A few days I visited an old man in hospital and when driving back certain verses flashing in my mind. It was one of my favorite verses found in Ecclesiastes 3:1-15 "To everything there is a season, a time for every purpose under heaven….”. Life's changes are consistently or constantly reminders of the brevity of life, and the speed at which life passes. The reminiscent of flash back of the loved ones that had passed away. Celebrating our birthday with gladness without knowing we are one year nearer to our grave. Thinking of what next resolution to take on the eve of the each new year. Isn’t it ironic?
Of course, James was right when he said,” Life is but a vapor that appears for a short time and then vanishes away" (James 4:14). This was the verse that was mentioned when I came to know the Lord. It was the verse that reminds me about what life's lessons I have learned from yesterday, they were:
-the best time of my or your life.
-cherish the moments love ones, friends and relatives.
-moments of success or failure.
-never to waste any seconds or minutes away.
Life is but only a vapor when you:
-lose sight of your goal.
-never finish what you set out to accomplish.
-always complaining and not thanking.
-heart that is filled with hate and not love
-not knowing you are always being graded.
Finally, let use time well than when it is time of us to go back to our Lord with the last breath we can say our life in this world is well cherished. When confronting God Himself, we will be welcomed with "Well done, faithfully servant!" What else more do we want from that... Let us live the best of what life has to offer us now and never to regret any moments because everything has it own understandings.
Friday, June 09, 2006
The mystery of Life!
Thursday, June 01, 2006
WHY THE GOSPELS ARE SO VERY ACCURATE WITH REGARD TO THE MINISTRY OF JESUS CHRIST.
Defining the Gospel.
The four canonical Gospels of the New Testament: Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. The main sources of information in the gospels are nothing except the Jesus' life and teachings. The word "Gospel” to me means a works of four writers on the written record of Christ's words and deeds. The definition of the word 'gospel' came from the Middle English "godspel" (god: good, spel: news) which literally comes from Greek which means the 'good news' of some important event or incident (like a birth, marriage or dead). The term gospel found in Paul’s epistles normally referred to the significance of the person, life, and ministry of Jesus. In this case, it is an important or accurate account to the ministry of Jesus Christ. An ancient author like Justin Martyr around 150 CE, first referred to 'gospels' in the plural where there are more than four gospels but today the term is limited only to the four canonical gospels that appear in the New Testament ie Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. All four Gospels record Jesus' triumphal entry into Jerusalem at the end of his ministry.
The Gospels are the story of Jesus Christ life, words, and works from four different writers. The four canonical gospels are indispensable and the only the Source of Jesus’ teachings. The first 3 gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke are called the synoptic gospels which I will explain later. Each Gospel has their own purpose for being written. They all take a similar view regarding the facts of Jesus life, while each writing in their own distinctions style. The fourth gospel of John makes a unique presentation of the life of Christ's message for man. For example, Matthew was written to the Jews to explain that Jesus was the Messiah for God’s kingdom purposes. Mark indicated the character of Jesus “did” as the Obedient Servant of God in His task to save man. Luke represented Jesus as the Perfect Man and gave an accurate historical account of the life of Christ of how he saw it. John indicate Jesus' deity and to believe in Him so that we might have life.
It is a ministry of Jesus Christ.
How can the gospel are regarded as the ministry of Christ. This is because the Gospel states that Jesus is the Messiah and the Son of God, sent to "give his life as a ransom for many" and "preach the good news of the kingdom of God." That is why, we often seem Jesus used parables for examples such as the Prodigal Son (Luke 15:11-32), and the Parable of the Sower (Matthew 13:1-9) and a few more to spread His teaching. His teachings usually centered on the unconditional self-sacrificing God-like love for God and for all people (Matthew 22:34-40). He also sees Him debating with other religious leaders to set His points of view.
Jesus concentrates society's outcasts, such as the publican (King tax collectors who were despised for extorting money), including the apostle Matthew; then we see the Pharisees objected to meeting with sinners rather than the righteous one. To explain why he did so, Jesus emphasized that it was the sick that need a physician, not the healthy (Matthew 9:9-13). According to Luke and John, Jesus also made efforts to extend his ministry to the Samaritans or the non-Jews, who followed a different form of the Israelite religion. He offered them salvation in His blossom.
Why God gave four Gospels instead of just one.
Firstly, to provide the reader a more complete and vivid picture of Christ. Let me give a brief understanding of each of the books.
Matthew written to the Hebrew audience and the purposes to indicate Jesus' genealogy and the fulfillment of the Old Testament prophecies that was long expected and the messianic "Son of David" promised forever sit upon the throne of Israel.
