Why Hell Is Integral to the Gospel
By Greg GilbertI’m sure you were overjoyed to learn that this issue of the 9Marks 9Marks Journal focuses on the topic of hell. In fact, it’s a topic that, if anything, makes us want to avert our eyes and think about something else entirely.
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Good Friday Meditation: A Fitting Crown
By
They stripped him and put a scarlet robe on him, and then twisted together a crown of thorns and set it on his head. They put a staff in his right hand and knelt in front of him and mocked him. "Hail, king of the Jews!" they said. Matthew 27:28-29
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What Would Athanasius Do: Is The Great Tradition Enough?
By Greg Gilbert
About every sixth Sunday, my church in Washington confesses our faith using the words of the Apostles' Creed. The next week, we do the same thing with the Nicene Creed of 325, and then a week later with the Nicene Creed of 381. When we introduce those creeds, we revel in the fact that for nearly two thousand years, Christians have been confessing their faith in the Lord Jesus Christ using the words of these creeds.
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Social Gospel Redux?
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He said he'd wished I'd preached on Judges.
I was the guest preacher that day and this was one of those sluggish congregations where you feel as though you're looking into the eyes of department store mannequins. I'd just finished preaching a gospel sermon on the new birth from the third chapter of John. And the man approached me to say he'd love to hear me preach on Judges, because "that's what we really need."
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A Pastors' and Theologians' Forum on Explaining the Gospel
We asked a roundtable of pastors and theologians two questions:
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The Greatest Danger Facing the Church
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The greatest danger facing the church is probably not what most of us expect. We expect some sort of direct challenge from without, but it probably comes from within. In our day, it may well come from well-meaning pastors.
How could well-meaning pastors pose the greatest threat to evangelical churches today? Do they deny the truth?
No, the pastors who pose the greatest threat to the church today will confess belief in the right things. They will confess the authority and inerrancy of the Bible, that Jesus saves, and that he is the only way of salvation.
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Satanism, Starbucks, and Other Gospel Challengers
9M: Apostles of church growth tell us that pop culture is our friend and the best vehicle for advancing the gospel. Why do you think that pop culture poses a threat to the church’s ability to hold onto and articulate the gospel?
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Biblical and Systematic Confusion Yields Gospel Delusions
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The difference between biblical theology and systematic theology is like difference between my wife recounting a conversation she had with someone and my recounting such a conversation.
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What are the Essentials of the Gospel?
By
“Essentials” implies necessity – something that cannot be left out if the gospel is to be properly understood. Charles Haddon Spurgeon seemed to have mastered the “essentials of the gospel” in his preaching and ministry. Though numerous areas of biblical thought were open to debate, upon the essentials or “fixed principles,” as he called them, there could be no debate. I have found his outline to be helpful in sharpening my thinking on the essentials of the Christian gospel.
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Gospel Implications
SHEPHERDING YOUR PEOPLE TO THINK AND LIVE IN LINE WITH THE TRUTH OF THE GOSPEL
A local church is healthy to the degree that: (1) its pastor-teachers are able to accurately, effectively, and broadly bring the gospel to bear in the real lives of their people; and (2) its people have a deep personal understanding of and appreciation for the gospel, so as to be able to live in the good of the gospel daily. I call this the functional centrality of the gospel.
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