tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4683970826895755480.post7969583457521831967..comments2024-03-29T12:03:37.344+00:00Comments on Bruce Charlton's Notions: Evangelism in an officially-evil world: the Fourth Gospel perspective continues to unfold...Bruce Charltonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09615189090601688535noreply@blogger.comBlogger6125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4683970826895755480.post-21593051563123430712019-09-27T17:22:08.155+01:002019-09-27T17:22:08.155+01:00Great post Bruce! I can feel God's love shinin...Great post Bruce! I can feel God's love shining through my heart again as I read this. Jesus loves us with such tenderness. We are called to be fisher's of men, even in small ways. This takes courage. Something which I often lack. Your comment about us influencing the environment of others stuck a chord with me. I need to strive forwards with that firmly in mind! Davidnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4683970826895755480.post-59563161323728251292019-09-26T12:39:02.852+01:002019-09-26T12:39:02.852+01:00@d - I thin that if something from 2000 years ago ...@d - I thin that if something from 2000 years ago reads as-if modern, then we can we 100% sure we are misreading it! <br /><br />But the illusion comes, I think, from its likely provenance as a notes collected from multiple sources - a chronicle (like the Anglo Saxon Chronicle) rather than a finished 'work'. Mark (as is ) is not really making a point, nor saying "what it all means". Another comparison is some of Aristotle I once attempted (I can't remember which one), which looks (in the translation) like a series of headings, or summary lecture notes. Bruce Charltonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09615189090601688535noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4683970826895755480.post-27823424848900170352019-09-26T12:31:09.252+01:002019-09-26T12:31:09.252+01:00"It says very simply but poetically/ symbolic..."It says very simply but poetically/ symbolically (as we now read it - but that is how people thought and understood in those days and place) ..."<br /><br />Yet Mark, with the bogus bits removed, reads as if it is in the style of modern history/biography. Perhaps whoever wrote it had rather literal mind?deariemenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4683970826895755480.post-48177881026398035042019-09-26T06:32:38.156+01:002019-09-26T06:32:38.156+01:00@d - (It would save time if you read the book! It ...@d - (It would save time if you read the book! It would only take an hour or two. <br />https://lazaruswrites.blogspot.com )<br /><br />...Because it is fourth in the Authorised Version, and because it was Not written by John. (Of course, I still need to reference passages as 'John'.)<br /><br />By my understanding, it was written by Lazarus; and was (Chapters 1-20) the first Gospel; is the only eyewitness account of the mortal Jesus that seems to have survived - and (presumably consequently) is the only clearly-coherent and valid Gospel in its essence. It says very simply but poetically/ symbolically (as we now read it - but that is how people thought and understood in those days and place), and over and again, what Jesus taught.<br /><br />When read as such; the other Gospels, and the rest of the New Testament, come across as collections of secondhand information of variable validity, and often (Matthew especially, also Luke) with a perspective alien to the Fourth Gospel (e.g. the Second Coming ideas, the insistence on a special lineage, a miraculous and prophetic Nativity etc). <br /><br />Bruce Charltonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09615189090601688535noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4683970826895755480.post-61468770013584877052019-09-25T22:21:11.192+01:002019-09-25T22:21:11.192+01:00Why do you call John's the Fourth Gospel? Is ...Why do you call John's the Fourth Gospel? Is it because by convention it comes fourth in the bible or is it because you believe it to have been the fourth by date of composition?deariemenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4683970826895755480.post-74193090754374811692019-09-25T18:35:49.108+01:002019-09-25T18:35:49.108+01:00Wonderful insight. I will be rereading this one m...Wonderful insight. I will be rereading this one many times. Thank you.<br />Desert Rathttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11985993848922650013noreply@blogger.com