Benchmark Assignment : Gospel Essentials Essay

God created the universe, the earth and all life on earth. God’s characteristics are that he is a loving source who looks out for his people, whom believe in him and who follow his word. God has all the wisdom and peaceful intentions for his people. God created everything from the Universe, to the animals to human life as well as all life on earth, God created it all (Letellier, 2015). God is the creator of all life and the universe as well as all that exist within his creation.

The foundation of the Christian faith is cradled within truth of the virgin birth, life, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. As diverse as the world-wide Christian culture is, the truth in the birth and life of Jesus stands without border and language limitations. Just as each individual life story can be adapted to be relevant for a variety of audiences, the birth story of the Messiah was also. The Gospels of Matthew and Luke are an example of the well-rounded and diverse narration of the birth story of Jesus—Matthew’s narration spoke to the history of the Jewish people and Luke presented to the citizen of Rome.

It is possible to write on the life of Jesus from the information gathered from the bible. I will be dividing my essay into three parts. In the first part of the paper, I will talk about the nature of the gospels, John’s views vs. the Synoptic, discuss if the authors of the gospels are eyewitnesses and how they used written sources. Also I will talk about the Q source. Then I will elaborate on the topic of how Matthew and Luke were similar. Then I will continue on by discussing how the Old Testament uses Moses, Samuel and Elijah to interpret Jesus, and finally whether or not the Sermon on the Mount happened. In the second part of my paper, I will talk about Jesus’s birth and childhood, his miracles, his resurrection, and what Jesus did to cure people, spirits and how they are interpreted to the prophet, magician and the mad man compared to Saul and Elijah. The final part of the paper I will talk about what Jesus talked about as regards to the Kingdom of God vs. the Kingdom of the Romans and what he intended by speaking of the end of the world. I will also speak of the reasons behind the Romans executing him. My sources for this paper will be the New Jerusalem Bible Readers edition as my primary source and lecture notes from Professor Trumbach.

God can be a very controversial subject depending on who you are talking to in this day and time; some people believe, some believe in other Gods and then there are other groups who do not believe in anything beyond this life. God has always had to deal with those who do not believe. God has been persecuted since the beginning of time and has proven over and over that is very much who he says he is. This paper will give you a better understanding of who God is, how humanity is affected by their beliefs, who Jesus is and how he is the way to the heavenly father and creator as well as how restoration will impact our lives as well as the beliefs I hold in God and how everything he created relies on the next in some way to survive.

There are a variety of differing worldviews in practice today. Every person has a worldview that is shaped by their experiences, pasts, families, traditions, values, and beliefs that form the core of who they are. The Christian worldview is no exception. This worldview is formed by the beliefs and teachings of the Bible. The worldview is shaped and centered around the view of who God is, the purpose of humanity, the true identity of Jesus, the restoration of humans to God, acknowledging the strengths and weakness of the worldview, and the practicality of living out the worldview.

It can be argued that the similarities and differences of the Gospels of Matthew and Luke can cause the reader to either see both of these accounts to complement one another with their different perspectives or that they contradict one another by certain events being mentioned in one birth narrative but not the other. Different aspects of both of these birth narratives such as the way Matthew and Luke treat Mary, the extent to which they use the Old Testament and the audience to whom they are writing to reveals the authors’ agenda as they allow their culture and own personal beliefs to influence what they write. These factors could be argued to have an effect on the historical authenticity of these texts as it could be possible that they could have caused the authors to twist the truth to fit in with their own beliefs.

God is our creator; He came before us and created the universe as we know it. “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth”

The Shadow of the Galilean: The Quest of the Historical Jesus in Narrative Form. By Gerd Theissen. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2007, 212 pp., $15.50.

In the Gospel of Matthew, the infancy narrative contributes a large sum of background information of Jesus that contributes to the development of Matthew’s Christology. In order to analyze how Matthew develops the Christology, we have to cut the infancy narrative into sections. This paper will discuss background information of the writing of this Gospel, literary elements of Jesus’ miraculous conception that reinforce his Jewishness, how Magi and literary devices help to understand Matthew’s Christology, what important biblical hero the infancy narrative parallels, and what foreshadowing is caused from this infancy narrative. Comparatively, the use of divine intervention in dreams to fulfill prophecy has been a key focus of the infancy narrative in order to create an unusual birth narrative and develop the unique Christology that Matthew envisioned specifically for the Jewish Messiah.

The gospel performance included little diversity among performers or audience members, but considering that it was aired on BET an African American majority makes perfect sense, because BET purpose was to provide a place where blacks can tune in, relate, and find support among the media. Throughout the gospel hour the audience was very engaged. We could see clapping and dancing in about every performing song. A spiritual dance that originated from the slaves was the ring shout and this one dance was one-way preachers were able to preserve the slave experience and hardships through sermons and the spirituals. During the civil war the ring shout became traditional among Sunday gatherings and it what helped the spirituals stay alive. Even years

McEntire, M. & Tullock, J. (2012). The Old Testament Story, Ninth Edition. New York, New York: Pearson Learning Solutions Holy Bible, King James Version

Bartholomew, C. G., & Goheen, M. W. (2014). The drama of scripture: Finding our place in the biblical story. Grand Rapids, MI, United States: Baker Academic.

A story consists of the introduction of basic impacts of one’s personal life experiences or formal essay occurrences. Merely reflecting adversities a real person encounters, or one’s self-improvements after encountering challenges by opposition of intellectual attacks. It may include battles, tribulations, and triumphs of evolution. It is told in first point of view of the argument being initiated by the author. On how individuals need to apply bible scriptures in their everyday living. Although, biographies and metamorphoses may bring individual to rationalize how a median point of one’s life may establish moral balanced for the better. It may express their position in history, beliefs, and values. While displaying obstacles on how the outcome may have been influenced by a supernatural belief, church leadership, mentors, tragedy, and transformation of a political or international theory. Method of implementation and motive possibly limited or inspiration became a contributing factor to withstand or the reason for modifying their life.

Throughout the centuries, from the time of the Augustine, it has not been uncommon for the Gospel of Mark to be viewed in a negative light when compared to the other Synoptic Gospels. It has been said that Luke and Matthew were written in an attempt to cover Mark’s deficiencies. At first glance, this is an understandable viewpoint. To the modern layreader, Mark does seem to flow less evenly and convey less information than its contemporaries. Therefore, among many, Mark was respected for being the first Gospel written and for the precious information it conveyed, but certainly not for its literary elements. This changed in 1982 when Rhoads and Michie released the first edition Mark as Story, which is an analysis of Mark as a work of literature. This, as Mark Allan Powell stated in the afterward, was a new and unexpected way of looking at the Gospels that pioneered a wave of literary analysis in relation to Scripture. Mark as Story is an interdisciplinary approach that views the work through the lens of a story told using ancient oral tradition and analyzes its characters, plot, setting, narrator and original audience. When these aspects are viewed in this manner, it reveals that the Gospel of Mark is, in fact, a literary masterpiece.

The word "gospel" is a translation of the Greek word "euangelion" which means "good news. The first three books in the New Testament (Mark, Matthew, and Luke) are often referred to as the Synoptic Gospels (from Greek synoptikos, "seen together") They bear greater similarity to each other than any of the other gospels in the New Testament. Along with these similarities come some differences among the gospels, suggesting that each gospel was written for a specific audience and for a specific purpose. This paper will examine the resurrection of Jesus, while identifying the significant differences between Mark, Matthew and Luke. This paper will also analyze the differences to suggest the prominent theological perspective each gospel author