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This "word" is not the bible alone, but the preachings and teachings of the Apostles, which includes both oral and written teachings. Nowhere do I find that the Bible calls itself the only means of how God "speaks" to us. Another Protestant tradition.

"And this is the word which by the gospel is preached unto you."

What is the gospel and where is it found?

How can you possibly find irredeemable fault in jo kus' statement here? The "word" is clearly NOT the Bible alone, but, as he says, it includes the teaching and preaching of the Apostles. It's a logical fallacy to say otherwise. Were there Christians before a word of the NT was written? Certainly. Were they, or were they not, evangelized with the "word of God"? They certainly were! By way of your answer to jo, one wonders how! You might object to the Catholic understanding of the Bible's role in the totality of revelation, insofar as unnecessary doubt has been sown over the last five centuries. But, for heaven's sake, don't let the argument devolve to absurdities. Your reply to jo kus' comments, within the context in which his comments were written, simply makes no sense, and totally misses as an answer to his statement.

What is the gospel and where is it found?

The Gospel is the Good News. It is the preaching of Jesus Christ. For example:

Now after John was put in prison, 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 1:14-15)

I don’t find any mention of the Gospel being referred to as writings IN THE SCRIPTURES! The names of the authors of the Gospel, (Mark, Matthew, Luke, John) are not even part of the Scriptures! The Gospel is an ORAL PROCLAMATION as shown above in the beginning of Mark’s Gospel. Surely, you don’t think that Jesus was referring to the Gospel as a yet unwritten book???

It is only later, the Apostolic Traditions, that determined that the 4 books of the Evangelists were known as “Gospels”.

Thus, the “Word” refers to the preaching of the Apostles, both oral and written, not a FUTURE BOOK!!!

Regards

I think Jo Kus put that very nicely.

From my perspective, when hear Evangelical Christians refer to the "gospel" it seems they often mean a one line summary of the message of Christ. Perhaps in many cases what they mean is that one is justified by faith alone. Perhaps in other cases, they are referring to a description of a conversion experience that they believe implies a guarantee that they will go to Heaven when they die.

Scripture, however, was not written on a post-it note. There are four Gospel(s), Matthew, Mark, Luke and John which contain the essence of the Good News, that is the story of God's love for the world manifested in the birth, life and death of Jesus Christ. If you want to distill the Gospel down to a 3 sentence summary, I would say this does a fairly good job:

When the fullness of time had come, God sent His son, born of a woman, born under the Law, to ransom those under the Law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. As proof that you are sons, God sent the Spirit of His son to dwell in our Hearts, crying out, "Father!". So then we are no longer slaves, but sons through God, and if sons, then heirs through Jesus Christ. (paraphrase of Gal 4: 1-7)