Tracts are small handouts which mix graphics and text to give a simple presentation of the gospel (and occasionally a subject that fundamentalists think is just as important as the gospel, such as the danger of celebrating Halloween) which can be handed out to strangers. They are quick “elevator pitches” of Christianity–the most straightforward and easy-to-memorize gospel presentations their authors can come up with.
But how well do most tracts really capture the gospel message? I was given a tract recently from some very nice folks that I thought was a pretty good representation of many of the other tracts I’ve seen, and I thought it might be fun to compare its message to the gospel as presented in the Bible. This tract was published by the Fellowship Tract League, an organization in my own back yard that is affiliated with a local Indepenent King James Only Baptist church and, to their credit, provides all of their tracts for free. So let’s begin!
We’re already off to a rough start. It is a common misunderstanding of the gospel that its primary concern is how we get to heaven. It isn’t. The Bible tells us that Jesus came to save us from our sins (Matthew 1:21) so that we might become children of God (John 1:12) and live forever (John 6:51).
While there are a small handful of verses that suggest that the spirits of the saved ascend to heaven after death, the real goal of salvation is not to get to heaven, but to have our bodies raised again to eternal life to live on earth. As the book of Revelation says:
“Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, ‘Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God'” (Revelation 21:1-3, ESV).
It can only get better from here, right?
It’s true that the Bible contains God’s “law.” However, in the Bible the “law” refers to the directions given to Moses and the Hebrews regarding moral behavior, temple sacrifices, civil regulations, etc. Much of this law directly applied only to Jews and was explicitly overturned by Jesus, but yes, the law of God given to Moses can be found in the Bible. What of it?
This panel tells us that sin is breaking God’s law. But is it true that sin is defined in the Bible as breaking the laws given to Moses?
Not quite. Sin is sometimes described as breaking one of the laws given to Moses, but not always. For instance, Mark 3:29 describes “blaspheming the Holy Spirit,” which is not expressly forbidden in the law of Moses, as a sin. Paul describes sin as that which isn’t rooted in faith, so that even actions which are not forbidden by God are sin if they are done in the wrong spirit (Romans 14:23). James 4:17 tells us that anyone who knows the right thing to do and fails to do it has committed sin. Romans 5:13 says that sin existed long before the law of Moses was given.
However, the claim that disobeying God counts as sin is true (Romans 5:12). It is also true that the law of Moses has a role in giving us more clarity about sin in our own lives (Romans 7:7), though it is not true that God will punish us for failing to obey all of it–especially those laws involving ritual sacrifice, clean and unclean foods, and other Mosaic directives which are not in force today.
So, while the law of Moses can help us to see that we are in need of repentance by highlighting things we’ve done wrong (turning away from our wrongdoing and looking to God), it’s misleading to argue that sin is synonymous with not following the law of Moses. It’s much bigger than that, and all of us should be aware of our need to repent from wrongdoing even if we’ve never read the law of Moses.
We’ve got a couple problems here. First of all, there’s an issue with that blasted King James Version. Psalm 9:17 actually says that the wicked will turn to sheol, a Hebrew word for death and the grave which the KJV mistranslated as hell.
It’s highly contestable that the Bible teaches that the unsaved will burn in hell forever. As noted above, Jesus became a human being, died, and was resurrected so that we might live forever. He came because God loved the world so much that He wanted us to have eternal life (live forever) instead of perishing (John 3:16).
That being said, there is a passage in the metaphor and imagery-laden book of Revelation which seems to argue for the eternal torment of sinners:
“And the smoke of their torment goes up forever and ever; they have no rest day and night, those who worship the beast and his image, and whoever receives the mark of his name.” (Revelation 14:11, NASB)
But this imagery of smoke going up forever and fire not being quenched is borrowed from an Old Testament passage (Isaiah 34:10) about a divine punishment that happened on earth which has since ended. This makes using it as a proof text for eternal conscious torment a very precarious venture.
Instead, it is wiser to go with the more consistent and clear witness of scripture: that the payment for our sin is death but God instead offers us the gift of eternal life through Jesus (Romans 6:23).
Setting aside the imagery of cute little kids burning forever, the central idea–that there is a punishment for sin which only Jesus can rescue us from–is quite biblical. It is Jesus who offers us salvation from death by being united to Him.
This is the least objectionable panel yet, but there are still some finer points which could be debated. For instance, what does it mean for Jesus to pay for our sins? The metaphor of transaction here could create an image in the mind of this tract’s reader of God adding up our sins and asking that we pay the penalty before being let into heaven. Jesus then steps in and pays it for us. But that isn’t quite right. Humanity, steeped in its sin and not warranted in expecting anything better than death, is delivered some very good news. God the Son took on our humanity and experienced the death which was due to us on our behalf. But unlike us, death could not hold Him. Therefore, He was raised back to life never to die again. Those of us who share in Him as He shared in our human nature–those who declare allegiance to Christ and put our faith in Him–will therefore defeat death with Him.
Looking good! Jesus defeated death and can never die again. However, the tract writers seem to have missed that the resurrection is just as central to the gospel message as the crucifixion, if not moreso. It proves that Jesus defeated death!
This is true, but true belief should always entail a change in how we live our lives. If we claim to have faith but no change occurs in us, we are liars.
This isn’t exactly what I had in mind when I wrote about faith entailing a change in how we live our lives. There is nothing in the law of Moses, the Gospels, or even common morality requiring us to glare at smokers, though I’ll admit I’ve done it a few times.
This is good stuff. Absolutely turn to Jesus. He will save you from your sins and from death.
Romans 6:23b is important, but it’s meant to contrast 6:23a, which tells us that the wages of sin is death. In contrast to death, those who accept the gift of God get eternal life. As we’ve noted already, eternal life does not mean living in heaven without your body as opposed to (paradoxically) burning in hell without your body, but living forever with God as opposed to being destroyed body and soul.
Eternal life good. Perishing bad. Thanks, Jesus!