A Therapeutic Gospel-A. Close

This video contains a message that is about five minutes long. He starts the message with the story of Corrie Ten Boom and the hiding of Jews during WWII. He tells how she witnessed her family being killed and still managed to forgive the man who did it. His main point from the story is that “God doesn’t give us the grace we need until we need to step on board.” He goes on to explain that “on board” refers to another story he told about a dad not giving his daughter her train ticket until she got onto the train so she didn’t lose or tamper with it. The preacher then compares the two, and explains how God will give us our “ticket” when we come upon the situation that we need it and God will be there to “help you make it through the dark valleys and still keep your head held high and your heart filled with love.” The rest of the sermon is based upon this metaphor of God giving us our “ticket” when the time comes that we need it. He concludes the message with discussing how many of those he is speaking to are not where they planned to be in life, and that God will be there in the end to help us succeed.

Wow. Doesn’t that sound encouraging? I am going to critique this sermon using Trevin Wax’s book, more specifically the chapter on the therapeutic gospel. The main point of the therapeutic counterfeit is leaving out the man portion of the gospel and not focusing on man’s sin as the reason of guilt, etc. According to Wax, The Fill’er Up Gospel deals with the focus on positive aspects of the gospel such as God will be there and not the root of the problem, which is our sin.  I believe that this clip falls right into this category. In the clip, the main point that the pastor continues to come back to is that God will be there to help us when we get to the point in life that we need Him or His grace. Nowhere does he mention that it is the sin of man that causes us to feel alone or in this dark time he talks about. He simply focuses on the positive, which is that God will be there. In Wax’s book, he tells us that “We don’t have depleted hearts in need of a fill-up; we have deceitful hearts in need of replacement.” This is the polar opposite of what the pastor teaches in his sermon. He wrongly makes it out to be that humans do not do anything for the dark times to be in their lives, but that God is a God of grace and will be there to help us (and fill us up). The latter part of the statement is accurate. God will always be there for us and never forsake us, as stated in Deuteronomy 31:6 but what he leaves out is the part that God comes into our hearts and completely changes us forever versus just filling us up temporarily when we need His grace.   The preacher turns the power of God into a sermon that doesn’t note the depravity of man that causes us to need God’s Grace.

A Smorgasbord of Counterfeits-E. Campbell

According to the woman in this video, Jesus’ purpose for coming to the earth was not to die on the cross; his real purpose was to teach us how to feel god. She says he came to earth “to show us the Christ-consciousness that he had and that that Christ-consciousness abides with all of us;” in other words, Jesus came to show us how to commune or live in sync with this “Energy” or “Light,” which is god. According to the woman in this video, all religions are the same and lead to the same destination. Not surprisingly, then, this woman claims, “There couldn’t possibly be just one way [to god];” in this way, she denies the central claim of Jesus Christ to be the only way to the Father (John 14:6). According to this prominent woman, true religion is about feeling god not believing in Him; she says, “God is a feeling experience not a believing experience.” Here and elsewhere in the video this woman emphasizes personal religious experience as a way to get to god or “the Light,” as she sometimes calls it.  

            The gospel presented in this video is a smorgasbord of the counterfeit gospels described in Trevin Wax’s book Counterfeit Gospels: Rediscovering the good news in a world of false hope. The message of the woman in this video resembles the therapeutic gospel because she denies the true reason for Christ’s death on the cross. Instead of recognizing Christ’s true purpose for coming to earth to live a perfect life, die to pay for sinner’s debt, and rise again to be able to give new life to all those who believe in Him, she falsely claims that Christ came to bring a new awareness that we can be like Him and commune with god by meditating. Her claim, nevertheless, is erroneous because Christ did not come to establish another eastern religion entrenched in meditation; He came to seek and to save that which was lost—to offer His life as a perfect sacrifice to save us, sinners (Luke 19:10; Eph. 5:2). Even though this woman claims to be a Christian; her Christianity is counterfeit because she has distorted the central truths of the gospel by combining Christianity with eastern religions. Her syncretism of Christianity and eastern religion is brought to light in the video when one of this woman’s favorite spiritual leaders directs her and the audience in a time of meditation. As a therapeutic gospel, this woman’s gospel may be more palatable than Paul’s gospel, but it is not the true gospel.

