Editor's Note: To read previous related commentaries Reevangelizing the Church and Reevangelizing the Church: Where Did We Go Wrong, please click on the titles.

Now that we are standing at the “crossroads” (having returned to the point of our departure from the truth), we can now look to the ancient paths: the Scriptures. In doing so, we can find the right path and recover the broader meaning of the “good news” or gospel.

Matthew records the beginning of Jesus’ ministry and message with the following words, “… Jesus began to preach and to say, ‘Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand’” (Matt. 4:17). In Matthew 24:14 Jesus himself describes the gospel in relation to the kingdom when he says, “And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in all the world ….” Matthew again describes Jesus’ ministry by saying: “And Jesus went about all Galilee … preaching the gospel of the kingdom …” (4:23). Matthew reiterates this theme again in chapter 9, verse 35 when he writes, “Then Jesus went about all the cities and villages … preaching the gospel of the kingdom …” Our Lord told his disciples to “preach, saying, ‘The kingdom of heaven is at hand’” (Matt. 10:7). Mark writes, “after John [the Baptist] was put in prison, Jesus came … preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God (1:14). Philip “preached the things concerning the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ” (Acts 8:12). (Except where otherwise noted, scripture version used is NKJV, and emphasis is mine.)

Paul and Barnabas encouraged new believers to “continue in the faith … saying ‘We must through many tribulations enter the kingdom of God’” (Acts 14:22). Paul appeared in the synagogue in Ephesus “reasoning and persuading concerning the things of the kingdom of God” (Acts 19:8). Paul, writing about his own ministry said, “I have gone preaching the kingdom of God” (Acts 20:25). While under house arrest, Paul received many visitors to whom he “testified of the kingdom of God …” (Acts 28:23). Clearly, by Jesus’ own words and the testimony of the apostles, Jesus was preaching the good news that through him, God’s reign—the kingdom of God—has burst forth into the fallen world.

The gospel (or good news) is the fact that in Christ, the reign of God is at hand and is now breaking into the world. His redemptive kingdom, which has come, continues to come forth and will be fully consummated on the day of Christ’s return. This is the good news, which offers not only a future hope but also a present reality touching all of God’s creation. It is this kingdom reality that animates and directs the mission and purpose of the body.

Granted, this may raise more questions; most notably, “What, exactly, is the kingdom or reign of God?” A definitive answer to this question is not given in Scripture but we are given insight into the kingdom through the teachings of Jesus. First, Jesus makes clear that the kingdom has indeed come—when speaking to the Pharisees he said, “… the kingdom of God has come upon you” (Matt. 12:28). The commission given to the apostles was to preach that “the kingdom of heaven is at hand” (Matt. 10:7). This statement is taken to mean that the kingdom of the Messiah, who is the Lord, is now to be set up according to the Scriptures.

Throughout the parables, Jesus uses the preface, “The kingdom of heaven is like ….” Through parabolic teaching, Jesus is describing the character and nature of God’s ruling reign that is overcoming the fallen world. The kingdom of God is a present reality, inaugurated at the cross when Jesus broke the power of Satan. The King of Kings has entered the enemy’s house; he has bound Satan and robbed him of his possessions, including those enslaved to sin (see Matt. 12:29). This is good news!

He has set the captives free and given them power and authority to oppose evil—to usher in the kingdom of God and apply the kingdom principles of righteousness, justice, love, mercy, and peace to this world. Because, as the resurrection demonstrates, this world matters! It is this world that Jesus is making new. This is good news!

The message of the kingdom includes the remission of sin, the gift of eternal life, and the restoration of fellowship with God; the wall between man and God has been breached. This is good news!

The message of the kingdom declares Jesus’ authority over everything in heaven and on earth and the promise that Jesus is near to his people until the end of time, when all things are finally and forever made new. This is good news!

In Jesus’ very first sermon, recorded by Luke, he enters the synagogue in Nazareth where he had been raised and, taking the book of Isaiah, he reads the following passage:

When Jesus finishes speaking, he closes the book, he sits down, and when every eye is fixed on him he says: “Today this Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing” (Luke 4:21). Jesus is describing the kingdom of God in which all that has resulted from sin and the Fall is being restored by him, the Anointed One, the King of Kings and Lord of Lords—this is the good news!

