...Oliver Metzler GLST 220-D02 “Gospel Presentation” December 13, 2015 Background Information The person whom I intend to share the Gospel with is my friend Drew Harmatz. We have been friends now for over three years and over that time grown to be really good friends. Even though we are good friends we do not share the same beliefs. Drew is Jewish and has chosen to stick with his birth religion because he likes the Jewish moral compass. Basically, he has expressed that he feels the Jewish culture is more peaceful and presents a better moral basis than that of any other religion. While we have talk of God, Christ, and the Bible; I have never tried to relay the Gospel to him. Elements of Communication There are a couple key points I must understand when trying to communicate the Gospel to Drew. The first thing I should do is try and relate to him as Paul did. Paul stated in 1 Corinthians 9:20 that in order to win over the Jews he must become a Jew. Jews and Christian both hold the Old testament as truth and I should start with trying to embark on common ground. The written Torah that Jews reads are actually the first 5 books of the Bible. This is a great way to relate and attempt to break down the walls. Using common ground is one way, another would be to relate the Jewish and Christian moral compass to him. Drew relates the moral compass of Christians to the history that has been documented and not to what the scripture writes. In order to do this, I would need to...
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...1. What are some ways the Christian gospel is perceived in our culture? There are several different views and beliefs of the Christian gospel. Some include: the Bible is a nice story but is just that a story; if I just say a Salvation prayer I am saved; if I treat others well and do good deeds I will get into Heaven; and, the Bible was written so long ago that it is not really relevant in today’s time; to just name a few. The Christian view of the gospel is one of good news. The gospel, in the Bible tells us that God loved us as sinners so much, He sent His only Son to pay the price for our sinful nature by dying on the cross. By understanding, and believing in our minds, our bodies (heart), and our souls that: we are sinners; that God sent His Son to die for our sins; that Jesus died, was buried, and rose from the dead; that the only way to God is through Jesus Christ; and by believing these things in our hearts and professing it with our mouths, we are saved. 2. What are some specific moral reasons people may reject the Christian gospel? One moral reason someone might reject the Christian gospel is that of greed. More and more today’s generation seems to be one of greed. The “me” generation; the “g” for greed generation; the “feel-good” generation; these generation examples seem to want whatever they desire and want to have it now, simply because it makes them feel good. This generation is full of people who have a selfish view of the world and what it can offer...
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...Answer The synoptic gospels, Matthew, Mark and Luke, are so named because they are in substantial agreement on the life of Jesus. Mark's Gospel was the original gospel, and is believed to have been written around 70 CE. Whenever Matthew and Luke copy material from Mark's Gospel, they do so with remarkable consistency, even to the use of words in the original Greek language. John's Gospel, although influenced by Mark's Gospel, is further removed, with its principal source being Luke's Gospel. It is believed that John's Gospel was originally much more Gnostic, but that after the split in the Johannine community, the Gospel was reworked to remove much of its Gnostic flavour. Whereas the synoptic gospels say that Jesus, although the Son of God, was not truly divine, John's Gospel makes it quite clear that he was considered to be both God and pre-existing. Much of the material in John is unique to this Gospel, although passages in John can be seen to be adaptations of similar material in Luke. For example, the post-resurrection appearance of Jesus, in which he tells the disciples to cast their nets on the other side and thus they catch a multitude of fish, is unique to John. However, a very similar episode occurs in Luke before the crucifixion and resurrection. In the synoptic gospels, particularly in Mark, Jesus is at pains to keep his true identity secret. He does not 'cleanse' the Temple until towards the end of his mission, and this violent action is the trigger...
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...century the Christian gospel is perceived to be a thing of the past, that was then, this is now, philosophy, and it’s all about me attitude and what I can gain. Some perceive the Bible as just a good story, and nothing else. Most hope by living a good life, never doing anything they think is wrong, that they are going to Heaven. Some have this attitude of Why would a loving God send me to hell? They do not understand that being a Christian we have to live a separated life and the only way to Heaven is through Jesus Christ and that nothing we do outside of Christ will get us to Heaven. The gospel can be morally rejected because of a person’s worldview what they perceive to be right or wrong. First people must see themselves as being lost; before they can see a need for a Savior. No one wants to be judged for what they may believe is right, not understanding that God is our only judge and that it is by his standards that we are judged by not man’s. Some emotionally reject the gospel when they see a loved one suffering, or when one has lost a loved one. This causes a person to hardened their heart from ever hearing the gospel and knowing the true meaning of the word love and how God so loved us all that he sent his son to die on that cruel cross for our sins. The Christian gospel is rejected intellectually because of a person’s perspective of the Bible. Is the Bible believable? In a society that feeds off of power, fortune and fame the gospel of Jesus Christ sounds...
