Prepare yourselves for the onslaught. Scot McKnight is venturing into the “What Is the Gospel?” war that’s been waging between the Neo-Calvinists and…well, everyone else. McKnight’s new book, due out later this month, is The King Jesus Gospel: The Original Good News Revisited. We will have a full review of the book in due course, but a preview is worth our time.
McKnight is concerned that we have confused “Gospel” with “Plan of Salvation,” and rather than being true evangelicals (a word rooted in the Greek euangelion meaning “good news” or “gospel”), contemporary Western Christians might be better identified as soterians because we have built our whole church culture around one thing- salvation, who is saved and who is damned.
While not disagreeing with the theology espoused by those on the Neo-Reformed side, and affirming the “Romans Road” presentation of salvation, McKnight says their error is calling this “the Gospel.” Equating the plan of salvation with gospel means Jesus could not have preached the Good News. Only the Apostles, like Paul, who preached after Jesus’ death and resurrection could possibly present this message. McKnight believes this is an error rooted in a false understanding of what the Gospel is.
For a preview of McKnight’s perspective in The King Jesus Gospel, I highly recommend watching his 18min presentation from the Q Gathering in 2010. In this video he outlines the way we have confused various terms, and why Jesus did in fact preach the Gospel.
