Frankly, he does his best to make sure salvation is by faith alone, but he wants that faith to lead (inevitably and surely) to discipleship. McKnight’s writing is personal, endearing, and delightful to read. He leads us from our current condition … (p. 111). But in this representation of the gospel, salvation is not merely escape from hell to heaven but entry into God’s kingdom, which encompasses the present life and life beyond this life. Soterians will try to avoid this at all costs. Scot ties his understanding of the gospel into the earliest credal formulations of the Christian Church. Noté /5. Christians must regain a firm grasp of the meaning of the gospel, on this point, he and I certainly agree. It is precisely here that a “gospel culture” was reshaped into a “salvation culture” or, better yet, “justification culture.” Here are the central categories of the Lutheran confession: The Son of God [as with Nicea and Chalcedon, with a clear understanding of a satisfaction and propitiation of God’s wrath]. Christ. He is Lord. Second, we need to immerse ourselves even more into the Story of Jesus. Or, even more directly, Did Jesus preach himself? Scot understands the key issues each of the above authors build upon in their writings on the gospel and interacts with them with truth and love. “Most of evangelism today is obsessed with getting someone to make a decision; the apostles, however, were obsessed with making disciples. (p. 79). This more robust gospel is the gospel proclaimed in the four gospel accounts, the gospel found in the preaching in the book of Acts, and the gospel that Jesus preached. Scot sums up the chapter and finishes the book with this conclusion. These main points capture what Scot writes about. It’s written for everyday people and to keep their attention. (p. 127). The announcement of the gospel results in people getting saved…. No one could understand the gospel until after the cross and resurrection and Pentecost.’ ‘Not even Jesus?’ I asked. Review by Chris Smith. I am a drug an alcohol counselor who deals with broken people regularly, and the Christians I see almost invariably believe they are ‘saved’, yet frequently show remarkably little desire to lead a Christian lifestyle. Forgiveness of sin is good news indeed, but the biblical witness to the gospel is more expansive. The … Consequently, some soterians who believe the gospel is justification by faith (coming from Luther’s reading of Romans 1-3) also believe that understanding justification will automatically lead to sanctification. They came to his house, introduced themselves and worked their way into a conversation. One reason so many make decisions and don’t follow through is because the rhetoric was aimed at an insufficient response and appealed to a decision on the basis of an emotional story.” (McKnight, Gospel and Rhetoric). Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2011. The gospel centers in Him and the greater revelation of the triune God in saving creation. He recalls another experience where he bumped into a pastor at an airport. I really like this book and hope you read this review. He concludes; “Answer A: For this emailer, the word gospel was almost entirely about personal salvation. McKnight’s diagnosis as to why both Evangelicals and the “liturgical traditions” (I include the mainline church here) struggle to make disciples is that both have a salvation culture rather than a gospel culture. This is a great book and I encourage everyone to read it. It may seem patently obvious, but it’s not to most: they called these books “the Gospels” because they are the gospel. They are probably exposed time and time again by people telling them this is the gospel. The word commonly rendered as ‘preached’ or ‘proclaimed’ is euangelizō. If someone new came into your church, what would they think was distinctive about it? As a high school student, the youth group from the United Methodist Church in which I grew up attended a rally event at a very large conservative Evangelical church across town. Scot McKnight's new book, "The King Jesus Gospel: The Original Good News Revisited," is a keeper. When I read today’s thin and superficial reductions of the gospel to simple points, I know that that could never have happened apart from the Reformation. I finished Scot McKnight book “The King Jesus Gospel” today. I’ve seen this reflected in the early church immediately after the apostles and continuing for four hundred plus years. Jesus went to the Bible to define who he was and what his mission was. In this chapter Scot evaluates modern understandings of gospel ministry. Scot then gives a very brief history of evangelistic preaching. he is married with three children. VERITAS A Harvard Professor, A Con Man and the Gospel of Jesus’s Wife By Ariel Sabar. Jesus believed he was completing scriptural passages. We cannot help but conclude that making a decision is not the vital element that leads to a life of discipleship.” (p. 20). His … Summary: The King Jesus Gospel, The Original Good News Revisited by Scot McKnight is a call to evangelism and of making disciples. Overall, The King Jesus Gospel has been one of the most thought-provoking, challenging, and stimulating books I’ve read this year. Scott McKnight, a Professor of religious studies at North Park Unversity in Chicago (McKnight, 2011) guides us in rethinking what our current understanding is concerning this question. Clearly, one must be saved into this Story. First it was supposed to be Yandhi, but the whole project got leaked, so „Jesus Is King”, a gospel album was announced to come out with a movie attached to it. And they are consistent: to participate in the Story of Jesus the apostles called people to believe, to repent, and to be baptized. Copyright © Joshua Washington and thescripturesays, 2016. Gospel and culture. The King Jesus Gospel Book Review Anthony Brown GLST 220: Intercultural Communication and … The point I want to make now is fivefold, and it is the heart of the answer to our question whether Jesus himself preached the gospel: Scot argues Jesus preached about himself in the following ways; Near the end of the chapter Scot answers the questions he put forward. Man. Scot says ‘If we don’t begin here, we make a big mistake.’ (p. 46) In 1 Cor 15 Paul reminds his readers of the gospel by reciting the apostolic church tradition. “Gilbert has minimized the structural significance of 1 Corinthians 15; he has focused only on the salvation bits in the evangelistic sermons in the book of Acts; he has not given sufficient emphasis to the Story of Israel as yearning for resolution in Jesus as the Messiah and Lord as the framing story for how to understand gospel; and this Story of Israel is the driving focus of the book of Acts’ sermons and 1 Corinthians 15. I also know that it didn’t happen during the Reformation itself but as a result of the Reformation’s reframing of the apostolic gospel-become-creed. For our sake he was crucified under Pontius Pilate; On the third day he rose again in accordance with the Scriptures; he ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father. The King Jesus Gospel: The Original Good News Revisited: 6: McKnight, Scot, Wright, N. T., Willard, Dallas, England, Maurice: Amazon.sg The book interacts with the main evangelical positions on what the gospel is. I devoted a post in my series on the gospel to just this topic. Jesus Is King nods to a handful of moments from the past 15 years of West’s career. Scot calls out sedentary evangelical christians by asking/answering, “What is The Gospel”. He … He draws upon Dallas Willard with some provocative statements about ‘vampire Christians’. For them everything starts with sin, then moves on to its implications and how to deal with it. The gospel is the Story of Jesus completing the Story of Israel, for the sake of the whole cosmos. He encourages his readers to read the gospel accounts more and more. In The King Jesus Gospel: The Original Good News Revisited (Grand Rapids, Mich.: Zondervan, 2011), McKnight argues that too often we evangelicals have misrepresented the Gospel by reducing it strictly to "the plan of salvation," an oversimplification with drastic consequences for the life of the church. I finished Scot McKnight book “The King Jesus Gospel” today. I do not dispute the truth of the propositions above: God is love, God is holy, we are sinners, we are at enmity with God, etc.. Both of those were excellent books, so I was very excited to check out The King Jesus Gospel… Discovered by her parents, the letter related the fact that she had received Christ as a result of attending the rally, which gave her parents great comfort that she was in heaven rather than hell because she had received the gospel. The book stands on four arguments: that the gospel is defined by the apostles in 1 Corinthians 15 as the completion of the Story of Israel in the saving Story of Jesus; that the gospel is found in the Four Gospels; that the gospel was preached by Jesus; and that the sermons in the Book of Acts are the best example of gospeling in the New Testament. Having traced the history from Paul through the early Church to the Reformation, McKnight shows that Paul’s teaching of the gospel to the Corinthians aligns with the basic presentation of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, accounts that were titled “gospel” by the early Church. In his book as Scot draws closer to our current modern context Scot says; “The Plan of Salvation and the Method of Persuasion have been given so much weight they are crushing and have crushed the Story of Israel and the Story of Jesus. We can learn from them to do the same. The gospel fits into this story, but it is not the story. Yet he worries that if he presses discipleship too hard, salvation by grace and by faith alone will be compromised. Book Review: The King Jesus Gospel September 21, 2011 Thanks to Zondervan for a providing review copy and a spot in their blog tour. It’s the story of Aslan, which is how Lewis told the Story of Jesus: There’s our gospel: it’s the saving Story of Israel now lived out by Jesus, who lived, died, was buried, was raised, and was exalted to God’s right hand, and who is now roaring out the message that someday the kingdom will come in all its glorious fury. And there have been no shortage of books written to answer that question (examples are easy to … Matthew Lee Anderson on December 16, 2011. He works from scripture to base his opinions. From my own personal experience, I cannot doubt these figures. Scot quotes another scholar Dallas Willard both claim that today’s gospel is about ‘sin management’. Scot describes the Greek in the opening verse saying ‘the gospel I gospeled’. This quote highlights what Scot McKnight believes is wrong with much of evangelism today. So important that if it is ignored then there is no gospel. If you didn’t know what the gospel was, how would you approach the New Testament to determine what the apostles believed? Looking back, the story presented was a story of escape from one future fate after death to a preferred future after death. Both have their own version of a salvation culture, which is focused primarily on getting people in. Scot will return to this question in the next chapter. He writes about. 