Mark, a cousin of Barnabas as we knew, was an eyewitness in the life of Christ and a close friend of Apostle Peter where he wrote for the Gentile audience. He emphasized the suffering servant of Christ that came to serve all man even the unwanted lower ethical groups of people.
Luke the only Gentile author with a historian skill and a physician in trade gave an orderly account of the life of Christ based on the reports of all those eyewitnesses. He was an evangelist and a closed companion of the Apostle Paul that traveled together. He wrote the Gospel of Luke and Acts specifically for the benefit of Theopilus with an intention to indicate or represent a Christian’s faith based on historical and verified event emphasizing His humanity and gave a much more detail of what Christian faith is based on which is not found in other gospel accounts.
John informed that Jesus' birth was a earthly ministry with the activity and characteristics of the Son of God before His becoming man (John 1:14). In this distinctive way, his gospel is unique compare with the three. Gospel of John is concerning the Deity of Christ when he uses phrases such like "the Word was God" (John 1:1), "the Savior of the World" (4:42), the "Son of God", "Lord and...God" (John 20:28) in describing Jesus. He later confirmed His Deity with several "I Am" statements, most notable among them is John 8:58, in which He states that "...before Abraham was, I Am" (compare to Exodus 3:13-14).Finally John gave an overall purpose of his writing towards the end of his gospel by mentioning "And truly Jesus did many other signs in the presence of His disciples, which are not written in this book; but these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in His name" (John 20:30-31)(NKJV).
Secondly, with having four distinct and yet accurate account of Christ, we are having or knowing different aspects of Jesus' ministry brought out. Each gospel becomes like a different thread in a tapestry woven together to make a complete cloth, which is the picture of the whole story. He might not understand everything about Christ but with this four Gospels, we learn to appreciate the literature with a real meaning to our life and in a way have faith of what He did and died for us. Four original men that followed Him and wrote what they saw and heard. Their gospels are never a top seller novel or story at that time instead a story that might cause them their life but yet that did what were entrusted to do
And thirdly, that is to objectively verify the truthfulness of their account. In the court of law when making judgment against a person based on the testimony, having two or three as a minimum number were a requirement to assess the accuracy of the information concerning that particular person. It was never based on a single eyewitness in the court of law through the world. With this truthfulness and accuracy it will reward each of us that diligent seeks the truth of Christ. Much can be gained by an individual study of each of the gospels.
How Accurate Or Reliable Is The Gospels.
The first three gospels i.e. Mark, Matthew, and Luke are very similar. So similar, in fact, that their parallels cannot be explained by mere coincidence at all. In a literary form, the gospels have a lot in common with biographies in all of them in different view but targeting the same flows of thought.
How can that be? For example when we take a closer investigation or inspection, it reveals that the nativity story occurs in just two of the four gospels, Matthew and Luke, and that they hardly agree on any of the details but to the surprise they are exactly in facts or event although they are describing two entirely different people being born.
Gospels are the primarily sources we possess for the life of Jesus, the question that is the unavoidable about how reliability it is? On this matter, a five points worth to mention here:
There is no actual or agreed definition of reliability. Each and everyone of us approaches the sources from a point of view that either includes, excludes, or leaves open the possibility of what is recorded. Given Christian presuppositions, the story could be true; given non-Christian presuppositions on the other hand is the rejection of the sources as unreliable is understandable. The actual problem here is not really a question of the sources, but a question of the interpreter of the sources of how it comes to be.
The Gospel writers and their subject of what they were writing argue all reader of their truthfulness. They were trying with whole best to present a true account of the One who claimed to be the Truth, did so on the basis of what they went through with careful research (Luke 1:1-4), and were willing to die for all cost. To die did they went through for almost all of them. Who would write something not of truth and die for nothing.
We know “synoptic” gospels were from Mark, Matthew, and Luke. The term “synoptic” derives from the Greek syn-optic because the text of each can be laid out side-by-side and “seen together” in order to determine the ways, which they are similar, and the ways they are different. Some similarities can be seem among all the three as reliability of the gospels, example between Mark and Matthew, and then between Mark and Luke. Each one of these gospel writers was an eyewitness to Jesus’ ministry and was a follower of Jesus or one of his apostles. The gospel of John at the same time also shares in traditions about Jesus, but it was written at a much later date compare with the three and is quite distinct from them in terms of style, content, and theology but basically on Christ. It was not about the eventful story like the synoptic gospel but he chose events from Jesus’ life that he thought his readers need to hear to help their faith.
