If you are anything like I was, you are asking yourself, “What the heck is the apostolic kerygma?” The kerygma has historically and theologically been understood as “the essential elements of the Christian gospel message.”[1] The apostolic kerygma stands as a clear understanding of what the apostles would have preached. This understanding provides clarity in defining what constitutes the “gospel” in the church. But why is this important? Actually, it is vitally important for several reasons.
First, there are three primary theological views of the apostolic
kerygma: the British School, the German School, and the Anglican School. The
British school basically teaches a formulaic approach to the apostles'
preaching of the gospel (the death, burial, and resurrection). The German
School was focused on the experiential aspects of the gospel. In other words,
it wasn’t about what was preached but the experience between the preacher and
the hearer that mattered. Finally, the Anglican School holds that the gospel
has nothing to do with salvation but is rather the metanarrative story of Israel
that culminates in the Kingship of Christ.
Second, from these foundations, many competing views emerge on
what constitutes the gospel. How we understand the core of the gospel sets the tone
for how we communicate our faith. There are many variations in what people
would declare to be the gospel. Let me briefly cover the most prevalent ones we
see today.
The Salvation Gospel
The most common evangelical idea (distinctly resting in the
British School) of the gospel holds the work of Christ for salvation as its core:
mankind has sinned, Jesus died for our sins, we must repent and believe in
Christ to receive forgiveness and eternal life. Greg Gilbert summarized the
gospel, stating:
Whatever
else they [the apostles] might say, these are the issues that seem to lie at
the heart of their presentation of the gospel… but somehow and in some way, the
earliest Christians always seem to get at these four issues: We are accountable
to the God who created us. We have sinned against that God and will be judged.
But God acted in Jesus Christ to save us, and we take hold of that salvation by
repentance from sin and faith in Jesus.[2]
Furthermore,
Mark McCloskey described the gospel as multifaceted. He asserted, “The gospel
is a multidimensional message speaking to the height, breadth, and depth of the
need of the human heart. God has designed this message to meet man at his point
of greatest need perfectly.”[3]
One concern of this view is that it lends itself to shrinking the gospel to a
transaction. Moreover, it can neglect the Lordship of Christ, the role of His kingdom,
and believers’ expectations in discipleship.
The King Jesus Gospel
A growing view of the gospel stands as the story of Israel
culminating in the Kingship of Jesus (the Anglican School). This view takes the
gospel to be the story of Jesus as the climax of Israel’s story. This view is
fundamentally about who Jesus is and what He has done. Therefore, personal
salvation flows from this gospel but is not the gospel story. One proponent of
this view is Scot McKnight. McKnight contends that there are four components of
the gospel: Christ was crucified, buried, raised, and appeared.[4]
He leverages 1 Corinthians 15 in this defense, claiming that the apostolic kerygma
was devoid of discussion of salvation as part of the gospel presentation. He holds
that salvation was an outworking of the gospel proclamation. One weakness of
this view is that it tends to minimize justification by emphasizing the gospel
as the culmination of the story of Israel. In addition, it diminishes the doctrine
of penal substitutionary atonement, treating it as a mere byproduct rather than
the intended aim.
The Liberation Gospel
The Liberation Gospel (which derives from the German School as a
Prophetic-Liberative kerygma) is a theological movement that interprets
the gospel as God’s liberating action on behalf of the oppressed. It emphasizes
Jesus as the bringer of justice, the dismantling of sinful structures, and the
holistic salvation of individuals and communities—sometimes at the expense of
the gospel’s focus on personal sin, repentance, and Christ’s atoning work. Essentially,
this view espouses that the gospel is God’s liberation of the oppressed. This is
a prominent view within liberation theology, Black theology, and some
social-justice movements. It argues that the gospel of God sides with the
oppressed. Salvation is reduced to freeing people from injustice, sin, and
systemic evil. The anchor of this view is the Exodus story of Israel that
shapes the framework. This view often relegates the gospel to political
activism and neglects the atonement. Salvation then becomes political
liberation that emphasizes structural sin and oppression over personal holiness.
