14 Basic Fundamentals of the True Gospel
1. Justification
Used synonymously with “righteousness.” It is the declaration and imputation of righteousness to the believer. This is the very righteousness of God. This is also the salvation of the soul. God NEVER declares anyone righteous unless He makes them righteous. This is not a position only, the person is actually made righteous.
2. The New Birth
Normally, sanctification would be discussed next, but it is important to understand how we are truly righteous—yet we still fall short of God’s standards in this life. The new birth takes place in time when we believe, and is a spiritual reality which lacks the experiential evidence we would expect, yet the Bible is explicit about what takes place. Our old spiritual self dies a literal death “with Christ,” and we are born again with an incorruptible seed. This is pictured in water baptism. We are new creatures. We do NOT have two natures, we only have one nature.
3. Flesh
It is the human body. It is not inherently evil, what God created that was good originally became weak in the fall, like creation, but is not inherently evil. This is why we are actually righteous, but fall short of God’s glory: “The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.”
4. Sin
Sin was found in Lucifer, an angel created by God. It is described in the Bible as a master. Sin masters those who are not saved, but is hindered by the conscience God created in every being. God also wrote His character traits on the hearts of all people because we are born in His image. Unbelievers are not completely mastered by sin because they are born in God’s image. Unfortunately, unbelievers often confuse the image of God with their own righteousness.
When a believer sins, it is a violation of the Bible, but is considered to be sin against God and His family, directly or indirectly, by bringing shame on God’s name. For the unbeliever, violation of the law leads to eternal condemnation while sin for the believer can lead to chastisement and loss of reward.
5. Sanctification
It means to be set apart for God’s purposes. The gospel is really a call to kingdom living. Escape from eternal judgment is a positive by-product. See Andy Young’s TANC 2014 sessions on sanctification.
6. Kingdom
The earth is presently ruled by Satan. It is the kingdom of darkness. God’s kingdom is NOT on earth nor is the earth being gradually transformed from one kingdom realm to another via the collective Christocentric psyche of the church. We are ambassadors of God’s heavenly kingdom. Christ will return, destroy Satan’s kingdom, and set up His own. Christians are to make as many disciples as possible until that day. The church has no task in bringing forth God’s kingdom on earth. We display the will of the kingdom, and call people to it, but have NO task in bringing it to earth.
7. Hell
Hell was not created for man, but for Satan and the demons who were never offered salvation. A loving God sends no one to hell, people merely choose what kingdom they want to belong to. The gospel is a call to escape the earthly kingdom and its slavery to sin, and be transformed into God’s kingdom of light.
8. The Bible
“Law,” “scripture,” “holy writ,” “the law and the prophets,” “the word,” “the law,” etc., are all interchangeable terms for the closed canon of scripture. The Bible is God’s law and wisdom for life and godliness. It is also a full-orbed metaphysical treatise. It defines reality.
9. The Law of Sin and Death
It’s the Bible’s relationship to unbelievers. It describes how the unbeliever will be judged in the last day for every violation of conscience.
10. The Law of the Spirit of Life
It describes the believer’s relationship to the Bible. The transformed heart of the believer now desires to obey God, is no longer enslaved to sin, and cannot be condemned by the law. The Bible is a manual for our kingdom citizenship.
11. Judgment
There are two: one of condemnation for those who chose the kingdom of darkness, known as the Great White Throne Judgment, and a separate one for eternal rewards known as the Bema Judgment.
12. Redemption
This is the other salvation. It is the redemption of the body at resurrection. This salvation is often confused with justification, or the salvation of the soul.
13. Justice
Justice is of paramount importance to God and He is angered when it is not practiced by people whether lost or saved. Fairness matters to God.
14. Rest
The Christian life is NOT a rest. John Calvin believed sanctification is the New Testament version of the Old Testament Sabbath rest. Because Protestantism only sees ONE application of the law, to judge/condemn, Christians must supposedly rest while Jesus fulfills the law for us.
Unwittingly, this defines Christians as “under law.” Who keeps the law is irrelevant, it can’t give life, and it can’t justify. Protestants must wrongly assert this because they reject the two applications of the law and make it strictly for condemnation only. In contrast, Christians can use the law lawfully because it can no longer condemn them. In Protestantism, the condemnation of the law is not removed for the Christian.
