Preface
First let me begin by thanking the authors of this course and the ULC Seminary for making this course available to everyone and anyone who has a desire for knowledge or those like me who may have a personal or spiritual quest.
My own quest is one of a spiritual nature in which I have many unanswered questions and issues that I wish to try and resolve in my life. Some of which have been answered and are continuing to be answered on a daily basis and others which I still continue to seek. I personally don’t label myself as a member of any particular religious sect or denomination but simply as a disciple of Jesus Christ and a believer in God and His Holy Spirit.
Philosophically I base my current beliefs on basically the same God of the Bible, which ever version of the Bible one may choose to use as a source document. It is true in my case that if one knocks on the door it will be opened and if one seeks he will find. Sometimes the answers come quickly and sometimes slowly. Biblical philosophy and teachings have stood the test of time and in my opinion still apply today. I speak only for myself and the lessons I have learned so far in this quest and humbly wish to share them with you.
I believe that I cannot express my review of this study in only 300 words in regards to this particular course and ask that you bear with me as I am very passionate about what I have learned and continue to learn so far about the life of Jesus Christ, who he was upon this Earth, his teachings while upon the Earth and who He is now. This is well documented in the various translations of the four gospels in several versions of the Holy Bible and our source document for this course The Unvarnished Gospels by Andy Gaus. I have found the papers and study guides of this course to be both stimulating and insightful and thank you for your hard work and efforts.
This course has led me not only to study the words and translation of The Unvarnished Gospels but also to research other scholars and authors and gain greater knowledge and some historical background on the person known as Jesus Christ, his life and his teachings.
First let me say that I believe that no one figure in human history has made more of an impact on mankind than Jesus Christ or Jesus of Nazareth if one prefers. Even the unbeliever cannot argue this point. Believe me I have tried many times in the past as I once was an unbeliever myself. Certainly there have been many great men and women who lives and deeds have been recorded throughout the history of mankind’s existence. Yet none have sparked more interest, debate, wars, changing of lives and years of proving and disproving that Jesus was the Son of the living God. The list is endless and the debate continues to this day.
As I began this study I had a hard time understanding the basic translation in The Unvarnished Gospels. It took me awhile to get into the flow of the writings, but once started, I began to understand the basic word for word translation from the Greek text. With that being said this further led me to read three different texts of the four gospels using three different versions of the Holy Bible. The King James Version, the American Standard Version, and the New International Version were the versions that I used for my comparison studies and further formulating the basis of this document.
I found the message in the four gospels to be basically the same yet the wording and structure obviously is different. I can understand why it can be somewhat confusing to one who has never done a comparison study of the several versions of the bible made available throughout the world. Each version I am sure has been the subject of hours of debate amongst many theologically minded people. However I do suggest than one reads the different versions in order to choose the one which you feel is best suited for you personally.
Other sources I used to formulate my opinion was one from Dr. James Tabor, author of In Search of Historical Jesus and Professor and Chair of Religious Studies at the University of North Carolina, Charlotte. Dr. Tabor is one of the foremost modern scholars on Biblical history and the Dead Sea Scrolls. His book is insightful, neutral and leads the researcher to draw upon their own conclusions. I highly recommend this book to anyone who seeks greater insight as to who not only Jesus historically was but also those people who were close to Him and those people who made an impact both historically and theologically for what has become the basis of most modern day Christianity. Thanks to my wife and partner for having the insight and for bringing this book home for me to research and for encouraging me to continue my studies. I am truly blessed by God to have this person in my life.
I felt that in order for me to get better understanding of the four gospels, I wanted to have a better understanding of who the “Apostles” or disciples were both historically and theologically. I therefore used the Holman Illustrated Bible Dictionary 2004 edition as another source of my research. This dictionary includes all the major translations of the Holy Bible and has proven to be an excellent and valuable source of information and I recommend this publication be added to your library.
I tend to agree with some biblical scholars that many of the writings in the four gospels were or may have been written by different authors inspired by God with the exception of those I will discuss in this paper. I therefore begin to finally get to the heart of this task on how the four gospels have impacted my life, what I feel the important lessons are that I have learned and how I apply them in my life today.
So I begin with the Gospel of Matthew.
Rev. Dennis W. Zerull
Gospel of Matthew
It still amazes me that God has the insight to pick certain individuals from various walks of life and very diverse background to become apostles of Jesus. Matthew a tax collector, whose duty it was to collect toll or transport taxes from both local merchants and farmers, was an employee of Herod Antipas and it is said that he was hated by his fellow Jews. Matthew had leased his toll collecting privileges by paying the annual fee in advance thus collecting more than enough and growing wealth on his profit. This could account for the hostile feelings towards him.
Yet he had the gifts to be trained as a disciple and kept meticulous records and was a potential recorder or author of the Gospel. Scholars from the earliest times believe Matthew to be the author of the Gospel that bears his name. The Gospel begins with the declaration “the historical record of Jesus Christ”. I believe Matthew’s purpose was to show that Jesus had the power to command His disciples to spread His gospel throughout the world. Through out the entire Gospel I am reminded of many experiences during Jesus’ ministry that proved three themes in this gospel. I took me a while to realize that Matthew shows us how Jesus demonstrated His authority, the teachings he employed, and His concern for all mankind and nations.