The Social Gospel
The Social Gospel (which derives from the German School as an Ethical-Moral
kerygma) stands on the announcement that God’s reign has arrived in
Jesus. As such, social reform for Christ’s reign must abound. This view is
especially strong in biblical theology and missional movements that strive to make
the world better through social reforms. The gospel is fundamentally about the
transformation of society, not merely the salvation of individuals. It
emphasized applying Christian ethics to social problems—especially poverty,
inequality, labor exploitation, racism, and urban injustice. Jesus’ teachings, centered
on the Sermon on the Mount, serve as the blueprint for social ethics. Moreover,
Jesus’ work is framed more as a moral example to follow than as a substitutionary
atonement for sin. The weakness is that it underemphasizes substitutionary
atonement and rather becomes a religion of social activism without conversion.
The Prosperity Gospel
The Prosperity Gospel (which derives from the German School as a
Therapeutic-Narcissistic kerygma) teaches that God’s will for every
believer is financial abundance, physical health, and material success.
Moreover, all of these blessings can be obtained through positive confession,
strong faith, and generous giving because of Christ’s victory over sin and
death. The Prosperity Gospel interprets the gospel as God’s guarantee of
personal wealth, physical health, and success for those who exercise sufficient
faith. This view reduces God to a personal genie that grants
wishes to those who believe with enough faith. It distorts the gospel
Conclusion
At its core, the gospel is
the message of Christ’s exaltation and salvation through repentance.
Essentially, the issue at hand is treating the gospel and salvation as
separate. They are two sides of the same coin. You cannot separate one from the
other and have a complete picture. Thus, a philosophical antinomy exists. An
antinomy is where a contradiction lies between two conclusions, both of which
are equally justified. A common example
is in the idea of wave-particle duality. Fundamentally, wave-particle duality
describes the discussion of light. It seeks to answer the question: Is light a
wave or a particle? The answer to the wave-particle duality paradox is a
resounding yes.[5]
Light exists both as a wave and a particle. In like fashion, to say the gospel
is the kingship of Christ is true; however, to say the gospel is soterian
in nature is also true. The Apostle Paul asserted the gospel is “the power of
God for salvation to everyone who believes” (Rom. 1:16b).
Moreover, Harry Poe stated, “The benefits and implications extend
from the cross, yet they do so only because they are of the integral relationship
between the death of Jesus and the other elements of the gospel.”[6]
To separate the two is to lose sight of the fundamental truth—the Word of God
saves. Lewis Drummond declared, “Therefore, the gospel proclamation, if true to
the biblical idea, must be filled with dynamic kerygmatic content. That
message alone moves people and meets their deepest needs. That is the crux of
the whole matter.”[7]
Drummond contended for the commitment to the biblical application of the kerygma
as a point of power. Essentially, the message of the gospel of Jesus is what saves.
The biblical metanarrative is that God wove His saving plan for
humanity through and around the entire story of Scripture. The missio
Dei—God’s restorative mission—is bound up with His plan for salvation. The
focus is on God’s gracious intervention to save a desperately needy world that
is in rebellion against him and stands under his righteous judgment.[8]
To study the whole of Scripture is to understand the connection more fully
between the gospel and God’s mission toward salvation.
x
[1]
Matthew B. Queen, “A Theological Assessment of the Gospel Content in Selected
Southern Baptist Sources,” PhD Diss., Southeastern Baptist Theological
Seminary, 2009, ProQuest (3364782), 35.
[2]
Greg Gilbert, What is the Gospel? (Wheaton: Crossway, 2010), 32.
[3]
Mark McCloskey, Tell it Often-Tell it Well: Making the Most of Witnessing
Opportunities (Eugene: Wipf & Stock, 1985), 18.
[4]
McKnight, King Jesus Gospel, 49.
[5]
The scientific conclusion for the implications of wave—particle duality
utilizing Schrodinger’s equation is inconclusive but presents the basis for
quantum mechanics. Jones, Andrew Zimmerman. "Wave Particle Duality and How
It Works." ThoughtCo, Aug. 26, 2020,
thoughtco.com/wave-particle-duality-2699037.
[6]
Harry L. Poe, The Gospel and its Meaning: A Theology for Evangelism and
Church Growth (Grand Rapids:
Zondervan, 1996), 156.
[7]
Lewis A. Drummond, The Canvas Cathedral: Billy Graham’s Ministry Seen
Through the History of Evangelism (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 2003), 95.
[8]
Köstenberger, Salvation to the Ends of the Earth, 11.
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