THE GOSPEL STORY

Presented in partial fulfillment of the theology of the Third Angel’s Message of Revelation 14: 9-12.

Written by

LamulaniBNgwenya

The God of heaven, in his Divine wisdom has not left man ignorant of
His Ultimate will. Man in his mortal state is subject to varied
temptations, making him susceptible to the schemes of the devil.
Hence God in His Great wisdom has provided us with means of dealing
with the schesims of this great arch deceiver. It follows that it is
our duty to know and to spread the message about God’s intervention
in people’s lives. This intervention is called the “Gospel Story”
among other common appellations. This story is more than just a tale
about Divinity interacting with humanity. It features a plethora of
definitions and a collection of types, a series of idioms and a
marked number of fore-tellings. Yet the bottom line is hardly
difficult to miss, because it culminates in what all Christendom
calls the “Gospel Story”, “The New Testament”, “The
Nativity”. All these make up the gospel story. Today I wish to tell
this story again, using the same literary devices found in the bible,
but with a more modernized flavor, guided by Revelation Chapter
14:9-12.

Peter
defines truth as being in a state of contemporary applicability.
Truth according to Peter is never old or stale nor should it be
regarded as useless. However on close examination, Peter is saying
again that in each successive
generation
there has
been a
‘truth’ for that generation. Truth that is in a state of
“contemporaneousness”.

Wherefore
I will not be negligent to put you always in remembrance of these
things, though ye know them, and be established in the
present truth.
2 Peter 1:12.

Pilate was confused. Standing in front of Jesus he asked Jesus the question “What is
truth?”. This how ever is one question that has baffled many. The
question was never answered by Jesus. John records in another place
where Jesus stated that He himself is:

….the way, the
truth,
and the life:....Joh 14:6

The Rabbis had taught a different way. They called that way Halakah. This way was burdensome, one who walked in it
tended to fall under the burden of rules and laws. Truth become a matter of spiritual excellence on the part of the one who “walked”. But Jesus defined truth as not existing with man, but it being of Divine origins. By doing so, Jesus has freed many who may think that truth can be found in nature, or intuitively or through some other human invention. Jesus’ definition of truth stands alone, as many other theories make truth of a less divine origin. Existentialist, Pragmatists, Idealists, Epicuruians and all the rest among others, truth is inherent. In a case where its not then it still rests
on human manipulation.

The Psalmist defines truth as being embodied in the ‘law’. Truth is said to be the law and commandments. I believe this to be a proper definition. It makes truth a non-human devising, no human flavor can be tasted.

Psa 119:142 ….thy law is the truth.

Psa 119:151 ...all thy commandments are truth.

Ps 199:151 uses the term “all” in relation to commandments, but not for the law. The unstated assumption is that the law is in itself all encompassing, while the commandments may Incorporated other aspects and leave others outside. By including “all” in the Hebrew mindset it is in essences equating the “commandments” to the “law”. Hence the law and the commandments in a Hebrew setting are in essence one and the same…

Joh
17:17  Sanctify them through thy truth:
thy word is truth.
This is what we call Double abstraction . It is a literary device that abstracts an already abstract concept. Truth is made the word. And rather than giving concretization
to the truth it is further made abstract, even though itself is abstract. There are a number of assumptions with this verse. The possibility of perfection of man is not a human en-devour,
because Jesus in John 1:1-4,14 is said to be the Word that was with God. So here it is assumed that truth is Jesus, as he is reveled in the whole spectrum of the Word.

Daniel
understood very well that truth is not a matter of scholarship. God wanted to reveal Himself to all people. By giving the King his dream it was an opportunity to show to the people that truth is not among peoples;

Then
was the secret
revealed unto Daniel in a night vision. Then Daniel blessed
the God of heaven. Daniel
answered and said, Blessed be the name of God for ever and ever: for
wisdom
and might are his:
And he changeth the times and the seasons: he removeth kings, and
setteth up kings:
he giveth wisdom unto the wise, and knowledge to them that know
understanding:
He revealeth the deep and secret things: he knoweth what is
in the darkness, and the light dwelleth with him. I thank thee, and
praise thee, O thou God of my fathers, who hast given me wisdom
and might, and hast made known unto me now what we desired of thee:
for thou hast now
made known unto us the king's matter.  (Dan
2:19-23
KJV)

In
summary, truth is not of human devising. Truth therefore is
important, because it is God’s way of talking
to humanity. Biblical truth is
quintessentially a matter of life and death. One may safely conclude
that TRUTH MATTERS. Many theorists of truth
have made
truth either inherent or of human manipulation. Yet biblical
definitions resist human conceptualization.

