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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The King Jesus Gospel,
By
Ce commentaire est de: The King Jesus Gospel: The Original Good News Revisited (Hardcover)
Overview:The King Jesus Gospel is Scot McKnight's latest contribution to the field of New Testament studies, and seeks to answer the question: What is the Gospel? His basic thesis is clear: Evangelicalism in particular is guilty of an extreme over-emphasis on getting people to make a decision about Christ, while the apostles were far more concerned with making disciples. In fact, McKnight asserts that "evangelism that focuses on decisions short circuits and aborts the design of the gospel, while evangelism that aims at disciples slows down to offer the full gospel of Jesus and the apostles" (18). However, our obsession with getting others to make a decision for Christ quickly loses steam. In fact, studies show that "the correlation between making a decision and becoming a mature follower of Jesus is not high" (19). These disturbing trends has led McKnight on a journey to better understand what the gospel is and what evangelism is, while at the same time embrace a style of evangelism that leads beyond decision to discipleship. Salvation-culture or Gospel-culture: The primary issue underlying this dilemma is ultimately a hermeneutical (interpretive) one relating specifically to our understanding of gospel. McKnight's contention is that the word gospel has been hijacked by what we believe about 'personal salvation,' and the gospel itself has been reshaped to facilitate making decisions. This hijacking means that the word gospel no longer means what it originally meant to both Jesus and the apostles. By equating the word salvation with gospel, we have essentially diluted the meaning of gospel and have created a salvation culture more than a gospel culture. In this climate, we are far more concerned with counting numbers and have an unhealthy interested in trying to determine who is in and who is out. And, while salvation is part of the gospel, it does not require the decided to become the discipled, and virtually ignores Jesus' emphasis on following. What is the gospel? McKnight contends that Paul in 1 Corinthians 15:1-2; 3-5 and 20-28, recites the apostolic gospel tradition and therefore provides his readers with the essence, shape and form of the original gospel (good news) of Jesus Christ. What does this gospel look like? that Christ died, that Christ was buried, that Christ was raised, and that Christ appeared. The gospel, then, is the story of the crucial events in the life of Christ. Instead of the 'four spiritual laws' held up by so many in the salvation culture, the earliest gospel centered on the four events or chapters in the life of Jesus Christ. Historically, the word gospel meant to 'announce' something, to 'declare' something as good news. And, to 'gospel' is to proclaim something about something. As a result, the gospel is to announce "good news about key events in the life of Jesus Christ" (51). And, while this story includes salvific elements, the story swallows up this salvation component and makes it flow from it rather than dominate it. The gospel then is the story of Israel that finds its resolution or completion in the story of Jesus. The whole story is told from this perspective so as not to narrow the story to 'four spiritual laws.' By emphasizing the original apostolic gospel as Paul recited it in 1 Corinthians 15, we can re-capture the essence of the story and re-create a gospel culture that includes, but also transcends, the salvation-culture that has come to define much of contemporary Christianity. The danger of focusing on the latter (what McKnight also refers to as a 'plan of salvation' culture), is that we run the risk of preaching the 'plan of salvation' apart from the story. Yet, when this happens, "the plan almost always becomes abstract, propositional, logical, rational, and philosophical and, most importantly, de-storified and unbiblical. When we separate the Plan of Salvation from the story, we cut ourselves off from the story that identifies us and tells our past and tells our future. We separate ourselves from Jesus and turn the Christian faith into a System of Salvation" (62). As I mentioned already, this emphasis has lead to the creation of a salvation culture that is foreign to the gospel culture found in the Bible; an emphasis that tends to focus on who is in and who is out. From these foundational comments, McKnight moves through the remainder of the book to help us to better understand what the essence of the gospel is, what 'gospeling' should look like today, and how to create a gospel culture. He concludes his final chapter by offering a sketch of the gospel and then demonstrates how a gospel culture can emerge from that culture in a series of practical ways. Final Remarks: After reading McKnight's excellent book One.Life (which immediately preceded this book and attempted to answer the question, what is a Christian?), I was excited to move on to The King Jesus Gospel. I was not disappointed. This book articulates a response to questions about how the gospel has been reduced to create a salvation-culture in much of contemporary Christianity, and particularly within Evangelicalism. Thankfully, McKnight's book has provided a series of thoughtful, balanced and biblically informed answers to those very questions. In fact, I believe the book has expressed what many people have believed for some time. The King Jesus Gospel attempts to restore the original framework of the