means regrettably that there will be no free subscription to the Christian Century for Paul. But if you’re still in the mood for the gospel in ten words or less, here’s my own .zip file effort at remembering what Paul passed on as of first importance:

Gospel: Christ’s sin-atoning death, burial, and witnessed third-day resurrection, fulfilling scripture.

I can only hope that it strikes you as terribly uncreative.

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Video – The Link Between Healing And Holiness

Posted on June 28, 2013 by tdillmuth

Pastor Tim – To truly understand healing, we must understand that a major part of God’s healing process has to do with changing our character to match God’s character.  God makes us holy by changing our hearts and by changing our character to match His. It all starts with God, and God is the source of every step.

For all of the latest podcasts on Healing and Comforting and on past Works of Mercy visit our Seoul USA Podcast Page!

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Healing and God’s Word – The Holy Connection

Posted on June 26, 2013 by tdillmuth

Post by Pastor Tim – It’s hard to “do the word” of healing and comforting when your whole basis for healing is wrong.  To demonstrate that “wrong basis,” here are a few healing-related questions I’ve heard from Christians:

Does God give the gift of healing or not?

If so, how do I get it?

What words should I say when asking for healing?

Is there a correct method to use when asking for healing?

What amount of faith do I need to have to get healed?

If I believe it and say it, will it come true?

You might have noticed that these questions are extremely self-centered, rather than focused on the God who does the healing.  And there are three things that we at DOTW Church have been working on to correct these self-centered ideas on healing.

Change the way we read Scripture!

One of the main reasons that many Christians ask un-scriptural questions on healing is not because they don’t read the Bible, but rather because they don’t read the Bible with the proper perspective.  Overall, the Bible is the self-revelation of God and is intended to teach the readers about Him!  Often-times though, we read the Bible as if it is an instructional book on how we are to live.  A good example of this is Genesis 41-46.  John Walton, the author of The Bible Story Handbook says,

When we use a text such as Genesis 41-46 to teach that Joseph is a good example of how God wants us to treat others in a competitive situations, we violate the integrity of the narrative.  The students miss the central teaching of the narrative section, which concerns the providence of god.

When we approach healing passages such as John 9:1-7, Matthew 8:5-17 or Luke 8:43-48, we would benefit greatly from approaching these passages with the mindset that it teaches us something important about God.

Learn about God’s Character

When we read the Scriptures with that new perspective, we learn less about ourselves and more about God.  And one over-arching theme that we find in the Scriptures is that God is holy.  The word holy, as described by John Oswalt, was used to point out the “awesome, terrifying otherness of God.”  But it was also used to describe the ethical nature or character of God.  Thus, when we are called to be holy as God is holy, the Bible is referring to the fact that our behavior and character should model the character of God!

Salvation as Healing

In order to be holy as God is holy, we need a healing to take place within ourselves.  As Pastor Foley already pointed out, this is more than just a forgiveness of sins.  It is a healing and a transformation of our souls!  I saw the need for this in my eight year old daughter recently.  My daughter has trusted in Jesus and is great at confessing sins to God, but she shared with me that she is getting tired of confessing her sins to God and then doing those same sins over again afterwards.  I shared with her that God is faithful and just to forgive her of her sins, but that God has also promised to change her so that she won’t do those same sins anymore.

If we’ve missed or skipped any of the above points, then our ideas on healing are probably headed in the wrong direction.  And if we try to practice the Work of Mercy of healing and comforting with these ideas, then we are probably misrepresenting what the Scriptures really teach on healing.

So what can we practically do this month as it relates to healing and comforting?  Our family is spending some time praying the Scriptures.  We are praying the Psalms as a family during our regular prayer time and family worship time.  Praying our own prayers is important, but we want to take the focus off of ourselves and make our prayers centered on the character of God.  Most importantly, we hope to grow in our understanding of God, but also in our understanding of God’s healing.

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