What exactly is the gospel???

Cribstyl

Veteran
Jun 13, 2006
8,989
2,067
✟97,528.00
Country
United States
Faith
Pentecostal
Marital Status
Married
Politics
US-Democrat
The scriptures is revealing the power of God. It caused the earthquake, it opened the all the shackles, it opened all the cells.

It's seem obvious to understand that in seeing the gates open, the jailer thought that it was a jailbreak.
When he called for the light to see what could have happened while he slept, it appears that he knew it was the power of God that caused all that happened.

The jailer's request for salvation could easily be based on knowing that Paul and his crew was arrested for preaching salvation through Jesus Christ. The miracle of seeing the tables turned on his life may have helped him to make a choice.

The scriptures gives us enough information to show that it was the power of the Holy Spirit that causes every life to be saved. Saying that the jailer was ignorant of what he was asking for, sounds misguided to say the least.
 
Upvote 0

Tangible

Decision Theology = Ex Opere Operato
May 29, 2009
9,837
1,416
cruce tectum
Visit site
✟59,743.00
Country
United States
Faith
Lutheran
Marital Status
Married
The fact of the matter is that the jailer simply could not, according to scripture, have made a decision that effectively moved him from the unsaved pile to the saved pile. It just doesn't work that way.

God picks us up like little stones and moves us from the unsaved pile to the saved pile. Some of us stay put, some roll back. We don't expend any energy or take any action to move to the saved pile. That's all God's doing. Those who roll back do so under their own power.
 
Upvote 0

Cribstyl

Veteran
Jun 13, 2006
8,989
2,067
✟97,528.00
Country
United States
Faith
Pentecostal
Marital Status
Married
Politics
US-Democrat
The fact of the matter is that the jailer simply could not, according to scripture, have made a decision that effectively moved him from the unsaved pile to the saved pile. It just doesn't work that way.

God picks us up like little stones and moves us from the unsaved pile to the saved pile. Some of us stay put, some roll back. We don't expend any energy or take any action to move to the saved pile. That's all God's doing. Those who roll back do so under their own power.
In case you missed it.:doh: The scriptures show that the jailer asked; Act 16:30 And brought them out, and said, Sirs, what must I do to be saved?
Act 16:31 And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house.
Act 16:32 And they spake unto him the word of the Lord, and to all that were in his house.
Act 16:33 And he took them the same hour of the night, and washed [their] stripes; and was baptized, he and all his, straightway.
Act 16:34 And when he had brought them into his house, he set meat before them, and rejoiced, believing in God with all his house.

This fact is; Jhn 3:16For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

Be carefull that you're not teaching contrary to what's taught in the gospel:

Rom 10:9That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.
Rom 10:10For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.
 
Last edited:
Upvote 0

Tangible

Decision Theology = Ex Opere Operato
May 29, 2009
9,837
1,416
cruce tectum
Visit site
✟59,743.00
Country
United States
Faith
Lutheran
Marital Status
Married
In case you missed it.:doh: The scriptures show that the jailer asked; Act 16:30 And brought them out, and said, Sirs, what must I do to be saved?
Act 16:31 And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house.
Act 16:32 And they spake unto him the word of the Lord, and to all that were in his house.
Act 16:33 And he took them the same hour of the night, and washed [their] stripes; and was baptized, he and all his, straightway.
Act 16:34 And when he had brought them into his house, he set meat before them, and rejoiced, believing in God with all his house.

This fact is consistant with what Jesus said; Jhn 3:16For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

Be carefull that you're not teaching contrary to this gospel:

Rom 10:9That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.
Rom 10:10For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.
You're trying to turn believing into a work that you must do in order to be saved. That's not scriptural. Believing is the outworking of faith in Christ which is the gracious gift of God.

We don't believe in order to be saved. We are saved by grace through faith in Christ, and that faith is a gift from God.

Big difference. Huge difference.

Your works-based soteriology also assumes that man, in his naturally sinful state, can do something to justify himself before God.

That's just bad theological anthropology.
 
Upvote 0

Cribstyl

Veteran
Jun 13, 2006
8,989
2,067
✟97,528.00
Country
United States
Faith
Pentecostal
Marital Status
Married
Politics
US-Democrat
You're trying to turn believing into a work that you must do in order to be saved. That's not scriptural. Believing is the outworking of faith in Christ which is the gracious gift of God.

We don't believe in order to be saved. We are saved by grace through faith in Christ, and that faith is a gift from God.

