That Mysterious Gospel

Okay, for starters, the gospel of the New Testament was meant to be proclaimed … verbally proclaimed.

I know, I know. The movement today is about engaging issues of injustice and "practicing" the gospel in the neighborhood, in society, and in the world. And while St. Francis's famous words, "Preach the gospel at all times. When necessary use words," has its merits, that still doesn't change one fact. You cannot honestly read the New Testament and not believe that when those early church leaders talked about the "gospel," they intended it to be proclaimed. Proclaimed in the world. Proclaimed with words. Proclaimed to non-Christians. That is simply an honest (and fairly indisputable) truth.

But what is this gospel—the one we are to verbally proclaim?

The gospel proclaimed

Not long ago I was sitting with some young activist Bible scholars. It was a think-tank of sorts. We were discussing this very question, the content of the gospel-proclaimed. The conversation started like this: "So, what is the gospel-proclaimed that you were most influenced by? Or what was the original form of the gospel you were given?"

One man quickly piped up with a well-memorized path through a single letter of the Apostle Paul, stopping every few chapters on pre-selected verses. After a dozen or so verses, with a playful gleam in his eye, he proclaimed, "That is the gospel-proclaimed."

After that, one lady explained a similar story with many of the same verses, only she used a picture of two cliffs and a bridge to illustrate her gospel-proclaimed.

This conversation went on for a while. Then I said, "Isn't it interesting that when asked about the gospel-proclaimed, we automatically go primarily to the letters of Paul? There is only one problem. Those letters are Christians talking to Christians."

That observation landed with a thud in the middle of the room. It was clear—even though the observation was an example of Biblical Interpretation 101, none of us had ever really considered the context of our most formative examples of the gospel-proclaimed.

Even in my personal beloved first "gospel," if I flip through its tiny pages, I find six verses from the letters of the New Testament (Christians talking to Christians) and four verses from John (which is kind of pre-gospel, at least pre-Cross, pre-Resurrection, pre-Ascension, and pre-Pentecost).

So I suggested to our think-tank circle, "It seems to me that it would be helpful, in understanding the gospel-proclaimed, if we study examples of Christians actually talking to non-Christians … or is that just crazy talk?"

The group agreed. And we opened to the only book in the Bible that really meets that criterion: the book of Acts.

We counted 13 gospel-proclamations in the book of Acts. A gospel-proclamation is simply any time a Christian was persuasively presenting the Christian message to a non-Christian(s). We divvied up those 13 gospel-proclaimed presentations among ourselves, then attempted to identify what was communicated in each presentation, and then compiled our discoveries.

Here is some of what we discovered: Seven Essential Observations about the Gospel-Proclaimed

Story-telling is highly valued. Be it a retelling of the story of the nation of Israel (in at least six presentations) or the use of a story of personal transformation (in six other presentations), the value of story-telling is one of the most consistent elements.
"Exclusivity" or the idea that "Jesus is the only way" is not an important element in these gospel proclamations. In fact, only one gospel presentation (Acts 4:8-12) includes a statement of exclusivity. (I am not saying the exclusivity of Jesus is not an important doctrine of the early church, I am merely saying that these church-leaders did not prioritize it within their messages to non-Christians, but chose to save those dialogues for their Christian-to-Christian teachings.)
Quoting the Bible is not necessary. Context is key. While a presentation before Jews inevitably included quotations from the Hebrew Scriptures, an audience of Greeks was offered no Bible quotes, but instead secular references from philosophy, poetry, and even other faiths (Acts 17:21-31).
Sin is mentioned only in about half the presentations, though there are some allusions to sin in others, using terms such as "ignorance." Equally interesting, only five times is there a direct call for the listener to repent.
The cross is detailed in only five of the presentations, but the resurrection is mentioned in eight of the thirteen. It is worth noting that neither the death nor resurrection of Jesus is mentioned in five of those gospel-proclaimed presentations.
The actual word "Jesus" or "Christ" does not appear in three of the testimonies. In one presentation, Paul just says, "a man" (Acts 17:31).
There is almost no detail that can be traced through all thirteen gospel-proclaimed presentations: Not faith, not baptism, not Holy Spirit, not forgiveness, not judgment, not healing, and as already mentioned, not even sin, repentance, cross, resurrection, or even "Jesus."

So, what are we to conclude from this journey through the book of Acts? Well, there is probably much to be gleaned. Here are a few thoughts:

The gospel-proclaimed is wild, difficult to cage in pithy propositions, and is still in many ways … mysterious.
Story-telling and use of creative metaphor is timeless and an important key to the gospel-proclaimed.
We need to be careful with statements of what the "absolutely necessary" elements of the gospel-proclaimed actually are. I am sure the early apostles had their own pet-doctrines of the faith, but they chose each gospel-proclaimed based upon their love of the audience/context.
As much as we love to stick exclusivity claims ("Jesus is the only way") in our gospel presentations, that may in fact not be the best (or most biblical) time to have that conversation.

Author's Note: For anyone wanting to research the Book of Acts personally, here are the 13 examples of the gospel-proclaimed that we identified: Acts 2:14-41, 3:11-26, 4:8-12, 7:2-53, 8:29-39, 9:17-19, 10:34-43, 13:10-41, 16:29-34, 17:21-31, 22:2-21, 24:10-21, and 26:1-23. Care to share your findings in the comments?