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Faith Statement

Find out what the author of this site and its contributors adhere to in regard to theology.

Blog
Writings that do not conform to one of the other defined categories.

Lucubrations
These writings are either devotional in nature, or an in-depth look at a specific Bible passage.

The word “lucubration” refers to any literary effort especially of a solemn nature.

Standpoint
The website’s response to issues. This section appears in two formats, as a web page and as a downloadable PDF. Churches are encouraged to download the one-page papers and provide them to their congregation.

The word standpoint can mean: belief, position, mental outlook.

Verses
The websites response to opinion-makers and the glitterati. Rather than referring to Bible verses, this is a combative piece responding to statements or accusation made about the Bible or Christians.

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My senior year of high school I worked as a student assistant for the Chemistry department. One day I was having a discussion with one of the teachers about his beliefs. Knowing I was a Christian, he told me that he too believed in God and that God used the process of evolution as a means of creation. I explained that his belief is in a God that used death – survival of the fittest – to create the world while I believe in a God who created a world without death and suffering. I concluded saying, “It sounds to me like we worship different Gods.”

 

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Everyone knows the story, even those who do not know the Bible. Adam and Eve and the fall of humanity into sinful rebellion. It’s so familiar that one of the most profitable companies in the world (after their 2022 earning report the company is valued at $3 trillion dollars) uses imagery from the story for their corporate logo. I’m talking about Apple, of course, and their logo of an apple with one bite taken from it. Centuries of Western European tradition identify the forbidden fruit as an apple, but was it really? Could it have been something else?

 

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Jesus appears once more to the disciples near the sea of Tiberias (one of my favorite places in the world, by the way). In his post-resurrection manner, he disguises himself again, After a long night of fishing, during which they caught nothing, Jesus shows up on the beach. This scene is a bit of levity after such a hard journey that didn't end at the cross, but at the empty tomb. From the shore Jesus yells to the disciples in the boat, "caught any fish?" knowing that they hadn't. He advises them to throw the net off the starboard side.

 

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Before sundown on that Friday, Jesus was taken from the cross by Joseph and Nicodemus, placed in a nearby tomb Joseph owned, and the body ritually prepared. A stone door was rolled into place, and Roman guards came to seal the door and stand watch over it. After this flurry of activity, everything was still. All night, all the next day, the people went on celebrating Passover. As a high holy day no work was done. The day stretched on in an unnatural silence across the nation. That night only the crickets and frogs called out. Then came Sunday morning.

 

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"After this, Joseph of Arimathea, a disciple of Jesus (but secretly, because he feared the Jewish leaders), asked Pilate if he could remove the body of Jesus. Pilate gave him permission, so he went and took the body away..." And so John begins to tell us about the burial of Jesus. Our reading has already slowed down due to John's having the stories climax in the immediately preceding verses, so we ought to be paying careful attention. If so, you might be asking yourself, "Wait… Who is this Joseph guy?" He is a minor but important character who became a legend.

 

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The passage we discuss today is some of the powerful writing in all of literature. It's not that John's writing is that good (though he is a good writer), its that it's a first hand account of subject matter that literally changed the world. The death of Jesus is powerful in any language, and every attempt to bring the event to film has had varying success but has helped reach hundreds of thousands of people come to grips with their sinful condition and need for a savior. We don't want to diminish the subject matter in any way.

 

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Up to this point in the story Jesus had been dealing with Temple authorities. While they arrested him, hurled insults at him and struck him once on the face for apparent disrespect of the high priest, they appeared to be powerless to do much more. You will hear from some Christians that the Jews could not execute Jesus because Rome did not give them authority to practice capital punishment. This isn't exactly true. There are several instances (the adulterous woman, the stoning of Stephen, the stoning of Paul) whereby the Jewish religious leaders certainly behaved as if they could execute their fellow Jews.

 

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