I've heard it said that 'the problem with saying anything is that you can't say everything'. Dr. Cha's answer is good as far as it goes but his use of the word 'neglect' a few times made me think immediately of Jesus' use of the word in Matt 23:23. The Pharisees 'neglected' the weightier matters of the law-justice, mercy and faithfulness-in their efforts.

Along with the distortion of the gospel on the social gospel side, there is a distortion of dead orthodoxy (James 2) that is also extremely dangerous and more prevalent in evangelical churches than the social gospel error.

Perhaps a 'part 2' is in order on this question.

Social gospel is fine until it (the good deeds)take priority over the actual gospel of the forgiveness of sins in Christ Jesus.

Many of these social gospel churches, or groups are sensitized to NOT speak the name of Jesus for fear of offending someone.
That is where the social gospel is NO gospel at all.
One might as well just join the Moose lodge, or Shriners.

the gospel is inherently social. too often we draw false distinctions between what so many people call the "horizontal" and "vertical" aspects of a life of faith. When will we realize that God is just as much in the horizontal as in the vertical? It's true that historically, some in the mainline have had a problem of losing touch with the idea that the gospel is "both and", as have some in the evangelical church.

If the gospel is about the good news of Jesus' Kingdom, then both forgiveness of individual guilt and working to eradicate social evil will be the natural response...

If however, the gospel is about the good news of Jesus' free ticket to heaven, then there will always be a tension between 'gospel' and 'social gospel.'

I, for one, believe it is a false dichotomy...

Is not the flip said of this true as well. That if we ignore peoples physical plight and are only concerned about there spiritual health are we not missing the other side of the gospel in that God has called us to change the world around us. I think that we are missing the point when we start to divide these to things into social gospel and gospel. We have to remember that they need to be together not separated and when we separate the two we are missing things on both sides and do not have a complete gospel. We have to learn to keep them both in tension and realize that when we separate them we are missing points on both sides. We need to have a complete view of the gospel and that includes both.

It is a matter of priority.

Priority #1 for the Christian is the announcement of the forgiveness of sins in Christ Jesus.

After that we are free to do what we will do.

@Steve Martin... the only problem is that that isn't the gospel, and that that isn't scriptural...

based on the clip, peter cha might not like how Jesus himself defines the gospel:

The Spirit of the Lord is on me,
   because he has anointed me
   to proclaim good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners
   and recovery of sight for the blind,
to set the oppressed free,
   to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.

sounds like something Jesus lifted from a secular university.

That isn't the gospel?

Huh?

The gospel is this, 'Jesus Christ died for you for and forgives you all your sins.'

That is the gospel.

What do you think the gospel is?

Dr. Cha gives a good summary of the dangers of over-emphasizing the social gospel. However, I would like to extend one of his criticisms just a bit.

Unlike 1st century Palestine, there is substantial competition between groups that sincerely want to help those who need help the most. In this environment, Jews and Christians who seek to do charity and exercise compassion get lost in this jungle of competing organizations -- not the least of which are government agencies.

We need to remember that Jesus, unlike most of the Jewish sects of His day, reached out to the marginalized in order to bring them to repentence. His mission was decidedly not to cure poverty, illness, or bring peace. His was to bring souls to God, not feed the flesh.

In today's environment of competing charities, Jews and Christians should focus their charitable efforts toward bringing people to repentence, if not to God.

[As an aside: The Jews found it difficult to accept Jesus as their messiah, in part, because His messiahship was radically different than what Jews thought the Messiah would be -- a warrior king destined to bring justice to the world].

Blessings,

@ Steve Martin

"Now after that John was put in prison, Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God..."

Mark 1:14

"And Jesus went about all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, and preaching the gospel of the kingdom..."

Matthew 4:23

I'm with Danny, let's let Jesus define the gospel for us. I've got nothing against the evangelists of the last 50 years, but their definition of the gospel isn't the Bible's.

@Steven S. and Danny--Being an Eastern Orthodox Christian, I resonate strongly with the point you are making. As others have said, for one who accepts the fullness of the gospel that Jesus preached, orthodoxy vs. social gospel is a false dichotomy. What Steve Martin says is the gospel is only one small part--definitely not an unimportant part--but, nevertheless, only a part of the full gospel. Istm, there is a reason that the Church has ascribed the description, "Gospels," to the whole books of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.

For Orthodox Christians, the understanding has always been that true repentance and faith in Christ leads ever more deeply into true encounter and union with Christ. Jesus described the nature of the faith and repentance required for salvation as "losing one's life" and "counting the cost to take up one's cross" to follow Him. This real and growing union is necessarily engenders more and more radical love for God and neighbor, finding its ultimate expression in love from the heart for even our enemies. The purpose for which Christ came into the world was to unite us to Himself to us and, in so doing, transform us into His very own image and likeness. This, and not merely the forgiveness of our sins, is salvation and eternal life from an Orthodox Christian perspective (and a fully biblical one).

According to 1 John (and elsewhere), there is no real love and knowledge of God without love of brother/neighbor, with all that this implies. According to the Epistle of James, only a living faith that has works can save us. The works to which James refers have to do with sacrificial love for others, expressed not least of all in practical support and care of the poor.

In anticipation of tomorrow, blessed Easter (Pascha) to all!
Christ is risen!

It seems to me the balance to Dr. Cha's point (and I agree with the gist of his concerns), is that historically for many Evangelicals/Fundamentalists, the "gospel" in its eternal and vertical dimension has also been understood in a very reductionistic manner. In a fully Orthodox and biblical Christianity, these two aspects of spiritual reality--horizontal and vertical--are a seamless garment. The spiritual reality contained in both for the Christian is one, united truth, or it is a false spirituality, whether the emphasis is on the horizontal OR on the vertical to the neglect of the other.