Big difference. Huge difference.

Your works-based soteriology also assumes that man, in his naturally sinful state, can do something to justify himself before God.

That's just bad theological anthropology.
The scriptures speaks for themselves. Your arguments contradicts the scriptures.
 
Upvote 0

Tangible

Decision Theology = Ex Opere Operato
May 29, 2009
9,837
1,416
cruce tectum
Visit site
✟59,743.00
Country
United States
Faith
Lutheran
Marital Status
Married
The scriptures speaks for themselves.
I agree, but ...
Your arguments contradicts the scriptures.
One of us is reading them wrong. (Psst! It's not me. :wave:)

Anyway, I know I'll never convince you. :) I only pray that God will have mercy on you as he must have mercy on me every minute of every hour of every day.

Lord have mercy, Christ have mercy, Lord have mercy. Amen.
 
Upvote 0

MoreCoffee

Repentance works.
Jan 8, 2011
29,850
2,841
Near the flying spaghetti monster
✟57,848.00
Faith
Catholic
Marital Status
Private
I agree, but ...One of us is reading them wrong. (Psst! It's not me. :wave:)

Anyway, I know I'll never convince you. :) I only pray that God will have mercy on you as he must have mercy on me every minute of every hour of every day.

Lord have mercy, Christ have mercy, Lord have mercy. Amen.

Amen.

Lord have mercy.
 
Upvote 0

shturt678

Senior Veteran
Feb 1, 2013
5,280
103
Hawaii
✟13,428.00
Faith
Lutheran
Marital Status
Single
In case you missed it.:doh: The scriptures show that the jailer asked; Act 16:30 And brought them out, and said, Sirs, what must I do to be saved?
Act 16:31 And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house.
Act 16:32 And they spake unto him the word of the Lord, and to all that were in his house.
Act 16:33 And he took them the same hour of the night, and washed [their] stripes; and was baptized, he and all his, straightway.
Act 16:34 And when he had brought them into his house, he set meat before them, and rejoiced, believing in God with all his house.

This fact is; Jhn 3:16For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

Be carefull that you're not teaching contrary to what's taught in the gospel:

Rom 10:9That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.
Rom 10:10For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.

:):):) Excellent work. There is undue fear of synergism that lays the stress on poiein as though the man intended to say that he would "do" something to merit salvation or to prepare himself for it. The earthquake removed all high ideas regarding himself from his heart. Neither the apostles nor Jesus (Lk.10:25; 18:18) act as though the question in regard to doing something had anything wrong about it. Paul answers this question exactly as it is put by telling the man what he is to "do." Excellent work again. :thumbsup:
 
Upvote 0

jasonsloss

Christian
Jan 5, 2013
954
70
55
California
✟8,774.00
Faith
Christian
Marital Status
Single
You're trying to turn believing into a work that you must do in order to be saved. That's not scriptural. Believing is the outworking of faith in Christ which is the gracious gift of God.

We don't believe in order to be saved. We are saved by grace through faith in Christ, and that faith is a gift from God.

Big difference. Huge difference.

Your works-based soteriology also assumes that man, in his naturally sinful state, can do something to justify himself before God.

That's just bad theological anthropology.

first the word saved here in the context is referring to salvation...

second if God moves like stones from one pile to another then how can one move ones self back???

next have we forgotten Jesus's own words to the woman with an issue of blood when He said "your faith has made you whole"...

faith of mustard seed ring any bells...

we have to choose to believe even when the Holy Spirit quickens our heart with the truth of Christ we still have to choose to believe...
 
Upvote 0
This site stays free and accessible to all because of donations from people like you.
Consider making a one-time or monthly donation. We appreciate your support!
- Dan Doughty and Team Christian Forums

jasonsloss

Christian
Jan 5, 2013
954
70
55
California
✟8,774.00
Faith
Christian
Marital Status
Single
In case you missed it.:doh: The scriptures show that the jailer asked; Act 16:30 And brought them out, and said, Sirs, what must I do to be saved?
Act 16:31 And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house.
Act 16:32 And they spake unto him the word of the Lord, and to all that were in his house.
Act 16:33 And he took them the same hour of the night, and washed [their] stripes; and was baptized, he and all his, straightway.
Act 16:34 And when he had brought them into his house, he set meat before them, and rejoiced, believing in God with all his house.