Justice, and Why Christians Leave Church
“It’s not about injustice, It’s about Jesus.”
~ Producer of “Unearthed”
Justice: One Reason People Don’t Go to Church: Romans 13:1-7
1. Romans 13:1-7
A. What does this have to do with people not going to church?
b. Everything.
2. “Unearthed” video clip.
A. Seems to be EVERYTHING Christians would agree on as well as all moral people.
a. “You can’t legislate morality; you have to change people’s hearts.”
b. It calls men to stand up and be moral, and therefore circumventing the demand for porn.
c. Tim Keller
- A man’s “sense of justice.”
- The men are victims too; they are slaves.
- The gospel is the key. (the collective soul will be explained).
d. Mark Driscoll
- It hurts EVRYBODY, not just the man enslaved to porn.
† Voice of reason; man is an island is a misnomer hurtful to society.
†† The collective good.
e. It’s the “portal”; soft porn ultimately leads to sex trafficking.”
f. You can’t keep picking the fruit (ie, stop the behavior), you have to cut off the root.
g. If we do this, it is hard telling what society will “look like” versus BE like.
h. We want move beyond the problem and make a film about the solution.
- Title: The Hearts of Men.
- Christ moves beyond symptoms and deal with the HEARTS of men.
† Interpretive question: what is the “heart.”
i. Action.
- Primarily pray for the victimizers as well as the victims.
- Share
- Give Money
3. What is really going on here?
A. Their definition of the gospel is the societal collective Psyche.
B. Their definition of the heart is the soul of man.
4. The construct defined.
A. Image #1
a. The collective psyche is the root.
b. All things progressing toward restoration is the fruit.
c. Image #2—the tree in the video.
d. Church historian and author John Immel
- Image #1
- The root is IDEAS.
- The fruit is what society “looks like” as a result of the ideas.
B. The soul.
a. Like a tree, the “heart” has a root and fruit.
b. This is the Heart Theology of Neo-Calvinism.
- Pastor rant: “I am sick of the “root and fruit gospel”
- What is it? Image #3
- Man is totally depraved/incompetent, therefore, his root ideas must be supplied for the collective good of society.
- Moreover, his ideas should be compelled by force for the betterment of society.
- What man thinks is what society is.
† This is the collective soul making the collective psyche resuting in the ideal society.
- This is Plato: man’s soul is a mirror image of society; society is a tree of fruit and root, and man’s soul is a tree of fruit and root.
- Image #4
- Compare to Image #1
- Image #5
c. The video NEVER states that man changes; it states, like communism, that society is the manifestation of man’s thinking, and that man does not know what to think, and must be compelled to think the right things through being educated by the enlightened, and for the betterment of society, by force if necessary.
d. Man is too incompetent to be a problem, bad ideas are the problem. The Neo-Calvinist therefore deems him as someone who should be prayed for, and at times agrees with the state that he/she should be executed if they refuse to repent of their own ideas—for the collective good of society. It’s nothing personal, it just so happens that your body is the bearer of bad ideas that are hurtful to society. No man is a bad person per se, ideas are the problem.
5. Justice: the story of two realities.
A. The justice of Romans 13:1-7 versus the justice of Plato’s Republic.
a. Government is a gift to man by God and is His servant for the good of man.
b. God exhorts man to have a sense of justice and to follow Him, and man is capable of doing so, and has a free will to do so.
c. However, when injustice takes place via the choices of men, God warns Christians and the unregenerate alike (throughout the New Testament) that the government is His servant to enforce justice and punish injustice. Hence, God is pleased with the natural flow of justice, but warns that He will enforce justice sooner or later; presently by government, or in the future via His White Throne Judgment.
d. Man is without excuse because he is created with a conscience—Paul exhorts Christians to live by their consciences.
B. Plato’s Republic insists that ALL justice comes from the root because man is incapable of knowing good and reality. Therefore, it does NO good to enforce behavior, what man believes is what must be enforced, and this root will result in societies fruit.
Conclusion
History tells us that Plato’s construct does not work. And because it has become the premise of the church’s Heart Theology, church doesn’t work. Hence, people stop going to church for the same reason that people do not move from America to Russia.
“It’s not about injustice, It’s about Jesus.”
~ Producer of “Unearthed”
Paul's Passing Thoughts 
1 comment