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To: gracebeliever
I only stated that there are something like 14 gospels in the Bible; nowhere did I say I believed any other than the gospel of grace.

You'd better clarify, and damn quick.

There is only one Gospel in Scripture. "But even if we, or an angel from heaven, preach to you any other gospel to you than that which we have preached to you, let him be damned!" (Gal 1:8, my translation).

The only possible explanation I can see, giving you all the benifit of the doubt, is if by your statement you mean there are 14 distinct references to the Gospel, such as "the glorious gospel of the Blessed God." (1 Tim. 1:11). But something tells me that is not what you mean....

2,057 posted on 12/12/2002 1:03:31 PM PST by jude24
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To: jude24
And I suspect someone's going to object to my choice to use the word "damn" in the above post. But that is not frivolous profanity, it is completely justified in the contexts it was used.
2,058 posted on 12/12/2002 1:05:17 PM PST by jude24
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To: jude24; CCWoody
You'd better clarify, and damn quick.

Thus far you're the only one who expresses this sense of urgency.

There is only one Gospel in Scripture. "But even if we, or an angel from heaven, preach to you any other gospel to you than that which we have preached to you, let him be damned!" (Gal 1:8, my translation).

You're both right and wrong here. Right in the sense that undoubtedly you mean that God has always and only saves man by His grace, which is absolutely true. It is also true that salvation has only been by the blood of Christ Jesus, however, prior to Paul's teachings, this was unknown.

Wrong in the sense that there have been are many gospels throughout the Scriptures. Case in point is the Galatians verse you cite where Paul is referring to "my gospel." Undoubtedly there are other gospels since Paul says "any other gospel."

The only possible explanation I can see, giving you all the benifit of the doubt, is if by your statement you mean there are 14 distinct references to the Gospel, such as "the glorious gospel of the Blessed God." (1 Tim. 1:11). But something tells me that is not what you mean....

Being a dispensationalist, my contention is there are several gospels in the Bible. Nearly all dispensationalists believe that salvation in every dispensation has been based on faith in the revealed Word of God at that time. We also believe that the Bible presents a progressive revelation of God's will. For example, men in past ages, or dispensations, did not possess the totality of revelation contained in the completed revelation we have in our Bibles today. Therefore, there has been a change in content of the message which was the object of faith.

Regarding the case in point, the content of the "gospel of the kingdom" preached by the apostles during and shortly after the earthly ministry of Christ never contains the teaching that Christ would die for the sins of the world, be buried and rise the third day. Yet this (1Cor. 15:1-4) is the heart of the preaching the gospel in this dispensation. Even more to the point, in OT times faith demanded that men bring animal sacrifices, a practice which is expressly forbidden in God's message for today. They didn't understand that the animal sacrifice was a type of Christ, they only acted out of faith in what God told them to do. The fact that God provided the instructions on animal sacrifice, and faith brought the sacrifices, in no way diminishes or negates the basis for God saving these people, which was by His grace.

The problem in the various positions regarding the gospel seems to reside in the proper definition of gospel, its relation to dispensations and to salvation. Gospel simply means "good news," and there are many items of good news in the Bible. The Greek word for gospel is euaggelion and the verb form is euaggelizo, with sometimes the first "g" being interpreted as an "n" giving us the word transliterated into English as evangel.

The Hebrew forms of these words are found several time in the Septuagint with most of the references to "good news" having to do with material blessings and have no relationship to what we refer to as spiritual salvation. Therefore, euangelion doesn't always refer to, and is not the equivalent of, salvation. Eph. 1:13 refers to the "gospel of your salvation," which is basic to all of the other messages of God's good news to man. However, not all of God's good news concerns salvation from sin, or to eternal life. There are diffenent salvations in the Bible, and some of God's good news relates to what God has saved sinners to, and from, which is definitely good news for the saint. In the OT, most of the salvations were deliverences from physical harm and death, not from sin or to eternal life.

Sometimes the good news is about a program of God, such as the gospel of the kingdom, which is the good news that God is going to establish His kingdom in the earth. Sometimes the gospel is distinguished by people to whom the good news is sent, such as the gospel of the circumcision and the gospel of the uncircumcision of Gal. 2:7. Sometimes the distinction is made as to the messenger to whom the gospel is committed, like when Paul speaks of "my gospel."

I don't have time to take this any further right now. While it is debated whether there is one Gospel, or several distinct Gospels, or even several forms or aspects of the same Gospel, the "good news" is wrapped up in the death of Christ. In this sense, as I began this post, the is but one gospel, but it is important to at least make the distinctions that God has indicated in His Book. These distinct gospels include:

THE GOSPEL OF GOD
PAUL'S MY GOSPEL
THE GOSPEL OF CHRIST
THE GOSPEL OF PEACE
THE GOSPEL OF THE CIRCUMCISION
THE GOSPEL OF THE UNCIRCUMCISION
THE GOSPEL OF THE KINGDOM
THE GOSPEL
THE EVERLASTING GOSPEL

And there are even more gospels. I'd recommend checking them out in your concordance. It's edifying.

2,121 posted on 12/13/2002 8:03:49 AM PST by gracebeliever
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