What Makes Jesus Unique? No one else made the claims that He did, He is alive...............
All the great religious leaders of history have one thing in common: they are dead. Only one man has risen from a grave never again to taste death. Jesus Christ died, was buried, remained in the grave for 3 days, then was raised to life again.
Jesus is unique. He is the only one proven to be the Son of God because God validated His Kingship and accepted His payment for our sins all with one incredible stroke: He raised Jesus from the dead!
Paul opens his letter to the Romans with this evidence about who Jesus is:
Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, separated unto the gospel of God, which He had promised before by His prophets in the holy scriptures, concerning His Son Jesus Christ our Lord, who was made of the seed of David according to the flesh, and declared to be the Son of God with power, according to the Spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead. Romans 1:1-4
Because Jesus Christ is very much alive, five things are true right now that wouldn’t be true if He were just another dead religious leader like Confucius, Mohammed or Buddha.
Because Jesus was raised from the dead and is alive…Prayers are answered, We can talk to Jesus 24/7
Comments (2,876)
That's why we need to do all these things. But that's why we make a mistake. That's when we make mistakes in our Christian life is not because God's not in us is is that we are like newborn infants are learning how to walk as children of God. So when you make a mistake, Christian, you're still in that learning curve, in that learning process. So what do we do when we make mistakes as Christians? What do we do then if I've already received this one time cleansing from Jesus and then new heart new desires when I keep sinning, what do I do when those new sins come into my life?
This really, really simple. I keep coming to Jesus like I did the very first time when I came to him for the first time, I had a total cleansing come over me. I was born again. The Bible says new heart, new desires, new power. But when I make a mistake as a Christian, I just keep coming to him. It's called repentance. Repentance marks the beginning of a Christian's life following Jesus. You have to turn from your sins and trust in Jesus when you become a Christian.
But as a Christian, our life needs to be marked by repentance because as Christians we make choices that don't honor the Lord. We do things that don't honor him. And then what do we do when that happens? We don't have to get saved again. We don't have to get that whole born again situation happening every time, moment by moment, day by day, every day. We just simply confessors and say, God, I walked out of balance and you're in me.
You're never going to leave me. You're never going to forsake me. But I made a mistake. I chose the sin and I'm confessing it. And will you just what do you wash that away? And the effects of that will be washed me. And he just says' yes.
And as often as you need to come to God as a Christian, just continually come to him. Repentance is not a one time thing. It's an ongoing thing in the life of a Christian repent, continue to confess and repentance because the gospel writer John the Apostle tells believers what they need to do when we pick up junk along the way, when we make mistakes as Christians along the way, he says this in First John Chapter one verses five to ten.
This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you that God is light and in him is no darkness at all. If we say we have fellowship with him when we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another and the blood of Jesus. His son cleanses us from all sin. If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves.
And the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins as Christians, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins. And there is this word again cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar and his word is not enough. So that also John is saying brothers and sisters, children, Christians, when you sin, just confess that and come and there's a continual cleansing. Don't lie and pretend that there's nothing wrong.
And you, even as a Christian, were working things out. Come to him over and over and over. Recap. That's our problem, not here. Where is our problem? You bring the problem, and it beats really fast when you bring it right here. Our hearts, not the organ, not the physical blood pumping organ, the spiritual person of who we are, the sea of our emotions, of our will, the inside of us.
You will cleanse it all, but give him your give him your life. Jesus is a one time fix that also needs continual cleansing, new heart. But we still make mistakes as we learn to walk in this Christian life. When you scuff your knee, when you fall, when you make a mistake, just come back to Jesus again and again and again and you continue to wash and wash and wash the call for our friends who are watching who are unbelievers.
You haven't made a decision in your life to turn over your entire life to Jesus, to repent, understand and trust in him and his death and his resurrection from the dead. My call is simple to you tonight, friend. Come to Jesus tonight. Stop trying to fix yourself. Stop trying to pretend like everything's OK. Give him your broken heart and he will cleanse it and make it you trust in him and yield your entire life over to him.
Do that tonight, I pray. And then for Christians, apply this to your life. I pray understand who you were before he became a Christian. I hope this helps explain what happened as you became a Christian, but also shed some light on on why we have hardships and struggles as Christians. And this come to him continually, brother and sister, to be cleansed. And some of you watching us maybe do this now in the quality of your heart, you know that there's something in your life that's unclean, that's not pleasing to the Lord.
Bring that to him. Bring it to him. It's not going to chastise was a reason to cleanse you confess and repent in your heart now to him. And he will do that. And then I said that on the front end, when you're learning these things and you're loving people, help people see these truths and these realities. Our problems are on the inside, help people see this and help people see Jesus by telling them what he will do for them.
We pray. Pray with me, Father. I pray that we wouldn't treat what we've learned here tonight like a parallelogram. That it would become it would be useless information to us in our life. I prayed the total opposite. I prayed at this even now as as I'm speaking, as people are hearing your word and your true thought that lives are transformed, that people are raising their hands over in their hearts and more. I want to be made clean.
I want it so bad. Come, Lord, and have my heart have your way. I pray that to people right now, the spiritually hungry, the spiritually thirsty, the spiritually unclean of us who are watching right now, who believe by faith that you will do what you promised to do. Forgive us and give us a new heart and give us the Holy Spirit. Do that ministry work. I pray, Lord, do we pray, do it.
We pray and help us spread the good news of this, that our God loves sinners and he will take us and he will glorify your name. In this we pray. Jesus. Amen. Amen.
Larry Spargimino
December 28, 2022
“But thou, O Daniel, shut up the words, and seal the book, even to the time of the end: many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased.” Daniel 12:4
The astronomer and physicist, Sir Isaac Newton, who died in 1727, was a Christian. He loved Bible prophecy. Newton commented on Daniel 12, 4. He said, “Near the time of the return of the Lord Jesus Christ there will be an increase in knowledge. Men will travel at a rapid rate of speed, maybe even 40 or 50 miles an hour.
Voltaire, the hard-hearted infidel mocked Newton and said, “See, Christianity makes people who are normally brilliant turn into fools”. Doesn’t Newton know that if a man travels at 40 or 50 miles an hour, he would not be able to breathe and would suffocate? “Daniel was correct. “Knowledge shall be increased.” … Friends, as we look at the news, we should not just be gathering facts. We should be getting ready for the return of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Our first item focuses on George Soros. Does anyone know who George Soros is? He is the billionaire who hates Christianity and hates America. He thinks American sovereignty, freedom, belief in human dignity, marriage and the home are bad. Soros would like to see all the things that Christians believe and promote be abolished. So, what’s his political affiliation? In case you can’t figure it out, the answer is Democrat.
Newsweek, for 1979, quoted Soros: “I’ve made my life’s mission to destroy the United States. I hate this country and I hate all the people in it.” Soros believes that the United States is the main obstacle to a stable and just world.”
Just look at some of the candidates that Soros supports. He provided a second million dollars to boost Stacey Abrams’ gubernatorial run. Abrams, former member of the Georgia House of Representatives, has supported left-wing candidates like Beto O’Rourke, Bernie Sanders and Chuck Schumer.
The Epoch Times, for November 7, 2022, announced Soros tops list of biggest Donors This Midterm Season, gave $128 million dollars to elect Democrats. So, you are voting for candidates who are being supported by George Soros, whose great goal in life is to destroy America? If Soros succeeds, where will you move? They say the winters in Pyongyang aren’t too bad, but the temperature in your home or apartment will be regulated by the government. Don’t forget to bring your insulated underwear.
Moving on to another item of interest – Dr. Peter McCullough, world renowned cardiologist and epidemiologist—with 677 scientific publications to his credit—is facing loss of his board certification in cardiology and internal medicine because of his outspoken criticism 0f the COVID vaccine protocols.
In my book, Needless Death: COVID, Corruption, Control I cite Dr. McCullough several times. He raises a number of objections to the COVID vaccines, and also has a number of medical professionals who agree with him.
McCullough was recently interviewed regarding the charge that he is spreading “misinformation.” He said, “I can tell you this is unprecedented. We’ve never had a federal board like this, recommend that a doctor become decertified because of political reasons”.
After launching an initiative on COVID “misinformation” in September 2021, the American Board of Internal Medicine targeted statements McCullough made to the Texas Senate the previous March on media. In May of 2022 the board sent a letter to McCullough accusing him of spreading misinformation. McCullough crafted a 20-page response, citing the evidence for each statement he made, and requested that he be allowed to attend the meeting about his case. The board denied the request and sent him a letter informing him that the meeting had taken place and the board had decided to remove his credentials.
There is some good news, and that focuses on the growth of Christianity in Communist China.
Friends, this is happening right now. The Gospel is being preached all over the world—even in very hostile places. It is absolutely amazing. Hostile governments are trying to hinder and stop the growth of the Gospel. But listen—at the present time there are an estimated 150 million Christians in China, making them China’s largest religious minority. They are severely persecuted for their faith, but in spite of that their numbers continue to grow—and that’s under the anti-Christian, godless tyranny of President Xi Jin Ping.
In their book, A Star In the East: The Rise of Christianity in China, Rodney Stark and Xinua Wang ask an important question: “Why is there such phenomenal growth of Christianity in China?” They believe the growth of the church includes the better educated who are experiencing “cultural incongruity” between traditional Asian culture and industrial-technological modernity, which results in spiritual deprivation, which Christianity alone is able to answer.
Millions of Chinese are well-educated, think very carefully about lots of important things, and are diligent students of what they want to learn and study.
Stark and Wang explain that Eastern religions like Taoism and Confucianism are all “anti-progress” and proclaim the world is going downhill from a glorious past and that we should look backwards not forwards. For millions of Chinese, the question is “What does life mean and how do we live in the modern world?” The answers that the Bible provides explains why it is the most educated Chinese who are the most apt to join.
The rapid growth of Christianity across China terrifies the Chinese Communist to the point that drastic measures are taken to stamp out Christianity. Marx called for making government “god”—the provider, sustainer, protector and supreme lawgiver—and Marxism the state religion. Millions of Chinese are not being fooled.
As we close, I want to remind our listeners of the story of Noah and the Ark. It is a wonderful story of Almighty God, and His love. It also reminds us that judgment is coming, perhaps very quickly. We can learn two lessons. The first one: Don’t miss the boat. Those who did perished in the great flood.
Jesus is our ark of safety and salvation. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved.” Don’t miss the boat.
There is another lesson in the account of the Ark—and it is this: For those who are faithfully serving the Lord and doing His will, there is always a rainbow at the end of the story.
Larry Spargimino
Dr. Larry Spargimino is co-host of the SWRC broadcast and joined the ministry in 1998. Larry researches and writes books and articles for the ministry, assists on tours, and helps answer listeners' theological questions when they call the ministry. Larry holds a doctorate from Southwestern Theological Seminary in Fort Worth, Texas, and pastors a local church.
