A Clear Presentation of the Gospel

So, in my 23 years of being a Christian, I have never actually given the Gospel to someone who has never heard a clear presentation thereof.

I did this for the first time tonight, and would just like to share.
Feel free to troll the thread if you must, but know that I won't be attempting to respond or backup my position or defend doctrines or the Bible. I just wanted to put this out there to plant or water a seed :

We have to establish some groundwork first. The key is faith, so let's start at the beginning :

Most people believe in the idea of a creator of the universe. Life is just too coincidental and amazing for most people to deny that.
Romans 1:20 :
For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse:
In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.

And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.
And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.

Now I'm not going to go through all of Genesis with you, I just want you to understand that everything was created by the spoken Word of God.
Now. If God is powerful enough to SPEAK the universe into existence, surely he has the power to preserve his Word.
The discovery of the Dead Sea scrolls in 1947 confirmed that we still have the same Old Testament as they did at Jesus’s day. The survival of thousands of New Testament manuscripts confirms that the New Testament writings were also providentially preserved. The question among textual scholars is not whether some words are missing, but which variant readings, in a few minor cases, are the correct ones.

In contrast, few copies have survived from nearly every other classic book, such as Caesar’s Gallic Wars or Herodotus’ Histories. While copies of major portions of the New Testament survive from documents dated around AD 300, most other classic books survive in copies no older than around AD 900.
So that's 2000 years at least, that the Word has been preserved. It had also been preserved from 1500 years before that, when the Jews were doing their thing. By that, I mean the first 5 books of the Bible : Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy.

These books have been preserved just about word for word for over 3500 years.

Can you name another book or manuscript that has withstood the test of the time in the same fashion that the Bible has?
Jesus Christ made an amazing prophesy about this preservation of His Word: “Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will by no means pass away” (Mark 13:31; also Matthew 24:35). He believed that God’s Word is indestructible (“And it is easier for heaven and earth to pass away than for one tittle [small mark in Hebrew lettering] of the law to fail” Luke 16:17).
Now, the next thing we need to understand is that Jesus Christ was not only the SON of God, he WAS God, manifest in the flesh :

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

2 The same was in the beginning with God.

3 All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made.

4 In him was life; and the life was the light of men.

5 And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not.

6 There was a man sent from God, whose name was John.

7 The same came for a witness, to bear witness of the Light, that all men through him might believe.

8 He was not that Light, but was sent to bear witness of that Light.

9 That was the true Light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world.

10 He was in the world, and the world was made by him, and the world knew him not.

11 He came unto his own, and his own received him not.

12 But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name:


Now this is the same "beginning" spoken of in Genesis 1:1
So we can see from scripture that Jesus IS God, and is pre-eminent, and everlasting. The Bible is the preserved, written Word of God.
Here, we need to get into some of the bad news :

God the Father, who resides in Heaven, is a holy God, and cannot be in the presence of non-holiness. Literally, he is so magnificent and perfect that an un-holy being would be wiped out by his mere presence.
Remember, this is the God that SPOKE the universe into existence.

So the bad news is this :
That sinners don't inherit eternal life. They're un-holy, and cannot be in the presence of God the Father in Heaven. Here are some scriptures just showing that EVERY man is a sinner :

Romans 3:23 :
For ALL have sinned, and come short of the glory of God.

Romans 3:10 :
As it is written, there is none righteous. No, not one.

Romans 6:23 :
For the wages of sin is death., but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ.

Revelation 20:14 :
And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire.

Revelation 21:8 :
But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and ALL LIARS shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone, which is the second death.

So then, the next step is to recognize that you're a sinner, and don't deserve eternal life. Most people aren't adulterers or murderers, but EVERYONE has lied.
Now it's time for the GOOD news, or the Gospel. (Gospel literally MEANS, "Good News")
The Good News is this :

That God loves us, and He WANTS for us to have eternal life. The thing is, He also highly values free-will, and will NOT FORCE anything upon anyone.
So here are some scriptures that tell what is involved in obtaining eternal life :

Romans 5:8
But God commendeth His love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.

1 Corinthians 15:3
For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures, and that he was buried and that he rose again the 3rd day according to the scriptures.

John 3:16
For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.
He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.

John 6:47
Verily verily I say unto you, he that believeth on me, hath everlasting life.

