In view of the bewildering ideas that exist in the religious world as to what this gospel

is, we do not add any ideas of our own, but go directly to the fountain head, the Word of

God for instruction. One expositor writes "if we could settle the question as to what the

gospel of the kingdom is, in the event that it is something other than the gospel which the

apostles began to preach at Pentecost, and which the church has preached since, the

eschatological problem would be solved" (Dr. R. O. Yeager). And its importance is

stressed by the fact that the end of the age cannot come until this gospel has been

preached in the whole world (14).

The fact remains that it has been dealt with and its terms made clear in the N.T., and

for this we must turn to the Gospel of Mark:

This good news is surely not complex and difficult to understand provided we are

prepared to believe what it says without adding ideas of our own. Up till now the

kingdom had been made known through the prophetic Scriptures of the O.T. The waiting

time had now passed and the time of its realization or fulfillment had come. The King

was present and therefore this kingdom was "at hand" or near. Only two other things

were necessary, (1) to change one's attitude of mind (repent), and (2) to believe this

tremendous news, and one needs to have one's mind refreshed with the greatness of the

kingdom in all its detail given in the O.T. Scriptures to appreciate the good news (gospel)

that it contained.

It is important to note that in this gospel of the kingdom there is no reference to

Calvary or to Christ as the all-sufficient sacrifice for sin, and this should prevent us from

confusing it with the gospel of grace that was later revealed by the ascended Christ to the

apostle Paul (Gal. 1: 11, 12) and preached by him (I Cor. 15: 3, 4). This is made even

more clear when we remember that the Twelve who were commissioned to preach this

kingdom gospel (Matt. 10: 5-7), did not realize that Christ had to die and were even

opposed to the idea (Matt. 16: 21-23).

Even though this is so, we should always remember that redemption underpins the

whole purpose of God in Christ, and this must include His kingdom purposes. The

gospel of the grace of God upon which this rests was proclaimed by Paul and had spread

to "every creature which is under heaven" (Col. 1: 23), and so had gone world-wide

before Paul's martyrdom.  The chief point in Matthew's gospel is that the earthly

kingdom was near. When we consider Matt. 24: this is particularly evident, because

we are in Daniel's seventieth week of years, the last seven years of the age, which is