Show me the Gospel….
I have been toying with the idea of changing the “All of Grace” page on this Blog.
The purpose of this page is to convey the Gospel message, pure and simple, and it is heavily visited every day.
Although I love Spurgeon and this was his seminal work in terms of written evangelism, it perhaps does not fit with today’s audience in terms of length, language and literary style etc.
I’m looking for suggestions for a new article to replace this one……
Or if someone wants to play with the original…..
Or perhaps you feel brave enough to write one……
One final thing to mention is don’t be offended if I choose not to opt for your suggestion.
Tags: Internet & Technology
June 21st, 2010 at 11:16 am
From reading “All of Grace” it seems clear Spurgeon is preaching the (late, modern) Evangelical Gospel and not the Gospel Jesus preached. Which one do you want people to hear?
Jesus preached the Kingdom and forgiveness for the forgiving, mercy for the merciful, sonship for the peacemakers. Revivalists preached forgiveness, mercy and sonship apart from anything we can do thinking they were echoing Paul. It’s understandable that the “all from grace” option is more popular because it offers everything for nothing – it’s “gratis” as Spurgeon puts it – but it leads to a problem once people convert and are called to discipleship and they realise there is much fine print.
Give ‘em the good old Jesus Gospel, the one with the loving father who desires to give his children good things and not the wrathful father who needs a pay-off in order to forgive. “All of Grace” is ultimately a costly bait-and-switch!
June 21st, 2010 at 11:21 am
@Marc. So what do you reckon, then?
Later, one of the most prominent US Christian bloggers is going to duplicate this post for a US audience to look at and discuss.
I’ll pop a link here if you want to participate.
I’m happy to do this away from the forum, as it has a tendency to simply degenerate into a squabble over there.
Every single day “All of Grace” is in the top 10 visited pages of this blog and it’s crucial…nay….vital…that we get this right.
I’m completely open minded on this, I’m setting no parameters…
June 21st, 2010 at 4:21 pm
I have to agree with Marc. One thing i like asking people is “did Jesus preach the gospel?” If so what did he say? A better way to read the Bible is to realize Paul was writing to Churches to whom the gospel was already preached. So we should not expect the gospel to spelled out by Paul but by Jesus or the gospel writers!
June 21st, 2010 at 6:47 pm
Here’s the US link. I really need some positive suggestions.
Can You Describe the Gospel Message?
June 21st, 2010 at 8:31 pm
Start off with Mark 1. He starts off by saying the beginning of the Gospel of Jesus and he starts off with John the Baptist. It says Jesus proclaimed the gospel. Jesus preached to repent and believe in the gospel. The greek can also be translated as be faithful to the gospel. Mark ends his book by saying that Jesus told them to preach the gospel in all the world. So everything in between is part of the gospel. The wh0le story of Jesus is the gospel. Also the parallel of Mark 16:15 is Matthew 28:19-20. There Matthew does not mention the word gospel but he rewrites gospel as making disciples, baptizing them and the only proclaiming part is teaching them to observe that he has told them. So proclaiming the gospel should include making disciples (more than just a confession of faith or a sinners prayer), baptism and everything that Jesus has taught us to observe (good works). Please let us not make the mistake of separating of the commands that Jesus told us to keep from the story of Jesus. They are meant to go together.
I hope this helps. After a long struggle of what the gospel means, this is what i have settled on. I do not use the 4 spiritual laws or the Romans road or merely sinners in the hands of an angry God (similar to Spurgeon). We should avoid reducing the gospel to a speck. Lets preach the full gospel which is the whole story of Jesus and observing his commands.
June 23rd, 2010 at 7:49 pm
Hi Webmaster,
I humbly offer this alternative for non-Christian seekers as a possible replacement for the lengthy, old fashioned terminolgy of Charles Spurgeon in “All Of Grace”:
http://www.whatisthegospel.org.uk/samplegospel.html
In writing that gospel message I have attempted to be as faithful as possible to the biblical gospel preached by both Peter and Paul.
June 23rd, 2010 at 8:54 pm
Thanks Brian, I’ll have good look.