Thursday, December 29, 2022

Introduction to the Next Book - The Parables of Jesus

 

  Titles fluctuate from day to day.


Table of Contents

Introduction. 2

 

Introduction

            Scholars, endlessly divided, have lengthy introductions explaining the concept and meaning of Jesus’ Parables. My New Testament professor, at Waterloo Lutheran Seminary, wrote a book on the Parables and concluded that no one really knew what they meant. He had been dropped from the faculty of the Lutheran School of Theology in Chicago, a merger of six or more seminaries, dwindling in size even then, and now orphaned and selling its property to the University of Chicago.

            The New Testament Parables mean nothing unless they are read in the context of faith in Jesus Christ, the Son of God, born of the Virgin Mary, unique teacher and miracle maker, dying on the cross for our sins, rising from the dead, and ascending to Heaven. When the work of the Savior is shrunken down to “popular teacher,” the Parables lose their meaning. The apostates, who have abandoned their faith, are limited to mumbling about the many opinions published since the Age of Rationalism.

            The Bible itself is simply the book which teaches faith in Jesus, from Genesis 1 until the end of Revelation. The Holy Trinity is clearly taught in Genesis 1, as long as people read a little further and see the mysteries of the Christian Faith unfolding as the centuries progressed – and sometimes regressed.

KJV Genesis 1: 1 In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.

2 And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.

3 And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.

4 And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness.

5 And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day.

God the Father commanded that the entire universe be fashioned, God the Son executing His orders. God the Holy Spirit witnessed this and revealed God’s Word. John 1:3 reveals additional details to us –

KJV John 1: 1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

2 The same was in the beginning with God.

3 All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made.

4 In him was life; and the life was the light of men.

The New Testament specifies what was suggested in the Old Testament – the Holy Trinity, the pre-existence of the Son of God, the creation of all things animate and inanimate, and light – before the sun and stars were commanded into existence.

            The Parables are used correctly only when the Scriptures are studied and remembered as one unified source, the Book of the Holy Spirit, all verses in harmony and not contradicting themselves as the Biblical professors so often do. The purpose of the entire Bible is not to eliminate faith in the Savior, but to explain and believe what is clearly the mission and purpose of the Son of God.

            Some Parables, like the Good Samaritan, are so obvious that an entire era of church political activism is used to make the Savior the founder of political activism in the visible church, the conclusion always being, “What can’t we do even more to make the world a better place?”

            The divine nature of the Parables is clear to anyone who has been asked to write a very short story in fulfillment of English or journalism credits. The task is very difficult and suffers badly in comparison with the Parables of Jesus.