Preaching the Gospel – Teaching the Word

Heart of the Matter

LIVE FROM…

• SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH

This is Heart of the MatterTGNN’s original show where Shawn McCraney deconstructed religion and developed fulfilled theology., where we try to worship God in Spirit and Truth. And I’m your host, Shawn McCraneyFounder of TGNN and developer of the fulfilled perspective—calling people to faith outside of religion..

Show 17 443 Preaching the Gospel Teaching the Word
April 28th, 2015

Great interview with Jack Ashcraft, a Byzantine Priest, last Friday night. Thanks to all who took the time to tune in. Jack was a very cordial host and I was frankly surprised by his calm, sensible understanding of the Gospel of Grace and the love He extended toward me. Thanks, Brother Jack. You can hear more from him at:

(GRAPHIC HERE)

As you know by now, next week (right here in the HOTM studios) we will have Matt Slick from CARM for a two-hour special talking about Calvinism. The event is open to the public so get here early as Matt has popularity in these parts. Refreshments will be served and a Q and A time open to all in attendance and at home.

A Transformative Quote

Received a great quote that really lifted my spirits from my brother who we will call Brandon (cause that is one name he calls himself). It’s from the Christian legend Oswald Chambers and says:

“The Christian life is a life characterized by true and spontaneous creativity. Consequently, a disciple is subject to the same charge that was leveled against Jesus Christ, namely, the charge of inconsistency. But Jesus Christ was always consistent in His relationship to God, and a Christian must be consistent in his relationship to the life of the Son of God in him, not consistent to strict, unyielding doctrines. People pour themselves into their own doctrines, and God has to blast them out of their preconceived ideas before they can become devoted to Jesus Christ.”
~ Oswald Chambers

Thank you Brandon, thank you Oswald and all Glory to God, the great Creator.

And with that how about a moment from the WORD.

Insights on the Timing

Run From the Word intro here.

Last week we hit Revelation and used the content to illustrate how it had to have been written prior to 70 AD. To points relative to this from the Word. A distinguished scholar from the Sorbonne, one Claude Tresmontant uses the tense of the Greek in the works of John to show that all of John’s writings – not just Revelation, were composed prior to the Fall of Jerusalem in 70 AD. So where many scholars today try to suggest that John’s Gospel was also written well after 70 AD Tresmontant will turn to the Gospel and show that John wrote in the present – not the past tense therein. For example, turn to John 5:2. There, John writes a simple descriptive statement, saying:

John 5:2 Now there is at Jerusalem by the sheep market a pool, which is called in the Hebrew tongue Bethesda, having five porches.

Going straight to the Greek the mss say: There IS (“estin” in the Greek, not there was but there IS) at Jerusalem a pool . . . This would make no sense at all if Jerusalem was sitting as a heap of stones for some 25 or more years before John wrote. You can read more from Tresmontant in the Hebrew Christ and His work in The Gospel of Matthew.

The second thing I want to point out comes by way of illustration. One of the biggest issues believers today have with the preterist view is how does it us NOW? Where’s OUR hope if Jesus has already come? Even more to the point, how are we to read, apply and understand the Bible today.

Illustration of Prophetic Insight

So – to the illustration:

Suppose that you are a passenger on the Titanic. And you have the spirit of Prophecy. While you are traveling across the sea you witness great disparity between the wealthy class and those in steerage. You actually witness the rich looking down on the poor and treating them with disdain. And let’s say you also know that the ship is going down –along with everything on it. And then God tells you to call the passengers to repentance – especially those who have placed their trust in the riches that fill their luggage. Why? Because it's all – every bit of it – going to the bottom of the sea – along with many of them. Naturally, what you saw came true. In the Epistle of James, the writer has been trying to tell the recipients of his epistle to prepare themselves for the same demise. Don’t treat the rich with preferential treatment. Watch how…

The Teachings of James on Wealth and Preparedness

You use your tongue.

In the last chapter, James gets right down to brass tacks and opens by saying:

James 5:1 “Go to now, ye rich men, weep and howl for your miseries that shall come upon you.”

Like the warnings given on the Titanic, James is saying the same thing – “Hey Rich, get ready to weep and howl for the miseries THAT SHALL COME UPON YOU.”

What is James talking about?

In verse three, he adds:

“Your gold and silver is cankered; and the rust of them shall be a witness against you, and shall eat your flesh as it were fire. Ye have heaped treasure together for the last daysThe final years of the old covenant age—fulfilled in the first century, not future end times..”

Just as the warning on the Titanic was against the imminent sinking, James is warning them of the imminent last days of that age.

The Imminence of End Times

In verse 5, he adds:

“Ye have lived in pleasure on the earth, and been wanton; ye have nourished your hearts, as in a day of slaughter.”

