Zone1 What is the Gospel Message?

[Carl in Michigan]

To begin with, early Christianity was a sect of Judaism, and it still has its roots in the Jewish religion

That's what I'm talking about. We've taken different paths. You follow the Church of Rome.

I follow the Church in Jerusalem.

"it was needful for me to write unto you, and exhort you that ye should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints"

 

[Meriweather]

That's what I'm talking about. We've taken different paths. You follow the Church of Rome.

I follow the Church in Jerusalem.

"it was needful for me to write unto you, and exhort you that ye should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints"

Jesus prayed we would all be one. He also insisted he taught only what the Father had told him. God is our Father, we are His children, so I think of all who love God as belonging to The Temples of the Holy Family.

Do you see what I did there? Islam and Judaism speak of the holy temple. Christians speak of our bodies being the temples of the Holy Spirit.

I understand people are fond--in fact insistent--of everyone who is different being of somewhere else or from somewhere else. Jesus taught us differently. God is our Father, we are His children, which makes us one family. We belong together. And, as far as I am concerned, we do.

 

[norwegen]

The gospel is the kingdom of heaven. Plain and simple. That is unequivocally what the Bible calls it (Mt 4:23, 9:35, 24:14; Lk 16:16; Acts 8:12).

The New Testament does not end at merely referencing the gospel as the kingdom. It elaborates on that premise, leaving no doubt about the New Covenant message. Christ’s parables are about the kingdom. In the Synoptic Gospels, Jesus illustrates the kingdom in nearly forty such morality tales. Matthew’s Gospel avers unequivocally that the subject of all of them is the kingdom of heaven. The kingdom may be compared to a man who sowed good seed (13:24) or to a mustard seed (13:31) or to leaven (13:33) or to a hidden treasure (13:44) or to a merchant (13:45) or to a fishing net (13:47). The kingdom is like a king who wishes to settle his accounts (18:23) or a landowner in search of labor (20:1). It is like ten virgins (25:1) or a man on a journey (25:14). The kingdom is the single common thread in all the parables. When Jesus shared these anecdotes, in fact, he shared secrets of the kingdom (Mt 13:11; Mk 4:11; Lk 8:10).

Jesus understood his mission before he embarked on it. All along, it was to preach the kingdom, as John the Baptist announced in Judea. “Repent,” the Baptist admonished, “for the kingdom of heaven is at hand” (Mt 3:2). Even before Christ began his ministry, the Baptist understood that Israel’s Messiah had come to establish the Father’s kingdom.

Then after his baptism and temptation, when he began his ministry, Jesus preached the kingdom (Mt 4:17; Mk 1:14). At the outset, the kingdom was his message, and the time of its arrival had come.

And the glad tidings do not end there. Even after death, Jesus taught this gospel:

He presented himself alive to them after his suffering by many proofs, appearing to them during forty days and speaking about the kingdom of God. (Acts 1:3)​

The kingdom was his ministry, and in fact the stated purpose of his ministry:

I must preach the good news of the kingdom of God to the other towns as well; for I was sent for this purpose. (Lk 4:43)​