The Gospel Truth

Clinton Bezan

Description

The gospel is truth and the truth will set you free! Where religion fails, faith prevails!
Where does a new believer turn to find truth? The Christian narrative today has morphed into a fluid and philosophical commentary centered around social injustices and motivational messages that rarely align with the gospel that Jesus preached. Sin is ignored and repentance is avoided by those who over exaggerate grace and diminish the holiness of God by suggesting he accepts us whether we are faithful to him or not. In a knee jerk response to the strict religious shackles of the early church many of today’s preachers bask in the hyper-sensitivity that accompanies the “cancel culture” that proclaims it will not be judged.
In The Gospel Truth, Bezan has endeavored to dissect prominent Christian religious denominations in order to expose their internal theologies and scrutinize the details of their doctrine under the litmus test of scripture. He offers legitimate discernment to differentiate between truth and almost truth and conveys an intelligible recognition of the genuine vs the counterfeit in a detailed and comprehensive assessment that leaves the reader judiciously satisfied.
We have an opportunity in this life to sincerely contemplate the things of God. We are provided with a window in time to question the hidden mysteries of scripture and truly discover who God is. The good news is that God has provided a path to salvation through Jesus Christ and the gospel contains the truths that solve the mysteries that have eluded men for millennia.

Sujets

• Religion
• Christianisme
• Philosophie et théologie
• Jesús de Nazaret
• God
• Jesus
• Salvation
• Christianity
• Truth
• Christian
• History
• Salut (religion)
• Gospel
• Christ
• Jésus de Nazareth

Informations

• Publié par: LifeRich Publishing
• Date de parution: 05 janvier 2023
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781489746009
• Langue: English

Extrait

THE GOSPEL TRUTH




CLINTON BEZAN









Copyright © 2023 Clinton Bezan.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the author except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

This book is a work of non-fiction. Unless otherwise noted, the author and the publisher make no explicit guarantees as to the accuracy of the information contained in this book and in some cases, names of people and places have been altered to protect their privacy.

LifeRich Publishing is a registered trademark of The Reader’s Digest Association, Inc.



LifeRich Publishing
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Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.
Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.

Scripture taken from the Holy Bible, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc. All rights reserved worldwide. Used by permission. NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION® and NIV® are registered trademarks of Biblica, Inc. Use of either trademark for the offering of goods or services requires the prior written consent of Biblica US, Inc.

ISBN: 978-1-4897-4599-6 (sc)
ISBN: 978-1-4897-4598-9 (hc)
ISBN: 978-1-4897-4600-9 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2023900107



LifeRich Publishing rev. date: 12/30/2022



ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I thank the Lord my God for the gift of writing these words and for his eternal gift of salvation through Jesus Christ. All glory belongs to him!
I would also like to thank Mark Miller for graciously offering to edit the manuscript. He has blessed me immensely with his expertise and ultimately blessed you with an error free (or very close) narrative for your appraisal.



CONTENTS
Preface
Introduction

1) Religious Radicalism
2) Sanctioning Sin
3) The Osas Dilemma
4) Health, Wealth And Greed
5) Sabbath Cynicism
6) Jesus The Lesser
7) Brazenly Bizarre
8) Fallacious Faith
9) A River Without Water
10) A Call To Action
11) 100 Pianos
12) Getting The Gospel Right
13) Incomprehensible Yet Comprehensible



