Keith Comparetto: What is the Gospel? Part 1

What is the "Gospel"?

by Keith Comparetto

Table of Contents

Part One: Preface & Introduction

Part Two: The Lessons of Church History

Part Three: A Closer Look at Scripture

Part Four: Seeing, but not Perceiving

Part Five: Closing Thoughts

Preface

This book was meant to provoke but not to offend. Some may find the position presented in these pages to be something new or out of balance; though if you read this in its entirety, and search the Scriptures with an open heart, I believe you will find that what I am presenting is indeed the “old-time Gospel,” and is as balanced as the Bible is. I am considerably troubled that the trend of modern biblical thinking has swung so far to one side and remained there for so long, making salvation so easy, as to be damning many souls to hell who have not a concern in the world that they may be spiritually lost. What is more troubling is that the teaching which has led to such over-confidence is now so glibly accepted as biblical fact, that one is considered unloving, judgmental, unbalanced, a legalist or a false teacher for suggesting that the Bible may actually teach otherwise.

There is not enough space in this little book to present all the Bible passages and interpretations that have led to my conclusions. My heart’s desire would be to prick the reader’s conscience to study out true salvation on his or her own – and how few today have done this! – giving due consideration to the massive weight of Biblical evidence as well as the writings of men much greater and wiser than most of us, some of whom have made the study and proper presentation of salvation the centerpiece of their life’s work.

I speak as one who spent my entire Christian life and teaching career on the other side of this, for lack of a better term, “controversy.” The thinking that I now call “easy-believism” was so ingrained in me, the Bible passages so often presented the same way, the altar calls so regularly making the same appeals, that I never questioned such interpretations seriously. I have since had to repent before God for allowing some very serious passages to be dispensed with much too easily, specifically: (1) the many warning passages which I now consider to the lost were preached as warnings to the saved; (2) the “forsake all and follow Me” passages, though presented by Christ as essential to the very definition of a Christian, were preached as being merely ways to become more spiritual; and (3) the “continue in the faith” passages were mostly ignored. I now know that these passages were interpreted completely differently little more than a century ago, by brilliant and godly men who spent their lives in their Bibles and on their knees. Their conclusions should not be flippantly overlooked, especially because we have no new evidence to refute them. Proverbs 22:28 warns, “Remove not the ancient landmark, which thy fathers have set.”

The consequences of the new theology for the modern church have been devastating, especially to the lost: From Gospel invitations to salvation that make little mention of the cost of being Christ’s disciple, to interpretations of passages which convey the unbiblical idea that Christians can backslide to the point where they can be little different from the world around them and remain that way for indefinite periods of time, the result is that the tares who sit in probably every congregation have their false assurance continually reinforced. True believers are harmed also, not only because their “Christian fellowship” is often not in the Spirit and thus not edifying, but because by hearing the clear meaning of passages on the power of salvation and the sureness of God’s judgment on sinners simply “explained away,” they become confused and miss the wonderful unity of the Scriptures that truly cause the saint to “Rejoice in thy salvation.” The result of the modern teaching within the visible church is that, because so many unregenerate souls can sit comfortably among the saints, the church becomes worldly and eventually dies. Most of us have seen this cycle many times over.

What, then, is the Gospel? Distilling it into a Romans-Road type of formula is dangerously misleading. Like a finely cut stone, the Gospel has many facets in Scripture. One facet reveals it as a remedy for man’s depraved condition; another, as the sum total of all God’s commands to believe in, trust, embrace, follow after and forsake all for, Christ. Another reveals it as a treasure trove of precious truths pertaining to salvation, the saved individual and his wonderful position in Christ; and another, as a body of evidences by which God’s elect may know if they have attained it. All of these facets must be recognized, or we will have a defective Gospel.

