You should read this book:
Who Really Goes to Hell? The Gospel You’ve Never Heard
After living alongside–and being friends with–Shammah for about fifteen years now, David Rudel’s book feel very familiar. Not that I’ve heard it all before, but just in the way that he writes, and how he’s so good at bringing simple clarity to things most people either don’t think of, or just turn a blind eye to.
The book deals with the topic of what the gospel really is, according to the scriptures, and especially the topic of the Judgement. I think you’ll be surprised. You see, most of us have been given a framework of a gospel that’s been defined for us by modern Christianity. David simply points out the appalling lack of scriptural support for some very fundamental modern Christianity beliefs:
“Initially, I found differences between Jesus’ teachings… and the interpretation we draw from Paul’s letters. This got me exploring what, exactly, Jesus teaches as the gospel before His death. Through most of His ministry, people think of Him as a rabbi or a prophet, and no one, not even His disciples, knows He is going to die. So what message is Jesus spreading? If you take away Jesus as Messiah, Jesus as Sacrifice, and Jesus as Lord, what do you have left to tell people as the gospel? When Jesus says repent and believe the gospel what gospel does He mean?”
You can download the entire book for free, or you can find a paperback version (which I find easier to read) for sale online at the site.
Started reading today on your recommendation (it being free helped too). Very much enjoying his writing style. Favorite footnote so far is: ‘4By “most Christians” I mean “the majority of the small number who read the Bible at all.’
He’s very thorough, so much so that there’s been a few places where my head’s almost imploded… but that’s like listening to Shammah sometimes, too. 🙂
I found almost nothing new in the book except his incredible ability to make things clear. Without much in the way of new teaching to learn from the book, I spent most of my reading taking furious mental notes on how to teach.
His methods aren’t perfect–none are–and there are slow spots, but his ability to paint chillingly clear pictures of the difference between the mainline Evangelical Gospel and apostolic preaching is … hmm … let’s use “unique.”
Such clarity is rarely duplicated.