Is the “American Gospel” the true Gospel?

Is the American gospel the true gospel? That is the topic we'll discuss today, right here on the Christian Worldview Radio Program, where the mission is to sharpen the biblical worldview of Christians and to share the good news, the gospel, that all people can be reconciled to God through faith, in Jesus Christ.

I'm David Wheaton, the host, and our website is thechristianworldview.org. Well, thanks for joining us today for another edition of the Christian Worldview as we discuss the American gospel, the true gospel. Now, Christians shouldn't be surprised that professing Christendom in America is full of fakes and frauds and charlatans huckstering false teaching and non-saving gospels. In fact, the Apostle Peter guaranteed this in his second letter, where he says, But false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will also be false teachers among you, who will secretly introduce destructive heresies. Second Peter 2.1.

Now, lack of surprise at this should not mean lack of discernment and unwillingness to point it out. After all, misrepresenting God and his word are grievous sins, and people are terribly impacted when they are drawn in by false teachers. So this week on the Christian Worldview, we are going to discuss some of the false gospels being propagated in America, such as moralistic preaching, or the works gospel, or the quote, Attractional Church, or the health, wealth, and prosperity gospel, in light of the film, American Gospel Christ Alone. Our guest is Brandon Kimber. He's the creator of this film and a second film on progressive Christianity, titled American Gospel Christ Crucified. So this first one we're going to discuss today is American Gospel Christ Alone, an upcoming program that's going to be American Gospel Christ Crucified.

And so let's get to the first segment of the interview with Brandon Kimber. Brandon, it's great to have you on the Christian Worldview. I often ask first-time guests, just tell us about your background, how you became a follower of Christ, and what you do now. Well, thanks for having me, David.

I live in Cleveland, Ohio. I'm married with four children. I grew up in a Christian home. My parents both got saved before I was born. And growing up, I constantly heard their testimony of how, before Christ, they were living the party lifestyle, basically, you know, drugs, alcohol.

My mother went down that path after her mother died at a young age. And my father experimenting in Eastern religions, and they both found Christ. And so I would hear this growing up. I thought I was a pretty good kid.

I didn't do drugs and all that stuff that they talked about. I didn't realize the sins of the heart, the self-righteousness, the pride, the lust, that stuff that you don't see with your eyes were just deserving of hell as the sins that my parents talked about. It wasn't until I came across some internet sermons that my view of the gospel completely changed. The church that I grew up in was a church that had a lot of influences from the word of faith or prosperity gospel movement. A lot of the teachers in that movement were influencing my parents. I saw their books around the house.

Benny Hinn was a name I was familiar with. This church that I went to, I would say, was very unbalanced, and it was focused on grace only. And we weren't really ever hearing about the justice of God and the holiness of God. This was a charismatic church, so it was very focused on spiritual experiences, and people were doing crazy things, like you see at Bethel Church, for example, being slain in the spirit and convulsing on the floor. And it was kind of like trying to chase a spiritual high. My parents took me out of that church around age 15, and we spent the next decade in a Nazarene church. In college, I come across these sermons, one of them from Paul Washer. There are certain elements, you know, about the nature of God that really clicked for me, and I began to become dissatisfied with the preaching I was hearing in my current church. I realized that it was moralistic preaching, and we'll talk about that a little bit later. So as far as my current job in filmmaking, video and film were something that was a hobby since about eighth grade.

Right out of college, got a job at the company I am currently at. My boss gave me permission, basically, to do a passion project, and that's kind of how American gospel began. And I really felt that there was a need for a tool to help them see and understand the true gospel and see it compared to the counterfeit. Brandon Kimber with us today on the Christian Real View, the creator of two films called American Gospel. There's a part one and there's a part two. We're talking about part one today. The subtitle is Christ Alone. Brandon, let's get right into the film because there's a lot of things to address in this first film.

I'm going to play the trailer to the film, which touches on a number of these things, and then we're going to pull some of the things out throughout our interview today. So here is the trailer for American Gospel, Christ Alone. It is a pain to know that there are people who do not know Jesus.

