The known world was impacted by the spreading of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, which was done by the first century church with great passion. These early followers of Christ set the world on fire, by relaying the Good news of Jesus Christ, first to the nation of Israel then to the gentile world. The Bible tells us that the Apostle Peter was commissioned to bring the announcement of Christ’s death and resurrection to his Jewish brethren, whereas, the Apostle Paul was chosen by Christ to bring the Gospel message of salvation to the gentile world. The early works of the church are recorded in a series of letters that have become known as the scriptures of the New Testament.
During early missionaries journeys the Gospel of Christ was shared first with the Jews. These early workers went into the local “synagogue and reading the Law and the Prophets” (Acts 13:15) teaching that, Jesus Christ has fulfilled the scriptures of the Messiah. Today the Law and Prophets are known as the Old Testament. The early church used these scriptures to verify the accuracy of what Peter, Paul and the rest of early church were preaching. The Jews in Berea received the word from Paul and examined the scripture daily to confirm the truth (Acts 17:10-12). These early followers of Christ set the example that today’s believers need to follow.
The New Testament student will develop a much richer faith by embracing the study of the Old Testament. The exploration into the depths of details that God’s plan has threaded into both Testaments will expand the researchers understanding of God. The revelation that God concealed the plan of salvation in the Law and the Prophets until the right time for it to be reveled is one of the many treasures of studying the Old Test...
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...ent book except Revelation.” In order to show his readers that Jesus was the Christ, he went into the Old Testament writings of Isaiah, Deuteronomy and several other Prophets. Of the thirty nine books that make up the Old Testament the book of “Isaiah is crucial to understanding the person and work of Christ.” Isaiah takes you to the prophecy’s concerning the birth of the Messiah (Isaiah 7:14, 9:6) and His death on the cross (Isaiah 58). The way the early followers of Christ examined and applied scriptures of the Old Testament to their faith, so should be example to the modern Theologian. The Jewish people had been expecting a Messiah and knew about the prophecy that was written in their sacred text. Therefore, the authors of the New Testament were inspired by God to guide the people back to the Old Testament to understand that they were fulfilled in Jesus Christ.
Although the New Testament is the main source of information regarding Jesus’ life, Jews often disregard it as a reliable source of information. It was not written until two to three generations after Jesus, hence it cannot be considered a primary source. Also, from a Jewish perspective, the aim of the Gospels is not to give an accurate account of Jesus’ life and teachings; the Gospels served as missionary documents containing accounts recorded by biased evangelists. They reflect the aims of the church rather than actual facts, and their writers were more concerned with the advancement of Christianity than the transmission of factual historical information. For these reasons, it is impossible to separate the historical Jesus from the divine Christ presented in the Gospels, and Judaism regards the Gospels as unreliable and irrational.
The Christian Scriptures is the entire Christian Bible. It is composed of both the Hebrew Scriptures and the Christian Testament. The Hebrew Scriptures (Old Testament) is composed of several books all containing stories about Jesus, and the Christian Testament (New Testament) which contains the stories of Jesus and the earliest Christian Communities. Although these stories cannot confidently prove to us that they are true there are several distinct similarities, which are contained in nearly all of the books. These similarities are so frequent that their constant occurrence seems more than coincidence. Although these similarities occur often in the books of the Hebrew Scriptures, there are four short books included in the Christian Testament, which we must rely on to understand Jesus’ ministry and life.
To speak of the Hebrew Scripture is to speak of story, a story stretching from the very beginning of time to only a few centuries before the beginning of the Common Era. It is to speak of richness of content, of purpose and of reality and to engross oneself in an overarching narrative that, depending on your personal convictions, continues to the present day. Within this richness is found a wide variety of different events and experience, told through a series of genre ranging from foundational myth to apocalypse, law giving to poetry, genealogy to wisdom and many more. Within this diversity however, three broad sections can be discerned that speak to a shared purpose and content, these are the sections of Law, Prophecy and Writings. It is the purpose of this talk then to examine each of these sections, identifying their commonality and differences and exploring why they exists as discernable sections. To achieve this, we will be led through a brief survey of each section, delving into the content and purpose of each with reference to the others. In addition to this we will also explore the three genres of foundational myth, type scene and wisdom that are found in these sections, discussing their features and how they have been used in specific circumstances as a part of the greater biblical narrative.