The Gospel opens with the royal genealogy and builds to the proclamation of God, “this is My beloved Son”, then when Jesus comes to John the Baptist the Gospel makes it obvious that Jesus is designated by God to be the Messiah with authority for all nations. This is further emphasized by the Sermon on the Mount were the nature of his teachings are “but I tell you”. His authority further means demonstrating authority over disease, natural catastrophes, demons and death. Two of these examples amongst the many in the gospels stand out for me.
First is the healing of lepers. It is amazing to me that the malady which to this day we can only contain was and still is a dreaded malady which in biblical times rendered its victims ceremonially unclean. Further anyone who came in contact with a leper was also considered unclean. Skin running sores to the loss of digits on the fingers and toes. Yet Jesus did not consider this distinction between clean and unclean valid.
A person’s outward appearance does not make one unclean but rather that which comes from the heart determines one’s standing before God. Jesus did not hesitate to touch the lepers and once again used His authority to command his disciples to cleanse the lepers. Cleanse the lepers? That would indicate that the malady was gone and the person was clean or healed of the disease. Such faith not only by the leper to believe that Jesus could heal them by just a touch but that fact that Jesus had the authority from God His Father to perform such a miracle is almost mind boggling. Further the disciples to have such faith and courage to carry out the commands of Jesus demonstrates God’s power and the power of faith and complete unselfish love.
The next lesson I learned truly baffled me for a couple of months. The story of the fig tree had me scratching my head for quite some time. I knew that it had something to do with bearing fruit but I still was not sure what it all meant. I lost several nights of sleep thinking about it and prayed and meditated countless hours over this story. I finally came to a conclusion after much research and knocking on enough doors until one finally opened as well as seeking until I found.
Jesus preformed many miracles. Not all miracles are necessarily ones that heal or having a burning bush attached to them. This particular miracle that Jesus performed puzzled even the disciples because it was not even the season for figs. We know that Jesus has hunger and finds the fig tree which bears no fruit. After Jesus curses the fig tree, without explanation, Jesus led His disciples into Jerusalem where He cleansed the temple. This is further explained in Mark as well. The temple by all outward appearances looked as if there was daily activity and spiritual life. But Jesus found no spiritual fruit. Israel, the tree, was supposed to provide a house of prayer for all nations but instead turned the devotion into financial profit. When Jesus answered the fig tree that it would no longer bear fruit he pronounced a curse on the Jewish religious leadership and demonstrated His divine displeasure by cleansing the temple and upon a return trip to Jerusalem, history tells us that Peter and the disciples find the cursed tree dead.
Without faith and works we can bear no spiritual fruit thus we cannot feed those who depend upon us for spiritual guidance. When we bear no fruit, we become spiritually starved and will feed upon ourselves and eventually die of starvation. We rely on self and not God. This miracle taught me that I must keep my own house in order and keep God first in my life. Sometimes when I pray and meditate the answer was no or answer came to me. It may mean that I have not done enough work or the time is not right. But I feel that eventually God gave me the answer that I was seeking through some studying, head scratching, reading and a radio message from a Pastor that I had been listening to one morning. He just happened to be talking about this very same subject. His take was basically the same. Was it odd or God?
Gospel of Mark
According to early church tradition Mark recorded and arranged memories of Peter, thereby producing a Gospel based on apostolic witness. This may account for it being the shortest book in the Gospels. It would seem that Mark wrote this gospel for the Gentiles as he explains Jewish customs in detail for the benefit of the readers. Considering the time frame in which scholars believe this gospel was written and the fact that he was close to Peter while in Rome would suggest that it was written with Roman Christians in mind.
Mark has been called the “Gospel of Action” by some scholars. Jesus is constantly on the move. One day He is instructing the multitudes by the sea and then travels to Galilee, calmed the storm, healed the woman with hemorrhage and raised a girl from the dead. It almost seems as it is a writing using an arbitrary collections of stories. But it does tell the story of Jesus as a whole.
What I did learn from this Gospel is that Jesus is identified with humanity. The “Son of Man”. He possesses every human emotion such as anger, frustration, mercy and sorrow. From the beginning Jesus knowingly lived in the shadow of the cross, experienced the agony of Gethsemane and faces the unimaginable pain of torture and in the end during his own execution by crucifixion.
But Jesus also shows amazing wisdom and insightful rationale as the Pharisees on one occasion try and entrap him and ask him whether they needed to pay taxes to Caesar. He simply tells them to give “Caesar’s things to Caesar and God things to God”. Jesus already knew the answers too many of these questions and traps that were set for him by the Pharisees. I further believe that he knew that the time was not right for the beginning of what was to be the last chapter in his life until all prophesies were fulfilled.