It is a greater pain to know that oftentimes Jesus and Christianity is being distorted. Who told you you can't accomplish your dreams? I had no clue what the gospel was.

I had never really heard it. You know God wants you healthy. I worked for my uncle Benny Hinn, who's a famous faith healer. As far as I knew, he died and rose again so that I could have a prosperous life. But what was going through my mind at the time was that this was real.

Charlatans and snake oil salesmen have been doing this trick for decades. People think basically that religion is there to boost your ego, make you happy, make you more successful, make life go well. And as I got older, I really started to question God and how he could send people to hell.

Scripture says that we make the mistake of thinking God was like us. And what you do is you create a God who only wants to give you all the desires of your heart. Your destiny is calling out. It's time to start living large.

We stayed in hotels upwards of $20,000 a night. Nobody wants to die, nobody wants to be sick, and nobody wants to be poor. All the things that Jesus says we have to be willing to set aside to follow him. They take all of those things and they make that the attraction of the Gospel.

We are exporting the very worst of what Christianity has to offer. I'm strong, I'm healthy, I'm blessed, I'm favored, I am a victor, not a victim. I'm going to live a long, productive, faith-filled life. In terms of biblical Christianity, Christianity is about dying.

How can I just continue to live my life as if this isn't true? So I abandoned my version of the American dream, and I said, I will do what I can to take the Gospel to the nations. All right, that's the trailer from American Gospel Christ Alone, the first film in this series. And Brandon Kimber is our guest today, the creator of American Gospel. And Brandon, you covered a lot in that trailer.

It's really powerful to watch. And you touch on a number of different things from moralistic preaching, all of these false Gospels that have become popular in America and been exported abroad, moralistic preaching, the works Gospel, the word of faith movement, the Attractional Church, all these erroneous things that the American Church has become involved in. Let's get straight to what you mentioned in this previous answer about moralistic preaching. Here's Matt Chandler, a pastor from, I believe, the Dallas, Fort Worth area talking about this idea of moralistic preaching. In fact, I think the thing most common among unbelievers when they think about Christianity is they think about Christian moralism, what we believe about sex, what we believe about money, what we believe about them. The most common misperception about what Christianity is, is it some sort of moral betterment program.

And it is about being good. And that's what all religions are about anyway, be a good person. There's few things as damning and devastating to the human spirit than that message. We want to first of all say there's nothing wrong with preaching morality. We certainly don't want to preach the opposite, immorality. But moralistic preaching, or sometimes identified as moralism, is preaching the commands of Scripture or the morals of Scripture and nothing else. Just pretty much saying to people, you be a good person and God loves you, and God will love you for that. And while we do not intend it, that is not just a sub-Christian message, it's actually an anti-Christian message.

Okay, it was Matt Chandler at the beginning, and then another, I can't remember his name, who was interviewed there at the end, but talking about this issue of preaching moralism, it's a personal betterment program. Brandon, explain that a bit more in how that has become very pervasive in the evangelical church today. Moralistic preaching is really preaching all the commands of Scripture. So you're going to hear about how you need to love more, serve more, what you should do or what you shouldn't do. That would be under the category of law.

There's this very important distinction that's helped me a lot. The distinction between law and gospel. So law would be do what you should do, the commands of God, and the gospel is done. That's the good news of what God has done for you, or his promises of what he will be doing. I experienced a lot of sermons where I wasn't hearing about Christ and his work, who Christ is.

It was really just those commands. And so there's this problem where if that's all a person is hearing, you're left with these two twin damning possibilities. If you hear these commands and you think that you haven't lived up to those commands, you're going to fall into despair.

But if you think that you have, it's going to make you prideful. So on one hand, you're either self-righteous or you're on the other hand, you're in complete despair. The gospel is coming in between those and saying, you haven't been good. Actually, the standard for good is to be perfect as your Heavenly Father is perfect.

And just hearing that alone leaves you in despair. But the good news is going to say that, look, Jesus, obey the law in your place. He lived a sinless life and he died a substitutionary death in your place, took the penalty that you deserve for your sin and paid that himself. What you should be hearing in a sermon is a balance of law and gospel. So you want to hear about what Christ has done. And in response to that, therefore you obey, hear the commands.

