The Unadjusted Gospel: Harris Report on T4G

The title of the conference that six of us staff went to on Apr 13-15 in Louisville, Ky, was The (Unadjusted) Gospel, referring to the many pressures to alter and adjust the Biblical gospel to fit our times and culture. The eight main speakers spoke of different facets of this.

Mark Dever: The Church Is the Gospel Made Visible
A healthy church displays the gospel in its life, as well as proclaiming it.
It displays the holiness, love, and authority of God. It displays people as redeemed sinners made in His image, who repent and believe the gospel. He spoke of a woman who looked at the Church as a pit of vipers. He said he agreed, but also saw the Church as the people who uniquely see themselves as a pit of vipers, and are being changed by God’s grace. It displays the unity and diversity of God’s people. I was particularly struck by his example of a Muslim nurse who was intrigued by young people visiting an 85 year old woman in her hospital—they evidently truly cared for her in a culture where generations mix less and less.
A healthy church takes risks because it believes the gospel to be true and compelling. He spoke of Jay, who ministers to Muslims in London. Both he and his wife expect him to be killed for his bold witness to them. But they are constrained to make Christ known because they believe the gospel that Jesus is the only way to Life.
I was moved by his point that our culture needs to see the gospel displayed in their world. And the Church living as God’s people makes the gospel visible to them, by its gracious forgiveness to one another, and its living inconvenient love.
I asked myself, How does CPC display the gospel to Howard Co in a way that gives credibility to the gospel we proclaim? Are unbelievers confused about what would cause such a diverse group as we are to live together in community, held together only by the glue of the gospel, and not our similarities of tastes, cultures, or ethnicity?

R.C. Sproul: Lessons in 50 Years of the Defense & Propagation of the Gospel
This was a powerful presentation of Francis Schaeffer’s thesis of a generation ago: the Church in America has lost its sense of antithesis. That refers to the fact that since the 19th century, philosophy and theology take an idea (thesis) and react with a contrasting idea (antithesis). Then someone will seek to accommodate the opposites to see truth in both and create a peacemaking synthesis. Which becomes the next generation’s thesis to react to, and so on.
So in our view of the Bible as God’s Word v simply man’s words. Or in sovereignty and free will, “resolved” in a limited God Who grows and accommodates to circumstances (“open theism”). Or in “Evangelicals and Catholics Together”, which finds a middle ground on many practical disagreements such as marriage, abortion, birth control, sacraments, morality. And imputation v infusion of Christ’s righteousness for salvation. The Roman Church has always taught that we are saved by an inherent righteousness worked in us to save us by grace. The Reformation was all about the fact that we are not saved by any righteousness in ourselves, but only the righteousness of Christ outside of us, which is credited to us, i.e. imputed to us as a legal declaration (which will always produce a hunger for righteousness that will be seen in a changed life).
The Church must not compromise by trying to seek peace with the Roman Church by finding a synthesis between inherent and imputed righteousness!
I will actually be preaching on this in May to help us to be clearer on this point which is often seen as a matter only for theologians to argue about, but of no great practical difference to the lay Christian. I will seek to demonstrate that it actually has very practical implications.

Al Mohler: How Does It Happen? Trajectories toward the Adjusted Gospel
He described 8, but gave the first couple in much more detail and unfortunately had to race through the last few far too quickly. They are
1. Modern trajectory: the gospel must be updated for our scientific, technological age.
2. Postmodern trajectory: preach gospel as if true, tho it is not in any transcendent way, simply because it is meaningful.
3. Moral trajectory: atonement is immoral divine child abuse, so tone it down
4. Aesthetic trajectory: do not preach certain texts because they are crude (eg: the cross)
5. Therapeutic trajectory: preacher as therapist to make you feel good, and recovering
6. Pragmatic trajectory: depend on managerial techniques for church growth
7. Emotional trajectory: preach to felt needs and what makes people feel good
8. Materialist trajectory: health & wealth gospel for immediate gratification
He finished with Romans 1:16: Paul was not ashamed of the gospel. Preaching against the tide is wearisome. It can only be done by deep conviction of the power of the unadjusted gospel.

There were five more messages, plus a testimony, but I don’t think you want them all summarized like I did the first three. Here is a list of the speakers and titles:

Thabiti Anyabwile: “Fine Sounding Arguments: How Wrongly Engaging the Culture Adjusts the Gospel

John McArthur: The Theology of Sleep from Mark 4

John Piper: Did Jesus Preach Paul’s Gospel?

Ligon Duncan: Did the [Patristic] Fathers Know the Gospel?

C.J. Mahanney: To Ordinary Pastors: a Charge from II Tim 4:1-5

(also a testimony to the sufficient grace of God by a pastor, Matt Chandler, who has brain cancer, and though a young man, with small children, could be dead in a year or two)

Let me conclude with simply some personal Harris Highlights:

• I shared how I was challenged to ask how CPC makes the gospel visible to Howard Co.? Do we display God’s character and the grace of the gospel in a way that makes visitors stop and take notice? Or people who have contact with us in other situations? I think some do, which raises another question. Dever said he struggles with what to do for people who visit for years but do not become members of the body, accountable to the elders. What responsibility do we have for such folks? They are seen as part of CPC.

• It was good to be reminded by John McArthur, from the parable of the farmer in Mark 4:26-29, that the power is in the seed, not the farmer. He simply faithfully sows the seed, then sleeps, and “the soil on its own/automatically (v28) bears fruit” in gradual growth of a full harvest. I need to rest more in the inherent power of the gospel, and the work of the Spirit, not my efforts. Diligence without anxiety.

• I found myself envious of some of the gifts of the men who preached so powerfully and with such insight. I was convicted that I wanted to be seen as them, rather than to be as useful to my Lord as He has equipped me to be. The old problem of focusing on status rather than faithfulness. My heart is proud, and I saw that again. It was very humbling.


• C.J. Mahanney, who is an amazing man, spoke directly to this at the last session of the conference: the temptation to compare ourselves with superstars, and be discontent. He spoke on Paul’s charge to Timothy from II Timothy 4:1-5. Points that especially challenged or convicted me: preach the revealed gospel with clarity and total unoriginality—with complete patience (v2). I am not a patient person. And as he said, it is tested every day. How I need to daily remember God’s patience with me! How I try His patience! He is patient with the years it takes me to really see my heart and change. Yet I expect others to change immediately. It caused me to love my God Who is so patient with my dull heart and stubborn will.

There are many other things that could be said, but I do not want to try your patience. Thank you for sending us. We will try to be more faithful to the charge that has been given us to proclaim and live out the unadjusted gospel, which IS the power of God to salvation. Here at CPC and everywhere the Name of Christ is proclaimed. Hallelujah!

Pastor Allen