Changing Times

Robert Meredith

It will soon be that time again when everyone will have to adjust all of their clocks.  It is spring forward and fall back.  I know that they have a good reason for adjusting the time every spring and autumn, but honestly, I have some clocks that will now be right because I never changed them last spring.  People like to change things.  Some things are better after they have been changed because there were some flaws in them.  There is always something new and improved.  About twenty years ago the Coco Cola company tried to market a “New Coke”.  Their classic cola was the best selling soft drink in all the world, but for one reason or another they felt the need to change what they had and it was a failure.  Soon the original cola was back.  Sadly enough, some “experts” want to make changed to the gospel of Christ.  They feel that because times “they are a changin’”, the gospel no longer meets the needs of the masses.  Therefore, the gospel needs to change with the times.  Do we need a new gospel for the twenty-first century?

  Man has not changed since creation.  Man has made many technological advances over the past

few centuries, yet man has not changed.  He still has the same needs and passions as those of old.  Man is still tempted by the same three avenues as always.  The Apostle John wrote, “For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world” (1 John 2:16).  These three are still the same ways that man is tempted, so man has not changed in his temptation to sin.

  Sin is still man’s greatest problem.  In Romans 3:23 and 6:23, Paul penned, “For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God” and then, “For the wages of sin is death…”  The man of today still has the same problem as those of Paul’s day.  Every accountable persons sins, his sins separate him from God, and he is therefore in need of salvation.

  Since man has not changed and he still commits sin which causes him to be lost, do we need a new gospel?  The Apostle Paul declared, “For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek” (Romans 1:16).  If the unadulterated gospel had the power to save man two thousand years ago, why not today?  If it can still save today, why change it?  My friends, from Galatians 1:6-9 one learns that an altered gospel does not save.  Today, if one changes the gospel of Christ, then the power of God to save is not being used and man’s greatest problem (sin) persists.

  Some today insist that the preaching of the gospel must be changed to gain the attention of the modern man.  However, the gospel does not need to be changed, man does, and the gospel, when applied, has the power to change him.  Yes, man has made many advances over the centuries, but he has not changed.  The devil still uses the same weapons as he did in Adam’s day.  Man falls into Satan’s snares and is in need of God’s saving grace provided through the gospel.  Let us change our clocks this Saturday night, but let us never change the gospel.