Now you're obeying out of a love and gratitude for what Christ has done for you. And you're not just given a be good message or a be like, insert Bible character message. In that moralistic preaching, it's very closely associated with the biggest false gospel of all, which is the works righteousness gospel that by doing good, you can earn favor with God and merit salvation, eternal life, and so forth. And you bring that out in the film American Gospel, the first part Christ alone. I'm going to play a one minute soundbite on this issue of the works gospel, another false gospel as part of this American gospel.

Okay, we'll get back to that soundbite after this first break of the day here on the Christian worldview. This is an interview with Brandon Kimber, the producer, the creator of these two American gospel films. We're covering part one today.

Next week, we're going to cover part two and we're making these available to listeners. If you already have one, you can purchase the other one we have it for retail price of 1799 on our website, or we're going to for a limited time, we're offering them both for a donation of $30 or more to the Christian real views called the American gospel bundle, part one in part two, or you can also rent it by streaming just go to our website, the Christian worldview.org to find out more, and we'll be back after this. The critical race theory and intersectionality are simply analytical tools that are meant to be used as tools, not as a worldview, not a transcended worldview above the authority of Scripture. And we stand by the strength of this resolution. Is the Southern Baptist Convention diverging from biblical orthodoxy over issues of women teaching men, homosexuality and critical race theory?

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I'm David Wheaton, the host. Our website is thechristianworldview.org. Our topic today is, is the American gospel actually the true gospel? The gospel is being preached in churches and throughout America. Are they the true gospel or are they false gospels? And our guest is Brandon Kimber, the creator of two films, American gospel Christ alone and American gospel Christ crucified. We'll just make it simple. American gospel one and American gospel two.

Today we're discussing the first film and we're going to continue with the interview with Brandon Kimber and tell you how you can get both of these films as well. In that moralistic preaching, it's very closely associated with the biggest false gospel of all, which is the works righteousness gospel that by doing good you can earn favor with God and merit salvation, eternal life and so forth. And you bring that out in the film American gospel, the first part Christ alone.

I'm going to play a one minute soundbite on this issue of the works gospel, another false gospel as part of this American gospel. Roman Catholic view of salvation and really any workspace system of salvation takes works and puts it at the root and says that works plus your faith in Jesus is what produces salvation. But the Bible teaches that it's not the root. It's actually the fruit that your faith alone in Jesus. That is what saves. And then a life that has been saved is sanctified, regenerated heart produces fruit, the fruit of good works. And so you know a person's been saved because of their fruit.

But the fruit is not the reason they're saved. They're saved by God, by grace, through faith in Christ. You see, the Christian is the only person, the true Christian, who can say that they're going to heaven without being self righteous.

Why? In other religions, how do you get to heaven? You get to heaven by being good by earning it. In Christianity, you're not reconciled to God through your own virtue or merit, but you're reconciled to God through the virtue and merit of his son.

That was Paul Washer there, the last part of that soundbite. And what was said in that soundbite is so critical to understand it is the distinction that makes all the difference between being right with God, having Christ's righteousness versus basing your salvation on your own righteousness, which is nothing, is not enough. It doesn't erase the sin you've done in the past. God doesn't grade on a curve. So Brandon, as you heard that soundbite from your film, why do you think we, and I say all of us, have such a propensity for this false gospel of all gospels that are our works, our good deeds, our communion, our baptism, our charitable acts, being to one another. Why is it such a great tendency to be attracted to this particular false gospel, the works gospel?

That's kind of the default position of the human heart. We want the glory for what we can do and to be told that our best works are filthy rags that God is both offensive and unattractive, but it's true. It doesn't help that we're in a culture where we're told, if you work hard, you'll be rewarded.

That's kind of the American dream. That feeds into what our hearts already love is ourselves, the gospel of Christ alone. That's where God gets all the glory. He's done it all.

And none of our merits, none of our good works have contributed to that. Brandon Kimber with us today here on the Christian Real View, the creator of American Gospel, both films. There's a first film, the subtitle is Christ Alone. The second one, which was just released, is called Christ Crucified.

