KennethBow's Blog

The Gospel of John

The Apostle John

John was Jesus’ first cousin and His best friend for 3 ½ years.  Jesus’ mother and John’s mother were sisters.  No man on earth knew the story of Jesus better than John.  His gospel is a magnificent treatise to the life of Christ and it’s impact on planet earth.

His gospel is different than the others.  Very different! It is written like John is sitting under a shade tree with his feet propped up, just daydreaming about the life of Jesus.  He only selects vignettes, short insights or events, from 20 days in the life of Christ.

John uses the simplest words, and a small vocabulary to plunge us into the deepest mysteries of God.  John uses the vocabulary of a six year old child.  A child learns about 100 words a year and John uses about 600 words in his writing.

The words John selects are powerful words.  He uses words like world, father, light, and truth. He uses the simplest words to paint a profound God and His plan.

Matthew writes to the Jew, so he begins his gospel at the lineage of Abraham.  Luke writes to the gentile Roman world, so his lineage begins at Adam.  John writes to the church, so he reaches all the way back to eternity.  He begins with, “In the beginning”.

.John reaches back to the inky blackness of eternity, before there was the brush of an angel’s wing.  He reaches back before there was the first blazing shaft of light that shattered the darkness.  When there was nothing but God.  In the beginning was the logos, the word, the thought, the intent.  And the logos was God.

John does not cover the same material as the other three gospels do.  The only miracle he repeats is the feeding of the 5000.  He writes to the church about 50 years after the other writers.  The church was facing many challenges.

When John wrote, there were those who said Jesus never really existed.  There were others saying Jesus was not a human, but rather a phantom.  Other views at that time proclaimed Jesus did exist but he was just a man with divinity projected upon him by his disciples.  It was into this morass that John wrote his gospel.

John writes of no parables, and uses 7 signs to build his story of Jesus.  He explains things like no other writer.  When he tells a miracle, he often explains why he used that miracle.  An example would be the feeding of the 5000.  He tells us Jesus is the bread of life.  The other three writers did not explain the connection for us.  When Jesus heals the blind man, John explains Jesus is the light of the world.  It is his explanations that give his gospel an added dimension.

He also includes things of immense importance.  Consider how important John chapter three is to the doctrine of the new birth.  The story of Nicodemas is the bedrock of salvation.  Ye must be born again.  That one inclusion validates the day of Pentecost and the doctrine of the New Testament church.  Chapter by chapter, John gives the church a gospel for the ages.  He delivers the most profound insight into Jesus the man, of any writer of history.

2/3 of John’s book is about the last week of Jesus’ life.  Fully 1/3 of his book is about the last 24 hours of Jesus’ earthly life.  After 60 years, the need was for a complete record of the importance of calvary.  A whole generation had arrived that were not eye witnesses to the events of Jesus’ death.  Someone needed to write it down and John succeeded as Heaven’s emissary.

We have the gospel of John and it is indeed  magnificent!

Thanks for reading today!

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The reason “Reason” is the reason!

There are so many questions today.  Where is America headed?  What is our future? What is the cause of America’s current direction?

Then there is the church.  Where is the church headed? What is the future of the Apostolic movement? What is the cause of the church’s current direction?

Will Durant wrote a series of books over a period of fifty years.  He wrote a volume every five years.  The set is called the Story of Civilization.  The series begins with “Our Oriental Heritage”, and continues through “The Age Of Napoleon.”

This series is what put the publishing house Simon and Schuster on the playing field as one of the major publishing houses in America.  One of the volumes of this series of books is “The Age OF Reason Begins.”  It is the story of the struggle of faith verses reason.

In the big picture of the last three hundred years this seems to me the root cause of this world’s drift and problems, as well as the church’s drift and problems.

It seems to me we deal with a closer view and say things like television, or worldliness, or carnality is the cause of the current drift of the church.  I readily admit these are the visible manifestations of the problem, but I am suggesting the cause is deeper and more long standing.  I am suggesting it has been the undercurrent of the Prince of this world for hundreds of years.

One of the proponents of Reason was the philosopher Descartes.  It was his writings and contributions that played a monumental role in Reason attacking faith.  He began to put forth the idea that free will was mans destiny, not blind faith.  “It is Descartes….who gave us a new method of reasoning, much more admirable than his philosophy” (Will Durant), The Age Of Reason Begins, page 645.

Reason stood up, introduced itself, and stepped to the center of the stage.  It is my opinion it has never sat down.

Reason has produced its many children.  Children like evolution, and abortion are easily identified.  Reason has also had some children that have been bene vixit qui bene latuit, (he has lived well who has hidden well).

These are the children that are hard to see and identify.  Hence these children are not removed for our lives, but remain and consequently grow stronger every generation.

These children of reason hide and hence they live well.  For the last three hundred years men have began to question everything.  They have questioned the universe, this world, laws, but most all authority!  These hidden children of reason gave birth to many movements that continued to have children, then grandchildren, to the present day.

Some of this reason was justified because of the excess of the Catholic Church.  Things were done in the name of God like the selling of indulgences, or the worship of Mary.  The advocates of reason seized these and held them up for the world to see and placed all faith in the same light.  So reason claimed superiority.

The battle of reason against faith continues today bene vixit qui bene latuit.  Yes we see the obvious.  We see the destruction that Hollywood brings, the emergent preachers and their liberal views.  Satan loves his hidden long-range plans of reaching the day where everything is questioned.

Satan longs for the day when every single child of God will question every thing possible.  Satan wants all of us born again believers to question every standard, every value preached across the pulpit.  It is the long-range plan of Satan to cause reason to triumph.

Faith and reason cannot co-exist!  There are simply things God expects us to accept by faith.  God created this world.  That is what faith says.  Reason says evolution is an option.

Faith says there are absolutes in life.  Reason says question homosexuality as right for some people.

Faith says give God ten percent.  Reason says share the wealth with those who do not work.

Faith says ye must be born again.  Reason says all good intentioned people will go to heaven.

Faith says there is a heaven and a hell.  Reason says that went out with the dark ages.

Faith says your gender is how you were born.  Reason says your sex is determined by your choice.

All of these are reasons why “reason” is the reason!

Reason is the reason that the world is out of control and the church is headed for apostacy!

“But without faith it is impossible to please God”

Thanks for reading today!

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