THE DANGERS OF THE GOSPEL OF ACCOMMODATION - PART ONE

(The following message was delivered by David Wilkerson to a group of Christian leaders in 1998. I believe this message is one of the most important prophetic messages that David Wilkerson gave in the last fifteen years. In the weeks ahead we will be posting Parts Two and Three of this powerful word for the Church.)

THE DANGERS OF THE GOSPEL OF ACCOMMODATION

PART ONE

By David Wilkerson

I am not coming to you as a pastor but as a servant with a prophetic word. God has called me to be one of His watchmen, and I have wept and prayed that He will help me deliver the message in a spirit of love. This is not a chastisement but a warning.

A New Gospel

“Accommodate” means to adapt, to make suitable and acceptable, to make convenient. A gospel of accommodation is creeping into the United States. It’s an American cultural invention to appease the lifestyle of luxury and pleasure. Primarily a Caucasian, suburban gospel, it is in our major cities and is sweeping the nation, influencing ministers of every denomination, and giving birth to megachurches with thousands who come to hear a nonconfrontational message. It is an adaptable gospel that is spoon-fed through humorous skits, drama, and short, nonabrasive sermonettes on how to cope—called a seeker-friendly or sinner-friendly gospel.

To begin with, those terms are unscriptural. The gospel of Jesus Christ has always been confrontational—there is no such thing as a friendly gospel but a friendly grace.

This new gospel is being propagated by bright, young, talented ministers. They have come upon a formula which states you can go into any city and if you have the right formula, within a short time you can raise a megachurch.

If you are a young pastor and have certain gifts, you take those gifts and go to a part of the city that would best suit you. You move into that area, poll it, and find out what the nonchurchgoers want. You ask questions to the residents:

“You don’t like choirs. Well, would you go to a church that didn’t have a choir?” YES.

“You don’t like to wear suits. Would you go to a church where it’s informal?” YES.

Then you design a gospel that will not confront but will meet the desires and the needs of the people. After you have gathered a handful of people, you keep interviewing them to find out what they want and then you design your message to help people cope with their needs. The program you design is intended to make the church comfortable and friendly for all sinners who wish to attend.

This gospel is fast becoming the most prosperous and flourishing of all religious movements. The pastor is the CEO, and it becomes a business. They make no bones about it: They are following Madison Avenue tactics. Their formula for quick church growth is cleverly packaged and is being sold especially to young ministers—those who want to be a part of the big boys’ club and what’s happening on the fast track.

Paul’s Warning

Paul warned of the coming of another gospel and another Jesus (2 Corinthians 11:4). He warned the church that it’s really not another gospel but a perversion of the true gospel of Jesus Christ. If you hear any other gospel, he said, let that preacher be accursed (Galatians 1:8-9). In other words, no matter how pleasant, how pious, or how sincere, if the message is not the death of sin through the cross of Jesus Christ, let it be accursed.

I tremble when I read in the Scriptures that in the last days Satan is going to come right into the church posing as an angel of light. He is going to take ministers who, at one time, had the touch of God, and he is going to transform them into angels of light to become his tool of deception. That’s frightening. It causes me to fall on my face before God for such false, deceitful workers transforming themselves into the apostles of Christ. “No marvel, for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light” (2 Corinthians 11:14). Therefore, it’s no great thing if ministers also are transformed as the ministers of righteousness whose end shall be according to their works.

Paul said they are going to glory in the flesh, in their bigness, their numbers, their influence, and their contemporariness. They will boast they are contemporary, that there is a gospel that is out of style that doesn’t reach human need anymore. They will glory in the world’s acceptance. Jesus warned, “Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves” (Matthew 7:15). The context of that warning was: “Straight is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it” (verse 14).

His warning was to beware of the wolves who are going to say it’s really not that narrow and straight—they are going to come posing as submissive sheep. Jesus put His finger on the cause: ambition—ambitious ravening wolves. In the Greek it means “starved for recognition and quick gratification, quick growth.”

Jesus left no doubt about His meaning. For example, He was addressing the struggling pastor who has worked for years and hasn’t seen the kind of growth he wants to see. A young man with an accommodating gospel moves into the town where the struggling pastor has labored, and within a very short time this new man has a megachurch. People are flocking there because there is entertainment; it’s a gospel of fun! It’s a gospel of entertainment that has no conviction whatsoever. There is very little in their gospel that speaks to sinners of repentance, brokenness, and cross-bearing. A Christ is preached, Jesus’ name is mentioned, but Paul said theirs is another gospel, another Jesus.

Paul warned that if you are caught in this trap, if you want that hook of entertainment, that hook of sudden growth, this is the hook: The enemy will put in your path a teaching, another gospel!

(Next week: Part 2 of The Dangers of The Gospel of Accommodation. For more information on the continuing ministries of David Wilkerson, please visit www.worldchallenge.org.)