The Gospel: Earth's Most Publicized Message 227

Huns, Nazis, Communists, national leaders, cults, scientific discoveries, ideologists, natural disasters, Hollywood actors, atheists, wars, etc, have each for a while dominated the news and public discussion.

Measured across 2000 years, however, one news item stands out as more-extensively proclaimed than any other.

It is "the gospel" which is recorded in the Bible and means "good news":

"And this good news of the kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the world, as
a testimony to all the nations, and then the end will come." (Matthew 24:14)

At "the end" the world faces annihilation by fire (II Peter 3:10-13) and the gospel reaches all languages, nations, peoples and tribes. (Revelation 14:6)

UNDERSTAND THE WORDS

Euangelion [Noun]: Occurs 76 times in the New Testament and is translated "gospel", "good news" and "glad tidings".

Euangelizomai [Verb]: Occurs 51 times. It means "preach", "declare", "announce" or "bring" good news.

Euangelistes: Occurs 3 times referring to evangelists who preach the good news.

WHAT IS THE GOSPEL?

"Thus it is written, that the Messiah is to suffer and to rise from the dead on the third
day, and that repentance and forgiveness of sins is to be proclaimed in his name to
all nations, beginning from Jerusalem." (Luke 24:46-47)

W.E. Vine (1981) writes: "In the N.T. it denotes the good tidings of the Kingdom of God and of salvation through Christ, to be received by faith, on the basis of His expiatory death, His burial, resurrection, and ascension."

The Bible in I Corinthians 15 says:

15:1-2 Now I would remind you, brothers and sisters, of the good news … through which you are being saved…

3-5 For I handed on to you as of first importance what I in turn had received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures, and that he was buried, and that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the scriptures…

20-21 Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have died. For since death came through a human being, the resurrection of the dead is also come through a human being, for as all die in Adam, so all will be made alive in Christ.

22-23 But each in his own order: Christ the first fruits, then at his coming those who belong to Christ.

24-25 Then comes the end, when he hands over the kingdom to God to the Father, after he has destroyed every ruler and every authority and power. For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet.

26 The last enemy to be destroyed is death…

The Gospel is "in accordance with the Scriptures", therefore implied in the Old Testament, and is the process "through which you are being saved".

Outlines of the Gospel in church sermons include most of the following points:

•    The rule (or Kingdom) of God over the whole world, with Christ as King, has started;
•    Everyone is a sinful rebel against God and deserves punishment;
•    Forgiveness, reconciliation with God and cancellation of punishment are available to
     everyone through the life, crucifixion, resurrection and ascension of Jesus;
•    These events, if believed and accepted, remove people's guilt, empower them to live
joyfully and morally, and guarantee them eternal life;
•    Salvation culminates in the resurrection of the dead to eternal life with new superior
bodies.
•    After "every ruler, authority and power are destroyed" Christ hands the kingship to
   God the Father.
•    A happy eternity in the Kingdom of God follows.

CURRENT BENEFITS

The Gospel started with Jesus' ministry and gave people who accepted it "the power to become children of God". (John 1:12) The death and resurrection of Jesus were still future which indicates that God does not require a full understanding. People are not saved by full theological knowledge, but by Jesus.

People who genuinely accept the Gospel, progressively replace their evil conduct with "good works":

"For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all, training us to
renounce impiety and worldly passions, and in the present age to live lives
that are self-controlled, upright and godly, while we wait for the blessed hope
and the manifestation of the glory of our great God and Saviour, Jesus Christ.
He it is who gave himself for us that he might redeem us from all iniquity and
purify for himself a people of his own who are zealous for good works."
(Titus 2:11-14)

The gospel makes people right with God. It frees them from guilt and helps them subdue detrimental habits, activities, beliefs and distractions which previously dominated their lives.

REASON FOR THE GOSPEL

The background, reason, and necessity for the Gospel is:

"There is no one who is righteous, not even one…"
(Romans 3:9-18)

"All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God."
(Romans 3:10, 23)

What people are guilty of — how they "fall short" — is summarized in Romans 1:18-32 and 3:9-18.

