Gospel artists and pastors have featured in a number of scandals in the last few years, something that doesn't shock me.
They are representative of the modern-day church. My personal experiences with the church have soured me and taught me at the same time. Call it making lemonade out of lemons. The root cause of the church's problems is the false doctrines being preached.
Let me explain why the church is the reason some gospel artists are always in scandals.
The "gospel" taught in most churches is a perversion
The modern church is teaching a doctrine that is based on a mixture of grace and law. The law and grace are fundamental but disparate aspects of the word of God. The law being God's unbending and perfect rules and grace his unmerited and unearned favour.
The perversion preached in most churches is that one gets saved by believing that Christ died for them on the cross. The error is that good works are a prerequisite for one maintaining that salvation, meaning someone can lose their salvation.
One's salvation according to this "gospel" is that it is maintained through works such as confession of sins and following the ten commandments after one is saved. This is an error that the apostle Paul speaks about in his book of Galatians.
What is the true gospel?
In Paul's gospel, one's salvation is a gift and is received by grace through faith. One cannot lose it no matter what they do. Meaning they are eternally saved, something most churchgoers do not know. (Galatians 1:11-12, 1st Corinthians 15:1-4, Galatians 2:16-21, Ephesians 2:8,9)
Why is this distinction important and why does it matter for the gospel artistes?
Because what someone believes will guide how they live. Believe right and you shall live right. As a man thinketh so is he. DK Kwenye Beat, Hope kid and Bahati are all victims of a wrong belief system fuelled by wrong teachings.
The trio has in the past asked for forgiveness from God when they were caught in a scandal. This betrays a wrong belief system taught by most churches. Why is it wrong?
God has already forgiven them. Colossians 1:13-14 and Colossians 2:13 speak of God's perfect forgiveness. This means that Colossiansthe trio is living in perpetual fear of going to hell while the good news states that their salvation is guaranteed and eternal. (Ephesians 1:11-13).
I am not saying one should not ask for forgiveness from someone he or she has wronged. That is fine (Ephesians 4:32).
My issue is that these gospel musicians attaching forgiveness of their sins to confession of their sins to God betrays a fundamental misunderstanding of the gospel.
A misunderstanding that is taught in most churches.
Why is this an issue?
Paul speaks of how the law cannot make one righteous in Romans 7. He explains that the law is perfect but that cannot make the sinner good.
In fact, he says, it's purpose is not to make one good but draw out the bad in you, so one can see the need for God's grace. The more one tries to follow it the more sinful they become(Romans 3:19,20).
When the pastors teach this bad doctrine (of following the law to maintain their salvation) to their flock (which might include the gospel musicians) the more sinful they become. (Romans 3:19,20, Romans 7:15-19)
What is the end result of these bad doctrines being taught?
The more the artistes and pastors follow the bad teachings, the more sinful they become. A result that can be seen plain as day, something they are struggling with but don't know why?
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