is the gospel about life after death?

Dallas Willard, The Divine Conspiracy:

[In the church, we find] the gospel is informing how we die. Instead, the gospel ought to be about how we live! ... [Some people’s] belief is that they try to believe in Jesus so that when they die they get to go to heaven. [They think] populating heaven is the main part of the gospel. Instead, the gospel is about being increasingly alive to God in the world. It is concerned with bringing heaven to earth.

While the Gospel is clear, it's depths are yet to be fully understood. It saddens me because much of the Church, for fear of heresy, have become heretics themselves by limiting the clear scope of what Jesus said and did in Holy Scripture.

Jesus said, Repent, the Kingdom of God is here!!! It includes future participation in a new Heaven and a new Earth, but it is here now. Enter in.

Eddie Gibbs and Ryan Bolger in Emerging Churches,

The kingdom, or the reign of God, is about our life here and now, and it is concerned not just with individual needs and aspirations but also with the well-being and mission of the community of Christ’s representatives. It is directed beyond the present membership of the body of believers to encompass the world that Jesus came to save from the consequences of its rebellion by turning it in a radically different direction. The gospel ... is not confined to personal salvation. It is social transformation arising from the presence and permeation of the reign of Christ.

Amen! The Gospel should turn the world upside down. The Gospel is radical!

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