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At the end of the first century, there were a number
of written accounts on the life of Jesus. When the second generation
of Christian leaders met around 100 A.D., they carefully examined
these accounts and only those that could be verified to have been
written by an apostle or by an immediate disciple of an apostle were
accepted as Holy Spirit inspired writings. The four Gospels:
Matthew, Mark, Luke & John, document the words that Jesus spoke and
the miracles that He carried out. It can be troubling that there are
differences between the four accounts and it is necessary to know
the background of the documents we are using to discover truths
about our Savior. Cynics and charlatans will try to shake your faith
in the validity of the Gospel accounts and sow doubt about the Bible
being divinely inspired. Each writer worked at different times; when
each man wrote their Gospel account, they were not aware what the
other three men would be writing. It was the Holy Spirit that moved
upon the four men to bring us a word picture of the life of Jesus,
His mission and the goal for people to be born again. The simple
truth is that the Bible is God's love letter to mankind and studying
it enables us to have an intimate relationship with the God of
Creation. |
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