Christ Proclaimed…not Offered
A meme travels around Facebook with a seemingly clever, and rather large, acronym for C.O.F.F.E.E., “Christ Offers Forgiveness For Everyone Everywhere.” Is this true? Has there ever been any person who lived and died without hearing the Gospel of Jesus Christ? It does not take much of an argument to dispel this mythical meme, for the obvious answer is that many people have not been offered the Gospel. Why are Christians so easily led down the path of wrong doctrine and practice?
Very early on in my Christian walk, I was subject to a KJV-only guy in a Wednesday night study. I was new to things of the Bible. I was ready to believe…anything. When I tried to transfer my new and strongly held belief in the King James Version, only, a small group of more mature believers quickly showed me the error of my ways. Fortunately, my brief and exclusivist shimmy with the King Jimmy, only lasted a number of months. I could get to heaven without the 1611.
Errant doctrine and practice is exposed throughout the Scriptures, but history proves that without the Bible, we are en route to jejune doctrine and even heresy. It usually begins with a subtle leaning, and once it is embedded, wayward doctrine is very difficult to wrest away from a zealous saint.
Wandering doctrine begins with our own human philosophy brought into our study of the Scriptures. Theologians call this “eisegesis.” Instead of pulling truth out of Scripture, we inject our own opinions and ideas into Scripture and theology. This is where false doctrines of the angels having sex with women, to create a race called the Nephilim comes from. It is also where “soul sleep,” annihilationism, purgatory, and so many other so many other speculations are promulgated.
Should the Gospel of Christ be preached to everyone everywhere? Yes, no Christian would object to such an idea. The Bible refers to this as “the Gospel call.” It is an essential part of the order of salvation (ordo salutis). People must be exposed to the preaching of God’s Word, in order to receive the faith that saves them from eternal damnation. To cry out with a loud voice is a recognizable motif in the Bible. Clearly, not everyone responds to the call of God, to gather in His people from every nation, everywhere.
Does the Gospel message include the idea of forgiveness of sins? Yes, but one only has to search the Scriptures to discover that Jesus came to save His people from their sins (Mt 1:21). “His people” does not include everyone, everywhere. So we can conclude that our fallible meme falls short in the area of extent.
The Gospel has not gone everywhere, and even where it has gone, not everyone has received forgiveness from God. Without faith in the redemption achieved by Christ, there is no forgiveness of sins. Faith is not a decision, it is a gift of God grace (Phil 1:29; 2 Pet 1:1), allotted in measure to God’s elect (Rom 12:3; Gal 3:22). This is so no one can boast of deciding or controlling her salvation in any way (Eph 2:8–9). The glory of salvation is credited completely to the work of the Father in decree, the work of the Son in execution, and the work of the Holy Spirit in appropriation.
One might argue, “We are not saying that everyone is forgiven, but that forgiveness is ‘offered’ to everyone.” So let us consider the word “offer” in our miscreant meme. Church men often talk about the “free offer of the Gospel.” Where do they get the idea that the Gospel is like a product or service to be offered without charge? Are we salesman? Some saints truly believe that preaching the Gospel is like selling a car. The salesman educates the customer on the virtues of the vehicle, and then he “closes” his sales pitch with persuasion, for the customer to make a “wise decision,” to buy the car offered to her. Is this what preaching the Gospel is really like, according to the Bible?
We search for the idea of “offer” in the New Testament, and apart from sacrificial offerings to God, we are constrained to 1 Corinthians 9:18, where the apostle Paul states, “What is my reward? That, when I preach the gospel, I may offer the gospel without charge, so as not to make full use of my right in the gospel.” Paul was rebuking the spirit of the age. Traveling philosophers and rhetoricians, usually with ‘secret knowledge’ would charge people to hear their ‘great wisdom.’ Yes, there were prosperity preachers in those days, and there were fools eager to part with their money, too. There is nothing new under the sun. It also means that Paul preached for free and was not under the control of the rich and powerful people.
Paul gladly preached to everyone, everywhere he went on his missionary journeys. The question we need to sort out is, “Was Paul proclaiming Christ, or was He offering Christ?” Someone might argue, “What is the difference?” First, the word “offer” in 1 Corinthians 9:18 is theso which is from tithimi which means “to give” or “to present.” There is nothing in the text that leans toward the understanding that Paul was making an “offer” for people to then “decide,” using their “free will.” In fact, Paul writes about preaching, and then, he reinforces his statement by writing the same thing with another word. Paul was simply claiming to present/preach his Gospel message to people free of charge. Conference fees, to hear Christian preachers, had not yet been conceived.
