As I mentioned in my last post, IHOP sees itself at the moment as being something of a bootcamp for intercessors. And in the boot camp tradition of "As of today, you don't know how to tie your own shoes!", I feel like I've been relearning everything about God, Jesus, the Bible, prayer, and holiness.

Dave Sliker apparently welcomes Onething interns by telling them "Our purpose here is to convince you that you don't really know God. And then we want to convince you to spend the rest of your life solving that problem."

Although Stuart didn't use the same catchy line for the Fire in the Night interns, the concept certainly applies. For me, the shakeup this week was about the Gospel.

For most of us from an evangelical background, what we mean by "the Gospel" is substitutionary atonement – that is, Jesus died in my place on the cross so I can be saved only by His grace which comes through faith. We were introduced to the Gospel through something like the "Four Spiritual Laws:"

1. God LOVES you and offers a wonderful PLAN for your life.
   
2. Man is SINFUL and SEPARATED from God. Therefore, he cannot know and experience God's love and plan for his life.
   
3. Jesus Christ is God's ONLY provision for man's sin. Through Him you can know and experience God's love and plan for your life.
   
4. We must individually RECEIVE Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord; then we can know and experience God's love and plan for our lives.
   

Even before I came here, I saw that there were significant gaps in this definition of what the Gospel is.

• Where is the Holy Spirit? What does He do, and why is He so important?
  
• What is the significance of the Resurrection of Jesus? If the death of Jesus for our sin was what really mattered, why do we care that He was raised from the dead?
  
• What is the motivation for holiness? By yielding to Christ, our "interests are directed by Christ, resulting in harmony with God's plan" – but how important is that? Is it an issue of quality of life? Or is it an issue of life and death?
  
• And is God's plan just for my life? Does God have a plan for the whole world, or is the best that we can hope for that individuals will live better lives and go to heaven because they accepted Jesus?
  

Obviously, the above issues are typically considered discipleship issues rather than evangelism issues, meaning that a person can make an initial decision to accept Christ as Savior, and then work through the "details" later on. But there's a big problem with that idea. As someone said, "What you win them with is what you win them to." I think that some of the holes in this message are the reason that so many people in the Bible-believing Evangelical church are living worldly lives of sin and compromise. They may literally be "slipping through the cracks."

I'd like to present what I think is a more complete way to introduce the Gospel, but before I do that, I feel that I need to present a few caveats:

First, I have to say that I owe a huge debt of gratitude to those who preached the Gospel to me in this form. I do not wish to slam the many excellent para-church organizations that seek to equip believers to share their faith and get them over their fears so that they will actually share Jesus with friends, family, and co-workers. The work of these organizations has borne fruit and continues to bear lasting fruit in many places. And the approach described above separating out evangelism issues from discipleship issues did in fact work for me.

Second, the issue that we're facing is much bigger than one of getting our theological ducks in a row. The following statements by Paul should be extremely sobering to anyone who aspires to preach the Gospel:

Galatians 1:11-12

11 But I make known to you, brethren, that the gospel which was preached by me is not according to man. 12 For I neither received it from man, nor was I taught it, but it
came through the revelation of Jesus Christ.

I Corinthians 2:1-5

1 And I, brethren, when I came to you, did not come with excellence of speech or of wisdom declaring to you the testimony of God. 2 For I determined not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified. 3 I was with you in weakness, in fear, and in much trembling. 4 And my speech and my preaching were not with persuasive words of human wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, 5 that your faith should not be in the wisdom of men but in the power of God.

What we need is not a better-thought-out way to arrange Bible verses, but the actual word of God (that is, the scriptures brought to life through the enlightening of the Holy Spirit), attested to by supernatural power in the Holy Spirit. (which, lest anyone misunderstand, will principally manifest itself in a life of obedience to the Sermon on the Mount)

Third, the Gospel, in a word, is Jesus. It is the Good News of His incarnation, His perfect life, His death, His resurrection, His second coming, and His coming eternal reign. As we used to say in the church where I grew up:

Christ has died;

Christ is risen;

Christ will come again.

(The "mystery of faith," from the United Methodist Common Liturgy)

Ultimately the "Full Gospel" is the person of Jesus Himself, and every one of us that submits our lives to Him will be searching out the mysteries and wonders of the Good News of the God-Man for all eternity.

So with those caveats on the table, I'd like to present my very-imperfect suggestion of a more complete way to introduce the Gospel:

The Gospel of the Kingdom

1. God, the Creator, made all of creation good and entrusted it to humanity as the good rulers of His creation.
   
   Genesis 1:28
   
   Genesis 1:31
   
2. Humanity was deceived by the devil into rebelling against God. We became bad rulers who are slaves of the devil and subject to death.
   
   Genesis 3:17-19
   
   Romans 5:12-14
   
   Luke 4:5-6
   
3. God became a Man in Jesus Christ so that He could recover the right to rule God's creation as a good Ruler.
   
   Luke 1:31-33
   
   Isaiah 11:1-5
   
4. Jesus, the King and the Suffering Servant, paid the penalty for rebellion and sin by dying on the cross.
   
   Isaiah 53:4-6
   
   Romans 5:6-10
   
5. Jesus the King was raised from the dead and received His kingdom. All of creation is now rightfully His.
   
   Matthew 28:18
   
   Acts 17:30-31
   
6. For a short time, Jesus has allowed rebellion to continue on earth, in order that as many as possible may repent of rebellion and accept Him as King. All who accept Him will receive the Holy Spirit to empower them to obey His law.
   
   John 1:11-12
   
   Romans 10:5-10
   
   Jeremiah 31:31-34
   
7. When the time is up, Jesus the King will return to earth and end all rebellion. He will fulfill every promise He ever made to Israel and the world. His kingdom will last forever.
   
   Daniel 7:13-14
   
   Matthew 24:30-31