While many Jews continued to follow their original faith, there were several that converted to this new way of living. Origination of Christianity starts with a Jew names Jesus, here it is seen again where present times were very difficult and Jesus was able to provide salvation to the people of his community. In the Jewish scriptures a messiah was predicted to happen and Jesus was believed to be the Messiah. In contrast many people did not believe that he was the Messiah and Jesus eventually was crucified by Pagans. Despite the horrific event that took place, Jesus was resurrected and passed a long his messages from God. Jesus brought light into the lives of the poor and helped the ill, he wanted a change to happen as there were many wars and chaos present at the time. After Jesus’ death, Paul, one of his apostles, left to travel around the neighboring countries and spread the name of Jesus and his teachings. Paul was a very important individual and main contributor to the success of
The four Gospels stand at the head of the New Testament, underlining their importance, forming a “seamless continuity between the story of Israel and the story of the church”. The four documents now known as the Gospels were not known by this name until late in the second century. Until then, there was only one Gospel, the proclamation of Jesus and the kingdom of God, with four books presenting it, each in its own way. Modern readers are so used to seeing the compilation of these writings as the New Testament that they forget that each one was originally conceived to stand on its own. Consequently, to understand the Gospels and the kind of literature that they are, it is crucial to look at them in the first century Palestinian environment in which they were written. At that time, the cultural landscape was dominated by three main elements: Roman rule, Hellenistic culture and, above all, the religious symbols of Judaism. In that context, Jesus’ proclamation of the kingdom of God could be perceived as a challenge to Roman rule, a dismissal of Greek thought and an attack on Judaism.
..., The apostle Paul would now help this growing group to spread the gospel with the to the gentile world
Outside of Jesus Christ, there may not be a more important figure in Christianity other than St. Paul the Apostle. Paul was at one point a persecutor of early Christians, however a revelation experience in the mid-30’s AD changed his view of the faith. He ultimately became the most prominent figure in the spread of early Christianity, as his many missions established Christian churches throughout the Roman Empire. During the time of his missions, Paul penned numerous letters to the various Christian communities that he had helped establish. Pauline writings were the earliest of the New Testament writings, and ultimately comprise a third of the New Testament. One letter of particular interest when studying the theology of Paul and the early
Christopher J. H. Wright is an Anglican clergyman and an Old Testament scholar. He is the International Ministries Director of Langham Partnership International. He was the principal of All Nations College. He is the honorary member of the All Saints Church of Langham Place in London, England. In his book, Knowing Jesus Through the Old Testament, Dr. Wright looks to bring about the unity between the Hebrew Scriptures and the understanding of Jesus pertaining to the Word of God. Dr. Wright points out that the knowledge of Christ Jesus originated in the history of salvation that was planned and worked by the Lord for the people of Israel. This book is one of the most essential sources to understand the relation between Jesus and the Old Testament. In fact, “Christian talk of the relation between Jesus Christ and the OT has been prone in the tradition to several forms of error.” As we will see, the author illustrates the complex method in which the character, doctrine, and mission are mingled and can be found within the Hebrew Bible. Dr. Wright illustrates upon the passage of Matthew 1 – 4 indicating how the Old Testament covenants and promises brought about the knowledge of Jesus and interestingly enough discover their completion in Him. There is a whole lot of truth to be gathered by the book by Dr. Wright. A closer discovery of the hidden topics will bring about some foundational theological issues for that need to be presented.
