A Gospel Presentation
In missions it is absolutely of utmost importance to have a firm grasp on what the Gospel is and what it is not. For one reason, it is very important to understand our role and God's role. We present the Gospel message by grace and God the Holy Spirit alone causes conviction of sin and regeneration to make one able to hear and believe the message. Salvation is entirely an act of God according to His sovereign will.
Another important reason is that too often what gets called the Gospel is anything but the Gospel. Too many missionaries have been sent with "false gospels" and entire nations have been led astray from saving-faith in Jesus Christ. They have been given a morality gospel that seeks only to make them live "better" or according to western standards. Or, even more common today, is they have been preached a "prosperity" gospel telling them that God will give them a "better" life if they obey God; He loves them as they are, repentance is optional or secondary matter, salvation is a secondary matter; Jesus is something like a genie in a bottle to grant you your desires... They 'come' to this Jesus easily and by the large number. They say 'yes' to this Jesus because it is a good investment.
Most Africans I meet in Italy, for example, have been taught that their desperate economic situations can be relieved if they only "sow" the little money they have into the church (actually the prosperity preachers pocket). In this way they will act by faith, make an 'investment', please God and God will in turn pay them back more... When I ask them if they are saved they almost always tell me, "yes". When I ask them why they believe they are saved they almost always tell me it is because they have a good heart and try to obey God - works-based salvation that produces only self-righteousness or despair and clearly is not the Biblical way of salvation.
All this is very sad. In fact, even here in Europe there is talk about the ludicrous claims last week from a prosperity televangelist in America. The man Jesse Duplantis is seen on tv boasting of how he is seeking 54 million dollars to buy another private jet for the ministry; the ministry named after himself, naturally... Such an embarrassment for Christianity in so many ways! The already confusing situation Europeans face, especially Italians, regarding protestant evangelical Christianity is again given a bad name by people like this who preach a different and false gospel. Millions are starving to death and this 'preacher' wants them to give the little they have (invest it or sow it...) so he can fly luxuriously like a rock star in the name of Jesus to proclaim his message which is not the Gospel at all.
As a missionary stewarded with the true Gospel it breaks my heart to see these things happening. I can only imagine how many lost people could be reached and how many disciples could be made, elders trained and real churches planted if the 54 million dollars was given to support real missionaries of Christ sent out with the real Gospel to meet peoples real need of forgiveness and salvation by grace alone through faith in Christ alone to the glory of God alone.
At PMc we are passionate about the true Gospel. We are willing to live or die for it because it is the power unto salvation (Rom. 1:16). It is pure and perfect. Here are two short clips of a real gospel presentation by brother Dr. Steven Lawson. It doesn't really get better than this. I encourage you to give it a listen and compare this to what you have been taught is the Gospel. You may be astonished, especially if your background is charismatic or liberal christianity.
Enjoy and God bless you as you seek to live according to the Gospel, faithful to Christ and at His service.
