tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15860677.post752722234439074224..comments2024-03-25T14:27:40.121-05:00Comments on Heart, Mind, Soul, and Strength: Why believe the gospels?Weekend Fisherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10425001168670801073noreply@blogger.comBlogger8125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15860677.post-90709124020032673142009-04-10T10:40:00.000-05:002009-04-10T10:40:00.000-05:00Hi Martin - I think God did preserve the Gospels ....Hi Martin - I think God did preserve the Gospels ... but he seems to like to keep his treasures in jars of clay. I think he gave his people the gift of being that means of preservation. <BR/><BR/>---<BR/><BR/>Hey, Bruce, good to see you again -- definitely on the community. Reading Acts carefully, it looks as though Luke was also there, had taken communion with people who had been at the original Last Supper ... It's impossible, reading the gospels and acts and epistles, to miss that they were a very close-knit group. <BR/><BR/>-------<BR/><BR/>Take care & God bless<BR/>Anne / WFWeekend Fisherhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10425001168670801073noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15860677.post-59728206999846758282009-04-10T00:13:00.000-05:002009-04-10T00:13:00.000-05:00Good post. Although WWII was a big deal for those ...Good post. Although WWII was a big deal for those who fought it, Jesus' life was a much bigger deal for his early followers. Even before the gospels were written, Christians were gathering on Sunday mornings to worship him. So the stories about Jesus would have not just been remembered by those who were there, but would have been familiar to others who had heard them repeated week after week over the course of many years.<BR/><BR/>So it's not just an individual's memory at work, but the memory of a whole community.BruceAhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16013588487417582411noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15860677.post-74710737290084087982009-04-09T19:40:00.000-05:002009-04-09T19:40:00.000-05:00Thanks for your musings.Whether inerrant or not (a...Thanks for your musings.<BR/><BR/>Whether inerrant or not (and one should define that term before getting into an argument over it) I believe that God preserved the Gospels, and allowed them to be translated, for us to read, and for people of the future to read, too.Martin LaBarhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14629053725732957599noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15860677.post-65247106075625084682009-04-08T22:40:00.000-05:002009-04-08T22:40:00.000-05:00You can't worry too much about the detractors....You can't worry too much about the detractors. Here it is, Holy Week, time for the annual anti-Christian anti-Resurrection pageant in the "mainstream" press. And you know what, here we are nearly 2000 years later, and still 100% of the historical witness we have from contemporaries on the subject is in unanimous agreement about the resurrection. Why do they spend all their time trying to poke holes in the Christian testimony? 'Cause they have none of their own ... <BR/><BR/>I think "inerrancy" is not necessarily a good claim; I'm not sure the authors would have claimed it about their own writings. But if the authors were merely basically honest and basically sane people, then we have before us the record of the most amazing thing to happen in the history of the world. <BR/><BR/>Which drives people crazy, who would rather have uncertainty. ;)<BR/><BR/>Take care & God bless<BR/>Anne / WFWeekend Fisherhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10425001168670801073noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15860677.post-69213160608281451612009-04-08T18:20:00.000-05:002009-04-08T18:20:00.000-05:00I think something to keep in mind is that even the...I think something to keep in mind is that even the early Christians knew of some slight differences. From what I recall, Church Tradition holds that Mark <I>didn't</I> write his gospel in chronological order. Other differences are more complimentary than anything else. For example, Matthew says both thieves mocked Jesus, while Luke says one repented. The Church Fathers teach that in the beginning both thieves did mock Jesus, but the Wise Thief, realizing what was going on, repented.<BR/><BR/>I think, however, we must remember that there is no huge contradiction between the gospels that completely destroys Christian theology. The fact that in one gospel Jesus may have healed two men whereas in another He healed one does not change the fact Jesus healed a man, had the power the heal, and had the power from His Divinity. Otherwise, Muslims, atheists and other detractors would truly have a valid case.Tonyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04232209481041145155noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15860677.post-14623294130648206972009-04-08T17:19:00.000-05:002009-04-08T17:19:00.000-05:00Hi Tony-Allen - good to hear from you. Thank you f...Hi Tony-Allen - good to hear from you. Thank you for the encouragement. <BR/><BR/>---<BR/><BR/>Hi Jennie - I'm not shy about talking about the differences between the Gospels. But I'm not sure what you had in mind. I'll mention a couple of things I've looked at from time to time. <BR/><BR/>I think I was still in grade school when I noticed the genealogies didn't match from Matthew to Luke. It was many years later that I found that *way* back in the early church, people had noticed the very same thing and had asked around, and at that time some of Jesus' blood relatives were still handy to field the question. Turns out there was a Levirate marriage or two involved (the old provision in Jewish law where someone's line would never die out even if they had no son, where the guy dies but leaves no son so his widow has to marry his nearest male relative and their firstborn son is legally reckoned the son of the guy who died). <BR/><BR/>Then once I met this supposedly "ultimate atheist challenge" about the resurrection and how it was "just impossible" to build a coherent narrative with all the applicable verses. So, being who I am, I had to try. And it only took a couple of hours. Considering the volume of material (from 4 gospels, a section early in Acts, a section in I Corinthians), that's really not bad time. <BR/><BR/>Meantime, if you ask me whether Jesus cleared the Temple way early in his ministry (GJohn) or just a few days before the crucifixion (the other gospels) or both, I have no idea. And I wouldn't even say "it doesn't matter" (what, do we pick what matters by whether we know the answer? a little too convenient for me). But I would say I don't lose any sleep over it. If it were one of those "tier 1 importance" things (like: "Did Jesus rise from the dead or not") and we had a contradiction, that would be a deal-breaker for me. <BR/><BR/>But I'm rambling & don't even know if I'm noticing the same kinds of things you are. <BR/><BR/>Feel free to vent, I promise I don't look funny at people with honest questions. <BR/><BR/>Take care & God bless<BR/>Anne / WFWeekend Fisherhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10425001168670801073noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15860677.post-57366365042981950272009-04-08T16:27:00.000-05:002009-04-08T16:27:00.000-05:00I appreciate your perspective on the Gospels in te...I appreciate your perspective on the Gospels in terms of their historical distance from Jesus. But I still struggle with the differences (or perhaps the "apparent" differences) between the Gospels. How do we determine the "real" story, or does that question not ultimately matter?Jenniehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18123827340391563837noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15860677.post-19328108625098144662009-04-08T15:36:00.000-05:002009-04-08T15:36:00.000-05:00I share some of the same sentiments with you. Peop...I share some of the same sentiments with you. People quickly forget that when Paul wrote "scriptures" he was referring to the Old Testament and Jewish scripture in general, not his own writings. They also forget when John gave his warning at the end of Revelation it was a common practice for writers at the time, not a warning about a book that didn't exist at the time.Tonyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04232209481041145155noreply@blogger.com