The
bible doesn’t have a single definition of what the gospel is. In
Revelation chapter 14:6 we are told that the gospel is the messages
of the three angels. The gospel is everlasting. The New testament
attaches the gospel to the life-story of Jesus Christ.
Luke relates an incident between Gabriel
the angel of the Lord and Zacharias. Where Gabriel describes himself
as one who brings “Glad tidings” Luke 1:19. By implication this
makes Gabriel the
first preacher of the Gospel in the New
Testament. It is quiet interesting to note
then that the glad tidings related to someone who was not Jesus but
was heavily connected to Jesus.

The
New Testament term for “glad tidings” is εὐαγγελίζω
(lexical form)¹.
This is a compound term, it is made up of
two terms “εὐ”
and
“ἄγγελος”.
Εὐ
is Greek for “well”, cognates include
eulogy for example, which is to speak well about someone especially
one who has died. ἄγγελος
means messenger, angel, message. This
word (εὐαγγελίζω)
is translated 24 times as gospel in the New Testament and 10 times as
“glad tidings”²

Thayer states that
in the Old Testament, this term is “...of any
kind of good news...” An interesting narrative begins in the garden
of Eden. Where the snake was promised that it would have its head
crushed. To an extent this would be
“glad tidings” to Adam and Even. It
was the first gospel message preached by God Himself. Glad tidings
heralding the death of the arch-enemy and the rise of the Redeemer.
It therefore become a cultural tradition in the Hebrew/Sematic
community to look for that One who will crush the serpent.

Mothers
were given a special task to rear children for that particular work.
Angels
where sent to special families to interceed
for the upbring of special children. Deborah
the Prophetess styled herself a “mother in Israel”:

Jdg
5:7  The inhabitants of the villages ceased, they ceased in
Israel, until that I Deborah arose, that I arose a mother in
Israel.

This is more than
just a reference to her role as Judge (4:4). She was in type
acknowledging the coming of the Redeemer, being a mother she longed
for the One to liberate the Israelite from Canaanite bondage. So she
arose a “mother in Israel”, to remind them of the Promise of
Redemption in the coming One. This term “mother in Israel” is
used by an unlikely character in the second chapter of Samuel:

2Sa
20:19 I am one of them that are peaceable and faithful in Israel:
thou seekest to destroy a city and a
mother in Israel: why wilt thou swallow
up the inheritance of the LORD?

This
story is a highlight of the fact
that the first gospel preached had an impact on the people of Israel
such that the every woman had a longing to bear the divine child who
would rule over the kingdom of the serpent. This
longing is expressed
literary in the chronicles of the kings of Israel and
Judah. It seems to
have become a cultural norm to include
the mother of the king of Israel and Judah, in their genealogy. This
inclusion shows to what extent the Hebrew women where valuing the
coming devine child. Daniel David and Solomon where raised with that
concept in mind. This then implies that children that didn’t do
well, the mothers were to be blamed. And then children that did well
the mothers were to be lauded.

2Ki
12:1  In the seventh year of Jehu Jehoash began to reign;
and forty years reigned he in Jerusalem. And his
mother's name was Zibiah of Beersheba.

Mothers
therefore played a tremendous role in Israel. Such mention in the
book of the Kings and Chronicles, shows without doubt that they
Regarded the first gospel preached with
such authority they were willing to quicken the coming Redeemer. By
raising male children to the Glory of God. It is no
wonder that when apostasy would kick-in in
Israel, the pagan deities would require sacrifices of little
children.

Amo
5:26 But
ye have borne the tabernacle of your
Moloch and
Chiun your images, the star of your god, which ye made to yourselves.

Act
7:43 Yea, ye took up the tabernacle of
Moloch, and
the star of your god Remphan, figures which ye made to worship them:
and I will carry you away beyond Babylon.

Ki 23:10….his son or
his daughter to pass through
the fire to
Molech.

The
bible records the birth of 7 special baby boys.
Their births were punctuated
by divine interventions.
They were born from bareness. Given by
a promises. Isaac, Joseph,
Samson, Samuel, Moses, John the Baptist and Jesus. In
Genesis 17:17, a question is asked, an
expressive of a
heart longing for redemption, after about two thousand years since
the first gospel message was
preached.

Then
Abraham fell upon his face, and laughed, and said in his heart, Shall
a child be born unto him that is an
hundred years old? and shall Sarah, that is ninety years old, bear?
 (Gen 17:17 KJV)

Who
can answer such a magnificent question? Isaiah
the prophet was fortunate enough to bear the glad tidings to those
who where yearning to be Redeemed.

