This guy does not understand the Gospel, nor does he represent the meaning of the cross.
I would say that it's not possible, with just this article to say that this guy doesn't understand the Gospel of Salvation.
It's a newspaper article, written by someone else (a secular reporter) about a guy who has been walking around the world carrying a cross. That's all that you're reading here.
Now, I would say that he probably knows the Gospel of Salvation, per the Scriptures, as well as you and me and he probbably talks to quite a few people about exactly that -- as he stops and talks to people in various places, as he's carrying that cross around.
So, I wouldn't be so quick to criticize him in not knowing what the Gospel of Salvation is. I'm betting that he has probably talked to a wider variety of people about Salvation, according to the Scriptures, than you or I put together... :-)
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