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The Gospel of Jesus Christ: An Evangelical Celebration Lesson
- 1: Introduction I. Historical Background: Previous Statements
on the Gospel A. The Fundamentals:
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- A Testimony For the Truth (1910-1915)
- 1. In 1909 God moved two Christian laymen to set aside a
large sum of money for issuing twelve volumes that would set
forth the fundamentals of the Christian faith, and which were
to be sent free to ministers of the gospel, missionaries, Sunday
School superintendents, and others engaged in aggressive Christian
work throughout the English speaking world.
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- A committee of men who were known to be sound in the faith
was chosen to have oversight of the publication of these volumes.
Some of the volumes were sent to 300,000 ministers and missionaries
and other workers in different parts of the world. At last the
stock became exhausted, but appeals for them kept coming in from
different parts of the world. As the fund was no longer available
for this purpose, the Bible Institute of Los Angeles, to whom
the plates were turned over when the Committee closed its work,
have decided to bring out the various articles that appeared
in The Fundamentals in four volumes at the cheapest price possible,
All the articles that appeared in The Fundamentals, with the
exception of a very few that did not seem to be in exact keep-ing
with the original purpose of The Fundamentals, was published
in this series.
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- B. Vatican II (1963-1965)
- 1. Rome upheld the teachings of Trent (1545-1563) in that
both faith and water baptism are necessary for salvation (but
added an "all things being equal" caveat).
- 2. However, for those who cannot explicitly believe and/or
be baptized, Rome added the notion of a "bap-tism of desire."
"Those who, through no fault of their own, do not know the
Gospel of Christ or his Church, but who nevertheless seek God
with a sincere heart, and, moved by grace, try in their actions
to do his will as they know it through the dictates of their
conscience- those too may achieve eternal salvation. Nor shall
divine providence deny the assis-tance necessary for salvation
to those who, without any fault of theirs have not yet arrived
at an explicit knowl-edge of God, and who, not without grace,
strive to lead a good life."1
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- C. The Lausanne Covenant (1974)
- 1. Lausanne formed the First International Congress on World
Evangelization headed by Billy Graham in the city of Lausanne,
Switzerland. A statement was drafted by John Stott to outline
the essential nature of the Gospel and the importance of evangelizing.
- 2. The Lausanne Covenant was agreed upon by 2,300 people
from 150 nations from all branches of the Christian church in
the space of ten days.
- 3. On the nature of evangelism the Covenant reads: "To
evangelize is to spread the good news that Jesus Christ died
for our sins and was raised from the dead accord-ing to the Scriptures,
and that as the reigning Lord he now offers the forgiveness of
sins and the liberating gifts of the Spirit to all who repent
and believe. Our Christian presence in the world is indispensable
to evangelism, and so is that kind of dialogue whose purpose
is to listen sensitively in order to understand. But evangelism
itself is the proclamation of the historical, biblical Christ
as Saviour and Lord, with a view to persuading people to come
to him personally and so be reconciled to God. In issuing the
gospel invitation we have no liberty to conceal the cost of discipleship.
Jesus still calls all who would follow him to deny themselves,
take up their cross, and iden-tify themselves with his new community.
The results of evangelism include obedience to Christ, incorporation
into his Church and responsible service in the world." 1Second
Vatican Council, Dogmatic Constitution on the Church, II.16.
- The Manila Manifesto (1989): An Elaboration of Lausanne
- 1. Held in Manila, Philippians. Twenty-one affirmations resulted.
- 2. On the Good News for today: "We rejoice that the
living God did not abandon us to our lostness and despair. In
his love he came after us in Je-sus Christ to rescue and remake
us. So the good news focuses on the historic person of Jesus,
who came proclaim-ing the kingdom of God and living a life of
humble service, who died for us, becoming sin and a curse in
our place, and whom God vindicated by raising him from the dead.
To those who repent and believe in Christ, God grants a share
in the new creation. He gives us new life, which includes the
forgiveness of our sins and the in-dwelling, transforming power
of his Spirit. He welcomes us into his new community, which consists
of people of all races, nations and cultures. And he promises
that one day we will enter his new world, in which evil will
be abolished, nature will be redeemed, and God will reign forever."