Larry Spargimino
August 16, 2021
Since earliest times there have been wars. In a fallen world of greed and selfishness what else do you expect? When Jesus comes back we are told, “… and in righteousness he doth judge and make war” (Rev. 19:11). If Jesus makes war we can safely conclude that all wars are not immoral. This is not a blanket approval of all wars—only just wars. So, when is a war just?
Christian thinkers have wrestled with this question. Some have said no war is just. They are not something that Christians should engage in. The right thing is “turning the other cheek.” We’ll address that in a moment. The consensus has been, however, that war must be avoided at all costs, unless there is no other way to deal with mad men like Hitler who, if not restrained, would bring unspeakable evil on the world.
Criteria For a “Just War”
There are five requirements that must be met for war to be considered just.
First, war must be declared by a legitimate government, not by an unstable, radical group.
Second, war must always be a last resort. Every other option has failed to bring a peaceful resolution of the problem.
Third, war must be for a morally-defensible cause, such as stopping military aggression of one nation against another, or a preemptive attack, as in the case of Israel striking an aggressor nation that is preparing to launch an attack. On June 7, 1981, Israel conducted a surprise air strike which destroyed the unfinished Osirak Iraqi nuclear reactor located eleven miles southeast of Baghdad. As could be expected, the attack was met with sharp international criticism.
Fourth, a just war must have attainable goals. A tiny island nation would be foolish to launch an attack against a superpower.
Fifth, a just war is one that is fought with great moral restraint. This means that winning the war is not the only concern. The end does not justify the means. There must be a sincere effort to avoid civilian casualties and the needless destruction of property. The focus needs to be a war against enemy combatants.
This brings up the question of Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMDs)—nuclear, chemical, and biological warfare. Tactical nuclear weapons against military targets and deep underground bunkers are conceivably a justifiable part of a limited war. Many of the scholars who study the matter believe that megaton nuclear weapons are so destructive not only to the general population but to the environment as to render them immoral. They write that any weapon so destructive as to incinerate and obliterate whole sectors of the civilian population cannot be morally justified.
Dr. Normal Geisler, in his helpful book Ethics: Alternatives and Issues, writes: “The purpose of war is to deter the aggressor, not to destroy him completely. Its aim is to overpower not annihilate, one’s foes. For a war to be just it must envisage securing a peace which establishes with moral order some meaningful community in its wake. If this cannot be the reasonable anticipation of warfare, as it cannot be in total nuclear war, then allowing evil aggression would be better than total annihilation. Saving the race is more important than winning the war, whatever ‘winning the war could mean in that kind of situation’” (p. 176).
Nuclear Close Calls
Pacifism—Did Jesus Really Condemn All Wars?
There are those who claim it is wrong for Christians to fight in any war. They appeal to the teachings of Jesus, who said, “Ye have heard that it hath been said, An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth: But I say unto you, That ye resist not evil: but whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also” (Matt. 5:38–39).
Jesus often used hyperbole—deliberate exaggeration for startling effect—in His teaching. In Matthew 5:29 Jesus says if your right eye offends you, gouge it out. There is not a single example of anyone in the New Testament taking this literally and gouging out their right eye. Matthew 5:30 says the same thing about your right hand. Do holy people have no right hands? We see hyperbole in Mark 11:23. We do not find anyone in Scripture speaking to a mountain and saying, “Be thou removed, and be thou cast into sea.”
Another observation—Jesus is not speaking to heads of state in the Sermon on the Mount, nor is He providing rules of engagement for the world’s militaries. Pacifism is an extreme position. The tenets of pacifism would also forbid law enforcement officers from using deadly force in apprehending criminals, and thereby expose the general population to dangerous individuals who would be allowed to have free reign to bring death and destruction to innocent people. And what about Jesus’ statement “that ye resist not evil”? How far do we want to take this? Was Jesus condemning all resistance to evil? Jesus’ ministry on earth was a ministry of resisting evil. He cast out demons, confronted the Pharisees with their own hypocrisy and healed those who were in misery with an illness. Not resisting evil is a sin of omission. James 4:17 says, “Therefore to him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin.”
Once again, to cite Dr. Norman Geisler from the same volume cited earlier: “The able citizen who would not defend his country against an evil aggressor is morally remiss … the total pacifist can easily find himself aiding an evil cause by failing to defend a good one. Thus complete pacifism is at best morally naïve, and at worst morally delinquent.”
How would you feel if a pacifist told the British in 1940 when Britain was fighting for survival, “Go ahead and let the Nazis occupy your country. They can take your bodies but not your souls”? Or how about if someone ventured to tell the Jews, when the full horrors of the Holocaust were known, “Since you Jews are going to be slaughtered anyway, you should voluntarily walk into the death camps to awaken the world’s conscience”? Resistance to such evil is the moral thing to do. We shouldn’t have to apologize for such resistance.[/size
War is ugly. Nations should work for peace. Our efforts need to be on prevention, and on missile defense shields, a national “iron dome system” like Israel has and which is being implemented in South Korea, and the like. But there are enough religious fanatics and mean-spirited misanthropes in the world who believe that they can fight a war and win, and enjoy their own brand of utopia on the earth. Hence, we need to thank God for our military and pray for the men and women who are defending American ideals of freedom, dignity, and respect for all people. They are much needed and do a sacred work of allowing us to enjoy things like freedom of religion and the safety of our families.
The U.S. is pulling the military out of Afghanistan. What is now happening? Here are the latest headlines: “Taliban Find New Revenues as They Seize Afghanistan’s US-Built Border Gateway.” It cost us over $40 million and now the Taliban is collecting customs revenue which they will use to buy weapons which they will use against innocent people. Another headline: “Looters Have Moved Into Afghanistan’s Bagram Airfield.” We can’t be the policemen of the world, but now the world is in our backyard. There are certain flash points that always erupt into violence. Are we to sit idly by when people like Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad launched a chemical weapons attack using a deadly nerve agent against non-combatants in 2017, many of them women and little children? Was Donald Trump a monster beyond description when he sent fifty-nine Tomahawk cruise missiles to warn al-Assad and set an example?
We are living in serious times. There will be no lasting peace until Jesus returns. But until that time, we can enjoy peace in our hearts, and seek to bring that peace to others through evangelism and church planting. Pray for revival. It will give us national courage to do the right thing and bring the blessings of God upon our land.
Larry Spargimino
June 28, 2021
And hath made of one blood all nations of men (Acts 17:26).
Tensions were high one Saturday in April 2021 when Democrat representative Maxine Waters spoke in Brooklyn Center, the Minneapolis suburb where Daunte Wright, a 20-year-old black man, was shot and killed by police. Waters said, “We’ve got to stay on the street and we’ve got to get more active, we’ve got to get more confrontational. We’ve got to make sure that they know that we mean business.”
Waters, a highly confrontational figure, sometimes known as “Kerosene Maxine,” was notorious for telling her constituents to follow and hound Trump supporters and make life miserable for them: “Wherever you find them, at the gas station, in restaurants, go right on and harass them.”
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. had a different approach for the civil rights movement. Bishop Jim Lowe, senior pastor of the Guiding Light Church in Birmingham, Alabama, and distinguished fellow at the Alabama Policy Institute—where the emphasis is on free markets, limited government, and strong families—believes that the current-day civil rights movement, marked by violent protests, is very different than the civil rights movement of the 1960s under Dr. King’s leadership. Lowe pointed out that King, in his “Letter From Birmingham Jail,” believed that in any non-violent campaign there are four basic steps to be followed: (1) collection of the facts to determine whether injustices exist, (2) negotiation, (3) self-purification, and (4) direct action (Lowe’s comments can be found at southeastsun.com).
Unfortunately, says Lowe, these steps are lacking in many of today’s protests, many of which turn violent and lead to the destruction of property and businesses in the black community. “In some cases,” says Lowe, “injustice may seem apparent but in reality, it is non-existent. Thus righteousness is not on the side of the protester.”
The second step that Dr. King followed was negotiation. King felt that was extremely important. Lowe points out, however, that today, negotiation does not get very far. Try to negotiate and you are shouted down. Reasonable and helpful discourse is impossible. “Disrespect,” says Lowe “is shown to those who are made in the image of God.”
The third step followed by Dr. King that is completely bypassed today is self-purification. This was a time of personal and intensive self-examination for the leader of the protest. The person needs to be honest with himself and check his motives, his manners, and see if confession to God needs to be made. Does this sound like something the BLM people would do today?
The fourth step recommended by Dr. King is direct action. If the previous three steps have been followed and there is no progress, a peaceful protest is necessary. Dr. King believed in justice and he did not believe in capitulation. He took direct action that was non-violent. Lowe believes that protests should hold a special place for Americans who realize that we have a Bill of Rights to protect the people from the government. Protests have been catalysts for progress for centuries and are essential to the American experiment. Lowe believes that when legislation “with the potential to affect protesting comes up for debate …our representatives should be extremely careful. Any effort, even good intentions to prevent violence, that limits the right to protest or gives law enforcement undue power to restrain or jail citizens exercising their first amendment rights, should be carefully examined.” However, non-violent protests are unacceptable today in the modern civil rights movement. Why is that? Because the issue is never the issue. The revolution is.
Critical Race Theory and Marxism
Larry Spargimino
June 28, 2021
#
And hath made of one blood all nations of men (Acts 17:26).
Tensions were high one Saturday in April 2021 when Democrat representative Maxine Waters spoke in Brooklyn Center, the Minneapolis suburb where Daunte Wright, a 20-year-old black man, was shot and killed by police. Waters said, “We’ve got to stay on the street and we’ve got to get more active, we’ve got to get more confrontational. We’ve got to make sure that they know that we mean business.”
Waters, a highly confrontational figure, sometimes known as “Kerosene Maxine,” was notorious for telling her constituents to follow and hound Trump supporters and make life miserable for them: “Wherever you find them, at the gas station, in restaurants, go right on and harass them.”
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. had a different approach for the civil rights movement. Bishop Jim Lowe, senior pastor of the Guiding Light Church in Birmingham, Alabama, and distinguished fellow at the Alabama Policy Institute—where the emphasis is on free markets, limited government, and strong families—believes that the current-day civil rights movement, marked by violent protests, is very different from the civil rights movement of the 1960s under Dr. King’s leadership. Lowe pointed out that King, in his “Letter From Birmingham Jail,” believed that in any non-violent campaign there are four basic steps to be followed: collection of the facts to determine whether injustices exist, (2) negotiation, self-purification, and (4) direct action (Lowe’s comments can be found at southeastsun.com).
