A Gospel rule of thumb?
Posted by Brian March 05, 2007
“Gospel” means “good news.” I’ve been toying around with the idea of a rough rule-of-thumb way to tell if what somebody is preaching is the Gospel or not.
It goes like this:
If you can’t preface what you’re saying with “Good News!”, then it probably isn’t the Gospel.
For example
- “Good News! Unless you believe these seemingly impossible things I’m telling you, you will burn in hell forever!” Doesn’t quite work.
- “Good News! Unless you submit to our interpretation of the Bible, you will be Left Behind in a world of terror and despair, after we Christians get Raptured!” Doesn’t seem like good news.
- “Good News! God hates you, but if you follow these steps, you can make him stop hating you and love you instead!” Odd good news, to say the least.
I guess it’s not a perfect rule. Some aspects of the Gospel may not seem completely appealing on the surface. Jesus did say things like, “take up your cross and follow me.” Also, not everything that sounds good is the Gospel, either (”Good News! Jesus will definitely heal you and make you rich!”).
What do you think?
Hahaha, I think I know some folks who need to know about this rule . . .
“Good News! God hates you, but if you try really hard to be good, he’ll tolerate you!”