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- E. ECT I - 1994 Evangelicals and Catholics Together
- 1. Consultation began in 1992 between Evangelical Protestant
and Roman Catholic Leaders.
- 2. The result was a 25-page document titled Evangelicals
and Catholics Together: The Christian Mission in the Third Millennium(ECT).
It was originated by Charles (Chuck) Colson and Catholic social
critic Richard John Neuhaus, and was signed in 1994 by 40 noted
evangelical and Catholic leaders. It called for Catholic and
evangelical cooperation on social and cultural issues where both
traditions share common goals, one example being the fight against
abortion. The accord also stressed mutual alle-giance to the
Apostles' Creed, world evangelism, and justification "by
grace through faith because of Christ," and encouraged "civil"
discourse over doctrinal differences.
- a) The notion of being "justified by grace alone through
faith alone in Christ alone" was not explicitly mentioned.
While the Catholic Church has always maintained that justification
was by grace through faith in Christ, the "solas" of
the Reformation were explicitly denied in the Council of Trent
and the word "alone" was conspicuously absent from
ECT. 3. On January 19, 1995 a gathering occurred with Chuck Colson,
Campus Crusade for Christ's founder Bill Bright, and theologian
J. I. Packer (all ECT signers), along with ECT critics John MacArthur,
Li-gonier Ministries' R. C. Sproul, apologist John Ankerberg,
author Michael Horton, and pastor D. James Kennedy. Moody Bible
Institute president Joseph Stowell moderated, with assistance
from church his-torian John Woodbridge. The leaders eventually
agreed on a five-point statement, designed to "eluci-date"
the stance of evangelical ECT signers.
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- F. ECT II, 1997: The Gift of Salvation
- 1. At a meeting in the fall of 1996, it was determined that
further progress depended upon firm agreement on the meaning
of salvation, and especially the doctrine of justification. After
much discussion, study, and prayer over the course of a year,
a statement titled "The Gift of Salvation" (GOS) was
agreed to at a meeting in New York City, October 6-7, 1997. The
clarifying statement by all ECT Signatories reads: "Justification
is central to the scriptural account of salvation, and its meaning
has been much debated between Protestants and Catholics. We agree
that justification is not earned by any good works or merits
of our own; it is entirely God's gift, conferred through the
Father's sheer graciousness, out of the love that he bears us
in his Son, who suffered on our behalf and rose from the dead
for our justification. Jesus was "put to death for our trespasses
and raised for our justification" (Romans 4:25). In justification,
God, on the basis of Christ's righteousness alone, declares us
to be no longer his rebellious enemies but his forgiven friends,
and by virtue of his declaration it is so. The New Testament
makes it clear that the gift of justification is received through
faith. "By grace you have been saved through faith; and
this is not your own doing, it is the gift of God" (Ephesians
2:8). By faith, which is also the gift of God, we repent of our
sins and freely adhere to the Gospel, the good news of God's
saving work for us in Christ. By our response of faith to Christ,
we enter into the blessings promised by the Gospel. Faith is
not merely intellectual assent but an act of the whole person,
involving the mind, the will, and the affections, issuing in
a changed life. We understand that what we here affirm is in
agreement with what the Reformation traditions have meant by
justification by faith alone (sola fide)." However, the
concept of imputation as it relates to justification was sidestepped
in the GOS document, so many notable evangelical leaders were
expressing distress over the "agreement."
G: The Gospel of Jesus Christ: An Evangelical Celebration
(1999)
- 1. Discussions were held early in 1998 between those who
supported GOS and those who did not (dis-senters included ACE
members). It was agreed that a statement was urgently needed
which reaffirmed the gospel and justification through faith alone.
A drafting committee (The Committee on Evangelical Unity in the
Gospel) was composed of evangelicals who agreed with GOS and
those who did not (ACE. Members included Packer, Sproul, Carson,
Timothy George, Erwin Lutzer, John Ankerberg, among others. The
statement took more than a year to formulate and is intended
to clarify the biblical position of all evangelicals re: justification
by faith alone through grace alone in Christ alone.
