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Wednesday, October 10, 2007

Let's Move from PC to TC

Preschool Sunday school lessons often teach students that God made all things, He made them, and He made families. The desired responses to these truths follow: each child should obey God, obey Mommy and Daddy, be kind, and share. The reasoning behind these themes assumes preschoolers are too young to understand the gospel. Some would agree twos and threes are too young to understand the gospel, but teachers of preschoolers run the risk of leading children to believe good deeds merit God’s pleasure and acceptance. When these children pass through the Kindergarten and Primary Departments, they must “unlearn” what they learned earlier. They discover good deeds do not merit God’s pleasure and acceptance. They learn they are sinful and can be saved only by grace through faith in Jesus as Savior.
Nowadays the gospel is often withheld from adults. Many pastors have bought into the idea that postmodern adults cannot understand concepts such as sin, judgment, and salvation. So they have tailored the gospel to fit the culture. Instead of preaching compassionately and authoritatively that every person is a sinner destined for hell unless he or she believes in Christ, who shed His blood for our sins, was buried, and rose again, politically correct (PC) pastors proclaim a soft, gentle, palatable message. “You are special,” they say. “God loves you, has a wonderful plan for your life, and invites you to trust Him to fulfill your dreams.”
Frankly, I would rather be TC (theologically correct) than PC (Politically correct). The apostle Paul could have argued that first-century Greek and Roman pagans would not understand the gospel, but he chose to be theologically correct and preached the gospel clearly and authoritatively. He knew the Holy Spirit enlightens the minds of sinners (1 Cor. 2: 4, 5, 14; 2 Cor. 4:3–6) and the gospel is “the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes” (Rom. 1:16).
I am fully in favor of helping non-Christians move from the known to the unknown by explaining unfamiliar biblical terms; however, I deplore every attempt to alter the gospel to make it pleasing to those who want to believe God is simply a celestial Santa Claus or a doting philanthropist or a genie devoted to granting their every wish.
The apostle Paul commanded the Galatians to reject any gospel that isn’t the gospel (Gal. 1:6–8). His command should reverberate today in seminary classrooms and church auditoriums throughout the land.
Let’s move from PC to TC.

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