A survey of words used for this practical action of communicating the Gospel message, includes: preaching (kerusso), proclaiming (katagello), and teaching (didasko). The idea is for others to receive the message stated, as a matter of fact, not as a sales pitch. Almighty God does not sit in the heavens crossing His fingers, in the hope that someone will respond, “I have decided to follow Jesus.” The Lord knows those who are His (2 Tim 2:19), and although He declares (paraggellei) to all men everywhere to repent (Acts 17:30), sinful men, without the grace of God, are not able to respond. This is proved by the fact that they do not respond. The mark of a born again Christian is that the Holy Spirit has overcome her sin nature, by opening her heart to respond in faith, to the preached Gospel message (Acts 16:14). This is not a pitched offer. It is a supernatural work of the Holy Spirit, in the divine work of regeneration.
Christ does not offer the Gospel because He is the Gospel. The Gospel of Christ is preached, proclaimed, and taught by the Holy Spirit witnessing through regenerate believers, who have received a stewardship (1 Cor 9:17). God has many unregenerate, elect souls in diverse places (Acts 18:10). Paul suffered much, to bring the Gospel to those chosen by God, to obtain salvation (2 Tim 2:10). The love of Christ constrained Paul to find God’s elect in the mass of unbelieving humanity (2 Cor 5:14; Col 1:4; 1 Thess 1:3). He labored more than all of his peers in this work of evangelism (1 Cor 4; 2 Cor 11).
When we “offer” the Gospel and “offer” salvation in Christ as a “take it or leave” proposition, we operate in the realm of “easy believism” and “free will decisionalism.” Both of these produce false conversions. Unregenerate people, making decisions for Christ, and being baptized under the assumption they accepted “an offer,” simply do not benefit the church. In fact, they serve as agents of confusion for the body of Christ. Typically, they “accept Christ,” but bear no fruit of repentance because they never actually repented. They are operating on minimal knowledge of Christ, and without the Holy Spirit, it is impossible for them to live the Christian life.
This poses the problem of production numbers in the church — a perverse motivation. How many people attend your church? How many people received Christ, last month? How many baptisms did you perform last year? It is aberrant for the Gospel to be offered and received/accepted, by unregenerate decision makers, in order to bolster congregational numbers.
Unfortunately, in the free market church in America and elsewhere, this is common. “Look at what God is doing over at Megacornerstone Fellowship,” is never uttered in reflection, on the number of mature disciples made over decades of nurture, in the doctrines of grace, given by God. Consider that almost every mega church in America is planted and experiences explosive numerical growth in a few years.
Do they have a microwaveable, magic, disciple-making potion? We all know they do not, but many give credit to God and the mega-minister for doing a “miracle.” In reality, this is not Christianity. It is American entrepreneur-ism in the church. Charismatic salesmen, pitching a diluted Gospel, to a deluded consumer group, is not Christ building His church. It is a salesman looking for numerical affirmation for his own ego.
We must get our message right. Right doctrine begins, not with memes, but with the Scriptures. Next, we must make sure our doctrines are true. Somebody poisoned the American church with man-centered theology, and then, someone else “received” that “good news,” and it spread like weeds. Our pasture is green, but it has too many green weeds upon closer scrutiny.
Let us return to Acts and the Epistles and rediscover what it means to be a herald. We have factual information. We proclaim an old message. We have no new word from God. We announce who God is, and what He has done in Christ. This is not an offer. It is a warning to the unelect, unregenerate, unbelievers that there is hell to pay. It is a grace to the unregenerate elect. They hear the Word of truth, and God gives them the grace of faith. The church in heaven rejoices with each soul that actually repents because this is God at work.
In summary, we have considered a popular Christian meme. We have looked at its message and found it misleading. We have dissected the error and brought a reproof, and our conclusion is that Christ is to be proclaimed, not offered. God has decided. Man has not decided. Salvation belongs to God (Ps 3:8; Jon 2:9; Rev 19:1). It does not belong to sinful man, who is unwilling and unable to decide for Jesus.
It is time for Gospel preachers in America, to stop acting like salesman, and join the suffering servants, like Paul and the other apostles, who actually heralded the true Gospel. It is time for the church in America, to stop its quest for entertainment and forsake its itchy ears, for what it wants to hear. Maybe it is time for the American church to repent and actually believe the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Who knows, God might be gracious and save some church members if we proclaim Him. It is time for American Christians to get their theology from the Bible and not from memes on Facebook. Coffee is a gift of God, but it is an unreliable meme and means of doctrinal orthodoxy.
David E. Norczyk
Spokane Valley, Washington
December 13, 2020
