The Gospel and Its Fullness: A Friendly Word to Chuck Baldwin and His Listeners

✝️ Preface: Honoring a Courageous Voice

Let us begin with gratitude.

For many of us who have grown weary of false teachings, political compromise, and the idolatry of modern Zionism, Pastor Chuck Baldwin has been a courageous and clarifying voice. His unwavering commitment to exposing deception, defending Christian liberty, and calling believers back to Christ alone is admirable—and we commend him for that.

Yet, out of that same spirit of unity and truth, we offer this friendly critique—not to cause division, but to raise an honest concern. As many have noted, Pastor Baldwin often proclaims a version of the gospel summarized by 1 Corinthians 15:1–4, and rightly so. This passage declares the heart of salvation: Christ died for our sins, was buried, and rose again.

But when this becomes a kind of “plus nothing” theology—especially to the exclusion of Christ’s fuller revelation in Scripture, His Church, and His kingdom order—we risk subtracting something vital. Not from salvation by grace, but from the fullness of Christ Himself.

🔹 The Gospel Is the Foundation—Not the Ceiling

The apostles did not teach 1 Corinthians 15 in isolation. Nor did the early Church, or the faithful generations that came before us. The gospel, rightly proclaimed, never stops at salvation’s doorway—it walks us through it into the kingdom, discipleship, sanctification, and Christian community.

🔹 The Founders Didn’t Just Preach—They Prayed in Unity

One has only to look at the Book of Common Prayer, used by Congregationalists, Presbyterians, and even dissenting Puritans, to see how liturgical unity was prized among Protestants. These prayers and liturgies were not mere traditions; they were vessels of doctrine, piety, and unity in the Spirit. This was not novel, but an extension of Orthodox liturgy, much of which is still recognized today by Eastern Orthodox churches.

Even in the strongest dissenting churches of colonial America, daily chapel and worship often followed formal patterns rooted in these ancient Christian forms. We invite readers to explore our resources at www.CelticOrthodoxy.com, where articles on this rich liturgical heritage are available. Since our earliest recognitions by other jurisdictions, the witness of this apostolic expression has only grown stronger.

🔹 The Risk of Subtracting Christ by Minimizing His Body

When the grace of Christ is proclaimed without His order, His kingdom, ou alors His body—the Church—we risk not just error, but a subtle form of rejecting Him. As Christ said, “He who hears you hears Me” (Luke 10:16). Christ didn’t call individuals to free-float in isolated spirituality, but to belong to a visible body and carry out His kingdom plan on earth.

Pastor Baldwin’s frequent polemic against church structures, creeds, calendars, and councils becomes, in effect, a polemic against the ways Christ governs His people. His anti-structure message may be sincere, but when it becomes a dividing line among believers—mocking or mistrusting those who pursue ancient paths—it becomes a cause of unnecessary division in Christ’s body.

🔹 What Was Removed: Biblical Government and the Kingship of Christ

One theme rarely addressed in modern liberty preaching is the historic role of biblical monarchy. It has long been one of the most successful and biblically grounded forms of government. In Scripture, monarchy is not evil—but is often the chosen vessel for righteous leadership, provided the king submits to God’s law.

Even in the American founding era, most of the staunchest separatists still desired a king. Their objection was not to kingship itself, but to a corrupt Parliament that ruled them from afar. There is no credible record of George Washington saying “No King but Jesus,” but if he had, it would mean exactly what it says: we would have a King in Christ.

Jesus is called King of kings—not “king of democracies” or “president of presidents.” His reign presumes there are kingdoms beneath Him. In the parable of the minas (Luke 19:11–27), Christ portrays Himself as a nobleman who gives cities to His faithful servants to rule until His return. And what does the parable say of those who refused His kingship? “Bring them here and slay them before me.”

The phrase “occupy till I come” (Luke 19:13) is a call to govern righteously in the King’s absence—not to devolve into chaos or republicanism divorced from divine order.

For nearly 200 years, the legal documents of the United States referred to our nation as a “perpetual confederation”—a Christian union under the kingship of Christ. The early American Constitution and its colonial forerunners all acknowledged the supremacy of Jesus Christ. The phrase “advancement of the kingdom of Jesus Christ” was not only a doctrinal banner, but a constitutional preamble to the governments of numerous colonies and compacts that formed the American order.

To lose this vision of kingship is to lose the very heart of biblical governance and the Church’s role in stewarding nations.

🔹 Unity Without Phariseeism

We affirm with joy: the grace of Christ alone saves. But let us remember that the Spirit who regenerates us also gathers us. He binds us not only to Christ, but to His Church—to one another. The historic Church never said salvation was by prayerbooks or kings, but neither did it pretend that every man doing what was right in his own eyes was the Kingdom of God.

Baldwin rightly opposes Zionist deception, but may go too far by promoting “me-and-my-Bible” Christianity as the only true form—when the founders and Reformers saw no contradiction between grace and godly governance, between Scripture and structured prayer, between Christ and His visible kingdom.

🔹 A Call to Greater Unity

Let us not divide Baldwin’s followers—many of whom are faithful lovers of Scripture, liberty, and truth. Instead, let us call them higher: to rediscover the common prayer of our forebears, the Christ-centered liturgies they cherished, and the full spectrum of Scripture’s kingdom vision.

The Reformation wasn’t a divorce from Church order—it was a purification of it. And our King is not just our Savior—He is our High Priest, our Lord, our soon-returning King, et le head of His visible body on earth.

Let us walk forward not just with “grace plus nothing,” but with grace plus everything Christ is—His Word, His worship, His body, His kingdom.

That is the gospel of the early Church, the Reformers, and the founders who built nations on His name.