Florian Slate - KERYGMA - Issues in Modern Christianity

“KERYGMA” (Sept, 2019) NEWS * CHRISTIANITY * STUDIES * OPINION * DIASPORA
Quarterly Messianic Bulletin of Christian Jews in Eretz Israel, USA and Romania
Quick introspective into contemporary issues between modern

Christianity and evangelism of Jesus Christ in the Gospel
Assoc. Professor, FLORIAN SLATE

DIAKONIA Theological Seminary
INDIANAPOLIS , USA
JESUS CHRIST AND THE MESSAGE OF HIS GOSPEL

IN THE CONTEXT OF ACTUAL CHRISTIANITY
There are almost 2000 years since the lord Jesus Christ walked on this earth announcing the
good news of salvation and forgiveness in his sacrifice he did at Golgotha. But when we read the first
four books of the New Testament we are fascinated to see that his messianic mission attracted people
from large levels of society, all with different cultural backgrounds and significance in the eyes of the
world contemporary with Jesus and his apostles. If there were gaps between people those were filled
up successfully with something to fix the broken relationship between themselves as well between
them as humans and God as our creator. And that was possible by something we know today as the
Good News or The Gospel…a term that defines the proclamation of salvation by the act of believing in
the son of God, faith being the most important condition for someone to be saved and inherit the
eternal life.
What would be the relevance of talking about the gospel message since we already know
everything about it and why to come back to the origins of the Christian background after two
millennium of Christianity when our churches are considerable evolved, would say some folks!!!
Well, apparently most of us, including ministers and theology scholars try to avoid this return to
the basics but almost every time is something important to study and that asks for this coming back to
the books of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.
My story starts more than ten years ago many when I was travelling from Detroit to Bucharest
when I had a strange accidental meeting with a theology teacher which seemed to have his seat right
next to mine, in the same plane that we both had to travel. Our original flights were merging after hours
of waiting to continue our trip that was slowed because of the bad weather. I did not knew anything
about who this gentleman was until few hours we were already flying over Atlantic in the way to
Europe. Then, I took out my Bible planning to read some chapters and as usual I was praying in my
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mind that we will go safe and without difficulties at destination. But seeing me opening the Bible and
after a short introduction he made about himself we started an interesting discussion about the
relevance of the Gospel and its importance for our modern Christianity. His most predominant interest
was about how the church future will look like in the next 50 years in preaching, teaching and faith and
how all these will look in personal relationship with Jesus Christ. It sounds weird to see someone
questioning those aspects knowing that faith and church cannot be put under the doubts when is about
the way they relate with the Lord…. But, this gentleman’s worry was built on the fact that Christianity
comes out in the latest years like a sort of select club according with what we were able to see on
newspapers, media and television networks. Also, some of prominent leaders already started to
preach a gospel where God and his inspiration is treated more philosophical than divine where Jesus is
looking more like an idea or a concept rather than the Savior sent to save this world.
I still can hear the voice of the man sitting next to my seat wondering what will be the future of
Christianity with preachers that rejects God and the Scripture or minimizes the role of Jesus Christ
turning their preaching of the word of God into a philosophical seminary where people forming the
auditory are hold in the promise to inherit eternity but in the end, that God who inspired the Bible and
paid the price for their salvation is ignored and rejected. Metaphorically speaking, the Lord was left
outside the church because his presence in the church service will steal the show offered by some of
those ‘evangelists’ who become professional illusion sellers in the latest days of the world!
After we landed in Europe, the words of this gentleman were: “…Young man, you may be a
witness to some strange things happening with church in the future but there is still enough time to let
people know the value of their faith- their true preacher and prophet in such perilous times is the Bible,
only….” And, of course I couldn’t say otherwise than agree with him!
If we do a simplistic exercise of turning on the Christian broadcasts on the radio or Christian
television, then we will see there are interesting facts who confirms what this gentleman was talking on
that flight to Europe. Radio stations, television networks or internet websites like Youtube and Vimeo
are proof that some of the preachers of our times promote their own views stepping over the
evangelistic line. Thirsty for popularity or other advantages they are artificially integrating their own
beliefs in sermons and studies with a clear expectation of altering or diluting the original message of
Jesus Christ we have in the Scripture. In the latest years, another dangerous concept found more
adepts because of the mystical spectrum created around it, pretending that God left hidden things in
the Bible pages and those persons able to reveal them correctly are only those who were specially
illuminated – in other words only those famous preachers known within the contemporary Christian
broadcastings, today. This is how we got to witness the blood moon theories, who was supposed to
bring apocalyptic events over the world and punish her ignorance for not coming back to God…But, it
didn’t happen. Meantime, we continue to watch on TV and internet a considerable number of ‘prophets
and prophetesses’ dreaming terrible things that are supposed to announce events which would make
the Revelation of John to look lighter if we weight the measure of dramatic and punishment according
with some of these dreams and predictions… I just remembered how someone said few years ago that
false teachings and false prophets will arise in big number while those true voices of God, inspired by
Holy Spirit will be harder and harder to find out.
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But what’s next from here? Is God allowing certain individuals to overwrite his word inspired in
the Scripture pages and change the original message of gospel or prophetic books that we already
have in the Bible? The answer is simply, no! Jesus said that heaven and earth will pass but it will never
happen to his word!!! The truth is we live those times when according with 1 Tim.4:1-2, the world is
attracted to believe strange things, spiritually dangerous for church and for true believers. It’s clear
these false teachings will not avoid harming those immature brothers and sisters in our churches and
we would potentially see some following false teachings, theories or harmful prophecies demonic
inspired that would strike out the church with schism, separations and other carnal actions that are not
specific to the church of the Lord!
Let me ask you something else - Did you ever hear about “flat earth” theory or the DaVinci code
or have seen how quickly these speculations already got a number of followers? Things like these
seem to draw a big interest in our days and personally I know some folks who like few of these ideas,
even they know this is proven wrong. But making things shorter, I would say that a return to the basics,
a coming back to the fundamentals of faith will refresh our belief and will give the assurance that we are
walking in truth. This must be a return to the message preached by Lord Jesus Christ as we have it in
the Scriptures of the New Testament. However, there are few aspects that got my attention almost
every time when I studied the preaching act of the Lord and I believe those aspects are important today
for all those who want to stay in the same line of inspirational faith, doctrine and preaching.
Jesus gospel is a divine proclamation announcing the Kingdom of heaven

