And Satan loves it this way!  It’s okay with him as long as people merely believe in a THEN Jesus who died.  Satan is delighted when people so focus on the past work of Jesus that they lose sight of the present Person of Jesus!  He’s okay with people having a faith in a THEN Jesus who died for them.  Satan knows that such a gospel is powerless.  So he makes no special effort to blind people’s eyes to these realities.     

Thankfully, many evangelists do not stumble so badly as to completely truncate their proclamation at the cross.  Many also proclaim the resurrection of Jesus with equal emphasis.   Praise God!  Such is a vast improvement! But Satan might yet be delighted in this evangelism.  For if we fail to proclaim the ascension of Jesus and His present seat of power and His coming again in ultimate judgment, we have failed to proclaim the Jesus who is.  And people must place their trust in the Jesus who presently is, in order to be saved!    

The Jesus who presently is, is not merely resurrected.  He has also ascended into the presence of God Himself where He has offered the merits of His own blood.  Having made purification for sins, the Father has exalted Him with all authority to His own right hand.  From this position of power Jesus grants forgiveness and the Holy Spirit to all who call upon Him.  And He is coming again in judgment to gather His faithful wheat into His barn and to burn unbelieving chaff with unquenchable fire.  This is the full Apostolic gospel!  Anything less is gospel truncation to some degree or another.   

Satan loves gospel truncation.  Satan loves an incomplete gospel.  Satan likes hack jobs. For if he can continue to blind the minds of the unbelieving to the exalted glory of Christ, the NOW Jesus, this is all he needs to drag them to hell. 

…the god of this age has blinded the minds of the unbelieving so that they might not comprehend the good news of the exaltation glory of Christ… (2 Cor. 4:4 paraphrased)    

Furthermore, when we fail to use Divine attestation in our evangelism as exemplified and taught by Jesus and His Apostles, even non truncated evangelism is seriously lacking.  

Friend, can I share with you what the Lord has been teaching me in these areas?

 

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