Good News
By Tom Wacaster
It has been a little more than 20 years since the following statistical information was released. You would have to adjust the figures for inflation as well as an obvious increase in traffic from such places as the internet and the world wide web. Nevertheless I found the figures somewhat astonishing: NBC News reported that in one single year they reviewed more than 9,800 hours of news clippings. That is more than thirteen and a half months of viewing if you were to project that from one projector continuously. They shot more than 4,000 miles of raw film, costing into the millions. They sent its staff of foreign correspondents numbering into the 1,000’s into 74 countries, with expenses totaling more than $9 million. What is amazing about all of these figures is the fact that, for the most part, the news reported to the public was bad. For some inexplicable reason, bad news draws a larger audience than good news. Disasters, assassinations, political scandals, and bad financial news take front and center in the daily newspapers and on the evening news. Good news is usually pushed to the back page, or at best it takes second place to headline news items that focus our attention on catastrophic events. People seem to be drawn to sensationalism. Even the weather channel focuses on gloom and doom. If Chicken Little were alive today I think he would be one of the most popular TV and movie figures around; perhaps a mascot at one of the main-stream media outlets. You can take many of the headlines in the thirty-eight pages of the Star Telegram on any given day, and the following day you could run the same story by just changing the names and places. Do any of you remember the TV series, “Dragnet.” If so, you may recall one of the popular lead-in disclaimers: “Only the names have been changed to protect the innocent.” Perhaps the editors of any major newspaper in the country could place a disclaimer on the front page to that effect: “The news in today’s paper is the same as yesterday. Only the names have been changed to provide you with today’s news.” The common refrain could easily be summed up with Chicken Little’s plaintiff cry: “The sky is falling; the sky is falling!”
This is where the gospel plays such an important part in world affairs. It has often been pointed out that our English word “gospel” means “good news,” or “glad tidings.” That seems to be an appropriate definition in view of the fact that the gospel is, indeed, good news to those long for release from sin, guilt, and death. Seeing that the “wages of sin is death” (Rom. 6:23), who in his right mind would consider the gospel “bad news”? It is unfortunate that this generation, like Israel of old, seems to have turned things upside down; right is considered wrong, and wrong is glorified as being right. The lust of the flesh, lust of the eyes, and the vainglory of life sum up all that is in the world (1 John 2:15-17). The devil appealed to Eve’s mind through each one of those avenues of sin. Everything he told her was sensational. And the rest, as they say, is history.
Let’s think about good news for a moment. Reader’s Digest used to be known for their articles that focused on good news. That may be why the magazine was such a success for so many years. All of us like to hear, and read about good news. What makes us think that we are any different than our neighbors and loved ones when it comes to hearing good news? Human nature is touched by good news. It is natural to rejoice with others when they experience good fortune. In fact, Christians are told to “rejoice with them that rejoice” (Rom. 12:15). While it is important that we also “weep with them that weep” (Rom. 12:15b), I find it interesting that Paul put the rejoicing ahead of weeping. Good news is to be preferred above that which is bad.
Thankfully bad news is not the only news. Almost two thousand years ago 3,000 souls listened to the good news preached on the day of Pentecost. It changed their lives for the better, and undoubtedly affected their eternal destination as well. That is the power of the gospel—the “good news” that all men need, but few are willing to receive.
I am writing this week’s column from Southhaven, Mississippi, where I am attending the Power Lectures. Such occasions give me the opportunity to shut out the world, focus on things spiritual, and receive encouragement from those of like minded faith. This year’s theme for the Lecture series, Reprove, Rebuke, Exhort, comes from Paul’s words to Timothy: “Preach the word; be urgent in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort, with all longsuffering and teaching” (2 Tim. 4:2). Even when the speakers address those topics that “reprove and rebuke,” the message is still “good news” to those of who love the Lord and long to be with Him in heaven.
Good news! Oh, how our world desperately needs good news! Here are some things that, truly, are good news!
There is a God in heaven! That is good news. As long as I know God exists (Heb. 11:6), that He exercises control over the universe, and that He constantly watches over His creation, I can rest assured that all is well in the universe, regardless of the madness that surrounds us. I can take the bad news in stride because I know the good news that there is a God in heaven.
Jesus Christ is the Son of God! That, too, is good news. If Jesus were only a man, there would be nothing good about His life or death, for the good news believed by the multitude would really be nothing more than a lie, men deceived in their minds and hearts, and of all men, to be pitied (1 Cor. 15:19). For those men suffering under the bondage of sin, there is good news: “Jesus Christ came to save sinners!”
The Bible is the inspired word of God! That, too, is good news. The critic may tell you that the Bible is nothing more than ink dried upon some page; that its message is not superior to any other religious books; that it is, in fact inferior to those other books. But I am here to tell you with every ounce of my being that the evidence proves beyond a shadow of a doubt that this book we call the Holy Bible, consisting of 66 books, has God as its author, salvation as its theme, and holds forth a home in heaven for those who read, believe, and keep the words contained therein. That, my friend, is good news!
The church of which I am a member is the one I read about in the pages of the New Testament. I do not say that arrogantly, but assuredly. There once was a time when my faith was an inherited faith, passed on to me by my parents and grandparents. The fact that I was raised with such a rich background does not lessen the reality of my faith in any way. Having studied the Bible for myself now for well over five decades, I can assure you that the church I read about in the New Testament is exactly what I was taught in my younger years. When Andrew told his brother Simon Peter, “We have found the Messiah,” that must have been good news in the ears of Peter. If I were lost in sin, following some man made doctrine, and a part of some denominational church, and someone said to me, “We have found the church you can read about in the New Testament,” that would be good news!
Forgiveness, redemption, propitiation, grace, salvation, the blood of Jesus—these are all terms that speak of the same spiritual blessing, and each one individually, and all of them collectively, are good news! The wages of sin is death (Rom. 6:23). The good news is that you don’t have to die!
Finally, the simplicity of how one goes about claiming those spiritual blessings is so straight forward, so easy to understand, that it takes six years in a seminary to mess it up. The twisted, convoluted, mish-mash of nonsense that portrays itself as the “plan of salvation” as presented by man made churches is anything but good news! More often than not it leaves the hearers confused as to what they must do to be saved. Let men hear the gospel in the same form in which it is presented in God’s word, and the hearer will find himself listening to good news. It is good news because of its saving power; and it is good news because it is so easy to understand. “I said therefore unto you, that ye shall die in your sins: for except ye believe that I am he, ye shall die in your sins” (John 8:24). “I tell you, Nay: but, except ye repent, ye shall die in your sins” (Luke 13:3). “Everyone therefore who shall confess me before men, him will I confess before my Father who is in heaven” (Matt. 10:32). “He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved” (Mark 16:16a). Can any news be more important than that? Can any news be easier to understand that that? I think not. No wonder the Bible calls it “good news!”