CHAPTER V

THE GOSPEL OF JESUS CHRIST

In actual fact, we have already covered much of the Gospel of Jesus Christ already in this book. However, I would like to take this brief opportunity to discuss more specifically the message He brought to this earth, and come to a fuller understanding of that Gospel message, before we continue on. The things covered thus far make up a great part of the Gospel of the Kingdom, but, unlike what some have claimed before, they do not cover quite all of the points.

We have seen that the Being who became Christ was the Logos, or Spokesman of the Godhead before His human birth. After He returned to Heaven, He had now become the Son of God. He was also now our great High Priest in Heaven. Most of the book of Hebrews is devoted to Christ's role today. I do not have time to go over this in this present volume, but I plan to eventually give a series of Bible studies on this subject, which shall be recorded and made available to those who wish it. It contains VITAL INFORMATION FOR US TODAY. I also plan on writing possibly a book length treatment on this subject, covering the same ground as the Bible study. However, since prophecy is the most important thing to turn my attention to after the completion of this book, it is likely that it could be a year or so until I can go into this subject thoroughly.

As you recall, earlier in this book I showed that as soon as Christ's ministry began, He began proclaiming the Gospel, or good news, of the Kingdom of God (Mk. 1:14-15]. This Gospel included information about the plan of God for man's salvation, as covered at great length above when discussing how the Holy Days foreshadow the major events in this plan. This information had never been revealed to the world before. The Jews had simply kept observing the Holy Days throughout their history without understanding the important reasons why. But, starting with Christ, the New Testament reveals the truth contained in these days for us to know.

The Gospel proclaimed to the world has a big prophetic content. In fact, as far as the world is concerned, THAT IS THE MOST IMPORTANT ASPECT OF THE GOSPEL FOR IT, BECAUSE IT TELLS WHAT IS GOING TO HAPPEN TO IT SHORTLY. In fact, in Mtt. 24:14 it says that this Gospel of the Kingdom shall be preached in all the world as a witness, and then shall the end come. This, then, is a very sign of the soon return of Jesus Christ to establish that Kingdom. It is also a sign that the Great Tribulation is soon coming.

When taken together with all of its aspects, the Gospel involves the whole life. It is the Gospel of the Kingdom, yes, but when one understands what that means, it involves all aspects of life. Nothing is left unaffected.

As far as the world is concerned, the Gospel is a prophecy of the soon coming world ruling Family of God. It shows, as mentioned earlier, that man can become God as God is God. Naturally, we will not have the same RANK, or the same amount of knowledge or understanding as the original two God Beings because they have always existed, but, as far as being an actual God Being on the God plane of existence, there will be no difference.

The Gospel message is thus a message of hope for all mankind. It gives us the assurance that no matter what happens in this life to us, with God we shall eventually attain our human potential and become what we were created and designed to be. The only one who can stand in the way of such a great salvation is us ourselves. Only we can make us fail.

Today, life is compartmentalized. The values in one compartment don't necessarily apply to any of the others, according to society. This is not true. Each person is a whole person. There should be no artificial divisions. Thus, what one does in his or her business life should be influenced by our religious life and our family life, etc.

In fact, as I have recently discovered, WE SHOULD HAVE A UNIFIED LIFE IN CHRIST. I shall discuss this point in the last chapter of this book. Once one has a unified life in Christ, though, the benefits trickle down into our entire life and being, solving every one of our problems through the power of God's Spirit working in our lives.

First, we must get a few false concepts out of our minds so that God's Truth can shine through. Many religions feel that the poor are somehow more righteous than the rich. This is not the case. God is not a respecter of persons. He loves the rich and prosperous as much as the poor. It is also felt by many that God hates the rich, or that they all got that way through oppression of others, cheating, or lying. This is also not necessarily true. Rich and poor both sin alike, but the sins are different.

God calls generally the weak and the poor into His church, rather than the mighty of this world -- HOWEVER, THAT DOES NOT MEAN WE ARE SUPPOSED TO STAY THAT WAY! Once God's truth is revealed to our minds through the Gospel message, God frees our minds from the chains that have bound us all of our lives.

Herbert Armstrong was inspired to write a booklet on success, using both his personal experiences and the Bible to show how God's will is for us all to prosper. Unfortunately, like all self help books and self help study courses, THERE IS A MISSING DIMENSION IN EDUCATION HERE.

Reading something in a book, or taking a course or seminar is only step one in the process of success. Anyone can read about success, BUT IT IS THE RARE MAN OR WOMAN WHO CAN APPLY THE ABSTRACT PRINCIPLES LEARNED INTELLECTUALLY TO OUR BRUTALLY PRACTICAL WORLD.

This world is a harsh task master. However, many barriers to success are actually GOD ORDAINED LAWS, rather than Satanic opposition as many whiners who excuse their failures by blaming others or Satan claim. Most of the time, OUR FAILURES ARE OUR OWN STUPID FAULT. We simply have to learn from them, pick ourselves up, and try again. It may sound trite, but the statement that winners never quit and quitters always lose is a true one.