5 – How did Salvation take over the Gospel? He’s no longer poking at contradictions, but reveling in a newfound zeal. This is a long review of the short book ‘The King Jesus Gospel: The Original Good News Revisited’ by Scot McKnight. Then I hope you will want to buy and read the book for yourself. To recount Jesus’ words and deeds without explaining their significance for our salvation is not what the Bible means by “telling the gospel”. They tell the story of Jesus. I won’t rehash McKnight’s development of the above definition of the gospel… You will write a 1,000-word book review of The King Jesus Gospel by Scot McKnight. Inherent to the Story of Jesus are labels that define him and identify him and his role in completing Israel’s Story: Messiah, Lord, Son of God, Savior, and Son of Man.” (p. 37). In this reduced gospel, Christ’s cross principally clears the ledger sheet of human sin. The singular contribution of the Reformation, in all three directions — Lutheran, Reformed, and Anabaptist — was that the gravity of the gospel was shifted toward human response and personal responsibility and the development of the gospel as speaking into that responsibility. I want now to make a stinging accusation. Scot told him he was writing a book about the gospel, to which the pastor responded. (p. 159). Scot takes us back to scriptural examples of how the early Christians preached the gospel. Scot clearly holds to the authority of scripture. July 16, 2013 James Pyles 6 Comments. Each of the Gospels are about Jesus. Then again, to explain the doctrines of salvation without recounting the broad events of Jesus’ life as contained in the Gospels is not telling the gospel either. We separate ourselves from Jesus and turn the Christian faith into a System of Salvation.” (p. 62). Therefore, the four evangelists are indeed telling us the gospel by telling us the Story of Jesus. ‘Saviour’ (Lk 2), ‘Sins’ (Mt 1.21), ‘Death & Resurrection’ (1 Pet 3.18 ‘), lastly faith and grace. Now he looks on with a cynical eye at this kind of evangelistic strategy. The King Jesus Gospel: The Original Good News Revisited Scot McKnight. Scot then critiques Greg Gilbert’s book ‘What is the Gospel?’ Greg holds to the kind of gospel that both Scot and Wright advocate. God’s love and grace and holiness and righteousness, Our creation as Eikons, or image-bearers, but our choice to sin …, Our condition of being under God’s judgment, The good news of the atoning death of Jesus Christ that forgives us our sins and reconciles us to God, The need for every human being to respond simply by admitting one’s sinfulness, repenting from sin, and trusting in the atoning death of Jesus. This review is very pertinent to what I see at work. The second persuades sinners to admit their sin and find Jesus as their saviour. The four Gospels and the gospel are one. Book Review – Warren, R,. What I mean is that articulating the “gospel” like this is to shape themes of salvation in a rhetorical order aimed at precipitating a response. Kanye really got on everyone's nerves constantly announcing new music, then not dropping it. Jesus not only believed the kingdom was connected to him and to his mission and teachings, but he believed the kingdom of God was now breaking into history in himself. The King Jesus Gospel By Scot McKnight 4.5 Stars (out of 5) Scot McKnight in this book has done more to further the conversation of what the gospel is than any other book I have come across in recent years. The King Jesus Gospel Book Review Anthony Brown GLST 220: Intercultural Communication and Engagement February The King Jesus Gospel does much to pull readers back from reductionist gospel formulas and to help them proclaim both the person and work of Jesus Christ as the center of God’s salvation in the world. January 11, 2012 Dan Martin 5 Comments. Guy Williams is Senior Pastor of the United Methodist Temple in Port You can perhaps guess what it is…. This is what the early Christians did. Book Review: The King Jesus Gospel Elliot Book Reviews , Books December 17, 2011 September 8, 2012 2 Minutes The problem that Scot McKnight’s The King Jesus Gospel is intended to address is that the way evangelical Christians preach the gospel … One could just as easily add the apostles Creed to this mix. Our contemporary equation of the word gospel with the Plan of Salvation came about because of developments from and after the Reformation. Any preaching (even from Jesus or the apostles) that instructs or commands (good works, law, etc) is unnecessary and could possibly lead to ‘works-righteousness’. Note from this the primary emphasis in what is being said is about the audience and their salvation. (p. 54). Scot says about Greg; “Gilbert believes the place to begin is the book of Romans, in particular Romans 1 – 4.22 In effect, Gilbert’s gospel is what I learned as a child as the Romans Road to Salvation, and Pastor Greg and Pastor Eric are more or less on the same page when it comes to the meaning of the gospel. A graduate of Texas A&M University and Asbury Seminary, McKnight is a professor at North Park University and blogs over at Jesus Creed. In the first comparison Scot compares the gospeling of Acts with the plan of salvation approach. Many believe this is the gospel. Scot stresses the importance of declaring Jesus Christ and LORD, but points out the ‘latter can be done within the former’. “We need to embrace this story so that we are saved and can be transformed by the gospel story.”  (p. 158). At Euangelion Joel Willitts is working through Scot McKnight's The King Jesus Gospel.. You can read an excerpt below, and click here to read parts 1, 2, and 3. 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