Jesus displayed incredible courage knowing what the final outcome was to be. Methodically planning and carrying out those plans in order to fulfill His Fathers plans for the salvation of man. However in the end the message that rings true throughout all the Gospels is that one must love God.
Gospel of Luke
Luke was known to be a close friend and traveling companion of Paul. Luke has been identified as a physician from the early accounts of Paul. What is interesting to me is that early sources and traditions indicate that Luke was a Gentile. Paul distinguished Luke from those “of the circumcision”. Tradition holds that he was Greek, never married or had children but served the Lord until his death at the age of 84 in Boeatia. Tradition for Lukan authorship is strong although he is never mentioned by name as the author of Luke or Acts. “But early descriptions of New Testament books dating between A.D. 160 and 190 agree that Luke, the physician and companion Paul wrote the Gospel of Luke”, as quoted from the Holman Bible Dictionary.
Luke the longest of the Gospels presents a historical work in order with most of the stories falling in chronological sequence. Again scholars believe that Luke connected his story with the larger Jewish and Roman worlds and was designed to show Roman authorities that Christianity posed not political threat. He also wrote the Gospel for the Gentiles and Christians who needed strengthening in faith. Though Luke was not an eye witness to the earthly life and ministry of Jesus he was in intimate contact with many who were.
For me the gospel of Luke makes clear a couple of things. First the Holy Spirit has chosen this Gospel to reach all nations and points to God’s love in Jesus Christ as described in chapter 2 1-20. Secondly, Jesus tells his disciples that they are to represent Him in His name and that by people receiving them, they will be receiving Jesus which in turn they will receive God. It is spelled out quite well in the study guide by Rev. Amy Long and deserves my thanks for this insight.
Luke again demonstrates how Jesus threw out demons, cured countless people of all kinds of afflictions, made the blind to see and the mute were able to talk. It introduces the Lords Prayer and talks about love for God and your fellow man, which ultimately is the key to a better and more spiritual life. But he also talks about the struggles we will face as believers and doing what is expected of us according to His commandments in order to receive salvation. To me this means making amends to those I have hurt and clear up my past and not expect praise or accolades for it. Simply put, love God and my fellows. It’s all about Karma that is mentioned throughout the study guide.
Lastly Luke describes Jesus’ high regard for women. Mary, Elizabeth, and Anna the prophetess. The Gospel goes on to mention Jesus’ dealings with the widow Nain and the sinful woman who anointed Him and how he forgave her. All wonderful teachings and ones that I personally need to work on.
Gospel of John
The fourth Gospel of John is distinct from the Snyoptic Gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke. I agree with the study guide and the traditions of scholars that John is John of Zebedee. The Holman dictionary states, “Much of the weight of the traditional view of authorship of the Gospels rest on the testimony of Irenaeus, bishop of Lugdunum in Gaul.” Upon further research this tradition fits the details of the Gospel, however, it also has historical credibility in that Irenaeus was from Asia Minor when he is said to have encountered Polycarp of Smyrna, who claimed to have been taught by the Apostle John.
There are some very distinct differences in John’s Gospel. First John omits events and references that are important in the other Gospels such as the baptism of Jesus and the breaking of bread and giving of the cup at the Last Supper. Jesus refers to the kingdom in the skies in only one conversation in John whereas this seems to be a theme or central topic in the Snyoptics. Jesus does not heal lepers or performs exorcisms. He also does not include the parables that are common in the other Gospels. Secondly, Jesus’ ministry in John features conversations with individuals such as Nicodemus, the Samaritan woman and the disciples in the upper room. But he does include the raising of Lazarus which the other Gospels do not and records the washing of the disciples’ feet. Jesus is also called the “Lamb of God” only in John. He is the good shepherd and the disciples are His flock.
Significant to me besides the amazing events that were previously mentioned is that John reminds us that knowing God and believing in Jesus are expressed in action. Life and unity is found in Him and we must know love for one another, sacrificial love, and even laying down our lives for others. This is a powerful message.
Last be certainly not least the courage and passion of Jesus’ control of events. He instructs his adversaries on how to arrest Him. Pilate struggles with his decision, but Jesus knows what will happen. Jesus is executed and dies as the “Lamb” and is sacrificed at the very time lambs were being sacrificed for Passover. Finally John calls on each of us who sense spiritual thirst to come to Jesus who gives live-giving water. In Jesus we find light, life and love.
In conclusion I must say that I thoroughly enjoyed this course, the well thought out study guide and personal shares. It has led me to further seek a spiritual path and a higher consciousness of my own potential as a human being. Thank you once again for offering this wonderful experience to all who seek it. May God’s greatest blessing be upon you .
Please send my certificate of completion and seminary credits to:
Rev. Dennis W. Zerull
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The ULC, run by Rev. Long, has created a chaplaincy program to help train our ministers. We also have a huge catalog of Universal Life Church materials. I've been ordained with the Universal Life Church for many years and it's Seminary since the beginning and have loved watching the continual growth of the seminary.
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