God has set the universe up in this way so that we will learn that only through effort, perseverance, and planning will we succeed. These are the same qualities we must have to be Kings and Priests in the world tomorrow. This things will not suddenly appear in our character at the resurrection as if by magic -- they are traits that must be developed over time.

Therefore, God's lesson for us today is that we should learn and apply these principles in our lives starting TODAY, not wait until we are dead and in the resurrection. If we neglect to develop our talents and abilities today, we will be like the man in the parable of the talents who buried his talent in a napkin for fear of losing it. This man was rebuked by Christ, and his talent was given to the one who had gained the most.

Unfortunately, churches down through the ages have not understood that they have a duty to develop their people's lives in more ways than just the spiritual, because physical development will lead to the spiritual. This was perhaps understood by the church in its first few years, but it was lost before even the first apostle died.

The Restoration Church of God intends to restore this missing dimension in education to the church and to the world. This will be discussed more thoroughly at the end of this book.

Before I close this brief chapter, though, I would like to point out a couple of other concepts that distort the true Gospel. These concepts interfere with a proper understanding of the Gospel message, obscuring our view of what would otherwise be crystal clear.

One of these concepts that obscures our vision of the truth is the idea that we are "born again at conversion, rather than at the resurrection, which is the Biblical explanation. Let us examine this topic briefly in the Bible to understand this point.

We will start with one of the most difficult scriptures first, because it has been used to twist the meaning of an important word, wresting the meaning to make it sound like Christians are "born again when they are converted. This scripture is I Jn. 3:9: "Whoever has been born of God does not sin, for His seed remains in Him; and he cannot sin, because he has been born of God. This scripture SEEMS to talk about when we are born into the Family of God, after the resurrection. However, when taken in context, things become a little confusing. Back up to verse four, and read the entire context. It says in verse 8 that "he who sins is of the devil. Verse 6 contrasts this with "Whoever abides in Him does not sin. Comparing this to another verse in this same book, chapter 1 and verse 8, John says "If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. This apparently CONTRADICTS chapter 3, verses 6 and 9.

When properly understood, we know that the Bible does not contradict itself. However, in the case of verse 9, the Greek word translated "born, which is from the Greek word "geflflao. Among the meanings are "bear, beget, born, conceive, among others, according to Strong's Concordance. Therefore, in order to properly know whether this word was translated correctly by the translator, we have to look at the context.

Even when a verse seems to read very plainly as verses 6 and 9 here, if it doesn't fit within the context or make sense, then we know that the translators made a mistake. In this case, the word gennao should have been translated either "conceived or "begotten, and the word sin should be rendered "continues in a state of sin instead. When this is done, then the verses make sense with our understanding that all humans, even converted ones, sin. This is consistent with I Jn. 1:8, where it says we deceive ourselves if we say we do not sin.

This example shows us that we have to be really careful sometimes, especially when the obvious meaning in English is inconsistent with the context.

Since we now understand that "gennao can mean anything from the completed birth to conception, or any state in between, then we must read the context of Bible verses where it talks about being "born or "born again, or "born of God very carefully to avoid getting the wrong idea.

Many Bible scholars, especially Protestant ones, do allow themselves to become confused by this issue, mistranslating or misunderstanding certain scriptures to try and make them say that a newly converted Christian is "born again when he or she is actually just "conceived or "begotten, which means that a new creature in Christ has started, but it is not yet fully born, which will happen only at the resurrection.

In addition to twisting the meaning of gennao, certain scholars have taken explanations explaining the impregnation of the human spirit by the Holy Spirit as a begettal, and have twisted this to mean "born again. The word gennao can mean either, they simply want to fit their preconceived notion of what born again means into the Bible.

Let us turn now to the place where Christ Himself explains this situation, making it crystal clear. The understanding is plain for the open mind to see. Some have attempted to twist the meaning here, but, to accept their explanation requires that we believe their personal opinions over the plain statements of this passage, as well as many other direct statements of scripture. Let us examine, then, this pivotal explanation.

"There was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. This man came to Jesus by night and said to Him, Rabbi, we know that You are a teacher come from God; for no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with Him. There is no hint of sarcasm here. Nicodemus comes to Christ by night so that he will not be observed by others who might not approve of his going to Jesus. There is not one shred of evidence, as one scholar claims, that this night is symbolic of the spiritual darkness of the world or of the Jews. It is simply a statement of plain fact. Nicodemus also said that "we know that You are a teacher come from God.... It is not really clear whether or not he was speaking for all of the Pharisees, or a small group who knew this. It would seem to make sense that only a small group could openly admit this fact.

"Jesus answered and said to him, most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.'

"Nicodemus said to Him, How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother's womb and be born?'

The meaning of the context here is very plain. It is clear

that Christ was speaking of an actual birth, not some unreal,
spiritualized away type of "experience one has when they are converted. Nicodemus clearly understood that Jesus was talking about a real birth here -- and this statement made no sense. There is no indication of sarcasm or word games on Nicodemus' part, or any reason to believe he had not come to see Christ out of a sincere desire for information from Him.

