I imagine that if you ask this question of any Christian the most common response would be, �Jesus died on the cross for our sins and rose from the dead so that we may have eternal life!� You might be one of those people yourself. I wonder how Jesus could have been preaching the that version of the Gospel when he had not yet died for anyone�s sins nor had he risen from the dead. Is it possible that the Gospel Jesus preached was different than the Gospel the disciples preached? Or were they the same and now so many of us have missed it because we're so focused on the death and resurrection of Jesus. What if there is more to it. Or what if we have it wrong all together?
Here are some verses from the New Testament (KJV) that are just a few examples:
Mat_4:23 And Jesus went about all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, and preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing all manner of sickness and all manner of disease among the people.
Mat_9:35 And Jesus went about all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues, and preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every sickness and every disease among the people.
Mat 24:13 But he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved.
Mat_24:14 And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come.
Mar_1:14 Now after that John was put in prison, Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God,
Mar_1:15 And saying, The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand: repent ye, and believe the gospel.
Luk_4:18 The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised . . .
Act_8:25 And they, when they had testified and preached the word of the Lord, returned to Jerusalem, and preached the gospel in many villages of the Samaritans.
Rom_1:16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek.
Rom_10:15 And how shall they preach, except they be sent? as it is written, How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace, and bring glad tidings of good things!
Just for the sake of argument and discussion I would pose this view. The Gospel is not about salvation by the death and resurrection of Jesus. It is however the good news that the power of the Kingdom of God is now here with us. By the grace of God we are able to participate in and with the power of God in our own lives. This grace of God brings to us healing, freedom and peace. This power has been brought to us by the Spirit of Christ. That is it is the Gospel of Christ, as Paul puts it. Nowhere in the New Testament is the Gospel called the Gospel of Salvation. It is the Gospel of the Kingdom, the Gospel of Jesus or the Gospel of Christ. It is assumed, I suppose, that since people believe that salvation is the best good news this must be the Gospel of Jesus. I would say, �No�. The real Gospel is the good news that at the advent of Christ upon this earth, the Kingdom of God came from heaven to earth and as a result it is possible to rise above religious law unto a spiritual plane that transcends this world by the grace, that is the empowering presence, of God. Healing, freedom and peace and the God given ability to overcome the world is the Gospel of the Kingdom.
Mat 28:18 And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth.
Mat 28:19 Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost:
Mat 28:20 Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen.
Mar 16:15 And he said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature.
Mar 16:16 He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned.
There is no mention in the �Great Commission� verses of teaching that the death and resurrection of Jesus is the Gospel. In fact the command here is for the Disciples to teach what Jesus has taught them. This is a Rabbinical tradition. The disciples have spent three and a half years being taught by their rabbi, Jesus. It was traditional for students of Rabbis to stay with their teacher for three and a half years and at the end of that time they were given the commission to go and teach what they had learned from their Rabbi because they were now Rabbis. This is not a time when Jesus is telling his disciples to go spread the good news of Salvation.
So let me ask you this. If you were being preached to, which would you want to respond to?
�Repent!! Come now sinner to your knees for you are a wretched soul, lost and dying with no hope for eternity. Jesus came to die for your sins (whatever that means) and he will give you eternal life in heaven (wherever that is). All you have to do is ask Jesus to forgive you of your sins and invite Him into your heart and He will save you!! (from what?, I�m not a bad person.) If you don�t accept Jesus as your personal savior you will spend eternity in hell!! Where will you spend eternity? Believe and be baptized for the salvation or your soul!!!�
Or: �You feel powerless sometimes don�t you? You think the government is taking over your life. You hate your job. Your boss is a slave driver. You have difficulty everywhere you go. You barely have enough money to live or maybe you don�t have enough money to live. Your divorce destroyed your life. You feel poor, broken and imprisoned, right? You keep thinking, �Is there no way out of this insanity?� How in the world are you supposed to succeed when there are so many things working against you? I have good news (Gospel). Your life doesn't have to be about living this way. You see, God has come to earth to be one of us and he struggled just like we do. But He brought His Kingdom with Him. I know, just hear me out ok? Jesus came to make it possible for you to have healing, freedom and power so that you can overcome all the things that come against you. All you have to do is believe in the Kingdom. Put your faith in God�s power to save you from this world and even from yourself. Let me tell you about the power of God�s salvation. Jesus came here just to prove God�s power. You see, Jesus put His faith in God too. Jesus died in order to bring us healing, freedom and peace but he had to do more than just die. He had to believe His Father�s promise to raise Him from the dead. And His father kept His promise and He raised Jesus from the dead. His resurrection proves that the Kingdom of God is here on the earth. He did it once for all of us. After he rose from the dead Jesus told us that He had all of the power in all of the heavens and the earth and He wants us to live by the things He taught his disciples. The best part is that Jesus promised to be with us until the end of the world. If you will believe and have faith that no matter what, God is with you all the time and you have access to the power of all the heavens and the earth you can live in the Kingdom of God right now! I can show you how.�
My disclaimer: I�m not saying which of these ideas I believe because I just want to put this up for discussion. I don�t want to get into arguments over what I believe. I want to know what you think about this.