In this book I may challenge your sacred doctrines, your favorite authors, or your common practices; if so, please consider that I had to challenge my own first. My message concerns the Lordship of Christ in the life of a true Christian (though I believe that statement in itself contains a redundancy), and because this message is so rarely presented clearly today, this book may cause you to react emotionally and jump to false conclusions. Therefore, please understand that: (1) I am not in any way preaching that sinless perfection is possible in this life, though some without justification have accused me of doing so. (2) I am not preaching that any true believer can lose his salvation, though I abhor the presumptuous self-assurance that characterizes our churches today. (3) I am not preaching that we are saved or kept through works; in fact, I would suggest it is the doctrines I take issue with that come closer to such a notion. (4) I am not rehashing the old Calvinism versus Arminianism arguments. Though I have a strong belief in the sovereignty of God, I can respect some Arminians, such as John Wesley, for their strong stand on Lordship, while taking issue with some Calvinists who have not stood so. (5) I am not focusing on a petty or peripheral issue, nor am I speaking to the head and not to the heart. My focus is an individual’s eternal salvation – how one may find it and know it – something I believe the modern evangelical church has played carelessly with, and without which no one has a right to claim any of the wonderful promises of the Bible. (6) I am not attacking or defending any particular denomination or theological system such as covenant or dispensational theology; the Lordship issue cuts across these lines. (7) I am not attacking people; nor am I attacking anyone’s motives: Many who express the positions I now take issue with were, or are, sincere men of God who loved the Bible and cared for people’s souls.

Perhaps most of all, I am not personally attacking you or the people you love. If I put doubts in your mind that cause you to question the salvation testimony of a child, a parent, a friend, or someone else you care about, perhaps the promise, “those who rebuke the wicked will have delight, And a good blessing will come upon them” (Proverbs 24:25), will give you the strength to bring a new challenge to that person. If it is your own testimony that I bring into question, consider the words of John Bunyan when introducing a similar message:

This awakening work (if God will make it so) was prepared for thee: if there be need, and it wounds, get healing by blood: if it disquiets, get peace by blood: if it takes away all thou hast, because it was nothing (for this book is not prepared to take away true grace from any), then buy of Christ gold tried in the fire, that thou mayst be rich, and white raiment, that thou mayst be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness doth not appear, and anoint thine eyes with eye-salve, that thou mayst see (Revelation 3:18). Self-flatteries, self-deceivings, are easy and pleasant, but damnable. The Lord give thee an heart to judge right of thyself, right of this book, and so prepare for eternity, that thou mayst not only expect entrance, but be received into the kingdom of Christ and of God.

Dear reader, I ask you to read, to pray, to consider these things in your heart. As I have said to people many times, if my “examine your salvation” message is wrong, I am merely driving some saints to their knees to examine the condition of their souls, which is always a wise thing to do, and which these days is rarely done. If the other side is wrong, they are deceiving people into hell by the thousands. I pray that you will receive these words in the sincere and burdened spirit in which they were given, and allow them to challenge you into determining for yourself, through your own study and prayer, what the Bible really says about salvation. Paul warns, “Let no man deceive himself. If any man among you seemeth to be wise in this world, let him become a fool, that he may be wise.”

--Keith Comparetto

Introduction

What is the gospel? To those who believe in the Bible, it seems like such a simple question: It is the “Good News” of course – the Good News of salvation, of redemption from the slavemarket of sin, of justification before Him who will judge the living and the dead. But how does one partake of this Good News? Some would say the answer is a matter of simple confession to God in agreement with the truths of the Gospel, as summarized in part by Paul’s words to the Corinthians: “For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received: how that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures” (1 Cor. 15:3-4). But this summary is complicated by the qualifiers in verse two, which indicate that one may “receive” the Gospel truths unsavingly: “if you keep in memory [or, “hold fast”] and “unless ye have believed in vain.”