And in verses seven and eight, he says:

“Be patient therefore, brethren, unto the coming of the Lord. Behold, the husbandman waiteth for the precious fruit of the earth, and hath long patience for it, until he receive the early and latter rain. Be ye also patient; stablish your hearts: for the coming of the Lord draweth nigh.

And like the Titanic, the end came with the destruction of Jerusalem.

So how are we to read and apply this illustration and the reality of what happened to Jerusalem? Same way. We are all Titanics. We are all living in Jerusalem pre 70 AD. None of us know when our end is coming. But we all know it’s coming.

Do we heed the reality and prepare for its inevitability or do we live as if we can never be sunk, as if our power and riches will protect us from Roman invasion?

The scripture is the most marvelous gift as it presents us with types and symbols and pictures that are applicable to our individual lives.

We read and learn and heed or we ignore the principles that literally played out and on a people – God’s people – nearly two thousand years ago.

Simply put – the Nation of Israel was a type for every individual believer today – without a lesson or principle lost in the literal fulfillment of its existence before God.

Application of Scriptural Lessons

Treasure the book, the lessons, and apply the meaning to your life – you never know when you're gonna hit an iceberg – or when Jesus is gonna return for you.

And with that, let’s have a word of Prayer.

Prayer Prayer Prayer

Last week we used the Bible to show the dating of Revelation which goes a long way in establishing the fact that the contents of the Bible and its primary purpose – communications written to people THEN – have been fulfilled. NOT without continued tremendous purpose but fulfilled. If this is true, how is the Bible of worth to us today? It narrates the Gospel story and supplies us with directives on how to live as Christians. That’s two parts – again – “It narrates the Gospel story for us and supplies us with directives on how to live as Christians.”

Most respectable Christian churches today take the New Testament – and approach it like this:

This is the New Testament. It is the word of God and for a person to be right with God they have to comply with all that this New Testament says.

The intimation is that in order for a person to be saved they have to know, embrace, and apply all the contents of the New Testament.

The New Testament then ends up becoming synonymous with the Good News.

This is a tremendous mistake and leads to all sorts of craziness.

First of all, if this is true there is an implication that the New Testament can be agreed upon. This is not true – even down to something as apparently simple as water baptism.

Then there is the fallacy that all the contents can be lived perfectly. Understood perfectly then lived perfectly.

If we really think about these positions the whole world is going to hell and the Good News is not so great because nobody lives or receives the entirety of the New Testament.

Fortunately for us, conformity to every point of the entire New Testament narrative is NOT required for salvation.

What is? Faith.

In what? Jesus (LISTEN) which is summarized in the New Testament narrative in

The Good News

The Good News. Which is what? Generally speaking, the deathSeparation from God—now overcome. Physical death remains, but it no longer separates us from life with God., burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Our modern Easter celebrations are really celebrations of the Good News.

If we want to get more specific and take the full New Testament definition of the Good News into account I might suggest that the Good News could be defined as the fact that “God so love the World that He gave us His Only begotten Son that whoso believes in HIM – in His Sonship – in Him being “the I AM,” in His death, his resurrection, and His ascension to Glory – will not die in their sins and will therefore be saved from afterlife misery.”

That’s it. That’s Good News. FORTY or so Words. “Our faith in Him saves us from sinMissing the mark of faith and love—no punishment, just lost growth or peace. and grants us life eternal.” Forty or so words in total. This is the first message found in the New Testament. It is a message that is preached to non-believers. Receiving it by faith makes non-believers believers.

Purpose of the New Testament

I’m not going to prove this tonight and there and there are seven or eight passages that SEEM to suggest otherwise (but can be argued through the Greek) but the Gospel is never preached to believers in the New Testament. It is preached to unbelievers. Believers are instructed in the remaining contents of the Bible. Believers are taught by teachers. Unbelievers are evangelized by preachers.

Notice that in the King James Version of the New Testament there are 788,280 English words. The Gospel – the Good News – can be reduced down to around 40 of them – which are of course repeated. That leaves 788,240 words that serve another purpose. Looking at it this point in an even more dramatic fashion, there are 138,020 Greek words that make up the New Testament. These have been amplified to 788,280 English words. That’s a lot of filler between the two translations isn’t it?

My point is what is essential to salvation is faith (from the heart) in only forty of these words. “God so love the World that He gave His Only begotten Son that whoso believe in HIM – in His Sonship – in Him being the I AM, in His death, his resurrection, His ascention to Glory – would not die in their sins.” Isn’t that simple?

