JD: Do you find differences in how the Gospel needs to be presented in different countries and or cultures?
DJ: The content of the Gospel itself it never changes. The content of the Gospel is centered around the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ. There does need to be some contextualization. What that means contextualization of the Gospel that means presenting the Gospel in ways that are culturally relevant. And it’s not just a matter of being culturally relevant in different cultures around the world. Even in our own country we’re in a changing environment. Years ago there was an article about how sharing the Gospel in our secular age is different.
We have to take into account what people know, help them
unlearn some of the bad things that they may have learned in a religion that
they were brought up in. There may be even illustrations in different cultures
that work in one culture but don’t work in another. So we need to explain the
Gospel in ways that are culturally relevant and fit into that culture.
Here in Asia where there is no background in many countries
concerning Jesus Christ people don’t even know the name of Jesus Christ we have
to start at a different point and not take things for granted that we might
take for granted. The director of Word of Life here in the Pacific Rim has
develop a means of presenting the Gospel called The Gospel Story Ark where he
actually starts back in the Garden of Eden and tells what happened in the
Garden, the fall of Adam and Eve and how we inherited that sin nature. And it goes
through a very clear explanation of the Gospel and putting the whole Gospel in
the context of history as well as how we came to have this need and why the
Gospel needs to be presented and people need to take it seriously.
JD: With his Bible in his hand, David James explaining to us
that we must present the Gospel today.
We report this information because it is setting the stage
for Bible prophecy to be fulfilled.
The Gospel according to I Corinthians 15:1-5 is the death,
burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ. That Gospel according to Romans 1:16
is the power of God unto salvation to the Jews first and also the Gentile.
II Peter 3:9 Jesus says that he is not slack concerning his
promise of the rapture. But he is not willing that anybody should perish but
all people must get saved. Actually we can hasten the rapture of the church by
winning people to Jesus Christ, that’s II Peter 3:12.
We must publish the Gospel today.
