What Are the Essentials of the Gospel?

What are the essentials of the gospel? Acknowledging the depravity of man? Really seeing one's own sinfullness? Crying out to God for mercy and new life? Believing in the provision of Christ? Allow me to explore this topic with you by reading you 2 selections from an autobiography of a professing christian that I just finished. Here is the first...

"It is only the infinite mercy and love of God that has prevented us from tearing ourselves to pieces and destroying His entire creation long ago. People seem to think that it is in some way a proof that no merciful God exists, if we have so many wars. On the contrary, consider how in spite of centuries of sin and greed and lust and cruelty and hatred and avarice and oppression and injustice, spawned and bred by the free wills of men, the human race can still recover, each time, and can still produce men and women who overcome evil with good, hatred with love, greed with charity, lust and cruelty with sanctity. How could all this be possible without the merciful love of God, pouring out His grace upon us? Can there be any doubt where wars come from and where peace comes from, when the children of this world, excluding God from their peace conferences, only manage to bring about greater and greater wars the more they talk about peace?...
There is not a flower that opens, not a seed that falls into the ground, and not an ear of wheat that nods on the end of its stalk in the wind that does not preach and proclaim the greatness and mercy of God to the whole world...
(On his conversion) But now I lay on this bed, full of gangrene and my soul was rotten with the corruption of my sins...I was overwhelmed with a sudden and profound insight into the misery and corruption of my own soul, and I was pierced deeply with a light that made me realize something of the condition I was in, and I was filled with horror at what I saw, and my whole being rose up in revolt against what was within me, and my soul desired escape and liberation and freedom from all this with an intensity and an urgency unlike anything that I had known before. And now I think for the first time in my whole life I really began to pray-praying not with my lips and with my intellect and my imagination, but praying out of the very roots of my life and of my being, and praying to the God I had never known, to reach down towards meout of His darkness and to help me to get free of the thousand terrible things that held my will in their slavery."

Now when I read this passage I am amazed at this man's testimony. From his own lips he perceives the wickedness of all men, his very own wickedness, his need of a savior/God, and he cries out for just that. Has this man not fully grasped the essentials of the gospel and done so more excellently than many in our day?

Now, read this second passage, written by the same man.

"Glorious Mother of God, shall I ever again distrust you, or your God before Whose throne you are irresistible in your intercession? Shall I ever turn my eyes from your hands and from your face and from your eyes? Shall I ever look anywhere else but int eh face of your love, to find out true counsel, and to know my way, in all the days and all the moments of my life? As you have dealt with me, Lady, deal also with all my millions of brothers who live in the same misery that I knew then; lead them in spite of themselves and guide them by your tremendous influence, O Holy Queen of souls and refuge of sinners..."

When I read this second passage, all that was good about this man seems to be as nothing. Here he acknowledges a second god, one who offers salvation as Christ does. One who intercedes as Christ does.

Readers, what are the essentials of the gospel? I challenge you to give me a good answer with scripture and good reason.

New trend in Governmental Participation?

The past few weeks I have have been thinking again about several long term trends that have seemed evident to me in the way the American people view and participate in Government. First of all, one big trend I have watched for a while and really believe will continue is the rising of a new generation of conservative/Christian/evangelical type people that are very positive on the power of the populace to change the morality of the nation through political means. I can remember back in the early 1990's. There were very few conservative radio talk show hosts or media at all. Now there are hundreds. I have listened to people such as Limbaugh, Hannity, Savage, Schlessinger, and Dobson. The change of both the numbers of this group and their political fevor in the past 15 years is amazing to me. Many people call this the Evangelical block that was responsible for electing George W in 2004.
The second trend I have seen, is the despair and discouragement of the non-conservative block in this country. Outside of the hardcore liberal section, many people seem to be disillusioned with the political process and with government in general. Here is an article by an author I respect who talks about (in the middle) the affect that Hurricane Katrina seems to have or will have on a lot of people in the southwest. I agree with him. In my personal life, I have noticed both these trends. Whenever I talk to conservatives, they seem very energetic and upbeat regarding the possibility of change occurring through governmental processes. Whenever I talk to moderate/liberal types, often they are far more suspicious of government as a whole and despair of change ever occurring.
When analyzing the trends of a nation/world, an important part is to see how varias trends match up. What seems to be the long term implicatation from just these two trends here is that this country will continue to turn conservative in nature. One part will be almost euphoric over this, another part will despair more, distrust more, and dis-engage more.
Does anyone have any thoughts on this?