Simplicity of the Good News

We note that the Good News includes nothing about Trinity, nothing about hell being eternal, nothing about the Second comingChrist’s return, fulfilled in 70 A.D., ending the old covenant—not the world., nothing about Arminianism, nothing about Calvinism, nothing about Ipisimus Verba, nothing about water baptism. The Good News, which is believed unto salvation is all focused on Jesus Christ and His life’s work.

Paul said in 2nd Corinthians 11:3, “But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ.”

In chapter two of Colossians Paul writes a number of things “lest any man should beguile you with enticing words.” In Colossians 2:8 he says, “Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after (beat) Christ.”

In verse 16 of the same chapter he adds: “Let no man therefore judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of an holyday, or of the new moon, or of the sabbath days: which are a shadow of things about to come; but the body is of Christ. Let no man beguile you of your reward in a voluntary humility and worshipping of angels, intruding into those things which he hath not seen, vainly puffed up by his fleshly mind.”

Finally, the writer of Hebrews in Hebrew 13:8-9 says: “Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to day, and for ever. Be not carried about with divers and strange doctrines. For it is a good thing that the heart be established with grace; not with meats, which have not profited them that have been occupied therein.”

In the reception of the Good News there is absolute and total unity – a unity intended by God for all men in the name of His Son. A unity that binds us by His Spirit in the knowledge of Christ. This is possible because the Good News has been so simplified. There is little room to debate. Oh, we try – we want to make borders and make sure everyone sees everything as we see them – but the Good News is really amazing in that we receive it or we don’t. If we don’t we have not been adopted into the Body of Christ.

The Simplicity and Power of the Gospel

In this, God has used the simplicity of these forty words to the point that He can take a million people of a thousand languages and dialects, and from a million lifestyles and interests and tastes and cultures and make them ONE. That’s radical isn’t it? The closest thing we have to it is music – the power a magnificent song can have which temporarily touches millions of people in a similar way.

But Christ is far more influential and lasting and uniting than a song because He is everlasting, His effects don’t fade, His love does not dim, and faith in Him only grows as it is fed.

Here comes the rest of the New Testament words. The first forty are preached to convert. The remaining 788,000 plus words are taught to believers.

Paul puts it this way:

2nd Timothy 3:16-17 All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: that the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works.

The Function of New Testament Teachings

The Gospel is received by faith and salvation is granted to unbelievers. The rest of the New Testament is given by inspiration and is profitable for doctrine, reproof, correction, and instruction in righteousness that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly furnished unto all good works.

See the 40 or so word Gospel represents only the first distinct part of the New Testament narrative. They are like a life raft that is tossed out to the unsaved who are drowning in the stormy seas of life. The Gospel is the gate wherein we enter the Kingdom of GodGod’s spiritual reign—fulfilled and present, not political or future. – by faith in the Good News of Christ Jesus.

Salvation and Post-Salvation Teachings

The other 787,000 words are debatable, non-essential instructions relative to salvation for those who have received the life raft, for those who have passed through the gates of the Kingdom. You heard me right – they are all non-essential to salvation.

Look at it this way: Suppose a man falls down in front of you with a heart attack and there is a card with forty or so words that tell you how to administer CPR. You scream for someone to hand it to you but they instead hand you a fifteen-volume set of medical journals. All you need, at that time, is the simple instructions that will save this dying man’s life.

This is the Good News in a spiritual sense. Nothing more. Let’s say you finally get the card with these simple words and you administer CPR and the man lives. He is now part of an elite group of people who have been saved by CPR and nothing more.

And suppose that Disneyland has a special day reserved for anyone whose lives have been saved by CPR – they get into the magic kingdom on that day for free. Nobody else. So the park is filled. And the people all share the exact same reason why they were let into the park – they were administered CPR and their body responded to it.

While inside they may differ on what they should eat now that they have been revived. They can debate on what CPR saved people should wear, or how they ought to live, but the commonality is that they were all saved and allowed into the Magic Kingdom in the first place. Everything else is ancillary, often debatable, but of no relation at all to the fact that they are IN the park as people saved by CPR.

Got it?

This is the simplicity, the beauty, the primary message in the New Testament – nothing else. It is the reception of this message that saves people and gives them entrance into the Kingdom here and on high.

Denominations may add water baptism. They might add the need to accept creeds, they might demand a laundry list of other demands to being saved, or worthy, or a good member, but the Gospel is the GOOD NEWS.

Listen –

It was the Gospel that was preached by Peter at Pentecost. None of the Pauline epistles or Jude or John or Peter’s Epistles or Hebrews even existed at this point – and three thousand souls were what ???? That’s right, they were saved.

I am making this point to try and help establish the New Testament order of information.

FIRST, Salvation through the preaching of the Good News to non-believers, and

SECOND, Teaching of the disputable matters to those who have been saved.

Did you know that nowhere in the New Testament do we read that the Gospel is taught? How do you teach news!