Based on the verses above from the New Testament and any others you wish to provide, Which of these scenarios best describes what the Gospel really is?
I'd say this verse describes it best from the ones you provided.
Mat 28:19 Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost:
And I think the gospel described there is more fully described in the rest of the bible.
1 Corinthians 1
23But we preach Christ crucified, unto the Jews a stumblingblock, and unto the Greeks foolishness; 24But unto them which are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God, and the wisdom of God.
Romans 6:1-4
1What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? 2Certainly not! How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it? 3Or do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? 4Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.
I still would maintain that the sacrifice of Christ is the gospel. Baptism is the act of acknowledging the sacrifice of Christ and being baptized into His death and resurrection. When preaching to the eunuch, Phillip only required him to believe that Jesus was the Son of God before he would baptize him. Obedience and the kingdom of God only apply after being adopted. The kingdom would not be coming except for Christ being victorious. None but God's people are looking for His Kingdom to return, and God's people are Children of the "Promise". What promise? The promise of a Savior, and I believe that is the Gospel. The kingdom and everything else play into it all, Christ died to usher in God's kingdom, but none of it has with meaning or purpose without the sacrifice of Christ. I think your second option has important information and a much better description of the good news, but the gospel preached by the apostles is simply that there is a perfect Christ who died and lives again. All that being said, Christ died that we would have abundant life, not for us to destroy ourselves in sin, and we have that reward of life by faith in and obedience to the principles of God which keep us from sin, so I definitely agree with your overall message here, I just think that the gospel is about "justification", and the life of righteousness that we're supposed to emulate, "living by the power of God", is "sanctification". Whatever it is, it's most definitely good news if the whole story is told!
Romans 5
5 Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ: 2 By whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God.
Romans 5
"8 But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. 9 Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him."
We were justified by faith in "the gospel", and now that we have access into grace by that faith, now we're being saved from wrath thru following his life, now we rejoice in the hope of the kingdom of God.
You missed a key part of your "gospel" Here it is:
"105. The sanitariums which are established are to be closely and inseparably bound up with the gospel. The Lord has given instruction that the gospel is to be carried forward; and the gospel includes health reform in all its phases. " :laugh:
761. If we would elevate the moral standard in any country where we may be called to go, we must begin by correcting their physical habits. Virtue of character depends upon the right action of the powers of the mind and body.�The Ministry of Healing, 146 ELLEN WHITE.
In other words, when we go to the nations, we do not begin by preaching the Gospel. It doesn't start on the inside of a man, but by "correcting their physical habits". "Virtue of character" does not depend on teaching them God's laws but rather "right action of the powers of the mind and body"
But what did Jesus do? Oh, yeah, I guess he did heal a lot of people...why would He bother doing that?:laugh:
"In other words, when we go to the nations, we do not begin by preaching the Gospel. It doesn't start on the inside of a man, but by "correcting their physical habits". "Virtue of character" does not depend on teaching them God's laws but rather "right action of the powers of the mind and body""
Literally "in other words". I don't see "we should not begin by preaching the gospel" in what she said, you might be reading too many of those attack sites, it looks like they're rubbing off, but even if she did, that was very often Jesus's first action when reaching the populace. Feeding them, healing them. Have you ever tried to share the gospel with a drunkard or a heroin addict or someone starving to death? Someone so crippled by pain and/or addiction that they can't even think straight? Well, what in the wide world should we do for them? Abandon them because they're too far gone I suppose, they probably weren't elected anyway:goofball::laugh:.
If that is supposed to be an "attack" against adventism, then you might want to avoid making them look like she's trying to follow Jesus's example:laugh:.
James 2
14 What doth it profit, my brethren, though a man say he hath faith, and have not works? can faith save him?
15 If a brother or sister be naked, and destitute of daily food,
16 And one of you say unto them, Depart in peace, be ye warmed and filled; notwithstanding ye give them not those things which are needful to the body; what doth it profit?
17 Even so faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone.
I've never read that book, but I do know that she highly recommends the work of healing and health in spreading the gospel. It shows people(even those who are not necessarily interested in the bible) that God's design for our bodies is the best one, and that maybe, if they would like to listen, that God's plan for their spiritual well-being is the best one too. I would challenge you to find fault with that message, it's a great witness. Adventists were mentioned on Oprah as one of the 3 healthiest and longest living groups of people in the world. Adventists didn't pay for that endorsement or the publicity, living God's plan for their health made their lives a powerful enough message that a secular health report picked it up, and like in the story of Daniel, they proved God's way to be the best.