( Mk.1:14-15, Lk. 3:18;4:43, Rom.15:19-20, Acts 8:4 )
Yes, my first point when I am talking about Lord’s message is based on how we could briefly
define his preaching. And surprisingly, I said that Jesus gospel was similar on some aspects with what
John the Baptist did when went out to preach in Jerusalem and the neighborhoods of Jordan river :
there we could see the call to repentance, the expectation to see people turning their life to God or the
warning referring to the kingdom of heaven that was coming near but eventually would find many souls
in ignorance of God forgiveness. However, there is a difference to notice which will make us
understand that Jesus words were special anointed to reach out deeper in the people’s heart, where
the Spirit of the Lord can see and bring healing and plant the seed of faith to grow up and bring fruits.
In my opinion, John the Baptist preached an identical message with Christ, but deep inside the matter,
significance was fundamental different: John is the emblem of the Old Testament and Law who
preaches gospel in expectation of Messiah’s coming, while Jesus is preaching the salvation and
redemption of God involving faith as a condition to inherit the kingdom of heaven. Then, John
preaches acknowledging the need of having confirmation for who this Savior might be (as we can see
later, when Jesus is baptized in Jordan) while Jesus is the Lord, the Messiah and the sacrificial Lamb
who makes salvation and entering in the heavenly kingdom possible, if people will believe in him.
People came to be baptized in water whether they heard Jesus or John’s message but ultimately, John
is the one who show the Lamb of God that will redeem the world from sin in the person of Jesus Christ,
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the son of God and beloved Messiah waited for so long. Is that something that made thousands of
people to gather around the Lord and form a large group that will be set to be saved?
The Scriptures says no, because those 12 apostles and few women that served Lord during his
ministry on the earth wasn’t significant as number, either…
And this should let us understand why we need to follow Holy Spirit direction and evaluate
contemporary church direction and ministry, considering spiritual quality but avoiding the numbers trap.
There is no biblical assurance that having a super-crowded church, will result in having a super-spiritual
ministry! It wasn’t the case of the New Testament church and will never be relevant today, either! When
Jesus talk to the crowds in John 6 that if they will not eat his body and drink his blood they will not have
the life in themselves, the immediate result was the a large number of disciples who quit to serve the
Lord and from those 70 disciples who were Lord’s followers, only 12 of them will stay with him till the
end.
If Jesus was doing that today, we should expect the overseer and the administrative bishop in
his area to summon him and let him know that he is doing a terrible job losing people! For God, things
are weighting different in the balance, because he is a God of perfection where numbers will never be
more important than value; and Jesus is proclaiming a kingdom of perfection, a kingdom where people
will be walking on streets made of gold and precious stones, a kingdom given by God to those souls
who responded his call for the price of eternal living together with the Lord of perfection.
Jesus gospel was an announcement of kingdom of heaven conditions