Brandon, I'm going to play another soundbite from the film. We've gone from moralistic preaching to the works gospel. Now let's go over to the, what you mentioned earlier, that had impacted your family so much growing up, which was the Word of Faith movement. And this particular soundbite has one of the most popular Word of Faith preachers, Kenneth Copeland, also Benny Hinn, and then finishes with Justin Peters, who you also mentioned has cerebral palsy and was falsely promised to be healed when he was younger and has spent much of his adult life in ministry speaking out against the false gospel of the Word of Faith movement.

Let's hear that soundbite, Kenneth Copeland, Benny Hinn, and others from your film, American Gospel. Is it God's will to heal? If so, is it His will to heal me?

The answer is yes and yes. When I'm praying for somebody, the first thing that has to happen is I have to be absolutely convinced that it's God's will to heal people every time. The Word of Faith movement is the term that's given to a movement that's more commonly known as the health and wealth gospel, the prosperity gospel, name and claim it gospel, this teaching that it is always God's will for a Christian to be wealthy. It's always God's will for a Christian to be physically healed. We should never be sick. Believe me when I tell you, I never get sick. Or if we do get sick, we can be healed as long as we have enough faith.

We can attract positive things to ourselves through positive thinking. And Norman Vincent Peale, the great Norman Vincent Peale was my pastor, the power of positive thinking. And the Word of Faith movement is led by people such as Benny Hinn, the world's most famous faith healer, Kenneth Copeland, Creflo Dollar, Joyce Meyer, Joel Osteen, Joseph Prince, T.D.

Jakes, Andrew Wommack. These are just some of the more prominent leaders of the movement. But what has happened is that the United States of America has created this false theology and has now exported it to the rest of the world to the point that now the face of Christianity in most of the world today is Word of Faith.

That was Justin Peters from your film American Gospel. And Brandon, you've obviously in your family have had much experience with this Word of Faith movement. Aside from the fact that people just want to be healthy and wealthy and prosperous, I mean, who doesn't, right? It's our natural human desire. Why do you think it's so prevalent?

It's just exploded around the world. As Benny Hinn says in that trailer, nobody wants to die. Nobody wants to be sick and nobody wants to be poor. You know, those are natural human desires. And so if you take those desires and hold them out as the attraction to come to Christ, of course, that's going to be popular. They're not necessarily sinful, but they can be idols. So the Word of Faith movement are using God as a means to another end.

It's kind of like marrying someone for their money. That message of God has a wonderful plan for your life of health, wealth, and happiness, and all your dreams will come true. It's contradicting the gospel message of deny yourself, take up your cross, and those promises of suffering and persecution that come when you put your faith in Christ.

Brandon Kimber with us today on the Christian Rule. You're talking about his film, The American Gospel, part one of his film, subtitled Christ Alone, something you cover in the film called The Attractional Church. And this is very important, I think, to understand because this idea of how can Christians and how can churches be quote, attractional, is something that is really, really pervasive within the evangelical church today. So I'm gonna play this one minute soundbite from your film, The American Gospel, then follow up with a question for you about The Attractional Church.

The prosperity gospel is really the worst manifestation of what some might call the seeker sensitive movement or the attractional church movement. And you have to be careful about this because the church should be attractive. But we have to ask, why is it attractive and to whom is it attractive? The church should be attractive because God's people have a hunger and a thirst and a desire for his word being taught and preached. And that is a profoundly attractive experience and a profoundly attractive thing for someone who is converted, who God has changed their heart and they desire those things. But the attractional church in the negative sense are those churches that seek to make worship and make participation in the church attractive to the unconverted heart, to the non-believer. So therefore the sermon becomes less about opening up God's word and letting it breathe and more about entertaining that audience. Okay, that was from your film, American Gospel. I wish listeners would have been able to see the video in the background playing during that particular soundbite of all these different things that churches, evangelical churches do today. You know, the pastor coming in on a zip line or all these crazy props and stunts that they do to basically entertain people and the music is all part of that and make it seem like a rock concert and darken the lights and just try to make their church service really seem hip and cool so people from the outside will be attracted to go to church. So Brandon, talk about how this false way of thinking that if we create a product, an entertaining product for the outside world, they're going to like us more, they're going to want to be a part of us, they're going to want to come to our church. Talk about how pervasive this has become in the evangelical church.