This woman’s view also falls into the category of the judgmentless gospel because she claims that all paths lead to heaven, thereby, claiming that everyone will be saved in the end. Clearly, her postmodern view goes against Biblical doctrine because the Bible teaches that only those who have saving faith in Jesus will go to Heaven (Acts 16:31). While this woman claims that those with genuine faith, no matter the object of their faith, will be saved if they live a good life, the Bible provides a different picture; Romans 10:9 says that those who believe in the Lord Jesus will be saved. The Bible also teaches that those who do not put their trust in Christ will not be saved; in fact, even those who have never heard of Jesus before will not be saved (Rom. 1:18-22). This is why Jesus said He is the only way to the Father. This woman’s gospel is counterfeit because she contradicts Christ’s claim to exclusivity.

Finally, her version of the gospel is also a churchless gospel because it emphasizes the individual to the total exclusion of any sort of church. The Bible makes it clear that the church is supposed to be a pivotal part of every believer’s life, for the church is Christ’s body, and, as brothers and sisters in Christ, we can and should encourage one another in the faith, correct one another in love when necessary, and teach one another how to live in a way that is pleasing to the Lord. Leaving the church out of the picture opens the door to the enemy, who is seeking someone to devour (1 Peter 5:8). Isolation from a body of believers makes it easier to create your own “truth.” Unfortunately this woman has chosen to shun the Christian church and create her own religion, and in so doing, lead countless trusting men and women astray.    

A Moralistic Gospel-E. Campbell

The Mormon speaker in this video advocates a gospel based on works. He believes that people will be saved by the good that they do for others. He uses example after example of how doing good for others will benefit the recipient as well as the doer. At the beginning of his sermon, he talks about a world-renown doctor who claims that he was benefited more than his patients were from his service; later in his message he shares a note he received from little children who had a lot of fun surprising their mom by cleaning out the toy closet. He uses these examples to support his agenda to spur on his listeners to good deeds; in fact, he says that the purpose of the church is to help others according to their needs. The climax of the sermon, indeed, is when the Mormon leader makes a claim regarding salvation. He says that those who don’t serve others have no purpose in life, but those who lose themselves in service for others “save their life.” Here he claims that salvation can be gained through acts of service.

The Mormon Moralistic gospel presented in this message can be condensed into one statement: live a good life by helping others and, thereby, save yourself. This Moralistic gospel misses the mark because it focuses on something other than Christ and His life, death, and resurrection. Approaching this video from the perspective of Trevin Wax’s book Counterfeit Gospels: Rediscovering the good news in a world of false hope, this gospel message distorts the nature of the gospel in all three areas: the story, the announcement, and the community. First, this Mormon message of salvation gets the story of salvation wrong because it denies the gift of grace offered by God and instead relies upon human effort to earn God’s favor. Second, this Moralistic gospel gets the gospel announcement wrong because the message of salvation is nothing more than good advice for how to live a good life by serving others and, thus, earn your way to paradise. Finally, the Mormon version of moralism presented in this video misunderstands the role of the church; in other words, this message fails in Trevin Wax’s third area because the community is seen as an assembly with no other purpose than to stir one another onto good deeds. While this is indeed a noble cause, it does not represent the full role of the church in the gospel. Clearly, this sermon fails in all three of the areas outlined by Trevin Wax, namely: the story, announcement, and community.

