Is The Gospel Offensive

From our last Next Level Meeting

The Gospel means Good News(1) so why do some people find it offensive? This is the topic that was up for discussion at our last “Next Level” meeting. We talked about a great many things concerning this topic, but for this article I will only talk about three of the things people find offensive. One is that people get offended when the bible tells them that we are born with sin – before we even have our first thought. Another is that God sees sin as sin – no sin is greater than the other. Probably the biggest one is that living a good life and doing good deeds is not enough to get into the Kingdom of Heaven. Are these reasons alone enough to conclude that the bible is offensive and – more importantly - should it be?

Adam and Eve committed the original sin(2) in the beginning. Because of this first sin, all men and women are born into it. Many people feel that why should they be held accountable for something two people did so long ago in a place so far away. It is just not fair that we are held responsible for what two people we have never met did.

There are no levels of sin in God's eye.(3) Therefore someone telling a white lie or a huge black lie are the same thing in God's eyes. In our society's law, there are different punishments for different crimes that are committed but this is not so in God's law. People have a hard time believing that they would be in the same classification as someone who murders someone just because they look at another woman (or man) with lustful intentions. Two tremendously different things in man's law but in God's law they are just as bad.

The hardest thing for people to accept is that they are powerless on their own. We would like to think and believe that when we put our minds to something we can accomplish anything. “We also like the good things we do, and we think we ought to get credit for them.”(4) The Gospel pretty much tells you to your face that you cannot do this alone. No matter how hard we try we all fall short of the glory of God.(5) We may consider ourselves good people but the truth is no one is guiltless.(6) This is exactly what people do not want to hear.

There were many other reasons people find the Gospel offensive that was discussed during our meeting and based on these three we can easily conclude that yes . . . it is offensive. The only question now is, should it be? In scripture, Jesus offended people all the time. He wasn't timid or mindful of their feelings, he told them the way it is and he didn't just do it to non-believers. He also offended religious people.

The Pharisees – the religious leaders of the day – were constantly being told off by Jesus who called them hypocrites constantly. They followed the law of God but not with their hearts. He called them hypocrites for the way they gave to the poor,(7) for the way they prayed, (8) for the way they spoke, (9) how they kept the Sabbath(10) as well as many other things.

So we concluded that people do get offended by the Gospel, and Christians, but when we are dealing with eternal life and eternal suffering don't you think we should be? The kids gloves have to come off cause we are dealing with people's salvation. We are dealing with the fact that people might have to endure eternity suffering. Jesus had no problem telling people the truth without sugarcoating it because “small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.”(11)

So should we as Christians worry about being offensive when we talk about the Gospel? Well, let me use the words of Penn Jillette – from the magician/comedian duo of Penn & Teller (an atheist I should add) – to answer that question. He said, “. . . I don't respect people who don't proselytize” (to convert or attempt to covert) “. . . if you believe there's a heaven and hell and you believe people could be going to hell or not getting eternal life or whatever . . . and you think it's not worth telling them this because it would make it socially awkward . . . how much do you have to hate someone to not proselytize?”(12)

Come join us next time when we will be discussing “

Spiritual Leadership in Culture.”

http://www.facebook.com/events.php?ref=sb#/event.php?eid=290785980496&index=1

“If there is no God, and you bet your life there is, you've lost nothing.

But if there is a God, and you bet your life there isn't, you've made the greatest mistake imaginable.

-Blaise Pascal

NOTES:

1 Translated from Old English: God Spell

2 Genesis 3:1-7

3 James 2:10

4 “The Faith” by Charles Colson & Harold Fickett page 114,

5 Romans 3:23