It might be a church that isn't explicitly talking about promises of health and wealth, but this could come in the form of hiding or watering down the hard truths of scripture or the offensive parts of the gospel. Okay, we're going to finish with the rest of that answer with Brandon Kimber after this next break of the day here on the Christian worldview. Again, we're talking about the American gospel films, the part one of the film today.

Really, really good film. I've seen the first part. I'm going to be seeing the second part this coming week.

We're going to have Brandon on again next week for the follow-up on this. Now, if you don't have either of these films, we really encourage you to get one or both. You can purchase one just individually on our website, thechristianrealview.org, or you can take advantage of our offer. Now we're offering both films, one and two, for a donation of $30 or more to the Christian worldview.

Each film retails for $17.99, so we can get both for a donation of $30 or more. It's the American gospel bundle. You can order it at thechristianrealview.org. You can also call our office at 1-888-646-2233.

Of course, you can write to us as well at Box 401, Excelsior, Minnesota 55331. We're talking about the American gospel part one today. Next week is part two.

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Good way to listen, especially for younger people too. Okay, today we're talking about Is the American Gospel, that's the name of the film we're discussing. Is that the true gospel taking place in churches around the country today? Our guest is Brandon Kimber.

He's the creator and producer of both of these films. We're talking about part one this week. And the second film we'll talk about next week, the second film is about progressive Christianity. So let's get back to the interview with Brandon, where he was talking about the seeker sensitive model of a church or what's called the Attractional Church.

So Brandon, talk about how this false way of thinking that if we create a product, an entertaining product for the outside world, they're going to like us more, they're going to want to be a part of us, they're going to want to come to our church. Talk about how pervasive this has become in the evangelical church. It might be a church that isn't explicitly talking about promises of health and wealth.

But this could come in the form of hiding or watering down the hard truths of scripture or the offensive parts of the gospel. I've been in a church where I saw behind the scenes the decisions that were made were geared toward attracting the non-believer, the unbeliever, instead of for feeding the believer. So this attractional model, again, is geared toward the unbeliever, where those decisions will be made with the goal of making that person want to come back to church. So you don't want to offend them in their Christmas or Easter service by preaching the gospel.

You want them to come back next week. The problem is the next week you are now filling your church with false converts. And the true Christians in there are starving because they're not being taught the Word of God. There's all these distractions that are covering up the gospel or the gospel is being watered down. And so the church is supposed to be geared for the believer. We're there to worship God and to hear the Word preached, the gospel preached.

We're not here to be entertained. That's a time where we're equipped to then go out into the world in our workplace or wherever to share the gospel. So if that time is for the unbeliever and no one's being fed, then how are these people going to ever share the gospel if they don't know what the gospel is and they never hear it? Yeah, this pretty much explains why the church in America, at least the Evangelical Church, in large part, not every church of course, but just in large part has become so confusing and impotent in preaching the gospel, preaching the hard truths of Scripture, preaching the whole counsel of Scripture. That is what has impact and changes people's lives so that they can be truly ambassadors for Christ here in America.

So I think it goes a long way towards explaining why we are where we are. We're going to be covering the second film, American Gospel Christ Crucified, coming out. This is about that film. I haven't seen it. I'm going to be seeing it this week.

Give us a preview of what that film is about. Christ Crucified focuses on progressive Christianity and the atonement. And what typically happens is kids that grow up in these churches and these youth groups where they're not taught Scripture, and when they go off to college, they're confronted by an atheist who might be an ex-Evangelical who happens to know more about the Bible than they do. And they start pointing out what they view are problem areas of Scripture or the God of the Bible and his attributes. And this kid who grew up in this church is shocked.

They don't have the answers or a way to defend that. So they'll go one of two paths, either towards progressive Christianity or atheism. And the progressive Christian really is one who denies a lot of the essentials of the Gospel and holds on to some vague moralism again, where it's all about creating a better world or just Jesus is a moral example for you to follow, rather than a Savior who died and paid the penalty of sin to satisfy the justice and wrath of God.

