Tag Archives: the gospel

WHAT WOULD JESUS SAY TO US?

Posted on January 14, 2014 by stanwiedeman

I often wonder what Jesus would say to his professing followers of the 21st Century. Would it be “Well done good and faithful servants?” Or would it be “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites?” Of course, there is no official position of scribe in Jesus’s Church, nor does any Christian faction call itself Pharisee. Yet some of his followers seem determined to resurrect these labels in spirit. Continue reading →

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WINSOME PERSUASION

Posted on August 5, 2011 by stanwiedeman

Rosaria explains that the only exposure she had with Christians were from “students who refused to read papers on the grounds that knowing Jesus meant never needing to know anything else, people who sent her hate mail, or people who carried signs at Gay Pride marches, which read, ‘God hates fags.’” She had formulated the opinion that “Christians always seemed like bad thinkers” as well as “bad readers.” She concluded that Christians maintain their worldview only because they are unwilling to engage the complex problems of the world like poverty and violence. When Christians became uncomfortable in discourse it seemed to her that they resorted to their mantra, “the Bible says,” not to deepen the conversation, but in the hope of ending it. Continue reading →

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TEST THE PREACHERS

Posted on November 9, 2010 by stanwiedeman

You may be squeamish about evaluating preachers, especially popular ones. Yet, you must take care that you do not find your belief system deformed by preaching that deviates from the gospel. The apostle John warned, “Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, for many false prophets have gone out into the world.” (1 John 4:1) Not everyone who stands in a pulpit, who holds a Bible, who speaks with charisma, who fills his auditoriums, preaches in the Spirit of God. Test the preachers to see if they preach the gospel.
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THE GOOD NEWS BRUTALIZED

Posted on October 19, 2010 by stanwiedeman

We cannot deny that wrath belongs to the character of God. By His nature, God must be opposed to everything that opposes His goodness. It is certainly true that God hates sin.

When we arrive in the New Testament, God demonstrates His love and grace through the death and resurrection of His Son so powerfully that God’s wrath plays only a supporting role in the gospel message. The wrath of God in the punishment of sin still occupies the message. In fact, through the death of His Son, God shows that He cannot compromise His wrath and that it obligates Him to punish all sin. Jesus was sinless, but he willingly took the sins of men upon Himself and entered the heavenly courtroom for judgment and execution. Continue reading →

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