Wednesday, July 8, 2009

Can Anyone Tell Me What the Gospel Is?

Derel Lehman can be found Here:
http://derek4messiah.wordpress.com/


godspellzf0Gospel is a funny word. I heard a long time ago that it comes from a middle English term, God-spell (no, I didn’t see the musical). The idea is that people are captivated by God through faith and caught, as it were, in a spell.


While that may be true, and I would agree God holds me spellbound, it is not what the term translated gospel in the New Testament is all about.


Actually, gospel translates evangelion, or good news. The ancient term finds its clearest context in the image of a messenger running from a battle to the worried population of a city. Will there be death and rape and pillaging today, or did the men of our town defeat the invader? It is a question of life and death, not a light concern. As the messenger approaches, he can be seen for miles and the dreadful anticipation of his message is the only thing anyone in that town is thinking about. Will it be disaster or gospel, calamity or evangelion, suffering or good news?


Our text at Tikvat David this Shabbat was a portion of Revelation 14, including verses 6-7:


Then I saw another angel flying directly overhead, and he had an eternal gospel to proclaim to those who live on the earth—to every nation, tribe, language, and people. He declared in a loud voice: “Fear God and give him glory, because the hour of his judgment has arrived, and worship the one who made heaven and earth, the sea and the springs of water!”


I asked my congregation, “What is the problem some people would see with this passage?” The answer came quickly, “It doesn’t say, ‘Believe in Jesus and be saved.’”


The apostolic use of the term gospel is distorted by so many things in contemporary and traditional religion. We have “gospel sermons” in many churches, or people complain if a Christian pastor does not “share the gospel” each week in his sermon. In many faith communities this means that the speaker must tell listeners “how to be saved.”


There are different elements people feel must be included in a “gospel” message: believe, Jesus died, be saved, not by works, if you want to be saved come forward during the invitation, etc.


Three Examples of the Gospel in the New Testament

There are precisely three times the New Testament spells out the gospel. In none of them do we find all of the elements I mentioned above that are commonly thought of as included in “the gospel.” In fact, only two of those elements (Jesus died, believe) are included in any of these three gospel examples in the New Testament:


The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel (Mark 1:15).


I preached to you the gospel . . . that Messiah died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the scriptures, and that he appeared . . . (1 Corinthians 15:1-5).


. . . an eternal gospel . . . “Fear God and give him glory, because the hour of his judgment has arrived, and worship the one who made heaven and earth, the sea and the springs of water!” (Revelation 14:6-7).


We learn from this that the gospel is not a singular message. It is a larger concept with many forms.


The gospel has an objective and a subjective sense. All three versions imply the coming of God to judge. Since the kingdom is coming, repent before it is too late. Messiah died for our sins, because God will judge. Fear God as the hour of his judgment has come. The objective sense is the reality of God and his order which overturns every other order and calls for us to reorder our lives.


The subjective sense is our response or lack of response. Paul’s explanation of the gospel is the only one that does not make the subjective sense plain. Yeshua’s version calls for repentance and surprisingly implies that the coming of the kingdom is something to fear. Revelation’s version is stated almost exclusively in terms of the subjective call to be prepared: fear, give glory, worship. The subjective call is implied in Paul’s version. Messiah died for our sins, a concise story which implies a part for us.


Too Small a Gospel?

The problem with the gospel as it is held in some faith communities is that it is too small.


In some places gospel does not include fearing and glorifying. There is a decided lack of vision for something bigger than ourselves, a kingdom, a reality which overtakes all false visions of reality.


If the gospel is merely a personal decision to receive a gift with no commandment to find one’s place in the larger mission of God, then it is a weak gospel. I am not alone by any means in saying the gospel of many faith communities needs an overhaul. There is much good in the communities which preach a limited gospel, but the signs of weakness are everywhere.


God’s rule on earth will be so much greater than people think. God is healing and perfecting creation and completing what he started building in the lives of people all over this earth. Those who fear and glorify see themselves not merely as recipients of a free kingdom which makes no difference here and now, but as servants to each and every person and to creation itself. The gospel is about God turning evil into good and there is plenty of work for those who fear and glorify, work in healing, helping, raising, restoring, building, feeding, giving, forgiving, representing, preserving, growing, repenting, and living.


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I am bothered by the post......, though having spent years in Jewish Community, I understand HOW he gets to this premise, I just struggle with the obvious contradiction He thinks as free to pick and choose to leave out I John or Church History.

There is a reason why many Messianic Jews go astray and are easily lead down a path of seemingly Hebraicism' s and purported "Tradition" when in reality they are often denying the Messiah who died to set the Jew and the Gentile free to seek the Father and have His Spirit teach and not necessarily Men who would be Rabbi's.

Eben Abram

Michael James Stone

PS. I did see the Musical, I loved it. The Movie especially, and while I can see the correlation of missing the point of the gospel, I can see the contradiction of putting a picture of a movie the person did not see.

