Skip to main content

Book Review: Counterfeit Gospels by Trevin Wax













  • Paperback: 240 pages
  • Publisher: Moody Publishers; New Edition edition (March 24, 2011)
  • ISBN-10: 080242337X






For generations the church has attempted to overcome false gospels. Those "lost" sections of scripture that attempted to distort and change the words of Jesus. However the modern church is in a crisis, not of changed words of Jesus but a change perceptions of the meaning of the Gospel. In an attempt to make the gospel more easy to understand, more palatable, less controversial, and all and all less dangerous it has created a counterfeit gospel. This gospel is even more dangerous because it hasn't changed the Bible itself necessarily but rather exchange the dictates and the standards by which we should be held to.
In Counterfeit Gospels Trevin Wax describes the threefold crisis in the church:
  1. A lack of confidence in the Gospel
  2. A lack of clarity in the Gospel 
  3. A lack of Gospel community

The book describes the counterfeits very well. With the "three legged stool" approach to the gospel Wax tells what counterfeits are eating away at each leg of the stool. From the idea of the Therapeutic Gospel: which looks good on the outside but doesn't really take care of the root of the problem, and the Judgmentless Gospel: this basically says we're all going to heaven and who you to judge me? We see this problem very prevalent in the modern church. We don't want to hurt anyone's feelings with the gospel because that "wouldn't be nice".

The seeker friendly attitude that has become prevalent in many churches today has water down the truth of the Gospel. What Jesus said was hard-hitting, edgy, and honestly not as culturally appealing as some might really think or wanted to be. Truth be told it was rather counterculture, but we want to try to make it as easily palatable as possible. Acceptance of the Gospel requires a life change, the difficulty in getting there is that a true life change must occur out of the knowledge of  where a person is, is not where they should be.  Hopefully with books like counterfeit gospel we will be willing and able to stand up for what is actual truth not just easily palatable truth.


I have personally seen this type of counterfeit gospel at work in the church for a long time and it's incredibly disheartening. Mostly because it's something that comes from the people of the congregation. and pastors generally just allowed to continue on. Pastors as the leaders are held to a higher responsibility to stand up for truth to stand up for the right reading of the Word and to know that we are the leaders of those communities. If we are not leading our people, they will begin falling behind and they will fall away. Much of it is because we are preaching a counterfeit gospel. I would recommend this book for most evangelical pastors to read through and truly evaluate what's being said on Sunday morning and also what's being talked about our sermons on Monday afternoon keep in mind just because you preach it doesn't mean your church members are following it. This would be a good recommend read for a small group or community Sunday school class. 

FTC Disclaimer: 
These books/products are given to me to evaluate and decide if I like them or not and then write an honest review about them that I display on this blog. I do no receive monetary compensation for these reviews and all my reviews state my honest opinion of the products/books. I am in no way swayed by any type of bribery or cajoling. My opinions are my own and will be negative or positive depending on the book or product.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Review of Persuasions by Douglas Wilson

Douglas Wilson’s book, Persuasions is a collection of short parables involving the character Evangelist, who meets various people in a variety of situations all having one thing in common. They are all walking the one Road toward the Abyss. The Master of the City tried to give warning to the travelers, but many ignored them. One man known only as the Evangelist meets these travelers. With what seems to them as almost otherworldly ability he sees right to the heart of the individuals and can share with them the truth about their journey.   Some of the people whom Evangelist encounters seem significantly impacted by his insight and profound revelatory words, others offended, while yet others just ignore and keep walking on.   Persuasions deal with some very pertinent issues facing humanity today, Immorality, Feminism, Atheism, Marriage, Hypocrisy, Evolution, and other topics. Each issue discussed is done with articulation and a firm understanding in a manner that engages the reader to th
Post a Comment
Read more

Can we REALLY trust the Resurrection Story?

Basically the story of the resurrection of Jesus has some major flaws from our modern believability perspective and commercial appeal. The Gospel writers had the idea all wrong,  if they were going to make up this story about a resurrection it should have looked totally different if they wanted it to be easily accepted by everyone. There are 7 basic points raised by New Testament Scholar and historian N.T. Wright as to the perspective of the Christian Resurrection story verses the Jewish traditions. Remember the people of the time of this situation were Jewish and this idea of Jesus as the Messiah was not only THE single most radical thing to happen in their history, this includes a burning bush, parting of the Red Sea, world-wide flood, plagues of  hemorrhoids (1 Samuel 5 look it up) but it was also challenging everything they had believed up to this point. Their heads must have been swimming at this new idea of a Resurrected Savior. Here they are in short (I recommend reading the
1 comment
Read more

Is Good, Good Enough?

Every language in the world has a word expressing good in the sense of having the right or desirable quality. Media has projected the idea of “good” like a sliding scale, from desirable like The Beach Boys who were looking for Good Vibrations, though in point of fact this good is regarding Transcendental Meditation. As the song of the same name indicates “Transcendental meditation can emancipate the man and get you feeling grand it's good, it’s good, it’s good.” 1 On the other end, good is something to be avoided as Billy Joel says in Only the Good Die Young, "They say there's a heaven for those who will wait, some say it's better but I say it ain’t, I’d rather laugh with the sinners than cry with the saints, the sinners are much more fun... You know that only the good die young.” 2 More recently The Black Eyed Peas twist “good” to involve spending the night partying in a way that they will probably not remember the next morning. “I’ve got a feeling, that tonight
Post a Comment
Read more