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Results from: Answered Bible Questions, Answers, Unanswered Bible Questions, Notes Ordered by Verse | ||||||
Results | Verse | Author | ID# | |||
1 | Primary purpose of the written Gospels | Luke 1:4 | Reformer Joe | 48818 | ||
It seems that some of them were definitely written for that primary purpose. Luke was (Luke 1:1-4). We know that the churches were recipients of the epistles. John seems to be a lot more evangelical (John 20:30-31). The other gospels are not as explicit, but it would seem that the Jews are the initial recipients of Matthew, since it appears to be largely an defense of the ministry and Messiahship of Jesus of Nazareth based heavily on the Old Testament. Mark reads like an abbbreviated evangelical tract It would seem that the New Testament books would have beem used largely in the same way as they are today, as written records of the apostolic tradition, both as bases of doctrinal decisions and as communication to the unbelieving world, especially as the apostles began to die. You see, while Paul is writing to the Romans, for example, he has never seen them, and that work takes the form of the most complete theological treatise in the New Testament. The whole book starts from scratch and basically assumes that the Romans know next-to-nothing about God, sin, the law, grace, the life of the unbeliever, and the life of a Christian. I haven't studied in great detail the use of the Scriptures in the sub-apostolic era. They were obviously referred to as standard, authoritative documents by the early church fathers, adn Christians such as Justin Martyr used them in his Apology as well. Therefore, as far back as we can go in church history outside the Bible, it would seem that they served as a standard for both purposes. --Joe! |
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2 | Primary purpose of the written Gospels | Luke 1:4 | Emmaus | 48822 | ||
Joe, "It seems that some of them were definitely written for that primary purpose." By this do you mean internal catechesis and buidling up, or evangelization or both? And when you say the Jews were the primary recipeients of Matthew do you mean Jewish believers in Christ or the others.? I asked my initial question because it seems to me that many disputes over scripture may grow out of a presumption of belief or failure to disclose by one or more parties whether they are coming from a believeing or non believeing posiiton. And although I have read of those who have been converted merely by the reading of Scripture. But it is a rare situation. It seems more common that those being converted to belief were already somewhere along the path of conversion by the Holy Spirit working through one or more believers and their personal lived and or spoken witness, long before the written Gospel takes hold. In fact they may have read the Gospels more than a few times without receiving the message at all, but the personal encounter with Christ through a personal or community witness opens them up to see what they did not perceive before in the written scripture. It would seem that the preaching of the Gospel in the sense of a personal witness is still the primary means of evangelization in most cases. And only then does the full impact of the written Gospel take hold. I think this also applied in different variation even in family which are raising their children in the faith. Emmaus |
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Questions and/or Subjects for Luke 1:4 | Author | ||
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Emmaus | ||
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Reformer Joe | ||
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Emmaus | ||
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mastery |