Great news on the church front . . . we found out last Sunday that the Hybels study is finished and we're now beginning a study on the book of John. I was so relieved to hear this, I think I smiled through the entire service.
Any pastor who claims Robert Schuller as his mentor should be avoided like the proverbial plague. Anyone who won't use the word "Christian" because he doesn't wish to offend non-Christians is seriously lacking guts, as my father so eloquently phrased it.
Interestingly enough, I was at a local store the other day and found a book on marriage written by Bill and Lynne Hybels. I couldn't wait to peek inside it (ok--you got me--I could have waited the rest of my life to peek inside it) and see what kind of advice a minister of the gospel of Jesus Christ would give to people on this important subject. For at least five minutes or so (all I could take), I looked for something--anything--from the Bible but couldn't find much, just a verse here and there. The good news is that Hybels was still using the word "Christian" in this book, and it wasn't a bad message from a practical counseling perspective, just mostly carbs . . . and very little meat.
I think that's all that needs to be said on Bill Hybels.
I'm really looking forward to studying John.
3 Comments:
Matthew = The Messiahship of Jesus
Mark = The Servanthood of Jesus
Luke = The Humanity of Jesus
John = The Deity of Jesus
John is also the book entitled Grace of Jehovah and is the most emphatic book about the love of God.
John 3:16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
Little in the Gospel of John is duplicated in the synoptic Gospels. It is written not so much as a corroborating account like those Gospels but rather in supplemental form.
John may or may not have been privy to the other writings of the New Testament which were in circulation in his day yet not canonized until some 200 years later. But the Holy Spirit who inspired all biblical authors was well aware of what was written and what needed to be said.
Some believe the Gospel of John was written by John after his exile on Patmos and when he was the elder of the Church in Ephesus. This would date that Gospel after the Apocalypse was written (and more than likely before the epistles of John which distilled into his message of love).
Tradition holds that the aged John was carried in on a stretcher and leaned up while on the stretcher and he pronounced "Brethren it is my sincerest hope that you love one another." Then they carried him off.
John's Gospel is the most evidential of the Deity of Jesus and points out that he is the God who created all things that were created (John 1:1-3 & 14) and that he is the person in the Godhead which man had been dealing (John 1:18, 6:46) and
John 5:37 And the Father himself, which hath sent me, hath borne witness of me. Ye have neither heard his voice at any time, nor seen his shape.
Judaism was not big on the concept of God as Father until the New Testament teaching began (with John the Baptist). Father Abraham was the father to the Jewish mind. Jesus came to introduce the Jews and humanity to the Heavenly Father. Early on in John 5 the Jews were offended by Jesus calling God Father (John 5:18) but later caught on to the teaching of the Bible* when they claimed also to be children of God (John 8:41).
* Deuteronomy 32:6
John 14:9 Jesus saith unto him, Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known me, Philip? he that hath seen me hath seen the Father; and how sayest thou then, Shew us the Father?
John 12:44 Jesus cried and said, He that believeth on me, believeth not on me, but on him that sent me. 45 And he that seeth me seeth him that sent me.
Colossians 1:15 Who is the {visible} image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature:
The Gospel written by the Apostle John forms a strong foundation on which to understand the deity of Jesus and the Triune nature of God.
John 14:26 But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you.
John 15:26 But when the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, which proceedeth from the Father, he shall testify of me:
The Father and the Son sent the Holy Spirit (indicating that the Holy Spirit is not either of them). One does not send one's self. One comes.
John's Gospel teaches us what blasphemy of the Holy Spirit is:
John 16:13 Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak: and he will shew you things to come.
If we die in error (or pass that point of no return) denying Jesus who is Truth (John 14:6) and that is his ministry to lead us to all truth, then we blaspheme the core ministry of the Holy Spirit.
John is also where he admitted plainly to a foreigner woman that he is the Messiah (John 4), and he spelled out to her the essence of Galatians 3:24-25 that God is Spirit and we who worship him must do so in spirit... not by the letter of the law which kills...
Fascinating study, I envy you, each time it's like a refresher course.
F.Y.I.
Doing a bit of a study in John on your other website:
http://www.waltermartin.org/dcforum/DCForumID3/136.html#7
Jill,I am concerned that the link you gave for the info on sodom and gomorrah is bogus,the link to ron
wyatt,if you do a little background on him is very sad.he found the ark under the temple mount.he found charriot wheels in the red sea,and had visions of angels in the cave,he took other christians on digs and rasied money for his bougus finds,i am surprised how many people funded his so called finds that could'nt be verified. one thing that your dad taught us at his class is check it out.this guy may have been a believer,but he had some really outlandish claims.
Gman
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