gospel by anchoring it within the apostolic witness, specifically Paul's creedal recitation in 1 Corinthians 15. By pointing us back to this witness, McKnight desires to recapture the meaning and significance of the original 'good news' and convince his readers to embrace for what it is, the full gospel. Any other gospel, specifically a salvation-culture-gospel such as ours, not only dilutes the original message, but adds a meaning and emphasis to it that the original never had. While the results vary, the primary consequence of this over-emphasis is a church culture that has lost its memory about what the good news actually consists of. The orientation of the gospel has always been and should always be centered on making disciples. While Jesus and the apostles always called for a response to the good news, the call never usurped the story of the gospel by creating a 'system of salvation' that ultimately ignored the call to follow. In a salvation culture, 'accepting Christ into your heart' has become the only necessary step in salvation. The result has been four-fold: a partial and inaccurate telling of the story; a cheapening of the gospel by denying its costs/demands; a lack of focus on discipleship (following); and an unhealthy interest in counting 'salvations' (who's in and out). As a result of this orientation, we have created a culture of people who lack an understanding of the gospel and its implications, while also creating a false sense of security. However, by placing discipleship within the summons, we make the call more complete and people begin to understand the significance of the decision to follow from the very beginning, rather than sometime later. In The King Jesus Gospel, McKnight offers us a way forward by encouraging us to embrace the whole gospel of Jesus Christ; an embrace that includes a summons to follow Him as Messiah and Lord, but one that also includes an understanding of what that summons entails. I highly recommend this book as essential reading for everyone who desires to better understand, re-capture and embrace the original good news of Jesus Christ. The book will illuminate and confront a wide variety of shared assumptions people have about the gospel, and offer a way forward by providing a more thorough and biblically-informed foundation for belief and practice. If read widely, this book has the potential to begin a conversation that could ultimately bring about a contemporary reformation; one that includes a return to the original good news that Jesus is Lord.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta) Amazon.com:
4.1 out of 5 stars (64 customer reviews) 42 of 46 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The gospel is about Christ not personal salvation,
By Adam - Published on Amazon.com
Some books just give words to those ideas that have been floating around in your brain and suddenly you have a way to express what you were not previously able to express. The King Jesus Gospel is one of those books.Over the past months, I have been struggling through understanding scripture and the church and the gospel and how it all relates. Of course, not all of my questions are answered and of course, I am not sure about all of McKnight's answers, but his basic thesis, that we need to re-orient the way we talk about the gospel I am convinced is one of the most important messages I have heard. Early in the book McKnight summarized his thesis (which he does a number of times throughout the book). "Perhaps the most important thing I can say about what this book will argue boils down to these points: A salvation culture and a gospel culture are not the same. In thinking our salvation culture is identical to a gospel culture, we betray a profound lack of awareness of what gospel means and what a gospel culture might mean for our world today. We are in need of going back to the Bible to discover the gospel culture all over again and making that gospel culture the center of the church." McKnight is quite provocative in this book. He clearly knows what he is trying to say, but he also knows that he will likely be misunderstood, and bends over backward to try and clarify to minimize any confusion. Frankly, my main complaint is probably that he spends too much time refocusing, repeating his point and clarifying that he is in complete support of personal salvation. The repetition is probably important to maintain the antagonistic reader, but for friendly reader it can be a bit draining. As draining as the repetition can be, the fact that he is trying to keep the reader on board is very important. So I want to give McKnight a pass on the repetition. I am not going to draw out McKnight's argument. He makes it carefully and over 176 pages, but I will quote one of his definitions of the gospel (he defines it several times in several different ways, but this seems to be the most complete to me.) "...the gospel is, first of all, framed by Israel's Story: the narration of the saving Story of Jesus -- his life, his death, his resurrection, his exaltation, and his coming again -- as the completion of the Story of Israel. Second, the gospel centers on the lordship of Jesus. In ways that anticipate the Nicene Creed, the gospel of Peter and Paul is anchored in an exalted view of Jesus. Jesus is seen as suffering, saving, ruling, and judging because he is the Messiah and the Lord and the Davidic Savior. He is now exalted at the right hand of God. Third, gospeling involves summoning people to respond. Apostolic gospeling is incomplete until it lovingly but firmly summons those who hear the gospel to