(Matt. 5-7; Mk.16:15;1 Cor.9:16)
Everybody knows that respecting the law of the land in every country is a mandatory condition
for every one living in that place. What would Jesus have to say about the kingdom of God rules or,
let’s say what he is saying about the constitution of kingdom of heaven? Today, many would say:
‘What? There is no such thing in the Bible!!! You just turn your life to Jesus, declare your faith and get
baptized and that’s it….Once saved, forever saved!’ I hear this often in my generation and because it
started be so popular from a while ago, there are a number of brothers and sisters engaging in a faith
that doesn’t involve them do more with their faith. But the only way to check if that’s true is only with the
Scripture to find out what Jesus have to say about it….And, down here is what I think that some folks
omitted…
From the beginning of the Lord’s ministry of preaching, Matthew tells in his Gospel about the
‘constitution’ of the kingdom of heaven. Basically, he compiled Jesus words into larger sermon found
between chapters 5 to 7, telling people that gospel or the good news of salvation and the chance to get
in the kingdom of God requires compatible citizens. The worldly way most people use to live, rejecting
faith, ignoring God and continue be rebellious against his sovereignty will not grant them the right to
inherit the kingdom, even if they claims they are Abraham seed! However, there is large portion of the
sermon on the mountain found in the works of Mark and Luke – it should be important for the gospel
cause and for authors, since was recorded by all these three biographers… Initially, we read the
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introduction into the kingdom rules according with Lord Jesus Christ as it’s seen into the first 12 verses
of chapter 5.
Interesting to mention, there is a bill of fundamental aspects of the kingdom defining who are the
inhabitants expected to be found there: the poor, the peace makers, those with a pure heart and those
thirsty for grace and inheritance, those who cries and those who are victims of injustice and so on…
There is no doubt, Jesus gospel is addressed to those who doesn’t have much common with this world
and cannot be defined as the top representatives for the corruptive nature of the world, either… But if
things had been just stopping at the end of the blessings he proclaims on the mountain; then the result
wouldn’t have been more than just an idealistic concept of the kingdom of heaven! As we may see,
Jesus doesn’t stop there because his intention is to clarify who are those true believers in accordance
with God’s will, rather than what traditions and human concepts tried to redefine over the time.
No doubt the gospel of Jesus is addressed to everyone, starting with blessing of those ignored,
neglected and victimized by the world and continues with spiritual consideration of others who will be
prospective citizens of heaven. And the same chapter 5, this time from verse 13 to 20, records Jesus
telling that we are the light of the world and the salt of the earth. The light is a spiritual metaphor talking
about the value we have in the eyes of God. The world lives in darkness, controlled by sin and lusts but
the light is always stronger than darkness, having the ability bring the light there where no one can see.
On the other way, the salt of the earth are those who give ‘flavor’ to the world using faith and
keeping relationship with God by living in accordance with his will. But here, is also a warning: both light
and salt might be in danger of being lost. They are not a permanent attribute of believers if they don’t
give them proper attention! Once saved, forever saved?
Well, if you pay attention at Jesus words then it’s a clear, no! People can lose the property of
spreading the light around them as well the salt could become useless without her unique taste! In fact,
Jesus doesn’t make concessions and compromises because he insists that if kingdom of heaven
inhabitants’ faithfulness will not exceed Pharisees and scholars faith, then, there is no hope to get to
into the kingdom!
Next section in Jesus sermon on the mountain is highlighting the social rules, insisting on living
responsible of moral aspects of those who want to enter into the kingdom of heaven. From verse 21 to
37 there is a set of conditions specific to good relationships, danger of immorality or importance of
agreements between people. All these are having a huge impact for someone wanting to get in the
kingdom of heaven. The top virtue of human relationship in Jesus speech is the ability to suffer and
forgive your enemies!
Chapters 6 is specific to good deeds done in the name of faith and their useful impact for our
relationship with God.. There, the Lord points the act of forgiveness and the need of peaceful
relationship with others; otherwise they will have a negative impact in our worship as well in any kind of
religious action.
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The whole gospel is focused on Christ

