Monday, April 27, 2009 1:14 AM
From: "Carlos Burman"
Hi once again eiko onoda,
Thank you for your reply.
I'm glad you enjoyed the meeting this afternoon...this same discourse today is being given all over the world in over 230 lands and as you might guess in many more languages.
All this is in fulfillment of many Bible scriptures including Matthew 24:14;28:19,20
and also Zephaniah 3:9.
If you have time,these are scriptures that also identify the true religion from Gods standpoint.
You will have noticed that Brother Shinichi Yamamoto,the speaker of todays discourse,always used the Bible to back up his statements.
No human has the ability to know all things and to have all the answers, otherwise the world we live in would be a better and safer place to live....the Bible contains countless scriptures that describes mankinds imperfect condition.
Thus ,my point is, that a true Christian always uses the authority of the Bible to back up their statements and they do not rely on their own opinion or philosophies which really only complicate matters.
You will notice that although many times i use secular and corrobarative information,I will always either write or quote scriptures from the bible.
The point you mentioned as to the the fact that although all Bible writers were Jewish, this does not mean that the Greek written portion of the scriptures are less important.
2nd Timothy 3:16,17 says "All scripture is Inspired of God and beneficial for teaching,for reproving,for setting things straight, for disciplining in righteousness,that the man of God may be fully competent,completely equipped for every good work"
Since the wisdom of the world is foolishness with God in a complete way for many things and comparitively foolish for others,it makes sense never to trust our own fallen flesh for answers, no matter how wise ,educated or intelligent a person may seem.
In answer to your question as to why there are 4 gospels..i have a feeling you already have a preconcieved idea and merely want to see my own opinion.
However,i will use,aside from fact and statistic,the Bible to answer this question.
In the Hebrew scriptures(or the Tevrat)we are told that when an important matter must be established,there should be more than one witness.
Deuteronomy 19:15 says "...At the mouth of two witnesses or at the mouth of three witnesses the matter should stand good"
Now, the life of Jesus was not just important, the life of Jesus was extremely important.
Hence God provided not 2 witnesses, not even 3 witnesses ..but God provided 4 witnesses.
Thus we can be sure that what is written about Jesus,his sayings and his life are truth.
You might say though:"Suppose these 4 witnesses contradict eachother?"
Well the wonderful thing about these 4 gospels is that although they all write about Jesus life and sayings from different points of view,and to suit different audiences,none of them contradict eachother. The Gospel accounts really do inspire truth.
Yes,these four are parallel accounts ,and yes,they often cover the same incidents, however they are by no means copies of one another.
For instance ,42% of Matthews Gospels is not found in any of the other 3 Gospels.
Mark's Gospel is 7% unique
Luke's Gospel is 59% unique
And finally John's Gospel is 92% new material not found in the other 3 Gospels.
Adding to all this new material is the fact that all 4 men were different people with different occupations and interests.
Luke being a Physicist was interested and knowledgable in medicine and health....Luke, infact, uses over 300 medical terms that no other book in the Bible uses.
For instance, although 3 of the Gospels write about Peter cutting off the ear of the slave of the high priest,only Luke mentions that Jesus healed him (luke 22:51)
Finally, John realizing that he was the last faithful disciple of Jesus alive on earth(about 98CE) in his very last verse of his Gospel says at John 21:25 "There are, infact,many other things also which Jesus did,which, if ever they were written in full detail,i suppose,the world itself could not contain the scrolls written".
Therefore,Jesus had so much to be written about him, that at the very least 4 Gospel writers were absolutely neccessary to record the life of the greatest man who ever lived.
Regards
Carlos
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Date: Sun, 26 Apr 2009 07:26:14 -0700
From:
Subject: Four Gospels
To:
Hello, good evening Br Carlos..
I was unable to attend the meeting regularly for about a year. Today I felt very happy, I met many friends there. In Kingdom Hall, almost all people are Jehovah's Witnesses, while I am not. Yet I am where I'm supposed to be. I feel very happy. I started attending English congregation three years ago.
>Furthermore, 1 corinthians 3:19 says "The wisdom of this world is foolishness with God"...
In today's world we find more and more secular people, but still we have many people who have faith but without accurate knowledge. Jehovah's Witnesses are one of rare exceptions who have faith and accurate knowledge. That's why I like to attend the meeting.
Our wisdom is ignorable in comparison with Almighty God Jehovah, that's why we like to get closer to him through everyday Bible study.
>Infact it is only from the time of Israel having been chosen as Gods people in the book of EXODUS to the book of MALACHI that its written mainly for the Jewish nation.
From MATTHEW to REVELATION in our Bibles..this is for any people regardless of race ..it is for those to examine the truth and choose whether they too want to become followers of Jesus.
Greek Scriptures consist of mainly four parts, that is Gospels, Acts, Letters, Revelations.
Gospels describe the life of Jesus four times. Acts describes Paul's journeys, almost all letters were thought to be written by Paul, and Revelations are full of metaphoric scenes.
All are written in fifty or sixty years time. In comparison with the very lengthy time Hebrew Scriptures were written, both the portion and period are significantly small and short.
Hebrew Scriptures were written in State sponsorship, while Greek Scriptures were actually a work done by each individuals. What I mean is Christianity was probably a new religion started by Johns the Baptizer. At that time it had been quite a long since Jewish people lost their independence. They had needed a new religion.
I don't disagree with you as to this point - Greek Scriptures were not only for Jewish people, but Gentile, too. But I mean all writers must be Jewish.
>Their health was perfect ,their food was perfect, they were both perfect in everyway.
yet they sinned or missed the mark.
Here lies an eternal riddle -why perfect humans made a mistake.
The answer is Jehovah gave humans both freedom to do good as well as freedom to do evil.
Some say humans were made with free will. Therefore humans are perfect.
We can choose good or bad freely. Only mistake we made was we chose to do evil. But it's not a sign of imperfection. If we can only do evil or do good, we must be imperfect.
What I mean here is we'd better affirm human nature more positively. I feel very pessimistic when they say humans are imperfect.
Thank, Br Carlos..my query this time is why the life of Jesus was written four times by different authors.
See you soon,
With Christian Agape,
mer
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