Selected Reading, December 12, 2020

 

I enjoyed these. You might, too.

People Stories

Bible Reading and Prayer in the Marriage of Charles and Susie Spurgeon
There is much to admire about these two as a couple.

Leah
”She was a gift of inestimable worth, and through her, the Lord worked great riches in our own souls as we served alongside her.”

The Bible

Do Modern Bibles Omit the Trinity? (1 John 5:7b-8a)
The absense of 1 John 5:7b-8a in Bibles still troubles some people. Here’s the story of how this text got into the Bible in the first place and why it doesn’t actually belong there.

A Creed

The Athanasian Creed
From Justin Holcomb, lots of good info about the Athanasian Creed.

Theological Term of the Week: Synoptic Gospels

synoptic gospels
The first three gospels in the New Testament—Matthew, Mark, and Luke—which are quite similar in their accounts of Jesus’s life, and all very different from the gospel of John.

• From scripture, the three accounts of the healing of Peter’s mother-in-law in the synoptic gospels. (There is no account of this incident in John’s gospel.):

And when Jesus entered Peter’s house, he saw his mother-in-law lying sick with a fever. He touched her hand, and the fever left her, and she rose and began to serve him. (Matthew 8:14-15 ESV)

And immediately he left the synagogue and entered the house of Simon and Andrew, with James and John. Now Simon’s mother-in-law lay ill with a fever, and immediately they told him about her. And he came and took her by the hand and lifted her up, and the fever left her, and she began to serve them. (Mark 1:29-31 ESV)

And he arose and left the synagogue and entered Simon’s house. Now Simon’s mother-in-law was ill with a high fever, and they appealed to him on her behalf. And he stood over her and rebuked the fever, and it left her, and immediately she rose and began to serve them. (Luke 4:38-39 ESV)

• From the MacArthur Study Bible’s Introduction to the Gospels:

Although many spurious gospels were written, the church from earliest times has accepted only Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John as inspired Scripture. While each Gospel has its unique perspective, … Matthew, Mark, and Luke, when compared to John, share a common point of view. Because of that, they are known as the synoptic (from a Greek word meaning “to see together,” or “to share a common point of view”) Gospels. Matthew, Mark, and Luke, for example, focus on Christ’s Galilean ministry, while John focuses on his ministry in Judea. The synoptic Gospels contain numerous parables, while John records none. John and the synoptic Gospels record only two common events (Jesus’ walking on the water, and the feeding of the 5,000) prior to Passion Week. These differences between John and the synoptic Gospels, however, are not contradictory, but complementary.

Learn more:

1. Compelling Truth: The Synoptic Gospels — What are they?
2. Joe Botti & others: The Problem of Apparent Chronological Contradictions in the Synoptics
3. John Piper: How should you deal with the differences in the Synoptic Gospels? (video)
4. Bible Researcher: Table of Gospel Parallels

Related terms: 

• inerrancy of scripture
• synoptic problem

Filed under Scripture

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Sunday's Hymn: Comfort, Comfort Ye My People

Comfort, comfort ye my people,
Speak ye peace, thus saith our God;
Comfort those who sit in darkness,
Mourning ‘neath their sorrow’s load.
Speak ye to Jerusalem
Of the peace that waits for them;
Tell her that her sins I cover,
And her warfare now is over.

Yea, her sins our God will pardon,
Blotting out each dark misdeed;
All that well deserved his anger
He no more will see or heed.
She hath suffered many a day
Now her griefs have passed away;
God will change her pining sadness
Into ever-springing gladness.

For the herald’s voice is crying
In the desert far and near,
Bidding all men to repentance,
Since the kingdom now is here.
O that warning cry obey!
Now prepare for God a way;
Let the valleys rise to meet him,
And the hills bow down to greet him.

Make ye straight what long was crooked,
Make the rougher places plain;
Let your hearts be true and humble,
As befits his holy reign.
For the glory of the Lord
Now o’er earth is shed abroad;
And all flesh shall see the token,
That his word is never broken.

—Jo­han­nes G. Ole­ar­i­us

Other hymns, worship songs, or quotes for this Sunday:

• Himself at The Happy Wonderer
• The Person Christmas Celebrates — Hymn 2 at The Outspoken Tulip