They Got the Gospel
2009 Jul 8In a conversation with Darren Twa, he made a statement that should be obvious, but that surprised me. He said that all the New Testament writers "got" the gospel. They understood the core of its simplicity and also its implications. That means that though they all were writing to address different situations or issues, they all were writing about the same (core) gospel.
The books in the New Testament come with quite a bit of variety. From that, I had come to view Christianity as if it was a complex thing. I would read the NT looking for new facets of information on Christianity, so as to build a more complete model of its theology in my mind. There were some core things that weren't too complicated, but as a whole, it did seem complicated.
With this new perspective, I have started to change the way I read the NT books. My view now is that the writers all clearly understood the gospel as being a simple thing. The complexity comes primarily because they are giving examples and guidance on how to apply the gospel. So I look for the gospel basis everywhere.
Christianity is a thinking man's religion because we are given one principled rule to apply in all the situations of life. (Adopt and live the value system of God which is sacrificial love for the benefit of others.) This is a difficult and complicated task. But the gospel is simple.
The value system perspective used here is based on ideas from the work of Darren Twa.