With Jerusalem destroyed, Paul and others followers of the Jerusalem Church, which was a section of Judaism, began to spread the word of Jesus throughout Rome and the surrounding area to Gentiles. No one had a greater effect on spreading Christianity than Paul did, Paul was actually quite radical as he preached the teachings of Jesus Christ to Gentiles as they too could get God’s salvation. This can also be seen by looking at The New Testament as fourteen of the twenty-seven books in The New Testament have been linked to Paul. With Paul and other apostles spreading the word of Jesus after his death and resurrection the Early Church and Judaism began to clash which then caused the teachings of Jesus to break off. In short the Roman Jewish War gave the teachings of Jesus Christ the ability to take hold in ancient Europe which allowed those teachings to break off and form a new religion,
In the days of Christ’s life on this earth, believers did not have access to the Bible in its entirety as we know and are familiar with today. Believers in this ancient time period only had access to the Old Testament. However, through their access to the Old Testament, believers were provided a foundation for New Testament times. This foundation provided New Testament believers with the Lord’s established principles of right and wrong they were expected to follow. In addition, the Old Testament is overflowing with accounts of people whose lives exemplified the future life of Christ on this earth. These pictures allowed the Israelite nation to begin to have an understanding of why Christ needed to come as their Messiah and the work He needed to do on earth. Finally, there are common themes that are interwoven throughout the entire Old Testament. Three of these themes: transgression, redemption, and consummation point to the purpose of Christ’s atoning death on the cross. These themes portray God’s work both in the lives of Old Testament believers, but they also foreshadow God’s desire and plan for believers in New Testament times and beyond.
Throughout history, the Gospel has had various outlets in which to reach people. In the beginning of time, the actions of the Word took place. Real life circumstances and followers lived what we read about in the Bible. Adam and Eve, Noah and the Ark, Job’s suffering, Ruth’s struggles, David and Goliath, and all of Jesus’s teachings, hardship, and death served as sources of belief and real-life examples of faith. The Gospel is something that became impossible to deny in actions on a grand scale. Today, people want to see to believe. As Christians, it is our job to touch as many lives as possible by telling people of God’s love and what he sent His son to do to forgive our sins in the process, leading as many people to Jesus as we can. By doing
The Apostle Paul is known as the greatest missionary of the early church. Paul, who once vowed to wipe out belief in Jesus Christ, was later converted to do the work of Christ. He would author almost half of the 27 books in the New Testament. He endured sickness, rejection, and repeated attacks on his life to bring the message of God's grace and forgiveness to Gentiles. Paul was the apostle largely responsible for the solid inception and growth of Christianity. He spoke before Jews, Greeks, and Romans. Paul is known as the apostle to the Gentiles. He defended God's Word before kings and emperors of this world. By the end of his life, much of the Mediterranean world had been reached with the gospel.
Men spoke from God as they were carried along by the “Holy Spirit” (21b), this means that scripture did not come from creative work of the prophets’ or their own invention or interpretation. God inspired the writers, so their message would be authentic and reliable. God used the talents, education, and culture background of each writer. God cooperated with the writers in such a way to ensure that the message he intended was faithfully communicated in the very words they wrote. “All scripture is breathed out by God for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training the righteousness” (2 Tim 3:16). “Brothers, the Scripture had to be fulfilled, which the Holy Spirit spoke beforehand by the mouth of David concerning Judas, who became a guide to who arrested Jesus” (Acts 1:16).
Jesus Christ and Paul stayed faithful to God’s message even though they were presenting their message of the Old Testament to an audience of the New Testement. Jesus Christ would debate the use of a particular words tense of the verb in the Old Testament questions. Paul would make his theological argument based on the Old Testament passage as singular or plural. They exhorted the importance of correctly interpreting the scripture. Paul also urged Timothy(2 Tim 3:16) to study the Old Testament, stating that all scripture is inspired by God. The Old Testament and New Testament affirm that the Word of God is eternal.