Having heard only one message from religious leaders for hundreds of years, the vast majority of church people are unaware that not long after the apostles had left the scene there arose a heated debate concerning which gospel church leaders were to preach–the gospel of the Kingdom of God or the gospel of Jesus Christ. Because it made for a good sound byte and looked good on paper, the gospel of Jesus Christ won out. This is why today one will rarely if ever hear the good news (gospel) about the Kingdom of God being put forth from pulpit or podium. Instead, one will repeatedly be told about the person of Jesus, His life, death and resurrection. Hearing about the person of Jesus, his tenure on earth, his death and resurrection makes us all feel good inside and reminds us to be grateful for His sacrifice. This gospel/good news comprises the vast majority of all church messages world-wide because it fits perfectly into the “what you can get from God” narrative that was popularized long ago. Though the words have a positive aspect to them, there is a problem if one is a stickler for God’s Truth–the message repeated thousands of times weekly around the world is the exact opposite of what God commands to be preached and taught.

To grasp the importance of this issue we must understand the Biblical concept of the word “OF.” The car of Bill is Bill’s car. The House of Sara is Sara’s house. The gospel of Jesus Christ is Jesus Christ’s gospel, NOT THE GOSPEL ABOUT JESUS CHRIST. Students of the Word have found that Jesus said very little about Himself, His life, His future death and resurrection while He walked the earth. His focus was on the future for those who would obey the Father’s Words spoken and written by His prophets, Jesus Himself and His apostles then and now. That Word concerned the Kingdom of God–the eternal home of the few who would be found worthy to enter in. Religious man refutes this, arguing that Jesus should be the focus of church attention. Admittedly, this does sound right. But how it sounds to man is irrelevant. God knew this, which is why He gave us Proverbs 14:12: “There is a way that seems right to a man, but the end thereof is the way of death.” Notice that man’s way SEEMS RIGHT TO HIM, even when that way is condemned by the God he claims to believe. We must remember that God’s ways are not our ways. The problem with man is that he believes his ways are better than God’s ways. The issue concerning the gospel is no different. Any attempt to show God’s way to a congregation will result in expulsion, rejection, ostracism and in some cases, hatred.

Those in the gospel of Jesus versus gospel of the kingdom debate who eventually won out were right relative to the label. The gospel of Jesus Christ is indeed the gospel all of God’s ministers are commanded to teach and preach. The problem is that the winners did not and still do not understand the meaning of “OF” relative to the message. We are ordered to minister the gospel of Jesus’ Christ–His gospel–not a gospel about Him. The “gospel of Jesus Christ” is the good news (Gr.-gospel) about the coming Kingdom of God and how to enter into it.

To reveal how important getting it right is to Him, God caused to be written several times in the Scriptures that His Son Jesus Christ–the Word who preached the gospel to Abraham (Gal. 3:8), “… went about … preaching THE GOSPEL OF THE KINGDOM …” (Mat. 4:23). See The Kingdom of God to learn what the eternal kingdom will be like for God’s saints. Jesus (the Scripture) preached the gospel of the Kingdom of God to Abraham, to the children of Israel through His prophets, to the Jews during His earthly tenure, to much of the known world through His apostles during their lifetimes and to the modern world by way of television, radio and the internet, though very few people choose to hear it. God’s command to preach the gospel of the Kingdom of God–the gospel of Jesus Christ–to the end of the world reveals how important its content, future location and time element are to Him.

In Luke 9:1-6 we find Jesus commanding His apostles to heal the sick, cast out demons and preach THE GOSPEL OF THE KINGDOM OF GOD. That commission to His called, appointed and anointed ministers has not changed. For every man who has been so called of God, His command to heal the sick, cast out demons and preach the gospel of the kingdom remains in effect. This is brought out in Matthew 28:20 where He told the apostles to make disciples in all nations and to teach them ALL THINGS He had taught them. The most important part of His commission was for them and their ministerial descendants to heal the sick, cast out demons and preach the good news of the Kingdom of God. For the purpose of this study we will limit our focus to the gospel which every called-out minister of God is commanded to teach and preach “until the end of the world (aion-age).”

Notice that nothing Jesus did while on earth, nor anything He commanded, demonstrated and taught His disciples/apostles to do was designed to come to an end prior to His second coming. What He did and taught was perfect. Therefore there was to be no change in what His future ministers were to do, how they were to do it, the message they were to put forth and the Truth behind the message. As this website has shown, religious man has broken this rule. Everything, including the church’s savior, has been changed. If the apostles could see what passes for God’s church today and listen to what her ministers are putting forth as God’s Truth they would be aghast, though not speechless. I can only imagine Paul’s reaction if he walked into a modern day service and saw and heard what was going on “in the name of the Lord.” To be continued. L.J.