Let's Start at The Beginning

"In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth." Genesis 1:1

"The earth is the Lord's and everything in it, the world and all who live in it." Psalm 24:1

I remember hearing a story about Vince Lombardi walking into the Green Bay Packer's locker room after a very disappointing and embarrasing loss. He said, "Men, we are going back to the basics." He held up an object and said, "This is a football."

While obviously the packers knew what a football is, it was apparent to Coach Lombardi that some important fundamentals had somehow gotten missed. Rather than simply try to determine where things had gone wrong, he decided to go back to the beginning, reestablesh the basic foundations and learn how to play the game all over again.

I believe we as the church in the 21st century have a similar problem. In spite of the fact that we have many who identify as born again Christians and are faithful church attendees, there seems to be an underlying feeling that something is wrong. In large part, we don't look much different than the rest of the world. We have missed some important fundamentals along the journey. Rather than try and figure out where we went off track maybe we should go back to the very basics.

The Bible

The Bible is not a book. It is a collection of 66 books contained in two volumes. The first volume is called The Old Testament and contains 39 books. There were more than 30 different authors who penned the books over more than 1,000 years. Many of the books were collected long after they were written. That means that the authors would have had no opportunity to collaborate on their material. Yet the thread of the Old Testament is very consistant which points to a single divine author...God himself. 2 Timothy 3:16 says:

"All scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness."

Keep in mind that when Paul wrote 2 Timothy there was no New Testament. So this is talking about the Old. God himself is the author

The New testament contains 27 books by 9 different authors. It was written within a 50 year period of time and most of the authors did know each other although it is not clear whether everyone knew everyone. This means it is possible that some authors relied on each other but not entirely. The apostle Paul did know Mark, Luke, Peter and James. But it is not known if he Knew Matthew, John or Jude or the anonymous writer of Hebrews.

The Bible is the inspired word of God. It not only contains the Gospel, IT IS THE GOSPEL. If you leave out parts of the message of scripture you have missed the fulness of the gospel.

The Gospel Begins...at The Beginning.

When Paul preached the gospel to the people in Athens (Acts 17:16-34) he started with creation. Typically when he preached to the Jews he began with Jesus as the fulfillment of the Old Testament. The reason he didn't begin with creation is because the Old Testament, which his Jewish audience was already familiar with, begins with creation.

In order to properly understand the gospel it is absolutely essential that we understand that the savior who died for the sins of mankind is the same one who spoke all of creation into existance. Colosians 1:16 says that all things were created by him and FOR him. This means that we belong to him and we are completely obligated to him. As Lord of all, he has every right to demand perfect obedience from us.

When Jesus came the first time, the people were expecting a conquering king. Instead they got a suffering servant. In our modern church age, we have gotten so familiar with the images of the baby Jesus in the manger, Jesus holding the children, washing his disciples feet, not to mention all of the images and statues of him on the cross, that we have forgotten that he is the God of all creation. And when he returns he will be the conquering king.

The Fall

It has been conventional wisdom to tell new believers to begin reading their Bible starting with the gospel of John. I believe it may be better to start with the first three chapters of Genesis (preferably through chapter six) and then begin reading John's gospel. In order to truly understand the good news of the gospel, one must first understand the bad news. We need to understand where everything went wrong. Genesis one tells us that God created everything by simply speaking them into existance. Chapter two tells us that the first humans were given three commands: 1. Be fruitful and multiply, 2. Take care of the garden, and 3. They were told not to eat of the Tree of The Knowledge of Good and Evil. Chapter 3 tells us that man violated the command of God and ate the forbidden fruit. 

Many people who believe they will get to heaven because they have been 'good people' would do well to remember that all it took for man to be banished from the presence of God was to eat a piece of fruit. That is how serious sin is. By the time anyone is old enough to read this they have commited enough sins to condemn the entire world several times over. 

By the time we get to Genesis 6 the situation had become so bad that God decided that he was going to have to start over with just a handful of people. In verse 5 it says:

The Lord saw how great man's wickedness on the earth had become, and that every inclination of his heart was only evil all the time."

Now you might be thinking, there are a lot of good people in the world. There a few reasons for this. After the flood we see the institution of laws to govern human behavior. Immediately after the flood in Genesis 9:6 God issued this edict: 'Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed." This would serve as a deterent to mankind destroying himself. Law was and is necessary to control human nature but that is all it can do. It cannot change man's inherent sinfulness. Law is like putting a lion in a cage. You can prevent a lion from killing other animals but it won't change the nature of a lion. And if the cage is removed the lion will immediately try to kill and eat another animal. It is the same way with man's sinful nature. We see that in our society as the restraints are being removed and things that were once considered deviant are now considered the norm.

Another reason there are so many good people is because we, in the western world are reeping the benefits of a long legacy of Christian values. By the time the last disciple of Jesus had gone on to his reward the gospel had taken a stronghold through much of Southern Europe. That means we have had nearly 2,000 years of the gospel influencing civilization. In The United States, the vast majority of our founding fathers were Christians and many of our oldest institutions, hospitals and universities were founded by Christians. When missionaries travel to places where there has been no Judeo/Christian influence often the people live like savages. Human depravity.