repentance, to faith in Jesus Christ, and to baptism. Fourth, the gospel saves and redeems. The apostolic gospel promises forgiveness, the gift of God's Holy Spirit, and justification." McKnight in no ways is minimizing the need for salvation as an individual. Christ came so that we could be saved, personally, from our sin. McKnight's point is that the gospel message is not about personal salvation (although salvation is important), the gospel message is about the Lordship of Christ and Christ's fulfillment of the story of Israel. Personally, the implications of this book are important. One, focusing on the Lordship of Christ clarifies the evangelism/social gospel problem that has been around for the last 150 years. Two, it completely redefines Baptism and Eucharist for me. I have strongly felt that we Evangelicals are not giving adequate due to the power of the sacraments. McKnight spends some time talking about Baptism as submission to Christ as Lord (joining into Christ kingdom and the body-the church). Even more important for me is that the Eucharist is even more emphasized because regardless of what you think theologically about the eucharist, all views can see that it is about participating in the body of Christ (universal) and that it is a physical ways of seeing that we are empowered to live out the kingdom. Third, McKnight's approach gives meaning to focusing more on discipleship as a process than on evangelism as an event. I have focused on this for a while, but this really inspires me to continue. Fourth, and maybe most importantly, this again gives even more amunition to the idea that we as Evangelicals need to be spending more time reading scripture, reading it completely, reading it as a complete story, and absorbing it in a way that the Holy Spirit can really use it to change us. I have to admit I was primed to read this book. I have been talking about some of the themes for months now. So you might not be as enthused about it as I am. But I do think that the central message, that the church should be about the gospel, that the gospel is primarily about the Lordship of Christ and Christ's completion of the story of Israel and that as important as personal salvation is, it should never be placed before the central place of Christ. ______ An ebook was provided by the publisher through Netgalley for purposes of review. This review was written for my blog Bookwi.se 14 of 16 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Really Important to Read if You Preach or Teach the Bible,
By Mike G - Published on Amazon.com
Ce commentaire est de: The King Jesus Gospel: The Original Good News Revisited (Hardcover)
Every time I read a new book by Scot McKnight, my wife tells me I say the same thing, "I think this is the most important book he's written." After finishing his newest book, "The King Jesus Gospel", I really believe that to be true for this book.
His argument is essentially that we've replaced the Biblical Gospel with instead a Plan of Salvation, and while the Gospel will indeed lead to salvation, it is far bigger than just that. McKnight defines the Gospel this way, "It is the Story of Israel that comes to completion in the saving Story of Jesus, who is Messiah of Israel, Lord over all, and the Davidic Savior." For the past few years, I have tried to understand how the methodology of the church has created a culture of consumerism and shallowness. What Scot does with this book is develops theologically how we have gotten to that place - simply by replacing the Gospel with the Plan of Salvation. This is the first theological book in a long time that I've had a hard time putting down. I found myself reading passages out loud to Allison regularly, scribbling notes and at times just wanting to shout, "yes" as I was reading it. I'd be willing to say that anyone who teaches or preaches the Bible regularly needs to read it. It's that important. Here's a few of the quotes I underlined: "Most of evangelism today is obsessed with getting someone to make a decision; the apostles, however, were obsessed with making disciples" "...the gospel itself, strictly speaking, is the narrative proclamation of King Jesus" "...in those early apostolic sermons, we see the whole life of Jesus. In fact, if they gave an emphasis to one dimension of the life of Jesus, it was the resurrection. The apostolic gospel could not have been signified or sketched with a crucifix. That gospel wanted expression as an empty cross because of the empty tomb." "The gospeling of the apostles in the book of Acts is bold declaration that leads to a summons while much of evangelism today is crafty persuasion." "When we reduce the gospel to only personal salvation, as soterians are tempted to do, we tear the fabric out of the Story of the Bible and we cease even needing the Bible" 18 of 22 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
An Important Issue, But There are Better Studies,
By Jacob Sweeney - Published on Amazon.com
Ce commentaire est de: The King Jesus Gospel: The Original Good News Revisited (Hardcover)
Scot McKnight likes to stir the pot. I appreciate his willingness to say hard things with good reasons for saying those hard things. He has recently published The King Jesus Gospel in order to address a central issue for Evangelicals: the gospel. He wants to contend that "we evangelicals (as a whole) are not really "evangelical' in the sense of the apostolic gospel, but instead we are soterians...we evangelicals (mistakenly) equate the word gospel with the word salvation" (29). He wants to argue that the gospel is more than a plan of salvation.