Dangers for Followers of Christ

I have had a heavy heart the past few years for the apparent weakness of the professing Christians of this country to fall into a major error in regards to rightly discerning good from evil. This error is the inability or unwillingness to critically examine issues or material in the light of God's word and of reason. I find increasingly that the church insulates itself from having to think about issues by clinging to some approved teacher's writings or spoken opinion and refusing to allow the mind to critically engage. Let me give two examples of this.

Suppose an average American baptist is one day challenged to read a pamphlet about the "filling of the Holy Ghost." In my experience, most average baptists would immediately disregard this and refuse to even think about the possibility of being wrong about their theology of the Holy Spirit. Their inability to think critically is suffocating them spiritually. I sincerely believe that this happens in some measure to every Christian; to the extent that we rid ourselves of of this, we are most likely better off as believers.
To be fair and to avoid unnecessary criticism, let me give another example. Suppose a pentacostal is given a phamplet that addresses the need for church order and talks about how tongues are a sign for unbelievers. Once again, in my experience, the pentacostal will tend to disengage before he even starts reading the phamplet.
The correct way for each of these individuals to approach their respective issues is to first examine the writings by scripture. Once those parameters are set up, the second task is to reason through what is given. Allow me to give a third example.
If someone should come to me and say, "The moon is made of real cheese!" I could choose to not even think about that person's assertion. He's wrong, turn the mind off. The correct action and godly action (all else held constant) I believe is to examine his claim. Really? What does God have to say about your issue?Why do you think so? What evidence do you have? What reasoning can you give? To the best of my knowledge, I think this person's claim would show to be false. But I try not to start out with that mind-suffocating conclusion; it is best shown by taking the evidence while thinking critically and scripturally.

If we the church could stand on the powerful Word of God and reason critically, it would eliminate so much false teaching and destruction in our lives. I challenge the readers of this article who are believers to make a conscious effort to change in this regard

Don’t call me an Evangelical. No, I used to be one…but not anymore. Yeah, I was home schooled, ten years of it. I went to a non-denominational church every week of my life. I knew the party line cold. The Evangelical Manifesto goes something like this in a loose order of importance:

1) There is one God ruler of all who created heaven and earth around 10,000 years ago. This God has many names, but usually just goes by “God.” Anyone who talks about “God” can generally be labeled a friend, until shown otherwise.

2) America is the most evangelical/Christian nation in the world owing to the fact that God loved this nation more than all the others and gave it a “Godly Constitution and leaders in its beginning.”

3) God has a great love for all humans on earth and desires the peace, prosperity, and happiness of all. His atoning death in the person of Jesus Christ makes this a possibility for all.

4) It is the responsibility of all good evangelicals everywhere to talk to everyone about this loving God who wants the best for them.

5) If enough evangelical Christians gain prominence in politics, science, and the media then the country can be returned to its godly roots, and then the whole world can be influenced toward godliness as well.

This is an accurate, though general statement. Some evangelicals would see some wrong in these 5 points. However some would think they are too specific, thus leading me to believe that it is a fairly precise belief statement for the average evangelical in America today. The tragedy to me is that each point has a measure of biblical truth in it. Each truth has a terrific degree of untruth in it. I can therefore never say that I completely disagree with the evangelicals, though their manifesto is filled with things that are wrong (often unknown to them). But a truth covered in a lie is much easier to believe in, and this is a big part of why they continue to grow as rapidly as they do. Yeah, I'm not in that camp anymore; and that's sad to me. Most of my friends are. They are people who see some problems; to me though, the problems are beyond repair.

First Post!

This is my first post on my new blog. Am hoping that this site will be a place for me to express my views of the world and how it works or should work. It will be more often on how it should work I suspect, lol. I hope to load many of the articles I have written before this date so they are readibly accessible for those who wish to read them.