Due to their guilt all deserve death and "the wrath of God". (Romans 1:18, 32)

But God, out of patience, kindness, and love (Romans 2:4), while also adhering to justice, has arranged for everyone to avoid punishment and be declared innocent and justified:

"For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus
our Lord." (Romans 6:23)

"God proves his love for us in that while we were still sinners Christ died for us.
Much more surely then, now that we have been justified by his blood, we will be
saved from the wrath of God through the death of his Son, much more surely,
having been reconciled to God, will we be saved by his life." (Romans 5:8-10)

"If you confess with your lips that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God
raised him from the dead, you will be saved." (Romans 10:9-13)

WHY JESUS CAME

Jesus is central to the Gospel. He lived among humans to rescue from God's judgment all who want to be rescued:

•    "Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets; I have come not to
abolish but to fulfil." (Matthew 5:17) .

•    "The Son of Man came … to give his life a ransom for many." (Matthew 20:28)

•    To proclaim that "The time is fulfilled and the kingdom of God has come near…"
(Mark 1:14-15, 38-39)

•    "I must proclaim the kingdom of God … I was sent for this purpose." (Luke 4:43)

•    "I have come to call … sinners to repentance." (Luke 5:32)

•    "For the Son of Man came to seek out and to save the lost." (Luke 19:10)

•    "For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes
in him may not perish but have eternal life. Indeed, God did not send the Son into the
      world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him."
(John 3:16-17)

•    "I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly." (John 10:10)

•    "I came not to judge the world, but to save the world." (John 12:47)

•    "You say that I am a king. For this I was born, and for this I came into the world, to
   testify to the truth." (John 18:36-38)

•    "God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, in order to redeem those
who were under the law, so that we receive adoption as children." (Galatians 4:5)

•    "Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners." (I Timothy 1:15)

•    "that through death he [Jesus] might destroy the one who has the power of death, that
is, the devil, and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by the fear of
      death… [and] make a sacrifice of atonement for the sins of the people."
      (Hebrews 2:14-17)

•    "He … gave himself for us that he might redeem us from all iniquity and purify for
himself a people of his own who are zealous for good deeds." (Titus 2:14)

•    "The Son of God was revealed for this purpose, to destroy the works of the devil."
(I John 3:8)

•    "In this is love … he loved us and sent his Son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins."
(I John 4:10)

•    "The Father has sent his Son as the Savior of the world." (I John 4:14)

•    "God sent his only son into the world so that we might live through him." (I John 4:9)

DESCRIPTIONS

The good news is also:

•    The good news of God (Romans 1:1; Mark 1:14-15);
•    The good news of the Kingdom (Matthew 4:23; 9:35);
•    The good news of your salvation (Ephesians 1:13);
•    The good news of the glory of Christ (II Corinthians 4:4);
•    The power of God for salvation (Romans1.16).

EVIDENCE FOR THE GOSPEL

Modern apologists quote Paul that Jesus, after his resurrection, appeared to "more than 500". This claim, however, we cannot directly now confirm. It assumes the Bible to be true, and to "assume" is not proof. Critics may compare the alleged posthumous Elvis Presley sightings and Hitler-survived myths, or the belief that Jesus returned in 1874 or 1914! The world is full of nonsense.

However, the New Testament claims to be based "on eyewitnesses". (Luke 1:2; II Peter 1:16; II John 1:1-3) We can test the truthfulness of this claim by checking all geographical references and mentions of 1st-century history. Genuine, careful eye-witnesses would get all such mundane stuff correct and win when challenged by critics. We've done that in Investigator (e.g. Historicity of N T Geography #183) and found accuracy in geography approaching 100%. To understand how stunning this is, compare your own travels because even with modern maps you have probably sometimes misidentified towns, suburbs or even what country you were in!

Could this eye-witness accuracy carry over to everything claimed about Jesus and the gospel?

Consider further evidence that you can see and confirm:

1. ALL HAVE SINNED

The main evils committed by humans, for which "God" in the Bible decrees punishment are listed in Revelation 21:8; 9:21 — cowardice, unbelief, vileness, murder, sexual imorality, practicing magic arts, idolatry, lies, and thievery. Another list (I Corinthians 6:9-10) accuses the sexually immoral, homosexuals, thieves, the greedy, drunkards, slanderers and swindlers.

That everyone fails to always live morally is confirmed by psychology and by official crime statistics collated by governments.

2. ACCORDING TO THE SCRIPTURES

That the Gospel was foretold in "the Scriptures" is testable because the Old Testament still exists. Revealing the Gospel from the Old Testament is an empirical exercise still doable .

3. GLOBAL FIRE

Also confirmable is worldwide fire at "the end" with every "ruler, authority and power" destroyed. By 1990, as knowledge about asteroids increased, and the remains of gigantic ancient craters on Earth were identified, scientists began to declare a big future impact that sets Earth and sky on fire inevitable.