A pastor friend of mine described the in-breaking reign of God, or kingdom of God, quite well when he said the following:


In essence, the church bears witness to the in-breaking reign of God and serves as the instrument by which God is making “everything sad come untrue”!

The call upon humanity in the wake of this pronouncement is to repent, turn from your self and sin, and enter the kingdom of God, receiving salvation. It is the reign of God (or this full gospel) that the church is sent into the world to bring forth as God’s instrument and to which it bears witness. Again, we do not invite Jesus into our lives; he invites us into his! Jesus’ mission is the missio Dei or redemptive mission of God in which he is making all things new. And, this is the mission of every follower of Christ.

Next week we will examine how, practically speaking, the gospel mission in light of this kingdom reality is to be expressed.

© 2009 by S. Michael Craven

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S. Michael Craven is the President of the Center for Christ & Culture and the author of Uncompromised Faith: Overcoming Our Culturalized Christianity (Navpress, 2009). Michael's ministry is dedicated to equipping the church to engage the culture with the redemptive mission of Christ. For more information on the Center for Christ & Culture, the teaching ministry of S. Michael Craven, visit: www.battlefortruth.org

Michael lives in the Dallas area with his wife Carol and their three children.

Original publication date: June 22, 2009

In my last commentary I argued that the gospel in America, generally speaking, has suffered a serious reduction (i.e., knowing some facts about Jesus, making a personal decision for Christ based on these facts, and that this constitutes the full extent of the gospel message and mission). I also argued that such reductionism is not consistent with the Scriptures and that this reduction of the gospel has dramatically altered the modern Christian’s conception of his purpose and mission away from the biblical prescription.

In the wake of such an audacious charge, the admonition given in Jeremiah seems a fitting place to begin my defense of these claims:


Like the Israelites to whom Jeremiah was speaking, we have drifted from the ancient paths, the paths prescribed by the law of God, the written word. Jeremiah saw the people wondering which way to go. They were confused by new religions in much the same way that we have become confused by the reduction of the gospel.

If, in fact, we have departed from the truth, then going back to the point of departure is the only reasonable course. As C. S. Lewis so aptly said, “If you are on the wrong road, progress means doing an about-turn and walking back to the right road” (Mere Christianity). This is, in my mind, a twofold process: 1) determine where we departed from the “right road” and 2) once there, search the Scriptures (the ancient paths) for guidance in locating the right road forward.

I think the point of departure in American evangelicalism can, generally speaking, be traced back to the nineteenth century, namely to the influence of Charles Finney. I have addressed this topic previously but in light of our survey it bears repeating; Charles Finney was an incredibly popular and charismatic figure who galvanized revivalism in the latter nineteenth century.

Revivalism is the idea that men can create conditions conducive to conversion and that upon the creation of such conditions (i.e., opportunity to accept Jesus), men must be brought to a point of decision and only this decision can save them. In other words, present people with enough facts and they can decide their eternal fate. Charles Finney was a popular proponent of this view and is still praised by many as a great evangelist. Finney, more so than any other figure, would establish the model for evangelicalism in the century to follow.

However, unbeknown to many, his approach was grounded in the heretical idea that people are not fallen and depraved. Finney rejected the fundamental Christian doctrine of original sin. (See Finney, Systematic Theology, 245, 249, 320.) This is nothing less than ancient Pelagianism, a heresy that was refuted in the fifth century. Finney further denied that the righteousness of Christ is the sole ground of our justification, teaching instead that sinners must reform their own hearts in order to be acceptable to God. He wrote, “Sinners are under the necessity of first changing their hearts, or their choice of an end…” (Systematic Theology, 249).

Finney would issue numerous theological assertions that departed from historic orthodoxy. However, due to his extraordinary success and popularity (although being popular doesn’t necessarily indicate holy affirmation), many came to view the gospel story in these reduced terms: present people with some facts about Jesus and give them a chance to “make a decision.” Making a decision became the singular goal of modern evangelism and this evangelical activity became the near exclusive mission of the church. Thus many today consider this conversion, and any activity that doesn’t invite a decision is regarded as something other than the gospel. This was the genesis of gospel reductionism (the by-product of decisional theology) that has come to dominate American evangelicalism.