You're not going to hear the word wrath in a church like that, or sin. In the film, I follow a few different people and their faith journeys. And what's different about this second film is I actually did get to interview a few different people that are in the progressive camp that I don't agree with, but I'm contrasting their journey with people who are more sound. So you have someone going from progressive Christianity to atheism, and someone going from atheism to historic Christianity, and seeing how those paths go completely different directions. And when they're confronted with hard parts of the Gospel, like the attributes of God, his holiness, his justice, the cross, the doctrine of penal substitution, hell, the progressives, when they're confronted with those, they're doing some either theological gymnastics to try to avoid believing these things. And one example could be they have a completely different view of the Bible. They don't believe the Bible is the word of God, but it's man's view of God that has evolved over time. So they'll look at the Old Testament God and think, well, that's just how they viewed God then. And we have a much more evolved enlightened view of God now. And so what happens is there's this view that the God of the Old Testament is somehow different than the God of the New Testament.

And what I try to explain in the film is no, he hasn't changed. He's displaying both his wrath and grace in both the New and the Old Testament. And that's primarily what you're seeing in the cross. You have a God who is both gracious, loving, and willing to forgive sin. But at the same time, he's also holy, righteous, and will by no means leave the guilty unpunished. Well, we're looking forward to that conversation because that truly is a major explanation for much of professing Christianity today, especially within the mainline denominations. Even one of our political candidates, the Democrats side, you hear them all the time speaking about God and good works and their version.

And like you said, their understanding of scripture is that it's not inspired and errant and fallible and immutable. You end up in a very different place. So we're looking forward to that conversation. Brandon, we thank you for coming on the Christian Real View again today, and we wish all of God's best to you. And thanks again for creating these excellent films.

Thank you for having me, David. Okay, that was Brandon Kimber, everyone, the creator of the American Gospel Films Part 1 and Part 2. Again, you can purchase either one on our website for $17.99, or you can take advantage of our limited time offer where we're going to offer both for a donation of any amount of the Christian Real View for, sorry, not of any amount of $30 or more to the Christian Real View. It's called the American Gospel Bundle. Or you can also, if you'd rather not own the DVD, you can just rent it. You can stream it. I think they give you 48 hours or something to watch it.

You can find out that link on our website as well at thechristianrealview.org. Okay, so next week we'll do Part 2, the second film. By the way, these films are substantial. They're 100, the first one's 139 minutes. The second one is 180 minutes.

That's three hours. So you get a lot of content when you start watching these particular American Gospel Films. So I think the question you have to ask is, why be concerned about false teachers? People might say, just focus on what you're doing. Don't worry about people who are teaching the wrong thing.

Just focus on you. Well, the answer to that is because God's Word is very clear that we are to be concerned. We are to be warned about false teachers. Jesus said in Matthew 24, he said this, if anyone says to you, look, here is the Christ or there he is, do not believe it. For false Christs and false prophets will arise and perform great signs and wonders so as to lead astray, if possible, even the elect, the chosen ones, the ones that will come to saving faith in Christ.

See, I have told you beforehand. Jesus writes this himself. And so the answer to the question is, why be concerned about false teachers? Well, besides the fact that the Bible is very concerned and tells us to be? Well, more than that, because perversion of the Gospel message, the most important message in the world and how we as sinful men can be made right with the Holy God, that's the most important question in the world.

You pervert the answer to that question. You pervert the Gospel in any way and you make it a non-saving Gospel that prevents people from being saved. And then if you not only go beyond the Gospel to other doctrines in Scripture, if you pervert other doctrines of Scripture, it leads people down wrong roads. It hurts them. It harms people spiritually. It harms them emotionally.

It sometimes harms them physically and for sure financially. I mean, religion is the most powerful thing in the world because we're made with this God-shaped vacuum inside of us that wants to worship something. We're either going to worship the true God or we're going to worship something else, a false religion ourselves or money or whatever.