4. INDUCTION

Information from sources that are regularly reliable is information we believe. It's called inductive reasoning — when we generalize or predict from experience. The Bible has often turned out correct even when everyone disagreed with it. You can get many examples of this from the Investigator Magazine website. The point is that if the Bible is regularly reliable, and often merely seemed wrong because science had not caught up, then we can trust it also regarding the Gospel. For a fuller explanation see Investigator #224 "Oldest Confirmed Bible Event".

5. PROPHESIED EXTENT

"Then I saw another angel flying in midheaven, with an eternal gospel to proclaim
to those who live on the earth — to every nation and tribe and language and people.
He said in a loud voice, "Fear God and give him glory, for the hour of his judgment
has come, and worship him who made heaven and earth…" (Revelation 14:6-7)

The gospel is heard in millions of churches every week; proclaimed already in the 1st century from Spain to India; and to ever more nations afterwards; and since the 15th century in billions of copies of books; and nowadays also on radio, TV and Internet.

The number of languages in which the Bible became available in 2023, according to the 2025 Wycliffe Global Alliance annual report (sourced for me by Copilot), reached:

•    Entire Bible 740 languages
•    New Testament 1660
•    Bible portions 3600

And: "More than 99% of the world's population now has access to at least some Scripture."

Copilot also says: "Jesus is the most written-about person in history... At least 100,000 - 200,000 distinct books about Jesus have been published since 1500."

The "angel", in Revelation 14:6-7 who speaks from the sky to the entire world, may symbolize all Christian evangelism with an "angel" in charge. Alternatively, the basic meaning of "angel" is "messenger" and a human messenger may at "the end" literally speak from Space to the entire human race, to billions of people, in thousands of languages.

In March 1995 Billy Graham, during a religious "crusade" in Puerto Rico, addressed the world via satellite. His message was relayed to 175 countries in 102 languages to people gathered in churches, auditoriums and stadiums.

Billy Graham did not fulfill Revelation 14:6-7 but demonstrated that a literal fulfillment is becoming technologically possible.

CONCLUSION

The Gospel is the most extensively proclaimed news in history. And so it should be due to its origin, importance, relevance, and veracity!

REFERENCES:

Holy Bible: New Revised Standard Version, 1993, Zondervan Corporation

Message of hope for all the world, The Advertiser, 1995, March 11

Publishing statistics, https://copilot.microsoft.com/

Vine, W.E. Vine 1981 Vine's Expository Dictionary of Old and New Testament Words, Fleming H. Revell Company, Volume 2, E-Li, p. 167

Wigram, G. V. 1840. 9th Edition 1903. The Englishman's Greek Concordance of the New Testament. Samuel Bagster.

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WHAT IS THE GOSPEL
ACCORDING TO ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE?

(Investigator 227, 2026 March)

Copilot, the Artificial Intelligence that comes with Windows 11 on your computer, was asked: "Christian churches say they proclaim the gospel. What is the gospel?"

Pictorial rendition of Revelation 14:6-7
Generated by https://copilot.microsoft.com/

Copilot answered:

In Christian theology, “the gospel” (from the Greek euangelion, meaning “good news”) refers to the central message of salvation through Jesus Christ.

Core Meaning

At its heart, the gospel is the announcement that:

•    God offers forgiveness and reconciliation to humanity.
•    This is made possible through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
•    Salvation is not earned by moral effort but received by grace through faith.

Scriptural Foundations

Key biblical passages include:

•    Mark 1:14–15: “Repent and believe in the gospel.”
•    Romans 1:16: “It is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes.”

Theological Components

Most Christian traditions outline the gospel in four movements:

•    Creation – God made the world and humanity with purpose.
•    Fall – Humanity rebelled, leading to sin and separation.
•    Redemption – Jesus' sacrificial death restores the broken relationship.
•    Restoration – Believers are invited into a renewed life and future hope.

What It's Not

•    It's not a list of moral rules or self-help advice.
•    It's not about earning divine favor through good behavior.

Why It Matters

For churches, proclaiming the gospel means:

•    Sharing this message publicly and personally.
•    Inviting others into a transformative relationship with God.
•    Framing all ministry—charity, worship, teaching—as expressions of this good news.

Reference:

The Gospel and AI generated image by
https://copilot.microsoft.com/

See also: The Most Gospel-Deprived Countries