The gospels are our primary crucial historical sources of information about Jesus as well as our theological sources for understanding God’s saving work through Christ. Without this historical information, they would be a hope for man. These historical sources confirm the reliability of the New Testament record.
"Inerrancy does not mean that every word in the Bible is the same. Because God is creative (He is the creator), He said the same thing in different ways, from different viewpoints, and at different times. Inspiration does not exclude diversity of expression. The four Gospels relate the same story in different ways to different groups of people. They sometimes even quote christ as saying the same things but using different words."[1]
Harmonization in the gospel. We can read that they are many cases where the gospels seem to be talking about the same event when they are not. In Matthew, Mark, and Luke, they described the anointing of Jesus by a woman while at home of Simon. Matthew and Mark the event is during Christ’s last week, whereas Luke places during Jesus' Galilean ministry beginning of the gospel. The entire incident during this time was Jesus' dinner at Simon the Leper's house in Bethany, the woman enters and pours perfume on his head. What is different is that in Luke's gospel, the woman is at the Pharisee's house at Galilee. Two similar events but different places. It is not because one of the gospels are wrong or unreliable but what we need to understand is that during Jesus three year ministry, Jesus had healed, visited, dined, cast out many demons and many more with many different people or places so it does not mean the gospel is unreliable but in harmony of what the authors wish to say or write.
6. CON CLUSION.
I guess I am coming to the end of this composition and what I have gathered from answering all the answers are not that mean a long history of coming of Christianity to humanity. How the Israelite worshipped God from beginning of time in the wilderness by building a tabernacle or temple where all the furniture used symbolized the promised Messiah. Later from the four gospels, we learned that it were a book was written of the ministry of Christ. What would happen if the four writers failed to write what they supposed to write? If is not something easy to answer as A.W. Mosely mentioned in his book:
"Generally, it was easier to be inaccurate when a writer was dealing with events that had happened a long time before. Writers who were dealing with events of the recent past - eyewitnesses being still alive - seem generally to have tried to be as accurate as possible and to get the information from the eyewitnesses. They knew they could get away with inventing freely stories of events and personalities of the recent past. We note that Josephus accused Justus of holding back publication of his history until eyewitnesses were no longer available and this is strongly condemned. We have seen that these historians (e.g. Lucian, Dionysius, Polybius, Ephorus, Cicero, Josephus and Tacitus) were quick to criticize their fellow writers if they gave inaccurate account of something that had happened was regarded as having - in some measure at least - failed. We would expect to find that such charges were brought against the New Testament writers if they had failed in this way. [2]"
It was Jesus’ mission from God to His beloved followers to participate of the promises that God has in a way prepared for man to understand His ministry. It is reliable or accurate what had mentioned through the book or Gospel. It is for us to decide to choose the path to His kingdom for our God is not a God that compels but our free will to differentiate what we should do or not to do. I thank thee for all what He has done for us!
[1] Mc Dowell, Josh - The new evidence that demands a verdit, Thomas Nelson Publishers - Nashville - 1999 pp.338
[2] Mosely, A.W. "Historical Reporting in the Ancient world," New Testament Studies, 1965-1966 pp.26
The four canonical Gospels of the New Testament: Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. The main sources of information in the gospels are nothing except the Jesus' life and teachings. The word "Gospel” to me means a works of four writers on the written record of Christ's words and deeds. The definition of the word 'gospel' came from the Middle English "godspel" (god: good, spel: news) which literally comes from Greek which means the 'good news' of some important event or incident (like a birth, marriage or dead). The term gospel found in Paul’s epistles normally referred to the significance of the person, life, and ministry of Jesus. In this case, it is an important or accurate account to the ministry of Jesus Christ. An ancient author like Justin Martyr around 150 CE, first referred to 'gospels' in the plural where there are more than four gospels but today the term is limited only to the four canonical gospels that appear in the New Testament ie Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. All four Gospels record Jesus' triumphal entry into Jerusalem at the end of his ministry.
The Gospels are the story of Jesus Christ life, words, and works from four different writers. The four canonical gospels are indispensable and the only the Source of Jesus’ teachings. The first 3 gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke are called the synoptic gospels which I will explain later. Each Gospel has their own purpose for being written. They all take a similar view regarding the facts of Jesus life, while each writing in their own distinctions style. The fourth gospel of John makes a unique presentation of the life of Christ's message for man. For example, Matthew was written to the Jews to explain that Jesus was the Messiah for God’s kingdom purposes. Mark indicated the character of Jesus “did” as the Obedient Servant of God in His task to save man. Luke represented Jesus as the Perfect Man and gave an accurate historical account of the life of Christ of how he saw it. John indicate Jesus' deity and to believe in Him so that we might have life.