This fact is; Jhn 3:16For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

Be carefull that you're not teaching contrary to what's taught in the gospel:

Rom 10:9That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.
Rom 10:10For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.

excellent :amen::amen::amen:
 
Upvote 0

MoreCoffee

Repentance works.
Jan 8, 2011
29,850
2,841
Near the flying spaghetti monster
✟57,848.00
Faith
Catholic
Marital Status
Private
GOSPEL is the “good news” of God’s mercy and love revealed in the life, death, and resurrection of Christ. It is this Gospel or good news that the Apostles, and the Church following them, are to proclaim to the entire world. The Gospel is handed on in the apostolic tradition of the Church as the source of all–saving truth and moral discipline. The four Gospels are the books written by the evangelists Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John which have for their central object Jesus Christ, God’s incarnate Son: his life, teachings, Passion and glorification, and his Church’s beginnings under the Spirit’s guidance.

The Paschal mystery of Christ’s cross and Resurrection stands at the center of the Good News that the apostles, and the Church following them, are to proclaim to the world. God’s saving plan was accomplished “once for all” by the redemptive death of his Son Jesus Christ.

The Old Law is a preparation for the Gospel. “The Law is a pedagogy and a prophecy of things to come.” It prophesies and presages the work of liberation from sin which will be fulfilled in Christ: it provides the New Testament with images, “types,” and symbols for expressing the life according to the Spirit. Finally, the Law is completed by the teaching of the sapiential books and the prophets which set its course toward the New Covenant and the Kingdom of heaven.

Christ the Lord, in whom the entire Revelation of the most high God is summed up, commanded the apostles to preach the Gospel, which had been promised beforehand by the prophets, and which he fulfilled in his own person and promulgated with his own lips. In preaching the Gospel, they were to communicate the gifts of God to all men. This Gospel was to be the source of all saving truth and moral discipline.[cf. Mt 28:19-20; Mk 16:15]

The Word of God, which is the power of God for salvation to everyone who has faith, is set forth and displays its power in a most wonderful way in the writings of the New Testament which hand on the ultimate truth of God’s Revelation. Their central object is Jesus Christ, God’s incarnate Son: his acts, teachings, Passion and glorification, and his Church’s beginnings under the Spirit’s guidance.

Many things about Jesus of interest to human curiosity do not figure in the Gospels. Almost nothing is said about his hidden life at Nazareth, and even a great part of his public life is not recounted. What is written in the Gospels was set down there “so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in his name.”

(Sources, Scripture, CCC, Documents of Vatican II)

Yes, but the gospel answers,

1] how He saved us and

2] from what He saved us!

BTW, none of you have touched on this....

I reckon I did address "this" -- see the above post from MoreCoffee.
 
Upvote 0

Tangible

Decision Theology = Ex Opere Operato
May 29, 2009
9,837
1,416
cruce tectum
Visit site
✟59,743.00
Country
United States
Faith
Lutheran
Marital Status
Married
Okay...let's say you are trying to spread the gospel; so you walk up to someone. What do you tell him? Pretend I'm that unbeliever. Tell me why I need Christ.....
I worked this up once as an ecumenical presentation of law and gospel, the very basics that someone would need to be told for them to become a Christian. I'm not totally pleased with it. It still needs some tweaking. Anyway, here 'tis ...

Introductory Statement
God is eternal and exists independent of matter, space and time. God is Truth. He made us and loves us, and so he has revealed his truth to us in two ways: the law and the gospel. The law tells us what God expects of us, and the gospel tells us what God does for us.

The Law
God is absolutely perfect and requires us to be absolutely perfect in order to live with him in eternity. We're obviously not perfect. We can't do anything to make us perfect. We are constantly doing things that show how truly imperfect we are. We don't even really want to be perfect because we like doing things our own way, not God's way. The truth is, we all deserve to spend eternity in misery separated from God.

The Gospel
Jesus is God in human flesh. He lived a perfect life and then suffered and died to pay the penalty for all our imperfections. On the third day he rose again from the dead, winning eternal victory over sin, death and the devil. God applies Jesus' perfection to us and declares us perfect even though we don't deserve it and can't do anything to earn it. God graciously gives us the free gift of faith so we can believe in Jesus' total satisfaction of God's law on our behalf. Since Jesus has dealt with the consequences of our disobedience we can now be part of his everlasting Kingdom now and in the age to come.

