David Miller wrote:
>>Consider also that the apostles were sent out to preach the gospel
>>long before they even understood that Jesus was to die, be buried,
>>and then rise again from the dead! What were they preaching?
>>They certainly were NOT preaching what you have defined the
>>gospel to be, which is simply the death, burial, and resurrection
>>of the Lord. So what is your position on this? Do you believe
>>that the gospel was changed later, or do you believe that they
>>preached the same gospel later that they had preached at the first,
>>when Jesus first called them apostles and sent them out to preach?
John wrote:
>Sounds like you believe there was a difference.
I do not believe that the gospel message changed. That is my point. The
elements of his death, burial, and resurrection were added to the gospel
David -- when you add something to something, you have changed it. Add a second story to your house, and you have changed the house. It is still yours. You continue to live in it. But it is different.
preaching, and these last parts were given primary importance, but it was
the same gospel that they had preached before,
You contradict yourself. It is not the same gospel if it was added to .
which is the gospel of the
kingdom of God, the command to repent and receive the remission of sins
being important parts of this message.
I am nowhere required to "receive the remission of sins." It is something that happens to me, for me -- by God. The kingdom? Certainly the soverneign rule and authority of God is a critical part of the message.
John wrote:
>Before the cross, they preached Christ such
>as He was before the cross.
What does that mean, "they preached Christ"? That is the whole point. What
exactly did they say when they preached Christ?
Not sure "exactly" what they preached. I do not think there are any sermons recorded in the gospel accounts except that of Christ's.
What did Jesus Christ himself say when he "preached the gospel"? Did Jesus
talk about himself when he preached the gospel?
When Jesus told the disciples of John the Baptist to report that the gospel
is preached to the poor, did he mean his death, burial, and resurrection, or
something else? Did he mean that he was declaring himself to the poor, or
was there something else that he had in mind?
Let's stop here. I need to know a) why you are geting all winged out and 2) what is the point of this discussion. I no longer know. You seem to latch onto specific translated wording, i.e. "gospel" rather than reading the more general "good news." Before the cross, the good news was the coming of the kingdom of God. Matt 6:33 gives us a Jesus asking us to seek the kingdom (read soverneign rule and authority of ... ) of God. It had come. It was not like other kingdoms. It was within. It was current. Good news. After the cross, the kingdom, for me, is Jesus Christ. He is the soverneign rule and authority in my life. He governs my actions and does so in a very personal way. He speaks to me, counsels me, partners with me.
John wrote:
>After that defining moment, they preached Christ cruscified
>and raise from the dead. The good news is Christ.
>Go ahead and call me a heretic.
The concept of heretic has nothing to do with this discussion. Are you
trying to say that before Christ was crucified, they preached the kingdom of
God being at hand, repentance, and the remission of sins, but that after
Christ was crucified and raised from the dead, then they stopped preaching
these other parts of the gospel?
No
Could it be .............................. Is it possible
that you have never truly heard the gospel yourself?
I have been a child of God for 47 years, David. I have received His infilling. I hear his voice. He hears mine. How about you? Your questioning above is out of place and has nothing to do with honest debate. It is the street preacher "go to hell" style that you seem to believe in, raising it's ugly head for no purpose except to put down. It is not an honest question.
John