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...Religion Assessment The Gospels were made for the New Testament and were stories told in a way to bring forth a certain image of jesus for a certain audience. There were four gospels that were written by four different men known as Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. The Gospel of Luke is the third and longest of the four canonical Gospels. Luke's gospel is known for his writing and it’s universalism and how the good news is preached to all people of every age. Universalism means the world will eventually be saved meaning that after all the wars and the sins that happen every single day on this earth one day there will be peace upon our land. If the world comes together and stops the bad and the hatred towards each other and we all become faithful to our God then the world will be peaceful again. The Parable of the Good Samaritan, Jesus Heals a Centurion’s Servant and Jesus Raises the Widow’s Son at Nain are great examples as Luke includes the universalism in its scripture passages. The first scripture passage is “The Parable of the Good Samaritan” (Luke 10:25-37). It’s a story according to the Gospel of Luke about a traveler that is stripped of clothing, beaten and left half dead along the road. Firstly a priest and a Levite come along but ignore the traveler but then along came a Samaritan that helps the injured man and takes care of him. Jesus relates as explaining the parable in response to a question concerning the name/identity of the ‘neighbour’ which Leviticus 19:18 says...
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...The 4 Gospels written by Matthew, Mark, Luke and John collaborate to present Jesus. An in-depth look that reviews structures, themes, authors, settings, and dates, are ways to shape each Gospels contribution to the portrait of Jesus. By doing so, this pin points how they are similar and different from each other. What some referred to as, “memoirs of the apostles”, are not considered to be a biography of Christ; rather, the same information arranged and written as their individual interpretation to present the portrait of Christ that they choose to show . Out of The four Gospel writers Luke's interpretation is fascinating for many reasons. Luke had so much to tell, so he needed a second book, The Acts of the Apostles that is considered to be...
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...Church fills their souls with songs of redeeming love and those who feel that something is lacking?” Many testify regardless of: poverty or prosperity find: great meaning, peace, joy through: commitment, dedicated service As I read over this I could no help but make this a connection with my family My family means so much to me because: love, sacrifice, time, hard times, good times, Uchtdorf goes on to ponder why it is that the gospel seems to work better for some than others. He poses two ideas: First: Are we making our discipleship too complicated? SIMPLIFY Gospel is so simple and beautiful even a child can grasp it A Baby knows love and trust That is the gospel LOVE. TRUST Profound and complex that it will take an eternity to understand it Isn’t that beautiful? How boring eternity would be if we spent all of time never having anything to learn or gain. Pres Uchtdorf goes on to tell us that living the gospel doesn’t need to be complicated. He then gave 5 points that describe how simple living the gospel should be: Hearing the word of God with earnest intent leads us to believe in God and to trust His promises.3 Simply be here at church when we are here, not thinking about what is going on at work, or about a big test that we have coming up. The more we trust God, the more our hearts are filled with love for Him and for each other. Because of our love for God, we desire to follow Him and bring our actions in alignment with His word. ...
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...In many ways the Gospel of John remains a mystery—it hints at who its author is and yet never explicitly tells us. The story seems simple and straightforward, and yet one feels as though the author is often hinting at still deeper truths. In the New Testament it stands alone, distanced from the Synoptics by its unique presentation of the Christ-event. Of the four gospels, John is by far the most poetically written and the most distinct in terms of style, narrative and approach. While there are varying theories about who wrote it and when, it can be agreed on that the Gospel of John was written for not only a very different audience than the synoptic gospels, but also written independently of them. This can be seen in the basic language that it is written in, and can also be seen because there is no mention anywhere of the parables, Jesus' primary teaching method according to the synoptic gospels. Instead, John makes use of miracles and uses examples from Jesus' ministry to demonstrate his power and divinity. He uses his power over nature to raise people from the dead, heal a blind man and feed 5000 people with the physical amount of food for only a few. The gospel narrative contains a series of "signs"--the gospel's word for the wondrous deeds of Jesus. The author is primarily interested in the significance of these deeds, and so interprets them for the reader by various reflections, narratives, and discourses. The first sign is the transformation of water into wine...
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...The Last Gospel Last week we were able to witness a deeper and more expound explanation of the history related to Jesus. It was a video executed by BBC entitled “The Last Gospel”. It was a really long video but it had really interesting insights into it. It was explained in the documentary that there is more to the theological aspect of life in the history other than what we know and what had been taught to us. Ever since I was a child, teachers and parents would tell and advise us to read the bible as it would strengthen our faith in the Lord, but unfortunately, no matter how we read the bible, we never knew of the true meaning embedded in the essence of the texts that we are ignorantly scanning through. I had the same impression and understanding of the bible until I took the Tredtri class. I believe that through this Tredri class is where I was able to develop my maturity and proper mindset on how to treat the bible. I guess there’s just so much to learn about the bible than what is outside the premises of the usual definition of it. The film was able to trigger the viewer’s curiosity, so much, that it grabbed fully the attention of everybody. It talked about the gospels of Thomas, Philippe, Peter and Mary Magdalene. This video talks about the nature of life itself. There were also insights that it was not peter that was supposed to be the first pope but rather should be Mary Magdalene. There were actually countless of books that were not considered or were not...