Our Response
Before God saves us we can do absolutely nothing that is pleasing to God. After he saves us, God gives us the ability to praise him and thank him for saving us, to believe what he has revealed to us in the bible, to meet with him in prayer, and to use the gifts he has given us to serve others. One way that we can show our love for others is to tell them what God has done for us and how he has done the same thing for them. God doesn't want us to be alone in our new lives, so he gives us churches where we can worship him, receive his blessings, get help with our problems, and be trained and equipped to live the kind of life God wants for us.
 
Upvote 0
This site stays free and accessible to all because of donations from people like you.
Consider making a one-time or monthly donation. We appreciate your support!
- Dan Doughty and Team Christian Forums

Cribstyl

Veteran
Jun 13, 2006
8,989
2,067
✟97,528.00
Country
United States
Faith
Pentecostal
Marital Status
Married
Politics
US-Democrat
first the word saved here in the context is referring to salvation...

second if God moves like stones from one pile to another then how can one move ones self back???

next have we forgotten Jesus's own words to the woman with an issue of blood when He said "your faith has made you whole"...

faith of mustard seed ring any bells...

we have to choose to believe even when the Holy Spirit quickens our heart with the truth of Christ we still have to choose to believe...
That's gospel:thumbsup:
 
Upvote 0

Tangible

Decision Theology = Ex Opere Operato
May 29, 2009
9,837
1,416
cruce tectum
Visit site
✟59,743.00
Country
United States
Faith
Lutheran
Marital Status
Married
No, sorry. If I'm doing it, it's not good news. I'm broken and I can't do anything perfectly.

Perhaps you could quantify for me exactly how much I have to believe in order to be saved under your system.

Is there a list of things I have to believe? Who made the list?

Is there some way to measure the intensity or sincerity of my belief?

How can I know when I have believed hard enough or been sincere enough?

The bible tells me that God wants me to do lots of other things besides believing. Do I have to do them too in order to be saved?

What is the difference between my believing in order to be saved and my being good in order to be saved?
 
Upvote 0

Cribstyl

Veteran
Jun 13, 2006
8,989
2,067
✟97,528.00
Country
United States
Faith
Pentecostal
Marital Status
Married
Politics
US-Democrat
Saved from what?
Saved from spiritual death, the penalty of sin.

It's a no brainer that the jailer and his household heard the word of the lord (gospel) and they all believed, and therefore they were saved.

Act 16:31 And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house.
Act 16:32 And they spake unto him the word of the Lord, and to all that were in his house.
Act 16:33 And he took them the same hour of the night, and washed [their] stripes; and was baptized, he and all his, straightway.
Act 16:34 And when he had brought them into his house, he set meat before them, and rejoiced, believing in God with all his house.
I expect you to try to make clear facts fuzzy because your whole gospel would tank.:D:D:D
 
Upvote 0

Tangible

Decision Theology = Ex Opere Operato
May 29, 2009
9,837
1,416
cruce tectum
Visit site
✟59,743.00
Country
United States
Faith
Lutheran
Marital Status
Married
The jailer was aware of his need to be saved. So Paul told them the word of the Lord, the Gospel of Jesus Christ, which is the power of God for salvation, thereby granting them repentance and faith in Christ, through which they were saved. The adults believed the Gospel. Then the whole household was baptized into Christ. They rejoiced in their salvation.

If that's what you're saying then I'm right there with you.
 
Upvote 0
This site stays free and accessible to all because of donations from people like you.
Consider making a one-time or monthly donation. We appreciate your support!
- Dan Doughty and Team Christian Forums
B

BluhdoftheLamb

Guest
No, sorry. If I'm doing it, it's not good news. I'm broken and I can't do anything perfectly.

Perhaps you could quantify for me exactly how much I have to believe in order to be saved under your system.

Is there a list of things I have to believe?

Yes

Who made the list?

I did

Is there some way to measure the intensity or sincerity of my belief?

Just step over to my believe-O-tron 5000 and drink the kool aid. Everything will be better soon enough

How can I know when I have believed hard enough or been sincere enough?

Because all your problems will be solved, and you will be rich. But of course that's no good so you'll have to give all your money to me. Hey its in the Gospel, I don't make the rules I just follow them.

The bible tells me that God wants me to do lots of other things besides believing. Do I have to do them too in order to be saved?

Of course! What do you think you're giving me all that money for? And don't forget the guacamole!

What is the difference between my believing in order to be saved and my being good in order to be saved?

You haven't finished your kool aid
 
Upvote 0