THE GOSPEL

Gospel means good news!

What is so good about that news?

When we look around us, we see a world that is torn apart and a similarly torn apart and divided church.

If we look back in the recent and distant history of the development of the Christian church, it does not exactly make our heart sing, except for the rare bright spots that arise in that history.

After the followers of Christ came above-ground at the beginning of the fourth century, the disastrous decision was made at the Council of Nicaea in 325 AD to proceed to a structural organized church.

That is where the commandments and prohibitions of the Christian community began to take shape on paper.

Once again the Spirit of God, visible in Christ on earth, was enslaved with limited freedom of movement and subordinated to the interests of worldly rulers and the spiritual elite.

A yoke was imposed on the Christian world under which they had to walk in order not to fall from grace of those who stood above them, both in the church and outside.

The laws of Moses and other Old Testament texts were, as it were, merged with the New Testament scriptures to come to a new dogmatic legalism that puts the Spirit of Christ in a bottle.

” A yoke was imposed on the Christian world under which they had to walk in order not to fall from grace of those who stood above them, both in the church and outside “

Over the centuries more dogmas were added and existing spiritual laws were tightened.

Divisions of the church and schisms, as in the Reformation, did not put an end to this.

Each denomination developed its own credentials as a starting point, as a dogma for the community.

No one was and is happy with that to this day.

The Spirit of Christ decayed into a dry way of believing for many followers of Christ, giving little happiness.

People spoke and speak the words of faith, they hear and heard the preaching about what they stood and still stand for, they sing and sang the songs about that same faith.

You could and can be happy at best for a while, but as soon as the church doors are closed behind you, the often chilly reality of daily life makes its entry into the believer’s existence.

And what the commandments and prohibitions, prescribed by the church to which one is attached, do with a follower is anyone’s guess.

Enough has been said about this subject in the previous chapters.

In the conviction of the writer of these op-ed pieces, it is actually about only one thing and that is that the love of God, the Agapè, is visible and tangible to all people who follow Christ and to those who come into contact with these followers.

Then it becomes much more about the actions that underscore this than about the words that are spoken.

Although the latter is also not unimportant.

Then we will also have to delve into what Christ has left to us as an example here on earth.

Then we must also be prepared to remove all superfluous ballast and yokes from our lives, including the notion of the conviction of the infallible Scriptures, especially popular with fundamentalists, the word of God from cover to cover.

If we do that, we will also see how much injustice has been done to many people throughout the ages to this day.

An injustice consisting of rejection, condemnation and expulsion from the community up to murder and manslaughter.

If we realize that, a new world opens up to us.

A world of love, acceptance, forgiveness and take up of all people on earth.

” Then we actually stretch our hands out to those people, not to make them members of our Christian club where we belong to, but to make the love of God unconditionally visible through us, no matter what that person is or persons are going to do with it “

Then we get an eye for people in need, whatever that need is.

Then we actually stretch our hands out to those people, not to make them members of our Christian club where we belong to, but to make the love of God unconditionally visible through us, no matter what that person is or persons are going to do with it.

Some preachers of the gospel find that threshold far too low, too cheap to be true. In this way, they argue, anyone can abuse the gospel.

Put the limit therefore a lot higher like convert first and learn how to be a Christian according to the rules of the church, perhaps then you will receive help.

However, that is the reverse world of Christ.

He made no demands, but gave everyone his unconditional love.

” The only thing that Christ said after giving his helping hand was to break with the bad; in other words, do good in and out of the love of Christ. You do not need dogmas, no spiritual laws for that “

The only thing that Christ said after giving his helping hand was to break with the bad.

In other words, do good in and out of the love of Christ.

You do not need dogmas, no spiritual laws for that.

That means that where there is love, where the Spirit of love rules, it is in accordance with what Christ has left us.

Then sex before marriage does not become a filthy, sinful act.

Then giving birth to a child, while you don’t have a husband, so you have to give up the newborn, is no sin.

Then a dead, unbaptized newborn is not so unholy that it may only be buried outside the church walls.

Then a priest who falls in love, is as useful as when he was unmarried.

Then women fit in the spiritual office just as easily as their male colleagues.

Then love is a love that is not exclusively reserved for a male-female structure.

Then men can love each other without being excluded by the church.

Then women can marry each other if love is involved.

Then divorced people are no longer excluded from participating in the Holy Communion or excluded because they are remarried.

Then someone who is unhappy with his own body, can be transformed in such a way that he feels comfortable in that body by using the love that scientists have put in their area of expertise.

” Then there is no sin against the Holy Spirit, as written in the letters of the New Testament, with the aim to frighten and submit the followers of Christ to a discipline that is not of Christ “

Then, having an abortion provocatus is no longer a mortal sin by definition, but the love for one’s fellow man becomes the determining factor.

Then sexuality is something that you can enjoy as an expression of the love that God has given us.

Then there is no sin against the Holy Spirit, as written in the letters of the New Testament, with the aim to frighten and submit the followers of Christ to a discipline that is not of Christ.

Then you are not abhorred as Christians, isolated and excommunicated when you have visited a prostitute, whether or not secretly.

Then you can also know and feel yourself free as a Christian in a sauna, where everyone is naked and you can admire other people for who they are.

Then you see a prostitute or gigolo first and foremost as an equal human being who helps other people to fulfill their human needs.

Then you do not have to do things secretly as Christian, because it is beyond the ecclesiastical norms and values.

As an American female believer, who was connected to an evangelical fundamentalist church, told in anonymity, that she thought it was her calling to lovingly treat men physically and give them attention in a couples club.

Then you are able to live and work where dissenters are, to socialize with them and to stand in an open and honest attitude towards other religions, such as Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism and so on.

Then agnostics are just as fallible people as Christians are.

Then you can work anywhere, even in North Korea, without a bible in your back pocket, to do the right thing for all people.

Then the outcome of scientific research is no longer by definition contrary to the belief in Christ, but rather complementary to being a Christian.

Then we constantly hold Christ’s mirror up to ourselves and consider every other human being more excellent than ourselves.

Then there is a healthy self-reflection and can we see our own relativity and failing pretensions a lot better.

Then Christian arrogance, the attitude of we know-it-all, no longer has to last word.

Then Christians no longer strive for a complacent perfection for themselves, but we see ourselves in the light of the other. Just as imperfect.

If, as followers of Christ, we try to stand by trial and error in life, then the gospel becomes the joyous message that it was and always will be.

This makes people really happy and free of whatever yoke.

” If, as followers of Christ, we try to stand by trial and error in life, then the gospel becomes the joyous message that it was and always will be “

Everyone accepts each other with love and treats everyone with respect and everyone is accepted as he/she is.

Then the Spirit of Christ in a Christian has the potential to really become the salt of the earth again.

Then there is a change in man who follows Christ and with those who come into contact with them, so that the world today can become a different place.

Then the love of God prevails in all people, for all people, as a bearer of our being in this world.

Then there is trust/faith in the future and a hope that looks forward to a new world where justice resides, built on the love of Christ.

Then the circle has been broken that has kept us people for so long.

Then an eternal life where all people long for, becomes meaningful.

Following Christ is experiencing and enjoying his Spirit in your daily life.

Feeling the power of his resurrection in your inner self as the ability of strength in your own life.

Then indeed our death has no longer the last word in our being.

That is a mission that we can put into practice on our way through life and death.