(2 Cor.4:4; Rom.1:16; Acts. 5:42)
Many will claim that it was easy for apostles and their followers in their time to compose their
message and draw attention to the Lord but we all have to admit their times were not easy, either. They
were persecuted and hunted by political leaders as well they risk their life for the Lord! It was nothing
about themselves because they were all surrendered to Christ And yes, in our days however, the
Christo-centrism concept is the biggest challenge for actual Christianity and this is the fact which
makes difference between churches in present times. How can I explain that? Well…I know ministers
who consider that a service who promotes the Bible and person of Jesus Christ only, will not bring
enough success in evangelism or church growing. More than that, they say those churches who want
stay inside biblical line and follow strictly to remain Christo-centric are old fashioned, without future and
without growing hope.
My point is exactly opposite to this option. In my mind, this idea of people’s growing number
might be a trap for many preachers who could evaluate their activity based on additions; but from a
spiritual perspective, things may look different when they are correctly interpreted. If Jesus wasn’t
shocked and gave up when his 70 disciples abandoned him and only a smaller group of 12 decided to
continue follow the Lord then we don’t have to be obsessed by quantity, either. I remember when I
talked about this aspect with one of the modernistic movement supporters and he told me that when
number of people grow, this it’s a sign that Holy Spirit works in that ministry. He also quoted that part in
Acts when the church ‘was growing with the Holy Spirit help’. As matter of fact this is a partially true, if
we conclude that Acts 4 presents this fact as a result of the church who was enjoying a peaceful time,
most new converted sold their possessions and came out to live as a community in Jerusalem while all
of them were in the mood of imminent expectation of Christ return. That was a certain fact happened in
Jerusalem with the new fresh congregation, powerful motivated by the Pentecost experience. But how’s
that the numbers were not such suggestive for the time of Gentiles mission during Paul’s activity? The
church was growing but not at the same pace like we see in Acts 4 and in one situation, Holy Spirit
stopped Paul to go and preach in Asia. If the measure of spirituality is based on numbers, then Holy
Spirit tells that is not a pattern since stopping the preaching for Asia, the number of prospective people
that could be added to church encounters such stagnation. In my opinion, quality is more important
than numbers and that focuses on those who follows Jesus and serves him with their whole heart,
growing in his knowledge, maturity and sanctification.
It is something that never happens because of who is the praise and worship group or because
of the famous guest invited to preach…No! This is happening when special people wants a relationship
with the Lord and set up a personal time to pray and join to the church. They are fasting and are united
in their feelings and beliefs and are careful to assimilate the word of Scripture properly and turn it into
blessings by every moment of serving God! And, Jesus himself wants us to have this special
relationship with him. His gospel is about him, about his ability to save us and free us from the chains of
sin. This is why he says – “If someone wants to be my disciple he has to deny himself, bear his cross
and follow me!”
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Another instance when we see him telling people about his ability to save is – “If the Son will free
you, then you will truly be set free!” Jesus himself, the Son of God is the one and only who grant your
freedom! With all respect, it is not the prophet, nor the pastor or a special tradition merit for that! It is
only Jesus Christ, the Son of God. And gospel and Christianity is whole about him and is focused on
him! Spirituality without Jesus is impossible and even when others will claim the presence of the Holy
Spirit to cover Jesus absence in their community; supporting the concept of people numbers will not be
enough because Bible talks about divine harmony of the Spirit who will take all from Jesus and will
disclose to us in order to praise the Son of God!
Jesus gospel is a proclamation of God’s justice

