Fake News
So much of what can read on the Internet, or access over traditional media, has been shown to be fake news. It sounds very plausible but is in fact not true. Why do people go to the trouble of creating and spreading fake news? By now we know if a lie is told often enough, especially on official media, people will accept it as the truth. The enemy, yes there is one, has devised a very cunning deceptive system of fake news.
So in this definition, is the Gospel fake news? Yes!
In this post series I will be explaining how I first learned about Christianity, and how I had to unlearn many things since then. This my journey of faith and I am trying to put it in today’s language. It will sound controversial, but that is not my intension.
The Gospel
The early groups of disciples such as those at Antioch that we discussed in my previous post, did not resemble today’s Christians. Their main focus was the coming Kingdom. Were they correct in doing that?
“Gospel” is the English translation of the Greek “ευαγγέλιο” which is pronounced “ef angel ion” meaning good (ευ) message (αγγέλιο) or good news.
So what was the good message?
After John was put in prison, Jesus went into Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God. “The time has come,” he said. “The kingdom of God has come near. Repent and believe the good news!” Mark 1: 14,15
It was a message from God, and was considered to be good. God’s kingdom was near (my emphases). Note, there is no mention of forgiveness of sins.
Did Jesus take spreading this good news seriously? You bet!
Simon and his companions went to look for him, and when they found him, they exclaimed: “Everyone is looking for you!” Jesus replied, “Let us go somewhere else —to the nearby villages —so I can preach there also. That is why I have come.” Mark 1:36-38
At daybreak, Jesus went out to a solitary place. The people were looking for him and when they came to where he was,
they tried to keep him from leaving them. But he said, “I must proclaim the good news of the kingdom of God to the other towns also, because that is why I was sent. And he kept on preaching in the synagogues of Judea.” Luke 4:42-44
So it is fake news!
Not at all, the good news that Jesus was preaching was true and is not fake news!
But another message is being preached today which is also called the gospel, it sounds plausible and good but wrong in almost every fact – thus very effective at deceiving as it has been doing for more than 2000 years. And many sincerely believe that gospel, just as I did. But it was not the good message God sent Jesus to preach. Hence shocking as it may sound, in that sense it is fake news.
In the past I may have been excommunicated, or even burned at the stake for saying such things. I will also discuss how one can be right and still be respectful pf and honoring where others are in their faith.
Jesus did die so that our sins may be forgiven. But that is not what God sent him to preach and it was not what his followers preached, as we will see in the next post, 3 What was preached?