Weblog, sample post

Frederick Douglas, long-standing supporter of black rights and women’s rights once said

“A battle lost or won is easily described, understood, and appreciated, but the moral growth of a great nation requires reflection, as well as observation, to appreciate it.”

In the same way should we reflect our experiences and actions, for famous philosopher John Locke, known to me mainly for his political theories, once said

“Education begins the gentleman, but reading, good company and reflection must finish him.”

Furthermore, in 2nd Timothy chapter 2, Paul instructed Timothy to be a good soldier of Christ Jesus, as well as to teach what he has learnt to reliable people qualified to teach other people. Verse 7 then sees Paul asking Timothy to reflect on what Paul said, that the Lord will give Timothy insight.

This reflection shall cover four of the ideas I have found to my interest in this course. These are my personal interest in the first Canonical books, the impact of the intertestimonial Hesmonean Empire, How Paul caters to different audiences, and lastly how being in this class has affected my perspective on Christian life. I shall also cover other outside related readings and how each of these ideas has affected me.

The Canon had always had a grey spot on my heart, as I have had many friends asking me why there are discrepancies between the bible of the Catholics and the Protestants, and whether such a disagreement decreases the credibility of the bible, which both Catholics and Protestants regard as the Holy Word. My common response would be, “I’m not sure of that, but it doesn’t matter”, while inside of me I knew I had to find out about it. It probably seemed apt that Reverend Casey covered it on the first day of the course.

A quick search of the internet shows the books included and excluded from the bibles used by both Western and Eastern Protestants, Roman catholics and the Oxthodox church. This then begs my question: Are we losing out on what could be spiritually beneficial scripture to our daily lives, or are the other forms of Chrstianity bringing into their lives scripture that might be counter-productive?

My stand on my own rhetoric is, as Rev. Casey regularly says, such arguments do not matter in the larger scheme of God’s kingdom. Will the inclusion of one book or exclusion of another lead to more people being saved? It is by the Lord’s grace that the New Testament is undisputed as to which books are to be included, and which not. Short of going into the specifics and technicalities of the various canonical decisions, the Lord’s commandments are clear:
1. Love the Lord thy God with all your heart, all your soul, all your might
2. Love your neighbour as yourself

As heard of in class, the Law of love outrules any law on the face of this earth, and I find that very true. If you love God, You will not have other gods before Him, nor will you blaspheme His name, and celebrate the Sabbath in that we remember how God created the earth and all in it. We will choose to honor and love our father and mother, choosing not to kill, commit adultery, steal, bear false witness or covet our neighbour’s possessions, as we both love God who created us, wanting to be more like Him, as well as because we love our neighbours and those around us.
Birth out of this will be our love for the lost, resulting in our quest to save the lost.

3. Go out into the world, making disciples of all nations, baptising them in the name of the Father, the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
Therefore, this idea challenges me not to dwell on the minute details like whether chewing gum during service should be condemned, or even whether my actions will cause any other brother or sister in Christ to think anything of me, but rather that I shall lift my eyes to God and praise Him in all I do.

The second idea that hit me was during the covering of the Hasmonean Dynasty during Group presentations. Again, I had always wondered what happened in these years of silence. The thing that hit me hardest about this was how the Israelites always seem to be rebelling against authority and wanting personal gain over a common nationalistic identity.
For a better view of this, one can compare the feud between Hyrcanus II and Aristobulus II, as compared to more united kingdoms, such as the Japanese empire during the Second World War.

The Hasmonean dynasty had undergone initial expansions, and could have developed into a regional power, but instead fell to the sword of the relentless Romans, who used this vulnerable Judean region as a stepping stone to the middle Eastern region. One could argue also that the Roman conquest was inevitable, but the point was the ease of Roman occupation because of a segmented Israel.

Compared to the Japanese empire, the Japanese soldiers viewed the emporer as the undisputed ‘son of god’, and hence nobody within the kingdom objected to any orders he gave, thus giving rise to the relative success of the Japanese during the Second World War.
The lessons I learn from such an idea is how important unity is within a church. Many a time members oppose a pastor or a leader because they feel that those set as our shepherds are incapable of doing so. There is a continual paradox regarding this issue. Although the bible tells us to respect those put over us, yet sometimes we do not know whether such leaders are really divinely chosen, or if anyone involved is acting for their own gains.

Regardless, as a member within my church I should support those put over me, yet constantly ensuring that whatever they speak correspond with God’s word, but being careful not to be cynical of whatsoever they say. On the other hand, nobody’s perfect, and everyone has times where they drift slightly away from God, which is when us as followers support those over us and ‘nurse’ them back to health. These revelations were gained via thinking about such issues raised during class and talking with some leaders in my church, of course being my own opinions.

The third point I came across during this course is how Paul uses different ways to convey his messages to different audiences, as do the authors of the 4 Gospels. For example, since Matthew was speaking to the Jews, the author started off with the geneology, as well as making use of many prophesies being fulfilled, to probe to the Jews that Jesus was truly the son of God.
I find this point very appealing to me as it teaches me that there is no one way for evangelism. Some people respond better to the soft approach, while others respond better to the hard approach of warnings about Eschatology. I had always had the assertion that there were set formulas for evangelism, but the bible obviously says otherwise. Paul says he is to everyone what they are for the glory of God such that they can be saved.

My last point to be made is that being in such a bible school class made me realise how secular education differs from education for the use in God’s kingdom. Of course, the primary difference is secular knowledge passes away with the end of the Earth, yet knowledge of God is timeless. However, coming relatively fresh from the ‘A’ Level battle campaign, I had the belief that all education is a relative competition, in which the main aim and purpose was the divide the wheat from the chaff, the best from the rest.

However, this class has shown me how much love there is between fellow student ‘competitors’ as we strive toward the common goal of pleasing God and obeying his commandments. It really broke my heart coming in and being loved by people I had previously not known at all.
I thank God wholeheartedly for this experience that I have had and I encourage absolutely everyone to attend at least a course at bible college, to learn more about our Heavenly Father.
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I have had outside related readings in the form of references for the group presentation.

In conclusion, this course experience, though not over yet, has already yielded to me much to ponder on and to bring into the army. To recap, the key points of interest have been the biblical Canon, the intertestimonial years of the Hasmonean Dynasty, how Paul tailors his letters to contextual audiences and how being in this class has let me seen God’s love.