today's gospel: authentic or synthetic

I'm currently reading through a book called Today's Gospel: Authentic or Synthetic (which you can get used at amazon.com for 20 cents plus shipping), written by Walter J. Chantry. It's a short, 92-page, book that examines the deficiencies of the gospel as its preached using modern "evangelism" and powerfully shows the way evangelism should be done, as our Lord Jesus Christ did, using the example of the Rich Young Ruler in the gospels. I highly recommend it.


Here's an excerpt:

Today, we are told that witnessing is to begin with "God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life." Love is set before sinners as the foremost characteristic of God. But Jesus didn't begin that way. And the Bible as a whole speaks more often of God's holiness than of His love. This is probably because men readily remember all the attributes that might favor themselves and totally forget those which threaten or alarm them.

Thousands of sinners think of God as having only one attribute - "love". Though that is a part of the truth, when it is taken for the whole truth it becomes a lie. When you tell a stranger, "God loves you," his mind registers something like this: "Yes, He loves me and would never harm me. He loves me with forgiving and merciful kindness; so, all is well with my soul." In the concept of the average American, there is no idea that God is holy; only a perverted concept that God is gushy, all-embracing kindness. Modern evangelism is helping to foster this misconception of God by its silence and vagueness.

To say to a rebel, "God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life," is terribly misinforming. The truth is that God is holy. Thus, He is angry with the sinner at this moment. His sword of wrath already hangs over the head of the guilty and will forever torment him unless he repents and trusts Christ. This plan is not so wonderful. God's redeeming love for sinners is found only in Christ, and the sinner is out of Christ. The modern approach is diametrically opposed to Jesus' method with the young ruler. He did not soothe him in his ignorance, but stirred up fear by preaching that God is essentially good.