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What is the Gospel?
- Thread starter Rival
- Start date
The "good news" that everyone has the opportunity to get into Heaven. A wonderful afterlife awaits any who are willing to accept Jesus as their advocate.
So... The "bad news" would be if you don't agree with this particular dogma you won't have eternal life/heaven?
What if I don't want Jesus as an advocate?
Edit: I find this excruciatingly coercive, and emotionally manipulative.
I don't think "bad news" is defined as anything specific. Everyone at church assumed everyone else at church was saved. So didn't really discuss the other option. I suppose the culture was so Christian there was no need to threaten anyone with Hell. We all kind of "knew" it was there without it being talked about.
Then you are on your own. Which according to much of Christianity, you will fail at.
Ok, being raised as a Christian, I'm simply providing the understanding I was given. Not advocating for it.
Shadow Wolf
Certified People sTabber & Business Owner
I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man may come unto the Father except by me. John 14:6
Yes. And?
Edit: there are many Ways for many people. Unless I also want to believe that 5.8 billion non-christians are doomed.
To make it in one sentence, "To bring the Kingdom of God back into mankind"
To expand it would be the parable of the prodigal son.
Mankind is the prodigal son that went to spend all he had outside of what the Father. The Father waited expectantly for the son to return and when he did saying, "I'm not worthy--just make me a slave" the Father who ran to him (In that culture father's didn't run) and said , "Here is a robe of royalty and a ring of authority -- let's just start living" (Paraphrased)
It really isn't about Heaven... that's a temporary location. IMU - its about manifesting the Kingdom in the here and now.
I expect we have a real difference about the details but at that level, I agree with you. There are many ways to express it, but to me a key part of the "good news" is expressed by this Peter, Paul & Mary (and friends) song. I've bolded a couple of key parts:
I traveled the banks of the River of Jordan
To find where it flows to the sea.
I looked in the eyes of the cold and the hungry
And I saw I was looking at me.
I wanted to know if life had a purpose
And what it all means in the end.
In the silence I listened to voices inside me
And they told me again and again.
...
Every blade of grass on the mountain
Every drop in the sea
Every cry of a newborn baby
Every prayer to be free
Every hope at the end of a rainbow
Every song ever sung
Is a part of the family of woman and man
And that means everyone.
We are only one river. We are only one sea.
And it flows through you, and it flows through me.
We are only one people. We are one and the same.
We are all one spirit. We are all one name.
We are the father, mother, daughter and son
From the dawn of creation, we are one.
We are one.
John D. Brey
Well-Known Member
I would say the Gospel is a new song that replaces the song of Moses found in Deuteronomy 32.
John
Shadow Wolf
Certified People sTabber & Business Owner
That is what the Bible says. The entire Christian religion is predicted around Christ the Messiah, and the Bible makes it clear that those who don't accept Christ or don't follow the rules after they have do not inherit the Kingdom. It's unclear what does happen to them, but it's very clear that is what the Bible states.
If you don't like it you don't have to follow it. The Bible says most people won't make it anyways.
To me, it means God's light in a form of anointed king from him is always on earth and while Gospels seems to be about just Jesus (a), Jesus (a) said he was the light of the world as long as he was in this world and talked about his predecessor (John) not being recognized as well to argue why Elijah (a) is back but won't be recognized either as coming back. God's chosen anointed kings were a thing of the past and will continue to be a thing of the present and future. Mohammad (s) to me is clearly in the Gospels.
God's revelations manifest the sacred unseen nature of God's holy spirit that is vested in his chosen.
The Good news is that believers will approach God in this world and next, and be rewarded in the next, for holding to God's anointed kings and his holy light.
Starlight
Spiritual but not religious, new age and omnist
The gospel message is:
For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. John 3:16
God is love 1 John 4:16
God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him. God is love, and all who live in love live in God, and God lives in them. God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God in him. 1 John 4:16
“Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?”
Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments. Matthew 22:36-40
“Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.
Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.
“Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy.
“Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.
Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God .Matthew 5:5-9
For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. John 3:16
God is love 1 John 4:16
God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him. God is love, and all who live in love live in God, and God lives in them. God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God in him. 1 John 4:16
“Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?”
Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments. Matthew 22:36-40
“Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.
Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.
“Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy.
“Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.
Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God .Matthew 5:5-9
metis
aged ecumenical anthropologist
It's so simple that even some Christians forget how simple it is:
Matthew22:[35] And one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question, to test him.
[36] "Teacher, which is the great commandment in the law?"
[37] And he said to him, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.
[38] This is the great and first commandment.
[39] And a second is like it, You shall love your neighbor as yourself.
[40] On these two commandments depend all the law and the prophets."
So what has Jesus' death and resurrection to do with this, in this case?
Starlight
Spiritual but not religious, new age and omnist
You do not have to be a Christian to be saved. The most important thing is that you love others. According to the Bible, everyone who loves is close to God.
God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him. God is love, and all who live in love live in God, and God lives in them. God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God in him. 1 John 4:16
metis
aged ecumenical anthropologist
It's a theological construct that has it that Jesus was the "final sacrifice" for the forgiveness of sins. However, that is really not necessarily integral with the Two Commandments but is more a theological "sidebar".
syo
Well-Known Member
Jesus.
syo
Well-Known Member
He went to Hades and back.