THE
REAL
GOSPEL

The Real Gospel. We'll go slow here.

Have you ever noticed that there seems to be more than one Gospel in the New Testament? Are they all the same? The Bible talks about the gospel of God, the gospel of Jesus, the gospel of hope, the gospel of salvation and more. The gospel of God must take precedence over any other gospels. And yet, in most pews and pulpits were hear what sounds like only the gospel of Jesus' saving act. Did God send Jesus to tell the earth about his crucifixion? If we do a little study of the night of the Last Supper and the garden, we'll find that Jesus' saving act of crucifixion was NOT part of the mission that God gave Jesus. We really need to substitute the true meaning of the word "gospel." We know that "gospel', in Greek, is really just the generic term for "good news."

Secondly, we must separate all the "gospels" by whose good news is being talked about. Is it the good news of salvation or the good news of Jesus or the good news of God? I mean, is salvation the good news of God? Isn't God's gospel what He sent Jesus to tell the earth? What is the good news that God wants us to know?

God sent Jesus to earth to deliver a message to humanity. It was God's message, not Jesus' message. This message is easily found by studying all the preaching and teaching that Jesus did.

Salvation is not the top priority on God's list. God's main objective for us know is the setting up of His kingdom on earth, ruled by Jesus. This is obvious, because Jesus never preached salvation, He preached "the Kingdom". The main subject of his teaching was the kingdom. Jesus' good news was that God is going to set up a kingdom on earth. This is the gospel that Jesus told his Apostles to preach. Paul was an Apostle and therefore would have been given the same task. This is abundantly evidence by the many times we see Jesus, Paul and others preaching the kingdom.

Please note that Jesus' preaching of the kingdom was verified as true by his resurrection from the dead. All we have to do is look up all the times when the Bible says something about preaching or the gospel.

PREACHING:
ACTS
1:3; Jesus talking about the kingdom after the resurrection
8:12; Philip "the kingdom of God."
14:22; 19:8; 20:25; 28:23; Paul "the kingdom of God."

ROMANS 14:7 Kingdom is like

1 CORINTHIANS 4:20; 6:9; 6:10; 15:24; 15:50 All "Kingdom of God"

GALATIANS 5:21 "Kingdom of God"

EPHESIANS 5:5 "Kingdom of Christ and of God"

COLOSSIANS 4:11 "Kingdom of God"

1 THESSALONIANS 2:12 "His Kingdom and glory"

2 THESSALONIANS 1:5 "Kingdom of God"

HEBREWS 1:8 " oh God...thy Kingdom. "

Mentions:
Colossians 1:13 "Kingdom of His dear Son"

1 Timothy
4:1; "his (Jesus') kingdom"
4:18 "his (God) heavenly kingdom"

Hebrews 12:28 "a kingdom(God's)

Again, Jesus' gospel was the Kingdom. He would have naturally told his Apostles, including Paul, to preach the same. Twenty-three times Paul preached the Kingdom. He preached Christ resurrected as proof of the coming of God's Kingdom.

This is seen by asking which is more important to God, the Kingdom or our salvation.

God isn't in the business of saving people. He's in the business of replacing the fallen angels so that He can get back to His original project of creating the Universe.

Now here's what I found for "gospel." These are only the times when it says "the Gospel of". I'm sure that we can assume that the gospel that Jesus preached was the gospel of God. Following the times it says the gospel of Christ or God, are a few different times. I didn't list the many times when Gospel isn't accompanied by "of".

GOSPEL OF GOD:

Rom 1:1; 15:16;

2 Cor 11:7

1 Thes 2:2; 2:8; 2:9;

1 Tim 1:11

Heb 4:2

GOSPEL OF CHRIST: (Jesus, Lord Jesus Christ.)

Rom 1:9; 1:16; 15:19; 15:29;

1 Cor 1:17; 9:12; 9:18;

2 Cor 2:12; 4:4; 9:13; 10:14;

Gal 1:7

Php 1:27

1 Thes 3:2

2 Thes 1:8

Now see that 2 Cor 11:4 lists three separate things: Jesus, spirit and gospel.

GOSPEL: Not of the kingdom or God or Jesus:

Eph 1:13 of salvation

Rom 10:15; Eph 6:15 of peace

Col 1:23 "hope of the gospel"

Just to confirm Paul's 'gospel", here's a list of all the times that he uses just the word "gospel", without saying whose it is. I believe we can assume that in all these, but maybe one time, Paul is still talking about the good news of the Kingdom. He uses the word 30 times.

Romans 2:16; 16:25;

1 Cor 9:14; 9:16; 9:17;

2 Cor 10:16;

Gal 1:6; 1:11; 2:2; 2:5; 2:7; 2:14; 4:13;

Eph 3:6; 6:19;

Phil 1:7; 1:12; 1:17; 2:22; 4:3; 4:15;

Col 1:5; 1:23;

1 Thes 1:5; 2:4;

2 Thes 2:14;

2 Tim 1:8; 1:10; 2:8;

Phm 1:3;

There is a lot of good news talked about in the Bible, but "the kingdom of God" overwhelms all other ideas that are not the kingdom. There is the gospel ABOUT Jesus, that his death saves us. As above, there is a gospel of salvation, and of peace that comes to the Believer, and the good news that we can hope for the kingdom of God.

But the good news that God had Jesus deliver was the good news that God is going to have a kingdom on earth, with Jesus at the helm.

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