(Matt.12:36-37; Jo.3:16-18; 5:24-26; Rom.2:5; Apoc.20:15)
Since we are surrounded over and over by preachers who want the pink side of the Bible, we
mostly hear those of sermons or messages intended to make others feel good. There are
encouragements, teachings, invitations to become part of the kingdom of God and all these are
wonderful and helpful for our suffering world. But there is another part of the gospel which is intended
to warn us about those consequences of ignoring the importance of repentance. I was listening to the
local Christian radio station a while ago and the guest was a famous preacher. He was successful and
the church he ministers is growing numerically very fast. When he was asked what is the secret of
multiplying saved souls in his congregation, the answer was that he never tell people about sin and
judgment or about hell and always he keep a positive mood of his auditory: make them feel great, don’t
judge their actions, tell them that God is good and is love and avoid talking about those circumstances
involving divine wrath…
Yes, I would say this is meant to see a number of people being increased in the sanctuary but in
opposition with math, this is a half of truth, a chopped gospel that may look like serving the noble goal
of bringing comfort and encouragement but finally, if we confront it with the Scripture we would easily
observe differences between what Jesus and the primarily church have taught. Long time ago, the
famous Charles Spurgeon got into a conflict with his fellow ministers who insisted that Spurgeon
attitude toward modernism was wrong. In fact, Spurgeon position was condemning that wave called
down-grade Christianity foreseeing there is a hidden danger that will make church become like the
world, eventually ending like a form of religious entertainment! The words of this great man of God
were finally contained in the concept that if he would be left alone in the sanctuary and everybody else
will follow those who support a man-made gospel, then he is fine with that! No doubt, he will continue
keep the faith and preach that pure gospel of the Lord. And I believe this should be the motto for every
Spirit filled minister in our days, too.
Jesus himself tried to balance what was to bring encouragement, hope, comfort and salvation
with that warning about deadly effects of sin, when people ignore the call to repent. The Lord did that
with Nicodemus when told him about spiritual regeneration as well he did the same with Pharisees and
the crowds who came around him, telling them if they don’t repent they will die in their sins away of the
grace of God. Did they like what they heard Jesus saying? Of course they don’t but this is the clear
truth on the other face of the same gospel of salvation. Spiritually, there is no grey zone where
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someone may play both games: surrendering to God to obtain salvation but in the same time living in
the same lusts and sins and pretending they were born again from water and spirit, ready for the
kingdom of heaven? There is no such thing in Jesus message but it may be very popular on televised
evangelists and mega-church leaders’ teachings in our days. In fact, there is a reason for crowds to
follow what defines them and if once they followed the Lord for fish and bread, today they want more
entertainment and show, more social interaction based on their own interests and lesser based on what
the Bible says.
Someone made an experiment in a local church where the number of those attending religious
service was considerable increased in a short time. Together with elders and those responsible with
leadership of the congregation, they agreed that people came to the church more and more since they
started have weekly movies in the sanctuary and potlucks were included as an important part of their
service. Another interesting finding was that all of those involved in preaching and teaching decided to
avoid preaching about Lord’s coming, sin, holiness, eternal punishment or hell and all those ministers
were congratulated by their auditory for their amazing spiritual progress. But this time, they decided to
announce the church that for the next 30 days, the whole congregation will have only prayer services,
nursing home visits to help and volunteer for those in needs, evangelistic mission in neighborhood and
Bible study at church and home groups. Nothing else!!! And it happen that in that month, almost
nobody came at the church services anymore. Personally I am wondering if that could be only a
problem of entertainment or it is just a sort of discomfort!?
The world and her ways are not the same with God or church ways. When Jesus taught crowds
that God will reward those who keep the faith even when the world treats them unjustly, he wanted us
know that all suffering and pain endured because of the world and her unfaithfulness will end but God’s
righteousness will prevail and our faith will be rewarded if we remain loyal to him. In his parables Jesus
pointed that answering the call to follow him will not be easy. But paying the price for following him is
worthy and that heavenly reward promised would be given only to those who are faithful servants.
Subjects like divine grace and mercy, God’s love and patience or heavenly goodness are often found in
mega-churches sermons and most of those people attending such religious services are attracted by
the good-feeling mood who stressed psychologically over their lack of Bible knowledge. Remember
what Jesus said about Galileans who were murdered by Pilatus? Or when they told him about those
who died in that tragic accident, being crushed by the fall of Siloam tower? Jesus replay was a cold
affirmation of the right justice of God – “Truly I say unto you that if you will not repent, then you will die
in your sins just like it happen with these people!”
Jesus message is a message of hope, faith and a preparing call for the kingdom
of heaven
(Mk.1:15; Eph.1:13; 6:15; 3:6-7;Col.1:23; 2 Tim.1:10)
In the latest phase, we can point out that gospel in Jesus Christ is a message of proclaiming
hope, reminding us that we live facing injustice and ignorance of a world dead in her own sins. And
every day we are witnessing that sin and human separation from God generates pain, sickness, death
and perdition. But the end is not this one and things are not set to remain in the hands of evil because
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God is the owner of universe and the role of the gospel is to bring hope, comfort and vindication to all
those who are ready to believe his word and have faith in his son, the lord Jesus Christ. The message
of peace is offered by heavenly Father to be communicated through Jesus Christ, while the seed of
faith is planted and grows in those who believe with help of the Holy Spirit. Most contemporary