Some will refer to Romans 10:9-13, which tell us that salvation involves believing in the heart and confessing with the mouth, which many associate with the sinner’s prayer of Luke 18:13, “God, be merciful to me, a sinner.” They cite Romans 10:13 as their proof: “For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.” But many consider “confess with thy mouth” in Romans 10:9 to refer not to a prayer unto salvation, but the voicing of one’s profession to the world after one’s conversion. Many godly believers don’t remember specifically praying a “sinner’s prayer,” but they exhibit the evidences of true belief, and God’s Spirit “bears witness” with theirs that they are children of God (Romans 8:16). Moreover, most of us know people who have outwardly gone through these “believe” and “confess” steps and then gone back to their old ways and beliefs, thus bringing their salvation testimony into question. Even the sinner’s prayer in Luke is presented more as an attitude of the heart than as a formula for salvation.

Others prefer to summarize the Gospel with Acts 16:31: “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved.” Still, this summary is inadequate, for the phrase “and thy house” indicates that the statement was intended for that particular individual and his family whose hearts obviously had already been prepared to receive this message. In fact, the context gives us several important details: (1) Before the Jailor asked his famous question, he "came trembling, and fell down before Paul and Silas," indicating that the Holy Spirit had brought him under great conviction; (2) The answer to "believe on the Lord Jesus Christ" was not the Apostles' full answer, for verse 32 indicates that it was followed by more complete instructions: "they spake unto him the word of the Lord, and to all that were in his house"; and (3) The jailor evidenced more than a head knowledge belief, for verse 33 indicates that his new heart had already begun to show up in his actions: "he took them the same hour of the night, and washed their stripes; and was baptized, he and all his, straightway." Thus, it is hardly adequate to use verse 31 alone as a quick and easy summary of the gospel.

Others will sum up the truths of the Gospel with John 3:16, for many the most beloved Bible verse: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” But as a summary of the Gospel, this verse is also inadequate, for if simple belief brings salvation, then we must assume nearly all of professing Christendom to be saved, and few even modern evangelicals would accept that premise.

Some will take you straight to Jesus’ words to Nicodemus in John chapter three: “Ye must be born again.” But this truth is not fully explained in the passage, for how does one go about being “born again”? Despite modern notions of “leading a soul to Christ” or “making a decision for Christ,” the New Birth is not humanly possible, as Nicodemus himself replied. It does seem that an important qualification to all of these summarized “Gospels” is found in this very passage, in Jesus’ explanation to Nicodemus in verses five and eight: "Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God....The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit.” Here, a crucial aspect of the Gospel of Christ is proclaimed: that salvation is, after all, not a human act but a divine one, one that involves the infusion of God’s Spirit into man, and one which perhaps should not be so glibly summarized into a simple formula. “Ye must be born again” means for certain that to be the beneficiaries of the Good News, we must have a work of God performed in us, and that we must, as the passage indicates, evaluate the reality of that work biblically by the fruit it produces (for we are told in the passage, “thou hearest the sound thereof,” i.e., we see its effects); otherwise we have not truly been “born of the Spirit.”

But in the 20th century, the age of mass evangelism, many lost sight of this important truth. They put into practice human doctrines, systems and methods for winning the world to Christ which swelled the numbers in the church but failed to warn its members that, as not all professing Israel was truly Israel (Romans 9:6), so not all professing Christians are true Christians. Thus, by abandoning the biblical principle of individual self-examination, they allowed the church to be infiltrated by the unregenerate world. We would contend the reason for this is that in modern times, there has indeed been preached “another gospel, which is not another” (Gal. 1:6-7), for the true Gospel has never changed. The fact is, there is no quick and easy Gospel, for God’s truth is given “precept upon precept, line upon line, line upon line, here a little, there a little,” but those who are truly His will find Him because He has drawn them to seek Him diligently:

“My son, if thou wilt receive my words, and hide my commandments with thee; so that thou incline thine ear unto wisdom, and apply thine heart to understanding; yea, if thou criest after knowledge, and liftest up thy voice for understanding; if thou seekest her as silver, and searchest for her as for hid treasures; then shalt thou understand the fear of the LORD, and find the knowledge of God” (Proverbs 2:1-5).