PREFACE
The Bible is the word of God. It is the most authenticated ancient document in the history of civilization with more accurate manuscripts than any other ancient writing. For example, Plato’s known work consists of 210 manuscripts with the earliest written 1200 years after the events. Aristotle’s works are validated by 1000 manuscripts dated 1200 years afterward. Homer’s Iliad boasts 1757 manuscripts dated 400 years after. Even more recent writings such as The Travels of Marco Polo between AD 1298 -1299, with only 150 copies in existence, are considered to be authentic. The New Testament alone has over 25,000 known manuscripts, dated as early as twenty-five years after Jesus’ crucifixion. If the Bible is held to the same standards as other ancient documents, its authenticity is without question.
Furthermore, the historicity of Jesus is accepted by most modern scholars based on the extra-biblical references to him by Roman and Jewish historians in the first two centuries after his crucifixion. Jewish historian Flavius Josephus (AD 37 – 101) wrote in his twenty volume book Antiquities of the Jews, in book eighteen chapter three, “Now about this time there lived Jesus, a wise man, for he was a teacher of people who gladly accepted the truth. He won over many, both Jews and Greeks. Pilate, when he heard of Him accused by the leading men among us, condemned Him to the cross [but] those who had first loved Him did not cease [doing so]. To this day the tribe of Christians named after Him has not disappeared.”
Josephus also recorded the meeting of Alexander the Great and the high priest Jaddua in 332 BC. After defeating the coastal cities of Tyre and Gaza, Alexander arrived at Jerusalem and was met outside the city. When the high priest showed him the book of Daniel and the prophecy that a Greek would conquer Persia, Alexander surmised himself as the Greek, spared Jerusalem and went on to defeat Darius and the Persian empire. The book of Daniel was written several centuries before Alexander’s campaign.
Phlegon of Tralles was a Greek writer from the second century. His work is quoted by Origen of Alexandria, considered one of the most influential early Christian theologians. He wrote, “Now Phlegon, in the 13 th or 14 th book, I think, of his chronicles, not only ascribed to Jesus a knowledge of future events … but also testified that the result corresponded with his predictions.” He quoted as well, “Jesus, while alive, was of no assistance to himself, but that he rose after death, and exhibited the marks of his punishment, and showed his hands and feet had been pierced by nails.”
Thallus, an early Greek historian, most of whose work has been lost, has been quoted by Sextus Julius Africanus in his History of the World. Around AD 52, he wrote about the earthquake and darkness that occurred when Christ was crucified. “On the whole world there pressed the most fearful darkness, and the rocks were torn by an earthquake and many places in Judea and other districts were thrown down. This darkness, Thallus, in the third book of his history, calls, as appears to me without reason, an eclipse of the sun.”
Jesus was crucified at Passover. His last supper was the feast of the Passover. In Matthew 26:18, Jesus sends Peter and John ahead to get the Passover meal ready, “Go into the city to a certain man and tell him, ‘the teacher says: My appointed time is near. I am going to celebrate the Passover with my disciples at your house.’” The Jewish month always began with a new moon feast and the Passover was held on the 14 th day of the first month (Leviticus 23:5). That would mean the Passover took place near or on a full moon, based on the 29.5 day moon cycle. A full moon is never visible during the afternoon, therefore the darkness could not have been caused by an eclipse of the sun. Africanus was correct in his logic that this was something more. It was a supernatural darkness, initiated by God himself.
Roman historian and senator, Publius Cornelius Tacitus, referred to Jesus in book fifteen chapter forty-four of Annals which he wrote in AD 116. In reference to the fire of Rome he wrote, “Consequently, to get rid of the report, Nero fastened the guilt and inflicted the most exquisite tortures on a class hated for their abominations, called Christians by the populace. Christus, from whom the name had its origin, suffered the extreme penalty during the reign of Pontius Pilate, and a most mischievous superstition, thus checked for the moment, again broke out not only in Judea, the first source of the evil, but even in Rome, where all things hideous and shameful find their center and become popular.”
Justin Martyr, in his first apology written around AD 150, defended Christians against wrongful persecution and punishment by the Roman Empire. Since the monotheistic views of Christians (and Jews as well) contradicted the Roman belief of many gods, they were considered atheists by the state and convicted of failing to worship the Roman gods. What makes Justin Martyr’s writing significant is the fact that he references the ‘New Testament,’ proving its existence as a Christian document only 120 years after Christ. In chapter XV, “What Christ Himself Taught,” he cites the Sermon on the Mount with several quotes of Jesus. He then goes on to reference Jesus through the next four chapters, quoting him on subjects including patience and obedience.
Pliny the Younger was a Roman Governor who, in letters to Emperor Trajan, describes his frustration with Christians while sentencing them to punishment including execution. In one letter he writes, “I interrogated these as to whether they were Christians; those who confessed I interrogated a second and third time, threatening them with punishment; those who persisted I ordered executed.” The horrific treatment of Christians by the Roman Empire was atrocious, as the Romans inflicted cruelty in ways our imaginations cannot fathom.
A letter to the church at Corinth from Clement of Rome, dated AD 95, quotes from ten of the twenty-seven books of the New Testament and a letter to the church at Philippi from Polycarp in AD 120, from sixteen New Testament books signifying that they were in circulation during the first century and disproving later authorship. Ignatius of Antioch (AD 25 – 107), was a student of the apostle John and he wrote seven letters prior to his execution in the arena in Rome that quote from several New Testament books as well.
Around AD 70, a Syrian philosopher named Mara Bar-Serapion wrote to his son and compared the life and persecution of Jesus to other philosophers who were persecuted for their ideas. The fact that Jesus was known to be a real person with this kind of reputation lends credibility to the gospels. Mara Bar-Serapion referred to Jesus as the “Wise King.”
Skeptics often raise the issue that there were several gospels and that not all were canonized, therefore the New Testament gospels are lacki