In last week’s editorial I said that more people are open to the gospel now than at any time in the past 50 years. This was confirmed by some research showing that ¼ of the population have been listening to messages online coming from religious sources. Of course, I find this very encouraging and I expect it to be a trend that will increase, not only during the lockdown, but afterwards when we run into some very difficult economic problems.

It is in times of crisis that people turn to prayer and seek spiritual consolation. It is when our individual lives are shaken by the death of someone close to us, or by other problems such as health, family or employment, that we search for spiritual answers. It is in times when our lives are being challenged, that we ask deep questions about our existence and are open to hearing from God, our Maker and Creator.

One question that people are asking today is why Britain and the USA have the highest numbers of Covid-19 deaths in the world. Jesus said that to whom much is given, of the same, much is required.¹ Britain and the USA have led the world in taking the gospel to other nations, but they have also led the world in secularisation – spreading the gospel of anti-God. They surely deserve the greatest judgment! But why do we not hear statements about such issues and calls for repentance from bishops and top church leaders?

Millions of people are open to hearing biblical truth today in these times of crisis, but on the great questions facing humanity church leaders are silent. This is why I expressed some impatience last week, because although most preachers are finding some way of communicating with members of their congregation (which is then being heard by people who would never normally attend a church service), the reports I am hearing from all around the country suggest that preachers are finding new ways of ‘doing church’ rather than answering the questions that are in millions of people’s minds at this time.

This is surely not the time to continue following the usual pattern of Sunday church. Preachers need to be aware, not only of the needs of their own regular congregation, but also of those who are listening in who have little or no knowledge of the Bible and are not used to prayer, worship or ‘church things’. It should not be beyond the wit of preachers to find ways of feeding their own congregation as well as giving a message that would be helpful to people who have no background of ‘church’, or of ecclesiastical language.

This is surely not the time to continue following the usual pattern of Sunday church.

A Partial Gospel

However, it would seem that many preachers do not find it easy to answer questions such as, “Has God sent the plague? And if so, why has he sent it?”

I believe a major reason why preachers do not tackle these fundamental questions that millions of people are asking today is that they do not know the God of the Bible. Many Christian preachers concentrate on the New Testament, particularly the Gospels and the Epistles, and they do not feel comfortable with the Old Testament. Many churches have developed a kind of Christianity that has little to do with its Hebrew roots.

Evangelicals, in particular, tend to concentrate upon the first three chapters of Genesis which describe the Creation and the fall of humanity, and then jump all the way to Matthew and the Gospels and God’s answer to human sin by sending Jesus as our Lord and Saviour. The danger of this is that they miss out not only the five books of Moses, which set out the basic teaching of our Judeo-Christian heritage, but also the message of the prophets and the history of God’s dealings with his covenant people.

Without these vital components of Scripture which God used for the revelation of his nature and purposes, we cannot possibly know the God of the Bible, the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, and therefore we have an incomplete and partial gospel.

I believe this to be a major reason why preachers are not answering the questions that are in the minds of the population today, and why they find it so difficult to declare the word of God for today. The plain fact is – they do not know the God of the Bible.

I believe a major reason why preachers do not tackle the fundamental questions that millions of people are asking today is that they do not know the God of the Bible.

Scriptural Perspective

Let me illustrate what I mean. There are a handful of great themes that run right through the Bible, that have their origin and foundations in the Old Testament, without which the gospel does not make sense. They are creation, sovereignty, covenant, judgment and justice, love and compassion (I’m sure that some of our readers would add to this list, but I’m not claiming that it is fully comprehensive: I’m simply saying that these are some of the great biblical themes that God uses to convey to humanity the fundamental truths about his nature and purposes).

So, we get such majestic passages as in Isaiah 40:

Who has measured the waters in the hollow of his hand, or with the breadth of his hand marked off the heavens? Who has held the dust of the earth in a basket or weighed the mountains on the scales and the hills in the balance…

Surely the nations are like a drop in a bucket; they are regarded as dust on the scales…He brings princes to nought and reduces the rulers of the world to nothing…

Lift up your eyes and look to the heavens; who created all these? He who brings out the starry host one by one and calls them each by name. Because of his great power and mighty strength not one of them is missing.

The prophets reveal the awesome majesty of the God of Creation. You will never be able to answer the basic questions that millions are asking today about the coronavirus if you have never embraced the truth about God who says, “I am the Lord and there is no other. I form the light and create darkness, I bring prosperity and create disaster, I, the Lord, do all these things!” (Isaiah 45:7).

The prophets also point to the holiness of God and lament the awfulness of sin which separates us from his presence and requires his judgment, unless atonement is made.

If we miss this vital preparation for Messiah, we will never know that the one true God is also a faithful, loving, covenant-keeping God who never breaks his promises, as evidenced by the covenant relationship he formed with Abraham and his descendants. The trouble with so many preachers is that missing this detail has fanned the anti-Semitic flames of ‘Replacement Theology’, which distorts their whole understanding of God. If you do not understand the central subject of Israel in the purposes of God, you will end up with only half a gospel.

There are a handful of great themes that run right through the Bible, that have their origin and foundations in the Old Testament, without which the gospel does not make sense.

The Whole Word

Only the prophetic declaration of the whole word of God can deal with such issues and meet the needs of people in times of crisis such as we have today. Of course, God is a God of love and compassion and mercy – more ready to forgive than we are to confess. But he is also a God of justice. Surely people today deserve to hear the whole word of God!

Notes

1 Luke 12:48.