Unfortunately, says Lowe, these steps are lacking in many of today’s protests, many of which turn violent and lead to the destruction of property and businesses in the black community. “In some cases,” says Lowe, “injustice may seem apparent but in reality, it is non-existent. Thus, righteousness is not on the side of the protester.”
The second step that Dr. King followed was negotiation. King felt that was extremely important. Lowe points out, however, that today, negotiation does not get very far. Try to negotiate and you are shouted down. Reasonable and helpful discourse is impossible. “Disrespect,” says Lowe “is shown to those who are made in the image of God.”
The third step followed by Dr. King that is completely bypassed today is self-purification. This was a time of personal and intensive self-examination for the leader of the protest. The person needs to be honest with himself and check his motives, his manners, and see if confession to God needs to be made. Does this sound like something the BLM people would do today?
The fourth step recommended by Dr. King is direct action. If the previous three steps have been followed and there is no progress, a peaceful protest is necessary. Dr. King believed in justice and he did not believe in capitulation. He took direct action that was non-violent. Lowe believes that protests should hold a special place for Americans who realize that we have a Bill of Rights to protect the people from the government. Protests have been catalysts for progress for centuries and are essential to the American experiment.
Lowe believes that when legislation “with the potential to affect protesting comes up for debate …our representatives should be extremely careful. Any effort, even good intentions to prevent violence, that limits the right to protest or gives law enforcement undue power to restrain or jail citizens exercising their first amendment rights, should be carefully examined.” However, non-violent protests are unacceptable today in the modern civil rights movement. Why is that? Because the issue is never the issue. The revolution is.
Critical Race Theory and Marxism
Marxism was initially built on the theory of class conflict. Marx believed that the primary characteristics of industrial societies was an imbalance of power between capitalists (property owners) and workers, an imbalance between the oppressors and the oppressed. Marx said the only answer to this problem is revolution. Workers must rise to power, seize the means of production, overthrow the capitalist class, and usher in a new socialist utopia. In other words Marx believed in a Millennium without God.
During the twentieth century a number of governments underwent Marxist-led revolutions that left up to 100 million people dead. The Soviet Union, China, Cambodia, Cuba, and others violently destroyed the existing capitalist structures through mass murder, purges, and gulags. By the mid-1960s, Marxist thinkers in America realized they had no hope of success in a country where the people were happy and successful. A growing and prosperous middle class was enjoying the “American dream.” Fortunately, the civil rights movement of the 1960s led by Dr. King did bring change and justice through peaceful means. It brought the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments, the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
But the Marxists are historically resilient, a social cancer that destroys the host and thereby, ultimately, destroys itself leaving death. Rather than abandon their plans for societal change, Marxist thinkers in America simply adapted their revolutionary theory to the social and racial unrest of the 1990s. Abandoning Marx’s economic dialectic of capitalists and workers, they substituted race for class and sought to create a revolutionary coalition of the oppressed based on racial and ethnic categories. For them, the new imbalance of power is between the whites and the non-whites. While Dr. King was looking for a society where people would “not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character,” BLM makes skin color everything. Tell a BLM supporter that white lives matter too, and you will be in big trouble, maybe even violence.
For some CR theorists, even “white” science is suspect. James Lindsay writes, “Since modern science was predominantly produce by white, Western men, Critical Race Theory views science as a white and Western way of knowing. Critical Race Theory maintains that science encodes and perpetuates ‘white dominance’ and thus isn’t really fitting for black people who inhabit a culture of Blackness” (newdiscourses.com).
CRT is not a unifying movement but thrives on division and social anarchy. It is based on fanning the flames of racial unrest. Several states—Oklahoma, Idaho, Louisiana, Missouri, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, West Virginia, Tennessee, and others—have drafted bills that ban the teaching of CRT. It is a national tragedy that Democrat lawmakers favor its teaching.
Believe it or not, CRT is not an idea that promotes liberty. It is against the idea of liberty and sees a free society as a way to structure and maintain inequities by convincing racial minorities not to agitate for radical racial identity politics. It is very different than the civil rights movement it incorrectly claims to continue.
Racism is wrong, as is the notion of racial superiority. The idea that whites are superior because they are white is to forget that Hitler and Stalin (as are most American mass murderers) were also white. The whites who made America great did so not because they were white but because of the Judeo-Christian values they held. These are values that are available to anyone and have nothing to do with skin color.
There is an internationalist conspiracy to remove America as a sovereign nation because America is the single most potent opposer to globalism. In his 1991 Bilderberger speech, David Rockefeller made it clear that he and his family are part of a “secret cabal” to overthrow America. And “I am proud of it,” he said. CRT is an effective way to tear down the American Republic and make way for the one-world government of the Antichrist (see Revelation 13). Fortunately, many Americans, including notable black Americans, understand.
On April 28, 2021, Senator Tim Scott delivered the Republican response to President Biden’s address to a joint session of Congress. Among other things, Scott who is a black American said, “America is not a racist country.”
Senator Scott said he was blessed “with a praying momma.” He bemoaned the closing of churches during the COVID-19 pandemic. “Becoming a Christian transformed my life, but for months too many churches were shut down.” Senator Scott said: “Black, Hispanic, white, and Asian, Republican and Democrat … we are not adversaries. We are family. We are all in this together, and we get to live in the greatest country on earth. … So I am more than hopeful. I am confident that our finest hour has yet to come.”
The world is in desperate straits but, “God is still on the throne and prayer changes things.” Jesus Christ is still saving souls and He hasn’t changed His mind about saving more—“red and yellow, black and white, they are precious in His sight.”
Up to this point, we have spent considerable time discussing background information in order to better prepare the reader for the verse-by-verse exposition to follow. Having read the background material, the reader should now be equipped to understand the principles behind the method of our exposition and the liabilities we believe attend competing views.
Moving forward, we will place greater emphasis upon exposition than refuting alternate views, although we will continue to make mention of them at key places in the text.1
See the Introduction for a discussion of various background topics related to the book of Revelation.
The first word of this book, ?p???????? , should be kept in mind by the reader throughout the book. For it is God’s intention to reveal rather than conceal:
In the New Testament, apokalypsis always has the majestic sense of God’s unveiling of himself to his creatures, an unveiling that we call by its Latin name revelation. . . . It depicts the progressive and immediate unveiling of the otherwise unknown and unknowable God to his church throughout the ages.2
The clearness and lucidity (perspicuity) of the Scriptures is their consistent theme (Deu. 29:29; Pr. 13:13; Isa. 5:24; Isa. 45:19; Mat. 11:25; Mat. 24:15; Luke 10:21, 26; 24:25; 2Ti. 3:16; 2Pe. 1:19). Yet if Scripture is meant to be understood, why do we have such a difficult time understanding it, and especially this book? Our problem is not so much the difficulty of understanding, but our own idolatry and rebellion. We are unwilling to study to know God and to submit in obedience to that which may be known. We are more interested in other pursuits than in seeking God through His revealed words of life (John 6:63, 68). As is often the case where Scripture is concerned, our inability to understand is more a reflection of our lack of zeal than the difficulty which attends the interpretation of God’s Word. When the average person in our country spends multiple hours in front of a television set daily, but “just can’t find the time” to read God’s Word, the issue is not one of time management, but idolatry.
When we come to this last book of Scripture, our lack of preparation is evidenced all the more because what God intends as revelation, we see as mystery. Yet Paul holds that revelation is the antithesis of mystery (Rom. 16:25). This book is not intended to be a veiled document full of mysterious symbols, but an unveiling and clarification of things which have heretofore not been revealed by God.3 In order to grasp the meaning of this revelation, we need a foundation in the rest of Scriptures, and especially the Old Testament. (See The Importance of the Old Testament.)
There are several reasons why we believe that this book is not intended to be enigmatic. First, we believe that a chief purpose of God was the creation of language to communicate with man. If this is so, then the intellect of man and the clarity of language must be sufficient for this task:
If God is the originator of language and if the chief purpose of originating it was to convey His message to humanity, then it must follow that He, being all-wise and all-loving, originated sufficient language to convey all that was in His heart to tell mankind. Furthermore, it must also follow that He would use language and expect people to understand it in its literal, normal, and plain sense.4
Second, we have the pattern established by the rest of Scripture. “It is unthinkable to believe that God would speak with precision and clarity from Genesis to Jude, and then when it comes to the end abandon all precision and clarity.”5 It is not God’s intention to train us how to read and understand 65 books of the Bible and then “throw us a curve” in the 66th book by expecting that we adopt an entirely different approach. (See the discussion regarding The Art and Science of Interpretation.)
The central question surrounding this phrase is whether Jesus Christ is the source of the revelation (subjective genitive) or being described by the revelation (objective genitive).
Elsewhere, a very similar Greek phrase ?p??a???e?? ??s?? ???st?? [apokalypseos Iesou Christou] is used by Paul: “For I neither received it from man, nor was I taught it, but it came through the revelation of Jesus Christ” (Gal. 1:12).6 It would seem that in Galatians the genitive ??s?? ???st?? [Iesou Christou] is subjective rather than objective, for Paul is discussing the source of his revelatory knowledge. It did not come through man, nor was it taught, but it came through the revelation of Jesus. Jesus was the source of Paul’s revelation, not man.
In favor of the objective genitive (Jesus as the object being revealed), is the oft-expressed longing of the NT writers for His appearing (1Cor. 1:7; 2Th. 1:7; 1Pe. 1:7). In these passages, the appearing of Jesus is referred to as the “revelation of Jesus Christ.” Apart from the glimpses provided within this book and elsewhere in the NT, the true character and glory of Christ is yet hidden. When He appears, His glory will no longer be veiled and all men everywhere will understand that He is God.7
If “context is king” in interpretation, then the next phrase would indicate we are to take this as the subjective genitive: “which God gave Him to show His servants.”8 The emphasis here is on Jesus Christ as the source of the revelation being given to John.
Wallace suggests the possibility that this is a plenary genitive indicating the revelation is both from Christ and about Christ.9 However, as Thomas has observed, such an understanding violates the basic interpretive principle that the original author had only one intended meaning.10
The context favors the subjective genitive (the revelation is from Jesus Christ), but we should be aware that throughout Scripture, Jesus is involved with revelation in at least three ways:
He is the source of revelation (Gal. 1:12; 1Pe. 1:11; Rev. 1:1?).
He is the object of revelation (Luke 24:44; 1Cor. 1:7; 2Th. 1:7; 1Pe. 1:7; Rev. 1:11-18?; 5:6-10?; 19:11-16?). “Many fail to see the centrality of Jesus Christ in this volume. . . . become preoccupied with the identification of events and persons other than our Lord. Many seem to be more interested in the Antichrist than in Jesus Christ.”11
His incarnation is the revelation of God to man (Isa. 9:1-2; John 1:14, 18; 12:45; 14:8-9; Col. 1:15; 2:9; Heb. 1:2; 1Jn. 1:2).
