From the quill of the 17th century Puritan John Flavel, comes this excellent one-paragraph summary of the bible. It’s “old truth” that we can use as a compass, in evaluating modern methods and movements:

“Whatever religion or doctrine condones or makes allowances for sin is not of Christ. The Doctrine of Christ everywhere teaches self-denial and mortification of worldliness and sin. The whole stream of the gospel runs against those things. Scripture emphasizes the ‘holy’ and the ‘heavenly’ (not the sinful and the worldly). The true gospel has not even the slightest tendency to extol corrupt nature, or feed it’s pride by magnifying it’s freedom and power. And it rejects everything that undermines or obscures the merit of Christ, or tries to give any credit to man, in any way. And it certainly never makes the death of Christ a cloak to cover sin, but rather it always speaks of it as an instrument that destroys it!”

Overlay John Flavel’s template on any of the fads and debates that are so prevalent in the modern church, and you’ll have a clearer understanding of which side is true and which side is an impostor.

Use it as a “doctrinal test”, in examining things like: The Seeker Sensitive movement, TBN television, which side represents the truth in the Calvinism vs. Arminianism debate, and contemporary (rock) worship music.