Rick Leers writes on eTruth.com that people have forgotten that the word “gospel” means “good news,” and that preaching hellfire and brimstone is not good news.
So, let’s preach the gospel without it. “Believe on Jesus Christ because He is the only way to Heaven.” There you go. Now people won’t be calling you a hellfire preacher, but they will still call you narrow minded, stupid, and more. After all, you have told them nothing about why Jesus is the only way. You’ve not told them why you need Him to get to Heaven or anything else.
We’ve all sinned, and God, being a good, must punish sin, nor can He abide in its presence. So, sinners die and go to Hell, apart from God to be eternally purged of their sin by fire.
But Jesus died and took upon Himself that punishment for all men, and He offers us a way to stand before God innocent as Adam was the day He was created and as righteous as God Himself is through the imputing of Christ’s righteousness into us.
The good news of the gospel is that Jesus Christ died for our sins according to our Scriptures. The wages of sin is death, and without Christ that is what we will reap for all eternity: death in Hell.
Mr. Leers then goes on to show a gross misunderstanding of Christ’s teaching about “judge not lest ye be judged” (i.e., biblically I can judge anyone of anything if I’m willing to judge myself first). If he’d read the Bible, he’d see that most of the things people do nowadays have already been judged sinful and abominable to God and hated by God.
He concludes by saying that no where in the Bible is hating your fellow man taught. I guess he skipped over the Psalms, then.
So, he has judged Christians based upon what he thinks is the Bible without first judging himself against the Bible to see if he lines up. That’s the kind of judgment Jesus spoke against. Judge not lest ye be judged, Mr. Leer.
And remember, only a belief and trust in Jesus Christ can save you from your sins and the wages of your sins. That is the gospel, the good news, that you said you’d rather here.
Everything in the new testament that Jesus did is a rebuke of old the old testament.
I love how you managed to take snippets out of context from my letter to the editor and basically losing all the context. How typical. I hope you do not eat pork and keep those unclean women away from you when it is “that time of the month”.
The article apparently no longer exists, so I guess it is pretty easy to claim I took stuff out of context without providing any evidence as such.
And since Jesus did not rebuke the Law but rather fulfilled it and shed light upon it: “Thou shalt not kill” applies to our heart attitudes as well, so that we should not hate. “Thou shalt not commit adultery” applies to our heart attitudes as well, so that we should not lust.
However, you are missing the point completely that the Old Testament Law given to Moses was given to national Israel. It has not ever applied to me nor could it ever. I am not Israel. I’ll never be Israel.
I can no more claim to be under the Law than I could claim divine rights to the land of Abraham.
The Christian, shocking as it may seem, is called to live according to the law of Christ, the law of grace, the law of love, which commands are deeper and more encompassing than ever Israel’s Laws were. The unrighteous amongst the Pharisees had no problem keeping the Law of Israel outwardly, but when Christ brought His Law, the Pharisees were seen for what they truly were: washed on the outside, but inwardly they were black with sin.
So, I do eat Pork, because the New Testament declares all things clean for our eating so long as we ask God to sanctify it. And no, I do not avoid my wife during “that time of the month” because God never told a member of the Church to do such a thing.
Why heap upon myself commands which were never commanded me? If I were to go out and try to obey the whole of Israel’s Law, should I also seek to fulfil the command given to Noah–that of building an Ark? Should I obey the command given to Tribulation saints and seek to avoid the worship of the image of the beast which doesn’t even exist yet?
Should I follow the command given to Moses pre-Sinai and seek to lead a people out of Egypt?
I can learn a great deal from Israel’s Law, but I would be wresting the Scriptures to my descruction if I were to mangle the Law to somehow apply to me when God never said it did.
Live a life of love–first for God, then family, church, others, self–and everything else will fall into place. That is what Christ taught.
For whatever reason, Mr. Leers responded to my above response via email. He didn’t really respond to anything I wrote, but again claimed that I took things out of context to suit my “own warped religious needs,” whatever those are (he didn’t say). I was then compared to those “people who use leviticus to bash gays and ignore everything else.”
A Christian who bashes gays is a sad case indeed. Further, in accordance with Jesus’ “judge not” policy, a Christian has no right seeking to remove the sin from another’s life if one still harbors sin. Backbiting, lying, rumor-mongering, lust, etc., may seem like “minor” almost secret sins, but whosoever breaks the least law is guilty of the whole, whether homosexual or heterosexual. (And besides, there are New Testament scriptures which point out the sin of homosexuality, so why resort to the Law of Israel if one doesn’t need to?)
At this point, I am honestly not clear what Mr. Leers point of replying on this blog entry was. He doesn’t seem interested in setting the facts straight if indeed I have misunderstood him.
Thanks again for your reply, Mr. Leers.
i found your reply to me to be totally stupid. my letter no longer exists so i can’t prove you took things out of context?
typical lame response from a religious nut job.
