In Part 3 of this subject matter, "The Biblical Gospel Today," I want to continue to discuss the evidence from the broad range of Protestant Evangelical Christianity doctrines in respect to whom the biblical gospel pertains. (If you need a review up to this point, read Part 1 and Part 2 to get the relevant context of this subject matter.)
In Part 2, we reviewed the evidence from the reformed tradition and discovered that the consensus of opinion reveals that the entire “human race” or all those of any racial type or sub-type are legitimate candidates to hear and receive the gospel message. Now we look at what other professing evangelicals believe in this regard.
What’s the Point?
The general consensus of evangelical Christianity is that “the gospel” must be applied to every member of the so-called “human race.” The question that must be asked is, “Is this correct?” The challenge must be made. Why is this important? Because the promotion of racial integration at all levels of this emerging diversity culture is now encouraged and glorified. Racially-integrated churches, racially-mixed marriages, racially-mixed adoptions, and now the welcoming of foreign immigration presently overwhelming this country under the unlawful policies of the Biden administration is upon us. All of this is supported and promoted by evangelical Christianity either by active or silent consent.
What will the consequences be? Confusion, chaos, and an accelerated dissolution and destruction of biblical White heritage and culture. Already we are witnessing an intensified campaign of pure and unjustified hatred and blatant discrimination of White people. And evangelical Christianity loves it so! But please listen to me: it is all because of errant theology and a distortion of the gospel of the Kingdom as preached and taught by Jesus Christ and His Apostles.
Let’s get started and finish our review of the facts and evidence of this unbiblical theology.
The Southern Baptist Convention
The Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) “is the world's largest Baptist denomination, the largest Protestant and the second-largest Christian denomination in the United States, smaller only than the Roman Catholic Church according to self-reported membership statistics.”1
The general confessional statement of the Southern Baptist Convention is contained in “The Baptist Faith and Message”2 and the pertinent parts follow in regard to whom they say the gospel applies:
IV. Salvation
Salvation involves the redemption of the whole man, and is offered freely to all who accept Jesus Christ as Lord and Saviour, who by His own blood obtained eternal redemption for the believer. In its broadest sense salvation includes regeneration, justification, sanctification, and glorification.
XI. Evangelism and Missions
It is the duty and privilege of every follower of Christ and of every church of the Lord Jesus Christ to endeavor to make disciples of all nations. The new birth of man’s spirit by God’s Holy Spirit means the birth of love for others. Missionary effort on the part of all rests thus upon a spiritual necessity of the regenerate life, and is expressly and repeatedly commanded in the teachings of Christ. The Lord Jesus Christ has commanded the preaching of the gospel to all nations.
III. Man
Man is the special creation of God, made in His own image. He created them male and female as the crowning work of His creation. The gift of gender is thus part of the goodness of God’s creation. In the beginning man was innocent of sin and was endowed by his Creator with freedom of choice. By his free choice man sinned against God and brought sin into the human race. . . . The sacredness of human personality is evident in that God created man in His own image, and in that Christ died for man; therefore, every person of every race possesses full dignity and is worthy of respect and Christian love.
Clearly, the SBC is all in with a universal gospel.
The Baptist World Alliance The list of Baptist groups in America alone is too numerous to count,3 but the largest is The Baptist World Alliance (BWA) which is a worldwide alliance of Baptist churches. The organization counts 47,000,000 people in 2020 and is the largest organization of Baptist churches in the world. Less than a half of the world's Baptists are affiliated with this organization.4
The BWA is decidedly racially inclusive in its mission:
Our Mission5
14. Declare that God gives spiritual gifts to believers who are called to live a life of worship, service and mission. These gifts are discerned and confirmed by the believing community together;
15. Know that in the Great Commission, every believer, empowered by God, is called to be a missionary, learning and sharing more of Christ that the world might believe…
Anabaptists (Mennonites, Amish, Hutterites)
“There are about 2.1 million Anabaptists worldwide as of 2015 (including Mennonites, Amish, Hutterites and many other Anabaptist groups formally part of the Mennonite World Conference.” 6
Under the Divine Plan of Salvation the Anabaptists believe:
The death of Jesus Christ is sufficient to save every human being, but salvation will only become effective to those who accept Him and believe on Him. There must be a response on the part of each individual.7
The Holiness Movement
Closely associated with the Anabaptist belief is The Holiness Movement (Bible Methodists) arising out of “19th-century Methodism, and to a lesser extent other traditions such as Quakerism and Anabaptism. The movement is Wesleyan-Arminian in theology.”8
Under the Bible Methodist Missions Statement9 it says:
We’ve been around the world working to usher in His kingdom . . .
