Pharisees

Pleasure! Almost everyone desires pleasure. They think that without pleasure they could not have a happy life. However, according to Christopher Dawson, people can live without pleasure. His revolutionary idea states, “You can give men food and leisure and amusements and good conditions of work, and still they will remain unsatisfied. You can deny them all these things, and they will not complain so long as they feel that they have something to die for.” This means that something worth dying for…

Timothy Weber has likened the early dispensationalists to spectators in a stadium, watching history unfold on the playing field below. There were very few among them who believed they could or should play any role in the fulfilment of prophecy except to be watchful and personally prepared. Although conscious to be living at the close of history, the vast majority of Evangelical Zionists believed that only God could move the hands of the prophetic clock. They consequently shunned earthly…

FIGURES OF SPEECH IN THE BIBLE (Adapted from McCune) “Generally an expression is figurative when it is out of character with the subject discussed, or is contrary to fact, experience, or observation” (Roy Zuck, Basic Bible Interpretation, p. 145). Matt 19:25 Camel through the eye of a needle (it’s impossible – not explained by a gate in the wall) 1. Recognizing figures of speech • Look for the normal or plain sense first. • Note contradictions, impossibilities, or absurdities in the…

In the book Zeitoun by Dave Eggers, he tells a story about Abdulrahman Zeitoun’s experience during and after, Hurricane Katrina in 2005. Zeitoun is a Syrian man that moved to America from Syria, and is married to Kathy a caucasian woman. Eggers’ purpose in the book is to show the events of hurricane Katrina, and how people turn to racial profiling in times of confusion and chaos. Eggers uses an emotional tone to show the struggles that Zeitoun faces in the book. Throughout the book Eggers uses…

The Myth of Thought Leadership So, the first thing that is important to know about the concept of thought leadership and the idea of being a thought leader is that it's all in your head. It's an idea. It's a concept. I don't know who the first person to call themselves a 'thought leader' was, but the concept of being a thought leader exists in concept only. According to Google trends, the term 'thought leader' is not searched enough outside of the United States for them to report. And outside…

The movie, The Gospel of John, follows just one gospel: The Gospel of John. The Gospel of John (film) follows exactly what the scripture says. When I looked up the movie on Netflix, I found that there are also several versions of the movie to accompany different versions of the Bible, including the New International Version, and the New King James Version. However, even though the narration of the movie follows the scripture directly, there were some scenes that were added in. For example, John…

Gospel text were not new conceptions. For example, the common belief of Catholics at the time that the Jews lacked “righteous[ness]” lacked political context; it was an exclamation which the apostle Matthew used to set apart his local community from Pharisees amidst what Marendy calls “false teachings” (Marendy 291-292). The Gospel of John went a step further, laying down the foundation for many Anti-Semites’ beliefs that, as Marendy continues, “Jews wanted to persecute and kill Jesus (Jn [sic]…

Jesus Christ was the promise fulfilled and hope of salvation, by faith, for those who are lost. Harrelson stated in The New Interpreters Study Bible that, “Jesus’ life and ministry reveal God’s presence to the world, but also confronts the world with the difficult decision of whether or not to accept this revelation” (1906). God did not have to send his son to offer salvation to the world, he could’ve simply mandated it, or dramatically opened the heavens and given the call for salvation. Yet…

In the Gospel of John, the author uses several miracles of Jesus to show that the miraculous acts are specific in nature and directed toward achieving the goals stated in John 20:31. The intention is to understand Jesus is the Messiah and to provide a means of eternal life.1 However, among scholars sometimes there is debate as to exactly how many of these miracles are signs. Most tend to agree that there are at least seven, but a dispute sometimes arises if the Resurrection of Jesus should be…

him to kill his brother (Genesis 4). In addition, King Saul’s jealous after David defeated Goliath led him to hunt him down in order to kill David, but David prevented his anger from killing the king (1 Samuel 24). Let’s not forget about how the Pharisees and Sadducees hated Jesus, jealous of His wise wisdom, and deceptive to make Jesus a bad guy; as a result, they killed Jesus without any logical or credible crime against him (Luke 22). Therefore, jealous can make men do evil things, especially…