What Causes the Offense of the Gospel?

The world actually doesn’t mind if you worship Jesus. Or if you worship Allah, or Quiboloy. Or even your pet monkey. The world is fine with that – you can do your thing, and I’ll do my thing, and we’re okay. As we say, walang basagan ng trip. Don’t rock the boat. People don’t care about your beliefs – as long as you don’t touch the fundamentally exclusive beliefs of Christianity. Or if you do, you keep it to yourself and to people who agree with you.

But there’s a problem with that. You see, Christianity is not inherently tolerant of a get-along culture. Christianity flatly denies that all roads lead to God. If you hear a Christian who says that – that person probably isn’t a Christian. Biblical Christianity offends in at least three ways:

1. The first offense is that the gospel calls you a sinner. Who wants to be called a sinner, when the world, psychology and even your mother calls you as basically a “good person?” I’m not evil – I’m a good person with a few “challenges.” But the Bible says all have sinned….(Romans 3:23)

2. The second offense is that the gospel calls sin by its name. For example: 1 Corinthians 6:9-10 . Another is Galatians 5:19-21. Tell a person that homosexuality is a sin and you will be called hateful, a bigot, a narrow-minded, old-fashioned, fundamentalist. They will respond: “who are you to judge me? That’s your opinion. You’re unloving: that’s not a Christian attitude.”

3. The third offense is that the gospel is exclusive: there is no other way to be saved, to be accepted by God, to be forgiven, to have eternal life – except Jesus. (Acts 4:12, 1 Timothy 2:5, John 14:6)

Ultimately, they reject the gospel because their hearts are darkened and they love their sin. Only God can cause their hearts to be opened. Only God can cause them to turn to Him in repentance and faith.