Any Armstrongite who is worth his/her salt knows that it's the Gospel of the Kingdom of God - right? Those pagan and deceived Catholics and Protestants preach a false Gospel about the messenger!
Really? Is that what Scripture reveals?
In the latest issue of "The Journal: News of the Churches of God" (Issue 182, March 31, 2016), Keith Slough wrote an essay that addressed this topic. The title (Jesus is the forgotten man in our old-Worldwide Theology) is an excellent summary of what follows.
Mr. Slough skillfully weaves together a series of passages from the New Testament that clearly demonstrates that Jesus Christ was the focus of the message of the early church. He points to Peter's sermon at the founding of the church, and the remarks about the character of Paul's message at the beginning of his ministry in the book of Acts.
That Jesus was clearly at the center of Paul's message is reinforced by the apostle's first epistle to the saints at Corinth. He said "we preach Christ crucified..." I Corinthians 1:23 In speaking about his early ministry among them, he went on to say "For I determined not to know anything among you, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified." I Corinthians 2:2
Mr. Slough said: "When we preach the gospel, if we leave out the focus the early true church had on the 'Messenger' - the person of Christ - we water down the true gospel." I heartily agree!
Mr. Slough also wrote: "The Bible tells us that the entire world has been deceived (Revelation 12:9). Those of us who were members of the Worldwide Church of God know by now that this included us as well." That gets a big A-men from this blogger.
Unfortunately, Mr. Slough and I part company near the end of his essay. He asked, "Is it any wonder God took His anointing off the WCG and allowed it to die?" Jesus Christ is reported to have said that the gates of hell would NEVER prevail against HIS Church. Hence, in addition to preaching a watered down gospel, that leads me to conclude that they NEVER had that anointing! What do you think?
Marcionism is actually closer to the original [Pauline] gospel.
ReplyDeleteAs Marcion edited out Old Testament references from Paul's epistles and most scholars agree that he had some kind of background in Judaism, I don't see how you can argue that Marcion was closer to Paul's message. Yes, Marcion clearly held Paul's writings in high esteem; but he apparently wasn't bashful about ignoring those elements of the apostle's message that disagreed with his theology.
ReplyDelete