An Activist Gospel-B. Bales

The Big Story Gospel presentation uses four circles to tell the gospel story.  The presentation begins by drawing a broken world, and asking the listener whether or not they see the brokenness of the world.  The conclusion drawn from brokenness is that there must have been something better because we ache for it. A second circle is drawn which represents God’s perfect creation which was designed that we might have a relationship with Him.  The question is then asked as to how the world became so messed up.  The presenter concludes that we took control of the world out of selfishness and ruined it.  Because of sin, we broke our relationship with God, and we commit many evil actions because once we live selfishly then it becomes easy to hurt others and live bad lives.  The presenter states that we corrupted the world, but God’s love for us demands that He save us from our evil.  God sent His Son to lead a resistance movement against selfishness and evil, and to show us how to live our lives correctly.  We ought to follow Jesus in His fight against evil by using the power He has given us.  On the cross, Jesus died the death we deserved, and was resurrected that death might not have the victory.  Christ has allowed for us to form a community full of love, peace, and justice.  Our response to Jesus should be to admit our sin and turn from it, trust that Jesus’s death justifies us, receive the life which Jesus gave through the resurrection, and follow Jesus while giving Him control of our lives.  With a correct response, our relationship with God will be restored.  We, as followers of Jesus, join His resistance movement to restore the world, and we ought to live more and more like Jesus.  We should now fight with Christ against evil and restore the systems of the world back into God’s goodness and original design.

The problem with the Big Story Gospel presentation is not necessarily what it leaves out but what it focuses on.  The beginning and the end of the presentation revolves around a resistance movement to effect change in the world for the better, and because of this, it has a certain attractiveness to it.  Countless songs and movies of popular culture seek to push culture toward better things.  The people of today love to join societies and groups which like to solve problems and fight issues, and Big Story Gospel presentation appeals to our desires for change and for power to effect change.  The question should be asked as to what would happen to the Big Story Gospel if our culture violently opposed “change culture” movements.  The gospel of “go change the world for the better” might become less of an acceptable and interesting thing to do, and more of difficult job which takes the strongest and most dedicated servants of Christ to achieve.

In the Big Story Gospel presentation, the main focus of our sin and our need for Christ is our relationship with God.  We broke the relationship, and as a result, we live in an evil world.  Christ has come to save us from our evil world, and help us make a new one, good and clean.  In Counterfeit Gospels, Trevin Wax hits the nail on the head when he writes that the people of Christ’s day wanted Him to become a political leader of this world; the Jews wanted Jesus to lead them on a revolt against Roman oppression.  Interestingly, Christ took no part in their schemes; rather, He focuses on the kingdom which is to come (177-179).   Another contrast between someone who wants to the fight evils of the world and Jesus Christ Himself is that Jesus Christ sought out the broken and evil people of this world and called them to repentance.  The tendency of the activist who wants to fight evil is to attack the people who do it that they might better the world, but Christ came to save people, not the world.  Of course, Christ Jesus will come again as a warrior king, crushing all who oppose Him, but His first coming was to reconcile man to God through the atonement of our sins.

There also appears to be too much focus on what we do and less on what Christ has already done.  Accordingly, the word “we” is constantly used while the name of Christ is used less.  Interestingly, the name of Jesus is the predominantly used name.  The subtle loss of the implications of the name Christ, in terms of Him as our savior, reveals the distortedness of the Big Story Gospel presentation.  We like having Jesus as our teacher, role model, or cheerleader, but we don’t like him as our Savior who died because of our sin.  We like Jesus, a baby in a manger come to teach us, but we don’t like a Christ on a cross beaten and dying for us.  We want to keep a sense of power in our lives; Christ, as a suffering servant on our behalf, would force us into unwanted humility and debt.  Accordingly, Trevin Wax writes that a counterfeit “activist gospel” will place too much focus on what we do for the gospel rather than on what Christ has already done (181).  The power of the “activist gospel” is in what people do for it while the power of the gospel of Christ is what it does for people.  Essentially, the Big Story Gospel presentation contains all those key words and facets which should be expected in a gospel presentation, but it places the focus in all the wrong areas.  The presentation could be compared to a burger that has all the right ingredients and toppings which could make a great burger, but its oversized buns prevent the rest of the burger from even being tasted.