Paul makes plain that the revelation he received was not the result of teaching he received from men. In other words, biblical revelation is not by human insight or instruction. It is the unveiling of that which was previously unknown and would forever remain unknown if God had not graciously granted us His self-disclosure. This is why the natural world can never be classified as the 67th book of the Bible, for the “revelation” it provides is not biblical revelation. It is subject to the finding out of man and the manner in which it is discerned is subject to the flawed interpretations and theories of fallen men. This alone tells us why Genesis takes precedence over the speculative investigation of prehistory by modern science. Scriptural revelation, the direct revelation of God, has no equal.
It is for these very reasons that biblical revelation is always initiated by God and never by man. It was the Lord who opened Hagar’s eyes so that she saw water nearby (Gen. 21:19). It was the Lord who revealed the Angel of the Lord blocking Balaam’s way (Num. 22:31). The Lord opened the eyes of Elisha’s servant so that he might see the angelic host (2K. 6:17).
Jon Ruetz...April 16, 2024
In America, you have met the king–every morning when you look in the mirror.
That is the way the Founding Fathers designed the constitutional republic in which we live.
Renowned historian and author William J. “Bill” Federer has a clear roadmap for those who wish to preserve liberty, which he laid out during an appearance on Watchman on the Wall, the venerable radio program of 91-year-old Southwest Radio Ministries.
Contrary to the belief of some, the Christian’s responsibility does not begin or end with a short time spent in a comfortable sanctuary each Lord’s day.
As the Savior taught many times, action is an essential element for those who would follow Him on a genuine Christian walk. Today, at least some of that activity must include standing up for and defending the freedom with which Americans worship Him freely, and without fear–regardless of criticism on the street or in social media, or of germs and edicts for supposed remedies thereof, or by the curtailment of freedom by those in power which, irrespective of intent, results in defining them as would-be tyrants.
Federer has prepared himself for this moment. He is the author of more than 30 books, many of which are available in the Resource Center at swrc.com, including The Ten Commandments & Their Influence on American Law, Prayers and Presidents, and Socialism: The Real History from Plato to the Present. His America’s God and Country sold more than a half-million copies.
Serving as host for Watchman on the Wall, Clayton Van Huss and his guest are both troubled by the lethargy and evident indifference displayed by many Christians in America when it comes to their obligation as citizens, especially in voting, and getting more involved in their communities.
It can be persuasively argued that specific responsibility is perhaps the top priority in preserving the freedom Christians, and all Americans, have enjoyed for a quarter of a millennium. Liberty, and the republic itself, are not self-sustaining.
Van Huss lays out the situation for listeners. “Being an election year, 2024, we’ve got choices ahead of us. We’ve got things we’ve got to figure out, and we know that when it comes to an election, and when it comes to democracy, we have responsibility that goes along with our freedom.
“What advice would you give to Christians with the political climate as it is in the States? How should we behave?” he asks Federer. “I know some people say we shouldn’t vote, we should just stay out of things… I oftentimes hear people say, ‘Don’t vote your religion,’ but everyone else is voting their religion. How does a Christian behave during an election year?”
Then, with a chuckle, Van Huss adroitly declares: “I’m just gonna let you go with it.”
And with that, the scholar indeed goes forward, laying out a duplet exegesis of history and his deeply held Scriptural beliefs with the intellectual prowess and erudition that has made him famous.
Federer is adamant that Christians must step forward and fulfill their duty, on many levels. He weaves an explanation encompassing history and the conduct of mankind–both rational and irrational. In the end, it is a lesson so clear that a wayfaring man, though a fool, may not err therein.
“One of the things I like to do is zoom out, and I’ve spent several years researching every single century in recorded human history to find out what the most common form of government is, and it’s kings–basically gangs,” Federer begins.
“
“And then the most ruthless person breaking into houses, the bad people would say, ‘Well you be our bad gang leader.’ And then you’ve got the gangs, and kings. A gang leader with enough power is called the king.
“That’s the norm. And as the centuries go on, the kingdoms get bigger because with military advancements, kings can kill more people. Instead of Cain killing Abel with a rock, they can kill with a bronze weapon, or an iron weapon, or a big, long phalanx spear the Greeks had, or a scimitar sword that the Muslims had, or gunpowder that the Chinese invented.
“The weapon improves,” Federer says, “but it’s that same fallen nature, and then with technological advancements, kings can track more people. And they keep getting bigger… until, finally, the king of England was the biggest, and he was a globalist. He was a one-world government guy. The sun never set on the British Empire.
“And America’s founders decided they didn’t like a globalist king telling us what to do, so they broke away and flipped it, and made the people the king.
“What makes America great is you get to be the king of your life and all of us together are the king of the country. The word ‘citizen’ is Greek. It means co-sovereign, co-ruler, co-king.
“So (when) we pledge allegiance to the flag, and to the republic, we’re basically pledging allegiance to us being in charge of ourselves. Out of world history, the most common form of government is the king, America’s founders flipped it and made us, the people, the king. So it’s a polarity change in the flow of power. Instead of a top-down rule through fear, following government mandates, it’s government from the consent of the governed. It’s a bottom-up form of government.
“It worked… The founders got the idea from the New England pastors–Connecticut, Massachusetts. Where did those pastors get the idea? The Bible. What part of the Bible? That first 400 years out of Egypt before King Solomon.
“When you go through world history, and there’s pharaohs and Caesars and kaisers, there’s one nation that stands out: ancient Israel. Around 1400 B.C., they came out of Egypt and, for 400 years, no king. It worked, because every single citizen was taught the law, and they were personally accountable to God to follow the law.
“This way, you could maintain order in society with no police, with no king, and it worked for 400 years–until the priests stopped teaching the law. You think they did? Yeah. Here’s Levi, the high priest—his own sons are sleeping with women in the very tent where the Ark of the Covenant is. Then there’s a Levite with a silver graven image in the house of a guy named Micah, and the Tribe of Dan comes along and steals the graven image, and then tells this Levite, ‘Come along with us, and you can be a priest to our whole tribe.’
“And you’re scratching your head while you’re reading the story,” Federer says, emulating the confusion Bible students likely feel witnessing such illogical, even absurd, behavior.
“It’s like: ‘What’s this Levite doing with a graven image? Isn’t that one of the commandments that you’re not supposed to have them? He’s not following the law.’”
Federer continues, describing another Levite with a concubine, though according to the law he is supposed to marry a virgin of his own tribe. But he’s not following the law, and his house is surrounded by sodomites.
“Why? Because the priests stopped teaching them what was right in the Lord’s eyes. It turned into chaos. They all go to Samuel. They say, ‘We want to be like the other countries. We want a king.’ Samuel cries, and the Lord tells him, ‘They did not reject you. They rejected me.’
“God’s original plan for ancient Israel was to not have a king, but to have everybody be taught the law and be personally accountable to God to follow the law. This is called the Hebrew Republic, and it inspired the Calvinists and the pastors after the Reformation, and it inspired the New England pastors, and it inspired our constitutional form of government where it’s ‘We, the people.’ We get to rule ourselves without a king,” Federer said.
“America’s founders looked to the Bible, but they looked at pre-King Saul. The kings of England looked to the Bible for their authority, but they looked to King Saul, and on, the anointed king—‘God chose me to be king, the divine right of kings. I was put here extra special.’
“King Saul is, in a sense, the divider between England and America during the revolution. Both are looking to the Bible but the kings of Europe, they’re saying, ‘No, it’s the anointed king and you’re rebelling.’ But we’re saying, ‘No, it’s the people. We’re all taught the law. We’re accountable to God for following.’
“Why is this important?” Federer asks. “Because America was set up where we, the people, are the king. In an election year, it’s basically the king telling the servants what to do. You get to pick your public servants. You get to tell them what to do.
“When you have somebody that’s not voting and not getting involved, that’s like the king being a negligent king. Imagine going through the streets of Jerusalem and you’re witnessing crime—murder, rape—and you get into the king’s chamber, and he has his head in his hands and he’s looking all nervous, and he looks up at you, and he says, ‘Did you see all that crime coming in here? I wish somebody would fix it.’ You reach over and tap him on the shoulder and say, ‘Excuse me. You’re the king. You’re the one accountable to God to fix this mess.’
“That’s like somebody in America watching TV or listening to the radio, and thinking, ‘Man, there’s a lot of terrible stuff going on in the world. I wish somebody would fix it.’
“Hello!” Federer says in a mock wake-up call. “Have a finger reach through the speaker or the screen and tap you on the shoulder–you’re the king, you’re the one that’s supposed to fix this mess…
“Since when does the king sit on his throne and say, ‘Can somebody tell me what I’m supposed to do?’ No. It’s your job to be educated on the issues, seek God’s will, and you tell your representatives what needs to happen. You’re the king.”
(Author and speaker Bill Federer is president of the publishing company Amerisearch Inc. His American Minute radio feature is broadcast daily across the country, as is his Faith in History TV program. For more information, visit his websites: americanminute.com and truthandliberty.net.)
Millions of people believe that if we do not immediately address climate change, we will literally be in the early stages of mass extinction, and this will be the LAST GENERATION on this earth—with worldwide devastation happening in the next few decades.
A few months ago (on September 19, 2019), millions of people demonstrated across the world demanding urgent action to tackle global warming, as they united across timezones and cultures to take part in the biggest climate protest in history.
People protested from the Pacific Islands, through Australia, across Southeast Asia, Africa, into Europe, and also in the Americas. It was an explosion of the youth movement that was started by a Swedish school ‘striker’ Greta Thunberg just over a year previous to this event.
For the first time since the school ‘strikes’ for climate change that began in 2018, young people called on adults to join them—and they were heard. Trade unions representing hundreds of millions of people around the world mobilized in support, employees left their workplaces, doctors and nurses marched, and workers at firms like Amazon, Google, and Facebook also walked out to join the climate protest.
Demonstrations took place in an estimated 185 countries, but the overall message was unified. It was a demand for an urgent step—immediate action to cut emissions and stabilize the clim
Inspired by the Swedish teenage climate activist, fellow climate-change warrior Lucas Barrero, said in his new book, “The World You Are Leaving Us,” “We are the first generation that will suffer, or rather, is already suffering the effects of the ecological and climate crisis. But we are the last generation that can do something to stop the disaster.”
Here in America, the youngest woman ever elected to Congress, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), made headlines when she said (in January 2019) that she and other young Americans fear that “the world is going to end in 12 years if we don’t address climate change.” She also remarked that the fight to mitigate the effects of climate change is her generation’s “World War II.”