Our mission is to serve and equip people groups for the sake of peoples unreached with the gospel.
People groups (groups with same cultures and languages), rather than politically defined nations. “…teach all people groups” seems to be the proper interpretation of the Great Commission. There are less than 200 politically defined “nations” in the world, but 3,000 people groups still unreached.
Pentecostal
Comprising over 700 denominations and many independent churches, there is no central authority governing Pentecostalism; however, many denominations are affiliated with the Pentecostal World Fellowship. There are over 279 million Pentecostals worldwide, and the movement is growing in many parts of the world, especially the global South. – Wikipedia
Under Our Mission Statement:10
“To unite and mobilize the global Spirit-filled family in completing the Great Commission of Jesus Christ.”
Obviously, the implication is that the gospel applies to all races globally. They go on to say this in their Mission Statement.
By far the largest group within the Pentecostal fold is the Assemblies of God church. According to “16 Fundamental Truths” under The Church and Its Mission:11
Since God’s purpose concerning man is to seek and to save that which is lost, to be worshipped by man, to build a body of believers in the image of His Son, and to demonstrate His love and compassion for all the world, the priority reason for being of the Assemblies of God as part of the Church is:
1. To be an agency of God for evangelizing the world.
Again, under “The Church and Its Mission” the universal gospel theory is clear:
The Church includes all Christians and has no boundaries as to age, race, gender, or denomination.
The Pentecostal Church of God issues no statement of the gospel in their pamphlet “This We Believe.” However, in another pamphlet entitled “Hi Neighbor, Let’s Get Acquainted” it indicates that the church shares:
... a global ministry in response to our Lord’s command to “preach the gospel to every creature.” Over 40 countries have been reached with the message of God’s redeeming grace …
World Evangelical Alliance (WEA)
The World Evangelical Alliance (WEA) is a global organization of evangelical Christian churches, serving more than 600 million evangelicals, founded in 1846 at Freemason Hall in London, England, United Kingdom to unite evangelicals worldwide. WEA is the largest international organization of evangelical churches.12
An often-cited statement of faith recognized by the WEA by Dr. Leon Morris, an internationally known New Testament scholar, is “Who Are Evangelicals?”: 13
An evangelical is a gospel man, a gospel woman. “Evangelical” derives from ‘evangel’ : “gospel”. By definition an evangelical is someone concerned for the gospel. This means more than that he preaches the gospel now and then. It means that for him the gospel of Christ is central. It is, of course, his message and he preaches it, constantly. But it is more than a subject of preaching. The gospel is at the centre of his thinking and living.
“Christ died.” The cross is the great, basic act of God. “For our sins.” That is the stubborn fact that made the cross necessary. It points to the truth that there is that in every member of the human race which makes for evil rather than for good.
The Independent Fundamental Churches of America (IFCA)
This group is comprised of “… nearly 1000 associated churches in the United States and up to three times that number of associated churches in 26 countries outside the U.S.”14
Under the IFCA International Articles of Faith and Doctrine:
Section I. Articles of Biblical Faith
3. The Person and Work of Christ
a. We believe that the Lord Jesus Christ, the eternal Son of God, became man, without ceasing to be God, having been conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary, in order that He might reveal God and redeem sinful men (John 1:1,2,14; Luke 1:35).
b. We believe that the Lord Jesus Christ died on the cross for all mankind as a representative,
10. Missions
We believe that it is the obligation of the saved to witness by life and by word to the truths of Holy Scripture and to seek to proclaim the Gospel to all mankind . . .
Leading Seminaries
Under its Doctrinal Statement, Dallas Theological Seminary states:15
Article VII—Salvation Only Through Christ
We believe that, owing to universal death through sin, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless born again.
Article XVII—The Great Commission
We believe that it is the explicit message of our Lord Jesus Christ to those whom He has saved that they are sent forth by Him into the world even as He was sent forth of His Father into the world.
Fuller Theological Seminary’s evangelical mission is clearly global under “What We Believe and Teach”:16
The Evangelical Mission of Fuller
The Bible is absolutely crucial to our evangelical stance, and so is our participation in Christ’s worldwide mission. As evangelicals, we believe men and women are lost without Jesus Christ; we believe that terrible judgment awaits all who reject Jesus as Lord and Savior. . .
