UPDATE AUG 2010: This post seems to be getting a lot of traffic all of the sudden. I have long since joined the FGA myself, as they have come to clarity on the issue of dealing with the GES and the FGA stance on the Gospel is true.
Lou's made a post at his blog about the FGA Executive Council's statement on the Gospel. You can read it here. The part about the Gospel is this;
The Executive Council also issued the following official statement:
“The FGA’s mission is always and everywhere to proclaim the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ when we preach the gospel. We encourage every member of the FGA to be fervent and faithful to preach that message. Within the membership of the FGA there has been discussion about the minimum one must understand to be saved. Regardless of a person’s convictions, believers are called to preach the gospel, not the minimum.”
Please continue to pray for and support the FGA and join us in following the Executive Council's charge to "always and everywhere proclaim the death and resurrection" of God's Son and our Savior, Jesus Christ as we preach the gospel at home and abroad.
And now my thought by thought response:
His death for our sins and resurrection IS the Gospel. 1 Cor 15:1-11. You can not "preach the Gospel" without preaching His death and resurrection. This statement shows they have slipped past the safety line in their theological thinking.
We encourage every member of the FGA to be fervent and faithful to preach that message
Huh? They "encourage" members to preach the Gospel? Did the Lord leave us any choice in this matter? Mark 16:14-20
Within the membership of the FGA there has been discussion about the minimum one must understand to be saved.
God GAVE us the Apostles to clear this whole "discussion" up. 1 Cor 15:11 Eph 1:13-14
Regardless of a person’s convictions, believers are called to preach the gospel, not the minimum.
If a person's convictions are something other than the Gospel then they need to be disciplined (if they actually are a Christian) or witnessed to. Period.
Please continue to pray for and support the FGA and join us
I can do no such thing. The Love of the Lord constrains me to pray for them to repent. And for the Spirit's protection on believers who might be exposed to this.
following the Executive Council's charge to ‘always and everywhere proclaim the death and resurrection’ of God's Son and our Savior, Jesus Christ as we preach the gospel at home and abroad.
Again, as before, His death for our sins and resurrection IS the Gospel. You don't preach this "as" you preach the Gospel. It is it.
It scares me to see former defenders of the faith loose their way. I know God will be glorified and my prayer is that we will see that glory come!
2 comments:
It literally blows my mind that this simple truth is so hard for people to believe. In times past God winked over the ignorance, but now he has called all men everywhere to repent(change the mind) and believe the gospel.
I dont understand why people flirt around with this truth knowing that the blood on the doorposts had to be put on the door for the family to remain safe from the angel of death. What a tragedy that people today are undoing the reckoning of this blessed truth.
If you don't understand the purpose of FGA I can see how you took this statement the wrong way. FGA is countering other Christian pastors and leaders to ONLY teach the gospel according to the Bible and not add to it like most are doing today. See their covenant below, which you may disagree with, but your sincere concern for FGA from the statement you presented is being taken out of context if you do not know the context in which they were founded and their mission.
COVENANT
As members of the Evangelical Tradition, we affirm the Bible alone, and the Bible in its entirety, is the inspired Word of God and is therefore inerrant in the autographs. Furthermore, God is a Trinity, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, each an uncreated person, one in essence, equal in power and glory. As members of this tradition, we are concerned about the clear understanding, presentation, and advancement of the Gospel of God’s Free Grace.
We affirm the following:
The Grace of God in justification is an unconditional free gift.
The sole means of receiving the free gift of eternal life is faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, whose substitutionary death on the cross fully satisfied the requirement for our justification.
Faith is a personal response, apart from our works, whereby we are persuaded that the finished work of Jesus Christ has delivered us from condemnation and guaranteed our eternal life.
Justification is the act of God to declare us righteous when we believe in Jesus Christ alone.
Assurance of justification is the birthright of every believer from the moment of faith in Jesus Christ, and is founded upon the testimony of God in His written Word.
Spiritual growth, which is distinct from justification, is God’s expectation for every believer; this growth, however, is not necessarily manifested uniformly in every believer.
The Gospel of Grace should always be presented with such clarity and simplicity that no impression is left that justification requires any step, response, or action in addition to faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.
Post a Comment