	What is the "Gospel"? by Keith Comparetto Table of Contents Part One: Preface & Introduction Part Two: The Lessons of Church History Part Three: A Closer Look at Scripture Part Four: Seeing, but not Perceiving Part Five: Closing Thoughts Preface This book was meant to provoke but not to offend. Some may find the position presented in these pages to be something new or out of balance; though if you read this in its entirety, and search the Scriptures with an open heart, I believe you will find that what I am presenting is indeed the “old-time Gospel,” and is as balanced as the Bible is. I am considerably troubled that the trend of modern biblical thinking has swung so far to one side and remained there for so long, making salvation so easy, as to be damning many souls to hell who have not a concern in the world that they may be spiritually lost. What is more troubling is that the teaching which has led to such over-confidence is now so glibly accepted as biblical fact, that one is considered unloving, judgmental, unbalanced, a legalist or a false teacher for suggesting that the Bible may actually teach otherwise. There is not enough space in this little book to present all the Bible passages and interpretations that have led to my conclusions. My heart’s desire would be to prick the reader’s conscience to study out true salvation on his or her own – and how few today have done this! – giving due consideration to the massive weight of Biblical evidence as well as the writings of men much greater and wiser than most of us, some of whom have made the study and proper presentation of salvation the centerpiece of their life’s work. I speak as one who spent my entire Christian life and teaching career on the other side of this, for lack of a better term, “controversy.” The thinking that I now call “easy-believism” was so ingrained in me, the Bible passages so often presented the same way, the altar calls so regularly making the same appeals, that I never questioned such interpretations seriously. I have since had to repent before God for allowing some very serious passages to be dispensed with much too easily, specifically: (1) the many warning passages which I now consider to the lost were preached as warnings to the saved; (2) the “forsake all and follow Me” passages, though presented by Christ as essential to the very definition of a Christian, were preached as being merely ways to become more spiritual; and (3) the “continue in the faith” passages were mostly ignored. I now know that these passages were interpreted completely differently little more than a century ago, by brilliant and godly men who spent their lives in their Bibles and on their knees. Their conclusions should not be flippantly overlooked, especially because we have no new evidence to refute them. Proverbs 22:28 warns, “Remove not the ancient landmark, which thy fathers have set.” The consequences of the new theology for the modern church have been devastating, especially to the lost: From Gospel invitations to salvation that make little mention of the cost of being Christ’s disciple, to interpretations of passages which convey the unbiblical idea that Christians can backslide to the point where they can be little different from the world around them and remain that way for indefinite periods of time, the result is that *the tares* who sit in probably every congregation have their false assurance continually reinforced.** True believers are harmed also, not only because their “Christian fellowship” is often not in the Spirit and thus not edifying, but because by hearing the clear meaning of passages on the power of salvation and the sureness of God’s judgment on sinners simply “explained away,” they become confused and miss the wonderful unity of the Scriptures that truly cause the saint to “Rejoice in thy salvation.” The result of the modern teaching within the visible church is that, because so many unregenerate souls can sit comfortably among the saints, the church becomes worldly and eventually dies. Most of us have seen this cycle many times over. What, then, is the Gospel? Distilling it into a Romans-Road type of formula is dangerously misleading. Like a finely cut stone, the Gospel has many facets in Scripture. One facet reveals it as a remedy for man’s depraved condition; another, as the sum total of all God’s commands to believe in, trust, embrace, follow after and forsake all for, Christ. Another reveals it as a treasure trove of precious truths pertaining to salvation, the saved individual and his wonderful position in Christ; and another, as a body of evidences by which God’s elect may know if they have attained it. All of these facets must be recognized, or we will have a defective Gospel. In this book I may challenge your sacred doctrines, your favorite authors, or your common practices; if so, please consider that I had to challenge my own first. My message concerns the Lordship of Christ in the life of a true Christian (though I believe