When something is reduced, it is no longer what it once was. This is obvious in many illustrations. When you cook up a sauce of any type, by the process of cooking and evaporation you make it something that it was not before. It is lacking parts and portions of what it was formerly. In another case, when you “reduce” paint by adding thinner you change the character of what that paint once was.
Years ago theologians began a dangerous journey when they attempted to reduce the Gospel to what they supposed was its most basic substance. As you look at this event it seems it was done to facilitate a growing pressure to accommodate ecumenism. This reduction of the Gospel has only brought confusion. For instance the Gospel message clearly implies the obligation of holiness on the part of those who claim the Gospel for their own. To remove that obligation makes the Gospel something that Paul called “another gospel”. And unfortunately, that “another gospel” has brought great loss to the cause of Christ today. We need to quit “cooking” the Gospel and return to using it in all of it fullness. The Gospel is a large and wonderful subject.