You can see the narcissistic nature of this emphasis. There is absolutely no connection whatsoever to the kingdom of God. The gospel according to revivalism is all about you and its only real implication is eschatological: when you die you get to go to heaven. However, this begs the question: What does the faithful Christian do in the meantime? Answer: Repeat the process as many times as you can and manage your personal sin. The gospel becomes a sales pitch emphasizing only the personal benefits; the redemptive work of the kingdom is ignored. The result is irrelevance. As the late Dorothy Sayers observed, “How can anyone remain interested in a religion which seems to have no concern with nine-tenths of his life?” (Dorothy Sayers, Creed or Chaos [New York: Harcourt and Brace, 1949], 56).

Don’t misunderstand. My salvation is profoundly personal but it is not the exclusive goal of the gospel of the kingdom.  It is so much bigger than that! I am not inviting Jesus into my life, he is inviting me into his: his present kingdom and his redemptive mission in this fallen world. C. S. Lewis said it well when he wrote, “Christianity is a fighting religion…. It thinks God made the world … But it also thinks that a great many things have gone wrong with the world that God made and that God insists, and insists very loudly, on our putting them right again” (Mere Christianity). And this “putting them right again” is embedded in the good news of God’s in-breaking reign (i.e., Christ’s kingdom) into this fallen world, setting right what sin has set wrong. This gospel of the kingdom promises the redemption of God’s whole creation; the church is gathered and sent to actively participate in this redemptive work in multiple ways, including proclamation of the risen Christ, certainly, but also demonstration of kingdom life within the community of God’s people and service to the world.

Next week, I will take up the following step in our journey back to the right path. We will examine the Scriptures—the ancient paths—and see how Jesus and the apostles describe the gospel in relation to the kingdom, and from there recover the church’s purpose and mission in light of that revelation.

© 2009 by S. Michael Craven

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S. Michael Craven is the President of the Center for Christ & Culture and the author of Uncompromised Faith: Overcoming Our Culturalized Christianity (Navpress, 2009). Michael's ministry is dedicated to equipping the church to engage the culture with the redemptive mission of Christ. For more information on the Center for Christ & Culture, the teaching ministry of S. Michael Craven, visit: www.battlefortruth.org

Michael lives in the Dallas area with his wife Carol and their three children.

As we have seen thus far in our review of Michael Spencer’s provocative article The Coming Evangelical Collapse, evangelicalism in America has suffered from growing theological ignorance, cultural accommodation, and ecclesiastical confusion.

While the culture wars continue—unabated by a frail church—they do so in the face of an increasingly secular culture, indicating that time and attrition are currently on the side of those who press humanistic schemes and atheistic worldviews. Politics are proving futile in holding even the most traditional moral boundaries; freedom of conscience is increasingly denied to those who oppose these changes, and our entire economic system is in flux, moving away from the free market and toward greater government control.

These conditions have left many Christians afraid, confused, uncertain, or simply withdrawn and awaiting rapturous evacuation.  However, there is never a time for complacency or apathy in God’s victorious kingdom! Christians understand (or at least they should) that God is absolutely sovereign in the affairs of this world and that he causes all things to work together for good to those who love him (see Romans 8:28). We also know that God’s kingdom will come forth and no one or no thing in heaven or on earth can stay his hand (see Daniel 4:35). His perfect will shall be done. And, as a pastor friend of mine recently said in response to these darkening days, “The light shines brightest when it is the darkest.” Perhaps this is just what the church in America needs.

So, what must the church do in the face of its withered condition and these changing times? Michael Spencer acknowledges, “A small band will work hard to rescue the movement from its demise through theological renewal.” He further declares that this “small band” of reformation-minded Christians “is an attractive, innovative, and tireless community with outstanding media, publishing, and leadership development” but doesn’t believe they will ultimately succeed in their reformation efforts, although he concedes that their efforts “may result in benefits for many churches and the beginnings of new churches.”

I can attest to the fact that there are indeed a small (but growing) number of ministries and people concerned about the state of the church that are working for renewal. As one who has been committed to the cause of reformation and renewal since the inception of this ministry, I count myself among them and I am more encouraged than ever as I encounter people who share the same God-given burden. I don’t know whether or not we will succeed, either, but I do know that to try is the faithful thing to do. Such times call for boldness and honest self-examination and the results of our efforts are entirely in the hands of him who causes all things to work together.

