What is the Gospel?

The word gospel has been defined as “good news” yet one must take a closer look at what some people claim to be the “gospel”. What is it and why would anyone consider it “good news”, much less be willing to lay down one’s life to promote it and share it with others.

The “gospel” that the church seems to be promoting is not good news at all. They want us to believe that God the Almighty Creator of all things, the one in total control and power of all things created a man in His own image, turned him into a sinner, through the actions of one man, ADAM, then, He (God) sent another ADAM (CHRIST) to redeem mankind from the sinful condition. That God, allowed HIS SON, perfect and sinless, to be crucified on a cross as the sacrificial lamb to cover once and for all the sin of mankind, resurrected him from the dead, and yet left mankind in the same sinful condition as they were in before God sent Christ. What good news is that?

Seems that it would take a person out of their mind to accept such an idea as “good news” much less be willing to believe that a man would give his life to share that with others, as the disciples of Christ did.

So why is it that no one is thinking about what the church is calling the “gospel” and what they are trying to promote, which denies the very attributes of the one TRUE GOD that they claim is in control.

How could anyone believing in a God in the first place, want to believe and serve a God that is supposed to be in total control of all things, and created all things, yet is subject to the thoughts and beliefs of that which He created?

How can one believe in a God that has to create a man in His image and then change that image or allow it to be changed into an image that would result in having to kill or destroy it?

Why would a God, who knows all things, not know that if He put a serpent, the craftiest of all He created, in the garden where He put the man, that the man would listen to the serpent, or to the other person that God also created and put in the garden with him? If you believe that God is all knowing, then you have to believe that He knew Adam would listen to the serpent, so why would He have allowed that? So that He could destroy Adam, and put Him out of the Garden? So that Adam would fail, making all of God’s creation corrupted sinners so that He could send another “son” sinless to the world to redeem those like Adam that listened to someone else? Why would that happen, and why would that be any part of “good news”?

Why would God, a loving creator of all things, create a man and subject him to failure and not be able to keep him from falling from grace, so to speak? Wouldn’t that reduce God to a powerless creator who can create but not maintain what He creates? If God could create a sinless man, could He not keep a man from sinning in the first place? Does God only have the power to creator, but not sustain? Is man subject to change based on something other than God, and the power of God only? How is that “good news”??

What benefit would it be to God to have what He created turn into a sinner? How could it be good news to have God change all men into sinners because of what one did and then need to do something else to get them back into a “right” relationship with God? How is it good news that God sent a “sinless” son to die on a cross, a horrific death, resurrect him, and have that person who died years prior to the coming of that son, believe in him to get back into the righteousness that the man had when God created him? How is any of that good news? How is it that any of this could be considered good news that a man would give up his life to share with another, or die on a cross as a result of making it known to others? Where is the good news?

It’s time to “come reason” on this matter and understand what the “gospel” was in the days of those that were commissioned to preach the gospel and why their lives were the cost for preaching such good news.

Most of you that are reading this might feel that you already know what the gospel is. Are you sure? With the meanings of our words changing from generation to generation, are you sure that you know what the “gospel” was in the days that the good news was given. Or do you just accept what men have taught and have come to believe as a result of the influence of other men and their understanding and propaganda. Are you so sure that you really know the good news? Could what you’ve come to believe, as being the gospel, ever been defined as good news? Are you willing to read on and see if good news really was good news to many as it is today?

The gospel is good news! God had not changed, nor had He changed that which He created into something other than what He created. God had not seen man in a sinful nature and state, but that man himself had seen himself in that fashion as a result of doing what God told him not to do. “As a man believes in his heart so shall he be”. That statement doesn’t say “as a man believes in his heart, God changes him into being”. What good news would that have been? God had to bring to the attention of man the fact that just because a man believes it doesn’t make it so with God, so that mankind could live without the influences of the knowledge of good and evil. For it was the knowledge of good and evil that Adam partook of in the garden. He didn’t partake of good and evil, only the knowledge of it. Knowing good from evil. That there was a difference, which meant that judgement would result in utilizing that knowledge for himself and against others. Adam was not to surely die for partaking of the knowledge, only in not listening to God, but another voice other than God. If you refer to the children of the children of Israel referenced in the bible, you’ll see that they were the only ones that were to enter the promised land because they had not come to the “knowledge of good and evil”. To them it wasn’t an influence. So what is the good news?

If one believes the bible is the word of God, then one must look to the bible for what it records about the “fall of man”. Is it not the bible that says that God told Adam the curse and expulsion from the garden was because “he hearkened to the voice of another”? Was it Adam that had taken the word of another? Wasn’t it Adam that listened to what God had put in the garden with him? Nevertheless, it was Adam and Eve that listened to someone else tell them something other than what God had told them. He went against what was within him, placed there by God and the words of God. So again, where is the good news?

