This is something I have noticed on my Christian walk over the past few years and I thought it would be fun to look into it...
As we all know, there are a LOT of different Christian denominations. Even within each denomination, there are different schools of thought. And different ways the gospel is presented.
In my brief time of being a follower of Christ, I have seen these 2 trains of thought within my own church.
God is love (1 John 4:16)
or
End times prophecy (Revelation 13:16-18)
So on one side of the coin, you have the love, peace and joy of Jesus Christ. And on the other, you have the evils of this world and what will shortly come to pass.
I read a lot of scripture, do a ton of bible study and listen to quite a few sermons. And when it comes to a ministry, they seem to fall under those two categories.
And I wish it wasn't like that.....
If you read the bible, from Genesis to Revelation, you see an amazing story of redemption. How God created, man fell and throughout history things have moved along to eventually bring us back to His presence for eternity.
That story, is the good news to me.
But their are layers, and I think the problem that many church fall into is that they go to either side of the spectrum and don't talk about the whole picture.
There are churches out there that only talk about 'God is love' but fail to preach repentance and biblical prophecy.
You also have churches that preach only end times messages and rarely if ever, talk about the love of Christ.
And yeah, I get it...Churches are filled with sinners. We aren't perfect in any way, shape or form. However I believe these churches do their members a disservice if they don't preach the entire bible.
What is the bible?
Basic instructions before leaving earth?
Sure lol But what I believe the bible is, is a love letter from a Creator to his creations. Showing the errors of our ways and a path to dwell with Him forever. It's history, it's prophecy, it's poetry, it's a love story, it's pretty much the entire human experience.
And we don't give God the glory He deserves when we only focus on one aspect of this incredible book.