TOO BAD, He would have seen the Gospel.

Passing of a Pop Star ~ Charles Colson

The Passing of a Pop Star

The Pinnacle of Success?



I am an aging, white conservative Baptist. My taste in music runs from Bach to Mozart to Lawrence Welk. Indeed, my staff might say I am the un-hippest man alive.

So you might think that I am surprised by the frenzied and non-stop media coverage of the death of Michael Jackson-perhaps the greatest pop star of all time. But I’m not.

You may think that I don’t “get” why his fans by the millions are grieving, buying up Jackson CDs like they are going out of style, holding vigils at his mansion, desperately trying to get tickets to his memorial service in Los Angeles. But I do.

Here is why they have reason to mourn: Michael Jackson was, by any standard, a musical genius. His albums and his videos thrilled successive generations of pop fans. In fact, I was enthralled myself when I first watched his video presentation at an Epcot exhibit some 20 years ago.

There was, indeed, no one quite like Michael Jackson. And now there will be no new albums, no comeback concert tour, no new dance moves. That’s why they’re mourning.

But here’s why they-and all of us-should mourn the real tragedy that Michael Jackson’s story is. Andrew Sullivan at the Atlantic Monthly blog said it well: Michael Jackson “was everything our culture worships; and yet he was obviously desperately unhappy, tortured, afraid and alone.” He was, as Sullivan noted, nothing but a creature of our culture, which puts “fame and celebrity” at its core, with money as its driving force, without regard for the person caught up in it or the character he exhibits.

By numerous published accounts, Jackson was emotionally abused by his father, a man consumed by the idea that his child could be a superstar. Jackson was a drug addict accused of pedophilia, given to all manner of bizarre behavior. He was, in the end, as Bob Herbert opined in the New York Times, “psychologically disabled, to the point where he was a danger to himself and others.”

It makes the scenes of adoring crowds pushing and shoving to get near yesterday’s memorial service, and the non-stop live television coverage, all the more bizarre and tragic. We worship the celebrity for his fame, degenerate lifestyle not withstanding.

Jackson achieved the summit of what this culture values most-fame-and paid for it with his life. And that is a tragedy.

Life is filled with teaching moments. And for parents, this tragedy is an opportunity to talk with our children about what they really want out of life-what matters most.

And it’s also a time for parents to look in the mirror and ask what we really want for our kids. If the answer is success in life, then we had better know what that definition of success is.

That’s because even Christian parents are not immune to the siren song of fame and fortune for their kids. It’s great that your child can sing and dance. It’s wonderful that he can hit a baseball a country mile. She just might win that academic scholarship to Harvard.

But winning that scholarship, or playing in the major leagues, is not the Christian definition of success. Doing justice, loving mercy, and walking humbly with your God is.

Character matters. Not fame. No matter how un-hip that sounds.

_______________________________________________________

From BreakPoint, July 8, 2009, Copyright 2009, Prison Fellowship Ministries. Reprinted with the permission of Prison Fellowship Ministries. All rights reserved. May not be reproduced or distributed without the express written permission of Prison Fellowship Ministries. “BreakPoint®” and “Prison Fellowship Ministries®” are registered trademarks of Prison Fellowship
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I know a few contemporary christian artist who fall into pits of fame and fortune cookies only to find the Price of Success is often your soul. I don't like a person saying I am a Christian Baseball player and I owe it all to Jesus.

I would they say I am a Christian who happens to play baseball and I owe my Christianity to Jesus Christ.

It's thankful for your salvation, not your good fortune.

Michael James Stone

Who do You Listen To? Looking Back to See the Future ~ Bible Prophecy Today





Looking Back to See the Future ~ Bible Prophecy Today

Scary "use" of this Scripture and the Story Line. In context it is dangerous application because it insists on MAN determining his own course based on OLD MEN's advice, rather than New.

New advice and Old advice is both wrong because NO ONE stood up and said the Church was Growing before the Jesus Movement.

God went "outside" the parameters of "putting Him" in a box and revived the OLD SCHOOL of Dead Theologians and brought forth the fact we need GOD who intervenes so we don't deceive oursleves.

I would rather have a ONE on ONE with God, and be Wrong, then seek many peoples advice no matter HOW OLD or HOW YOUNG and Walk withe my Lord and My God then the ways of men.

Using Scripture to promote a political agenda is putting mans ideas in God's Way as his Will is about salvation not political gain.

Miry clay is best used for pottery but until it is fired in a cairn and made to withstand the heat, it is still miry clay. The end of the World is about consensus in governing not a ONE MAN responsible and accountable to God as Kings were for better or or for ill, but said to be manageable by the Almighty.

Our responsibility for decisions is not people based but personal and relative to our making decisions with God, not without Him and He sent his Holy Spirit to help us.

The author left that out, we better not if we are to make decisions FOR God rather than AGAINST Him.

Michael James Stone