John 11:25
Jesus said unto her, I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live:
And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die. Believest thou this?

Ephesians 2:8
For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:
Not of works, lest any man should boast.

Romans 3:28
Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law.
Now, the important thing about all of this is that Jesus literally lived a PERFECT life, WITHOUT SIN. Which was possible for Him, because He IS God.
It is not possible for a normal man to live an entire life without sin.
So basically, Jesus came to earth, and preached ...continued in next post

...continuation of previous post
the truth of God.

The religious leaders of the time believed that he was blaspheming God, and had him tortured and crucified for it.
During the whole time He was being tortured and crucified, he STILL never committed sin.

Some of the things they did to him :
Put a bag over his head, punching him in the face, saying "If you're the son of God, then tell us who hit you"

They drove nails into his hands and feet, and hung him on the cross.

They fashioned a crown of thorns and jammed it into/onto his head.

They whipped him 40 or so times, cutting into his flesh and really messing him up each and every time.

They mocked him, and spat upon him.

In all of this, He STILL never sinned. In fact, as he was dying, he said : "Father forgive them, for they know not what they do."
So obviously he died. His soul was sent to Hell, to pay for the sins of ALL of mankind. A perfect man, went to HELL for 3 days and 3 nights, bearing the punishment of our sins, because he loved us so much, and wanted us to have eternal life.
3 days later, he miraculously rose from the dead (Not hard for the God of the universe)
He endured all of this, so that we may have eternal life by believing in Him, and what He did for us.
You don't have to live a perfect life, as it's impossible. See again all the verses listed above regarding how we have eternal life via faith in Christ.
So, he basically made it "easy" for us to have eternal life, because He loves us so much.
No matter how good of a life a person lives, they still are not without sin, making them imperfect.
The righteousness and perfection of Jesus Christ is bestowed upon us by believing the record that God gave of Him.
Salvation / Eternal Life is a free gift. We just have to reach out and take it. It's already paid for
In order to reach out and take that gift, all we must do is believe that Jesus was God, and what He did for us regarding his death, burial, and resurrection.
A gift is a gift, but we must reach out and take it. It's as simple as opening a door, or taking a drink of water.
And that's my clear presentation of the Gospel. In my 23 years of being a Christian, this is the first time I've ever actually given the Gospel to someone.
So there you have it.
The power of God unto salvation is the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
Thank you for letting me tell you about it.
I'd now be happy to answer any honest, sincere questions that you may have.
If you believe this, and want eternal life, all you have to do is ask God for it.
Really, you don't even have to ask. Just reach out and take it, by believing, and calling upon the name of the Lord, Jesus Christ.

That is a misleading title...

It should be called the doctrine of Christianity based around Paul...

I was expecting an outline of the actual gospel not the bible... whatever though

a star for your time

A lot of Paulism. My own spiritual experiences have made me question everything about his teachings.

I will follow the wise teachers including Jesus and do not follow the ones like Paul who teachings are of the mark from my point of view. Jesus sound like a "blessed One" in speech, Paul to me sound like a confused man and do not seem to have the awareness needed to teach about the light (higher energized body states) and therefor the teachings become ego based and idolizing.

I would never call Jesus lord. For one who teaches equality and oneness of all souls being called lord (a ego-based dictator) is from my point of view an insult to his teachings. Blessed One or beloved soul brother is a better things to call him.

John 11:25
Jesus said unto her, I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live:
And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die. Believest thou this?

In the words of Jesus Himself, there are 2 qualifications necessary for eternal life. Be alive, and believe on Jesus Christ.

No Paul involved. No matter what Jesus says later, regarding a persons works, they don't have to be mutually exclusive. If good works are required for salvation, then Jesus is a liar. If someone believes, yet does no works, and is not granted eternal life, that also makes this statement by Jesus a lie.

It's the gift of God. A gift is already paid for by the giver. People are cheapening what Jesus did by adding their filthy rags "righteous" works to salvation.

That would be like someone buying a house for a million dollars and trying to give it to you, and you earnestly trying to give him 300 bucks, insisting that it's worth the full value of the house. It's insulting.