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...Reflection Paper – The Lost Gospels Having watched the documentary “The Lost Gospels” presented by Anglican priest Peter Owen Jones have certainly caught my interest and brought me to analyzing certain possibilities in relation to the composition of our Bible. The documentary basically questions the reason why many Christian texts, that could possibly be included in the New Testament, have not made their way to our Bible. The succeeding paragraphs would tackle these different “lost gospels”, their stories and basically how I think of their content and how I think they would affect our religion today if they were included in the Bible. The first lost gospel discussed can be found in Egypt, which is known to many Egyptians as the gospel of Thomas. It was said that this gospel has the possibility to even be the first ever manuscript that was written about Jesus and it was something that is even widely read. Most of the lines read by an expert were mostly mysterious. The first line of the gospel mainly states that whoever finds the correct interpretations of the secret saying in the Bible will never die or will have eternal life. In my opinion, this is a very strong statement since we all believe that all of us are entitled to an eternal life through our strong faith in God. I think this line brings so much confusion to everyone of us and I personally don’t believe in it. Also, there is this other line that says that women are not worthy of life and Jesus will lead the women...
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...Theology of the Four Gospels The first three gospels are sometimes called the 'synoptic' or same view gospels. This is because they each cover teaching and miracles by Jesus that are also covered in another account. The fourth gospel, John, writing later, recounts Jesus' other words and miracles that have a particular spiritual meaning. All four gospels present Jesus as both the Son of God and son of man. In this paper information will be provided that describes the major theological differences between the synoptic gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke. Information will also be provided that describes a theological perspective of the gospel of John. Finally, information in this paper will include how ones understanding of the various theological perspectives presented in the four Gospels can be used as an additional tool to facilitate the proclaiming of the Four Gospels. Theological Differences between the Synoptic Gospels and the Gospel of John The Gospel According to Matthew The first three books of the New Testament have been identified as the synoptic gospels. These books are Matthew, Mark, and Luke. The first book of the New Testament is identified as the book of Matthew. Matthew was one of the first twelve disciples of Jesus, as recorded in Matthew 9:1; 10:1-4 and therefore an eye-witness. Matthew records more of Jesus' teaching concerning God's heavenly kingdom than the other writers, Mark, Luke, or John. In the first four books of Matthew, the miracle story of Jesus’...
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...Nik Reasor Reli 217H Gospel of Thomas The “Gospel of Thomas”, written sometime before 200, is considered to be one of the most confusing religious texts when it comes to Christianity. Containing only vague, out of context sayings of Jesus, with the prologue proclaiming that “Whoever finds the meaning of these sayings will not taste death” (Layton, 380). While these texts mainly prescribe to traditional Christian doctrine and parables, there is also a significant amount of fundamental gnostic beliefs. The first hint for Gnosticism comes in parable 13, where Thomas decrees that he knows what Jesus is, but he cannot tell the other disciples for fear that they “will take up stones and stone me” (Layton, 382). This is reminiscent of the Gospel...
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...The Gospel of Mark tells the story of Jesus Christ’s life. It does not start from his birth but rather his adult life till his death. Throughout this Gospel, many themes are prevalent. However, the dominant theme that runs throughout Mark’s accounts is the theme of possibility. Starting off in chapter one of Mark, this theme of possibility already becomes apparent. Mark starts off by telling us about John, who is a Baptist who claims “One mightier than I is coming after me. I am not worthy to stoop and loosen the thongs of his sandals Mark 1:7.” This quote presents the possibility of anyone, because at this point we do not know who, coming and preaching the message of God. We are not sure whom this mighty and great person is going to be at...
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...are learning about Christ’s life often hear the word “gospel” and do not know what it means. With some quick research one can learn that the word gospel comes form the Greek work euangelion, which means good news. But that does not solve what exactly is the good news is. One will also learn that there can be a distorted gospel or more than one gospel according to Galatians chapter one, verses six through nine, and he or she can be confused as to what the gospel really is and unsure if what he or she is reading is true. It says, “...not that there is another one, but there are some who trouble you and want to distort the gospel of Christ…If anyone is preaching you a gospel contrary to the one you received, let him...
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...Gospel Essentials Introduction As a Christian it stands very important to understand the main basis of the faith that guides your life. One’s life is guided every day by the beliefs in God and His Son Jesus Christ. Christians believe that faith in Jesus is the only way to heaven. It is this faith in Jesus that guides every Christian’s life. With the faith in Jesus Christ Christians also strive towards being like Him. If Christians do not understand the gospel essentials of their philosophies they will not be prepared for the questions and tests of the world. God: What is God like? God is loving and supreme. He created everyone and everything in His divine plan. Since God exists as the creator of all things He loves all things like a father...
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