  Context is everything! A saucy joke at a party is great fun, evoking laughter, but when repeated at a funeral, will only evoke furrowed brows and thoughts of insensitivity. Sensitivity is required! A hearty "good morning" to a cheerful person may elicit one in return, while a depressed person will probably either ignore you and your greeting. The point I want to make is that unless you understand the context of a particular situation and are sensitive to the feelings and circumstances that those people are in, a helpful comment can be viewed negatively, a by-the-way remark can be blown into an important statement, etc.. Maturity, balance and giving people the benefit of the doubt until they can be given time to explain are always required. Ultimately, all things will be tested by God who alone can render a perfect judgment because He knows all things and He knows the hearts and motives of all involved in any particular issue. But that will only be on the Day of Judgment which is yet future. How are we to proceed in our days? The answer for us now is to test all things by God’s plumbline, the Word of God, for the Scriptures are very clear with respect to what is truth (pure, unadulterated truth) and what is error (truth that is mixed with human philosophy, traditions, wisdom from below). Jacob Prasch has made many statements about Alpha and the Purpose Driven Life which need to be explained in the light of what God’s Word says about it. He lives in the UK, a nation that has already seen the effects of more than 10 years of Alpha and he speaks with first-hand knowledge of the things that have happened there. How then are we, in Singapore, to view his statements? Let me begin by setting the context for us.
When the gospel first came to us in Singapore in the 1800s, it was already a "liberal" gospel, in the sense that when the "gospel" was presented, usually there was very little mention made of the need to carry your cross to follow Jesus, the need to die to self, the need to obey the Lord Jesus Christ plus the very real possibility of hostility and persecution by family members. Instead, what was held out was usually the promise of eternal life, healing, peace, mercy, grace... (which are all true and are all wonderful). However the problem arises when these things are held out as "enticements" to "accept Jesus". Who could resist such a good offer? If I can have Jesus and heaven still continue to live any which way I want, why not? It’s always good to have an egg in every religious basket, another insurance ticket to a good life after death. Why not "try" Jesus? as if He was like a product to be sold! Remember the "I Found It" campaign several years ago.
I myself came to "faith" under such a gospel and it was only about 10 years later that I was brought to a realization that Matthew 7:21-23 was true of me. Previous to that, I was trained to evangelize, to ask people this very significant question: "Where would you be if you were to die tonight ? " and to give a very significant answer: "I don’t know about you, but I know where I will be...in heaven! " If I had died at any time before I truly came to faith in Christ in 1984, I would have ended up in hell instead! But God had mercy on me and brought me to Himself after a very traumatic and difficult time. It was only after I got involved in 1987 with Kay Arthur who wrote Precept Bible Studies that I began to understand what God meant by what He said. When Kay taught about the possibility of "Christians" not being born again, it was a novel concept to me. I never knew that the Bible taught that, for I was taught or it was implied that whenever one prayed the "Sinner’s Prayer", one is saved, and whenever I had doubts about my salvation, I would be "reassured" of my salvation.
When I asked how I could know I was born again, I was told that I would pray (I did that), I would do good works (I did that), I would give (ditto), I would serve the Lord (I did, in various ministries: Sunday School teacher, Youth leader, sang and lead in the choir, evangelized, etc. ), that I would read the Bible (read it through at least once and read several Christian books though I didn’t understand much then). Conclusion: I must be born again! But... the niggling doubt would come back time and again during those 10 years.
It was only after I was truly born again and had studied the Word of God inductively, and saw for myself what God had to say about this issue that I understood that I was never born again in those early ten years of my "Christian" life. I thought, and, I’m sure, many of my church family thought, that I had backslided, then repented and was restored. The reality was I never was born again. The Scriptural evidence of a changed life that is patterned on our Lord’s was never there.
Oh, I had changed, no doubt about that, but not enough. It was merely putting on different clothes, adopting a different behaviour that was acceptable to church people, more like reformation rather than genuine transformation from the inside out. I also learnt that a lot of the Bible teaches about HOW you can know that you’re truly born again and that one major emphasis, as expressed by 2 Peter 1:10, is to ensure that you know for yourself that you are truly God’s child, called and chosen by Him (see Matthew chapters 5-7, the whole books of James and First John, plus relevant portions in Paul’s Epistles and Peter’s, Scriptures concerning the New Covenant and many more). Some students tell me that they got born again in my Romans classes, although they have been in the church several years (I can only speak of those who told me, there may be more). Because of the awful reality of Matthew 7:21-23 where our dear Lord said, "Many will say to Me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord’ ...
and...I will declare to them, ‘Depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness’", I ensure that I always speak about this issue and give people Biblical ways of checking their own salvation every once in a while. All this just to bring you to the point where you may understand the next statement I make with maturity and understanding. Unless you have gone into God’s Word to know exactly what is the very gospel that our Lord Jesus and His apostles preached, anything that sounds like the "gospel" that you came to faith in, would sound very biblical, wouldn’t it?
By the way, I hope you know that you can only measure what is out there by what is in here, i.e., in your mind. If you don’t know, you don’t know. We’re not born with an instinctive understanding of truth, although all truly born-again believers are given the resident Truth teacher inside who will guide them into all truth (see John 14:26; 16:13; 1 John 2:20) and one thing we need to keep on doing, is to keep on putting truth into our heads and hearts! Living it out ensures that truth gets from our heads into our hearts! Line up whatever is said about the Gospel of Jesus Christ with what the Bible says about the Gospel of Jesus Christ and then make your judgment.
The book of Romans would be one of the most excellent plumblines for the Gospel. How then are we to respond practically to the use of things like Alpha, the Purpose Driven Life, the Passion, various Bible Study materials, etc..? Scriptures are very clear that all believers are to submit to leadership, even to ungodly secular leadership (see Romans 13:1-7; 1 Peter 2:13-15). If that is so, how much more then should we submit to godly leadership in the church? I take my cue from the writer of Hebrews who never criticized the weak leadership there, but filled in the gap for them. Those leaders were strong on good works rather than on the Good Word, so...he wrote the wonderful letter of Hebrews to help settled the major problems in that congregation. Note: I’m sure you know that when leaders tell God’s people to sin against the Lord that that is the time when God’s people must take a stand against it (see for example, Acts 5:29). What if your leaders insist that you use these aids as a tool for evangelism? After all, so many unbelievers come and some have come to faith in Christ.
The physical numbers are there, the tangible results are very evident right now. Your dilemma (for those who took Jacob’s words to heart) seems to be between choosing to go against God’s appointed authority structure, or offending your Lord? Obeying your leaders and injuring your conscience or taking a stand and hope to be understood? Is there a way out?My personal stance is this: I will always use the Bible.
If my leaders decide to use things like those mentioned above, I will study and compare and see what’s missing that needs to be put in, and put those things in and take out that which is unbiblical. Frankly, it doesn’t matter to me what is being used, because anything that is used, if I’m to lead and teach it, I will always cause to conform to what the Bible says. I trust that in this way, I can both satisfy my leaders and my Lord, obey them and still maintain a good conscience before the Lord. If I’m not allowed to do so, then I must beg leave from them to not do something that my conscience is not clear about and trust that my leaders are godly enough to know that believers should never violate their conscience (see 1 Corinthians chapters 8 and 10), and they will graciously release me to do other things for the Lord that will build up His body. 
