Where is the True Gospel? Is it with Jesus in Heaven? Will He bring it down with Him when he returns?
Or is it perhaps locked up in the Bible? Perhaps only the original text was perfect? And now we have translations, some of which are more faithful than others? Perhaps the True Gospel is the property of the Church - by which I mean the theological teachings based on the Bible which have accumulated for millenia?
But perhaps it is a little more than that? Perhaps the True Gospel is the Christian who shares the Love of Christ with their neighbor. The True Gospel is in the open heart of every believer who strives daily to live out the Sermon on the Mount. Every believer who says the Lord's Prayer and means every word of it.
If the True Gospel is not to be found in the printed text, nor in Heaven, this places a tremendous responsibility on those of us who have absorbed the teachings and have become heralds of the Good News of God to the world.
That is the only kind of literalism that makes any sense to me.
