Description - The Lost and Forgotten Gospel of the Kingdom by Steven R Service
However scandalous it may seem, by the 4th century A.D., the original biblical meaning of the term "gospel" was lost. What "gospel" did Jesus preach at the start of His ministry? Mark 1:14...that first came to Abraham? Galatians 3:8...was also preached in the days of Moses? Hebrews 3:16-4:2...was known by John the Baptist before he baptized Jesus? Luke 3:18...and later was preached by Jesus' disciples, prior to knowing their Rabbi would go to the cross? Luke 9:6. Each verse references preaching of a "gospel" that could not have possibly been "the story of the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus." After more than a millennium, the "'gospel' of the kingdom" has been identified once again. "Christianity" was originally a faith movement within Judaism, wherein a group of Jewish disciples followed and lived by the teachings of the Rabbi Yeshuah, (Jesus). Continuing in the spirituality of Moses, Jesus taught adherents how to embrace divine empowerment from God by entry into the kingdom. His followers recorded these teachings in the Koine Greek Scriptures. Jesus was not understood by the religious establishment of His time and was crucified. Nevertheless, the faith movement grew. Initially the scriptures served posterity to lead them into the wonders of the kingdom of God. However, the characteristics of the movement changed markedly in the first 300 years. In the 1st century A.D., the Hebraic Faith Movement that began with Abraham reached its apex about 50 years after the death of Jesus and was labeled "Christianity." By the 4th century A.D., Christianity had completed its transition from what originated as an Eastern minded Hebraic faith tradition, and then developed later into a Western thinking, Aristotelian, Gentile religious movement. Like a tree severed from its root, the latter group was no longer dominated by its original constituency. Christians who were filled with antipathy for the Jews, redefined a new religious identity largely through interpretation of Koine Greek sacred texts that were composed much earlier in the 1st century A.D. Upon these, a legalistic reductionistic interpretational method was imposed in order to derive doctrinal formulations, religious creeds and a new order of sacramental worship; a system of praxis far removed from the concerns of their disavowed ancient ancestors of faith. Along with their separation from the Hebraic Tradition and anathematization of the Hebrew and Aramaic Scriptures, Christendom eventually lost the ability to accurately identify the meaning of a number of biblical terms, in keeping with their ancient formative contexts of understanding. The term "gospel," as it was originally understood by the authors of scripture was no longer definable. Although many Christians today would generally agree that the "gospel" is "the story of the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus," which if "accepted" as being factually true, has the "salvific" power to afford adherents entry into heaven after death, the point is substantiated herein that 1st century followers of the Rabbi Jesus understood and participated in a "gospel," whereby they entered a dynamic, living and miraculous relationship with God. With the unwitting acceptance of new meanings for several biblical terms, however, the spirituality of Christianity was set off course, leading many adherents into an elitist intellectual religion, steeped in divisive theories and dead propositional fundamentalism. In light of reviewing the factors that contributed to the loss of the "gospel," an attempt is made to trace and restore a biblical, historical & intellectual path that originally gave definition to the term, and to shine a light back to the way of Hebraic spirituality. Jesus, His disciples and the authors of the Greek scriptures participated fully in the same "gospel" that had been embraced by ancient Israel's spiritual ancestors: Abraham, David and the prophets. Critics of Jesus & the Church may find new insights & renewal
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