AB316

Category: Five Distortions of the Gospel

  • The Ultimization of Power

    The Ultimization of Power

    A Distortion of the Truth

    The “gospel” of Neo-Pentecostalism distorts the true Gospel. Neo-Pentecostalism has, in fact, abandoned the Gospel of Jesus Christ for a message of its own making. Neo-Pentecostalism has abandoned the Gospel and created its own message in a variety of ways. This abandonment and distortion has taken several forms. One way that Neo-Pentecostalism distorts and, in the end, abandons the Gospel is through what the late Randy Arnett calls “the ultimization of power.”[1]According to Arnett, Neo-Pentecostals’ emphasis on power tends to emphasis the “personalization of power” and obscures the atoning work of Christ’s death and resurrection.

    A Biblical Response

    In order to respond to this Neo-Pentecostal distortion of the Gospel, we need to look at two important questions regarding Jesus’ death on the cross as an atonement. The first question is, “What does Christ’s atonement achieve?” A second, related, question is, “How does Christ’s death relate to an individual believer’s relationship with the spirit world?”

    Many different theories have been put forward in answer to the first question. Some have written that Christ’s death provided the great moral influence demonstrating God’s love for us. Others have said that Jesus’ death paid a ransom. Still others have written that Jesus’ life and death provide a great example of self-sacrifice that all people should seek to follow. While not dismissing these various theories as incorrect, John Stott wrote that “‘substitution’ is not a further ‘theory’ or ‘image’ to be set alongside the others, but rather the foundation of them all, without which each lacks cogency.”[2]

    At its most basic level the Cross of Christ was an exchange. Jesus’ voluntarily died a sacrificial death in the place of sinners. In his death and resurrection Jesus exchanged his righteousness for our sinfulness; he exchanged his eternal life for our death penalty. The efficacy of Christ’s substitution is complete and beautiful and eternal. We ought not cheapen it by saying that this exchange was for our temporal pleasures and comfort. It was far more important than that.

    As to the second question of, “How does Christ’s death relate to an individual’s relationship with the spirit world in the here and now?” the Bible says that believers will continue to struggle with sin throughout their lives (Romans 7). Paul speaks of this struggle in Ephesians 6 as not being against flesh and blood but against the spiritual forces. Our weapons in this struggle are faith, truth, righteousness, and salvation. Paul’s call to take up these various tools of spiritual warfare is a call to discipleship. It is a call to the spiritual disciplines and the “normal” Christian life of prayer, Bible study, fellowship, and evangelism. So, the believer’s relationship to the spirit world is from a position of victory – not a victory won by our own efforts, but a victory won on our behalf by Jesus Christ. It is then that we can celebrate the truth of 1 John 4:4: “You are from God, little children, and you have conquered them, because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world.” (CSB) 

    Further Reading

    For further reading on the atoning work of Christ check out these books:

    Phil Barnes serves as a lecturer and Interim Academic Dean at The Baptist Theological Seminary of Malawi in Lilongwe, Malawi. His focus is teaching Missions and World Religions. He holds a MDiv and a PhD from The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, USA. Phil and his wife Laura have been married for almost 22 years and have 2 sons: Daniel and Jonathan.

    [1]Randy Arnett, Pentecostalization: The Evolution of Baptists in Africa( (Eldon, MO, USA, 2017), 153.

    [2]John Stott, The Cross of Christ(Leicester, England: Inter-Varsity Press, 1989), 168, emphasis mine. 

  • Denial of Depravity

    Denial of Depravity

    This article aims to articulate the reality and importance of the Dilemma of the original sin, how it has destroyed the people’s ability to seek God on their own, even though it is denied by many of those who confess to be Christians.  In this generation it is those who are mainly known as Neo-Pentecostal or commonly known as fire churches. They do not have a clear concept of the original sin or sin nature, Dr. Arnett in his book, (Pentecostalization the Evolution of Baptists in Africa) states that for Neo-Pentecostals sin is not moral against God rather it is just social, it is offenses against each other and acts that block the blessings from God, they do not see it as a separation from God (page 134).   

    The Dilemma of sin or human depravity is clearly laid out for us in Romans 3:9-23. Paul here makes it clear that human beings are unable to relate with God in their own terms because sin condition. He calls this spiritual death in the book of Ephesians 2:1. All people are corrupted by sin Romans 3:23, it is not the environment they live in nor their race or ethnicity. He makes it clear that because of sin there is no righteous person in the whole universe. All people have turned aside; they do not understand; they do not seek God therefore they can never reach out to God in their sinful condition.  

    Likewise, all people of the world produce nothing good from their tongues and mouth. The goodness of a sinful person is just like a grave. It must be noted that the bible clearly states that the mouth or tongue speaks from the abundance of the heart (Matt 12:34-36, and 15:18). The lying and the deception that goes around in the world weather in political realm, religious realm, business realm and societal realm is due to Human depravity. The Neo-Pentecostals will attest all to Satan and spiritual powers and forces. However, Paul attests all to sin.  He does this by quoting the Old Testament from Psalms 14:1-3, 5:9, 10:7. 

    Paul quotes Isaiah 59:7-8 and Psalms 36:1-4 to demonstrate that all the wars of the world is a clear testimony of human depravity. In the Neo-Pentecostal culture and theology it is said that the essential cause of all that takes place at an individual and cooperate level in terms of war and murder is Satanism. However, the Bible states that every sin is a form of evil. The World will not know true peace and is incapable of realizing it because of human depravity. War is from the depravity of humanity.The world that we live in is filled with peoplewithout God, whereby people hate, deceive, cheat, lie and kill each other; you must never fall into this trap of thinking that you can know God and his blessing outside the Lord Jesus Christ. The only way to find true peace is with a relationship with Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior.