Modern Competitive Gospels

Jesus said, "The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor." (Luke 4:18-19 NIV)

Though Jesus was not a political or economic crusader, any reading of the Gospel of Luke will see there are implications for both. And whether then or now, there have been competitive gospels to the one Jesus brought which we should proclaim. What are they? Here are four big modern competitors:

THE GOSPEL OF SOCIALISM

Its prophet proclaims, "The spirit of Karl Marx is on me, because he has anointed me to preach Liberation Theology to the poor from church pulpits, to announce that God has a special bias in favor of the poor, to proclaim freedom for the prisoners of class struggle, to release those oppressed by capitalist power, to proclaim the year of the arrival of Socialism’s ideal humanity and wonderful governments that take care of us all."

THE GOSPEL OF SUCCESS

The success guru announces, "The spirit of money and materialism is on me, and it has anointed me to preach the gospel of prosperity to the greedy. It has sent me to proclaim the freedom of the marketplace for the accumulation of wealth, so people can fulfill their dreams, tear down their barns and build larger, and say to themselves, "You have plenty of goods. Take life easy, eat, drink and be merry."

THE GOSPEL OF SECULARISM

This prophet declares, "The spirit of godless humanism is on me, and it has anointed me to preach the gospel of secularism. It has sent me to proclaim freedom from religion, the recovery of their brains by those once blinded by religious faith, to release society of the notion of an intelligent designer and from the oppression of absolute moral values, to proclaim the year of the triumph of scientific naturalism and laws that come only from secularism, to celebrate the autonomy of the individual, the victory of Roe v. Wade and the right to choose."

THE GOSPEL OF SPIRITUALISM

The guru of spiritualism sees the vacuum secularism leaves in the human heart and offers a spirit to indwell it, but it is not the Holy Spirit of God who comes through the Gospel of Jesus.

The guru of spiritualism proclaims, "The spirit of the New Age is on me, and it has anointed me to preach the gospel of spirituality. It has sent me to proclaim release from the hollowness of scientific naturalism and to fill that empty void with 'the force that fills the universe', with the living spirit of Mother Earth, and with the oneness we feel with the trees and the butterflies, the water and the wind. It has sent me to proclaim the Age of Aquarius and our merger with all that is divine. As we meditate and walk the labyrinths and mazes, may we release and cleanse ourselves, and find mystic sweet communion with the Christ who lives in all of us. And may the peace of the wilderness be with you all."

Those who proclaim these gospels push them on society with all the fervor of the most ardent Christian fundamentalist. We must acknowledge them for what they are and contrast them with the power of Jesus' "good news."