Former Rep. Beto O’Rourke (D-Texas) joined fellow Democrat Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (AOC) in predicting the climate change-induced doomsday, but he said that, “The world only has 10 years left.” (His climate change proposal, that seeks to hit net-zero carbon emissions by 2050, is estimated to cost about $5 trillion over the next ten years).
However, on the other ‘side’ of the argument, many prominent climate scientists refuted AOC’s claim, with NASA climate scientist Kate Marvel stating that climate change is not a “cliff we fall off” but rather “a slope we slide down.”
As the impacts of climate change become more frequent and more severe, they will create—and in many cases they already are creating—crises for people and nature around the world. Many types of extreme weather, including heatwaves, heavy downpours, hurricanes and wildfires are becoming stronger and more dangerous.
Left unchecked, these impacts will spread and worsen, affecting our homes and cities, economies, food and water supplies as well as the species, ecosystems, and biodiversity of this planet we all call home.
All of these terms are accurate, and there’s no perfect one that will make everyone realize the urgency of action. Whatever you choose to call it, the most important thing is that we act to stop it.
Is climate change caused by humans?
Yes, scientists agree that the warming we are seeing today is entirely human-caused.
Climate has changed in the past due to natural factors such as volcanoes, changes in the sun’s energy and the way the Earth orbits the sun. In fact, these natural factors should be cooling the planet. However, our planet is warming.
Why is the planet warming?
Scientists have known for centuries that the Earth has a natural blanket of greenhouse or heat-trapping gases. This blanket keeps the Earth more than 30 degrees Celsius (over 60 degrees Fahrenheit) warmer than it would be otherwise. Without this blanket, our Earth would be a frozen ball of ice.
Greenhouse gases, which include carbon dioxide and methane, trap some of the Earth’s heat that would otherwise escape to space. The more heat-trapping gases in the atmosphere, the thicker the blanket and the warmer it gets.
Over Earth’s history, heat-trapping gas levels have gone up and down due to natural factors. Today, however, by burning fossil fuels, causing deforestation (forests are key parts of the planet’s natural carbon management systems), and operating large-scale industrial agriculture, humans are rapidly increasing levels of heat-trapping gases in the atmosphere.
The human-caused increase in carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is much greater than any observed in the paleoclimate history (i.e. ancient climate data measured through ice sheets, tree rings, sediments and more) of the earth. As a result, temperature in the air and ocean is now increasing faster than at any time in human history.
Scientists have looked at every other possible reason why climate might be changing today, and their conclusions are clear. There’s no question: it’s us.
One of the main reasons scientists are so worried about climate change is the speed at which it is occurring. In many cases, these changes are happening faster than animals, plants, and ecosystems can safely adapt to – and the same is true for human civilization.
We’ve never seen climate change this quickly, and it is putting our food and water systems, our infrastructure, and even our economies at risk. In some places, these changes are already crossing safe levels for ecosystems and humans.
Who wrote the book?
While Matthew did not sign his own name to “his” gospel, the early church uniformly attested to the apostle’s authorship of the book. As early as AD 140, a Christian named Papias wrote that Matthew had compiled the sayings of the Lord in Hebrew (presumably before Matthew translated them into Greek for a larger audience).
Matthew’s name appears in all the biblical lists of the twelve apostles, though Mark and Luke refer to him as Levi. His history as a tax collector distinguished him from the other apostles, and immediately after his call to follow Jesus—an event he recorded in Matthew 9:9—Matthew hosted a feast for Jesus in his home with an invitation list made up of Matthew’s sinful friends. Apparently Matthew did not think it odd that Jesus and he would associate with the sinful and downtrodden of society.
Where are we?
Matthew is the most Jewish-centric of the four gospels. The apostle regularly invoked the writings of the Old Testament prophets in an effort to illustrate Jesus’s identity as Israel’s long-awaited Messiah.
However, the Gospel of Matthew has been notoriously difficult to date. Several factors speak to a date ranging from AD 60–65. First of all, the book makes no mention of the destruction of the temple, an event which occurred in AD 70. Such a cataclysmic event likely would have received some comment, particularly in a book so clearly influenced by Judaism. The largely Jewish character of the book also suggests it was written at a time when much of the evangelism by Christians was directed more exclusively at Jews, something that became less and less common as the decades passed. Finally, many scholars believe Mark to have been the first gospel composed, making it most probable that Matthew was written soon after.
Why is Matthew so important?
The apostle Matthew, a Jew himself, offered a decidedly Jewish perspective on the ministry of Jesus. He included more than fifty direct citations—and even more indirect allusions—from the Old Testament. This exceeds any of the other gospels and indicates that Matthew had the Jewish population in mind when he sat down to write. Matthew’s extensive connections between Jesus and the Old Testament provide ample prophetic evidence for Jesus’s ministry but also give contemporary readers a glimpse into how first-century readers approached the Old Testament with a Christ-centered mind-set.
In addition, Matthew’s gospel answers the question on the mind of every Jewish reader: “If Jesus is the King of the Jews, then where is God’s promised kingdom?” Matthew reveals that Jesus did offer the kingdom to Israel, but the offer was rejected (Matthew 4:17; 16:13–28; 21:42–43). God’s primary work in the world is now accomplished through the building of Christ’s church, after which Jesus will come again to earth and establish His kingdom—ruling the world from Israel.
What's the big idea?
Matthew wrote his account of Jesus’s ministry to show that Jesus was and is indeed the King, Israel’s long-awaited Messiah. He reflected this concern in his opening line, “The record of the genealogy of Jesus the Messiah, the son of David, the son of Abraham” (Matthew 1:1). From there, Matthew consistently took his readers back to the Old Testament, providing Old Testament testimony regarding the birth of Jesus, Bethlehem as the location of Jesus’s birth, the flight to Egypt, Herod’s slaughter of the infants, and the beginning of Jesus’s ministry. In a world where many in the Jewish community had claimed the role of Messiah for themselves, Matthew’s commitment to grounding the life of Jesus in the Old Testament raised Jesus above the multitude of these false messiahs. The apostle painted a portrait of our Lord that highlights His uniqueness among all others to ever walk this earth.
After enduring four hundred years of prophetic silence, God’s people must have wondered whether or not He had deserted them. After centuries of regular communication from God, the people found themselves without a genuine prophet or spokesman for God. However, the ministries of John and Jesus reminded God’s people that He had not forgotten them. God’s silence during that period was merely a precursor to pulling the linchpin of His redemptive plan. God hadn’t forgotten—He remembered His people. Matthew made that clear.
It was true then, and it is certainly true today. Do you ever feel as though God has deserted you or that He sits in silence in the face of your requests? As we read through the pages of Matthew, not only do we see Jesus Christ revealed as Israel’s King and Messiah, but His coming to earth as God in the flesh reminds us of His deep love for us. Now resurrected and ascended, the Lord Jesus will always be with us, even to the end of time (Matthew 28:20).
Christ’s commission to His followers is still His mandate to us today: “Make disciples of all the nations” (Matthew 28:19). Christ’s work of building His church is the work He does through each of us.
Copyright ©? 2010 by Charles R. Swindoll, Inc. All rights reserved worldwide.
Written by Ken Searle in Bible Books
Matthew
Chapter 1
Genealogy of Jesus
Birth of Jesus
The Gospel of Matthew opens with a list of people’s names, the genealogy of Jesus. Don’t skip it. Matthew is proving to the people of his time (the Jews) that Jesus is the Read thMessiah, who must come from the line of David, the line of Judah, the line of Abraham. If he does not, a responsible Jew would ignore the claim.
Matthew proves Jesus’ ancestry in the line of David and gets their attention.
Read through it to see if you recognize any of the names. If you are reading through the 14 books of the narrative approach, you may recognize some that you have been reading about. It is alright if you don’t recognize them all. Over time more names may look familiar.
Matthew then speaks about Jesus, who is born from a woman and the Holy Spirit, not from Mary and Joseph, It is a true miracle from God.
The birth of Jesus fulfills Gen 3:15 where God promised there would be a battle between the Devil and the woman & her offspring. Mary is the woman and Jesus is the offspring who will ultimately crush the head of the devil; sin and death.
Matthew is only concerned with the Virgin birth of Jesus at this time, explaining there was no possibility that Jesus was conceived by Joseph or any other man.
The genealogy is real people in history that God made a promise with and His promise is about to be fulfilled in Jesus the Messiah.
Emmanuel. God with US
Visit of the Magi
Flight to Egypt
Massacre of the Infants
Return from Egypt
Jesus was born in Bethlehem, the location foretold by the prophet Isaiah. When the Magi came to Jerusalem inquiring about a newborn king of the Jews, King Herod became troubled and found out the Messiah would come from Bethlehem.
Herod’s secret plan was to send the Magi to Bethlehem and once they found Jesus, Herod could come to kill him. The Lord was aware of Herod’s thoughts and warned Joseph in a dream to escape from Egypt.
The Magi worshiped Jesus and were also warned by the Lord in a dream and did not return to Herod.
When Herod learned that the Magi were gone, he had all the male children under 2 years of age killed. Theses children are the first Christian martyrs, now in heaven, given a day of remembrance each year as the Holy Innocents.
The slaughter of the children in Bethlehem can be compared to the slaughter of the male children in Egypt. Moses, the future deliverer of the Israelites, escaped. Jesus the deliverer of us all, escaped.
The Holy Family’s flight to Egypt can be compared to Israel fleeing to Egypt to avoid death.
Preaching of John the Baptist
Baptism of Jesus
John the Baptist was a prophet foretold by Isaiah. John prophesied about the Messiah coming after him. He prepared the people with Baptism of water and repentance, but He also speaks of something more, Baptism of Fire from the Holy Spirit, which some today refer to as Confirmation.
There is some question as to why Jesus was baptized? He was the son of God, without sin, so He did not need it for repentance or to clear any original sin for Himself. But in doing so, He fortified what John the Baptist was preaching, that we all need repentance and Baptism.
Baptism of Jesus
If Jesus was Baptized, and God is pleased with Jesus, His son, then there is no question we need to be Baptized too.
This passage gives us a moment to see the Trinity, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, all acting as one. The Word ‘Trinity’ is not in the Bible, yet the concept is. God in three person is shown to us in the Baptism of Jesus.
We may also be reminded of the beginning of Genesis, where God says, let ‘us’ make man in ‘our’ image. This plural usage in Genesis makes sense when we understand the Trinity of 1 God in 3 persons.