If reformation is called for and given the multitude of issues plaguing the American church, where must this reformation begin? What must we do to remedy the situation within the church, the culture, or the nation to the glory of God?

First, we must establish the correct priorities and I would submit that our first priority cannot be the rescue of the nation or the culture but instead the church of Jesus Christ, because this is the only instrument of redemption available for the either of the former. This is not to suggest that we abandon those activities aimed at redeeming society and culture. However, those activities will never succeed without a renewed and faithful church that properly and fully engages the mission of Christ. As an example, William Wilberforce’s eighteenth-century struggle to abolish slavery would not have succeeded without the spiritual movements led by Wesley, Whitefield, Newton, and the like.

So, where do we begin? The apocalyptic George Orwell once wrote, “Sometimes the first duty of intelligent men is the restatement of the obvious.” While not presuming myself to be one of those intelligent men, I do think there is a need to restate the obvious when it comes to renewing the church. And nothing is more obvious than the fact that we no longer understand the gospel!

Today, when evangelicals speak of the gospel, they almost always mean, simply, the “personal plan of salvation.” This is generally understood as an activity in which we present people with some facts about Jesus, ask them to agree with these facts, and if they do, instruct them to invite him into their lives, or pray the sinners prayer, and so on. Once they have done this, we tell them “You are saved!” We tell them to get baptized and join a Bible-believing church. The gospel in this sense is reduced to an ideological set of facts whose implications are only personal—when, in fact, the gospel is an incarnational reality, touching all of creation that can be seen and experienced. And most Christians, for the last 50 years, have been taught and believed that the proclamation of this simple set of facts is the sum and total of their mission on earth.

I submit to you that this paradigm represents a vastly reduced understanding of the gospel, and that this reductionism has radically altered the church’s understanding of its mission and purpose. And in so doing, this as much—if not more than—anything else has caused the church to drift off course. The church in America needs to be reevangelized with the true gospel: the “gospel of the kingdom.” Divorcing the “good news” from the kingdom is analogous to proclaiming the liberation of Europe before the allied invasion of Normandy. Such a proclamation might make one feel better but it wouldn’t represent a change in your reality—you would still be living under the occupation of the enemy.

In the coming weeks, we will explore the Scripture and test these statements. We will compare the reductionist gospel described above with the gospel of the kingdom that Jesus and the apostles preached. And we will explore how, practically speaking, this gospel of the kingdom is to be manifested in and through the body of Christ.

© 2009 by S. Michael Craven 

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S. Michael Craven is the President of the Center for Christ & Culture and the author of Uncompromised Faith: Overcoming Our Culturalized Christianity (Navpress, 2009). Michael's ministry is dedicated to equipping the church to engage the culture with the redemptive mission of Christ. For more information on the Center for Christ & Culture, the teaching ministry of S. Michael Craven, visit: www.battlefortruth.org

Michael lives in the Dallas area with his wife Carol and their three children.

Adolf Hitler once said, “It is the luck of rulers when men do not think.” The writer of Proverbs underscores this truth by saying, “Wisdom will save you from the ways of wicked men, from men whose words are perverse” (2:12).

Scripture makes clear that God places a high value on knowledge, wisdom, and understanding—and by implication, the education necessary to obtaining it. Proverbs chapter 4 says, “Lay hold of my words with all your heart; keep my commands and you will live. Get wisdom, get understanding … Though it cost all you have, get understanding.” The Bible goes on to prescribe understanding as a protection against sin: “The woman Folly is loud; she is undisciplined and without knowledge. She sits at the door of her house … calling out to those who pass by … ‘Let all who are simple come in here!’ … But little do they know that the dead are there, that her guests are in the depths of the grave”(Proverbs 9:13–18).

God has made mankind in His image, meaning we are endowed with certain attributes that are characteristic of God, such as creativity, compassion, love, and so on. God has also endowed us with intellect. In other words, God has given us the ability to reason and think. It is the mind that is designed to rule the flesh; it is reason informed by biblical revelation that should guide our passions. However, our minds were born corrupt and are therefore also in need of redemption or renewal (see Romans 12:1–2). This involves education, and there is not a secular and sacred distinction. All education on every subject can be reasonably framed and rationally understood within a comprehensive theological framework.

