Three
Gospels
J. C..
O'Hair
1—And Jesus went about all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues and preaching the GOSPEL OF THE KINGDOM, and healing all manner of sickness and all manner of disease among the people. Matthew 4:23.
2—When they saw that the GOSPEL OF THE UNCIRCUMCISION was committed unto me (Paul). Galatians 2:7.
3—As the GOSPEL OF THE CIRCUMCISION was unto Peter. Three preachers are mentioned in the Scriptures which we have quoted. Three GOSPELS are mentioned. The Gospels preached by the three preachers are called; by three different names.
There are Christian preachers and Bible teachers who insist that there is but one Gospel in the Bible; that there are many different names given to the same Gospel. In Romans 2:16, Romans 16:25 and II Timothy 2:8, Paul writes of “my Gospel”.
In II Timothy 1:12 he writes of “my deposit” (literal translation from the Greek). In I Timothy 1:11 he writes, “according to the gospel of the glory of the blessed God, which was committed unto my trust” In Galatians 1:11 and 12 Paul writes that he received the Gospel, that he preached, by the revelation of Jesus Christ. In Acts 20:24 Paul declared “my course” “I received of the Lord Jesus”, “to testify the Gospel of the grace of God.” In Ephesians 3:1 to 3, Paul writes as the prisoner of Jesus Christ for Gentiles with the dispensation of the grace of God “given me to you-ward (Gentiles)”, and the mystery, “by revelation He made known unto me.” In II Corinthians 4:4 Paul’s message is the Gospel of the glory of Christ. In II Corinthians 5:18, “the ministry of reconciliation” in which the messenger is used by the Lord to beseech and to pray, to men that they be reconciled to God.
In the following Scriptures we read of Paul’s Divine authority for preaching to the Gentiles; Acts 22:17 to 21, Acts 9:15, Galatians 1:16, Galatians 2:9, Romans 11:13, Romans 15:16, Ephesians 3:8 and 9, Colossians 1:24 to 28, I Timothy 2:7, II Timothy 1:11; II Timothy 4:17.
In the light of the Scriptures which we have quoted, and in the light of all of Paul’s messages to the Gentiles, it is certainly not the mark of spiritual intelligence to teach that there is only one Gospel in the Bible. And to teach that the Lord Jesus Christ committed to Peter and Paul the same ministry is unworthy of any intelligent student of the Scriptures. To so teach is to wholly ignore II Timothy 2:15, rightly dividing the Word of truth. Undoubtedly we have observed that the disciples of Alexander Campbell, the disciples of Mrs. White (Seventh-Day Adventists), the disciples of Pastor Charles Russell (Jehovah’s Witnesses), the Pentecostalists, the Church of God disciples, and many other groups of religious people, have propagated a counterfeit Christianity with great zeal and sincerity, because their teachers have kept their followers wholly ignorant of Paul’s “my gospel”, “my deposit”, “the Dispensation of the Grace of God”, the unsearchable (untraceable) riches of Christ for the Gentiles”, “the Gospel of the glory of the blessed God committed to Paul’s trust”; and have led them into their religious confusion or delusion by giving them Jesus’ “gospel of the kingdom”, claiming prophecies made to the Nation Israel, or Peter’s Gospel of the circumcision given to Israel, in fulfillment of the prophecies to the Nation Israel.
Fundamental Bible teachers are somewhat to blame for these conditions, because they fail to show the difference between these different Gospels and continue to be like parrots and sheep in teaching that the last commissions of Jesus to His apostles were the great commission of Matthew 28:19 and 20 and the orders in Acts 1:8. The Commissions of Galatians 1:11 to 18; Galatians 2:7 to 9, Ephesians 3:1 to 9, Colossians 1:24 to 28, II Timothy 1:12; II Timothy 1:14, and II Timothy 2:2 are much later commissions. And unless they are adopted by the Church of Christ there is no scriptural cure for the abounding and ever-increasing number of heresies and counterfeit Christian movements in which another gospel is being preached.
Christ gave a program to the Twelve, in Matthew 10:5 to 10, for the Twelve Tribes, which He never gave to Paul for the Gentiles. Christ gave to Eleven of the same Twelve a commission in Matthew 28:19 and 20 and Mark 16:14 to 18, which He never gave to Paul or to us for the Gentiles.
Christ never authorized Paul to preach to Gentiles of this dispensation the kingdom message and program of John the Baptist, the Lord Jesus, or the Twelve. Paul never preached Acts 2:38 to any Gentile. Acts 3:14 to 21 and Acts 5:29 to 32 is not the Gospel of the Grace of God. And no Gentile believers are authorized by the Lord to follow the order of Acts 8:5 to 16 or Acts 19:2 to 7.
Christ committed to Peter and his associates the Gospel of the circumcision. They preached the message to one company of God-fearing, Israel-loving Gentiles, in the Book of Acts, the Word which God sent to Israel. Acts 10:36. Mark in the first ten chapters of Acts where Peter with the Eleven preached justification, reconciliation or the unsearchable riches of Christ, or one word concerning the Body of Christ and the believer’s identification with the risen Christ, seated with Christ in the heavenlies. As humble, spiritual, diligent students of the Word of God, if we will be Bereans, and obey Philippians 1:10, “test the things that differ” (R. V.), we shall learn that the Pauline truth given him from the risen Christ for the Church, which is His body, is the answer to every religious cult and counterfeit Christian movement that is menacing the Body of Christ, leading multitudes into error, corrupting the Word of God, and frustrating the grace of God.
This should lead all spiritual students of the Word of God to the conclusion that if the Body of Christ, described in Ephesians and Colossians, began on the day of Pentecost, at some later date a most radical change in that Church’s message and program occurred. When did it occur?
How
God Saves Men
Believing
Christ DIED, that’s HISTORY.
Believing
Christ DIED for YOU SINS and Rose again that’s SALVATION.
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Acts 16L31 Romans 1:16, and 1. Corinthians 15:1-4
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