The Gospels

[james1523]

I count three questions...

: )

One question with many sub-questions perhaps? One question led to another so to speak. You don't have to answer, just another way to think about the gospel versus gospels topic.

 

[Strypes]

The Good News/Gospel... "For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord"

Your questions have more to do with the HOW.. of the Gospel, the "how" Jesus did it, and "how" we respond to it.

Then or now, it is still the same Gospel; Christ Jesus has come to save us! \O/

The good news of great joy that will be for all the people is the same for first century Christians and twenty-first century Christians,


Jesus was manifested in the flesh, vindicated by the Spirit, seen by angels, proclaimed among the nations, believed on in the world, taken up in glory and He is our savior.

Thank You Jesus!

 

[DHC]

DHC, are you saying that the gospel about Jesus's coming as the Messiah to rule from Jerusalem, and the other one about salvation from hell because of what Jesus did on the cross, are in fact the one gospel?.

"John the Baptist as the name implies, proclaimed a baptism of repentance. John the baptist did
not proclaim the good news concerning the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ."


DHC you have me confused because it says Luke 3:18 And with many other words John exhorted the people and proclaimed the good news to them.

If as you say, there is only one gospel, then John the baptist must have preached the gospel about Christ's death and resurrection. Given that you say that John did not preach this, proves my point that there is more than one gospel, and I call this "John's gospel". Perhaps this is an issue with bible versions, the KJV does not explicitly say "good news" in this verse, but nearly every other version does. The NASB version even translates "good news" to gospel in this verse.

The gospel during Christ's earthly ministry did not include Christ's death, burial and resurrection and John the Baptist and the disciples had no understanding of it (Luke 18:31-34). The gospel they preached was repentance and the kingdom ( Matt 3:1-2). The gospel of the kingdom was the good news that God was going to complete his word to Israel regarding the promised Messiah who would sit on David's throne in Jerusalem. This is not the same gospel that Paul preached regarding Christ's death, burial and resurrection. The two, or even 3 types of gospels are seen by Matt 4:23 where we have gospel of the Kingdom, Eph 2:8-9 is gospel of the grace of God, and Rev 14:6 is the everlasting gospel. I agree that the distinction between Peter and Paul's gospel based on baptism, is weak. However the scriptures show that Peter in some cases preached only repentance, and Paul preached only faith, and these would be considered today to be "half gospels", or even "false gospels" on their own, based on today's view that there is only one gospel. Realizing that there are multiple gospels in the Bible, we have to believe in the right gospel message, which is Paul's gospel, where Paul refers to it as "my gospel" (Rom 16:25), it is his gospel because it was given to him by direct revelation, and did not come from Peter, James, John etc.

Confusion arises because we wrongly assume that the gospel they preached in the time of Jesus's earthly ministry was the same gospel we preach today. This cannot be because as you said, John did not preach about the death and resurrection of Christ, and neither did the disciples (when Christ was with them). Only Paul, much later, was given special revelation of the mystery of Christ. You are dwelling on the point that there is one gospel for salvation (which is true) but ignoring the fact that in the Bible are many gospels about Christ, and there is even a gospel in the book of Genesis, about how the woman's offspring (Christ) would defeat Satan. Gospel simply means good news and the Bible is full of good news, or gospels, and much, if not all, are about Christ, but not necessarily "how to get into heaven".

Hello James.

Thanks for the reply.

'good news' is the English translation of the Koine Greek εὐαγγέλιον evangélion.

You may be confusing the 'good news' about the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ,
with other forms of good news, such as the return of Jesus Christ, or the coming kingdom.
Or better still the gospel of my football team, they won and that is good news.

Gospel just means good news, so anyone with good news is an evangelist to some extent.

There is one announcement regarding Jesus Christ and that good news is the information
we preach. The one and only good news, is what Paul proclaimed in the first letter to the
Corinthians. The good news of repentance from sin that John preached was superseeded
by the fuller revelation, concerning the greater news of the crucified and resurrected Christ.

 

[B-A-C]

There is one announcement regarding Jesus Christ and that good news is the information
we preach. The one and only good news, is what Paul proclaimed in the first letter to the
Corinthians. The good news of repentance from sin that John preached was superseeded
by the fuller revelation, concerning the greater news of the crucified and resurrected Christ.

Huh??? Say what??
John the Baptist and Jesus both preached the same Gospel. So did Paul. If Paul did preach a different Gospel he would be superceeded by Jesus.
Who is the savior? Paul or Jesus? Who is God? Paul or Jesus?

Teaching of Jesus...
Matt 3:2; Matt 3:8; Matt 4:17; Matt 11:20-21; Matt 12:41; Mark 6:12; Luke 3:3; Luke 5:32; Luke 13:3-5; Luke 15:7-10; etc...

Teaching of Paul and the disciples.
Acts 8:22; Acts 17:30; Acts 26:20; Rom 2:4; 2 Cor 7:9-10; 2 Tim 2:25; Heb 6:6; 2 Pet 3:9; etc...

 

[james1523]

Hello James.

Thanks for the reply.

'good news' is the English translation of the Koine Greek εὐαγγέλιον evangélion.

You may be confusing the 'good news' about the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ,
with other forms of good news, such as the return of Jesus Christ, or the coming kingdom.
Or better still the gospel of my football team, they won and that is good news.

Gospel just means good news, so anyone with good news is an evangelist to some extent.

There is one announcement regarding Jesus Christ and that good news is the information
we preach. The one and only good news, is what Paul proclaimed in the first letter to the
Corinthians. The good news of repentance from sin that John preached was superseeded
by the fuller revelation, concerning the greater news of the crucified and resurrected Christ.

DHC, thanks for clearing this up. Rather than describe each revelation as its own separate gospel (lower case g) as I have, you describe the Gospel (capital G) as a broad and general thing, of which there are a number of revelations. A very good journal article I was reading describes that the Gospel is hard to define, as it comprises all of the New Testament revelation, or everything revealed about Christ. So a revelation which is about believing in Christ, can be added to by a revelation that we must repent, and another revelation about the kingdom, and another about the indwelling of the Spirit, etc etc. These are all revelations of the one Gospel.

Someone said that the gospel is easy to understand, even a child could understand it. Well that's not really the case, the gospel is (or can be, if we make it to be) very complex, particularly if we include all of the New Testament revelation, and even the disciples did not understand it when Christ was with them, and Paul's revelation of the gospel was hard for the disciples (Peter) to understand.

 

[DHC]

Huh??? Say what??
John the Baptist and Jesus both preached the same Gospel.

John the Baptist preached and no one was saved as a result of that preaching, B-A-C.

There is only one name given to us under heaven by which we may be saved.