Musing – What is the Heart of the Gospel?

Hebraic Musing – What is the Heart of the Gospel?

Have you ever felt while reading the Bible that you are lost in a forest of ideas, principles, laws, etc.?  What is at the heart of the Bible?  What is the critical essence of the Gospel?  What should be our key takeaways?  I’ve found many lists saying the same thing with differing words; so allow me to propose this list as the essential basics at the Heart of the Gospel, or CENTRAL THEMES:

1.      God is the creator

2.      The universality of sin

3.      Jesus Christ as the son of God and Lord of all; while also being both fully human and fully divine

4.      Jesus is the Savior through his atoning death and his resurrection life

5.      The necessity of personal conversion

6.      The coming and the presence of the Holy Spirit and His transforming power 

7.      The fellowship and mission of the Christian church

8.      The hope of Christ’s return

A seeker asked me recently “why are there so many churches and denomination out there?”  Could it be that individual church fellowships and denominations have downplayed some of these, and/or created and stressed additional themes?  And could those additional themes or tenets become the source of confusion -- distractions weakening the power of the Gospel?  Can extra rules and customs (Like clothing, music, etc.) hinder acceptance and compatibility of the Good News when presented to a distinctly different culture?  

More important – Missionaries to foreign cultures are finding that many past efforts have failed.  Why?  Because preaching the need for pipe organs, denominational rules, proper dress codes, etc. became unnecessary distractions when presented to a foreign culture.  In a recent study of missiology I read of many success stories where the initial missionary team preached from the Bible and stressed CENTRAL THEMES like the above; then they let local indigenous leaders build the local church by building on those themes.  Those churches changed the culture only as needed to comply with the CENTRAL THEME of the Bible.

When leading interdenominational Christian men’s groups, I had a friendly custom of fining anybody who mentioned their church or denomination because “we are here to preach Jesus Christ and Him crucified.”

 Points to ponder

I agree with all 8 points above.  If we add “The inerrancy of the Bible”
we have the challenges of making timely, meaningful and relevant translations available.

Do we always need to change cultures in order to make the Bible relevant?

Do all who claim to be Christian accept these as the central theme of their faith?
Or, can a “Christian” ignore any of these themes and still be called “Christian”?

Does it all start with Believing, Repenting and Believing Jesus? 
Then the rest should follow.    What think you?

♫   My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus’ blood and righteousness; I dare not trust the sweetest frame, but wholly lean on Jesus’ name.  On Christ, the solid Rock, I stand; …♫

Yosef   a.k.a.  Joe Brusherd                                      May 22, 2018

Author: “Hebraic Insights – Messages exploring the Hebrew roots of our faith” 
“Biblical Marriage (by Yosef)”   Weekly “Hebraic Musings”

Note -- Excerpted from “PERSPECTIVES on the World Christian Movement”  4^th ed.,  The Willowbank Report.  p. 512