A Tale of Two Gospels

Though I am pretty sure that the writings in Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, were not written with a focus on chronology, we do know that the public ministry of Jesus was pretty short. As the story goes, only a bit over three years. That means that within an even shorter period of time (possibly less than 1.5 years), this unknown Jewish teacher had amassed enough renown to draw over 5000 people to hear him teach (and follow him) without the use of any form of media (see Matt. 14, Mark 6, Luke 9, and John 6). In today's terms, Jesus was an INFLUENCER!

Not only did large crowds follow Jesus, but the overwhelming reason the masses followed Jesus was because his preaching and actions were overwhelmingly understood as being good news ("gospel"). 

So, what happened? 

When and why did "the gospel" get so distorted that the message the majority of people hear is, "If you don't repent of your sin (it's a long list that would take up too much time here) and turn to Christianity (not necessarily Jesus, btw), you are going to die and God is going to toss you into the lake of fire for ALL ETERNITY."

Let's talk about it.

~Matt