Spot on, Bene, spot on. The Greek word for "gospel" in the New Testament is euaggelion, literally, eu --"good" and aggelion -- "message," from whence we derive the English word, "evangelism," the sharing of good news. I'm sure most of you reading this already have heard that. My homiletics professor in seminary used to tell us that people already know what the bad news is, and they come to church to hear the good news. I don't think he ever meant to suggest that we sugar-coat the things about which we speak in the pulpit, but to suggest that the final word before we sat down needed to be the good news of God's grace and redemption in Jesus Christ.
So I ask those who are engaged in the conversation to which Bene refers, guys, where's the good news in any of that?
Posted by Mike at March 25, 2004 09:08 AM | TrackBackWhat then are we to make of Jesus' and John the Baptist's words to the Pharisees? Elijah's words to the priests of Baal? Paul's wishes that the circumcisers would go all the way and emasculate themselves? God himself scoffs those who ignore him. You can find plenty of other examples of mockery in the Bible, and much of it by "the good guys."
Posted by: Think about it at March 25, 2004 11:36 AMThink about it:
Fair enough.
Look up the root word mock, the times it is used in the OT and NT.
Look up the purposes of when it is used and when it is not to be used..