Book Synopsis
Martin Luther called justification the test of a standing or falling church. In the twentieth century we have seen the evangelical church neglect, corrupt, and even in some cases, deny this truth. If we tamper with the doctrine of justification by faith alone and distort it in any way we may be guilty of preaching another gospel. The danger of what the apostle Paul was warning the Galatians is prevalent in our current evangelical culture. What should we do about this? The answer is for the Church to return to a Christ centered ministry, and keep its focus on the main issues that concern our approach to a holy God. I think many pastors have been pressured to give up preaching on Christ and the gospel in order to secure a wider hearing. This approach may give immediate results, but I think those results will be temporary and superficial at best. When I speak of preaching Christ centered messages I do not infer that we are not to neglect preaching the whole council of Bible book by book. As much as possible we want to find Christ in every part of the Bible.
What we need is a return to the historic Christian Gospel that was once the steady diet of all true Bible believing Christians. We need to have faith in that which God was pleased to bless in times gone by. To use an expression that comes to us out of the Proverbs we should not remove the ancient landmarks that the church has set before us. Proverbs 22:28 reads,“Remove not the ancient landmark which thy fathers have set.” This phrase has been used to express the principle of maintaining long tried and well tested beliefs and traditions that the Lord has honored over time and over the centuries. When we ask ourselves what ancient landmarks has the church that has gone before us left us, we might suggest these well tested points.