For
unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government
shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful,
Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of
Peace.  (Isa
9:6 KJV)

The Hebrew linguistic structure strike
at the very heart of biblical typology. The
expression “unto
us a child is born” is
reminiscent of the edge long story of redemption, embodied in the
Hebrew cultural norm. In Hebrew this
expression is כִּ
־ יֶ֣לֶד יֻלַּד־לָ֗ נוּ.
The root term ילד
is defined as “ ילד
To
give birth, beget, bear, act as a midwife, deliver, be born, create,
bring forth, produce, originate, cause, » declare one’s
pedigree”…. The
first term יֶ֣
לֶ ד means
a child, specifically
a baby boy³
. The
Birth is expressed by the other
term in Hebrew יֻלַּד.
This verb is in the Pual. A verb in the PUAL conjugation signifies a
passive action in the intensive state. Meaning
that this birth was to be carried out by someone and it would excite
those who where looking for the Divine Child. Then
who is this Child who was born...by somebody else
to
highly arouse man to intense
exicitment? The
Bible clearly states that the Child Born is non other Jesus Christ.
Luke tells us that this Immaculate Child is Jesus,:

And
the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold,
I bring you good tidings
of great joy, which shall be to all people. For
unto you is born
this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord.
(Luk
2:10-11 KJV)

And,
behold, there was a man in Jerusalem, whose name was Simeon; and the
same man was just and devout, waiting for the consolation
of Israel:
and the Holy Ghost was upon him. And it was revealed unto him by the
Holy Ghost, that he should not see death, before he had seen
the Lord's Christ.
And he came by the Spirit into the temple: and when the parents
brought in the child
Jesus,
to do for him after the custom of the law, Then took he him up in his
arms, and blessed God, and said, Lord, now lettest thou thy servant
depart in peace, according to thy word: For
mine eyes have seen thy salvation,
Which thou hast prepared before the face of all people; A light to
lighten the Gentiles, and the glory of thy people Israel. (Luk
2:25-32 KJV)

The
Angel is proclaiming the gospel. The very nature of the phrase is a
reminder of the old testament Promises. Every Hebrew was very much
aware of the express nature of the birth of a baby boy Child. And
the birth of this child was heralded with great laudation.

And
there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field,
keeping watch over their flock by night. And, lo, the angel of the
Lord came upon them, ... Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good
tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you is
born….Christ the Lord...suddenly there was with the angel a
multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying, Glory to God
in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.... And when
they had seen it, they made known abroad the saying which was told
them concerning this child... And the shepherds returned, glorifying
and praising God for all the things that they had heard and seen, as
it was told unto them. ... his name was called JESUS, which was so
named of the angel before he was conceived in the womb.

(Luk
2:8-21 KJV)

In
the Book of Revelation there’s a Gospel message, to be given with
the same intensity as was the message given for the baby boy. There
we are
told what the Gospel is.
If this then is the Gospel, there must be of reference to the Child.
All
the references
to the child are found in chapters 4(context)
and 5. Chapter 12 the Child is
shown to be Divine and escapes to heaven. Those that
worship the Child are the enemies
of
the world because they have the same religion as the Child and and
they have the same religion as all those in the old testament that
bore the truth of their
time and had the equivalent
today of what would be called the present truth. They themselves
bearing the truth contemporaneous, the very thing that the Bible says
the Devil Hates.

In
Isaiah chapter fifty-two verse seven, the prophet sees a time when
the message will be carried to all the world. Those
carrying this message are said to be having beautiful
feet.
Feet being the symbol of spirituality,
in other words they walk
according to the dictates of God. Their Halakah(Walking)
is not defined by Rabbinical
myths but the latter part of the verse shows
that their way
of life (Halakah)
is to spread the message
that “ bringeth good
tidings, that publisheth peace; that bringeth good tidings of
good...”
Proclaiming salvation. The
term “Publisheth (kjv)” is
the hebrew ⁴מַשְׁמִ֧יעַ
which
implies intelligent proclamation of a message. The hebrew word for
salvation is יְשׁוּעָ֑ה
which
is the name given to Jesus by Mary, Yeshua. Those with beautiful feet
are those who understand intelligently the nature of the gospel and
how to proclaim it, those who publish present truth such that its
final conclusion is Salvation, Yeshua, that is Jesus,

(Isa 52:7 [KJV]) How beautiful upon the
mountains are the feet of him that bringeth good tidings, that
publisheth peace; that bringeth good tidings of good, that publisheth
salvation; that saith unto Zion, Thy God reigneth!