I'm not trying to get into an argument here, like I said in the beginning. I simply wanted to point out that statements made must be true and correct in and of themselves.

a reply to: graphuto

The discovery of the Dead Sea scrolls in 1947 confirmed that we still have the same Old Testament as they did at Jesus’s day.

It doesn't, it verifies that there were different versions of the books before there was a standard version produced in the Christian era. What Jesus and the Apostles read and spoke was the Greek version, the Septuagint.

Now this is the same "beginning" spoken of in Genesis 1:1
So we can see from scripture that Jesus IS God, and is pre-eminent, and everlasting. The Bible is the preserved, written Word of God.

Someone could interpret those verses that way, but it doesn't actually say that.
What it is talking about in the beginning of the Gospel of John is the idea that God does thing by command, so that there is power in His word.
How that relates to the main topic of chapter one is that it was predicted that a Messiah would come in the Prophets, and so it came about as God had spoken through inspiration of those writers.
What some people do is to say that "the Word" here in the verse somehow means Jesus, which is encouraged by the translation that uses the personal pronoun "him" instead of the equally valid translation of "it".

Here are some scriptures just showing that EVERY man is a sinner :

None of them actually say that. What Paul was saying was that even though the Jews had the Law, they still sinned, so there was a need for a better way of gaining righteousness other than just a written code saying to be righteous.
The better way is through faith in Jesus, which is how people go from being sinners, to being righteous.

a reply to: graphuto

So obviously he died. His soul was sent to Hell, to pay for the sins of ALL of mankind. A perfect man, went to HELL for 3 days and 3 nights, bearing the punishment of our sins, because he loved us so much, and wanted us to have eternal life.

There isn't anything in the Bible that says anything even close to this.

Jesus bore the punishment of a sinner, meaning that he was executed in a manner that befitted the worst sort of criminals.
That is not the same thing as being punished for something someone else did.

There is no place in the New Testament where it describes Jesus paying for sins.
It does mention the idea of a ransom but it is used figuratively for redemption in general and it means the whole world has a better status and value thanks to the goodness of this one man.

a reply to: jmdewey60

Stop spreading confusion.
I rebuke you as an heretic and false prophet in the name of Jesus Christ.

The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God


My spirit bears no record with your words or sayings. Nor does any other Bible believing Christian's spirit bear record with your words or sayings.

Don't you belong to the Church of Latter Day Satan? (Mormonism / False Religion)
Or is it the 7th Day Adventist? (Legalistic / False Religion)

Every post I've ever read of yours reeks of pontification and the idea that you have some "higher knowledge" than is available readily to the rest of us, from reading the Bible.

It's almost as if you'd have us believe that every Bible believing Christian for the past 400+ years (since the Bible has been mass produced and been made readily available to the average man) has just been wrong this whole time.

It's garbage.

a reply to: graphuto

Stop spreading confusion. I rebuke you as an heretic and false prophet in the name of Jesus Christ.

Thank you for quickly clearing up what sect of xtianity you are a part of. Obviously fundamentalist/literalist, and most likely a non-denominational church.

My spirit bears no record with your words or sayings. Nor does any other Bible believing Christian's spirit bear record with your words or sayings.

Your "spirit" bears no record because it isn't your spirit you're listening to. It is indoctrination. Like most fundamentalists, you've been well trained to think God/Jesus believes the same things you do.

Don't you belong to the Church of Latter Day Satan? (Mormonism / False Religion) Or is it the 7th Day Adventist? (Legalistic / False Religion)

Bashing other xtian sects is another indicator of extreme fundamentalism. Seems like Jesus "rebuked" sectarianism somewhere in the bible. Might wanna look that up.

Every post I've ever read of yours reeks of pontification and the idea that you have some "higher knowledge" than is available readily to the rest of us, from reading the Bible.

Pot calling the kettle black? Only fundamentalists have it right. Right? Your sect knows better than any of those other sects, who are only xtian in appearance. BTW. Is this your church?...

No witches, atheists, or Catholics either, right?

It's almost as if you'd have us believe that every Bible believing Christian for the past 400+ years (since the Bible has been mass produced and been made readily available to the average man) has just been wrong this whole time.

He didn't have to imply it. You did that yourself when you slammed two other sects of xtianity, calling them false religions. Guess they're all going to hell, and you folks can't wait to see god throw them into the lake of fire with the rest of us heathens.

