Author: ecircle

Though many people might regard Christmas as nothing but a cash-grabbing holiday in order for consumers to buy and producers to get richer, there has always been a magic to it. Because of the popularity of the holiday and the evolution of mankind, people might forget from time to time that the holiday is to celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ.

The term “Christmas” is supposed to represent the mass of Christ. Even before all the presents and Hallmark movies, Christmas was used to celebrate the birth of Jesus. Jesus was the savior of humanity, and his birth marked the a great change. Though his birthday is not exactly know, people chose December 25th to celebrate the birth of a savior and the miracles to come after.

Although Christmas has mainly become materialistic since the birth of Christ, it is important to remember the inherent importance of the holiday. If Christ wasn’t born, it is hard to tell where we would be now.

Pontius Pilate ordered the death of Jesus on a cross. This crucifixion was due to Jesus’ affect on the people. The Romans did not like how Jesus was basically getting in their way. However, it doesn’t seem like this was the only reason for Jesus’ crucifixion. When he was made to carry the cross, Jesus was not rejecting the cross, but embracing it. Why would this be? Jesus stated: “O Cross, My soul’s beloved, now made ready to fulfill my desires – come to Me, so that I may be embraced in your arms, and so that, laid upon them on an altar, I may be acceptable to the eternal Father as the sacrifice for his reconciliation with humanity.” This statement helps form the common idea that Jesus knew that his sacrifice was part of God’s plan.

Yes, the Romans did want Jesus dead, but that was all in God’s will. God wanted Jesus to die, not because he wanted to see him fall, but for him to rise and come be seated in Heaven. The sacrifice of Jesus was for God to reconcile with humanity. Pontius Pilate did, in fact, order the death of Jesus and an unfair trial was formed, but it was all in God’s favor in the end.

I was born on June 6th, 2002. I have grown up all my life with people saying to me things like: ” good thing you weren’t born four years later,” or “anything special happen on your birthday in 2006? Because that would be weird.” At that time, I didn’t know what about a number could be so ominous. Then grew up and realized that there was number called “The number of the Beast.”

Most people know that the number of the beast is 666. This number is supposed to signify the antichrist, but also allows for people to make connections with the number anywhere they can. Throughout history, there have been many attempts to connect the number with different Roman emperors, world leaders, and dictators. However, as many people have discovered, it is easy to morph this number into a lot of different names, dates, and even places.

Whether or not you believe in this sort of thing, you can’t deny that people have been obsessed with this number for a long time. There have been many calculations as to whom the number might refer to, or if the “beast” has even walked among us. In Revelation, Daniel mentioned the coming of the rapture, as well as the “beast”. Since the rapture has yet to come, there is a possibility that the “beast” is still yet to come, but I guess time will tell.

Growing up, it was hard to see Jesus as a normal human being. To me, he was basically an all mighty figure who was able to grant miracles and was the son of God. However, Jesus was a man as well. He had parents, and he might of has siblings. That is something that has been debated for a while now. Whether or not Jesus had siblings.

In the Bible, the brothers and sisters of Jesus have brought up. Some of the names mentioned were: James, Joses, Judas, and Simon. However, we were told that Mary was a virgin, and sought to always be a virgin, so were these her children? There are arguments that these are the children of Mary’s sister, which would make them cousins (therefore using the term brothers and sisters as a figure of speech). However, there are other theories that they were children from a previous marriage of Joseph, which would technically make them half siblings (or step siblings considering the fact that Jesus was the son of God). I am drawn to believe the second argument, but it is a topic that is still a controversy to this day.

If you have ever heard of Saul and Paul referred to as the same person, it is because they are. Saul was a disciple, who later became known as one of the most recognized disciples to this day. Paul. Paul, or Saint Paul as some might know him as, was one of the Apostles. He was important in the spread of Christianity and the teachings of Jesus Christ. He is also thought to be the writer of 13 books of the New Testament. Most of us, however, will recognize his name from Church. When you hear “a letter from Paul to…” this is the “Paul” in question. These letters were a huge part of establishing Christianity. Paul went on to spread the teaching of Christ, after his death. Paul has been known to be one of the most important figures in the Bible, after Jesus, and I think that just shows how much Paul has done for Christianity.

Women have been around for a long time. One of the very first characters introduced to us in the Bible was a woman. Woman play important roles in the Bible. Some are leaders or advisors, and others are mothers. Though the Bible seems to focus on its male characters, there are many women characters who get overlooked for the things they have done.

We can start at the very beginning: Eve. Eve was important not so much for her accomplishments, but for her mistakes. Eve had the initial sin, which impacted everyone in her wake. Another important woman in the Old Testament was Sarah, the Wife of Abraham and mother of Isaac. She was an advisor to Abraham, and raised her son well, which cannot be overlooked. Another important mother was Jochebed, Moses’ mother. She saved his life by sending him down the Nile. Just imagine how things would have played out if Moses had been killed.

