No one who reads Matthew, Mark and Luke doubts they are about God and how He sought to bless his people Israel. But are they truly Christian? A prominent online Bible explainer thinks not.

In his latest article, Doctrine.org publisher Don Samdahl, insists Matthew, Mark, Luke and John are as much “Old Testament as Genesis, Deuteronomy or Isaiah”. He maintains the four gospels “snap onto Malachi as easily as two Lego blocks”. What’s more, he argues that everything in them is Jewish and pertains to the nation of Israel, the covenant promises and the coming of the earthly kingdom of God.

Now I hope you don’t have a sudden attack of apoplexy, because I don’t know about you but it came as a shock to me to be told by him that “no one was known as a Christian inside the borders of Israel during the earthly ministry of Jesus or before the salvation of Paul”. And he’s right, believers were first called Christians at Antioch in Gentile territory not at Jerusalem. Thus Christianity, he says, did NOT begin in the land of Israel but well outside its borders.

And it started, he asserts, with the “saved by grace” conversion of Paul on the road to Damascus. Mr Samdahl cites 1 Cor. 3: 10-11 and 1 Tim. 1: 25-16 to show Paul himself says he is the “founder of Christianity”.

Certainly, it cannot be denied that Paul said he received the “grace doctrines of Christianity” from the ascended, glorified Lord calling them “mysteries”, or “secrets” hidden since before the world began but now revealed to and through himself as the Apostle to the Gentiles (Eph. 3:3-6, Col. 1:25-27).

The Bible makes clear these saving truths were unrevealed in the Lord’s ministry and thus unknown to the Twelve until they later learned of them from Paul. Even when they did so learn (Acts 15: 11, Gal. 2:7-9) the Twelve confined their ministry to the Jews, giving Paul and Barnabas “the right hand of fellowship to go to the heathen”.

What’s more, though few believe it, there were actually two different gospels preached in the Acts period, one to the Jews and quite another to Gentiles (Gal. 2: 7). The hallmark difference was that now believers would be saved by grace not by striving to obey the law (Rom. 6:14).

Now, doubtless, all this comes as a shock to many of us who have been brought up to believe that everything in the Bible is true and that, therefore, everything Jesus ministered on earth is directly applicable to us today if only we believe it. Now, true the entire Bible story is for real and scripture correctly preserved and “rightly divided” (2 Tim. 2:15) is the inerrant word of God.

But if the elementary rules of Bible study are employed – to determine who said what, when, how, to whom and with what result - then a true picture of what God is saying now as opposed to what He said the in the past emerges (Matt. 4:4, 2 Peter 1:12, Heb. 1:1-2, Eph. 3:8-9).

So is Mr Samdahl right that the gospels are not “Christian”? Certainly, what he says in respect of the synoptic gospels, Matthew, Mark and Luke, is correct. They are Jewish, not “Christian”. However, in my view the gospel of John is in part an exception, being written long after Paul’s death and proclaiming as its purpose that “…ye might believe that that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing ye might have life through his name” (John 20-31). And the “ye” here for John is “all men” for he insist “Christ died for the sins of the whole world”.

Undoubtedly, faith in who Jesus was, the Messiah to Israel who laid down his life not only for the chosen nation but for all men (as John later attested in his epistles) is a prerequisite for salvation. As Heb. 11:6 asserts: “But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for that cometh unto God must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him”. However, it is also vital to know the Lord as He is now, ascended, glorified and endowed with power as Master of the entire universe.

Nevertheless the love and mercy that is the essence of the Lord’s character so shines through John’s gospel that it is indispensable as testimony to who Jesus as a Person really is at his heart – “full of grace and truth” (John 1:1:14).

Yet, for all that, the tragic mistake made by so many is that they see the Lord only as He once was on earth and not as He now is “Christ Jesus the Lord”, the Lord of all glory and power in heaven and earth, given a name above every other name both in this world and that to come” (Phil. 2:8-11).

Today the message from scripture insists that the “Body of Christ, the fullness of Him that filleth all in all (by Himself)” (Eph. 1:22-23) is an entirely new revelation given by the ascended, glorified (as opposed to earthly) Lord to the Apostle Paul. Mr Samdahl rightly maintains that Paul alone wrote about the body of Christ of which He Christ) is the Head. And only one apostle, Paul wrote to the Gentiles.

Christianity then must be based first and foremost on the revelation of the “dispensation of the grace of God” and the “mystery” (Eph. 3:1-7) that quickens and saves chosen believers completely without need for works and makes Gentiles fellowheirs with Christ of all God’s blessings in heavenly place” (Eph. 1:3, 2:6-7).

The gospels provide necessary historical detail for the death, burial and resurrection of the man Christ Jesus, but only the revelation of grace to Paul found in his epistles unfolds the full wonder of how it can be fully experienced today.

John Dudley Aldworth

Email: john.aldworth@hotmail.com

Website: https://www.dayofchristmnistries.com/rss/all.xml