“For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ; for it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth, to the Jew first, and also to the Greek” (Romans 1:16).
Back in 1993 I became acquainted with the writing of John MacArthur, Jr. and since that time I have read several of his books. Two that I greatly enjoyed were The Battle For The Beginning which concerns the creation account in the book of Genesis and Terrorism, Jihad, and the Bible which was written just after the September 11th attacks. However, the first book of his I read was Ashamed Of The Gospel: When The Church Becomes Like The World – what a great title! Now, Mr. MacArthur who recently died (1939-2025), was not a brother in Christ; he was in fact a full-blown Calvinist. But his book Ashamed Of The Gospel hits the nail on the head much more often than it misses, specifically in reply to the erroneous marketing schemes that are still being perpetrated on the religious community at large.
Before I comment further, let me share with you one of my absolute favorite quotations from the book:
“Nevertheless, an overpowering surge of ardent pragmatism is sweeping through evangelicalism. Traditional methodology—most notably preaching—is being discarded or downplayed in favor of newer means, such as drama, dance, comedy, variety, sideshow histrionics, pop-psychology, and other entertainment forms. The new methods supposedly are more ‘effective’ — that is, they draw a bigger crowd; and since for many the chief criterion for gauging the success of a church has become attendance figures, whatever pulls in the most people is accepted without critical analysis as good. That is pragmatism” (Ashamed of The Gospel, p. 13).
There you have it brethren, and I couldn’t have said it better myself. So, unless your head has been buried in the proverbial sand the last 40-plus years, you know that the above quotation is not an overstatement of the problem—a problem that has and continues to exist even within the Lord’s church. And much of the problem/error is the direct result of church members believing that “the chief criterion for gauging the success of a church” is numbers. Many brethren have bought in to the false numbers game where faithfulness and truth are sometimes sacrificed for Sunday attendance figures. Sadly, these congregations don’t realize they’re actually involved in such. Why is it that some are willing to exchange the truth of God for a lie (Romans 1:25)?
What I know for a fact is that the church of the first century grew both spiritually and numerically because “the word of God increased” (Acts 6:7). Not because someone surveyed the community to see what they liked or disliked about “church” or if their “personal needs” were being met and then catered the worship and practice of the local church to the respondents’ wants and demands. The question many ask today is not, “Is it Biblical, is it authorized?” But rather, “Does it work?” It’s not as much a matter of getting the cart before the horse as it is the failure of some brethren to even bring the horse with them.
Unfortunately, the idea I get from some is this, “If we publicly promote what we really believe the Bible teaches, we’ll offend people and they won’t continue to come to our worship services.” I am not convinced that that is even true. Nevertheless, like you, I do want non-Christians to attend our assemblies where I’m confident they will hear the unadulterated gospel of the kingdom (Matthew 9:35). But I am not willing to compromise the Gospel to guarantee the attendance of someone. In all honesty, I am not looking to personally offend anyone. However, if someone is offended by the preaching and teaching of the truth (John 8:31-32, 17:17), then so be it.
If we are going to fulfill our mission (Matthew 28:18-20), we must be sold on “preaching the word” (2 Timothy 4:2-4), on preaching “the whole counsel of God” (Acts 20:27). The notion that we should charm and entertain people first and then slip the gospel in the proverbial back door – is dead wrong. And may I remind you that no one can truly declare the whole counsel of God without opposing what is wrong, both in and out of the assembly. That would include, but not be limited to, the exposure of denominationalism for what it actually is — the tool of Satan. Certainly this must be done in love (Ephesians 4:15), but it must be done!
Our Lord was fond of saying, “He who has ears to hear, let him hear” (Matthew 13:43). In other words, pay attention. So, please pay attention to this my beloved brethren, there is nothing more “negative” than error. And our Lord and His inspired penmen were antagonistic towards error as a casual reading of the New Testament will reveal. You and I as loyal soldiers of the cross (Ephesians 6:10-17; 1 Timothy 6:12; 2 Timothy 2:2-4) must “earnestly contend for the faith” (Jude 3). Which itself implies that we must oppose religious error – even the entertainment/recreation error that has flooded into the Lord’s church over the years.
I believe I detect that some by their apathy and others by their teaching are indeed ashamed of the gospel of Christ — I hope I’m wrong. But of all the things we should not, cannot, and must not do in this world—we better not be ashamed of the Gospel of Jesus Christ (Romans 1:16).
–Mel Futrell