There are few female characters in the New Testament, but arguably the most important female character exists here. Mary, the mother of Jesus, was chosen to be the mother of a Savior. She raised her son as such, and watched him die, and rise. If there was no Mary, there would be no Jesus. Another important mother is Elizabeth, who was the mother of John the Baptist. She was once barren, but her strength and love in God allowed for her to bear a child. Her child grew up to be a prophet, and she played a large role in that. For this reason,

The Synoptic Gospels are the three Gospels that tell similar or even overlapping stories. These three Gospels are Matthew, Mark, and Luke. These are synoptic because they involve many of the same stories and could even be put into columns and picked apart with similarities and differences. John, however, is not a Synoptic Gospel due to the fact that most of this Gospel does not line up with the other three Gospels.

With the Synoptic Gospels there are a couple of questions that come about. Which one came first? Which stories are taken from other stories? Let’s just say that if the three Gospels were turned in for a writing assignment in a class, then the teacher would suspect some form of plagiarism. Each of the Gospels tell very similar stories. It would be like if you read an essay online and wanted to copy it, you would change a couple of words and sum up a few statements to avoid copying the essay. The Gospels each have similar stories, but with different details. But this makes sense. If three people were to see a car crash happen, each of them might have similar stories, but none of them would tell the exact same story. That’s how the Gospels work, they give us different views on the same story, like when interviewing witnesses at a car crash. However, the stories have too many details that are similar. That is why it is believed that the authors were dependent of each other. Certain details were most likely borrowed and taken from others, but sometimes that is necessary to tell a full story.

The canonical Gospels, also known as Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, tell the stories of Jesus Christ. Today, I want to focus on the initial stories of Matthew and Luke. Both of these tell the same story, but differently. Each has different aspects that seem similar to the stories we’ve heard, which makes me think that details have been chosen from both stories and merged into the story told to us in Sunday School.

The Gospel of Matthew brings us the details that an angel came to Joseph when Mary was pregnant, telling him to stay by her side. This was an important piece of the story, but it was not in the Gospel of Luke. In the Gospel of Luke we have the detail that Mary and Joseph were turned away from the Inn due, and the fact that Jesus was laid in a manger. That detail is not in the Gospel of Matthew. However, it makes for a more cohesive story if those details are together, does it not?

Since I was a child I always thought that these were collective details. However, since the details are not collective, how can we tell what details of the story are true? I think that it all comes down to how you want to see it. Each of the Gospels tell the story differently because they are taking different angles and are different writers, who pick up different details. As time has passed, we have just seemed to merge the details together to make a conclusive story and every person reads into the Bible differently, so it really depends on how you as a person want to read it.

“The LORD is my shepherd, I shall not want.” When I think of Psalms, The Divine Shepherd is the one that usually pops into my head. The reason for this goes all the way back to when I was in fourth grade Sunday School. Our teacher was an older man who promised to give any of us who memorized this Psalm a two dollar bill. Obviously all of us forth graders were to preoccupied with the idea of getting the bill to understand why he was incentivizing us to memorize this Psalm. This Psalm is one of the most popular Psalms, and one of the most important in my mind. It tells us the importance of God, and how God will always protect us and lead us in life. This is very different than the Psalm before it, Plea for Deliverance from Suffering and Hostility.  This Psalm is from the perspective of a person in suffering, and someone who is asking God for help. These two Psalms work well together to show God’s way, for in the end of Psalm 22, the suffering person thanks God for everything he has done. This leads into Psalm 23, which shows us God in all his might and how he will always lead us. These two Psalms show us the work of God. First, you suffer and you cry out for God to help, and he does. Because of this, you follow him because he is your shepherd and will always help you to find your way.

The story of Job brings forth the ideas of wisdom and if any man could be truly righteous in an imperfect world. A person who is righteous is someone who is morally correct, which is different that self-righteousness, which is when a person believes they are more virtuous than others due to self love. This story of Job revolves around the idea that God believes Job to be the most righteous man in the world, and because of this, he lets Satan test Job. This test includes Job losing everything his has earned in life, and basically ruins Job’s life. In the end, Job is shown to be a blessed man who loved and had the fear of God inside him.

God chose to believe that Job was perfectly righteous. But, is it possible to be perfectly righteous? Job was incredibly righteous, but he also knew that he was righteous. This allowed for a little bit of self-righteousness to seep in. He questioned why God would punish him when he was so incredibly righteous. However, he could only question this if he knew how righteous he was. That is where it falls apart a little bit. I don’t think that any person could be completely righteous, there is always going to be some slip up in their actions or beliefs. No person is perfect. So, Job might have been the closest person to being perfectly righteous, but he was not completely righteous, and all that came when he started questioning why bad things were happening to him.