that statement in itself contains a redundancy), and because this message is so rarely presented clearly today, this book may cause you to react emotionally and jump to false conclusions. Therefore, please understand that: (1) I am not in any way preaching that sinless perfection is possible in this life, though some without justification have accused me of doing so. (2) I am not preaching that any true believer can lose his salvation, though I abhor the presumptuous self-assurance that characterizes our churches today. (3) I am not preaching that we are saved or kept through works; in fact, I would suggest it is the doctrines I take issue with that come closer to such a notion. (4) I am not rehashing the old Calvinism versus Arminianism arguments. Though I have a strong belief in the sovereignty of God, I can respect some Arminians, such as John Wesley, for their strong stand on Lordship, while taking issue with some Calvinists who have not stood so. (5) I am not focusing on a petty or peripheral issue, nor am I speaking to the head and not to the heart. *My focus is an individual’s eternal salvation* – how one may find it and know it – something I believe the modern evangelical church has played carelessly with*, and without which no one* has a right to claim any of the wonderful promises of the Bible. (6) I am not attacking or defending any particular denomination or theological system such as covenant or dispensational theology; the Lordship issue cuts across these lines. (7) I am not attacking people; nor am I attacking anyone’s motives: Many who express the positions I now take issue with were, or are, sincere men of God who loved the Bible and cared for people’s souls. Perhaps most of all, I am not personally attacking you or the people you love. If I put doubts in your mind that cause you to question the salvation testimony of a child, a parent, a friend, or someone else you care about, perhaps the promise, “those who rebuke the wicked will have delight, And a good blessing will come upon them” (Proverbs 24:25), will give you the strength to bring a new challenge to that person. If it is your own testimony that I bring into question, consider the words of John Bunyan when introducing a similar message: This awakening work (if God will make it so) was prepared for thee: if there be need, and it wounds, get healing by blood: if it disquiets, get peace by blood: if it takes away all thou hast, because it was nothing (for this book is not prepared to take away true grace from any), then buy of Christ gold tried in the fire, that thou mayst be rich, and white raiment, that thou mayst be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness doth not appear, and anoint thine eyes with eye-salve, that thou mayst see (Revelation 3:18). Self-flatteries, self-deceivings, are easy and pleasant, but damnable. The Lord give thee an heart to judge right of thyself, right of this book, and so prepare for eternity, that thou mayst not only expect entrance, but be received into the kingdom of Christ and of God. Dear reader, I ask you to read, to pray, to consider these things in your heart. As I have said to people many times, if my “examine your salvation” message is wrong, I am merely driving some saints to their knees to examine the condition of their souls, which is always a wise thing to do, and which these days is rarely done. If the other side is wrong, they are deceiving people into hell by the thousands. I pray that you will receive these words in the sincere and burdened spirit in which they were given, and allow them to challenge you into determining for yourself, through your own study and prayer, what the Bible really says about salvation. Paul warns, “Let no man deceive himself. If any man among you seemeth to be wise in this world, let him become a fool, that he may be wise.” --Keith Comparetto Introduction What is the gospel? To those who believe in the Bible, it seems like such a simple question: It is the “Good News” of course – the Good News of salvation, of redemption from the slavemarket of sin, of justification before Him who will judge the living and the dead. But how does one partake of this Good News? Some would say the answer is a matter of simple confession to God in agreement with the truths of the Gospel, as summarized in part by Paul’s words to the Corinthians: “For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received: how that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures” (1 Cor. 15:3-4). But this summary is complicated by the qualifiers in verse two, which indicate that one may “receive” the Gospel truths unsavingly: “if you keep in memory [or, “hold fast”] and “unless* ye have believed in vain.”