Easy Belief?

I have started reading John MacArthurs book "Hard to Believe" and it is a real page turner. Dr. MacArthur does a great job of taking apart the whole idea that we could possibly preach the unadulterated gospel and still be well thought of by the world. I particularly like chaper two entitled, "The Hard Truth". The myth of popular Christianity is exposed in this chapter.

John MacArthur explains- Christians have worked hard to position themselves in places of power within the culture. They seek influence academically, politically, economically, athletically, socially, theatrically, religiously, and every other way, in hopes of gaining mass media exposure. But then when they get that exposure - sometimes through mass media, sometimes in a very broad-minded church environment - they present a reinvented designer pop gospel that subtly removes all of the offense of the gospel and beckons people into the kingdom along an easy path. They do away with all that hard-to-believe stuff about self sacrifice, hating your family and so forth.

This is certainly not the gospel we hear preached on TV nowdays. It seems that all of the preachers on the tube either have a pablum filled message about how God wants you to be liked by everybody, or how you can be rich if you will just sew "seed" into their ministry, or if you will just "have faith" then you can be healed of that cancer or whatever else is ailing you. And if you don't get healed it's your fault because you didn't have enough faith to make it happen.

The simple truth is the gospel is not about our felt needs. It is about the salvation of the lost, which includes all of us until we accept Jesus as savior. It is amazing to think that the popular Evangelical movement has strayed so far from the preaching of the "hard truth" of the gospel. Many pastors are content to focus on church growth, while abandoning the true gospel in favor of something more palatable. The gospel does not address our felt needs. In our unregenerate state we have no felt need of a savior. The gospel tells us that we are dirty and unworthy, and that a totally innocent man had to die so that we could spend eternity someplace besides hell.

I am looking forward to finishing this book. It probably won't take too long given that it has taken hold of me, and I'm having a hard time putting it down long enough to post this. But I was just so excited about what I'm reading that I had to say something.