Rather than correcting Nicodemus, saying something like, "You don't understand, I am talking about a change of your heart, not a physical birth -- I am speaking about conversion, Jesus really said, "Jesus answered, Most assuredly [or of a truth, or definitely, without any doubtJ, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God [in other words, unless one is first baptized, and then, at the resurrection, BORN AGAIN of the spirit -- becoming a spirit being]. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Jesus was saying that one who is born into this life is born a flesh and blood human being -- of the flesh. That which is born of the spirit is COMPOSED OF SPIRIT, just as we are now composed of flesh. This is corroborated by other Biblical passages, and is in complete agreement with God's plan for mankind, as outlined earlier in this book.

But, Jesus knew that this would be a hard thing for Nicodemus to understand, as nothing like this had ever before been clearly stated in the history of the world. Christ came to make clear God's great plan of salvation. That is why He went on with further explanation: "Do not marvel that I said to you, You must be born again.

"The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear the sound of it, but cannot tell where it comes from and where it goes. SO IS EVERYONE WHO IS BORN OF THE SPIRIT. [Jn. 3:1-8J Electricity had not been discovered by this time, so Jesus used an analogy of a force everyone knew about, but no one could see. Christ here said that one knows that the wind exists by what it does, not because one can see it. The wind is a powerful force that is not containable. He points out that just as the wind is a powerful, unseen, powerful force, SO IS EVERYONE WHO IS BORN INTO THE KINGDOM OF GOD. Nothing could be plainer, from Christ's exhaustive, detailed explanation, that our destiny is to be a powerful God Being in the Kingdom of God.

To spiritualize this passage away does violence to the plan of salvation that God has in store for us. IT DISTORTS THE VERY GOSPEL OF THE KINGDOM OF GOD, spiritualizing away something that is so plain for those to see who have eyes to see.

If you want a summary of the Gospel, of what Paul preached to the gentiles and Jews alike, then read the entire fifteenth chapter of I Corinthians. Paul started with the resurrection of Christ, and then went right into a description of our glorious hope in a resurrection from the dead into God's Kingdom. Note especially verses 20-28, which goes through in capsule form what we have been discussing in this book and what Paul discusses in the whole chapter.

· In passing, I would like to note a few other scriptures. Col. 1:18 calls Christ "the firstborn from the dead. Rom. 8:29 calls Christ "the firstborn among many brethren. A final argument against the "born again at conversion heresy is the following: IF Christ is indeed the "firstborn among many brethren, and if conversion is being born again, then no one must have been converted, having God's Holy Spirit, before the time of Christ. But we know that this is impossible, because Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Elijah, David, etc. were all converted, having the Holy Spirit of God within them. Therefore, if conversion means the same as being born again, then Christ could not be the first. Yet we know that this is impossible in light of the plain scriptures cited above. The only way that this makes any sense is that we ARE ONLY BORN AGAIN AT THE RESURRECTION, BECAUSE NO ONE HAS BEEN RESURRECTED YET, EXCEPT CHRIST THE FIRSTFRUITS. Nov

plain God's Word is when human reasoning is removed, and we believe what the Bible plainly says!

Now that we have cleared up this gross, Gospel distorting, misconception, I would like to discuss one final issue before ending this chapter.

That issue is the emphasis that so many churches place on the person of Christ. In fact, as one church now states it, Christ is the "core of the gospel. This is blatantly untrue.

This is another way of saying that it is a gospel of men

about Christ. Throughout His ministry, Christ deflected attention from Himself, instead focussing people's attention on the GOSPEL OF THE KINGDOM, which we have already discussed, and the Father.

The Father had never been revealed before the coming of Christ. As the Logos, or Spokesman, of the Godhead Christ had been the One mankind had always seen. It was only with the coming of Christ that the Father was revealed, and that was one of His missions.

Christ pointed out many times that the Father was greater than He was (Jn. 14:28J. If any Being of the Godhead is to be the FOCUS OF THE GOSPEL, then, it must be the Father, because He is the One who deserves all of the glory and honor. Then, of course, because the God Family is one of give, the Father turns right around and gives glory and honor to Christ. Christ will then give the glory and honor each member of the God Family should have in the resurrection. The entire Book of John emphasizes how the Father and the Son are one. Once we become spirit cornposed sons of God, in His Family, we will also be one with the Father and Christ. THIS IS THE CENTRAL THEME OF THE GOSPEL -- in the end, WE WILL ALL BE ONE IN THE GOD FAMILY! This is the precious truth that Christ, the apostles, and other Christian martyrs died to bring.

Satan's nature is the opposite of God's nature. Satan teaches SELF RELIANCE, whereas God teaches us THE UNITY OF HIS FAMILY! It is only through a proper understanding and application of this unity in our daily lives that we can receive the blessings God has for us in the next life, as well as today. The Gospel of the Kingdom is a marvelous Gospel that TRANSCENDS ANYTHING ELSE WE COULD IMAGINE! We must not let anything distort this precious truth in our mind, but, through study, prayer, and the guidance of the Holy Spirit, this picture of glorious unity must become ever sharper in our minds.

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