A Judgementless Gospel-B. Bales

The Gospel in Your Hands presentation seeks to use one’s hands as in means to share and demonstrate the gospel of Christ.  He begins by saying that his right hand is God, and that his left hand is us as we are created in his image, a reflection.  We share certain characteristics with God, and we were once in a perfect relationship with Him.  Our failure is breaking the relationship by breaking God’s trust and thinking that we can exist on our own without God.  As a result, mankind died spiritually and physically, and this death brought fear and suffering into our lives.  If we could restore our relationship, we would have life, but since we cannot restore the relationship, God must do it for us through Christ.  Christ experienced our suffering and sin on the cross as a result of our sin and us causing the broken relationship.  By dying on the cross, Christ bore our sins and suffering unto their respective deaths.  If we trust Christ, He will bring us back into a relationship with the Father just as He Himself rose from the grave to be reunited with God. 

The Gospel in Your Hands presentation lacks several important facets of the gospel of Christ which cannot be removed or diminished.  The most glaring failure of this particular gospel presentation is its complete lack of God’s judgment and righteous wrath.  No mention of hell or heaven is made in a direct statement, and man’s sin becomes boiled down to a broken relationship, or a broken trust.  In a sense, the gospel story presented revolves around God’s goodness in allowing us to come back into a relationship with him, and it leaves out how our sin ought to have brought the wrath of God upon us and sent us to eternal damnation in hell.  The presentation can lead the listener to believe that he or she is just wrong because of how they feel or currently live in alienation to God, and they might never understand how the wages of our sin is eternal death in hell and being labeled as God’s enemy.  A listener may never grasp the true significance sin as the reason God must judge.

If the gospel story contains a failure in demonstrating the wrath of God, then it follows that the announcement of the gospel, the actual good news, will be skewed.  In the presentation, Christ’s death on the cross is rightly designated as paying for our sin and shame, but because our failure is a broken relationship, Christ’s death only acts as a bridge to God when it ought to include how Christ’s death has averted the wrath of God from falling on our shoulders.  A saved person becomes someone who feels restored and purpose filled rather than someone who has restoration and purpose because they have escaped damnation and been given new life.

Also, the gospel community which would form around the gospel of this presentation would have not have an understanding of how they are continually restored into the graces of God, and a listener would not understand even that a community of believers ought to form or what they ought to do after being saved.  It could be understood from this gospel presentation that we ought to live lives which are in unity with God, but our only explanation of how this takes places is tied up in how Christ brings us back.  No mention of the Holy Spirit is given, and as such, a listener will have no understanding of how they can be regenerated into new life.  Also, without the spirit of God living inside of us, we will have no means of sanctification, and the gospel community would bear no distinctions from the world.  The gospel community must have an urgency to evangelize, but if this urgency revolves around restoring people into a relationship with God, it loses its strength as it doesn’t acknowledge that those who are lost are enemies of God and doomed to die.  The presenter does acknowledge that we will die without Christ, but if us being “with Christ” does not entail His Spirit dwelling in us, His love being shown in the church community, and our ever perseverant efforts in Christlikeness, then we will not understand what being “without Christ” would entail.  We would be dead without Christ’s life in us, a community which loves us, and a life which meets God’s standards of justification and faith.  If the presenter would have spent more time on the story of the gospel and included things such as hell, God’s wrath, God’s law, and the Holy Spirit, then the announcement of the good news would become more evident, and the community which should follow would be better understood.  The use of the hands in the presentation should be used more as an attention getter and less as an analogy; perhaps then, the presentation of the gospel will reach its fulfillment.

A Therapeutic Gospel-M. Baker

This sermon on the topic of accepting who you are as a child of God. The pastor starts by pointing out that many people are hurting today because of their low self-esteem and wrong self-image. He makes it clear that people are made in the image of God, and therefore are designed for perfection and success. All that is needed for happiness, according to the pastor, is for people to realize this image and internal perfection. He sums up his message by saying that God does not want people to feel down, but to realize that they are perfect and accepted by Him.