And so this huge desire in every human being, it can be tweaked the wrong way. Boy, that can be very profitable for people and people get hurt financially when they start donating and giving money to be healed and all these other things that takes place. The Christian church needs to watch its doctrine. We'll come back and talk more after this last break of the day here on the Christian worldview. There's an abundance of resources available in Christian bookstores and online, but the sad reality is that many of them, even some of the most popular, do not lead to a sound and strong faith. A key aim of the Christian worldview is to identify and offer resources that are biblically faithful and deepen your walk with God. In our online store, we have a wide range of resources for all ages, adult and children's books and DVDs, Bibles and devotionals, unique gifts and more. So browse our store at thechristianworldview.org and find enriching resources for yourself, family, friends, small group or church.

You can also order by calling our office toll free at 1-888-646-2233. That's 1-888-646-2233 or visit thechristianworldview.org. The critical race theory and intersectionality are simply analytical tools. They're meant to be used as tools, not as a worldview, not a transcended worldview above the authority of scripture. And we stand by the strength of this resolution. Is the Southern Baptist Convention diverging from biblical orthodoxy over issues of women teaching men, homosexuality and critical race theory? Is this a bellwether of what's coming to your church?

By what standard is a 110-minute DVD documentary about the battle taking place in the SBC? You can receive the DVD for a donation of any amount to The Christian Worldview. To order, go to thechristianworldview.org or call 1-888-646-2233 or write to Box 401 Excelsior, Minnesota, 55331. Think biblically and then live accordingly. That is what we strive to do as we examine these topics week after week here on the Christian Worldview radio program. I'm David Wheaton, the host. Our website as always is thechristianworldview.org. There's lots for you to do there. You can sign up for our free weekly email that really keeps you connected with the program, updates, show previews, short takes, lots of things to do if you sign up for that free weekly email.

Just go to our website to do that. Now before we get, I want to spend a couple minutes here at the end talking about the very dramatic State of the Union address and what happened in the world of politics this week. But just to conclude on this topic of is the American gospel, the true gospel, we talked about some of these false gospels today, whether it's the works gospel, the moralistic preaching, just be a better person, preach moralism, just live a certain good way, the word of faith movement, the seeker sense of our attractional church. How about we hear what the true gospel actually is? And Paul Washer, who is a man who has a former missionary to Peru, very, very high reverence for God in his word, a great preacher and articulator of the gospel.

Here's what he said. The gospel is and along with Steve Lawson, I think is in this in this film in this short clip as well. And then contrasting it to what Joel Osteen preaches. Here's what the true gospel is.

Paul Washer. If we don't understand who God is, then the gospel does not make much sense. You see, the great issue here is that God is holy, and God is just and that man is unholy. And man is not just man is unrighteous man is a sinner. 99.9% of people are not bad people.

They may make poor choices, but deep down, they've got a good heart. The Bible says that we are dead and trespasses and sin. Ephesians two verse one immediately comes to mind. To be dead in sin means that we are physically alive, but that we are morally unable to respond to God.

What can a dead man do? Therefore, God must perform a resurrection. How can sinful man be reconciled to a just God whose justice demands that they be punished?

The answer is found in the person of Jesus Christ, the historical person, God intervening into human history. And this Jesus of Nazareth lived the perfect life that you and I could never live, have never lived. And then he goes to a cross. We owed a debt to God because of our sin.

And that debt was suffering eternal punishment. But on the cross, God himself, he took our place, bore our sin and suffered the wrath of God that we deserve. He extinguished it.

He put it away. On the third day, he rose again from the dead. Then he ascended up into heaven and this Jesus, the Son of God, sat down at the right hand of God. And now the Bible teaches that Jesus is the way, the truth and the life, that no man comes to the Father except through Him, that there is one God and one mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus. In many ways, the defining doctrine of true biblical Christianity is justification by faith alone in Christ alone. So well spoken about what the gospel is. It's not just to add Jesus onto your life or just believe in Jesus.

The Bible says the demons believe in and shudder. Paul Washer takes you through and gives you the context of what the gospel is, that God is holy and just and we are not. We are sinners and we have a sin debt that we have amassed that a just God just cannot overlook. And so how can God justify us when we have so much sin to be paid for?