It is a ministry of Jesus Christ.
How can the gospel are regarded as the ministry of Christ. This is because the Gospel states that Jesus is the Messiah and the Son of God, sent to "give his life as a ransom for many" and "preach the good news of the kingdom of God." That is why, we often seem Jesus used parables for examples such as the Prodigal Son (Luke 15:11-32), and the Parable of the Sower (Matthew 13:1-9) and a few more to spread His teaching. His teachings usually centered on the unconditional self-sacrificing God-like love for God and for all people (Matthew 22:34-40). He also sees Him debating with other religious leaders to set His points of view.
Jesus concentrates society's outcasts, such as the publican (King tax collectors who were despised for extorting money), including the apostle Matthew; then we see the Pharisees objected to meeting with sinners rather than the righteous one. To explain why he did so, Jesus emphasized that it was the sick that need a physician, not the healthy (Matthew 9:9-13). According to Luke and John, Jesus also made efforts to extend his ministry to the Samaritans or the non-Jews, who followed a different form of the Israelite religion. He offered them salvation in His blossom.
Why God gave four Gospels instead of just one.
Firstly, to provide the reader a more complete and vivid picture of Christ. Let me give a brief understanding of each of the books.
Matthew written to the Hebrew audience and the purposes to indicate Jesus' genealogy and the fulfillment of the Old Testament prophecies that was long expected and the messianic "Son of David" promised forever sit upon the throne of Israel.
Mark, a cousin of Barnabas as we knew, was an eyewitness in the life of Christ and a close friend of Apostle Peter where he wrote for the Gentile audience. He emphasized the suffering servant of Christ that came to serve all man even the unwanted lower ethical groups of people.
Luke the only Gentile author with a historian skill and a physician in trade gave an orderly account of the life of Christ based on the reports of all those eyewitnesses. He was an evangelist and a closed companion of the Apostle Paul that traveled together. He wrote the Gospel of Luke and Acts specifically for the benefit of Theopilus with an intention to indicate or represent a Christian’s faith based on historical and verified event emphasizing His humanity and gave a much more detail of what Christian faith is based on which is not found in other gospel accounts.
John informed that Jesus' birth was a earthly ministry with the activity and characteristics of the Son of God before His becoming man (John 1:14). In this distinctive way, his gospel is unique compare with the three. Gospel of John is concerning the Deity of Christ when he uses phrases such like "the Word was God" (John 1:1), "the Savior of the World" (4:42), the "Son of God", "Lord and...God" (John 20:28) in describing Jesus. He later confirmed His Deity with several "I Am" statements, most notable among them is John 8:58, in which He states that "...before Abraham was, I Am" (compare to Exodus 3:13-14).Finally John gave an overall purpose of his writing towards the end of his gospel by mentioning "And truly Jesus did many other signs in the presence of His disciples, which are not written in this book; but these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in His name" (John 20:30-31)(NKJV).
Secondly, with having four distinct and yet accurate account of Christ, we are having or knowing different aspects of Jesus' ministry brought out. Each gospel becomes like a different thread in a tapestry woven together to make a complete cloth, which is the picture of the whole story. He might not understand everything about Christ but with this four Gospels, we learn to appreciate the literature with a real meaning to our life and in a way have faith of what He did and died for us. Four original men that followed Him and wrote what they saw and heard. Their gospels are never a top seller novel or story at that time instead a story that might cause them their life but yet that did what were entrusted to do
And thirdly, that is to objectively verify the truthfulness of their account. In the court of law when making judgment against a person based on the testimony, having two or three as a minimum number were a requirement to assess the accuracy of the information concerning that particular person. It was never based on a single eyewitness in the court of law through the world. With this truthfulness and accuracy it will reward each of us that diligent seeks the truth of Christ. Much can be gained by an individual study of each of the gospels.
How Accurate Or Reliable Is The Gospels.
The first three gospels i.e. Mark, Matthew, and Luke are very similar. So similar, in fact, that their parallels cannot be explained by mere coincidence at all. In a literary form, the gospels have a lot in common with biographies in all of them in different view but targeting the same flows of thought.
How can that be? For example when we take a closer investigation or inspection, it reveals that the nativity story occurs in just two of the four gospels, Matthew and Luke, and that they hardly agree on any of the details but to the surprise they are exactly in facts or event although they are describing two entirely different people being born.
