Ask five Christians,
What is the Gospel?
And you may hear THREE different answers, see an empty puzzled look and perhaps hear an honest, “I don’t really know; how do you define the gospel?”
Go ahead: EMAIL ME your definition BEFORE you read the following OR add your definitive COMMENT at the bottom of this Christian Jargon post.
Gospel & Gospels – Two Definitions
You have probably heard from one version of this Scripture:
“Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation.
Gospel of Mark 16:15b NIV
I mention ‘Gospel‘ in two different contexts here:
- Gospel from a quote of the risen Lord Jesus Christ
- Gospel identifying the written account of the disciple John Mark
Four Gospels recorded by four witnesses
Briefly:
We've quoted these four writers of the Gospels many times AND we cross-reference these Scriptures in other accounts as well.
TalkofJESUS.com treats the GOSPELS as a single category due to the connected importance of the Good News of Jesus Christ reported LIVE and IN PERSON from different perspectives.
Gospel of Matthew 28:30 – Quote of JESUS after the Lord’s resurrection.
John Mark (mentioned above) and Luke, the physician who continued his detailed account of Jesus and the early Church with Acts of the Apostles, were both gentile (non-Jewish) believers who interviewed the Twelve and other witnesses of JESUS.
Matthew (quoted above) and John are two of the Twelve Apostles. Jesus includes John and his brother James along with Simon Peter in the Lord's inner circle of closest confidants and friends.
Luke also introduces himself in both volumes of his accounts Luke-Acts.
The Gospel: Definition
εὐαγγέλιον
Strong’s G2098 – euangelion
a reward for good tidings
good tidings
And Jesus went about all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, and preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing all manner of sickness and all manner of disease among the people.
The term “Gospel” originates from the Old English word “godspel,” meaning “good news” or “glad tidings,” which is a translation of the Greek word “euangelion.”
In the context of the Christian faith, the Gospel refers to the message of salvation through Jesus Christ, encompassing His life, death, resurrection, and the promise of eternal life for believers.
gos’-pel (to euaggelion): The word gospel is derived from the Anglo-Saxon word which meant “the story concerning God.”
The Gospel is simple really, yet with the mysterious depth of God proclaimed as the good Word of saving sinners.
I have written topically about the Gospel at least twice:
(Go into all the world and) SHARE the Gospel – 2
Further Study
Vine’s Expository Dictionary of NT Words offers a deeper study of biblical words used in the English language. English entries are mapped to each applicable Greek root according to the Strong’s reference numbers, and include biblical usage, main occurrences in the Bible, English transliteration, and definitions.
εὐαγγελίζω – euangelizō – verb
Strong’s Number: g2097
Gospel (Noun and Verb: to Preach):“to bring or announce glad tidings” (Eng., “evangelize”), is used
(a) in the Active Voice in Rev 10:7 (“declared”) and Rev 14:6 (“to proclaim,” RV, AV, “to preach”);
Some claiming Christ, christians or even churches, will claim the Gospel without understanding.
OR worse, pulpits may proclaim the Gospel while hiding behind it.
AND some christians and churches take no action at all in evangelization or preaching the Gospel to our own personal need of Christ Jesus for salvation.
Good News before our inevitable end
death — and the JUDGMENT of ALMIGHTY GOD!
2025 of the Common Era seems to have begun with story after story and yet more of the continuing BREAKING NEWS of our fallen world.
Common Era NEWS begins with the same old sins of the world wrapped in the false idolatry: MOTHER NATURE and a world out of control * and a human-created environmental apocalypse – impending DISASTER out of reach of all their hand-holding gods.
.. but in the days of the voice of the seventh angel, when he is about to sound, then the mystery of God is finished, as He proclaimed G2097 good G2097 news G2097 to His slaves, the prophets.
WHAT NEWS TODAY?
How many died THIS TIME? And how many were SAVED for nothing more than BAD NEWS? (And for how long until the inevitable return of each broken body into the dust of the grave?)
Does the world’s news end with a feel-good story? *Do YOU feel good about YOURSELF now?
What percentage of us will die sometime soon?
What does the Gospel of JESUS CHRIST mean to your eternal soul
— your deeper human created in God’s image — the YOU by which so many souls you love in this world (or perhaps just a few) know you well as more than flesh and blood?
DON’T YOU think, mere mortal, that God in his Only Son Jesus Christ enbraces and knows your soul more than any?
Of course! the GOSPEL proclaims.
and BELIEVE the Gospel.
“Many false prophets will arise and will deceive man.
And because lawlessness is multiplied, most people’s love will grow cold.
But the one who endures to the end, he will be saved.
Talk of JESUS .com
“And this gospel of the kingdom shall be proclaimed in the whole world as a witness to all the nations,
Matthew 24:14 Legacy Standard Bible
and then the end will come.
Comment on Scripture + Share the Gospel
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