Thursday, April 1, 2010

Why Four Gospels?

I sat down at my antique writing table this afternoon while I waited for the chocolate fudge muffins I made for my daughter for a school event to bake. That is after I already made a breakfast casserole for my son for school this morning. I am working from home today because of the cooking and because I'm in a significant amount of pain and hope to get into the chiropractor this afternoon. But, the point of this blog is not this meaninglessness but the question: Why Four Gospels?

I happened to flip my Bible open to the section between the testaments this afternoon and found this question. I could type Charles Ryrie's answer right here and give you a scholarly answer to that question. But, I've been thinking about it a little bit. As one of my seminary professors used to say, the Bible has both Divine and human authors. The Bible, every single word of it, was inspired and given by God. But, it was given to humans; men with different personalities and characteristics. The books penned by those authors reflect their individuality. As for the gospel accounts, the story is basically the same. Yet, each is presented from a bit of a different angle, giving or leaving different details or events or conversations.

Although my personal favorite at the moment happens to be the Gospel of Matthew, one is not better than the others. The message is the same: Jesus came, left His heavenly dwelling, and put on the cloak of humanity. He did it for the redemption of mankind. He really died a horrible death and they really laid His lifeless body in a tomb. He really did came back to life physically, bodily, and now resides at the right hand of God Himself.

All across the world there will be churches on this coming Easter Sunday proclaiming that message. The people in attendance won't look the same, the message won't be delivered the same way, the music will be different, the language will be different, the prayers offered from hearts of sinners will be different.

The message is the same. It's for you. It's for me. Jesus died and rose again for everyone. He meant it when He said He came to seek and save the lost.

All I can add is Hallellujah and my profound gratitude.

Serving the King,

Jeanette

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

AMEN!

He is risen!

Unknown said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Unknown said...

Actually, there were more than 100 gospels written after Jesus' death (My personal favourite being the gospel of Thomas). All but four where dismissed by the Church as heresy. Of course, later wehen rediscovered the ones dismissed first and most violently where those saying all were equal, and that the rich are no better than the poor because, as you no doubt know, any organised chuch rising from the foundations of Jesus' death were run by the aristocracy.
The most commonly known Gospels outside of the Bible are the 'gnostic gospels' The most famous being The Gospel of John, the Gospel of Mary Magdeline, and the Gospel of Truth.
Are these not the word of God too? If so, the Church is fundementally corrupt, as it is based on a lie of ommission; the throwing out of this Godly word from common knowledge.

You seem to have some interesting views on the bible, I would love to discuss it with you sometime.

Best wishes x

Jeanette said...

Hey, Katy, if you are checking back then, yeah, I would love to talk to you because I think YOU have some interesting thoughts. Girl, I gotta tell you that we totally disagree and I wonder what you know about the canonization of the Bible. Anyway, email me if you want -- fivejd@sbcglobal.net