Gospels are the primarily sources we possess for the life of Jesus, the question that is the unavoidable about how reliability it is? On this matter, a five points worth to mention here:
There is no actual or agreed definition of reliability. Each and everyone of us approaches the sources from a point of view that either includes, excludes, or leaves open the possibility of what is recorded. Given Christian presuppositions, the story could be true; given non-Christian presuppositions on the other hand is the rejection of the sources as unreliable is understandable. The actual problem here is not really a question of the sources, but a question of the interpreter of the sources of how it comes to be.
The Gospel writers and their subject of what they were writing argue all reader of their truthfulness. They were trying with whole best to present a true account of the One who claimed to be the Truth, did so on the basis of what they went through with careful research (Luke 1:1-4), and were willing to die for all cost. To die did they went through for almost all of them. Who would write something not of truth and die for nothing.
We know “synoptic” gospels were from Mark, Matthew, and Luke. The term “synoptic” derives from the Greek syn-optic because the text of each can be laid out side-by-side and “seen together” in order to determine the ways, which they are similar, and the ways they are different. Some similarities can be seem among all the three as reliability of the gospels, example between Mark and Matthew, and then between Mark and Luke. Each one of these gospel writers was an eyewitness to Jesus’ ministry and was a follower of Jesus or one of his apostles. The gospel of John at the same time also shares in traditions about Jesus, but it was written at a much later date compare with the three and is quite distinct from them in terms of style, content, and theology but basically on Christ. It was not about the eventful story like the synoptic gospel but he chose events from Jesus’ life that he thought his readers need to hear to help their faith.
The gospels are our primary crucial historical sources of information about Jesus as well as our theological sources for understanding God’s saving work through Christ. Without this historical information, they would be a hope for man. These historical sources confirm the reliability of the New Testament record.
"Inerrancy does not mean that every word in the Bible is the same. Because God is creative (He is the creator), He said the same thing in different ways, from different viewpoints, and at different times. Inspiration does not exclude diversity of expression. The four Gospels relate the same story in different ways to different groups of people. They sometimes even quote christ as saying the same things but using different words."[1]
Harmonization in the gospel. We can read that they are many cases where the gospels seem to be talking about the same event when they are not. In Matthew, Mark, and Luke, they described the anointing of Jesus by a woman while at home of Simon. Matthew and Mark the event is during Christ’s last week, whereas Luke places during Jesus' Galilean ministry beginning of the gospel. The entire incident during this time was Jesus' dinner at Simon the Leper's house in Bethany, the woman enters and pours perfume on his head. What is different is that in Luke's gospel, the woman is at the Pharisee's house at Galilee. Two similar events but different places. It is not because one of the gospels are wrong or unreliable but what we need to understand is that during Jesus three year ministry, Jesus had healed, visited, dined, cast out many demons and many more with many different people or places so it does not mean the gospel is unreliable but in harmony of what the authors wish to say or write.
6. CON CLUSION.
I guess I am coming to the end of this composition and what I have gathered from answering all the answers are not that mean a long history of coming of Christianity to humanity. How the Israelite worshipped God from beginning of time in the wilderness by building a tabernacle or temple where all the furniture used symbolized the promised Messiah. Later from the four gospels, we learned that it were a book was written of the ministry of Christ. What would happen if the four writers failed to write what they supposed to write? If is not something easy to answer as A.W. Mosely mentioned in his book:
"Generally, it was easier to be inaccurate when a writer was dealing with events that had happened a long time before. Writers who were dealing with events of the recent past - eyewitnesses being still alive - seem generally to have tried to be as accurate as possible and to get the information from the eyewitnesses. They knew they could get away with inventing freely stories of events and personalities of the recent past. We note that Josephus accused Justus of holding back publication of his history until eyewitnesses were no longer available and this is strongly condemned. We have seen that these historians (e.g. Lucian, Dionysius, Polybius, Ephorus, Cicero, Josephus and Tacitus) were quick to criticize their fellow writers if they gave inaccurate account of something that had happened was regarded as having - in some measure at least - failed. We would expect to find that such charges were brought against the New Testament writers if they had failed in this way. [2]"
It was Jesus’ mission from God to His beloved followers to participate of the promises that God has in a way prepared for man to understand His ministry. It is reliable or accurate what had mentioned through the book or Gospel. It is for us to decide to choose the path to His kingdom for our God is not a God that compels but our free will to differentiate what we should do or not to do. I thank thee for all what He has done for us!
[1] Mc Dowell, Josh - The new evidence that demands a verdit, Thomas Nelson Publishers - Nashville - 1999 pp.338
[2] Mosely, A.W. "Historical Reporting in the Ancient world," New Testament Studies, 1965-1966 pp.26
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