You may have noticed that the Bible itself describes the gospel in over a dozen ways, including the simple adjective “different”. If you are unaware of the wide range of gospel properties you may be in considerable danger of being led down the garden path instead of heading for a mountaintop experience when you read your Bible. The Bible has been reliably translated into the everyday languages of  thousands of earth’s inhabitants. The main confusion arises from Islamic competition: placing the main attraction, the Word of God, in the category of prophets. I would not be able to say that had I not surveyed every reference to the word gospel. 

What prophet?

Yeshua of Nazareth is not a guy who escaped crucifixion. He was not married and swept up in polygamy and the fables of his people. He was the One who said I came to give life to all. This means all are dead. Do not even try to ask a Muslim or a Jew about this topic unless you are willing to ignore all that the prophets have said about David’s house, David’s descendant, and David’s dynasty. If you want to ignore what the Lord said about the solution to human rebellion, then go right ahead, listen to the windy prophets. In one sense or another, they’re all thieves and robbers, who had the distinct honour of speaking for the divine Majesty for a brief moment in their own time, and with lasting effect as corroborating witnesses to the people living in the last days. There is no confusion about the light brought by Yeshua to Jewish life, and its finality is established by the uprooting of people and the demolition of the temple. The prophet that fails to call out his people’s pagan and corrupt practices is no prophet of the divine Majesty.

Has this house, which is called by my name, become a den of robbers in your eyes? Behold, I myself have seen it, declares the LORD. (Jer 7:11 ESV2011)

These words on the lips of the Word of God – taken directly from the ancient prophet are abundantly clear. They need no commentary to clarify their meaning.

He said to them, “It is written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer,’ but you make it a den of robbers.” (Matt 21:13 [SV2011)

It takes more than a prophet to dispel the darkness into which humans were plunged when they were first seduced into flirting with a phony divinity. What prophet will people invent that can outshine John the Baptist? People who want to be called prophet will flee when they learn of the devotion of John to his Master. People who want to call up a prophet to massage their tribal vanities will pull a 180 when they figure out that prophets typically die like bits of rubbish, given over to the powers of darkness. John died as a gift to a dancing girl who asked for his head. Prophets who died in their cushy residences, enjoying the comforts of this life, surrounded by adoring fans are nothing at all. Call Yeshua a prophet and say he is nothing more, will they?

The phrase that tripped up the antichrist: Word of God

and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you heard was coming and now is in the world already. (1John 4:3 ESV2011)

The [w]ord of God did not merely come to the ancients. The phrase identifies more than words and meaning; the phrase describes an encounter with God. The word happened to the prophets (Genesis 15:1, 2 Samuel 7:4, 2 Samuel 24:11, Isaiah 38:4, Jeremiah 1:4, Ezekiel 1:3, Hosea 1:1, Zechariah 1:1)

For many deceivers have gone out into the world, those who do not confess the coming of Jesus Christ in the flesh. Such a one is the deceiver and the antichrist. (2John 1:7 ESV2011)

One Muslim was heard affirming – and I think they all say this – that “Allah sent down his word”, and followed that with “Allah’s word did not exist before he was sent down. When Christ was here in Palestine his contemporaries said “A man cannot be God”, but their own Bible said that God called their ancestors “gods”.

Who is the liar but he who denies that Jesus is the Christ? This is the antichrist, he who denies the Father and the Son. (1John 2:22 ESV2011)

Deny Deny. That is what dead people do until they are quickened.

Yeshua is God’s Word – and let us not get bogged down in speculations about spoken, written and unuttered words. Not one prophet has saved people from their homicidal and covetous penchant. So let us hear it for the Word that came to save. What is a Word from God if he not born without the usual human contribution? What is a Word from God when he does not give sight to the blind? What is a Word from God if he does not elevate the downtrodden and liberate captive women? Should our children never become adults authorized to make a decision about whom they worship? Or should we just shove our religious tradition and culture down their throats? Please, do not ask a Muslim or a Jew!

Most people want parents, politician, priests, rabbis, gurus, imams and shamans who can free them from the useless round of ritual and sensual bondage. No Word from God means hope of salvation. A word from God that is merely a prophet is not news; not good news, not bad news. A word that keeps cultural conventions alive is not salvation. Some people can be fooled sometimes, but lots of us have escaped the corruption that passes for religion. We have a gospel that saves us by the renewal of our minds, helps us with a dramatic change of mind, and it is not something that I care to explain. I dare you to try it