The True Gospel

I took this excerpt from a Mark Cahill newsletter I receive. Why do we feel we need to add something more to the truth God has already given?

Question for you: if you had twenty minutes to talk to someone on death row, what would you talk about? Do you think you would share the Prosperity Gospel with them? 'Come to Jesus and all your dreams will be met.' I was in a prison one time where a guy kept telling the inmates about his airplanes and the landing strip he got after he got saved, and I was wondering how much that would help the Lifers in that Federal Prison? They might be able to use a helicopter to get out, but a plane wasn't going to be much help! We see all of this prosperity preaching on TV, and in some of the major Christian books out there, but would it work on death row to these inmates? You can't serve both God and mammon, so which one should we really preach? As one preacher said, the Prosperity Gospel only preaches in America. What an amazing statement. You can't preach that in prison. How do you preach the Prosperity Gospel to the rich young ruler? How can you preach the Prosperity Gospel to Donald Trump when he seemingly has everything (in a worldly sense)? You can't preach that in the slums of Haiti. You can't preach that in the desert region of Africa. That might be the American Dream, but it can turn into a huge nightmare without the right heart to handle the wealth that can come your way.

The sad thing is that it will preach here in America, but it won't preach elsewhere. Maybe there is a good reason for that.

The true Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ should preach anywhere you will preach it. Here is a good model to use when speaking for the Lord: If It Doesn't Preach On Death Row, It Doesn't Preach. If what you want to say about Jesus won't work on death row, it probably doesn't truly work anyway.

I read where someone said they walk up to people and say, "If I have three minutes to live and then I will be dead, what must I do to be right with God?" I like that. I have used it a couple of times. It is still stunning to me how some people talk about good works when they are witnessing. How many good works can you do in three minutes?! What would you tell someone if they asked you that question?

Quoting from a friend's newsletter, a leader of a denomination said,
It seems the American church says to those who pass through the doors, You're a good person, and the church can give you added value to the temporal life. And it will. But this is not the primary reason the church exists. The church exists to get people ready for eternity, not for tomorrow. It is not a temporal gospel; it is an eternal gospel, and at the heart of that gospel is the Cross and true repentance.

I think this leader is on to something.

John the Baptist was put into prison by Herod. What would you have said to John the Baptist if you would have had the chance? Look what happened a few verses later:
"And immediately the king sent an executioner, and commanded his head to be brought: and he went and beheaded him in the prison," Mark 6:27.

John never made it out of prison. It wouldn't have made much sense to preach to him the Prosperity Gospel. He was going to a big feast, but it was just his head that was going to arrive there!

Don't forget: If It Doesn't Preach On Death Row, It Doesn't Preach.