Another trip to the mailbox and I come up with a flyer for a local gospel meeting (the church of Christ term for 'revival') at a church three towns over. I usually put these up, though I don't expect anybody to go. This one, though, I decided not to put up.
I was baptized at a fall gospel meeting 35 years ago. I don't remember the details of the sermon, but I knew after hearing it that I needed to be baptized, that I needed to be saved or I was going to hell. While the gospel, I have thankfully learned over the years, is much more than hellfire and brimstone, it's important to hold out the truth that we preach Christ and him crucified and how he is the only way to salvation. To preach the gospel should impact the church now, but also expand the gospel to those who do not know it.
And so I got this flyer about a gospel meeting, and the theme, in large ALL CAPS, was 'The God of Order'. Go down to see what is being preached each service: 'The Origin of Civil Government'; 'The Christian and Civil Government'; 'Is God Blessing America'; 'The Christian and the World'; and finally 'Freedom is a Privilege, Not a Right'.
I looked this flyer for a stated gospel meeting and I asked, 'where is the gospel in this'? Now, I did not go and hear these sermons, but I am guessing (based on who is speaking and the church holding the meeting) that it is heavily tied to a politically right wing message of law and order. In these days of Black Lives Matter vs. Blue Lives Matter, this message stands only with the latter, not the former. America, in this viewpoint, is the great savior...one could even say that the United States of people's imagination is the One True Hope in this world. Our job is to submit to the Order of this world, salute the flag, put our time in at the nebulous civil religion of American Christianity, and be thankful that we are blessed even as we curse those who point out the unChristian things that even good Christian folk are guilty of.
This is not the gospel. Call it a seminar on Christianity, but don't call it a 'Gospel meeting.' If Jesus is not front and center of all things, don't go and calling something else who has taken his rightful place the gospel. Blasphemy is just around the corner when we do this.
I earnestly hope that I am wrong, and that somebody will come to Jesus through this meeting. But I am afraid that they are drifting further and further away from the gospel and embracing the ideology of America First. The flag is once again trumping the cross...and we are all lesser for it.