We deserve eternal punishment. So God sends His Son to pay that sin debt for us, substitution on the cross for us so that God's wrath over our sin and His justice over our sin, every sin can be paid for through the sacrifice of Christ. And then which leaves us to respond to that, that news, that revelation. And the way we respond, we can receive that gift of faith and salvation is through repenting of our sin and putting our trust and faith in who Christ is and what He did in the cross for us.

And I so appreciate His articulation of the gospel. And if you've never, if you've never come to that point of decision in your life, understanding who God is, who you are, who Christ is and what He did for you on the cross, I urge you to come to that decision right now, today. Now is the time of salvation, not tomorrow, not in the future.

We don't know what's going to happen later this afternoon. But we do know what Jesus said His command was, repent and believe in the gospel. So I'd urge you to do that today.

You can always call us about that. If you want more explanation about what the gospel is, just call us at our office, 1-888-646-2233. We also have a page on our website. If you'd rather just read about what the gospel is, what must I do to be saved?

That's the title of the page on our website. Just go to thechristianrealview.org and you can read about what the gospel is. Okay, so in our remaining moments today, I just want to make sure you know how to get this film, American Gospel, one or two or both. You can purchase one or the other for $17.99 on our website, or you can get both for a limited time. Both films, American Gospel 1 and 2, for a donation of $30 or more to The Christian Real View. It's called The American Gospel Bundle.

You can only get it at thechristianrealview.org or by calling us at 1-888-646-2233 or writing us at Box 401 Excelsior, Minnesota 55331. I told you I was going to talk briefly about the State of the Union address. We don't have much time left on the program today. Let me just suffice it to say that it was a very dramatic week in politics. And if you haven't seen President Trump's State of the Union address, I would really highly recommend you do so.

I've seen many of them over my lifetime, never seen anything quite like this. In the context of this impeachment going on right now, the Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi, a Democrat was just sitting right behind him along with the Vice President Mike Pence. The impeachment vote in the Senate to remove him from office that Nancy Pelosi had led the House to do was going to take place the next day, the next day after the State of the Union address. You can imagine in that context how much bad blood and how much ill will there was. So when President Trump came in, he delivered a copy of the address to both Mike Pence and Nancy Pelosi. And there was no handshakes there.

There's a lot of controversy about that. But you can almost understand in the situation of that, why would there be pleasant greetings when the Speaker is trying to remove the President from office? And then Trump went into this address. And I have never heard such a conservative policy platform from a president, at least in my life, in my lifetime.

Again, I urge you, we have it linked at our website. If you'd like to hear this message, you know, the biblical worldview naturally flows into conservative political philosophy. And I don't by any means say that President Trump has a biblical worldview. But many of the things he was saying in his State of the Union address, you could see if you know the roots of the Christian worldview, like the sin nature of man, that's why we have limited government and separation of powers. That's why we have free will, we have individual freedoms of conscience, speech and religion.

He was articulating these things. Not perfectly, the Republican Party does not have a corner on the biblical worldview for it. But by comparison, what the Democrat Party stands for is a complete rejection of God and His Word and was made very clear in the State of the Union.

So take a look at that if you get a chance this week. We do live in a changing and challenging world. But remember, there is one thing we can count on and trust in. Jesus Christ and His Word are the same yesterday, today and forever. We hope today's broadcast turned your heart toward God, His Word and His Son. To order a CD copy of today's program or sign up for our free weekly email or to find out how you can be reconciled to God through Jesus Christ, go to our website, theChristianworldview.org or call us toll free at 1-888-646-2233. The Christian worldview is a weekly one hour radio program that is furnished by the Overcomer Foundation and is supported by listeners and sponsors. Request one of our current resources with your donation of any amount. Go to theChristianworldview.org or call us toll free at 1-888-646-2233 or write to us at Box 401, Excelsior, Minnesota, 55331. That's Box 401, Excelsior, Minnesota, 55331. Thanks for listening to the Christian worldview. Until next time, think biblically and live accordingly.