Question: In the archival Q&As that you selected for the April newsletter, I can't believe the lack of Scripture references in your response to those who believe there is a Gospel for the Jews and a "Gospel of Grace," as preached by Paul.

Question: In the archival Q&As that you selected for the April newsletter, I can't believe the lack of Scripture references in your response to those who believe there is a Gospel for the Jews and a "Gospel of Grace," as preached by Paul. Those teaching this have gained quite a following in our area. I suspect that you have probably been reading, listening, and watching these same people. Please! Some of these things need a bit more consideration.

Response: There is only one gospel. It is eternal and changeless. It is the gospel of the Kingdom, the only gospel that Jesus or His disciples or Paul preached, and the same gospel that we must preach today. Unfortunately, seldom is the gospel preached in the way Paul preached it in Acts:17:2-3 [2] And Paul, as his manner was, went in unto them, and three sabbath days reasoned with them out of the scriptures, [3] Opening and alleging, that Christ must needs have suffered, and risen again from the dead; and that this Jesus, whom I preach unto you, is Christ.
See All..., in Romans 1, etc. Romans 1, for example, reveals what must shock a Jew: that Christianity is not some new invention but the fulfillment of the same message the Hebrew prophets had proclaimed.

Though the prophets didn't fully understand it, Paul still called it "the gospel of God, which he had promised afore by his prophets in the holy scriptures" (Rom:1:2(Which he had promised afore by his prophets in the holy scriptures,)
See All...). One of the most powerful arguments we have for Jews or anyone else is the fact that the entire gospel, from Christ's birth to His  death and resurrection, was all foretold in detail in the Old Testament. We are simply preaching today what God has proclaimed in His Word for thousands of years!

Some have asked, "When did the gospel change from the preaching of the kingdom (Lk 9:2,6) to the preaching of the Cross (1 Cor:15:1-4 [1] Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel which I preached unto you, which also ye have received, and wherein ye stand; [2] By which also ye are saved, if ye keep in memory what I preached unto you, unless ye have believed in vain. [3] For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures; [4] And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures:
See All...)?" It didn't. The gospel doesn't change: The Messiah comes to us through Abraham and his descendants, Israel (Gn 12); God promised a land to Israel, and the Messiah will reign over that land, His people, and the whole world from Jerusalem. That is all part of the gospel and is an offer that was made through Jesus and His disciples to Israel, but they rejected and killed Him. Thus, Israel had something special to repent of, and Peter's remarks at Pentecost reflected that fact.

Yet Christ's rejection by His own and His death on the Cross for our sins were foretold in the Old Testament. That gospel (of the Cross) was, in effect, preached in Psalm 22, Isaiah 53, Daniel:9:26And after threescore and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off, but not for himself: and the people of the prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary; and the end thereof shall be with a flood, and unto the end of the war desolations are determined.
See All..., etc. Though few understood, it was still there.

It isn't true that the preaching of the Cross began with Paul. John the Baptist hailed Christ as "the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world," though he didn't understand what that meant. Jesus preached the gospel of the Cross to Nicodemus, and, although the disciples didn't understand that gospel before His resurrection, they surely did afterward and before Pentecost. In Luke:24:25-27 [25] Then he said unto them, O fools, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken: [26] Ought not Christ to have suffered these things, and to enter into his glory? [27] And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself.
See All..., Jesus rebuked two disciples for not knowing from the Scriptures the gospel of the Cross; and in verses 44-48, He explained to the eleven the gospel of His death and resurrection--and it is this gospel that He sent them forth to preach to the whole world (v. 47).

We have this commission to "all the world," or "all nations," also in Matthew 28 and Mark 16. Jesus surely wouldn't have used that language if He knew that this "gospel of the Kingdom" was only temporary and for Israel alone. The gospel of the Kingdom concerns the reign of Christ over all creation, which begins in our hearts, has a special Israeli fulfillment in His Millennial reign--and its ultimate fulfillment in the New Creation. That the gospel of the Kingdom couldn't have been temporary and applicable only to the Millennium is obvious, for "flesh and blood" cannot inherit the Kingdom (1 Cor:15:50Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; neither doth corruption inherit incorruption.
See All...). One must be "born again" to be in it (Jn 3), and it is everlasting and without war (Is 9:6-7), but the Millennium ends, and in war.