Wasn’t the very thing that changed Adam’s mind and had him hiding out from God in the first place his own realization that he was naked and was ashamed? Doesn’t the bible state that Adam was naked and not ashamed before partaking of the knowledge of good and evil? Wasn’t it God that said to Adam, “who has told you this”… rather than saying to Adam… “you sinner, you”.

See God didn’t see Adam as a sinner, Adam seen himself as a “sinner” and hid himself. He fashioned coverings for himself and felt shame and guilt. God knew that Adam seen himself condemned and as a result of that Adam hid from God. He seen himself separate and apart from God. Was he? Did God turn from Adam and not look on him again, or did God come looking for Adam in the garden? It only takes a little reading of the bible to see that even in the face of Adam’s condemnation and hiding, that it was GOD who came looking for and calling out to Adam. It was that very thing that God seen and knew would happen as a result of Adam going against what God had told him that God himself wanted Adam to see and realized. How else could there ever be a concept of unconditional love from God and good news, if it wasn’t possible for Adam to see it himself not as he seen himself, but as GOD SEEN HIM. Was that good news for Adam and Eve? Did they see that as good news?

We see them coming to that realization when Eve states that God has given her another son when Abel was killed, and that after the birth of Seth, men again began to call on the name of the Lord. Adam’s vision of himself as a sinner, going against what God said to him, took a different perspective. They realized that God had not seen them as sinners, but that they had seen themselves in that fashion and caused them to be separated from God in their own thinking. God wasn’t the one that changed them, nor did He have to change them back, or redeem them, they had to have a “change of mind, and change of heart” which is the definition of “repentance” so they could see themselves as God had always seen them. Was this good news? Was seeing that they had brought themselves to this place as a result of listening to another, and yet that even though they had, that God had not changed them, or seen them differently? Could that have been and would that have been good news? Sure it was? Was it the same good news that Adam and Eve came to realize that so many others since then have been sent to preach? Was it really good news?

As a result of “buying” into someone telling you that “you’re a are sinners”, and need to be redeemed, men and woman for years have been burden with guilt and condemnation and have as a result of that believed that they were separated from God and were unacceptable to God. They have been told that in the state of sinfulness it is impossilbe to have a relationship or understanding of God. Yet it is the bible that shows that God went looking for and calling out to Adam even in the face of his “sin”.

The serpents placed here in the garden of God have continued since the beginning of time to try to convince those that God created that they are lacking, and that there is something more that is needed to be “like God”. That there is more that they have to do or believe to be worthy of God. It was the same with Eve.

The serpent didn’t lie to Eve, he told her the truth. She wouldn’t surely die if she ate of the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, she would be as God. That was all actually truth, and we see God himself, saying that the very reason for expelling them from the garden was that they had become as He was, knowing good from evil, and that they couldn’t continue in that state and life forever.

See it was never God’s plan for His creation to have the knowledge of good and evil, that’s the reason he told Adam not to partake of it. For having the knowledge of good and evil, would let them believe that there was something that God had created that was not “good” or was “evil” and that knowledge would affect them, and their relationship to the people around them. God didn’t want mankind in the mindset that there is something separate and apart from Him. That’s why God told Adam not to partake, and why it would kill Adam to partake of it. That was the very reason that it was a provision of God for Adam in giving him the command not to partake, yet it was good news for Adam that even when he did

The serpent told Eve that she was lacking something. That she needed more to be like God, and that’s what she wanted. Her heart was not evil and it wasn’t that she was trying to rebell against God, she wanted to be like God, and didn’t realize that she already was. She was more in the image of God than she ever could have imagined, and hadn’t seen that. So as many of us, we look to others to tell us what it is that we’re lacking, or that we are lacking something that is required for us to be more like God would want us, and we seek to partake of that, and in doing so, we hearken to the voice of another, and in most cases it’s the serpent that God himself has put in our garden, and yet when we listen to even that which God has allowed to be in our lives, we doom ourselves to guilt and condemnation, and separate ourselves from God.

