Jesus Creed "Response Paper"

In chapters four through eight of Jacobsen and Sawatsky’s book, Gracious Christianity, there is an in depth analyses of the Holy Spirit, the church, the Bible, and the future. There was so much information that I read over, so I took a concept from each chapter that I found significant and analyzed it. There are many fantastic points made that really got me thinking about the life around me and how I am executing my own life.

In the book Simply Jesus, N.T. Wright makes three different claims throughout. N.T. Wright's first claim is about the “perfect storm”. The “perfect storm” takes up a large section of the first few chapters, and in those chapters N.T. Wright writes about that to enter the “perfect storm” you must step out of your own storm that is happening in your life, you must jump back into the “perfect storm” just as Jesus did in his own life. N.T. Wright fails to fully support the idea of the “perfect storm” throughout the book. Wright writes about the two myths that create the “storms”, the first is “… the high-pressure system of conservative Christianity” and the second is “... the new classic modernist myth…”. N.T. Wright loses his credibility to his claims by never giving evidence that disproves they myths. N.T. Wright states that the stories in the bible “...’really did happen’. And there the matter ends…. Facts or no facts”. N.T. Wrights claims are never fully

Q is short for “quelle” and means “source.” The concept behind Q is to reconstruct the original sayings of Jesus. Many quotes of Jesus found in the Bible may very well have been embellished or forged. So it is of interest to some to endeavor to find the original or lost sayings of Jesus. This can be achieved by searching through the Gospels, comparing and contrasting their contents until a common thread is found, which might better reveal Jesus' true words. Thus, the quelle, or source, of Jesus' sayings is found. “The Lost Gospel Q: The Original Sayings of Jesus”, written by Marcus Borg, is an effort by the author to deliver the purest messages and statements from Jesus to the readers. To achieve this objective, Borg presents the literature in a completely unadulterated fashion. These sayings have been removed from any context or purpose and are presented to the reader in a manner that provokes thought and reflection. Each of the Q sayings of Jesus are presented alone on a page, with an occasional footnote providing some explanations or interesting background information relating to the saying. A cross reference is also provided at the back of the book, making it easy to cross reference the Q with the parallel scriptures in the Gospels of Matthew and Luke. This

One critique to the Jesus Seminar was the motives behind their work. The media often portrayed the group to be comprised mostly of former Christians, attacking hardest on the group’s leader Robert Funk and cochair John Crossan. Critics went as far to describe their meetings as having “the air of a village atheists’ convention” (Powell, 110). Such an allegation gave rise to the popular belief that the motives of the scholars were to get revenge on institutionalized religion for not being accepting to them. I believe the media was too quick to judge the motives of the scholars by attacking their backgrounds. Just because their work was controversial doesn’t mean it was subjective with underlying personal vendettas. It seems unlikely that a group

The Old Testament of the Holy Bible gives many examples which provide modern man with guidelines for the use of scientific method. Millam (2008) explains that there is an underlying order in nature demonstrated by the patterns and regularities of God’s creations. These regularities can be seen in the forces of nature and are stable throughout space and time (Millam, 2008). The original classification of species, use of precise measurement, and even the first account of scientific research, are all included in the Old Testament of the Holy Scriptures. God gives scientists some clear frames of reference for seeking knowledge and truth in science.

Matthew’s Gospel has been understood as Jewish-Christian in outlook. Matthew had a number of purposes for writing the Gospel. One was “to instruct and exhort members of his community.” He has two broad categories of material: narrative and discourse. Many scholars conclude “Matthew’s primary intent was to write a handbook for church leaders to assist them in preaching, teaching, worship, mission, and polemic.” In his Gospel, Matthew focused clearly on

If I were to sum up what I have learned from this course it would be focused on Faith and a new understanding of the Bible. Faith is not just part of religion but every aspect of our everyday lives, and is fascinatingly carried through the Bible from the beginning to the end. It began with the Creation, and continued throughout the Fall, Redemption, and Consummation of Christ. It is the foundation of the Christian perspective and what leads God’s people to salvation and good works. Our modern world is so corrosive to faith that Jesus Christ asked, "When the Son of Man comes, will He really find faith on the earth?" (Luke 18:8). He is there to give his people the gift of faith and to help them to grow in living faith that will last forever.

To have a view, or way of thinking, about something, you must first have a combination of information and experiences. To have a worldview, you put together these pieces of information and experiences, and add on to it education, culture, personal background, and in some cases, religion. A Christian Worldview, or any worldview at that, is made of both positive and negative experiences: achievements, disappointments, celebrations, struggles, and grief.

The scientific method is a tool that enables a person to seek out new knowledge, or correct and integrate new knowledge. It is composed of eight individual steps: which start out with defining a question, gathering information and resources, form an explanatory hypothesis, test the hypothesis by performing an experiment and collecting data in a reproducible manner, analyze the data, interpret the data and draw conclusions that serve as a starting point for new hypothesis, publish results, and ends with a retest. The steps can be grouped into four different essential elements: operation, observation, model, and utility function.

Divinity is the very character of God. Therefore, Jesus’ divinity is made known repeatedly throughout the New Testament. In the very first words of the Gospel of Mark 1:1, Mark writes “The beginning of the good news of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.” It establishes him as the manifestation of God in human form. Then later in Mark 1:14, scripture says that the time had come for worldwide repentance because the “Kingdom of God” was coming soon. Jesus is not who they imagined; the people of Israel were expecting a king who would establish an earthly kingdom and rescue them from the oppression of the Roman Empire. The Jewish community did not understand nor did it resonate that God’s deliverance would be for all people (108-109).

Today, as I attend school with the major heading as “Missions,” I hear a lot of talk about different methods in creating disciples. However, “Paul’s modus operandi for training was time on task” (pp. 59). In other words, disciples were made through time spent rather than strictly content. It sounds like relationship was a key aspect. Paul also focused on transferring these converts into true believers. It seems a lot in churches today, individuals are more focused on content rather than time. Therefore, they spend more time in the church “learning” than spending time with those that need “discipled.” With that, people in the church tend to “convert” others or brag about increased attendance, but have no plan to turn these individuals into true believers.

Jesus made conscious efforts to create change within Judaism while staying within certain boundaries and upholding many Jewish values, which aligns his actions with those of a reformer. In the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus said, “Do not think I have come to abolish the law or the prophets; I have come not to abolish but to fulfill” (Matt. 5:17). Jesus

It's so awesome to actually have a conversation with you. I've been doing some traveling myself, and like you, when I have old friends from Winthrop reach out to tell me thank you for praying for them or how they miss me taking them to church, it's really a blessing to hear.

The ministry of Jesus began when Jesus was 30 years old, after his baptism in the river Jordan. Within three and a half years of his ministry Jesus did more miracles than any man in the world could have accomplished. He preached about the ways of changing lives and often gave parables to educate people. Even though he was rejected Jesus continued to spread the gospel in different cities around Israel, including Capernaum and Bethsaida.

Christian Tradition course exposed me to the Christian Tradition based on Biblical and church history. The course taught me the differences and similarities of Christian Tradition from other major world religions. I learned about the significance of God, Jesus, the Holy Spirit and the Trinity based on the teachings of the Bible. The course also briefly covered 2,000 years of church history but with emphasis on the impact of the Council of Nicea, Council of Chalcedon, and John and Charles Wesley on Christianity. The professor emphasized the importance of the reformation that sparked a revolution in the church.