FOREWORD
By Dr. Earl D. Radmacher

God’s people are engaged in a war that makes the war in the Middle East pale into insignificance by comparison. It has been going on, not simply for five years, or even five hundred years but thousands of years—ever since “By faith Abel offered to God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain through which he obtained witness that he was righteous” (Gen 4:4–8; Heb 11:4), and he is listed first in the Hall of Faith. Its results are more than temporal. They are eternal. It’s a blood sacrifice and its final portrait is the blood sacrifice of God’s Son, Jesus Christ, which is sufficient for all and effective for all who receive it Robert Lowry captures its essence in a century old hymn:


What can wash away my sin?
Nothing but the blood of Jesus;
What can make me whole again?
Nothing but the blood of Jesus.

For my pardon this I see --
Nothing but the blood of Jesus;
For my cleansing, this my plea --
Nothing but the blood of Jesus.

Nothing can for sin atone –
Nothing but the blood of Jesus;
Naught of good that I have done –
Nothing but the blood of Jesus.

This is all my hope and peace –
Nothing but the blood of Jesus;
This is all my righteousness –
Nothing but the blood of Jesus.

Oh! Precious is the flow
That makes me white as snow;
No other fount I know,
Nothing but the blood of Jesus.


In this war our enemy is not other human beings but Satan who in his deceitfulness is crafty and clandestine. The Apostle Paul reminds us of the “wiles of the devil” and that “we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in heavenly places” (Eph 6:11–12). And there is nothing that Satan’s crowd wants to destroy more than the pure gospel and its presentation. From the beginning of the entrance of sin, Satan has labored to destroy the infinite value of Christ’s sacrifice through his blinding and beguiling maneuvers. He sought to use the Scripture to dissuade Jesus from His mission (Matt 4:1–11) but he failed miserably. He sought to keep Jesus from the cross but he could not distract Him. Jesus was focused! And He sets the example for us as recorded in Hebrews 12:2: “Looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.”

It is that focus that J. B. Hixson has exercised in this one-of-a-kind book—Getting the Gospel Wrong—dealing with a thorough and comprehensive treatment of the most important doctrine in the Word of God, namely, the pure gospel. He rightly states: “Amid the cacophony of the evangelical gospel presentations today, there remains a disconcerting indifference to the epidemic of erroneous gospel presentations that fail to meet the standard of Biblical saving faith.”

He does not hesitate to call a spade a spade in a gracious but probing examination of some of the most well-known names in Evangelicalism. And it is about time that we deal with this serious problem. In some cases it may mean the difference between heaven and hell for many well meaning people. And certainly, if it goes uncorrected, it will result in significant loss at the Judgment Seat of Christ (2 Cor 5:10) accompanied by much shame (1 John 2:28).

Little wonder that such carelessness with the Gospel caused Paul the Apostle to confront the Apostle Peter with respect to his hypocrisy in adding to the Gospel: “Now when Peter had come to Antioch, I withstood him to his face because he was to be blamed. . . And the rest of the Jews also played the hypocrite with him, so that even Barnabas was carried away with their hypocrisy. But when I saw that they were not straightforward about the truth of the gospel, I said to Peter before them all, If you, being a Jew, live in the manner of Gentiles and not as the Jews, why do you compel Gentiles to live as Jews? We who are Jews by nature, and not sinners of the Gentiles, knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law but by faith in Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Christ Jesus, that we might be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the law; for by the works of the law no flesh shall be justified (Gal 2:11, 13–16).

It was this early confrontation with the Apostle Peter that caused the Apostle Paul, in this, his earliest letter to write: “I marvel that you are turning away so soon from Him who called you in the grace of Christ, to a different gospel, which is not another; but there are some who trouble you and want to pervert the gospel of Christ. But even if we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel to you than what we have preached to you, let him be accursed. As we have said before, so now I say again, if anyone preaches any other gospel to you than what you have received, let him be accursed” (Gal 1:6–9).

The Jews understood “blessing” and “cursing” very well (Deut 28–29). We might do well to note that Moses lists 14 verses here on blessing and 83 on cursing. I believe that, if the Apostle Paul were here today, he would call Dr. Hixson “blessed” for the careful, comprehensive, and faithful checkup he has provided for us that, if followed, will bring “well done” from our Lord at the Bema.

Rejoicing in the matchless grace of Christ,
A servant of the Lord, Earl D. Radmacher, Th.D.
President Emeritus and Distinguished Professor of Systematic Theology, Emeritus
Western Baptist Seminary

You may order your copy directly at a discount and receive
FREE SHIPPING.

Please send a check for $20.00 to:

J. B. Hixson
14090 FM 2920, Ste G-329
Tomball, TX 77377

For more information, please email us at info@gettingthegospelwrong.com
or call 281-989-9813.

 

********************************************************************************