So what was it that Jesus came here to say that was so disruptive to the Pharisees that they wanted him killed rather than take a chance for the “good news” to get out and disrupt what they had been taught, and were still teaching and living by themselves. It was just that, that God had not ever seen mankind as a “sinner” but that it was man himself that had accepted what someone else had told them and believed that they were “sinners” and therefore needed a Savior to redeem them. Isaiah had prophesied that a redeemer would come to “redeem his people from their sin”. Notice that it doesn’t say that he would redeem them from sinning against God. What was their sin? Simple.. the same sin that Adam experienced, that God clearly denotes, “hearkening to the voice of another”… even the one that God sends into your life. Think about it… isn’t that the good news? Isn’t it good news to know that God has not looked on you as a sinner and never did. That you just simply have listened to others judge you by your actions and what you “believe” and have determined you to be a sinner, yet it is those same people that will quickly tell you that it is God that judges the heart of a man, and so why is it that if God is the one that judges, and it’s the heart, why is it that all these “serpents” are in the garden telling you something other than what God has spoken into your heart? Could it be that God has allowed the serpents in your garden as He put the serpent in the garden where He placed Adam so that you would be able to see GOD… and not the serpent and what the serpent is saying to you. How would Adam have been had he refused to listen to what Eve and the serpent had said? Would guilt and condemnation, and shame been the result, or would have things been so differently? Ask yourself this question. Would you have the guilt and condemnation and shame that you’ve lived with all your life if you hadn’t listened to someone else tell you that you were a sinner, and that you were not acceptable to God as He created you? What decisions and actions would you have taken if you had not believed what someone claiming to be of God had told you? So now, ask yourself who is the “serpent in your garden”? Who is it that’s trying to convince you that you’re not worthy? That you need to change and do something different, or stop doing what you’re doing? Who is it that’s trying to convince you to go against what God has put in your heart???

The gospel, “good news” that was hidden from the beginning of time, is that God created you, put in you all that He intends for you to be, and that the only thing that is going to ever separate you from the love of God is YOU! You listening to someone or something other than what’s inside of you… the perfect person that God created, and if you’re one of those that don’t believe that God created you, well isn’t it also good news to know that you’re not a sinner then either!

People spend their entire lives trying to achieve and be what someone else has told them that they should be, and what they needed to do to get “ahead in life” and has formulated a “cookie cutter” concept that everyone in life should fit into so that you’re “worthy”. But when you step back and look at it, who is it that you’re being worthy to? Who are you doing it for? Surely not God, cause you don’t need the acceptance of the one that created you… HE CREATED YOU… why wouldn’t he be happy with what He created? So the acceptance you’re trying to live up to is other men… and how can you be honest and true to your own self if you’re not living based on what’s inside of YOU!

For centuries now men have seemed to become more evil and hateful, yet are they really? We have to examine the “serpent” again and realize that most of the reason that people are evil and hateful is because they are fighting not against God but against what others claim they have to be, have to look like, or have to do. They are not rebelling against God and trying to stop God, they are trying to stop the affects of other men on themselves. They are struggling to be honest to themselves and are being distracted by the words and the judgements of others. We find out children fighting against going to school, not because they don’t like their friends or the teachers, but they fight against the attempts to pigeon hole them into groups of successors or failures, based on the grades and the guidelines that men have created to judge them by. We find men and women fighting employers, not because they don’t want to work, or they hate their employers, but because they are fighting against being pigeon holed into a group or category based on production, or numbers or stats prepared or assembled by others that judge success or failure. We find our marriages in turmoil not because husbands hate their wives, or wives hate their husbands, but because the marriage partners are fighting against the pigeon holes of those that say what a “good husband” or a “good wife” should be and what defines a husband or wives role. Most that are seeming to be “rebellious” and “evil” and “sinners” aren’t that at all, they are simply not fitting the “cookie cutter” mold that people have developed to group us all into. Those that don’t fit, won’t fit, and shouldn’t be trying to fit, and those that do fit should just fit and embrace the uniqueness of us all. A student drops out of school because he can’t make the grade, and hates the attempts at trying only to fail, and have someone else tell him with report cards and test results that he’s a failure. An employee quits his job and refuses to work, when he can’t seem to get ahead no matter what he does. He is told he can’t succeed because of the color of his skin, the environment that he grew up in, or that he doesn’t qualify based on the standards someone else has set. A husband divorces his wife when he can’t seem, no matter how much he tries to be what she wants him to be, and he isn’t happy that she isn’t what he wants her to be. Wouldn’t it be good news to know that you can be honestly yourself, enjoy what you enjoy, love those that are different than you, and just let the good news be the message of all time! You are perfect as you are, and it’s time to stop listening to the “serpents” in your garden, and remember that just because they are there, doesn’t mean that you have to take their word for who YOU are! Be uniquely you, appreciate the gospel as it is, and embrace the differences in us all, for it’s in those differences and having them that we are complete!

Think about it! Consider giving this some thought, and see this not for some theological definition of the “gospel” but as a means to see from a different perspective what opens the door for us all to have and enjoy life and those that are part of life with us!