xjwsforChrist

He will punish those who do not know God and do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. - 2 Thess 1:8

Oddly enough, WTBTS never explains what it means to obey the gospel in this verse. The closest they come is in a 1954 WT article: "Responsibility at the revelation of Jesus Christ, therefore, depends on whether one accepts or rejects the good news of the presence of the Kingdom that Jesus said would be preached world-wide."

This is an interesting phrase. What exactly does this mean, to "obey the gospel"? Some say it simply means to believe. Others say it means to be baptized. I, personally, don't know. If it said to 'obey our Lord', that would be quite obvious, but it doesn't say that. It says to 'obey the gospel of our Lord'. Just how does one go about obeying gospel (or good news)?

Sometimes it's our own thinking... often as the result of prior indoctrination(s)... that get in the way of our understanding a thing, dear LQ (peace to you, dear one!). That could be the case here, as when I read the statement, I (now) "hear" something different than what you do (although I understand "what" YOU hear, as I once "heard" it, too). Let me show you.

Let's take the statement:

He will punish those who do not know God and do not obey the gospel of our Lord [Jaheshua].

First, let's clarify: the MOST HOLY One of Israel, JAH of Armies... will NOT... PUNISH... anyone. He WILL enact vengeance. And let's be clear here, as well - such vengeance is DESERVED; it is reciprocal JUSTICE on behalf of those who have been slaughtered for the sake of the Christ, meted out upon those who will eventually come against the beloved holy City, the NEW Jerusalem, to slaughter those in HER, in an effort to forge her "walls" and eat from the Tree of Life in her midst. To do this, such ones will stop at NOTHING... including slaughtering MORE of her citizens, if that's what it would take. The MOST HOLY One of Israel, JAH of Armies, will not... cannot... allow this. Revelation 6:9, 10; 20:7-10

The second part of the verse, however, identifies who these ARE... those who "do not obey the 'gospel' of our Lord..."

First, the word "gospel" is misleading. The word original was meant to relate glad tidings, and so was "GOOD"spell... or GOOD news/story... [of our Lord]. It became confused with "god", however, and came to be "godspell"... and from there, "godspel"... and then... "gospel." If we take it back to what it was orignally meant to RELATE... the verse would state:

"... those who do not obey the good news/story of our Lord..."

But even that is slightly incorrect; the word we know as "gospel" is taken from the Greek word "evangelion." That word would negate the word "story" and fall more on the word "news." Even more so... the word "message". In truth, then, it means "good message."

To help you understand, an "evangelist/evangelizer" is a "messenger" (angel) of GOOD (ev) news. Hence, the word we know TODAY as "gospel" came from a word that, in GREEK, meant "good message". So, let's look at the verse with those words:

"... those who do not obey the good message of our Lord..."

Wait, though. We still have that word "of." WHICH word COULD lead those... WHO DON'T KNOW... to believe the statement is saying, "those who do not obey the good message ABOUT our Lord." Which is what the WTBTS' NWT translations states... yes? And THAT, dear brother, is why you "hear" the verse as you do: that it is referencing those "who do not obey the good message "about" Christ.

BUT... that's not what Paul was stating at ALL. What he, IN ESSENCE, was:

"... those who do not obey OUR LORD [JAHESHUA'S]... GOOD message."

The good message... OF OUR LORD. HIS message... that HE gives. Not ABOUT our dear Lord... but FROM him. The message "of" HIM.

And that is the reason that these reap JAH's vengeance - because of the very reason they can even BE misled to come against the beloved City... in the same way their forefather's slaughtered the prophets and other members of Christ's Body, before THEM: they do not obey Christ's GOOD message!

And what is that "good" message? This:

"You must love God... with ALL your heart, mind, soul, and strength... AND... you must love YOUR NEIGHBOR... AS (you love) YOURSELF."

The first two "commandments"... on which ALL of the Law "hangs." If ANY of these had heeded JUST these two commandments, there would be no NEED for justice to be done and vengeance to be meted out against them. Because they wouldn't have SLAUGHTERED the prophets and other members of Christ's Body... NOR would they be... COULD they have be... misled... by the Adversary... to even come AGAINST the beloved City. It wouldn't have even come up in their HEARTS.

Because... they would have OBEYED the GOOD message of Christ. And that message is summed up in those two commandments. Which commandments are fulfilled... by love.

Now, I apologize for the many words, but what I have shared with you is "how" my dear Lord said to do it: to take you through it step-by-step. Why? He said that many have many "strongly entrenched" things yet in them and to just give brief cursory responses sometimes isn't enough. It's okay for one to "get it," per se... but if they can have all of the PIECES that SHOW why something is true, then when THEY share it they are sharing something they TRULY understand... versus something someone else just told them to say ("Christ began ruling in 1914 because... well, I can't really explain it, but I just know he did!" - Ummmm... "how" does such one "know"? Because the WTBTS told them. Can't explain it. Can't justify it. Can't even reason away the inconsistencies and discrepancies. But, dadgum it, it's TRUE! Cheah... right...).

So, I, SA, have shared it with you, just as I received from my dear Lord, the HOLY One of Israel and Holy Spirit, JAHESHUA, the Chosen One of JAH (MischaJah), to do it. I hope it helps, truly.

As always, peace to you!

YSSFS of Christ,

Shel

You do not know how immensely appreciative I am that you took me through this step by step. Now, I DO understand. And I didn't just take your word for it. I originally violated my own personal policy with this one in not really looking closely at the original Greek. I did look at the Greek, but I did not look closely enough. So, after your post, I took a closer look.

I originally did not, for example, look at he word "tou", which is translated "of the" (obey the good news of the Lord). Nearly all translations translate it as "of the" or "of our". The Greek literally says 'obey the good news of the Lord of us Jesus', so 'obey the good news of our Lord' is probably acceptable.

The GOD'S WORD Translation also says "about our Lord". The Weymouth New Testament says "as to our Jesus, our Lord". But the Kingdom Interlinear literal translation translates it as "of the Lord", as does the Emphatic Diaglott, while the NWT changes it to say "about our Lord".

Interestingly, The Bible in Basic English translates this phrase as "and to those who do not give ear to the good news of our Lord Jesus." It's the only one that I found that does not say "obey". I found that interesting. So, I looked closer. The word translated as obey or obeying is "hypakouousin" (Strong's 5219), which means, "I listen, obey". HELP's Word Studies says this:

Huge smile.

Peace to you!