In the second session [mp3 here] we explored the gospel as presented in Acts.  Scot reflected on the gospel of the 4 spiritual laws and then compared it to the elements of the gospel preached by the apostles in the book of Acts.  The 4 spiritual laws state that:

1.    God loves you
2.    You are a sinner
3.    Jesus died to forgive your sins
4.    Receive Christ, benefits are heaven (abundant life)

Scot noted that these lines could lead to the deconstructing of the church (read more on this here). In Acts the the gospel is preached as:

1.    The story of Israel that has come to a climax in Jesus … gospel starts with the telling of Israel’s story.
2.    The full story of Jesus (life, death, resurrection, exaltation, gift of the Spirit and His second coming AND judgment).  The phrase “you killed Him God raised Him”.
3.    Christology … Jesus is the Messiah of Israel and the Lord of all.
4.    A call to respond… believing, repenting and being baptized, “What shall we do?”
5.    Promises (forgiveness of sins, times of refreshing)

Here is the quote that challenged me the most in this session,

“Any gospel that doesn’t end up at the end of Acts 2 is not gospel formation.” 

One of my thoughts about the 4 spiritual laws is that it works well for the oppressors in a colonial setting.  Because it is mainly concerned with individual salvation it can easily negate the horizontal relationships with others.

It is interesting to compare the 4 spiritual laws to the second list.  What do you think the gospel is?

Arnau posted a thoughtful response to this post here.