I am aware of the gospels that we have which are Mark, Matthew, John, and Luke, but just like the manner of how God reveals himself in other religions outside Christianity, the other divisions of the gospels came across as a another shocker for me. Although I am aware of the Gnostic Gospel of Mary Magdalene, but that is merely because of the film The Da Vinci Code, and I did not really know the entire extent of the Gnostic Gospels, which further escalated my curiosity for this topic. Anyhow, I believe by having these kind of divisions for the Gospel is good, because it helps people know and understand the truth about our faith. The way I see it, if the Gnostic Gospels were not classified as it is then there would be disunity and confusion around us in our religion. If it were not for the Canonical Gospels, the official gospels of the bible as they were written out of devotional and evangelical purpose, no one would be then certain of what our faith is really about and who Jesus Christ truly is to us.
His use of the prophetic message of Isaiah as divine logos rhetorically identifies the “True Israel” as Christ and all those who follow him, and well as the inclusion of the Gentiles, their spiritual journey, and designing the Christian community (Bates, 2009, pp. 1-3). Second, his understanding of the Trinity, as noted earlier, was judged against the standards of the Nicaea, presumably providing much debate to formulate the Trinity as agreed upon in the Nicene Creed. Lastly, his ability to blend the Gospel with Greek philosophy was crucial in understanding Logos: Christ as the Son of God, and Christ
Gregory Riley’s The River of God: A New History of Christian Origins analyzes the evolution of Christianity, utilizing not only its origins in Judaism, the teachings of Jesus Christ, and the competing doctrines established by early Christians, but the elements of religion in ancient civilizations, such as Mesopotamia, Egypt, Greece and Rome. Gregory Riley uses the “River of God” as an analogy to the origins and development of Christianity, as well as the guiding principle behind his argument regarding the development of Christianity. Dr. Gregory J. Riley is a professor of New Testament at Claremont School of Theology. Riley acquired his Bachelor of Arts and Master of Arts at the University of California and received his Ph.D. at Harvard University.
Arguments swing widely between them being either accurate in their portrayal of historical events, or that very few of the events described took place. Many scholars would agree that Christ is a historical figure. The issues that cause controversy are the miraculous events surrounding His life. For this reason, researching the historical accuracy of the setting in the Gospels is crucial to the argument regarding the authenticity of
Christianity is one of the most historically eventful religions known to man. The Gospel’s and Acts within the Bible have held quite a few historical moments. The historical purpose of writing these gospels were all surrounding Jesus Christ and how the writers might be able to get their message across to the public in that time. It was founded that these scriptures while they seem similar in some regards in turn had different meanings. It can be said that the Gospel of Luke, the Gospel of John, and the Acts of Apostles all have different accounts of historical factors that have been written about Jesus Christ but they are still right also.
The narrative of John the Baptist and Jesus the Baptist in a historical context is considered in this academic critique. The author illustrates several running themes in the Gospel of Mark displayed in the ministry of Jesus, in particular the ritual of baptism. He also points out the different scenarios Mark chooses to emphasize over the perspectives of other Gospel authors, specifically whether Jesus continued to baptize like John during his
Langston takes to heart the fact that when you accept Jesus, you will “see a light” and how “Jesus will come into your soul”, but in his case, it was different because you do not always see Jesus face to face when you accept Him as your savior (Hughes 345). Langston had the wrong concept of Christianity and the first Christian
The theory is that Mark wrote his book in response to what is called the “divine-man” Christology. Which was supposed to be a way of viewing Jesus as a man who performed many miracles, but denying or rejecting his suffering and death. The theory goes that as a result, Mark wrote his gospel with the intention of emphasizing the humanity and suffering of Jesus. It is true that Mark puts an emphasis on the humanity and suffering of Jesus. However, there is very little to no evidence that there existed a “divine-man” Christology at the time of the composition of Mark’s gospel.
Because of this, Lewis like to call his representations in children’s books “supposals” instead of using the terms symbol or allegory (Downing, 126). Many modern texts use allusions to the Bible ironically, but not to show the continuities between contemporary events and traditions based in religion (Foster, 52). In order to create a work not fueled by allegory, especially The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe, Lewis modeled his Christ-like figure after what Jesus would be like if Narnia had truly existed and that was where he chose to come back to (qtd.
In Paul’s view, Christ is the main character in the act of salvation, but salvation is initiated by the Father and goes together with the activity of the
Also the version of Jesus presented in the Synoptic Gospels is different from the Gospel of John. He speaks very little about himself; he is focused on the coming of the Kingdom of God. Prior to this unit I considered all the Gospels to
I believe this to be a moot point because even if Luke did write about them after the fact, Jesus still prophesied them in AD 30 when he preached this sermon. So, it was clearly predictive prophecy. However, I find it harder to believe that Luke would not give some indication in the text that the temple and Jerusalem had been destroyed if he were writing after this siege took place. So, it makes sense to me to date the book of Acts from shortly after the events that it describes took place (AD 65) and then Luke would have been written shortly before the book of
The Bible answers the philological questions to life’s meaning far better than any other worldview. It is much more believable to believe in a God of order and a Creator than to believe in Darwin’s theory of spontaneous
The textbook says, “This coming deliverer was referred to as the Messiah, which means "anointed one." Messiah is the Hebrew term that is the basis for the term Christ, as in Jesus Christ. In the Old Testament, kings were anointed. When the New Testament refers to Jesus as Christ, it is not referring to Jesus’ surname but to Jesus’ title as messiah, as king.” (Diffey, 2015)Jesus was believed to be the Son within the Holy Trinity: The Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.
Based on historical facts found in the bible, as well as physical landmarks that validate the scriptures, the Christian faith is sound. Christians find encouragement knowing the God they worship is relational and personal. Believing that the Word of God is truth, Christians trust that they will receive the gift of eternal life through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. However, there also are areas that cause many to question the Christian faith.