Gospel On The Frontier
Frank
that as soon as the first century had passed,
trust in repentance and baptism for salvation
was becoming widespread, and a false gospel
that trusted in more and more other than Christ
was accepted by almost everyone, and drove
the real gospel into the frontier.
Christ again showed the gospel to the world and
the Reformation began, but today the false gospel
of "righteousness" of self is again very popular and
accepted by almost everyone, and the gospel is
once again found only in the frontier.
Christ has seen fit to preserve the gospel here in
the ultimate Frontier, Christian newsgroups,
this remote but worldwide open forum away
from the control and suppression by the thousands
of denominations, most of which never knew what
the real gospel is, and those few that did, clouded
the gospel over such that people trusted in their
own "righteousness" anyway.
Those religious systems are what almost all people
trust in to tell them what the gospel is, so today
hundreds of millions believe they are saved or being
saved, but who have never heard the real gospel.
But Christ reaches a few millions with the truth
of the gospel despite the situation, so that there are
some relatively few throughout the earth who are
ready for his coming at the Rapture of the Church.
Those millions bring glory to Christ by doing what
the millions of Israel coming out of Egypt would
not do: All their trust is in Christ to be their victory
to bring them into the Promised Land.
Here on the Frontier, the gospel is being assailed on
every side by the world: by disregard, disbelief, disdain,
suppression, repression, mocking, ridicule, opposition.
Nevertheless, Christ preserves his gospel despite such
onslaught of the world against the truth of the gospel:
The moment Christ gives us faith to stop trusting our
"righteousness" and start trusting him to be our Righteous
Substitute so he regards his righteousness and victory ours,
we have eternal life.
(Romans 4, Ephesians 2, Philippians 3, Colossians 1,
John 6, 1 Peter 1, Preface to Luther Latin Works)