The foundation of Christ's teachings

I don't normally spend too much time reading creationist literature from creation scientists, because I prefer to believe that God made it happen somehew, but I came across an editorial from a guy called Don Batten http://creation.com/revival-what-is-missing

This is a cut and paste of his main points:

Throughout history, revival occurred with the faithful preaching of righteousness, sin, and judgment. Central to all biblical preaching is sin and judgment. Why? Because the sinner needs to know he is in trouble before he is likely to have any interest in being saved. Jonathan Edwards’ famous sermon was titled, ‘Sinners in the hands of an angry God.’ Wesley, Whitefield, Finney and Moody all emphasized that their listeners had broken God’s Law, were guilty before the Righteous Judge of heaven and earth, and deserving of His wrath. These great revivalists knew that the Good News of God’s forgiveness in Jesus Christ would not make much sense unless people understood the ‘Bad News,’ the full impact of their lost condition in Adam, and would cry out to God for mercy.
In Finney’s day, over 90% of those counseled for salvation persevered. Today it is apparently less than 5%. Why?
In today’s evolutionized world, unlike the world of the revivalists, most no longer believe in Creation and the Fall, as recorded in Genesis. So there is no longer any basis for understanding the meaning of sin, namely rebellion against our Creator. So sin has been variously re-defined—loss of self-esteem, or left-over aggression from our animal ancestors. So, when evangelists try preaching about sin, instead of having people call to God for mercy, they get a confused, even hostile response.
So evangelists have tended to minimize talk of sin and judgment, offering instead happiness here and now, rather than rescue from eternal damnation.

His point on the preaching of happiness in the here and now, rather than being rescued from eternal damnation is a good one. Churches have lost their power, in my opinion, because they ignore the basic tenets of biblical truth. Even Paul recognised what the foundations of Christ's teaching were:

Hebrews 6: 1-3: Therefore let us leave the elementary teachings about Christ and go on to maturity, not laying again the foundation of repentance from acts that lead to death,[a] and of faith in God, 2instruction about baptisms, the laying on of hands, the resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment.

Paul knew that among the foundations of Christ's teaching was repentance from sin, resurrection of the dead and eternal judgement. Most of the churches I have been too in my life have ditched these teachings and have placed too much focus on doing good or how to look like Christians in a secular society. Sunday mornings can feel like a gathering of socialists trying to bring equality, acceptance and tolerance into their world. These socialist ideals are important, but they are not the foundation of Christ's teaching and without it, the gospel is not getting preached. You have to go to Church for many Sunday's to hear anything about the Gospel of salvation (sin, repentance and eternal judgment). Without the gospel, we are all damned, no matter now socialistic we are.

Why do I need to be saved?

I have been talking to a few anonymous people who have asked questions such as: I'm a good person why can't I go to heaven? Why do I need to be saved? What is the gospel?

Well I am going to answer this question with as few words as possible. I will let the verses from the Bible speak for themselves as much as I can.

SIN is the start of the problem. Sin does not just cover murder, adultery, theft, rape etc. Sin also covers things such as greed, jealousy, slander etc. We are sinful by nature. If you think you have lived a perfect life, you can stop reading now because you don't need saving but read Romans 3:23 before your stop:

'for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God'

If you think you classify with the 'all' in the above verse, please read the next one:

Romans 6:23 'For the wages of sin is death.'

God didn't want this to be the end of the story for humanity. He wanted to re-establish our relationship with him. To do that, our sin needed to be pardoned and our lives ransomed. What did he do about it?

John 3:16 'For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.'

The book of John says that God became flesh and dwelled with us in the form of Jesus Christ. Jesus' purpose was to ransom humanity. It was always intended for him to lay down his life so we wouldn't have to. He was put to death on a cross for the sin of all men. He paid the price of our sin on our behalf. Jesus payed your debt. He was, however, without sin so death had no hold on him. The wages of a perfect life is eternal life. Three days later he was raised again. Through his resurrection the way between humanity and God had opened once more.
Now what? If you think about all of the above, the next verse is the next step:

Romans 10:9 'If you confess with your mouth, "Jesus is Lord," and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.'

So in a nutshell, that is the Gospel. That is why you need to be saved and what God did to allow it to happen.

For now don't let anything you dislike about Christianity stop you considering all of the above. This is not about the brutality of the Crusades, The Big Bang theory, evolution, homosexuals, paedophile priests and the bad example of Christians. This isn't about all the differing Christian denominations you see that bicker with each other. THIS IS ABOUT YOU AND YOUR CREATOR. Nothing else matters for now.