THE DISCONNECT

 Let's put three texts one after the other and see if they match. The first from Luke and are the words of John the Baptist to Israel as great crowds had gathered to hear him and be baptized by him. These are his instructions:

"Therefore produce fruits that are consistent with repentance, and do not start saying to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father,’ 

¹⁰ And the crowds were questioning him, saying, “Then what are we to do?” ¹¹ And he would answer and say to them, “The one who has two tunics is to share with the one who has none; and the one who has food is to do likewise.” ¹² Now even tax collectors came to be baptized, and they said to him, “Teacher, what are we to do?” ¹³ And he said to them, “Collect no more than what you have been ordered to.” ¹⁴ And soldiers also were questioning him, saying, “What are we to do, we as well?” And he said to them, “Do not extort money from anyone, nor harass anyone, and be content with your wages.”

So with many other exhortations he preached the gospel to the people."

Now let's move to another text, this one from I Cor. 15:  

"Now I make known to you, brothers, the gospel which I preached to you, which you also received . . . that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, ⁴ and that He was buried, and that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures."

One more. This one from the Gospel of John 20:30-31: 

"So then, many other ^[h]signs Jesus also performed in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; ³¹ but these have been written so that you may believe that Jesus is the ^[i]Christ, the Son of God; and that by believing you may have life in His name."

Even the not-so-careful-reader can see  the vast disconnect between John the Baptist's message and Paul's and John's. Luke, who recorded the Baptist's message as seen above is laced with works. Paul's and John's have no works in them. That's a very large disconnect, isn't it?

The question is, what in the wide world of disconnects is going on?

Paul and Luke both use the word "gospel," don't they?

To understand what's happening, we have to back up to see what God-ordained duty John the Baptist was to perform. We learn that in the context of his ministry the Baptist's task was stated by Isaiah and Malachi: to prepare the way for the coming Messiah, the King of Israel. John the Baptist was the herald of the King. He was to announce the arrival of the King as a herald, thus preparing Israel for His arrival. In so doing, he has "good news" for them (the word "gospel" means "good news.")

His message is not a message of how to be saved or how to go to heaven. His message is one of preparation. When the Messiah conducts His ministry, He will give the information concerning gaining eternal life apart from any works. 

This explains why John's message is different from John the Apostle's and Paul's. 

Here's a word of warning: any pastor or evangelist who uses John the Baptist's message as a model for our witnessing, that is, as a model in declaring the gospel (using the word in  its technical sense as "the saving message,") is leading you into Lordship salvation and a message of works, which is no gospel at all!