Simply Good News

Bestselling Bible scholar N.T. Wright reveals what the “good news” really is and how the church often gets the story wrong: It turns out the news is better than we believeBiblically the Christian faith is presented as good news. That is the original meaning of the Old English word gospel. I am arguing that the idea of seeing the Christian faith as news that is good is itself ironically news to many people today. In many churches the good news has subtly changed into good advice: Here’s how to live they say. Here’s how to pray. Here are techniques for helping you become a better Christian a better person a better wife or husband. And in particular here''s how to make sure you’re on the right track for what happens after death. Take this advice say this prayer and you''ll be saved. You won''t go to hell; you’ll go to heaven. Here’s how to do it. This is advice not news.The whole point of advice is to get you to do something in order to get a desired result. Now there’s nothing wrong with good advice. We all need it. But it isn’t the same thing as news. News is an announcement that something significant has happened. And good news is what Jesus and his first followers were all about.