“He Died for Us” NOT “He Gets Us” – 100M Ad Campaign Promotes a False Gospel & False Jesus

I have gone through all the Read, Watch, Listen material on the He Gets Us website.  There is not a passing reference to Jesus died for us.  That is the central message of the New Testament and it is totally missing.

In its place we have a culturally relevant Jesus that gets us.  “He Gets Us is a campaign designed to create culturally change in the way people think about Jesus and his relevance in our lives.”

The greatest relevance in our lives is the fact that Jesus died for our sins.  That means he was put to death in our place as our substitute.  Nothing is more relevant!  That is the heart of the gospel.  Christ crucified for my sins. 

Incredulously, there is no gospel in He Get Us.  None!  There is no mention of Christ’s death as a payment in full for our sins.  There is no mention of God’s justice being satisfied and his holy wrath turned away as a result of Jesus’ atoning sacrifice.  There is no mention of personal sin or sin being an offense to the Holy One who must be propitiated.     

Nor is there a passing reference to Jesus being God incarnate, supernaturally conceived by the Holy Spirit in a virgin’s womb.  Nor any mention of Jesus’s resurrection in all their He Gets Us material.  

Further, they present an all-accepting and all-inclusive Jesus but that is not the Jesus of the Bible.  He commanded men and women to turn from their sin and believe in him so they didn’t perish everlastingly.  He was a rock of offense.  He testified men’s deeds were evil.  He said the wrath of God remained upon those who would not believe in him.  He regularly spoke about the reality of hell. 

Oh to be sure, he was gentle and kind to those who saw their need for a Savior but he pronounced woes of judgement on those who were hypocrites and self-righteous.  He came to save sinners.

The He Gets Us is proclaiming a false gospel and a false Christ; not the Jesus of Scripture.  And supposed “evangelicals” are sinking 100 million dollar into a campaign to preach a message that should be anathematized.  [Update: It is now a 1 billion dollar campaign over three years per announcement in Nov 2022]

Christianity Today ran an article and so did The Roys’ Report.  Read here and  here.  Neither article exposed the false gospel marketed by He Gets Us.  

The only doctrinal concern noted by CT was this passing reference.  “Some Christians have criticized the ads, saying that by emphasizing a God who ‘gets us,’ they don’t give a full picture of Christ’s deity.” 

Truth be told they don’t give any picture of Christ’s deity.  Not even a hint.  He’s a mere man in their presentation. 

Jonathan Shepherd for The Roys’ Report wrote, 

“One ad that garnered over five million views, “Jesus Was Born To A Teen Mom,” surprisingly centered around the Virgin Birth—despite the team’s research noting beliefs in supernatural events are a significant hang-up for skeptics.”

This statement is false.  The ad in no way “centered around the Virgin Birth.”  It doesn’t even mention that Mary was a virgin.  All it says is Mary experienced an “unplanned pregnancy.”  It leaves the impression she got pregnant by someone other than Joseph.     

Countless people have preached the gospel better than me but I do my small part in preserving its true nature.  In the providence of God, I preached a 38 minute message on Getting the Gospel Right on March 6.  I also produced a four-page outline for further study.  That was just before the “He Gets Us” campaign launched.  

In the sermon, I clearly define what the gospel is and what the gospel is not.  I do so with passion because the gospel is not dry doctrine.  It is about Jesus’ extraordinary birth, life, death, resurrection, and ascension.  It is about the person and work of Christ.  

He Gets It only talks about Jesus’ life in humanistic terms.  Everything else is left out.  They do NOT get it! Never once do they mention Jesus is Savior and Lord.  I pray their message changes.  I want to see 100M go to the cause of the gospel not the distortion of the gospel.  Millennials and Gen X need the gospel not a watered down Jesus who is unoffensive to their life-styles. 

Thankfully, Jesus gets it!  He knew we were sinners in a need of a Savior.  What kind of a savior?  One who would save us from the justified wrath of the God and reconcile us to God the Father through the cross.  He took our sin.  He gave us his righteousness.  As a result, we can have peace with God.  We can know God as Father. That is the best news in all the world!  Let's finance it not a fake imitation.