The Glory of Knowing the Gospel of John. The Holy Spirit Teaches through the Word

The Synodical Conference consists of Darth Vaders
teaching their Biblical ignorance  - and their hatred of the Book of Concord -
to the young and innocent,
hoping to produce more Stormtroopers.

 Higher Things is one of the para-church businesses
fostered by the LCMS, like Amway's conferences.
HT is distinctively UOJ,
and Right Rev. Heiser was thanked for speaking there,
long ago.

When I was discussing descriptions of the Gospel of John, a long-time friend, 29A, offered an addition to:

1. The Gospel of Faith.
2. The Gospel of Love.
3. The Fourth Gospel.
4. The Gospel That Soars above the Rest - the Eagle.

My friend called the Gospel of John - The Doctrinal Gospel.

That is the best title for the Gospel of John. The Apostle John wrote it, and the narratives have the most vivid you-are-there feel to them. Matthew is more formal. Mark and Luke were not apostles. That is not to lessen the importance of Matthew-Mark-Luke. The Fourth Gospel assumes we know the first three already. And yet there are reasons to elevate the Fourth Gospel above the others.

• The Gospel of John contains sermons we only have from him. 
• He was "the disciple Jesus loved."
• He was steadfast at the cross when the others fled.
• He was the son to Mary after the death and resurrection of Jesus.
• The teaching of Jesus is clear, pointed, and easily memorized.
• The doctrinal passages anticipate future errors and refutes them.

Bainton earned a PhD in New Testament at Yale and became their
most famous church historian.

Roland Bainton taught me that the best way to learn a new language was to use the Gospel of John. He used the Greek and matched it with the language he needed to know for his research, such as Old Polish. Bibles in every language are easy to obtain, and Bainton, as a PhD in New Testament studies, knew the Gospel well.

I tutored Little Ichabod in reading all of the Gospel of John - in Latin first - then in Greek. In both languages he could speed translate the Gospel, a chapter at a time, when we finished it. Anyone who reads John in a new language will find the phrases and sentences - many of them poetic, credal, or hymnic - difficult to forget.