Good News to MY Ears: Comparing the “Ransom/Atonement Gospel” and the “Kingdom/Reunion Gospel”
Good News to MY Ears: Comparing the “Ransom/Atonement Gospel” and the “Kingdom/Reunion Gospel” *** Here are wonderfully clear descriptions of the two meanings of the term “the gospel” most frequently encountered. One is centered on the good news being forgiven of sins by grace and redemption though assenting to propositional truth claims—all of which is complete in the substitutionary atonement (paying for our sins through sacrificing himself) achieved through the cross (crucifixion, resurrection and ascension). I call this the “Ransom/Atonement Gospel.” The other is centered on the promise of the Kingdom of God being at hand with Jesus’s coming and the necessity of repentance -- more properly “Metanoia,” a Greek word that resists translation, but which means the deliberate radical changing of one’s mind. I call this the “Kingdom/Reunion Gospel.” It is the latter is the one the lays out what I believe is the primary, compelling Good News. A message which offers a requi