Thread: What Does the "Church" Include In Its Gospelk?
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What Does the "Church" Include In Its Gospelk?
Posted : 12 Nov, 2010 05:14 PM
What is included in the Gospel of Christ?
Is the Gospel limited to the doctrine that Christ was and is fully God and appeared on earth in human flesh while being fully God, that his death on the cross is an atonement for the sin of those who accept him and his doctrines, that salvation is by faith alone, which includes love of the truth of Christ's doctrines, and by being born again by the Holy Spirit who is the Third Person of the Trinity?
In the falling away of II Thessalonians 2: 3, the "Church" does not always include as part of their Gospel being really born again, and love of the truth of Christ's doctrines.
If one limits another Jesus and another Gospel to the JW's, then there would not really be a major falling away in the "Church."
Does not the Gospel of Christ include the identity in Christ of the believer?
This is where many do not fully understand Paul. Calvinism and orthodox Lutheranism have their problems, But both these wings of the Protestant Reformation traditionally taught that Christians are Israel. Paul is subtle on this point and you can miss what he says if you were brought up on dispensationalism which makes a strong separation between ethnic Israel and the "Church."
Israel was and is the object of God's affection. But God redefined Israel, as shown metaphorically in Jeremiah 18: 1-6, and so in John 3: 1-6 Nicodemus, the Pharisee, who represents ethnic Israel is told he must be born again to enter the kingdom of God.
Paul teaches in Romans 2: 28-29 that he who is a Jew outwardly is not a Jew, but he who is a Jew inwardly, by the heart, is a Jew, meaning also that he who is of ethnic Israel is not of Israel, that is, not of Israel reborn in Christ, but he who is inwardly of Israel, by the heart, is of Israel reborn in Christ. The dispensationalists would not accepot this application of Romans 2: 28-29. But look at Jew and Jews and Israel and men of Israel in Strong's Exhaustive Concordance for the New Testament and you can see that Jew and men of Israel are the same people. There are places in Acts where this happens.
Then in Romans 9: 6 Paul says "For they are not all Israel, which are of Israel." And in Romans 9: 8 he says "That is, They which are the children of the flesh, these are not the children of God, but the children of the promise are counted for the seed." This is a big statement. You want to be the seed of God, not of the government granted corporate "Church" under the Internal Revenue Service (501c(3)).
Finally, Paul in Romans Chapter 11 and especially in Romans 11: 20 uses the good olive tree as a metaphor for Israel reborn in Christ, into which Gentile Christians are grafted. The good olive tree is Christ, and its also Israel reborn in Christ, the Remnant in Romans 11: 5, which included Peter, John and a few thousand others who did not stay in or return to bondage in what Paul calls the Jerusalem which now is and is in bondage (Galatians 4: 25).
Since Gentile Christians are grafted into Israel reborn, they must be Israel reborn, and not the "Church," as a separate group of God's people. The William Tyndale translation of 1525 translated the Greek ekklesia as congregation and not as church.
So being grafted into Israel reborn in Christ is a part of the Gospel of Christ. The identity of all Christians in Christ and in Israel reborn in Christ is important, and Christians do not want to give up that identity to another group. To do so would go against I Peter 2: 9, that Christians are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation,a peculiar people...
Interesting words in this question. The "church"? Whose "church"? The one of 38,000 different 'christian' denominations?
Man in his infinite wisdom! "The entrance of Thy words giveth light; it giveth understanding unto the simple." Psalm 119:130. Let us not complicate things here; what gospel(good-news) did Jesus preach? "From that time Jesus began to preach, and say, 'Repent: for the kingdom(government) of heaven is at hand.'" Matthew 4:17.
Almost everyone believes that the "gospel" is about the person of Jesus Christ. Some proclaim a "gospel of salvation", others a "gospel of grace", or a "gospel of miracles", a "social gospel", or of "healing", or of "faith". But Jesus, not man, came preaching the gospel(god-speed-Old English; good-news) of the soon to be coming kingdom of God, "the good-news of the future government of God." This is what Jesus preached, and of how to become a citizen of this future government...."Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God, and saying, "The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand: repent ye, and believe the gospel." Mark 1:15.
"Howbeit when He, the Spirit of Truth, is come, He will guide you into ALL truth:for He shall not speak of Himself; but whatsoever He shall hear, that shall He speak:and He will show you THINGS TO COME." Amen for what was revealed to John!! No one in the past had these revelations; but we do!! Jesus wanted us to know!
"And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, 'Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself shall be with them, and be their God. And God shall WIPE AWAY ALL tears from their eyes; and there shall be NO MORE death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the FORMER THINGS are passed away." AMEN!! HALLELUJAH! For all true believers, this is our GOOD-NEWS! In FAITH, I know that it is, because my Jesus said so! Amen!! Praise and Glory to our Lord and Saviour, Christ Jesus!!
