Table of Contents
Parent: JesusWordsOnly
Elimination of Synoptics in Modern Gospel Message
This perverse down-playing of Jesus' actual words in the Synoptics continues today. Even someone of Billy Graham's stature tells us that Jesus' gospel was not in the words spoken in His ministry. It was in nothing Jesus said. It was all in His death and resurrection, which is what Paul taught. If you believe these two facts about Jesus ((Rom. 10:9)), Paul taught you are saved. Here is what Billy Graham's Evangelistic Association said in 1980 in a tract entitled "The Gospel". It says Jesus "came to do three days work, to die, be buried and raised" and that "He came not primarily to preach the Gospel... but He came rather that there might be a Gospel to preach."
- The 1611 translators could have used the English Continuous Present ("is believing"). Instead, they arrived at a translation that effaced the original meaning by rendering the Greek for is believing in John 3:16 as believes. In English, this is the Simple Present tense. In this context, it implies a one-time faith saves. This would have been correct if the underlying Greek had been in the aorist tense. Elowever, the Greek was present participle active. (See Appendix A: Greek Issues .)
o know about in evaluating salvation doctrine. It is far more important to believe the two simple facts about Jesus being Lord and was resurrected. ((Rom. 10:9).) Paul said you will be instantly saved forever if you merely acknowledge these two facts. (Romans 10:9.)
What about the validity of the Billy Graham Association's claim that Jesus did not primarily come to preach a gospel? Of course, it is impossible to reconcile these statements with Jesus' declaration "I came to preach the Gospel of the Kingdom; that is the reason why I was commissioned." (Luke 4:43). Roy Gustafson of the Billy Graham Association explains the reasoning behind the crusade tract's opposing view:
The word Gospel occurs over one hundred times in the New
Testament.. .What then is the Gospel of the grace of God? Let us
ask Paul. He would point us to I Cor. 15:1-4: 'I declare to you
the gospel which I preached to you.. .that Christ died for our
sins, that he was buried, and that he rose again the third
day'.. .Paul never discussed the earthly life of our Lord.. .The
fact that the Lord Jesus died to save is one half of the Gospel!
The fact that he rose from the dead...is the other half of the
Gospel.
As Gustafson defines the Gospel of Jesus, it is all contained in Paul's simple message about the death and resurrection of Jesus. (1 Cor. 15:1-4.). The Gospel is not found in anything Jesus said. You won't find it in His sermons or His parables. Jesus could not be proclaiming the Gospel because had Jesus been doing so, Gustafson asks: 'why then didn't Paul ever mention anything Jesus said in that regard?'
Indeed! That is precisely the question I am posing! Gustafson cannot see the issue right in front of his nose. How could Paul be preaching the Gospel of Jesus if he never quotes Jesus? Furthermore, Gustafson's reasoning ignores Jesus' own statement that "I came to preach the Gospel of the Kingdom; that is the reason why I was commissioned." (Luke 4:43). Jesus and Gustafson cannot both be correct.
Gustafson's view that Jesus' words do not matter and are unimportant to comprehend how to be saved is not new. It is what Luther was saying. Calvin too.
The purpose in defining the Gospel in this way is to focus only on Paul. Its aim is to exclude Jesus' Gospel in the Synoptics. Why? Because Luther, Calvin and everyone else knows Jesus ' Gospel in the Synoptics is a message of faith plus works, not faith alone. As Jesus most bluntly put it: "every tree therefore that bringeth not forth [/'. e ., "does not keep on producing"] good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire (Matt. 7:19). The Gospel of the Synoptics is a message of the necessity of adding good fruit and repentance from sin to your faith. Jesus' Gospel is not about just belief in facts about Himself. As Jesus likewise states, His Gospel message promises "eternal life" for denying oneself, taking up one's cross and following Jesus. ((Matt. 19:27-29) ("shall inherit eternal life".) See also, (Matt. 10:37-39).) The Gospel in the Synoptics contains the message of James.
What a dilemma! If Jesus' Gospel in the Synoptics is the Gospel, we would have to re-write all these gospel tracts. For Jesus' Gospel in the Synoptics is the antithesis to Paul's Gospel.
So what are these theologians like Gustafson doing? As Bonhoeffer states, "theologians...simulate concern" for Jesus but try to "avoid the encounter" with Him, and thereby "Christ is still betrayed by the kiss." (Christ the Center (1933 lectures) at 35.) Thus, those who deny Jesus even had a Gospel of His own so they can hold onto Paul have turned their backs on the only one who matters: Jesus.