* Some will refer to Romans 10:9-13, which tell us that salvation involves believing in the heart and confessing with the mouth, which many associate with the sinner’s prayer of Luke 18:13, “God, be merciful to me, a sinner.” They cite Romans 10:13 as their proof: “For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.” But many consider “confess with thy mouth” in Romans 10:9 to refer not to a prayer unto salvation, but the voicing of one’s profession to the world after one’s conversion. Many godly believers don’t remember specifically praying a “sinner’s prayer,” but they exhibit the evidences of true belief, and God’s Spirit “bears witness” with theirs that they are children of God (Romans 8:16). Moreover, most of us know people who have outwardly gone through these “believe” and “confess” steps and then gone back to their old ways and beliefs, thus bringing their salvation testimony into question. Even the sinner’s prayer in Luke is presented more as an attitude of the heart than as a formula for salvation. Others prefer to summarize the Gospel with Acts 16:31: “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved.” Still, this summary is inadequate, for the phrase “and thy house” indicates that the statement was intended for that particular individual and his family whose hearts obviously had already been prepared to receive this message. In fact, the context gives us several important details: (1) Before the Jailor asked his famous question, he "came trembling, and fell down before Paul and Silas," indicating that the Holy Spirit had brought him under great conviction; (2) The answer to "believe on the Lord Jesus Christ" was not the Apostles' full answer, for verse 32 indicates that it was followed by more complete instructions: "they spake unto him the word of the Lord, and to all that were in his house"; and (3) The jailor evidenced more than a head knowledge belief, for verse 33 indicates that his new heart had already begun to show up in his actions: "he took them the same hour of the night, and washed their stripes; and was baptized, he and all his, straightway." Thus, it is hardly adequate to use verse 31 alone as a quick and easy summary of the gospel. Others will sum up the truths of the Gospel with John 3:16, for many the most beloved Bible verse: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” But as a summary of the Gospel, this verse is also inadequate, for if simple belief brings salvation, then we must assume nearly all of professing Christendom to be saved, and few even modern evangelicals would accept that premise. Some will take you straight to Jesus’ words to Nicodemus in John chapter three: “Ye must be born again.” But this truth is not fully explained in the passage, for how does one go about being “born again”? *Despite modern notions of “leading a soul to Christ” or “making a decision for Christ,” the New Birth is not humanly* possible*, as Nicodemus himself replied. It does seem that an important qualification to all* of these summarized “Gospels” is found in this very passage, in Jesus’ explanation to Nicodemus in verses five and eight: "Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God....The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit.” Here, a crucial aspect of the Gospel of Christ is proclaimed: that salvation is, after all, not a human act but a divine one, one that involves the infusion of God’s Spirit into man, and one which perhaps should not be so glibly summarized into a simple formula. “Ye must be born again” means for certain that to be the beneficiaries of the Good News, we must have a work of God performed in us, and that we must, as the passage indicates, evaluate the reality of that work biblically by the fruit it produces (for we are told in the passage, “thou hearest the sound thereof,” i.e., we see its effects); otherwise we have not truly been “born of the Spirit.” But in the 20th century, the age of mass evangelism, many lost sight of this important truth. They put into practice human doctrines, systems and methods for winning the world to Christ which swelled the numbers in the church but failed to warn its members that, as not all professing Israel was truly Israel (Romans 9:6), so not all professing Christians are true Christians. Thus, by abandoning the biblical principle of individual self-examination, they allowed the church to be infiltrated by the unregenerate world. We would contend the reason for this is that in modern times, there has indeed been preached “another gospel, which is not another” (Gal. 1:6-7), for the true Gospel has never changed. The fact is, there is no quick and easy Gospel, for God’s truth is given “precept upon precept, line upon line, line upon line, here a little, there a little,” but those who are truly His will find Him because He has drawn them to seek Him diligently: “My son, if thou wilt receive my words, and hide my commandments with thee; so that thou incline thine ear unto wisdom, and apply thine heart to understanding; yea, if thou criest after knowledge, and liftest up thy voice for understanding; if thou seekest her as silver, and searchest for her as for hid treasures; then shalt thou understand the fear of the LORD, and find the knowledge of God” (Proverbs 2:1-5).