The
Gospel as the Present truth is embodied in the three angels message.
The third being the truth for the 21st century. It speaks of the
truth about salvation
in Christ using the language of Modern Religions. It makes
use of Hebrew numerology and temple
language. The third angel’s message discourages any other worship
not given to God
as being detrimental to spirituality. The third angel’s message
is present truth that
points to Jesus as the only savior. It uses Hebrew temple metaphors,
borrowing from Revelation 13 : 11-18…

Dwell
on present truth, on Christ's second coming. The Lord is coming very
soon. We have only a little while in which to present the truth for
this time--the truth that is to
convert souls. This truth is to be
presented in the utmost simplicity, even as Christ presented it, so
that the people can understand what is truth. Truth will dispel the
clouds of error. {Ev 624.1}

Many of God's people
are to go forth with publications containing the light of present
truth, into places where the third angel's message has never been
proclaimed. {4bSG 151.2}

Give the people
present truth. Talk the truth. Fill their minds with truth. Build up
the strongholds of truth. And do not bring Satan's theories to minds
that should not hear in regard to them. What the people need is not a
representation of the seductive arts of Satan, but a presentation of
the truth as it is in Jesus. Remember that the devil can be served by
a repetition of his lies. The less we handle these objectionable
subjects, the purer, cleaner, and less tainted will be our minds and
our principles. . . . {Ev 624.2}

The
Third Angel's Message--The present
truth, the special message given to our world, even the third angel's
message, comprehends a vast field, containing heavenly treasures. No
one can be excusable who says, "I will no longer have anything
to do with these special messages; I
will preach Christ." No one can
preach Christ, and present the truth as it is in Jesus, unless he
presents the truths that are to come before the people at the present
time, when such important developments are taking place.--Ms 33,
1897. {VSS 325.2}

The
attention of the people is to be called to the third
angel's message. Let not God's
servants act like men walking
in their sleep, but like men preparing for the coming of
Christ.--Review and Herald, March 2, 1905. {Ev 119.2}.

In
a special sense Seventh-day Adventists have been set in the world as
watchmen and light-bearers. To them has been entrusted the last
warning for a perishing world. On them is shining wonderful light
from the Word of God. They have been
given a work of the most solemn import,--the proclamation of the
first, second, and third angels' messages.
There is no other work of so great importance. They are to allow
nothing else to absorb their attention. {Ev 119.3}.

Keep
the mind upon the third angel's
message. When you keep this before
the minds of the people, they will see wisdom in it. But when you get
a great many little trifling things before them, they become confused
just like the Jews. {1SAT 51.1}

Conclusion.

The
truth has been crafted to meet human needs. Part it is in itself not
human in nature. Many have trie to look for it in nature, some have
constructed it from inherent ideologies
while some have tried to make humanity truth. The bible defines truth
as either Jesus the Word or the Law. The first gospel preached was a
message that embodied two concept...viz-a-vis the birth of a Male
Child and the death of Satan. Every generation has had that preached
to them.

The
message called the third angel’s message is equiv-synonymous
with what the Bible calls Present truth. The gospel has throughout
history been coined to suit the time for that generation, that is why
Judgment also is
standardized on what people know in that
particular generation see Exodus 20:5 and
34:7. The gospel message has never deviated from the old testament
gospel setup. People in the 21st century have the gospel presented to
them in the form of the third angel’s message. The Spirit of
Prophecy emphatically stresses the preaching of the third angel’s
message which is said to have the power to convert souls.

1

G2097

εὐαγγελίζω

euaggelizō

Thayer
Definition:

1)
to bring good news, to announce glad tidings

1a)
used in the OT of any kind of good news

1a1)
of the joyful tidings of God’s
kindness, in particular, of the Messianic blessings

1b)
in the NT used especially of the glad tidings of the coming kingdom
of God, and of the salvation to be obtained in it through Christ,
and of what relates to this salvation

1c)
glad tidings are brought to one, one has glad tidings proclaimed to
him

1d)
to proclaim glad tidings

1d1)
instruct (men) concerning the things that pertain to Christian
salvation

Part
of Speech:
verb

A
Related Word by Thayer’s/Strong’s
Number: from
G2095
and G32

2King
James Concordance

3
H3206 יֶלֶד
yeled (yeh'-led) n-m.
something born, i.e. a lad or offspring. [from H3205] KJV: boy,
child, fruit, son, young man (one). Root(s): H3205

4
H8085 שָׁמַע
shama` (shaw-mah') v.

1. to hear
intelligently (often with implication of attention, obedience,
etc).

2. (causatively) to
tell, etc.