- 2. In November, 1998, at the ETS Annual Conference a panel
discussion was held between Father Martin and J. I. Packer on
the Catholic side and Bob Godfrey on the Protestant side. The
topic was "Have Protestants and Catholics Finally Agreed
on Salvation? A Panel Discussion on the Roman Catholic-Evangelical
document, `The Gift of Salvation.'" The primary issue in
the document "The Gift of Salvation" is that the doctrine
of "imputed righteousness" was not present. Hence,
Catholics and Protestants remain divided over an essential teaching
in the Gospel.
- 3. A crux in the controversy: "Is our justification
based on the righteousness of Christ inus or the righteousness
of Christ forus? . . . .The Roman Catholic Church has always
affirmed that justification is by faith in the sense that faith
is a necessarycondi-tion (though not a sufficientcondition) for
justification . . . Rome believes justification is through faith
but not through faith alone." (Sproul, Getting the Gospel
Right, p. 68)
- 4. The document was presented In July 2000, at the Christian
Booksellers Association (CBA) in New Or-leans, in a cooperative
effort between CBA, Zondervan Publishers and Moody Press. In
addition to the statement itself, Zondervan distributed free
of charge thousands of copies of This We Believe, edited by John
Akers, John Armstrong and John Woodbridge, which elucidated key
elements of the Statement.
- 5. In August, at "Amsterdam 2000," all 10,000 delegates
were given a copy of the gospel document. As a result, several
groups, including Promise Keepers, have added the gospel statement
to their ministry doctrinal statements to clarify their commitment
to the fundamental truths of the gospel.
- 6. Southern Baptist Theological Seminary president R. Albert
Mohler states: "The statement's carefully crafted affirmation
of the doctrine of justification may be its most significant
achieve-ment in light of current controversies. The drafters
insist that the righteousness of Christ alone is imputed to be-lievers
by God's legal declaration `as the sole ground for our justification.'
Further, our justification and adoption are by grace alone, through
faith alone, achieved by Christ alone, `while we were yet sinners.'
This last phrase is especially important, and the statement continues
to deny any notion of inherent human righteousness. This is a
significant correction of previous statements popular among some
evangelicals, which have confused the biblical teachings on justification,
and have surrendered the Reformation achievement."
- 7. The overarching theme and purpose of this Statement is
to expound the notion of "justification by faith alone through
grace alone in Christ alone."
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- II. Significance of the Statement
- A. The Priority of the Gospel (Romans 9:1-5) "I speak
the truth in Christ- I am not lying, my conscience confirms it
in the Holy Spirit- I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish
in my heart. For I could wish that I myself were cursed and cut
off from Christ for the sake of my brothers, those of my own
race, the people of Israel. Theirs is the adoption as sons; theirs
the divine glory, the cove-nants, the receiving of the law, the
temple worship and the promises. Theirs are the patriarchs, and
from them is traced the human ancestry of Christ, who is God
over all, forever praised! Amen."
- B. The Only Gospel (Galatians 1:6-9) "I am astonished
that you are so quickly deserting the one who called you by the
grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel- which
is really no gospel at all. Evidently some people are throwing
you into confusion and are trying to pervert the gospel of Christ.
But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel
other than the one we preached to you, let him be eternally condemned!
As we have already said, so now I say again: If anybody is preaching
to you a gospel other than what you accepted, let him be eternally
condemned!"
- C. What are the necessary and sufficient truths that one
must understand and commit to in order to be Christian?
- D. Are we really quibbling over words?
- E. "How will they know if they do not hear?" Our
privilege and responsibility.
- F. What do you hope to get out of this study?
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- III. Format and Logistics
- A. Format of the Study 1. Lesson Plan
- a) The Nature of the Gospel (Statement 1)
- b) The Scope of the Gospel (Statements 2-4, 17)
- c) The Person of the Gospel (Statements 6, 7)
- d) The Provision of the Gospel (Statements 8, 9, 10)
- e) The Triumph of the Gospel (Statements 11-12)
- f) The Application of the Gospel (Statements 5, 14-16, 18)
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- B. Assumptions
- 1. God's Word is the final authority on the matters about
which it speaks
- 2. There will be some teaching with open discussion
- 3. Respect for everyone's beliefs regardless of knowledge
or denominational background.
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