Here’s Why This Gospel Is My Favorite
“What’s your favorite Gospel?”
As a New Testament scholar, I get this question all the time. Sometimes people are just curious about what I think. Sometimes they are wanting to study a Gospel themselves and don’t know where to start. And sometimes they are trying to reach a non-Christian friend and want to know which Gospel is most effective.
Before I answer, we should begin by acknowledging all four Gospels are wonderful. They all tell the same overall story of redemption through Christ, they all are fully inspired by God, and they all have been loved by the church for generations.
The Gospels are Different
At the same time, we … Continue reading...
7 Reasons Why the Gospel of John is So Special
“One of these things is not like the others.” That was a classic segment on Sesame Street, as well as the title of a popular children’s book. It proves again that everything you need to know in life you probably learned in Kindergarten.
After all, when it comes to the four gospels, it has been long recognized that “one of these things is not like the others.” There are three Synoptic Gospels—Matthew, Mark, and Luke—with very similar content, tone, and pacing. And then there’s the gospel of John.
From the very beginning, the church fathers even recognized that John was notably different than the others. In fact, Clement of Alexandria … Continue reading...
Ten Basic Facts about the NT Canon that Every Christian Should Memorize: #5: “The Four Gospels are Well Established by the End of the Second Century”
Note: This is the fifth installment of a blog series announced here.
When it comes to basic facts about the NT canon that Christians should memorize, one of the most critical is the statement by Irenaeus, bishop of Lyons, around A.D. 180: “It is not possible that the gospels can be either more or fewer than the number they are. For, since there are four zones of the world in which we live and four principle winds… [and] the cherubim, too, were four-faced.”[1]
Here Irenaeus not only affirms the canonicity the four gospels, but is keen to point out that only these four gospels are recognized by the … Continue reading...
Apocryphal Gospels and the Mainstream Media
One thing that I have observed over the years is that major media outlets love apocryphal gospels. Whenever the person of Jesus is discussed–usually at Easter and Christmas–there is always a discussion about how the real story of Jesus has been suppressed and can only now be found in these lost gospels. Sweeping claims are then made about how there was no agreement on much of anything in the first four centuries of the faith and that other stories of Jesus circulated by the thousands. Only after Constantine came along does the church decide which books to accept (and then subsequently denies all other books admission to the club).
When … Continue reading...