God sets the standard and God IS the standard

The biggest reason we perceive so much goodness in people is because we are defining what is 'good' by our own standards rather than God's standard. Isaiah 64:6 says that all of our righteousness is like filthy rags. When Isaiah saw the Lord in the temple he was immediately aware of his own sinfulness (Isaiah 6:5). Peter had a very similar experience when he met Jesus; "Go away from me Lord' I am a sinful man." (Luke 5:8) There is no reason to believe that either Isaiah or Peter were particularly sinful. Acts 10:14 gives evidence that Peter had adhered to the law very strictly. But when faced with the perfect holiness of God, they became aware of their inherent sinfulness. This is the reason the people wanted Jesus crucified. He exposed sinfullness. 

In an effort to be relevant to the culture we have allowed the world's systems to shape our definition of good rather than stand on God's word. Often that means we have allowed the world's philosophies to shape our theology. We have become very accepting of behaviors that the Word of God declares as sinful. 

"Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter." (Isaiah 5:20)

We as followers of Christ must have this truth completely settled: 

THE CULTURE IS NOT RELEVANT!!! THE CHURCH IS THE ONLY THING THAT IS RELEVANT!   
The only thing in this present world that is going to outlast the world is the church and we would do well to remember that. If we align ourselves with the world and it's philosophies we will likely perish with the world. The message the early church preached was one of warning:

"With many other words he warned them; and he pleaded with them, 'Save yourselves from this corrupt generation.' " (Acts 2:40)

In the words of Dr. Martin Lloyd Jones, "The gospel has but one message for the unrepentant sinner, judgment awaits." On that day when we stand before God none of our opinions and ideas will matter. The only thing that will matter will be if we had surrendered our lives to Jesus Christ as our savior. That means surrendering our personal opinions about right and wrong. What we may think about sexual orientation, gender identity and sanctity of life won't matter.
"There is a way that seems right to a man, but in the end it leads to death."  Proverbs 14:12

To wrap this up, I want to address some objections:
A good God would never send people to hell.
If God is good, why is there so much evil.
I will finish by quoting what the apostle Paul said in Romans 9:20: "But who are you O man to talk back to God? Shall what is formed say to him who formed it, 'Why did you make me like this?' Does not the potter have the right to make out of the same lump of clay some pottery for noble purposes and some for common use?"
God isn't running a democracy. He doesn't ask for our opinions and he doesn't need to. He has every right to expect perfect obedience from us because we belong to him. The question is whether or not we will submit to his authority or not.

The good news

When we understand that God is completely sovereign in his power and authority, we also realize that he would be completely justified if he judged all of us guilty and condemned us for all eternity. That is what makes grace so amazing. He made a way possible for us to be saved. Romans 10:9 says, "If you confess with your mouth, 'Jesus is Lord,' and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved." Confessing Jesus is Lord is not simply stating a nice sentiment. In Rome of Paul's day you would be putting your life on the line to make such a statement because only Ceasar was Lord. This means complete submission to the Lordship of Jesus Christ in your life. Thanks be to God that he did make way possible for us to be saved.
May God richly bless all of you.

The Christian Mandate to Expose Heresy and Heretics

'"I urge you brothers, to watch out for those who cause divisions and put obstacles in your way that are contrary to the teaching you have learned. Keep away from them. For such people are not serving our Lord Christ but their own appetites. By smooth talk and flattery they decieve the minds of naive people." Romans 16:17

Often we hear about how the modern church lacks the power that the early church had as recorded in the New Testament. It is true, The Holy Spirit was moving powerfully among the brothers in the early church. There is something else I have noticed as I read through the New Testament. Much of what the apostles wrote was in defence of the truth of the gospel and refuting false teachings. Paul exhorted Timothy to teach what he had been taught and told him of the future time:

"For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear." 2 Timothy 4:3

Because of this it is absolutely vital that we preach the gospel and teach sound doctrine accurately. Often that means we need to expose heresies and those who are preaching them. Paul called out Demas and Alexander in 2 Timothy 4 and the apostle John called out Diotrephes in 3 John 9. We need to start calling out the heretics and start naming names.

Paul said that people would surround themselves by MANY teachers. Jesus also said there would be MANY false teachers (Matthew 24).

You may think I am going out on a limb somewhat but I really believe that we need to be prepared for the possibility that the significant majority of preachers today fall into the "FALSE TEACHER" category. That would mean it is literally a spiritual jungle out there. And it may be hard to find someone who is a true follower of Christ who preaches the gospel. Jesus described his church as a 'little flock.' (Luke 12:32). That doesn't mean there aren't huge churches who truly teach the gospel. But the Prosperity Gospel, Word/Faith movement, and the Emergent Church draw huge followings. Their message all has something in common;

THEY APPEAL TO THOSE WHO AREN'T ACTUALLY BEING SAVED!!

It is exactly as Paul described in 2 Timothy, they surround themselves with teachers who tell them what they want to hear...and it is NOT the gospel.

I would be remiss if I didn't give an honorable mention to the other extreme...dead orthodoxy. This found commonly in the old denominations steeped in rituals that while perhaps, doctrinally accurate, no longer have any meaning. Jesus described this in Revelation 2:4 as having forsaken their first love. This also appeals to those who aren't truly saved because it makes people feel like as long as they belong and attend, they're OK.

Finally and this is paramount, we need to be as the Bereans in Acts 17:11 and "search the scriptures" every day to see if what we are being taught is what the Bible really teaches.

May God bless you all.