"For you first, God raised up His Servant and sent Him to bless you
by turning every one of you from your wicked ways." Acts 3:26

 

So do you really want to know what’s good about the good news called the gospel? Well, here it is, straight from the lead apostle at Pentecost. The good news is that there is a way out from a life subject to sin and thus out from the consequences of destruction under judgment. 

Let's offer the driving context behind Peter's words so you can see I am not embellishing on what he calls the "blessing" in his message:

3:19 "Therefore repent and return, so that your sins may be wiped away, in order that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord; 20 and that He may send Jesus, the Christ appointed for you, … 22 "Moses said,...23 'And it will be that every soul that does not heed that prophet shall be utterly destroyed from among the people.' … 26 "For you first, God raised up His Servant and sent Him to bless you by turning every one of you from your wicked ways."

 

Hear in this the twofold blessing of the true "good" in Peter’s "good news." It is this: By turning from sin, 1) God's refreshing and Christ's return may come; and 2) you will be saved from utter destruction—the only destiny of everyone who abides in unrepented wickedness. 

Now I realize this all may sound ridiculously, "unrevelatorily" obvious. At least it is if you were raised on plain, untwisted scripture preaching. "Repent and be saved so you can receive the Lord's refreshings and escape His destructive judgment." That salvation is and has always been the "good" behind the Good News.

But guess what? Most young people raised today as "believers in Christ" do not have this definition of good. The modern definition of "good" behind today's gospel in the western Laodicean church sounds like this:

"God does not want to condemn you by talking about judgment which is bad news, but wants to keep that subject hidden from you lest He turn you off to Him. He just wants to tell you that He has a wonderful plan for your life, and that He has lots of promises and gifts to give you so you can become all that 'you were meant to be.'"

 

You see that there are two competing gospels in the church. The true gospel is a good news that offers escape from otherwise terminally bad news. The false gospel is a good news based in hiding the bad news, denying the bad news or even mystically redefining the bad news (destruction) to "mean" good news (salvation). ("Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil"). That's the difference. 

There is an extreme judgment-denial consciousness in the church today, even though the consciousness of irreversible judgment to come is the governing frame of reference for New Testament teaching and preaching on salvation (which of course, people also deny as well.) The power of denial in the end times is formidable, infesting every quarter of the body of Christ as we know it. It is part of the strong delusion that was threatened upon all those who would not love the truth.

Consciences have been burying the conviction of the Holy Spirit so long that for many there is no longer any way of telling good from evil or holy from profane. They are past repentance. (The only mystery is that God still is able to somehow miraculously save some unto Jesus in spite of the falsity lacing the gospel they first come to believe. Such believers manage to wake up to the fear of God on the other side of their conversion—and for this we can rejoice.)

 

&&&&&&&&&&

I have not written today to convert anyone who is living in judgment denial about the true meaning of good behind the gospel. Rather, I have written only for those needing a way to articulate what their spirits know to be false about the "good news" being proffered as the gospel, but who haven't been able to distill it out. 

When the next revelation of Christ arrives, there will at last be a return to a judgment-based gospel instilling the fear of the Lord in the remainder of men who will be able to be harvested to Him:

Rev. 14:6 And I saw another angel flying in midheaven, having an eternal gospel to preach to those who live on the earth, and to every nation and tribe and tongue and people; 7 and he said with a loud voice, "Fear God, and give Him glory, because the hour of His judgment has come; worship Him who made the heaven and the earth and sea and springs of waters."... 15 And another angel came out of the temple, crying out with a loud voice to Him who sat on the cloud, "Put in your sickle and reap, for the hour to reap has come, because the harvest of the earth is ripe." 

But for now, stand firm in your patience.

 

With all faith,

Chris Anderson
New Meadow Neck, Rhode Island USA
First Love Ministry
- a ministry of Anglemar Fellowship
http://www.firstloveministry.org

5/18

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