The Gospel According to Mark (Mark)
For a long time, the Gospel of Mark was the least popular of the Gospels, both among scholars and general readers. Mark’s literary style is somewhat dull—for example, he begins a great number of sentences with the word “then.” Luke and Matthew both contain the same story of Jesus’s life, but in more sophisticated prose. Mark also leaves out accounts of Jesus’s birth, the Sermon on the Mount, and several of the most well known parables. Mark became more popular, however, when biblical scholars discovered it was the earliest written of the four Gospels, and was probably the primary source of information for the writers of Luke and Matthew. Moreover, because neither Jesus nor his original disciples left any writings behind, the Gospel of Mark is the closest document to an original source on Jesus’s life that currently exists. The presumed author of the Gospel of Mark, John Mark, was familiar with Peter, Jesus’s closest disciple. Indeed, Mark is the New Testament historian who comes closest to witnessing the actual life of Jesus. Though Mark’s Gospel certainly comes to us through his own personal lens, scholars are fairly confident that Mark is a reliable source of information for understanding Jesus’s life, ministry, and crucifixion. As a result of its proximity to original sources, the Gospel of Mark has transformed from a book disregarded for its lowly prose to one of the most important books in the New Testament. Its historical importance has affected its evaluation by literary scholars as well. Though crude and terse, the Gospel of Mark is vivid and concrete. Action dominates. A dramatic sense of urgency is present, and Mark has a developed sense of irony that permeates the Gospel.
Summary
The Gospel According to Mark has no story of Jesus’s birth. Instead, Mark’s story begins by describing Jesus’s adult life, introducing it with the words, “The beginning of the good news of Jesus Christ, the Son of God” (1:1). Mark tells of John the Baptist, who predicts the coming of a man more powerful than himself. After John baptizes Jesus with water, the Holy Spirit of God recognizes Jesus as his son, saying, “You are my Son, the Beloved” (1:11). Jesus goes to the wilderness, where Satan tests him for forty days, and Jesus emerges triumphant.
Jesus travels to Galilee, the northern region of Israel. He gathers his first disciples, Simon and Andrew, two Jewish brothers who are both fishermen. Jesus asks them to follow him, saying that he will show them how to fish for people rather than for fish. Simon and Andrew, as well as James and John, drop their nets and follow him. Jesus exhibits his authority in Galilee, where he cleanses a leper (1:40–45). Mark reports that Jesus heals a paralytic, Simon’s sick mother-in-law, and a man with a withered hand. The miracles cause the crowds that gather to watch Jesus to become bewildered, fearful, and antagonistic. The Pharisees and followers of Herod begin plotting to kill Jesus. Jesus stays focused on his ministry.
Jesus’s ministry attracts many followers. The miracle stories become increasingly longer and more elaborate, emphasizing the supernatural power of Jesus’s authority. Mark says that “even wind and sea obey him” (4:35–41). Simultaneously, Jesus becomes increasingly misunderstood and rejected, even by his own apostles. Jesus notes his disciples’ frequent misunderstandings of his message. Jesus’s power continues to reveal itself in his control over nature: he calms a storm, cures a man possessed by a demon, and revives a dead young girl. Despite his successes, however, he continues to be reviled in his own hometown of Nazareth.
Jesus travels again through northern Palestine. He heals a deaf man and the child of a Gentile, and works a second miracle in which he multiplies a small amount of bread and fish to feed 4,000 people. His disciples, however, continue to misunderstand the significance of his actions. Peter, the foremost of the disciples, seems to be the only one who recognizes Jesus’s divine nature. Jesus begins to foresee his own crucifixion and resurrection. He continues to travel across Galilee, but shifts his emphasis to preaching rather than working miracles. He appears to some of his disciples to be transfigured, made brilliantly white. Jesus explains that John the Baptist served as his Elijah, predicting his arrival. He preaches against divorce and remarriage. He announces that young children, in their innocence, are models for righteous behavior, and that the rich will have great difficulty entering the kingdom of God. He teaches, despite the sacrifices necessary to enter the kingdom, it will be worth it: “Many who are first will be last, and the last, first” (10:31).
Finally, Jesus journeys to Jerusalem, where he drives the money changers from the temple and begins preaching his Gospel. He is well received by the common people but hated by the priests and the scribes. However, he successfully defends himself against the priests’ verbal attacks. He teaches that obedience to Caesar is important, that the dead will be resurrected, that loving one’s neighbor is the greatest commandment, and that the End of Days will soon come, bringing God’s retribution on the unjust and the return of the Son of man.
Jesus travels again through northern Palestine. He heals a deaf man and the child of a Gentile, and works a second miracle in which he multiplies a small amount of bread and fish to feed 4,000 people. His disciples, however, continue to misunderstand the significance of his actions. Peter, the foremost of the disciples, seems to be the only one who recognizes Jesus’s divine nature. Jesus begins to foresee his own crucifixion and resurrection. He continues to travel across Galilee, but shifts his emphasis to preaching rather than working miracles. He appears to some of his disciples to be transfigured, made brilliantly white. Jesus explains that John the Baptist served as his Elijah, predicting his arrival. He preaches against divorce and remarriage. He announces that young children, in their innocence, are models for righteous behavior, and that the rich will have great difficulty entering the kingdom of God. He teaches, despite the sacrifices necessary to enter the kingdom, it will be worth it: “Many who are first will be last, and the last, first” (10:31).
Finally, Jesus journeys to Jerusalem, where he drives the money changers from the temple and begins preaching his Gospel. He is well received by the common people but hated by the priests and the scribes. However, he successfully defends himself against the priests’ verbal attacks. He teaches that obedience to Caesar is important, that the dead will be resurrected, that loving one’s neighbor is the greatest commandment, and that the End of Days will soon come, bringing God’s retribution on the unjust and the return of the Son of man.
Jesus is leaving the garden with Peter, James, and John when Judas Iscariot, one of the apostles, arrives with the city’s chief priests and a crowd carrying swords and clubs. Judas kisses Jesus, indicating to the priests Jesus’s identity. The priests arrest Jesus and take him to the court of the high priest. There, Jesus publicly claims that he is “the Messiah, the Son of the Blessed One,” and the Jews deliver him to Pontius Pilate, the Roman governor, who agrees to crucify him (14:61). On the cross, Jesus cries out, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (15:34). He dies and is buried by Joseph of Arimathea, a righteous Jew. When Mary Magdalene and other women come to Jesus’s grave on the third day after the crucifixion, however, they find it empty. A young man tells them that Jesus has risen from the grave. Jesus then appears in resurrected form to Mary, Mary Magdalene, and the apostles.
Analysis
Mark’s Gospel is often disconnected, and at times difficult to read as a logically progressing narrative. This Gospel is brief and concise, reading almost like an outline, with little effort made to connect the roughly chronological list of incidents. Mark’s Gospel also tends to interrupt itself by introducing information of marginal relevance. For example, Mark interrupts the story of the dispersal of the apostles and their return with the anecdote about Herod Antipas and John the Baptist. The Gospels of Matthew and Luke rely on Mark for much of their information, and they flesh out the bare-bones outline, adding additional information and employing a more fluid and elaborate style. The relationship between these first three Gospels is extremely complex. They are often approached as a group because of their strong similarities, and because of the way in which they appear to have been influenced by each other or by common sources. Because of their interconnectedness, they are called “synoptic,” meaning that they can be looked at “with one glance.”
The Gospel of Mark does show some evidence of tight, purposeful construction. Mark can be divided into two sections. The first, from 1:1 to 8:26, concerns itself with Jesus’s ministry in Galilee, beginning with John the Baptist’s prophecy proclaiming the advent of the Messiah. The second, from 8:27 to 16:20, tells the story of Jesus’s prediction of his own suffering, crucifixion, and resurrection.
Mark’s Gospel constantly presumes that the end of the world is imminent. Therefore, when the end of time never came, early Christian communities had difficulty interpreting passages such as the thirteenth chapter of Mark, whose apocalyptic vision is urgent, striking, and confident. Another prominent motif of Mark is secrecy. Mark writes that the kingdom is near, the time has come, but only a few are privy to any knowledge of it. This motif is known as the Messianic Secret. For example, Mark refers to secrecy in relation to the kingdom of God in 4:11-12:
For Mark, Jesus’s parables are riddles meant to be understood only by a select few. However, as the Gospel unfolds, the disciples do not maintain their privileged position.
As Mark tells his story, the twelve disciples persistently, even increasingly, fail to understand Jesus. Ultimately, two of them betray him, the rest abandon him, and at the end he is crucified alone until two of his bravest disciples, Mary Magdalene and Mary, return and find his tomb empty. If anyone is loyal in this Gospel, it is the Galilean women who look on Jesus’s crucifixion from a distance and come to bury him. The Gospel of Mark is brutal on the disciples; some scholars suggest that Mark is trying to express his theme that when one follows Christ, one must be prepared for the experiences of misunderstanding and even persecution. Mark’s model of discipleship includes the experiences of failure and doubt as part of the process of coming to understand the full meaning of Jesus. For Mark, discipleship means debating, questioning, stumbling, and learning. It involves suffering, service to others, poverty, and faithfulness despite persecution. It is strange that the Gospel of Mark ends so abruptly; scholars generally agree that the Gospel of Mark ends with verse 16:8, and that verses 16:9–20 were a later addition to the manuscript. The ending at 16:8 is confusing: Jesus’s body is gone, and in his place an angel appears to Mary Magdalene and others, charging them to tell Peter of Jesus’s resurrection. The women fail to fulfill this command: “So they went out and fled from the tomb, for the terror and amazement had seized them; and they said nothing to anyone, for they were afraid” (16:8). This ending is hardly triumphant, and verses 16:9–20 preserve Mark’s original message. Jesus appears to his apostles, and victory seems assured: “And they went out and proclaimed the good news everywhere, while the Lord worked with them and confirmed the message by the signs that accompanied it” (16:20).
Introduction
1 Many have undertaken to draw up an account of the things that have been fulfilled among us, 2 just as they were handed down to us by those who from the first were eyewitnesses and servants of the word. 3 With this in mind, since I myself have carefully investigated everything from the beginning, I too decided to write an orderly account for you, most excellent Theophilus, 4 so that you may know the certainty of the things you have been taught.
The Birth of John the Baptist Foretold
In the time of Herod king of Judea there was a priest named Zechariah, who belonged to the priestly division of Abijah; his wife Elizabeth was also a descendant of Aaron. Both of them were righteous in the sight of God, observing all the Lord’s commands and decrees blamelessly. But they were childless because Elizabeth was not able to conceive, and they were both very old.
Once when Zechariah’s division was on duty and he was serving as priest before God, 9 he was chosen by lot, according to the custom of the priesthood, to go into the temple of the Lord and burn incense. 10 And when the time for the burning of incense came, all the assembled worshipers were praying outside.