After critical analysis of this sermon, it is very evident to a firmly founded Christian that the truth is being distorted through this counterfeit. Wax would call this presentation of the gospel, the “Therapeutic Gospel.” This counterfeit is defined by Wax as confusing “our spiritual symptoms (a troubled marriage, anxiety, anger, addictions) with our spiritual disease (sin).” It is specifically carried out by means of “The Fill’er Up Gospel,” which makes God out to be like a gas station that will fill people up when we are down on ourselves. The pastor directly links to this counterfeit through his inaccurate portrayal of the human state.

The reasons people are attracted to the “Therapeutic Gospel” is quite simple. It allows people to forget the state that we are in without Christ. The pastor states that all people come from “the best of the best,” and therefore are perfect. Who would not want to hear that? This gospel is sometimes hard to see because of the overarching truth that human beings are valuable. Once a person starts to hear these words of encouragement, they are sucked into believing the stretched truth that this gospel presents which leads one to forget their disease and refuse to acknowledge that God is not just here to fill them up.

 As Wax accurately states, Christians must react to this gospel by placing God in the center for who He is and not what he has or can do for us. This allows people to remember all that we have been given through Christ rather than desperately wanting more. Also, a low self-esteem can and should be replaced by finding worth through the gospel. When we realize who we are in Christ, but only because of Christ and nothing that we have or ever will do, nothing else will ever be needed for satisfaction or fulfillment. When Christians realize the vast flaws behind the “Therapeutic Gospel”, they will share the true fulfillment of Christ’s love with the world instead of looking for their own fulfillment from the world.

An Activist Gospel-M. Baker

This speech gives a presentation of the gospel and the actions of God. In this speech at the grand opening of the African American Civil War Museum, the preacher starts by comparing the slavery in nineteenth century America to that of the Israelites in the Old Testament. He uses this comparison to talk about how God has a great disdain for slavery and because of this disdain he “interfered in the affairs” of men in Egypt and did the same here in America. The freedom of slaves is pointed to as being a time when God intervened in our country’s history because of his hatred against this great sin against humanity. The preacher ends with a list of miracles that Christ did to argue that America could experience a miraculous change as well.

To analyze this counterfeit fully, one must first see the almost invisible baseline problem, which is that this is an “Activist Gospel” as defined by Wax. When using critical thinking one can identify that this preacher blatantly uses two of the common methods with which this type of gospel is promoted in our society today. He acts as a “culture warrior” by fighting for Christian values and the revealing the actions of God in our modern society, while forgetting to point to the cross as the path to salvation rather than the proactive actions of mankind.  The “errand runner” method can also be identified because the preacher is pushing for a cause that will make everything better in our society, revealing the subliminal misconception that “politics and policy are where the real change occurs” as Wax states in his book. He seems to be using Christ and the gospel as a “celebrity” endorsement for the cause against slavery and racism.

So why is the Activist Gospel so appealing to both the preacher and his audience? Wax mentions several reasons that directly apply to this speech. First off, it fights for change, which is all that anybody wants in our society today. People are desperate for a fresh start that will remove the problems of our fallen world. Also, especially for the preacher, this counterfeit presentation of who God is brings about immediate and visible results while gaining the acceptance of the audience. People approve of him for his fight for this great cause and take action while at the same time he feels accomplished as a presenter of the gospel.

Nonetheless, attractiveness does not negate this presentations counterfeit “Activist Gospel”. This preacher is using references to God to help push a cause against sin rather than pointing out the wickedness of man’s heart and calling for repentance rather than social change. The fight against slavery and racism is one that desperately needs to be carried out, but the truth every man’s complete and utter wickedness needs to be pointed to as the flaw and the cross pointed to as the only solution rather than a group being displayed as the problem. As Christians, the truth of the gospel needs to be spread for the sole purpose of sharing the good news and saving the lost, because when this happens, permanent change will happen in the hearts and lives of men.