ELON MUSK, THE BABYLON BEE, AND THE GOSPEL

 "The Babylon Bee" interview with Elon Musk got awkward. For the unitiated, "The Babylon Bee" is "a conservative Christian news satire website that publishes satirical articles on topics including religion, politics, current events, and public figures." 

As the interview was coming to a close, the interviewers said that the Bee was a Christian ministry so they asked Musk, "Do you believe in God?" 

 Musk said, "I believed in God as a child. I attended Sunday school and a Jewish nursery. I was baptized as a child. But all the stories aren't literally true."  

Musk went on to say that he agreed with the philosopher Spinoza's view of God. Spinoza defined God as "a substance consisting of infinite attributes, each of which expresses eternal and infinite essence," and since no cause or reason can prevent such a being from existing, it therefore must exist." 

In other words that are more understandable, he didn't believe in a personal God. Musk would agree with what Einstein told Rabbi Herbert, "I believe in Spinoza's God, who reveals Himself in the lawful harmony of the world, not in a God who concerns Himself with the fate and the doings of mankind." This belief would eliminate the Incarnation, the Bible, and Jesus salvific purpose.

Then they asked Musk about Jesus and he said, "I agree with the principles Jesus advocated." He cited, "Turn the other cheek" as opposed to the eye-for-an eye principle by which he showed that he didn't understand what those words were teaching, but that's not important for our discussion today. He said he liked the principle of forgiving people as we go through life and doing unto others as we would have them do to us. This is a commendation of Jesus as a good, moral teacher but nothing more.

And this is where things turned awkward and caught Elon Musk off guard. One interviewer immediately and abruptly asked, "Will you accept Jesus as your Lord and Savior?" Stunned silence. A moment of reflection. Then in his exact words, Musk said, "Hey, if Jesus is saving people, I won't stand in His way. Sure, I'll be saved, why not?"

The two interviewers expressed joy and relief over that answer.

But wait a minute. What kind of a gospel presentation is that? Is it accurate? Does it jive with John 8:24 and I Cor. 15:3-4? No. 

Wait another minute. In any evangelistic sermon in the book of Acts, is that the gospel the Apostles declared? According to the above texts, The gospel is that Jesus is God incarnate, (that wasn't mentioned), that He paid the total and complete penalty for Musk's sins (that wasn't stated) rising from the dead. He should have been told that he must trust Christ and Christ alone, not in his Sunday school attendance or in his baptism nor in his admiration and keeping the Golden Rule.

We cannot conclude that Musk is unsaved or saved, but what we can conclude is that the "gospel" presented during that most awkward interview has never saved anyone and never will.