Then an angel of the Lord appeared to him, standing at the right side of the altar of incense. When Zechariah saw him, he was startled and was gripped with fear. But the angel said to him: “Do not be afraid, Zechariah; your prayer has been heard. Your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you are to call him John. He will be a joy and delight to you, and many will rejoice because of his birth, 15 for he will be great in the sight of the Lord. He is never to take wine or other fermented drink, and he will be filled with the Holy Spirit even before he is born. He will bring back many of the people of Israel to the Lord their God. 17 And he will go on before the Lord, in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the parents to their children and the disobedient to the wisdom of the righteous—to make ready a people prepared for the Lord.”
Zechariah asked the angel, “How can I be sure of this? I am an old man and my wife is well along in years.”
The angel said to him, “I am Gabriel. I stand in the presence of God, and I have been sent to speak to you and to tell you this good news. And now you will be silent and not able to speak until the day this happens, because you did not believe my words, which will come true at their appointed time.”
Meanwhile, the people were waiting for Zechariah and wondering why he stayed so long in the temple. 22 When he came out, he could not speak to them. They realized he had seen a vision in the temple, for he kept making signs to them but remained unable to speak.
When his time of service was completed, he returned home. After this his wife Elizabeth became pregnant and for five months remained in seclusion. “The Lord has done this for me,” she said. “In these days he has shown his favor and taken away my disgrace among the people.”
The Birth of Jesus Foretold
In the sixth month of Elizabeth’s pregnancy, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a town in Galilee, to a virgin pledged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of David. The virgin’s name was Mary. The angel went to her and said, “Greetings, you who are highly favored! The Lord is with you.”
Gospel According to Luke,,,,biblical literature
Written and fact-checked by
Last Updated: Mar 15, 2024 • Article History
St. Luke the Evangelist
Gospel According to Luke, third of the four New Testament Gospels (narratives recounting the life and death of Jesus Christ) and, with The Gospels According to Mark and Matthew, one of the three Synoptic Gospels (i.e., those presenting a common view). It is traditionally credited to St. Luke, “the beloved physician” (Col. 4:14), a close associate of the St. Paul the Apostle. Luke’s Gospel is clearly written for Gentile converts: it traces Christ’s genealogy, for example, back to Adam, the “father” of the human race rather than to Abraham, the father of the Jewish people. The date and place of composition are uncertain, but many date the Gospel to 63–70 CE, others somewhat later.
Like St. Matthew, Luke derives much of his Gospel from that of St. Mark, generally following Mark’s sequence and incorporating about 50 percent of Mark’s material into his work. The Gospels of Luke and Matthew, however, share a good deal of material not found in The Gospel According to Mark, suggesting that the two evangelists may have had access to another common source.
: The Gospel According to Luke
Despite its similarities to the other Synoptic Gospels, however, Luke’s narrative contains much that is unique. It gives details of Jesus’ infancy found in no other Gospel: the census of Caesar Augustus, the journey to Bethlehem, Jesus’ birth, the adoration of the shepherds, Jesus’ circumcision, the words of Simeon, and Jesus at age 12 in the temple talking with the doctors of the law. It also is the only Gospel to give an account of the Ascension. Among the notable parables found only in Luke’s Gospel are those of the good Samaritan and the prodigal son.
Luke’s Gospel is also unique in its perspective. It resembles the other synoptics in its treatment of the life of Jesus, but it goes beyond them in narrating the ministry of Jesus, widening its perspective to consider God’s overall historical purpose and the place of the church within it. Luke, and its companion book, Acts of the Apostles, portray the church as God’s instrument of redemption on Earth in the interim between the death of Christ and the Second Coming. The two books combined provide the first Christian history, outlining God’s purpose through three historical epochs: the epoch of the Law and the prophets, which lasted from ancient Israel to the time of St. John the Baptist; the epoch of Jesus’ ministry; and the epoch of the church’s mission, from the Ascension to the return of Christ.
“The Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost” (Luke 19:10). With these closing words to Zacchaeus, a chief tax collector and a man deeply despised by his fellow Jews, Jesus states the message of Luke to the global church today. Christ did not come for the clean and the religious, the upright and the educated—he came for those who know themselves to be lost. Throughout Luke we see Jesus welcoming outsiders into the blessings of grace, while those who appear to be insiders are shut out.
This is great hope to those around the world today who feel themselves to be outsiders. It is also a reminder to those who are taking the gospel to the nations that it is generally the socially and culturally marginalized who will be most readily drawn to the gospel. Above all, Luke’s Gospel is a call to everyone around the world, whatever our social or moral status, to abandon our futile methods of self-salvation and leave all to follow Christ, the great Friend of sinners (Luke 7:34; 9:57–62; 18:9–14).
Luke and Redemptive History
At the beginning of history, two people ate food offered to them by Satan, their eyes were opened, and the whole human race was plunged into sin and death (Gen. 3:6–7). At the climax of history, two people ate food offered to them by Christ, their eyes were opened, and they saw who Christ was and the new age that was dawning in him (Luke 24:30–32). This prophecy-fulfilling restoration of God’s people—people who now come from surprising places, cultures, and social spheres—is the role Luke’s Gospel fills in redemptive history.
Placed against the backdrop of the whole Bible, Luke’s Gospel shows us that the one for whom God’s people had been waiting so long had finally come. In him, all the hopes and promises of the Old Testament were coming to decisive fulfillment. He was the true Son of God (Luke 4:41; 22:70–71) who, unlike Adam, God’s first son (3:38), walked faithfully with God. He was the true Israel, who unlike Israel before him passed the test in the wilderness (4:1–13). After generations of sin, failure, and finally exile, One had come who would bear the punishment for his people and fulfill the ancient promises. The people would be restored to God. This was the One about whom the entire Old Testament spoke (24:27, 44).
This restoration is for all people in all places around the world. After his resurrection, Jesus tells his disciples that they are his witnesses and that “repentance and forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations” (Luke 24:47). This global mandate to preach the gospel to all nations will be empowered and begun when the disciples are “clothed with power from on high” (24:49). This happens when the Holy Spirit is poured out in Acts 2 and the gospel begins to flood out to diverse people groups (Acts 2:5–11). The promise given to Abraham that he would be a blessing to all the families of the earth is finally coming true (Gen. 12:1–3).
Universal Themes in Luke
God’s heart for the poor and needy. An important event in Luke’s Gospel takes place right at the start of Jesus’ ministry. Jesus reads the following statement from Isaiah and identifies himself as this statement’s fulfillment: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor” (Luke 4:18–19; quoting Isa. 61:1–2). Throughout Luke we see the social and cultural reversals that take place as insiders are unconcerned about who Jesus is and what he is doing while outsiders are drawn to and understand Jesus. Time and again, long-held assumptions about Jew and Gentile, rich and poor, educated and ignorant, moral and immoral, are inverted. Luke drives home God’s great love for those who are marginalized.
The danger of money. In Luke’s Gospel Jesus pronounces severe woes on those who love money, yet he blesses those who are poor and therefore recognize their need (Luke 6:20–26; 8:14; 12:13–21; 16:10–13, 19–31; 18:22). Amid the ongoing gap between the upper and lower classes around the globe, as well as a frequently unstable world economy, Christians must pay special heed to Jesus’ teaching on money. Believers with many possessions must constantly examine their hearts to see where their hope and security lies. Above all they must remember the gracious wealth of grace that has been given to them through Christ’s self-giving (2 Cor. 8:9), and respond in joyful gratitude and love.
The Global Message of Luke for Today
The marketplace of ideas is increasingly global, and cross-fertilization of cultures has never taken place so easily. Yet it has never been easier to feel small and insignificant amid the blur of modern activity, today’s media with its big personalities, and the continuing population growth in some parts of the world. Such feelings of insignificance are acutely painful because we are made in God’s image and are hungry to experience the glory we were originally destined for (Gen. 1:26–28; Isa. 43:6–7; Rom. 1:23; 2:7; 3:23).
Luke’s Gospel confronts us, however, with the pervasive reminder that it is precisely to such felt insignificance, such smallness, that God is drawn. He has a great heart for the marginalized. As Mary prayed, “he has brought down the mighty from their thrones and exalted those of humble estate; he has filled the hungry with good things, and the rich he has sent away empty” (Luke 1:52–53). Throughout Luke, Jesus befriends the Samaritans, the poor, the outcasts, the tax collectors, those on the social or cultural periphery.
This is who God is. In Christ, the Friend of sinners, God is attracted to those who feel themselves least attractive. The grace of the gospel qualifies those who feel themselves most unqualified.
As we, his people, receive this grace, we work earnestly to eradicate sickness, destitution, and earthly discomfort. The mercy we have received vertically should extend itself out horizontally in tangible acts of sacrificial love to our neighbors. Above all, however, we must heed Jesus’ parting words, and speak repentance and forgiveness to all nations (Luke 24:47)—thus offering not only earthly comfort but eternal comfort, with Christ himself, in the new earth.
Embedded in the so-called "spiritual gospel" is an architectural hostility toward Judaism.
L. Michael White:
Professor of Classics and Director of the Religious Studies Program University of Texas at Austin
THE SPIRITUAL GOSPEL
John's gospel is different from the other three in the New Testament. That fact has been recognized since the early church itself. Already by the year 200, John's gospel was called the spiritual gospel precisely because it told the story of Jesus in symbolic ways that differ sharply at times from the other three. For example, Jesus dies on a different day in John's gospel than in Matthew, Mark and Luke.... Whereas in the three synoptic gospels, Jesus actually eats a Passover meal before he dies, in John's gospel he doesn't. The last supper is actually eaten before the beginning of Passover. So that the sequence of events leading up to the actual crucifixion are very different for John's gospel. And one has to look at it to say, why is the story so different? How do we account for these differences in terms of the way the story-telling developed? And the answer becomes fairly clear when we realize that Jesus has had the last supper a day before so that he's hanging on the cross during the day of preparation before the beginning of Passover.
So here's the scene in John's gospel: on the day leading up to Passover, and Passover will commence at 6 o'clock with the evening meal, on the day leading up to that Passover meal is the day when all the lambs are slaughtered and everyone goes to the temple to get their lamb for the Passover meal. In Jerusalem this would have meant thousands of lambs being slaughtered all at one time. And in John's gospel, that's the day on which Jesus is crucified. So that quite literally the dramatic scene in John's gospel has Jesus hanging on the cross while the lambs are being slaughtered for Passover. John's gospel is forcing us, dramatically at least, through the storytelling mode, to think of Jesus as a Passover lamb. Jesus doesn't eat a Passover meal, Jesus is the Passover meal, at least within the Christian mind in the way that John tells the story.
