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What happens to a people when their Gospel goes from great to small?

What happens in a land where the Gospel retreats from actively engaging and defining every area of life and instead becomes a “private matter” restricted to prayer closets and church buildings?

What happens to a culture where the Gospel shrinks from the loving confrontation and correction commanded in Scripture (see: “Repent!”) and instead pursues a path of passivity and “niceness” so that it might be more attractive and marketable to a God-hating world?

What happens to a civilization when its Gospel goes from being viewed as the all-encompassing, everything-impacting supernatural force of true life to instead being pitched as a neatly sequestered, easily isolated “treasure” to be set aside in “it’s place” where it is kept “pure” by preventing it from mingling with other areas of life? (See: Beware the “Gospel in a Bottle”.)

What happens to such a people and such a culture?

Well, if you live in America, just look around.

That’s what happens.

America is what happens.

When we trade in the supernatural, all-encompassing, life-defining Gospel of Jesus Christ the reigning King of creation for the tiny little powerless “Gospel in a Bottle” that has been all the rage in America for so long now, we inevitably end up with things like “Caitlyn” Jenner and a “Supreme Court” on the verge of pretending to redefine marriage.

When we decided that the Gospel didn’t cover and define our law, politics, education, and art, we consigned those things to become the instruments of our own destruction. We converted them from realms of life designed to demonstrate the glory of God to the benefit of His people into realms destined to sink ever-further into decay as they corrupt and destroy everything (and everyone) that they touch.

When we decided that the Great Commission doesn’t really and truly apply to us in detail, we secured for ourselves and our children, among other things:

When the Gospel is sequestered from any area of life, that area of life becomes doomed to ever-increasing darkness and eventual death until and unless the full Gospel is embraced and applied to that realm. There are no exceptions. (See: Christianity in a Box: Containing the Contagion of Obedience to Christ.)

This seems to be the great lesson of the “great experiment” of America, at least at this point in God’s creation of history.

Where this land was settled and once cultivated by Pilgrims and Puritans who embraced and adored the fullness of the Gospel-fueled Great Commission and actually believed that supernaturally changed lives could not help but impact all that they touched, and that culture could not help but be positively moved as a result, we now live in a land loaded with “Christians” who not only disagree with the worldview of those settlers, but, more often than not, adamantly reject and malign it.

After generations of immersion in Left Behind theology, biblical theology has been left behind. Biblical eschatology has been left behind. The worldview of the Puritans and Pilgrims has been left behind.

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The longer we cling to these relatively new and destructive “end times” views that have made us so very comfortable with apathy, laziness, disengagement and defeat, guess what we will continue to see all across the culture?

Apathy, laziness, disengagement and defeat.

See how that works?

See what self-fulfilling bad prophecy looks like?

Left Behind minds produce left behind culture.

How many times do we hear from professing Christians in America some version of the “it’s all lost anyway and defeat is inevitable, so why bother” line? How many times do we hear from the same folks that it might actually be a sin to expect the culture to change positively in the wake of the Gospel-fueled Great Commission?

Do you know what many Puritan and Pilgrim settlers of America would likely say to that?

They’d ask what Bible you were reading…if any.

They’d ask you if you’d ever heard of something called “the Great Commission”.

They’d ask if you’d ever heard the Gospel and, if so, what you thought it was.

They’d wonder if you had a clue as to what biblical Christianity actually was.

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It always comes back to the Gospel: The cross of Christ and what it really, truly and fully means for His creation.

All of His creation.

As hard as this might be on most modern American professing Christian ears, there’s something that needs to be made plain about the true Gospel:

It’s not just about you.

It’s not just about your salvation.

The Gospel is much bigger than that.

It invades and conquers everything in God’s creation that has been touched and corrupted by sin.

And everything here means everything.

Art. Economics. Politics. Technology. Law. Medicine.

Everything.

That’s what the true Gospel does. That’s what it’s after. It will settle for nothing less because Christ will settle for nothing less.

So let’s ditch the “little gospel that can’t” and never will be able to save America or anything else. (See: Roaring into Post-America Christianity.)

Let’s take hold of the real thing – the true, supernatural Gospel of Christ the King – so that we might by His grace shed the apathy, cowardice and preemptive surrender that has defined the religion and culture of this land for so very long. Then, and only then, we can and will see otherwise unimaginable victories become reality right here and now, all by His grace, all for His glory and all to our eternal benefit.


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You can also help support the Fire Breathing Christian mission by checking out these books:

Stupid Elephant Tricks – The Other Progressive Party’s War on Christianity takes a painful but much needed look at how Christ-less “conservatism” has captivated Christians and co-opted them into helping march the culture ever deeper into darkness:

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The Beginning of Knowledge: Christ as Truth in Apologetics is an approachable, easy to read introduction to Christ-centered apologetics:

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Apathetic Christianity: The Zombie Religion of American Churchianity explores the tragic true horror story of all-American dead religion masquerading as Christianity:

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On Education is a compilation of some of the most provocative and compelling Fire Breathing Christian articles on the subject of children’s education:

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There Is No “God-Given Right” To Worship False Gods is a compilation of some of the most provocative Fire Breathing Christian articles on the subject of America’s embrace of a satanic approach to religious liberty:

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Fire Breathing Christians – The Common Believer’s Call to Reformation, Revival, and Revolution is the book that first presented the FBC mission to apply the Gospel-fueled Great Commission in every realm of God’s creation:

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An alternate white cover version of Fire Breathing Christians is available:

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There is also an alternate black cover version of Fire Breathing Christians:

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Finally, here are a few good intro/reminder links for those of you who are new to Fire Breathing Christian and curious about exactly what’s goin’ on ’round here:

What are you, some kind of [insert label here] or something?!

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Intro to Fire: The Power and Purpose of the Common Believer

When the Bible gets hairy. (Or: Is it right for men to have long hair?)

And especially this one: Never forget that apart from God’s grace you and I are complete morons.

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2 Responses

  1. One only needs to look to the prophet Hosea to see what happens to the Arminius / Darby / Scofield "church".

    Luther and Calvin witnessed to the Truth.

    Prepare for the refugees, Scott, and consider yourself blessed to be a part of, what I believe to be, the great revival that will arise out of the debris of God's Judgement on the "church".

    It is not going to be easy and it will most certainly not be pretty.

    However, have faith in our King, Jesus Christ, who has equipped His elect to succeed.

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