Christians of our days are thirsty for these aspects and in their views, God is only there to give hope, do
good to us and support our actions whether these are good or bad! Of course God loves us and he is
there for us, waiting to call him but this involves a specific relationship based on repentance, prayer and
fasting some time and also requires knowledge of his word. It is involving surrendering and
dependence of Christ which is perhaps the most sensitive part of 21st century Christians who depends
more of their leaders than they depend of son of God… a contrast that is easy to be noticed in the
style, in the manners and methods of preaching observed at famous preachers today. In contrast with
records found in the Scriptures about Jesus and primarily church, today most about hope, faith or how
to wait for Lord’s kingdom are concepts prepared to answer people needs using an amount of
psychology, entertainment and popular amusement that will “ease” the process of going through all
troubles and problems encountered every day. Basically, times made church act like a corporation who
treats the congregation as a customer, and this relation works on dual sense: one that keeps spirituality
as a cover and talks about faith and everything else in a way that stirs up curiosity and the other sense,
although the link keeping connection between the service providers and customers – as you could
imagine, it’s the financial support – always being dressed in the clothes of a special need, whether that
will be: ministry, charity or else.
But, is it there something that will give us more details looking at what Jesus himself used to do
when he preached the gospel in his time? I think that one interesting area we find in the Scripture when
he returns to preach in his hometown, Nazareth at the beginning of his ministry. As we said previously,
Jesus talks about himself questioning people’s faith every time when they asked him to do something
for them. And even when came to listen his teachings, they hear the Lord highlighting his divinity at the
center of his message. He said many times things like: I am the bread of life, I am the good shepherd, I
am the resurrection and life or the way, the truth and life and so on; and every of those who were
around him had the chance to find in Jesus exactly what they were looking for. But his return to
Nazareth turns into something special. Luke the evangelist, considered important to point some unique
details in his written gospel and positioning this episode in the fourth chapter, near to the moment of
Jesus temptation, we tend to believe that saint Luke intended to tell us that Jesus returns after was
filled by the Holy Spirit and power but the devil just prepared him at Nazareth a sort of welcome that is
meant to bring discouragement and eventually make Lord encounter obstacles, a hard time for his next
steps in the ministry. In my reading of this amazing text found in Luke 4:16-30, I saw Jesus as the son
of God and the promised Messiah coming to his place to bring the gospel of hope and life to his fellow
Nazareth people.
The text he was reading from Isaiah 61:1 was meant to bring enough comfort, encouragement
and activate their faith when suddenly things get an upside down turn out when Lord, knowing their
unfaithful heart bring that conclusions found between verses 23-27. Yes, apparently all of them wanted
become the recipients of blessings and miracles and all of Jesus auditory in the synagogue of Nazareth
in that Sabbath day, wanted to be blessed with blessings from Isaiah 6. But lately, all of them become
sensitive and turned to be aggressive when Jesus Christ unmasked their attitude. In verse 23, Jesus
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says: ‘…Yeah, no doubt you’ll tell me that saying – ‘Hey doctor! Can you heal yourself, first? Or, Jesus
can you do here in your hometown same things we hear you did in Capernaum?’ Definitely, they were
mad because Jesus knew that all they wanted was just for the show but had nothing to do with their
faith or turn them to God. Just as we know, this episode ended with a mad congregation trying to kill
Jesus. In fact, Scripture mentions that because of their lack of faith, Jesus was not able to perform any
miracle in that place… We can understand from this moment of Jesus life how the gospel of hope,
faith, salvation and life is not working anything good for those who are not going to God in faith. In
particular, this used to be the case of Pharisees and scholars in that time but it seem extended out in
other places like Nazareth, too… In the same time, we may see this like an exception from the main
line of the gospel because the same message of God for someone in need of salvation did great things
in Nicodemus and Joseph Arimatean’s life. Also, the same gospel changed tax collectors like Levi and
Bartholomew or like Zachaeus. The gospel of Jesus Christ brought up miracles and the grace of God to
the widow who’s was son was brought back from death or to the lepers who were healed, or blind
people that were able to see at the word of the Lord who healed them.
The amazing particularity in Jesus Christ message, especially when talking about gospel is the
perpetual effect of blessing when touches people life, the word of God being not limited by time, race or
location. The word of Jesus gospel touched people’s life 2000 years ago and continues to work in the
same power and in the same blessed name of Jesus in our days, too. The question is, do you believe?
Few thoughts before we go…
We know almost everything we have to do for the true faith in God and we all have the
opportunity to open our Bibles and read every day without be afraid of being persecuted. But we are
still hearing strange things at some religious meetings. We are perplexed by that non-conformist
pastors wanting the future of the church to be shaped for the new generations in a strange way,
shooting out to crowds those peculiar teachings of the new age era. Yes, we are living times when the
look seen outside is more important than what we already learn from generation to generation and
unfortunately this is now controlling even the right way of following God. In the latest years was
perpetuated the myth of fruitful Christianity, nice presented outside but evaluated inside is found
spiritually fragile. It isn’t hiding that’s totally depending by human leaders a lot more than it depends of
the Lord and the fingerprint of worldliness are almost everywhere, starting with that ‘improved’ music
that is meant to attract people and keep them in the sanctuary till that replaced theology who tries to
change the main denotation and sense of the biblical scripture although inspired by Holy Spirit. All
these it turned out to be important components in Christian ministry of 21st century because humans
are very pragmatic and wants to fix three problems with one shot – they’re making people feel the beat
