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Eventhe
GOSPEL
POLLUTED?
Mankind's pollution doesn't stop with his environment-he has polluted his mind, morals and
spirit also. Even the gospel has not escaped man's polluting touch. The good news of God's plan
forman was no sooner proc/aimed by Jesus Christ of Nazareth than men determinedly set
themselves to pervert, twist, malign, deny and distort His message. Let's remove the pollution!
crash antipoll ution
program is needed
now-for the gospel
of Jesus Christ.
T he gospel has
been trapped in
the
thick,
oozy-goo of a spiritual oil spill. l t
staggers along, poisoned and polluted
beyond recognition.
But there is hope-if we wash and
filter it through the cleansing, purify–
ing, healing truth of the Bible. This is
the only way to restore the gospel 's
purity, maintain its sweetness, and
unleash its life-giving power.
This
gospe/
is the GOOD NEWs–
the GLAD TIDINGs-of man's associa–
tion with God in a KINGDOM-the
good family and government
of God.
The word "gospel," in your Bible, is
translated from the Greek word
euaggelion .
It means the "good
news" or "glad tidings" that the di–
vine Family and a good and fruitful
government-the Kingdom of God–
will one day be established.
Gospel Pollution
The gospel has been swept into the
oppressive confines of the world's ca-
28
by
Clint C. Zimmerman
thedrals. These funereal, cavernous
structures- their walls and floors
punctured with crypts holding the
moldering bones of the long dead–
have tainted the living gospel of Jesus
Christ.
Any gospel which escapes these
musty traps all too easily finds itself
captured and made part of an out–
rageous carnival show. Sweaty
preachers bark raucously, many of
them jabbering incoherently in their
affected "tongues," as they try to
outcry one another in tent revivals
and healing sideshows. They make a
fa rce of the real gospel.
Between these two extremes lies
the broad expanse of everyday, run–
of-the-mill, common Christianity.
Churchianity has embraced what it
thought to be the gospel tightly to
itself- and has been disappointed !
Their "gospel" did not cause any–
thing better to happen. Everything
stayed the same or even worsened.
The world as a whole didn ' t become
any better in spite of their huge mis–
sionary efforts. All things continued
as they were from the beginning.
lt
looked like God needed a hand; so
they decided to give Him one. They
invented the "social gospel" to make
up for the perfidy of God.
History proves man is a wretch.
There was little hope that any good
could be done about bis situation un–
ti! Christ laid down the principies of
Ch r istianity. All the converts
thought, "Here is the solution." But
no matter how industriously they ap–
plied their "Christian" principies,
failure continued to plague mankind.
Most "Christians" thought the
promised, perfect Kingdom was go–
ing to be set up in the church itself or
would be "found in their own
hearts."
W hen neither of these ideas
proved to be correct, they began to
look to a social interpretation of the
Christian faith. Their own
interpre–
tation
of the TRUE gospel caused
them to look within society itself for
improvement of its evils.
POLLUTED gospel concepts contin–
ue to contaminate the issue.
As pollutants besmirch , foul,
change ecological balances and set in
motion degenerative forces that un–
stoppably march toward the macabre
stillness of death, just so do the pollu–
tants of the gospel sap, strangle and
finally completely stifle it.
If
t he gospel lies befouled under a
!ayer of spiritual scum, is made indis–
tinct by spiritual smog, and becomes
The
PLAIN TRUTH December 1979