Trevin Wax - Counterfeit Gospels: Rediscovering the Good News in a World of False Hope

Praise for Counterfeit Gospels

Evangelicals are rightly asking today, what is the gospel we believe in and proclaim? Trevin Wax in this wonderfully readable and irenic book helps us sort out the issues, showing us that the gospel announcement is truncated if one does not understand the gospel story and if the gospel is not fleshed out in our churches.

Thomas R. Schreiner
James Buchanan Harrison Professor of New Testament Interpretation The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary

This book clarifies the message and mission of the church as much as any book in print today. It is rich in both insight and illustration, very thought-provoking and very readable. I cant imagine a more helpful description of, and prescription for, contemporary evangelicalism. Return to the gospel!

J. D. Greear
Pastor of The Summit Church, Raleigh, NC
and author of Breaking the Islam Code

Perhaps the single greatest need in the contemporary church is for Christians to understand the gospel and its counterfeits. Our lost and broken world is desperate for such clarity. Trevin gives it to us with this clear and compelling book about the nature and implications of the greatest story ever told.

Darrin Patrick
Pastor of The Journey in Missouri and author of Church Planter

This book is a winsome, creative, and compelling analysis of the pitfalls of a non-gospel or less-than-gospel Christianityand a description of a full-orbed gospel Christianity.

Josh Moody
Pastor of College Church, Wheaton, IL and author of No Other Gospel

The biblical gospel of the atoning death and glorious resurrection of Jesus saves. Counterfeit gospels that leave out the bloody cross and neglect the empty tomb damn. It really is that simple. Trevin Wax makes crystal-clear which one is true and which ones are false. Unfortunately, this book is a much-needed corrective in an age seduced and deceived by imitations of the real thing. Eternity hangs in the balance when it comes to the gospel. There is no margin for error.

Daniel L. Akin
President, Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary

Trevin Wax has done the church an important service by exposing the subtle deceptions that have trapped countless people within the church. Few topics are more important than the gospel, and few books help us see what makes it uniquely challenging and powerful as well as this one.

Matthew Lee Anderson
Blogger at MereOrthodoxy.com and author of Earthen Vessels

What is the gospel? may seem an odd and perhaps unnecessary question. Its not. It is an essential question that needs more, not less, discussion today. In Counterfeit Gospels, Trevin Wax has provided an essential tool for churches serious about the gospel and its implications.

Ed Stetzer
Vice President of Research and Ministry Development,
LifeWay Christian Resources

Trevin Wax has served the church by identifying and critiquing many false gospels that threaten to ensnare us. But this book does so much more. Wax helped me love the gospel of Jesus Christ more deeply, and I pray that God will do the same for you through this excellent work.

Collin Hansen
Editorial Director, the Gospel Coalition, and coauthor of
A God-Sized Vision: Revival Stories That Stretch and Stir

When the devil cannot get a church to explicitly deny the gospel, he pits one part of Scripture against another and then nudges the church to change the gospels shape ever so slightlyto re-configure it, to re-interpret it, to re-shade it. But Wax calls the devils bluff. His Counterfeit Gospels surveys the landscape of these subtle reconfigurations, affirms whats true in each of them, and then helps us to separate the real thing from the imitators. A very helpful and insightful work.

Jonathan Leeman
Editorial Director, 9Marks and author of Reverberation

In Counterfeit Gospels, Trevin Wax does a great job of showing the many ways we subtly counterfeit the gospel and why we do so. His diagnosis of six common counterfeits is fair, insightful, and helpful. Like a good gyroscope, his book helps keep us on the right path. But even more admirable than his keen evaluation is the way he lays out a full-orbed and robust view of the gospel that includes story, announcement, and community. If Christians and the church would just understand this, we would not be tempted by so many counterfeits and thus miss out on the real gospel. I hope Counterfeit Gospels gets a wide reading; its message is needed.

Jim Belcher
Author of Deep Church

In a world filled with different gospels Trevin Wax reminds us of the call to guard the deposit that is the true gospel of Jesus Christ. If you teach, preach, share, or believe in the gospel of Christ, then you should read this book. It will remind you to maintain the simplicity and clarity of the gospel message that has been entrusted to us. I was both challenged and encouraged.

Anthony Carter
Lead Pastor, East Point Church in Georgia, and author of Glory Road

My super-talented friend Trevin Wax joins a growing number of younger evangelicals who are calling the 21st century church away from moralism and back to the gospel. He rightly understands that the gospel doesnt simply ignite the Christian life, its also the fuel that keeps Christians going and growing every day. Therefore, we must be clear on what the gospel is or else we will conk out. I pray that this excellent book will help you come to a better understanding of the length and breadth of the gospel so that you will be recaptured every day by the God of great expenditure who gave everything that we might possess all.

Tullian Tchividjian
Pastor, Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church in Fort Lauderdale,
and visiting professor of theology at Reformed Theological Seminary

As wrong food, however nice-tasting, can threaten bodily health, so defective gospels always threaten spiritual health. Wax offers a bracing, health-oriented review of current defective gospels in order to wean us off them. Here is good medicine for the church.

J. I. Packer
Board of Governors Professor of Theology, Regent College

Counterfeit
Gospels

REDISCOVERING THE GOOD NEWS
IN A WORLD OF FALSE HOPE

trevin wax

MOODY PUBLISHERS
CHICAGO

2011 by
T REVIN W AX

All rights reserved. N O part of this book may be reproduced in any form without permission in writing from the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews.

All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. Copyright 2000, 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version. NIV. Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations marked NKJV are taken from the New King James Version. Copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Edited by Jim Vincent
Interior design: Smartt Guys design
Cover design and image: Kathryn Joachim

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Wax, Trevin
Counterfeit gospels: rediscovering the good news in a world of false hope / Trevin Wax.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references.
ISBN 978-0-8024-2337-5
1. ChristianityEssence, genius, nature. 2. Jesus ChristPerson and offices. 3. SalvationChristianity. 4. Bible. N.T. GospelsCriticism, interpretation, etc. I. Title.