How has the Gospel been distorted and lost in America?

Jeff Pollard explains in this video that the heart of the problem of "American commercial religion" is that all too often, the Gospel is watered down and distorted. Many churches wrongly preach that "if you only believe" and "pray this prayer," you automatically go to Heaven when you die. However, when we look to Scripture, we see that it portrays an entirely different Gospel.

When the Gospel is preached throughout Scripture, the Gospel message always begins with God. This is because there must be a context in which to preach Christ. There must first be an explanation of God and of man’s condition. Then, man's need for Christ is explained. It is not enough to simply talk about Christ, but unsaved individuals must understand why they need Him. Once we have done that, we then have a responsibility to call them to repentance and faith.

2 Timothy 4:2-4 (NKJV) – “Preach the word! Be ready in season and out of season. Convince, rebuke, exhort, with all longsuffering and teaching. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers; and they will turn their ears away from the truth, and be turned aside to fables.”

Lying at the heart of the problem of American commercial religion is a loss of the biblical gospel. Now, I want to be clear about this. There are true aberrations of the gospel, but I want to talk about especially the easy-believism sort. The idea is that there was someone named Jesus, he died on a cross, he rose again, and if you just believe that, you're going to heaven. There's enough truth in that to be very confusing.

Yes, there was a man named Jesus. He died upon the cross of Calvary, and he rose again. And we see the gospel in short form in 1 Corinthians 15. If you study that passage very carefully, it's more than those simple facts. And if you really want to see that unfold, you need to look through the book of Acts and realize how they preached that gospel.

It doesn't sound like the so-called good news that we hear today very often. You go to Acts chapter 2, and Peter preaches the glory of Christ, but he doesn't start with Christ. Peter didn't start with Christ on the day of Pentecost, nor in Acts chapter 3. Paul did not start with Christ when he was— in Acts chapter 13 in Antioch— he did not start with Christ when he was on Mars Hill in Acts chapter 17. The gospel begins with God.

There must be a context in which to preach Christ. So the obvious place to begin is with God, and that's what we always see in the book of Acts, or I should say generally see. When Peter is preaching to Jews, he understood what they knew about God, so he didn't have to explain who God was, but nevertheless he began with God, the God of our fathers. He then unfolds Scripture, and then he brings in Christ. Jesus is the fulfillment of what God the Father has promised.

And we see this kind of thing taking place. There's an explanation of God, And then there is some explanation or presentation of man and his condition and his need for Christ. Telling someone about Christ without at least in some way helping them to see that they need Him is pointless. Now once we have explained something about God, we have shown men their need, and we have set before them the only hope that they have in their need, then we have a responsibility, and that's to call them to repentance and faith. Now that's crucial.

Repentance is left out of most gospel preaching today. We must call men to change their minds and to believe the Lord Jesus Christ, the crucified, the resurrected Lord of glory. So if you don't have a gospel that speaks to people where they are, you might get religious converts, but you don't get people who are transformed in their need to be forgiven before Almighty God. So if we preach the gospel, then we've got a foundation to begin to take the Scriptures and bring people into walking with the Christ that has saved them. You go through the book of Acts, it radically transforms your missiology, your evangelism, and all of those kinds of things.

So yes, what's good news? Sinners have one hope, repenting of their sins and believing on the crucified and resurrected God-man. And When we really preach that good news, those that are hungry for pardon and life find life. Thank you. Thank you.