NEW GOSPEL OR GRAND OLD GOSPEL?

By CHARLES WOODRUFF

A number of years ago, I purchased a record album by Porter Wagoner and the Blackwood Brothers Quartet titled The Grand Old Gospel. I am sure it was the mid 60’s. I can’t put my hands on it at this moment, but I do still have it. It has some pretty good country gospel music some of which I like, especially from those days. I think most of you readers know what a 33 and 1/3 RPM record album is --don’t you? I hope I am not that old! Of course, things change, and since Mr. Wagoner, a long time Grand Ole Opry star, died last year, much more of his work has been issued on CD. Its different than most of today’s country gospel music. Most all music has certainly changed, as many other things over the years. I have said recently how I dislike most contemporary music. Much of it is fleshly, worldly, unbiblical, and I believe it dishonors Christ. This could be said about some of the music of earlier years as well, but not as widespread as it is today.
Sadly, not only the contemporary gospel music is “off base” biblically, but the gospel being preached by many preachers has also changed. It is not “Thus saith the Lord” as we always used to hear, but a watered down substitute for gospel truth. Many churches are more interested in entertainment than truth. Often, the great plan is to have a “social club” where everyone is always happy. The problem is that God did not give us His word solely to make us happy. He gave His word to heal us. To teach us. To convict us of sin. Yes, even to make us sad at times. The medicine has been so diluted by many “ministers” that it cures nothing. There is a famine in our land for the pure word of God, as was foretold“Truth has fallen in the street and equity (uprightness) cannot enter”(Isaiah 59:14). “Behold, the days come, saith the Lord GOD, that I will send a famine in the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the LORD”(Amos 8:11). No wonder America is in such poor shape today. There is a new gospel today that has no power. Many professing Christians have “a form of godliness but deny the power thereof” (see 2 Timothy 3:5).

This is the main reason I placed the following introduction on my blogs:“He must increase, I must decrease” (John 3:30). “I am 66 years old, and my desire is to serve God the rest of my days, preaching the old evangelical gospel that Paul and Peter preached, that Calvin preached, that Whitefield preached, that Spurgeon preached, and that Isaac Watts wrote about in his hymns.” This old gospel is not being preached in very many churches today. It has been replaced by a modern imitation. Many would say that we who contend for “the faith that was once delivered to the saints” are “old fuddy-duddies” -- not “with it” -- “behind the times“, etc….
Does truth remain the same, or does truth change? “I am the LORD, I change not” (Malachi 3:6). “Jesus Christ the same yesterday, today, and forever” (Hebrews 13:8). “I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, saith the Lord, which is, which was, and which is to come, the Almighty” (Revelation 1:8). “Of His own will begat He us with the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of His creatures” (James 1:18). Yes beloved, all truth is God’s truth. Jesus said “I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father but by me” (John 14:6). I contend, based on the Bible, that what was truth 2000 years ago or 1,000,000 years ago is truth today. I must preach the truth, which is Jesus Christ. He is the truth.