It’s important to understand that the groundless gospel interpretation of the gospel in 1 Cor. 15:3-4 (they limit the gospel to include only part of v. 4) does NOT include the fact of the bodily resurrection of Christ! They must add that in to their gospel from outside sources. Much of 1 Cor. 15:3-5 is not the gospel, according to groundless gospel advocates. They divide up the gospel into what they call “Essential vs. Non-Essential Elements,” and thus you need THEM to tell you which is which.[1] The parts of the gospel that make up the groundless gospel are the words:
“Christ died for our sins . . . and He was raised” (vv. 3, 4). That’s it! All the rest of vv. 3-5 is not the gospel, according to groundless gospel advocates.[2] So the point being that the bodily resurrection of Christ is NOT included in that statement! How was Christ raised? If His burial (1 Cor. 15:4) is taken out of the gospel, then obviously the empty tomb is taken out of the gospel. You don’t have a physical resurrection if you don’t have a physical burial: because what happened to His body? It’s left a mystery according to the groundless gospel.
References:
[1] For more information see my blog post titled: “
How To Decipher the Groundless Gospel” (
FGFS, Feb. 26, 2015). The link is: https://freegracefreespeech.blogspot.com/2015/02/the-groundless-gospel-is-hard-to-believe.html
[2] For more information see my blog post titled: "
Getting the Gospel Right, Pt. 3" (
FGFS, July 13, 2023). The link is: https://freegracefreespeech.blogspot.com/2023/07/getting-gospel-right-part-3.html
The apostle Paul did not preach the non-buried and never-seen savior of the groundless gospel. As one Bible teacher has well said:
ReplyDelete“In the prologue to his classic on the Resurrection, Paul is careful to point out that Christ not only died and rose again, but ‘that he was buried’ (1 Cor. 15:4). He was not resuscitated from a temporary swoon. He did not disappear. Nor did His body evaporate, but, ‘he was buried.’ The same body which was laid in the tomb came out again just as literally as it went in.” (Douglas M. White, “The Glories of the Resurrection.” The Sunday School Times [March 25, 1950], p. 3, italics his.)
Groundless gospel advocates teach that the burial of Christ is not part of the gospel, but the Bible states otherwise. Thus it's no wonder that Dr. John Walvoord has said: "The aspect of burial is included in the essential Gospel (1 Cor. 15:4)."
ReplyDeleteCommenting on I Cor. 15:3-4, R. A. Torrey affirms: “Paul here declares that Jesus Christ died and was buried and was raised. What was raised? Paul says, that that which ‘was buried’ was raised. But what was buried? Not the soul of the Lord Jesus, but His body.” (Torry, The Fundamental Doctrines of the Christian Faith [New York: 1918], p. 247, emphasis his.)
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