Hundreds of missionaries are looking to us to help them get the gospel to those who have never heard it. Scores of pastors count on us to analyze the mission of their congregations so that their growth will be encouraged. And thousands of students look to us each year to equip them for ministry in churches, in cross-cultural overseas mission, and in counseling clinics.
Westminster Theological Seminary’s doctrinal beliefs are explicitly contained in the Westminster Confession:17
Chapter VI
Of the Fall of Man, of Sin, and the Punishment thereof
I. Our first parents, being seduced by the subtlety and temptations of Satan, sinned, in eating the forbidden fruit.123 This their sin, God was pleased, according to His wise and holy counsel, to permit, having purposed to order it to His own glory.
II. By this sin they fell from their original righteousness and communion, with God, and so became dead in sin, and wholly defiled in all the parts and faculties of soul and body.
III. They being the root of all mankind, the guilt of this sin was imputed; and the same death in sin, and corrupted nature, conveyed to all their posterity descending from them by ordinary generation.
Chapter VII
Of God's Covenant with Man
VI. Under the Gospel, when Christ, the substance, was exhibited, the ordinances in which this covenant is dispensed are the preaching of the Word, and the administration of the sacraments of Baptism and the Lord's Supper: which, though fewer in number, and administered with more simplicity, and less outward glory, yet, in them, it is held forth in more fullness, evidence, and spiritual efficacy, to all nations, both Jews and Gentiles...
Chapter XXV
Of the Church
I. The catholic or universal Church, which is invisible, consists of the whole number of the elect, that have been, are, or shall be gathered into one, under Christ the Head thereof; and is the spouse, the body, the fullness of Him that fills all in all.
II. The visible Church, which is also catholic or universal under the Gospel (not confined to one nation, as before under the law), consists of all those throughout the world that profess the true religion; and of their children: and is the kingdom of the Lord Jesus Christ, the house and family of God.
Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, under its Theology of Diversity, Inclusion & Equity,18 is clear about its racially-inclusive convictions:
. . . we are guided by the following theological understanding of diversity, inclusion and equity. The foundation for our understanding of diversity as an essential element in Divine unity is: creation, the Trinity, the Gospel (Luke 4:16–30), the Church’s mission (Matthew 28:16–20) and eschatology (Revelation 7:9–10).
God’s creation is tremendously diverse while also unified in bringing glory to the one, triune God. God’s creation of humans is described as “very good,” and that included the diversity already present (Genesis 1:31).
Adam and Eve’s rebellion and the brokenness of the relationship between humans and God has marred all human relationships, including broken relationship between races and ethnicities. . . . God’s holiness, justice and resurrection power is our hope for reconciliation with God and the foundation for our life together as the people of God (Ephesians 2:14–18).
As such, its brief doctrinal statement includes, “the universal spread of the Gospel.”19
Unless this errant, universal theology is corrected, we will continue to advance toward annihilation of God’s true Covenant People. Theology rules. More than politics or the educational system, it is theology that drives the churches and the nations.
For a comprehensive defense challenging this universally-applied gospel, please consider my latest book, The Authentic Gospel: Restoring the Original Intent.
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1 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southern_Baptist_Convention 2 https://bfm.sbc.net/bfm2000/ 3 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Baptist_denominations#National_bodies 4 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baptist_World_Alliance 5 https://www.baptistworld.org/beliefs/ 6 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mennonites 7 https://www.anabaptists.org/bh/t2.html 8 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holiness_movement 9 https://www.biblemethodist.org/missions/ 10 https://www.pwfellowship.org/about-us 11 https://ag.org/Beliefs/Statement-of-Fundamental-Truths#5 12 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Evangelical_Alliance 13 https://worldea.org/en/who-we-are/who-are-evangelicals/ 14 https://www.ifca.org/page/who-we-are 15 https://www.dts.edu/about/what-we-believe/doctrinal-statement/ 16 https://www.fuller.edu/about/mission-and-values/what-we-believe-and-teach/ 17 http://files1.wts.edu/uploads/pdf/about/WCF_30.pdf 18 https://www.gordonconwell.edu/about/diversity/ 19 https://www.gordonconwell.edu/about/what-we-believe/
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