WE ARE NOT JEWS AND THE OLD TESTAMENT PSALMS ARE NOT ANYTHING BUT POEMS. you might want to do a little bible study yourself as the ode to the aten written by the pharoh ankenaten is IN THE BIBLE IN THE PSALMS AND IT PREDATES THE BIBLE.
i highly doubt you even know how the bible came into being or why it has what it has in it and nothing more. and i don’t mean the king james version i mean THE REAL BIBLE AS FORMED BY THE HOLY ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH.
take my name out of this blog. i am sick and tired of you nut job christians taking my words and using them for your stupid cause. AND BY THE WAY I AM CATHOLIC AND MY CHURCH TEACHES THAT YOU MY GOOD MAN ARE GOING TO HELL FOR NOT BEING CATHOLIC.
LUCKY FOR YOU I DON’T AGREE WITH THAT.
BY THE WAY THE BIBLE SAYS MAGIC IS REAL.
PAUL NEVER MET JESUS (don’t even try me on that one, dreams and visions are crapola), PETER HATED PAUL AND THE STUPID GAY THING WAS IN A FRIGGING LETTER TO A CHURCH AND WAS THE USUAL PROPAGANDA THEY USED AGAINST ANY CHRISTIAN SECT THAT DIDN’T TOE THE LINE OF WHAT PAUL WANTED. LEARN SOME CHURCH AND RELIGIOUS HISTORY, START WITH THE BYZANTINE EMPIRE.
AND WHILE YOU ARE AT IT TAKE MY NAME OFF THIS STUPID BLOG.
i probably blocked you on my email i find you an insufferable fool.
only a grade a *censor* would write that the person they took out of context has to prove it as an excuse for their dishonesty.
REMOVE ALL MENTION OF MY NAME ON YOUR SITE AND DO NOT USE IT AGAIN.
i would tell you to go to hell, but all you are going to do it rot in a box, cause baby when you are dead you are dead.
[Post edited by blog-owner.]Â
Again, thanks for reply, and everything in my comment before yours still stands. And again I say, it is easy to say I took what you said out of context because the article no longer exists. Click the link in my original posting above–you get an HTTP 404 Error. If the article does still exist online, provide the link so that others may read what we are talking about. Thanks.
Also, your name will not be removed from this blog because I have no reason to do so. There is no legal reason why it should be removed. I have no committed libel against you, and the only defamation of character present on this page now is wrought at your own words.
If you harbor so much anger against me, you are under no obligation to return here. If you simply like to argue, then I hope you have gotten joy from this dialogue. And if you have been sincerely trying to persuade me into something, then I am sorry I have upset you so.
However, I will likely be replying to your previous comment as an actual blog post, in accordance with my rights under Copyright Law.
Have a good day/night.
your rights. what about my rights?
my letter no longer is listed in the archive of the newspaper and i didn’t save it because i never expected some lame religious jerk to put it on his blog.
i remember what the letter was about. it was in response to a bunch of holy rollers in goshen indiana who were upset that a new church in granger indiana was attracting a large congragation because they didn’t preach to all and sundry that they were going to hell but actually tried to use the word gospel with its original intent, good news. i mentioned in my letter that my church teaches that anyone that isn’t catholic is going to hell for not being catholic. and let me tell you, that [ticked] the catholics off for me pointing that one out. one wrote a letter in reply and said i was wrong and basically backed up what i said in a round about way.
christian bloggers are the worst offenders of taking something someone writes and cutting out what they want to use for themselves and their point of view and discarding the original writers intent and context. hellfire preachers, creationists and gay bashers all do it. you people make fox news look downright fair and balanced.
[comment edited by blog owner]
Your rights? You have a right to *not* post on this blog if you are so opposed to having your name appear here. You also have the right to post anonymously.
I am sorry that you are unable to produce a copy of your original article, and the burden of proof of whether or not I took you out of context or not lies squarely upon your shoulders, if you care that much about it.
I maintain that I did not take you out of context, and since I’m such a nice guy, I tracked down your letter, and which the world may see for itself here. The link in the original post will be updated to reflect this correct URL.
You’ll also note that your original letter is not “fair and balanced” either, again showing your biased judging. Regardless of the fact you supposedly taught at a Catholic school, you have shown a very elementary level of biblical understanding. (Not that I expect much biblical understanding from the Roman Catholic system of papal authority in the first place.)
Jesus Christ, the Lord God Almighty, preached on Hell much more than He did Heaven. To be conformed into His image, so must we. Only with a proper understanding of the consequences is the “Good News” really good!
good lord another christian idiot taking me out of context and them blaming me for what is not available anymore when i say i was taken out of context.
i am so [pancake] sick and tired of morons like the likes of you trying to use my words against me WITHOUT ALL OF MY WORDS BEING USED., [PANCAKE] YOU.
[KingdomGeek edit: “hellfire and brimstone” preaching is bad, but apparently curses and the f-bomb are okay, assuming this is the same “rick leers” as above.]
So the question is… Are you really just now finding about this blog post, Rick, or did you miss the fact that you’ve already replied to it a few times?
Or are you just not Rick Leers at all?