“Pastor Ruthless for the Gospel" and the Garden of Self Powered Eden
“Pastor Ruthless for the Gospel"* and the Garden of Self
Powered Eden: When a sermon is not confessional nor covenantal it elevates
Self.
There is an unusual place in the modern church that some
people speak about in quiet tones. They call it Self Powered Eden. It is a
place where spiritual change does not seem to need the power of the risen
Christ or the work of the Holy Spirit. Instead, people become whole by thinking
more clearly about themselves.
This strange world comes to life when one listens to a
sermon like one on Genesis 2. The preacher in this world is known as Pastor
Ruthless for the Gospel. His name suggests a man who cuts straight to gospel
truth. Many expect him to be fierce about grace and firm about sin. But his
ruthlessness tends to fall on other things. He is harsh toward silly slogans
like “no regrets,” toward self-help clichés, and toward therapists. When he
speaks about the gospel, his tone becomes soft and warm. He’s the therapist you
really need.
He says that contentment “comes with knowing who we are, whose we are, our origin, and our destiny”
He says that if a person has not sorted these things out, it will be very hard for them to be content. This idea shapes the entire sermon. Peace is not reconciliation with God through grace but discovered when we understand ourselves. He presents Genesis 2 as a kind of map to help people think well and live well. In doing so, he misses how Genesis 2 points ahead to the Fall in Genesis 3 and the deep need for divine rescue.
The satirical picture of Self Powered Eden grows from this idea. In this imaginary world, people find peace by adjusting their thoughts. Pastor Ruthless stands at the gate and explains that the main problem in life is that people do not think correctly about themselves. If someone asks whether the human heart is broken by sin or bound in spiritual death, he smiles gently and says that the Fall made things harder but that people mainly need better insight.
Midweek in Self Powered Eden features the Ceremony of the Regretless. This ritual is inspired by his statement that saying “no regrets” is “a stupid thing to say”.
The people gather, share their mistakes, and focus on how their regrets help them grow. The whole event looks like repentance, yet it never turns toward God. It is reflection without redemption. It is guilt without grace.
The Hall of Therapeutic Futility sits near the center of town. Here Pastor Ruthless explains that many kinds of therapy try to convince people they are fine as they are. He calls this fiction.
Yet his alternative is not the healing power of the Spirit, nor the comfort that comes from forgiveness. His answer is clearer thinking about life. In this hall trauma becomes a matter of isolation. Depression becomes a misunderstanding of one’s purpose. Loneliness becomes a simple lack of belonging. The deeper problem of human sin does not appear. The need for new birth does not appear.
His talk on marriage fits the same pattern. He speaks about leaving parents, cleaving to a spouse, and setting boundaries, all of which are valid points. But the focus remains on human choice and human action. Marriage is repaired by strategy, not by grace. Homes are strengthened by insight, not by spiritual renewal. Unity becomes a task, not a gift.
The tour ends at the Tree of Life. In the sermon, Pastor Ruthless says that people are under God “to begin the process of moving back to what we were designed for” and that this process begins when people come to Jesus.
This makes the human will as the first mover. Christ enters the story only after we have decided to walk in the right direction. Jesus becomes the one who confirms our journey instead of the one who creates it. The satire imagines Christ appearing late to the tour, greeted politely by people who have already done all the work they believe is needed.
Behind the satire lies the real issue. The sermon teaches a pattern where human effort comes before divine grace. It suggests that understanding ourselves is the first step toward peace. This is a classic form of semi Pelagianism. It does not deny grace, but it treats grace as something that follows human willingness instead of generating it. This is not the order of salvation taught in Scripture or confessed by the church. In the Bible, people are spiritually dead in sin. They cannot come to Christ unless drawn by the Father. The mind set on the flesh cannot submit to God. The heart must be made new. None of this appears in the sermon’s structure.
The Fall is mentioned only briefly. Pastor Ruthless says that Adam’s place, work, and relationships are marred.
Yet this truth has no effect on his understanding of the human will. The Fall does not remove our ability to choose rightly in his framework. It only creates some difficulties. Thus, the sermon treats human beings as though they are bruised rather than dead. This view has serious consequences. If the problem is a lack of understanding, the solution will always be more insight. If the problem is a lack of connection, the solution will always be community. If the problem is a failure to adjust one’s thinking, the solution will always be more reflection.
Christ appears in the final moments of the sermon, not as the one who gives life but as the one who receives those who have already decided to seek Him. This delays grace, and delayed grace is diminished grace. When Jesus is added at the end, the sermon cannot help drifting toward moralism. The hearer learns how to think better, choose better, relate better, and reflect better. Jesus becomes an afterword. The cross becomes an appendix. The Spirit becomes optional.
This has real implications for the people who hear it. Those who are stable, confident, and socially strong will find the sermon inspiring. It tells them they can fix much of life with better understanding. Those who are weak, grieving, exhausted, or trapped in sin will hear something very different. They will hear a message that tells them to sort themselves out before they can walk with God. They will hear that healing is within their reach if only they can think more clearly. They will not hear the voice of the Shepherd who comes to seek and save the lost.
The sermon also reflects a subtle shift in authority. Pastor Ruthless speaks with strong confidence about psychology, relationships, and therapy. He mocks some ideas with sharp humour. He speaks more cautiously about Christ and salvation. This creates a pulpit where the personality of the preacher fills the space that should be filled by the person of Christ. It is not a matter of ego. It is simply the natural result of a sermon that trusts human insight more than divine grace.
The satire of Self Powered Eden brings all of this into view. The theology that follows gives the explanation. Genesis 2 is not a field for self-discovery but a stage set for the disaster of Genesis 3. It teaches us about the goodness of creation and the seriousness of sin. It prepares us to hear the gospel, not to invent a method of personal clarity. Real contentment does not begin with knowing ourselves. It begins with being known by Christ. Real peace does not come from reflection. It comes from redemption. Real hope does not rise from human initiative. It rises from divine mercy.
Pastor Ruthless for the Gospel is an entertaining character in the satire, but the true answer to human restlessness is not found in his mirror. Contentment is not a biblical theme of Genesis 2. It is not taught, implied, or even suggested by the text. Treating it as a central theme is an imposition on the passage, not an exposition of it. It should not be preached as the central idea of the chapter. Any sermon that does so has begun with anthropology, not covenant, and will inevitably drift into moralism or therapeutic religion. In short, we have here another example of Pastor Ruthless for the Gospel’s semi-Pelagian theology on display.