How to say ‘Jesus’ in 22 different languages

Susan Wunderink, Christianity Today

We are Barabbas

By Scot Longyear

38 “What is truth?” Pilate asked. With this he went out again to the Jews and said, “I find no basis for a charge against him. 39 But it is your custom for me to release to you one prisoner at the time of the Passover. Do you want me to release ‘the king of the Jews’?”

40 They shouted back, “No, not him! Give us Barabbas!” Now Barabbas had taken part in a rebellion. - Jn 18

Barabbas. A rebel. Maybe a killer.  Perhaps a derelict of society.  An outcast.  He would possibly die for his crimes.  I wonder what he thought in prison.  “Well, this is it.  I screwed it up so bad that this might be the end. If they don’t kill me, I might as well kill myself because I will be a prisoner for a long time.”  Maybe he thought of escape.  Maybe he played with the idea of killing the guard and running away.  Maybe he had given up hope. “I messed this up, now I am responsible to pay for my actions.”  Maybe he tried to think of a loophole.  There was none.  Or was there?

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What the History Channel has Taught Me About Jesus

By Paul Cat

1. He never existed.
2. He did exist, but he was only a man.
3. He was gay.
4. He was a woman.
5. He was married to Mary of Magdeline (I guess this makes him a lesbian.)
6. His real father was a Roman soldier named Pantera who secretly knocked up Mary.
7. He really just repacked Hinduism and Buddhism.
8. The Gospels are simply the sum total composite image of Christ from the early Christian communities. Therefore he was not God, but was mistaken for being God …

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Muggeridge on knowing about Jesus

A great quote (HT: Waving or Drowning?):

“Future historians–assuming there are any interested in such matters–are likely to conclude that the more we knew about Jesus the less we knew him, and the more precisely his words were translated the less we understood or heeded them.”

Malcolm Muggeridge, Jesus: The Man Who Lives

When was Christmas, really?

New Testament scholar Darrell Bock has the skinny:

“The most we can get for the biblical data is a range of years.”

“Knowing How to Quit – and Five Other Values of Jesus”

Ronald T. Habermas, author of the Introduction to Christian Education and Formation: A Lifelong Plan for Christ-Centered Restoration, lists a handful of traits Jesus possessed that we his followers should emulate:

“When talk comes around to Jesus’ diverse ministries – especially those upholding the dignity of humans – many of us recall our Lord’s advocacy for powerless people. That’s a worthy place to start. Yet several other people-driven values characterize Jesus’ work, too, because at the heart of those values is the fact that everybody still possesses God’s Image. Consider these half-dozen axioms that prize our Divine reflection.
 
1. Jesus displayed ethnographic sensitivity …”

‘Twas the Night before Jesus Came’

I first heard this from my in-laws. Whether it jives with your end-times framework perfectly or not, I hope you can still appreciate it:

‘Twas The Night Before Jesus Came
Audrey Patricia Woolverton

‘Twas the night before Jesus came, and all through the house
Not a creature was praying, not one in the house.
Their Bibles were lain on the shelf without care
In hopes that Jesus would not come there.

The children were dressing to crawl into bed.
Not once ever kneeling or bowing a head.
And Mom in her rocker with baby on her lap
Was watching the Late Show while I took a nap.

When out of the East there arose such a clatter.
I sprang to my feet to see what was the matter.
Away to the window I flew like a flash,
Tore open the shutters and threw up the sash!

When what to my wondering eyes should appear
But angels proclaiming that Jesus was here.
With a light like the sun sending forth a bright ray
I knew in a moment this must be THE DAY!

The light of His face made me cover my head
It was Jesus! returning just like He had said.
And though I possessed worldly wisdom and wealth,
I cried when I saw Him in spite of myself.

In the Book of Life which He held in His hand
Was written the name of every saved man.
He spoke not a word as He searched for my name;
When He said “it’s not here” my head hung in shame.

The people whose names had been written with love
He gathered to take to His Father above.
With those who were ready He rose without a sound.
While all the rest were left standing around.

I fell to my knees, but it was too late;
I had waited too long and thus sealed my fate.
I stood and I cried as they rose out of sight;
Oh, if only I had been ready tonight.

In the words of this poem the meaning is clear;
The coming of Jesus is drawing near.
There’s only one life and when comes the last call
We’ll find that the Bible was true after all!

Was Jesus being unkind to the Gentile woman in Mark 7?

Gene Aptaker, author of the Endtimes Disciples Weblog, thinks probably not:

“Was Jesus being insensitive or unkind to the Syrophoenician woman? I don’t believe so. I believe He was dealing with ‘racial superiority’ issues in His disciples, in perhaps a less direct way than He dealt with other issues at other times.”

‘Mur-dah’ in the Sermon on the Mount

Joe Blackmon unpacks Matthew 5:24-27 at the Hear God Speak blog:

“Christ teaches us that the prohibition against murder goes much deeper than the physical act of taking another person’s life …”

Not in the Gospels …

(HT: Alive & Young)

Christian Carnival Numero 251

… is set up at the Messy Christian blog (weather permitting). Post titles include:

• “Gabriel Murdi: A Glorious Life Cut Short” - Voke Emore relates the shocking death of Gabriel Murdi, who was refused medical treatment because of flaws in Nigeria’s public sector.
• “Tithing on Gross vs. Net: What Exactly is Gross Income?” - JCL explains why its necessary to tithe your gross income.
• “Dining with Harlots” - Jesus certainly liked shock therapy, said Richard H. Anderson.

‘Mini-mediators’?

At the Alpha & Omega Ministries Apologetics Blog, Tur8infan counters a notion posited by Catholic Dave Armstrong:

“In a recent blog post, Dave Armstrong (a lay advocate of Catholicism) has made the remarkable argument that ‘there is one mediator’ in 1 Timothy 2:5 does not rule out what Dave calls ‘mini-mediators.’”

“Ignorance of scripture …

… is ignorance of Christ.”

- Jerome (AD 347–420)

(HT: This Lamp)

Good theology a remedy for racism

Especially a sound view of Christ, according to J. Kameron Carter, the author of Race: A Theological Account. Scot McKnight comments on the prelude to Carter’s work:

“Carter argues that Irenaeus’ response to Gnosticism profoundly undoes any basis for hierarchy among humans, for disconnecting the Church from Israel, and for delegitimating YHWH as God.”

FYI
Gnosticism was “an early Greek religious movement of broad proportions that was particularly influential in the second-century church … Gnostics believed that devotees had gained a special kind of spiritual enlightenment, through which they had attained a secret or higher level of knowledge not accessible to the uninitiated.” - from the Pocket Dictionary of Theological Terms, edited by Grenz, Guretzki and Nordling (InterVarsity, 1999).

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