The Essential Role of the Good News

You shout it. You preach it. You lay out the simple instructions on how to resuscitate a dying man back to life. You don’t sit there and detail everything required – that’s religion. Then once the Good News has been received, and a person has been given life through Christ by the Holy Spirit through grace THEN and ONLY then do the remaining words have purpose.

Never in the New Testament do we find the Good News taught in a gathering of believers. What we do find is teachers and instructors (in the non-essentials) guiding believers but we never find teachers of the Good News or preachers of the non-essentials. If we call someone “a preacher” we refer to an Evangelist who shares the Good news with others OUTSIDE the body of believers. And if we call someone a “teacher or a pastor” we are referring to someone who is teaching from the rest of the manual to those who have been saved.

The Ingenious Simplicity of Salvation

But take note of the ratio . . . of the amount of Biblical information God has NOT made requisite to salvation compared to what He has. Why? It’s simply ingenious. We are all capable, able, and equipped – depending on genetics, education, experience, spiritual inclination, study, maturity and grow in faith to learn and grow in faith and love.

So God saves all of us through the same gorgeous indisputable essentials of Christ – the Good News. But as a means to reveal Himself in deeper and richer ways, the rest of the New Testament narrative is revealed to all who are saved in different strengths and in a variety of depths – like the parables of the Lord.

It is here where we discover the subjectivity of the faith. Here again we are forced – if we are His – to love our brothers and sisters who all belong to the CPR club but think differently than ourselves, sometimes higher, sometimes lower, but all in the Kingdom.

Embracing Unity in Faith

I am personally petitioning all believers of every ilk to fully embrace all as brothers and sisters in the Lord who by faith have received the Good News – and to let love abide amidst all the rest. All the rest.

With that let’s open up the phone lines:

(801)

Now listen, we have a lot of emails I need to get through so if you are calling in have a point that contains a direct question or criticism. And while the ops are clearing your calls, take a look at dis:

NEW SPOT

EMAILS – let’s start with an email that really brightened my day this morning:
Markus writes:

“My Dad and I heard Joseph Smith actually survived being shot, and went on to become a professional golfing champion.”

RESPONSE

KEITH P WRITES:

"Not a hill to die on" is such a great and loving quote to the viewers… You are presenting discussion yet embracing all to keep focused on Christ.

RESPONSE

JIM C writes:

I love you brother Shawn…… A caller called in on episode 411 and asked “can I go to hell after I believe?” and you said “I believe you can” I used to think the same way till a non believer friend of mine was dying and his kids called me and asked if I would come and talk to him…..I was so unprepared …… I decided to go back and write something down on a piece of paper of what the Word said about the assurance of salvation and some of the questions that many of us have…….this is a part of what I found in relation to his question …..

RESPONSE

From: Andrea L.

I emailed you awhile back saying how your show helped me when I left the LDS church. My husband and I are still trying to figure out what kind of Christian Church to go to. I have been praying for some guidance on what Church to choose. We have a couple on our list to check out but haven’t yet. Through your show and through other studies I am learning the different theologies in the Christian faith. I am excited to see your show on Calvinist.

This morning we had a yard sale and I had a decorative cross that I have had for years but didn’t go with my decor up for sale. A man showed up and looked at it and felt prompted to ask us if we have a church or religion and we told him we just left the Mormon church and are currently looking for a new Christian church. He mentioned a couple churches in our area and mentioned how they were reformed and that

Understanding Church Denominations

we'd probably like that. I didn't really know what reformers believed so I just looked it up and basically my understanding is they are calvinist. I then realized most the churches in my area are reformed. My question to you, what christian churches are not reformed/calvinist? I don't know what to look for when checking out churches. I am still a little nervous becoming to involved in a church, it's like PTSD from what the LDS church did to me. I want to make sure I'm not taking my kids to a bunch of churches their whole childhood and never finding something to help them grow in their faith. What churches teach both scripture and spirit? I truly believe that is what would be best for us. I feel that way seeing how God has worked in my life recently.

Offering Support from Afar

FROM CLAIRE, I am an avid followed of your ministry & I want to support you but I am not in a position to do so financially. In saying that I can offer my time. If I was in America I would offer help within the church but since I'm in Ireland I was trying to think of what I could do to help long distance. So here is what I've come up with…

Skills for Ministry Help

I have a degree in English and have done some editing/proof reading in the past so that is one thing I can offer. I also thought (with regards to your YouTube videos), I could add captions (subtitles) to the videos and/or write out a transcript of the HOTM show and the Sunday sessions on the website. I have been thinking and praying about this for a while so there it is. I'm not sure if these ideas will be helpful to you but I wanted to offer all the same.

Peace out my brother from another mother!!

Claire.

RESPONSE