VEILED GOSPEL AND VISIBLE GOSPEL
False gospels can be heard by anyone. In fact, they are heard every Saturday (i.e. Sabbath) and Sunday in churches and synagogues around the world. False gospels are visible and able to be heard by anyone. Another term for false gospel is “common manna.” 

The true gospel, however, is like hidden manna. It is the veiled gospel featured in this verse:

2 Corinthians 4:3-4 And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing. 4 The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel that displays the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.

COMMENTARY: Old/First Covenant religionists are perishing (i.e. dying) because they do not hear God’s spoken voice.  They are dying the slow but sure spiritual death that overcomes everyone who practices religion.

Understanding of the true gospel that Paul and all other true prophets preach is veiled (i.e. hidden) to religious people who cannot hear God’s voice because they have hard hearts. The god of this age is not a unique, singular god but is the collection of all religious leaders at work in the world of religion. These are the preachers/teachers whom religious people idolize by listening to their preaching/teaching/writing/music. The words that they produce blind the minds of religious people to the truth. The false gospels (i.e. doctrines) that they preach and police are strongholds of wrong thinking to which religious people are so strongly addicted that they cannot hear the truth spoken by God’s messengers.

Light is one of dozens of words found in the Bible that symbolically refer to God’s spoken word.

Religious people hear the false gospel. What they see and hear is religion — not faith. The true gospel can be heard only by people who know how to hear God’s spoken voice. New Covenant disciples know what God’s voice sounds like. God’s voice does not sound like anything that religious leaders or religious people say.

God is a consuming fire and a refining fire. That means that the true gospel (i.e. God’s spoken words) will have a burning effect on the hearts of people who hear the true gospel. The true gospel will be like fire that convicts of sin.

STUDY TIP: See this link, this link, and this link for understanding of God’s word as a consuming/refining fire.

This scripture tells us what we can expect when we hear the true gospel:

John 16:1-13   “I have said all this to you to keep you from falling away. 2 They will put you out of the synagogues; indeed, the hour is coming when whoever kills you will think he is offering service to God.

COMMENTARY: What Jesus said that he refers to here is found in John 15 which includes a warning that his followers will be persecuted when they preach the true gospel. They will be put out from synagogues and churches because they preach a different gospel.

The true gospel that Jesus’ followers (i.e. true prophets) preach will incite religious people in synagogues and churches to defend their religion by persecuting the ones who preach the true gospel. That is what happened to Jesus. The words he spoke to the Jews were God’s words. The words true prophets preach are God’s words. Because God’s words are different from the words of Pastors, Priests, Rabbis, Apostles, Bishops, Elders, Deacons, Overseers, Rabbis, Popes, Missionaries and Evangelists, true prophets will cause trouble and dissension in the congregations and be unwelcome. This outcome of preaching the true gospel is a fulfillment of Jesus’ statement that he had come with a sword — not to bring peace. Pastors, Priests, Rabbis, Apostles, Bishops, Elders, Deacons, Overseers, Rabbis, Popes, Missionaries and Evangelists speak a gospel of peace designed to keep everyone happy so they will come back to synagogue and church bringing their tithes and offerings. True prophets like Jesus speak a gospel that has the intent of calling people out of religion — not to religion.

The true gospel conflicts with the false gospel that Jews and Christians believe. Jesus and true prophets are enemies to the religious kingdoms of Pastors, Priests, Rabbis, Apostles, Bishops, Elders, Deacons, Overseers, Rabbis, Popes, Missionaries and Evangelists. That is why the religious leaders of Jesus’ day plotted to have him killed. Their literal interpretations of scripture had them so convinced that their religion was what God wanted them to do that they were prepared to kill Jesus to obstruct the preaching of the true gospel. Jesus knew this and he warned his followers that they would be treated the same way when they preached the true gospel. He warned his followers about this outcome elsewhere when he promised that they would be persecuted.

Jesus knew that persecution for preaching the true gospel would cause some of his followers to fall away from preaching. He was not detoured from his mission and endured to the point of death.

STUDY TIP: See this link for understanding of Jesus’ death and the kind of death that preachers of the true gospel will experience if they do not fall away from their mission.

The basic purpose of Jesus’ ministry was to set people free from captivity to religion (i.e. Judaism.) This was a big problem for Jewish religious leaders who saw Jesus as a threat to their personal status and the overall security of their religion. And they were correct in seeing him this way because Jesus’ mission was to destroy religion.

STUDY TIP: See this link for understanding of the threat Jesus posed to Jewish religious leaders.

The Jewish religious leaders thought that protecting Judaism from destruction was the right thing to do. It was their kingdom and they would defend it. They believed wrongly that God had ordained Judaism as his choice religion and that God would want them to remove any and all threats to Judaism. Christians of each denomination feel the same about their version of Christianity.

Because Jesus was a clear threat to their religious kingdom, Jews were convinced that killing him to remove the threat was what God wanted them to do. In other words, killing Jesus was a form of service to God because doing so was a way of preserving the religion (i.e. Judaism) that God had established.

This is the context of Jesus’ statement “whoever kills you will think he is offering service to God.” Jesus prepared his followers to continue his ministry of destroying religion — not just Judaism, but all religion, including Christianity.

Jesus worked to destroy the religion of his youth which was still the religion of his friends and family. His commands to his followers were, and are, to destroy the religions that his followers knew/know so well. He gave these commands knowing full well that his followers would suffer the same kinds of death he suffered, and he gave them warning of that outcome here.

STUDY TIP: See this link for other scripture warnings about persecution that Jesus’ followers will endure.

It was God’s words spoken by Jesus that incited people to kill him. This explains how God’s word is a consuming fire: His words are intended to consume (i.e. destroy) religion. Jesus’ followers will not be welcome in religious organizations. They will be shunned, criticized, verbally attacked, persecuted and ostracized. The Bible calls the suffering that Jesus’ followers endure the “second death.“

3 And they will do this because they have not known the Father, nor me.

COMMENTARY: The religious leaders who persecuted Jesus and had him killed did not understand why Jesus said the things he said and did the things he did. The reason the Jews did not understand Jesus is that they interpreted  scripture  literally — not symbolically. This wrong interpretation led them to look for a messiah with certain qualities and who would accomplish certain tasks that would benefit the Jewish people. Jesus did not fit their idea of what a messiah would do, so they got rid of him.

Christians have made the same mistake that the Jews made. Their literal interpretation of scripture convinces them that the human Jesus is their savior. They do not understand that God has sent many ,messiahs, true prophets, angels, high priests, witnessses, warriors and apostles to speak for him.

Failing to understand that God’s spoken voice and the written word are not the same thing, Christians trust their literal interpretations of the written word that say their savior is a human person, and totally miss that God is their savior. They have stumbled over the human Jesus and missed listening to God’s voice.

Neither Jews or Christians (past or present) understand because they are Old/First Covenant religionists with evil, impure hearts. Only New Covenant disciples who have God’s spiritual laws written on their hearts can understand God and Jesus’ ministry. 

4 But I have said these things to you, that when their hour comes you may remember that I told you of them. “I did not say these things to you from the beginning, because I was with you. 5 But now I am going to him who sent me; yet none of you asks me, ‘Where are you going?’ 6 But because I have said these things to you, sorrow has filled your hearts.

STUDY TIP: Also see this link for understanding of these verses.

Hearing the true gospel is not a one-time event. It will be an ongoing event as long as we continue to respond to what we hear the spirit of God saying to our hearts.