Josiah Concept Ministries

This article scares me beyond words.

It’s scary because I know that it is true.  No one wants to be told that he is a sinner: that we humans just are not nice creatures by nature.  But that statement is not only 100% true, it is absolutely necessary for one’s own salvation to admit this, if only to yourself and God.

First, we must understand that when Adam took the fruit of the forbidden tree, he became like God in his understanding of good and evil.  This necessitated punishment, as God had ordered that this tree be left alone.  Eating this fruit gave knowledge of good and evil; and of course, evil is much more attractive to creatures such as ourselves with our decidedly self-serving natures.  The attractiveness of doing evil, the desire to be like God, and master of own destiny has been passed from Adam down through the generations.  This sinful nature is what prompts us to do evil, and without Christ, we shall always do that evil.

By this sinful nature, this flesh, we are separated from God.  Our only hope for unity with Him again is Jesus Christ.  As a just and holy God, God cannot simply ignore the sins that we continue to commit each and every day.  He must require punishment.  It is Christ who took that punishment willingly in our stead when He died upon that cross, rending the curtain that separates the Holy of Holies from the rest of the Temple and granting us personal access to God the Father, our Creator.  Jesus took the punishment that should have been ours.

In order to understand the gravity of that sacrifice, and the substitutionary atonement that He undertook on our behalf, we must first realize that we are sinners and that this punishment was necessary in the first place.

Does being called a sinner offend your sensibilities?  It does mine!  The nerve of that song about God’s grace, saying that it “saved a wretch like me.”  I’m not a wretch!

Except that I am.  I am no better than a liar, cheater, adulterer, murderer, idolater, or any other sinner in the world.  I sin, too.  And so do you, dear reader.  If you are reading this, then you sin too.

The message of the cross is supposed to offend; to convict.  The preachers that are mentioned in the above article, Joel Osteen, Ken Copeland, Jerry Bakker’s son, and others are doing the gospel of Our Lord a great disservice by eliminating the message of human sinfulness.  God is, and should always be, the focus of the gospel and of our very lives that we owe to Him.  But to completely eliminate human sin from the message so as not to offend or to promote “easy-believism” is wrong.

Those who water down the gospel message are false teachers, and they will have much to answer for in the next life.  Ironically, I have few followers but I attempt to communicate a message as true to the gospel as I understand it.  These men have droves of followers and are communicating a message that will not save anyone.

End times delusion, anyone????