Romans 1:16-17

¹⁶ For I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes: first to the Jew, then to the Gentile. ¹⁷ For in the gospel the righteousness of God is revealed—a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written: “The righteous will live by faith.” 

With the advent of the social media, it is not uncommon to see posted picture of a person, place, or event to have been electronically altered. This is popularly called as “photoshopped” picture, coined after Adobe System Incorporated’s famous graphic program called Photoshop. This means that the picture is modified to suit the message or comments the poster would like to convey to his/her target readers. The picture is skillfully manipulated to make it appear to the viewer it is authentic and original.

I have used Photoshop extensively and found it so interesting to work with. This program is being used commercially by graphic designers in enhancing the original image to the colour, tone, and style the designer wants to project to the eyes of the viewer. The objective is to touch-up the obvious flaws and imperfections of the picture or alter it completely so that it appears picture-perfect in final form. This is being done by series of “masking” techniques that hide the original image behind the masks, thus projecting new image. Whenever the file is saved, it becomes bigger than the previous saved file. This is hidden from the eyes of the image viewers.

“Photoshopped” picture is best in advertising and promotion, in designing new colourful products, and producing journalistic lampoons seen in social media. This program is useless in projecting the original picture in its raw state.

The word gospel means the teachings of Jesus and the apostles which is good news for the sinner. True gospel written in the Bible is a sinner can receive the free gift of salvation. And this is possible by admitting he or she is a sinner, repented of and turned from his or her sin, believed on the Lord Jesus Christ as God’s Son and accepted His forgiveness of sin, and confessed his or her faith in Jesus Christ as Saviour and Lord. On the other hand, a false gospel preaches that God will give him everything he needs to make his life on earth comfortable and will also give him a seat in heaven at the end of his life. Man is told that Jesus will forgive all his sins, heal all his diseases, bless and prosper him materially, solve all his earthly problems, and so forth.

I call the latter as the “photoshopped” gospel. The original Good News is masked and hidden from the viewer.

Which gospel are you not ashamed of to proclaim – the true or the false?

*****mbl*****