Earlier in our nation’s history, it was the Christian life and worldview that dominated social and cultural life—almost every aspect of American life and culture was shaped by the Christian worldview. Christian values and principles formed the social and moral consensus and the institutions of culture were largely led by Christians. This was due, in large part, to the educational system of their day, which was rooted in the Christian interpretation of reality.

Every university established within the first century of American independence was done so by the various Protestant denominations or Catholic Church. This commitment to intellectualism, scholarship, and academia was a fundamental part of the church’s mission. This was not an unintentional act by a culture that just happened to be religious. That generation of Christians understood and fulfilled the biblical mandate to exercise dominion, to advance the kingdom of God, and to be salt and light, and thus they did so with intellectually responsible effort. They understood that Christians had a duty in a literate world to be among the intellectual elite and that by being educated they would, in turn, shape the culture and show forth the kingdom of God.

Contrast that with the state of the American church today. Not only have we surrendered virtually every culture-shaping institution, we have essentially abandoned this once-held commitment to developing the Christian mind. As I have written previously, numerous studies reveal astonishing levels of biblical and theological ignorance.

Therefore, the degradation of American culture that has taken place over the last fifty years shouldn’t surprise us. This is the natural consequence of a culture in which the biblical view of life and reality—rooted in the redemptive mission of God—has been replaced by alternative systems of human thought, interpretations of reality that are rooted in the redemptive efforts of man.

As a member of the graduating class of 2009, the vast majority of your peers are intellectually ill equipped to defend—much less commend—the faith against the intellectual, moral, and spiritual assault now common to the university. Most will abandon the faith; others will stumble and fall into destructive sin; and for many their faith will simply become irrelevant. According to one study by Josh McDowell, only one in seven kids from evangelical homes will return from college with their faith intact. No organization can survive this kind of attrition.

With the loss of Christian influence within our culture-forming institutions over the last century, there has been a fundamental shift in this nation’s public philosophy. Every aspect of public life and culture has been thoroughly and almost completely secularized. This is the world into which you now go. It is a world in which the whole current of the age is arranged against those who, today, bear the name Christian.

This may sound like a bleak and foreboding future. However, it is the present reality. Nonetheless, Christians throughout the ages have faced far more difficult circumstances. These “thinking” Christians, with fearless fortitude and intellectual commitment, bore witness to the in-breaking reign of God (i.e., the gospel) producing great social and cultural change. This is the task that now falls to you!

You stand upon the precipice of adult independence—preparing to cross over the Jordan, as it were, to take possession of the land. For those who plan to continue their formal education, I would say this: determine now what the purpose of what your education will be. You can, like the world, pursue education as merely a means to an end—in other words: a job. However, this is a shallow purpose, which tends to reduce the object of life to acquiring personal peace through financial security. Thus one’s education becomes merely a means to one’s own ends.

However, the goal of learning, wrote the great Christian poet Milton, “is to repair the ruins of our first parents.” I challenge you to make this your goal as you pursue higher education. Use this time to gain wisdom, to better understand the culture in which you live, and form a consciously Christian understanding of life and reality so that you may serve God’s redemptive purposes in the world.

I would also challenge you to pursue Christ with reckless abandon—risk your whole life on the reality of eternity! Take no small steps in service to the King, but bold strides that challenge the world’s careless and casual dismissal of her Lord and Savior. Whatever direction your studies may take you, whatever career you may assume—whether it be education, politics, the law, science, technology, media, the fine arts, or business—pursue these areas as one who is on mission to incorporate these spheres into God’s kingdom.

These words from Deuteronomy (chapter 30, verses 15–18, ESV) seem appropriate on this momentous occasion in your lives:


Graduating class of 2009, I challenge you! Take possession of the land you are about to enter and claim it in the name of Christ, for His glory and His Kingdom.

© 2009 by S. Michael Craven

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S. Michael Craven is the President of the Center for Christ & Culture and the author of Uncompromised Faith: Overcoming Our Culturalized Christianity (Navpress, 2009). Michael's ministry is dedicated to equipping the church to engage the culture with the redemptive mission of Christ. For more information on the Center for Christ & Culture, the teaching ministry of S. Michael Craven, visit: www.battlefortruth.org

Michael lives in the Dallas area with his wife Carol and their three children.