of music while combines whatever is left to make up a sort of praise and worship. This is a quick
definition the most important section of contemporary religious service which tells that Christianity is in
pain and suffering.
Though we know the importance of prayer and how that was reduced to a symbolic time with
God or just restructured appear there into praise and worship services, the real expectation is to make
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it disappear at certain point. However, we may conclude that preaching and proclaiming the word of
God is also in danger to become nothing less than a time when the preacher or the evangelist is
focused on people attraction, using methods like motivational speaking or communication psychology.
Would be something wrong with that, we may hear some folks, saying? Well, the answer to this
question will find that you may have the perfect entertainment time in your church but what is truly
missing is the spiritual anointing of Holy Spirit which involves at its core the presence of Jesus and his
sacrifice. These are meant to confront people with grace of God and challenge their faith for salvation
or spiritual growth!
There is no more sense of using psychology or speaking methods to persuade someone and
make him accept your point because what people need, is only God! Factual, what Jesus tells by his
own example is that a genuine message addressed to people under divine anointing will not go away
without be remarked. And this is something we can observe all over the gospels written in the New
Testament: we read about people who came around Jesus and wondered of his knowledge or we may
read about people who hate him because of the sharpness of God’s word preached to them. We also
find there people who left because of the word they hear and we see there people who came around
him and stayed with him because of his word. That’s the gospel and its divine effect: something like:
love it or leave it! For centuries, the word of God is challenging human hearts and according with their
own characteristics will end up pro gospel or against gospel. We see here a risk which modern
Christianity doesn’t like to take because is having impact if that ends by losing people from sanctuary
and goes ahead damaging church budget which needs to be plenty enough to pay ministers and those
bills that comes in the name of the church every month. But Jesus doesn’t care about that because he
is less interested in monies or costly buildings investments while those don’t keep the line of the
Scripture and doesn’t proclaim the pure gospel intended for world saving.
The gospel of 21st century biggest issue is her constant focus on the human factor, mostly. How
often we see the preacher drawing attention on him trying to convince his auditory about the
importance of his message showing off his personal experience, his qualified viewpoints and lastly as a
miracle pill that works every time when dealing with audience, he may use a dose of popularity mixing
the word of God with some of his best jokes!!! I remember a pastor son who always complained that
church services are boring… He complained till the day when he had his own time at the pulpit where
he preached a great sermon that surprisingly got everyone’s attention. At the end of the service, few
important people from the church leadership came to congratulate him, saying –“Young man, we didn’t
know you are so much gifted!” The answer came right away and unexpectedly – ‘Heck, brothers! This
is what I call a hell of a preaching!’
And unfortunately for some of those preachers who want to look good in the eyes of the world,
they do a hell of preaching, too! But there is another side of this problem. This is when the message is
playing with people’s nature and finally ends up having a non-significant percent of spiritual
consistence. Basically, people responds to the worldly message a lot easier than they do with an
anointed one. It is not a secret that what keeps them sitting down in the sanctuary is mostly something
that satisfies their fun: entertainment, movies, jokes, vaudeville shows and stuff like that… And nobody
has to be very spiritual to notice there is not enough Christ in that! If we are honest to each other, then
we should be worried for this new standard style who defines the church of our days. Comparing with
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the church of New Testament, we should admit that we replaced what is written in Acts 4, those
principles based on breaking the bread, prayer and fellowship with community of saints with a sort of
religion.
We act like we are still in the same spirit of Acts 4 when in fact we well are resonating with world
and her lusts, pretending that this is the true worship and this is the real Christianity of the Scripture.
We see speculations and attempts of changing the sense of the Scripture with complicate philosophical
ideas and there are crowds surrounding those who lead them to a sort of religion while they are acting
like they preach the truth of the word of God… There best-selling books, radio stations and televisions
forcing out to public such kind of things, working hard to promote a modern revolution of Christianity.
And, yes, we are there at the danger point where faith might be easier compromised by a strange
manifestation of religion while is suffocating what will bring people to heaven! What would Jesus have
to say about all these things, today? What he would have to say to those preaching to thousands in
their congregation how the power for everything is just them and avoid that Christ says: if people are
separated of him, they will be able to do nothing!!! What he would have to tell to those who finds cool to
suppress the church prayer, encouragements, reading the Scripture and church worship, squeezed into
a program called praise and worship where everything is done for the satisfaction of human nature and
not really for the glory of God? Jesus was the example for how we have to pray, he was the example
for serving and he did that in a clear contrast with world and her ways. People love what cost them
nothing, whether this about their time, their money or even about their faith… And this is why those
churches based on the gospel and apostolic teaching, are significantly empty in these days.
Opposite to what we read in Scripture, the modernistic church lives in the beat of their music hit
entertaining crowds who replaced Bible reading with a cheap drama or ridiculous pantomime. All is
completed by substitution of their prayer to the Lord with a group of people who acts for them like the
orchestra-man: sings, prays and entertain whole congregation, all-together in one whole package -
very convenient, right?
I can see with spiritual eyes that Jesus is left outside the crowd, outside his church and away of