The symbolism of John's gospel, while it is probably the most evocative of any in the New Testament, is also provocative. The language of John's gospel is intentionally antagonistic at times toward Jewish tradition and toward Jewish sensitivities. The idea of the Passover of course is very Jewish but John tends to turn some of those ideas in a much sharper way against Jewish tradition. At one point in John 6 Jesus says, "Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood you will have no life in you." But the idea of drinking blood is absolutely abhorrent to Jewish dietary regulations. So the very language and the symbolism that is so rich within John's gospel also has a decidedly political tone to it in terms of the evolving relationship between Jews and Christians. John's gospel is witness to a Christianity that's moving farther and father away from Jewish tradition. And in fact it's seeing Jewish tradition often as actually hostile to the Christian movement.
Allen D. Callahan:
Associate Professor of New Testament, Harvard Divinity School
JOHN'S GOSPEL AND ATTITUDES TOWARDS JERUSALEM
Each of the gospel writers has certain concerns that he must address, certain questions that he must answer, and certain crises that he must negotiate. the fourth gospel, the gospel according to John, Jesus' relation to Jerusalem and the Jerusalem authorities is more of a concern. There are more people in the dramatis personae of John's gospel who hailed from Judea. We encounter some figures there that we don't encounter anywhere else in gospel traditions. Nicodemus, Joseph of Arimathea. These are Jerusalem ite non-priestly elites. One of the things that this suggests is that the sources of the fourth gospel are closer to this social stratum of people and their concerns. Not so, for Matthew, Mark, and Luke. The Galilean traditions are the signal traditions there, and so Jesus' activity in the Galilee and among people in Northern Judea have pride of place....
When we look at the concerns of these differences, the concerns that are suggested or reflected in these differences, one of the ways of explaining differences, is seeing that they're coming from different points and different strata of Palestinian society.
How does that affect the picture [of Jesus] that emerges?
Jesus emerges differently in these portraits. Clearly, those who identify more strongly with Northern Palestinian traditions and concerns and identify with problems that are characteristic of Galilee... are going to depict a Jesus who has more to say about those things. Now, let's say such people who hail from Northern Palestine, have, in so many words, written off the priestly establishment in Jerusalem. They have no "in" with those people. They're alienated from them. They're not going to be concerned with what went on in various strata Judean society, how certain Judean people responded to Jesus, how certain people responded to the Jesus movement. However, in John's gospel, there's some indication that among Jerusalemite elites there was split. There are some non-priestly elite types who sympathize with Jesus.... The priestly establishment, as a whole, are clearly the bad guys. John is very clear about this. But this distinction between the priestly and the non-priestly elites is very interesting. It's a distinction which John is very careful to make, that the synoptic tradition, as a whole, is not very careful to make. That this decision to condemn Jesus and the machinations that were involved to send Jesus to the cross are blamed on a particular sub-set of Jewish leadership. John shows us exactly who's responsible, within the Jerusalemite ruling elite, for Jesus' execution....
What's often said about John's gospel is you can place a beginning of outright hostility between [members of the early Jesus movement] and mainstream Judaism...
Well, I think the distinction that I just described rightly complicates that generalization because it's a dangerous one. Historically, it's proven to be very dangerous. It's not just a misconstrued of the evidence that we have. It's a very tendentious misconstrual.... John's drama is at pains to show that a certain subset of Israelite leadership railroaded Jesus. That's very important for him. Perhaps, as we move farther away from Judea, that picture, or at least the crispness of that picture, is compromised by other concerns. And so I would characterize the synoptic tradition, as perhaps a move away from the center of events, in terms of the juridicial machinations that resulted in Jesus' execution. And that focus is then compromised by other concerns that are mediated through the reporting of Galilean traditions.
Well, this certainly isn't as clear before the war. I see the Jesus movement as yet another option within what we identify as Judaism, that complex of people and institutions and traditions of ancient Israel. So Jesus is a new option at the end of the first century. It's not clear before the war that it's mutually exclusive [from other options]. There are still some kind of conversations going on with other parts of Judaism and those conversations are apparently substantive, even though they're not altogether unproblematic....
Helmut Koester:
John H. Morison Professor of New Testament Studies and Winn Professor of Ecclesiastical History Harvard Divinity School
GOSPEL OF JOHN STANDS APART
The Gospel of John, of course, stands apart from the other three gospels. For one reason, simply because Matthew and Luke use common sources. They both use the Gospel of Mark. They both use the so-called synoptic sayings gospel, and therefore great similarities are evident, particularly the outline of the ministry of Jesus. Now the Gospel of John has some relationships to the sources used by the other gospels.... The passion narrative in John is essentially the same as the passion narrative in Mark, Matthew, Luke and in the Gospel of Peter. The other thing that is common with the other gospels is a chain of miracle stories....
What makes the Gospel of John different is another element. And that's the element of Jesus' discourses and dialogues with the disciples. Now what are those? They are not comparable to collections of sayings of Jesus that we have, for example, in the Sermon on the Mount. They're very different, because the collections of sayings strings those sayings together, with almost never a question of the disciples interfering. It's just a collection. Now what we have in the speeches and dialogues of Jesus in the Gospel of John is not a collection of traditional materials, but is ultimately a reflection on traditional materials. That is, the Gospel of John constructs the speeches of Jesus in an effort to interpret traditional sayings of Jesus.
Essentially all the major speeches of John are developed out of traditional sayings materials. And what is interesting here is that some of these sayings have parallels in the sayings we find in the synoptic gospels. But some of the sayings also have parallels which we now find in the Gospel of Thomas. So John draws on a different set of traditional sayings of Jesus than do the first three gospels of the New Testament.
William Goodwin Aurelio Professor of the Appreciation of Scripture, Boston University
JESUS IN JOHN
Jesus in the Gospel of John is difficult to reconstruct as an historical person, because his character in the gospel is in full voice giving very developed theological soliloquies about himself. It's not the sort of thing that if you try to put in a social context would appeal to a large number of followers. Because it's so much Christian proclamation and Christian imagery, and it's very developed. It's a very developed Christology. Jesus must have had some kind of popular following or else he wouldn't have ended up killed by Rome. If the historical Jesus was saying the sorts of things that John's Jesus said, he probably would have been fairly safe. It would have been very difficult for early first century Jews to have tracked what that Jesus was saying.
Jesus is depicted as having enemies in all the gospels. In John, again, the Pharisees come in for their typical negative role. The chief priests, and the high priests move against Jesus and engineer the ambush in Gethsemane. But there's no trial before the Sanhedrin in John. There's no face-off between the chief priest and Jesus in John the way there is very dramatically in Mark, where there are not one, but two full meetings of the entire priestly court, the night after this incredibly long day of Passover. So, Jesus' enemies are really provided to give a kind of dimension to the plot. But the story of John's Jesus is really the story of this divine figure who comes from above and appears to the world below. And then, as he's hanging on the cross, in a scene that's curiously leeched of pathos and anguish, he says, "It is finished." And that's where the gospel's complete.
Why would the author of John want to have shifted history around and twisted it in order to present Jesus in opposition to Pharisees?
As any parent of a two year old knows, the first two words a child masters when forming its own identity , "Mine" and "No". And I think if we look at the Gospel of John, what we see is a kind of very architectural hostility, shaped inside the story of Jesus. Because this community is developing its own identity vis a vis the synagogue across the street. I mean, in one sense, if we remove the Gospel of John from the Christian canon, if we didn't have it right next to Matthew, Mark, and Luke, and instead, if we put the gospel of John next to the Dead Sea Scroll library, we'd see the sorts of issues that Jews fight about forever. You know, this guy's the Prince of Darkness... this one isn't any good, this is the only right way to do it...this is the sort of dynamic that we get, shaping the way John presents Jesus' life in that particular gospel.
The so-called "spiritual gospel" which presents Jesus as the "Stranger from Heaven," stands apart from the other three.
by Marilyn Mellowes
"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God, and through him were all things made." These words of the opening prologue of the fourth gospel provide a clue to the nature of this work: it stands apart from the three synoptic gospels. It has often been called the "spiritual gospel" because of the way that it portrays Jesus.
If Matthew's Jesus resembles Moses and Luke's Jesus resembles a Greek philosopher or a semi-divine hero, John's Jesus resembles the Jewish ideal of heavenly Wisdom. Some Jewish works written several hundred years before John's gospel portrayed Wisdom as God's heavenly consort. This Wisdom, pictured as a beautiful woman, lived with God and participated in creation. Another part of the myth regarding her was that she descended to earth to impart divine knowledge to human beings. But she was rejected and so returned to God.
Another interesting feature of John's gospel is that Jesus speaks in long monologues, rather than pithy statements or parables. He openly proclaims his divinity and insists that the only way to the Father is through him. Motifs of light and darkness are woven throughout the gospel: these are not simply literary motifs, but devices that give clues about the community for which John was written.
It was a community under stress. The gospel itself suggests that its members were in conflict with the followers of John the Baptist and were undergoing a painful separation from Judaism. The group itself was probably undergoing desertion and internal conflict.
Tradition has credited John, the son of Zebedee and an apostle of Jesus, with the authorship of the fourth gospel. Most scholars dispute this notion; some speculate that the work was actually produced by a group of early Christians somewhat isolated from other early Christian communities. Tradition also places its composition in or near Ephesus, although lower Syria or Lebanon are more likely locations. The most likely time for the completion of this gospel is between 90 and 110 CE.
The opponents of Jesus are "the Jews", who cannot or will not recognize who he is. The author of John deliberately creates a story that may be interpreted on two levels. That is, the story that John tells of Jesus' encounter with the Jews consciously parallels the tensions between John's community and its contemporary Jewish opponents. His community is being expelled from the synagogues, because they believe in Jesus as the Messiah; the Jews in John's gospel simply cannot grasp his true identity. They constantly ask "Where are you from?" and "Where are you going?" Jesus responds by saying where he is going they cannot go; they think that he intends to travel abroad. "Does he intend to go to the Diaspora among the Greeks and teach the Greeks?" In this gospel, the Jews cannot know because they are from the darkness; Jesus and his followers are from the light: "You are from below, I am from above; you are of this cosmos, I am not of this cosmos." (8:23)
These themes of light and dark, knowing and unknowing, converge in the crucifixion of Jesus. John makes a deliberate pun on the Greek word "to be crucified", which also means "to be lifted."
As in the other gospels, the end is not the end. John describes the scene of the empty tomb and Jesus' appearance among the disciples. Thomas still doubts that the figure before him is really Jesus. Jesus instructs him to feel the wound at his side, whereupon Thomas is convinced. Jesus, in a telling reference to those who accept him, says: "Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe."
Just as Jesus addresses his disciples, the author of John addresses his community. And he offers them reassurance: "Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book. But these are written so that you may come to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God and that through believing you may have life in his name." (JN 20:30-31).
Paula Fredriksen has written, "They could thus see themselves as they saw their Savior: alone in the darkness, yet the light of the world."