The problem with a myopic, soterian church culture is that it creates "The Decided" (McKnight's term) rather than "The Discipled". This is not a problem of church programs or structures, it's an inherent problem with a soterian culture (30-31). After laying the groundwork McKnight moves on to consider how the gospel moved from the message of God's meta-narrative (story of all stories) to a plea for a decision. He contends that evangelical soterians have proclaim the plan of salvation divorced from the story of God. This results in an immature and declining church. He then focuses on the gospel message as contained in the gospels and in Peter's epistles. Finally, he considers how his emphasis on the narrative of the gospel affects evangelism and ways to return to a gospel culture from our soterian culture. There are many parts of McKnight's book with which I wholeheartedly agree. Yet, there were as many others with which I disagreed or had concerns. Areas of Disagreement First, much of McKnight's argument felt like boxing a ghost.. Having been raised an evangelical, attended an evangelical Bible college and now attending an evangelical seminary, I am well acquainted with our strengths and weaknesses. I understood many of the concerns he expressed. But, I still felt his argument was weak because he didn't (couldn't?) engage contemporary evangelicals embodying this soterian gospel. His soterians are ambiguous. It's easier to argue against someone who doesn't exist. Second, it seemed obvious to me that McKnight was attempting to expose the remnants of Evangelicals' Fundamentalist-Revivalist heritage. Like it or not, Evangelicalism emerged in the 1940's-50's out of disagreement and discontent with the focus and emphasis of previous generations of fundamentalism. It is from the Charles Finney's and D.L. Moody's that we have a decision-based Christianity. Focusing on this heritage would have provided clarity and identity to his argument. Third, in his chapter titled "Gospeling Today" McKnight attempts to demonstrate "King Jesus Gospel" evangelism. His focus is on the book of Acts and the preaching of the Apostles. McKnight is correct in identifying the emphasis upon the story of Israel and its consummation in Christ. But, that preaching occurs in the context of Jews. If he could demonstrate that apostolic preaching to gentiles was consistently and prominently Israel-focused his argument would carry weight. But, he can't. The classic example of "Gospeling" to a gentile audience is in Acts 17. Paul does not emphasize the story of Israel. He begins with their own metanarrative and brings the story of Yahweh into it. It is not in Zeus that we live, move and have our being, but Yahweh. The previous three points are points of contention. They are areas of his argument which I found weak. If they were addressed, his thesis would be much more compelling. My above critiques should not be taken as a dismissal of his entire book. I believe that there is much McKnight gets right. But, I think there's just as much he gets wrong. Areas of Agreement First, I think the heart of McKnight's book is correct. Evangelicals have overemphasized the decision and failed in the discipling. It is a good and noble desire to see people repent of sin and confess faith in Christ. But, that's not the end it's just the beginning. Contrary to McKnight, I don't believe that we've gotten the gospel wrong. I just believe that we have failed to emphasize the call to discipleship that Jesus gives to any and all who would follow him. Second, The story of Israel is absolutely essential to understanding the person and work of Jesus. However, in a biblically illiterate, post-Christian world, how many people will even know (let alone understand) a reference to Abraham, Moses or Elijah? Once again, the problem is not in the gospel Evangelicals have preached but in their failure to promote, push and provide discipleship for the people in their church. Conclusion We have a discipleship crisis in the church today. I disagree with Scot McKnight's proposal in it's specifics. But, generally I agree with the idea promoted in The King Jesus Gospel. We need to move away from the revivalist remnant of our fundamentalist heritage and actually disciple our people. This is a top-down requirement. It's not the work of pastors alone. It's the work of all people. He is right to call this book the King Jesus Gospel. Christians need to remember that Jesus was not merely a means to a decision. He is the true King. Declaring Jesus to be Lord was an act of treason and sedition in the apostles' day. Let's not forget that when Jesus calls us "he bids us come and die". |
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