their fun time. Apparently looks like contemporaneous Christianity doesn’t care anymore about doctrine
and Scripture’s faith. Some of those successful preachers already promoted a concept telling how all
this seem old and inappropriate in these days, even some things are biblical, they say are not in the
same step with “contemporary challenges” and are outdated. This gave a solid rock to false thinking
that church, seen by the prism of carnal eyes is where the music is good, the preacher is famous and
church is where you don’t need to push your luck kneeling for you prayer!
In the end, we may realize we have more questions than answers to this topic and even we all
know the imperative of returning to God and his word. I still could see people pushing out some of their
viewpoint: it may be late now to go back to the tight way of the gospel, as we have it in the Bible! Did
you hear that before? Others will say that it is more important to have people inside the sanctuary than
outside, even the way they believe, worships or live the faith has some different characteristics when is
compared with New Testament. You can hear – “It’s all right, because the basics are almost the same
and shouldn’t be a problem if they are entertained by the church now; at least they are not anymore
entertained by the world shows, right?” I had few interesting talks with other ministers persistent in the
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idea that we live the time when we don’t have other alternatives available to bring and keep people in
the church, other than playing somehow in the same way like the world is doing it!
In the end God will understand that having people coming to church is more important than what
kind of methods were used, they are saying! In the modern language, they legitimated disobedience
and ignorance of God’s word, saying that reaching the purpose is excusing the method! When I talked
about this issue with a well-known and successful preacher, he replied - “Brother, we can’t go to people
and tell them they have to repent and follow the Lord in consideration with what we have written in the
gospel! It is too late to tell that now, after so many years taught they are good for the kingdom of
heaven just as they are! Do you realize that something like that will put us in the same line with tight
fanatics, many almost start thinking that we are not better than Inquisition?”
I would say that I was shocked to hear how the act of believing and coming back to the faith
given to saints once to have it forever, it will be such a problem for someone who is an ambassador for
Christ! But he is right... All these people who enjoyed Laodicean style will be disappointed by such
radical move in their church and will go out to find other places that will feed their thirst for
entertainment. Because after all, they may not be looking for Jesus Christ in the church as much as
they look for fun and entertainment! My point to such discussion that is very imperative now than ever,
was that - “...Yes, we are not the Inquisition and such move may look conservative but we call people
to have fellowship with God and experience that Jesus of the Scriptures and not a Hollywood character
of some movie...”
On the other hand, a genuine repentance and biblical faith in Christ based on the gospel it is
exactly what we are called to taught and preach. People must depend by their Savior, not by the pastor
X or Z. It is the right call to spirituality and faithfulness, as well it is a necessity for Christian church to
start lighting the flame of the Holy Spirit and salvation in the Jesus Christ, while many others left him
outside the church he redeemed while he shed his blood for her redemption. In the gospel is a certain
moment when Lord is talking about the end of times. There, Jesus asked his disciples if “the Son of
Man will find faith” when he will return and since the answer was unclear for them at that time, I am
wondering what we could reply if the Lord is asking us the same question today?
We may answer, saying that: “…Lord, you will find faith at your return if that will happen today,
but…. you know, Lord there are things you may find different than you were used to know!!!”
Or, don’t know if it will work but some will surely say: “… the times we are living now are different
than 2000 years ago and some aspects of faith were cosmeticized because the old ones from the Bible
were not anymore in vogue…” Yes, we are always having excuses and just like Adam and Eve in the
Garden of Eden, we think we have the right excuse that will work well.
The whole gospel is all about Jesus and it is focused on Jesus who came to give his life for us to
be saved. The whole gospel is perfectly oriented to the urgent need of salvation of the human race! It is
not about clapping hands for ‘prophet X or for pastor Z’ and it is not about tickling our ears with an
amputated evangelism where nobody wants to preach about God’s wrath against all those who treat
his will with ignorance and contempt.
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The true gospel is not about making you feel good while you sit in the sanctuary! No… It is all
about your salvation that talks about your sin and rebellious attitude against a God that wants to forgive
you and give you the chance of salvation if you repent and live like a born-again Christian, believing in
Jesus Christ or…and this is the part some will not like but is part in the same gospel and tells that if you
ignore God and his mercy, staying away of repenting then is nothing else left for you than the right
judgment of sovereign God who will pay you according with your sins.
But there is still hope for something better and it’s still time to open the Bible, read it and preach
it in the power of the Spirit for the glory Jesus Christ. There is still a good time when all of us, elders
and youth, ministers and ordinary Christians can have access to the grace throne for forgiveness, for
restoration and of course for empowering to serve God for his glory and never for fame. You know what
is right, you know what is true and you know what is God’s will for you. Then take the right steps and
proclaim Jesus! He is the only Way, the only Truth and Life! May God bless you all, amen!
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Florian Slate - KERYGMA - Issues in Modern Christianity

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“KERYGMA” (Sept, 2019) NEWS * CHRISTIANITY * STUDIES * OPINION * DIASPORA

Quick introspective into contemporary issues between modern

Assoc. Professor, FLORIAN SLATE

JESUS CHRIST AND THE MESSAGE OF HIS GOSPEL

Jesus gospel is a divine proclamation announcing the Kingdom of heaven

Jesus gospel was an announcement of kingdom of heaven conditions

The whole gospel is focused on Christ

Jesus gospel is a proclamation of God’s justice

Few thoughts before we go…

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