I really wanted to discuss your presentation of the gospel, but the true colors of extreme fundamentalism and elitism came out too soon. No need now. Have a great day.

originally posted by: graphuto

That would be like someone buying a house for a million dollars and trying to give it to you, and you earnestly trying to give him 300 bucks, insisting that it's worth the full value of the house. It's insulting.

Thank you for sharing this above quoted analogy. Faith and works is an issue that comes up often and this is the best explanation I've heard for faith- alone salvation. I'm sure I'll repeat it someday, if you don't mind.

The book of James says that faith without works is dead. Some might see this as a contradiction to the idea of salvation through faith alone but I do not.

When someone has truly accepted Jesus as their lord and savior, good works naturally follow. I could go into this more, but I'll leave it at that since I only have a brief moment to make this post.

a reply to: VegHead

Feel free to use any and/or all of the work presented here.

a reply to: graphuto

Hey graphuto, long time no see. I last saw you in a thread titled "Atheism Destroyed" in which I asked you about hell. At that time it seemed your belief was that it is a place of everlasting fiery torment. I responded and said that wasn't the case, and provided a link for you to look at should you disagree. I was just wondering if you had a chance to read through that website, and/or have since changed your views on hell.

Here is that link again:
Hell Know!

a reply to: WakeUpBeer

Why on earth would I want to get my knowledge from "man's wisdom" and not from God?

a reply to: graphuto

Ah gotcha. So you didn't even click the link? You know it is a religious site? Furthermore it uses the Bible to back it all up. It's pretty much an exhaustive Bible study. Not some heathen rant like it seems you're assuming.

Proverbs 18:13 my friend.

a reply to: WakeUpBeer

I clicked the link, of course. Then noticed that the site was broken down into like 7 or 8 sections. I read the synopsis for each section, noticed very little Bible, and moved on.

I don't need to read a five thousand word dissertation on why Hell isn't fiery, eternal torment, when I can plainly read multiple verses from the Bible that confirm that it is.

For every site you can provide "proving" that Hell isn't fiery, eternal torment, I can provide one that says it is, aside from my own knowledge of the Bible.

originally posted by: graphuto
a reply to: WakeUpBeer

Why on earth would I want to get my knowledge from "man's wisdom" and not from God?

Because your knowledge comes from mans wisdom. I mean, you do know how many times the Bibles been translated, right? You want proof? Read the old scriptures and compare them to the new. Look at how many 'rules/sins' are changed, and the like.


Unless you're speaking directly with God, you aren't getting your words from God. I wish I could say you were, but you're not.

a reply to: Lyxdeslic

You know that no matter how many times el gato is translated to cat, is translated to el gato, is translated to le chat, is translated to cat....

Cat still means cat.

originally posted by: graphuto
a reply to: Lyxdeslic

You know that no matter how many times el gato is translated to cat, is translated to el gato, is translated to le chat, is translated to cat....

Cat still means cat.

That's fine. But through the years things in scripture have been removed, changed, added and so on. That's not the same as your comparison. Which is what I'm getting at. Example: Old Scripture says that it's a sin to eat shellfish, get tattoos and piercings, keep lengthy facial hair, go to work on Sunday, etc... But new Scripture says it's not.

Religion is such a simple thing, and people over complicate it with re translating it over and over and over again. It's interpreted so many different ways. When really, it's as simple as "Live as Jesus lived." That is the one line that should be repeated at every Sunday gathering. "Live as Jesus lived." You don't need extra rules, or a book or whatever to tell you what's wrong or right... And if you do, religion isn't going to help you. Because you just lack morals.

a reply to: Lyxdeslic

I don't know what "new scripture" you're talking about.

Nothing has been removed or changed. There are thousands of copies that can be compared one to another. If someone tried to change something, don't you think everyone else that owns a copy would notice?

It's a ridiculous assertion.

a reply to: graphuto

Lol and you dare to rebuke others for spreading what you deem as lies and heresy. I can't force you to read more than a brief synopsis and frankly I don't care if you do or not. You're wrong about hell but believe whatever you want. Yes, I am aware of all the verses that say hell is eternal, and I understand what they imply. It isn't fiery torture for eternity though.

Maybe you should rebuke yourself for confusing people lol