CGI: Correcting the Message

A little over a week ago, I wrote an article that was posted over at Banned by HWA titled No, That's Not the Gospel! In the piece, I challenged Pastor Adrian Davis' latest message on "What is the Gospel?" for the Church of God International's Armor of God program. More particularly, I disputed his assertion that the gospel was for and about Israel.

In his message, Davis had focused on the physical restoration of the Kingdom of Israel and ignored the infinitely more important spiritual aspects of the gospel message - the part about salvation through Jesus Christ. In my piece, I juxtaposed Davis' take on the gospel with an old booklet on the subject by CGI's Bill Watson which presented a much more expansive and spiritual view of the gospel message.

Now, admittedly, a program lasting twenty-eight minutes is not going to be able to cover all aspects of a subject, but I was disturbed by Davis' emphasis on the ethnocentric and political nature of the gospel. For me, it appeared that Mr. Davis was making the exact same mistake that Christ's disciples had made during his ministry by asking "has the time come for you to free Israel and restore our kingdom?" Like Davis, they were focused on the physical restoration of a literal kingdom of Israel.

Nevertheless, I was pleasantly surprised to see that CGI's Vance Stinson had corrected the church's messaging on the gospel in a sermon delivered this past Sabbath. In a sermon titled The Restoration of Israel, the pastor underscored that the gospel was about salvation through Jesus Christ. Stinson talked about the outpouring of the Spirit which Christ's work did and will accomplish. He talked about Israel as a model for other nations, and the role of those people in eventually bringing ALL of the peoples of the earth to salvation through Christ. Moreover, Pastor Stinson went on to talk about how Christ has made all Christians (even those whose physical heritage is Gentile) the children of Abraham and heirs of the promises made to him. Finally, Mr. Stinson pointed out that God is THE GOD of all of the peoples of the earth, not just Israel. Now, I can get behind that kind of messaging!