Tag Archives: gospel of john

I am the Vine (10)

March 1, 2019 temptationofjohn Leave a comment

Book III: Chapter 10
October 10

More than a month passed, and while the world continued to deteriorate around me, I was immune to most of these events as I remained in solitude on my farm.

I hope that you won’t find me hypocritical if I tell you that during this time I became engrossed again with a passion for reading The Bible.

(I also re-discovered another great brew: Goose Island Bourbon Stout – this stuff is amazing and I can’t believe I’d forgotten about it after I’d made a batch last year. Beer and bourbon – what could be better? How about beer, bourbon, and the Bible?!?)

But I digress – let’s focus just on The Bible…for now.

Now I realize that I might have told you quite a few times in the past that I didn’t believe in the words of The Bible anymore and that the book was filled with lies – but please remember that this was the old me talking. No, not the original me, mind you, but the bitter OLD man me – more specifically, the near demon that needed to be exorcised from me!

Thankfully, Gabriel helped me to do just that on July 26th (what I am calling my new ‘birth’ day) and as a result, the true John the Apostle was back in all his (my) glory!

Before I go any further, I feel like I must tell you some important spiritual truths. After all, our Lord is soon to return and I want to ensure that YOU will be saved along with me! Therefore, listen well to my words – I promise, if you simply LISTEN, you will understand the very essence of Jesus’ teachings and you WILL be saved at the Last Resurrection.

I am the vine; you are the branches…

That’s from my gospel, Chapter 15. Please, do yourself a favor, and turn to that section and read with me.

Are you there yet? Are you familiar with these verses?

I encourage you to bind these words around your neck, write them upon the tablet of your heart, for they will save your soul.

These then are the words of The Messiah, Jesus of Nazareth, on the night before his crucifixion and death. We sat with him in the Garden of Gethsemane as he spoke thusly…

I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. If anyone does not remain in me, he is like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned. If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be given you. This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.
Gospel of John, 15: 5-8

As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. If you obey my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have obeyed my Father’s commands and remain in his love. I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete, [therefore] love each other as I have loved you.

Greater love has no one than this — that he lay down his life for his friends. You are my friends if you do what I command. I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you. You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit—fruit that will last. Then the Father will give you whatever you ask in my name.

This is my command: Love one another.
Gospel of John, 15: 9-17

My friends, do you understand?

This IS the secret – the one you’ve been searching for your entire life!

Don’t you see. It’s not really a secret. This knowledge is all here, right before your eyes.

You simply need to listen, learn, and apply it.

These words will change your life if you just take them to heart.

Oh how I am truly humbled by Christ’s words. Of all people, I should have known this and never have forgotten it. (After all, I did write it down, right?)

Nonetheless, Jesus told us that surely there is no man upon this earth that is always righteous and never sins (save Him alone) – and like you I am a sinner too.

And yet, when I reread what I wrote back then, I am amazed now at the simplicity of it all.

Our purpose in life is to love and serve one another – for thereby do we give glory to God, our creator. And the best way we can accomplish our mission is to live ‘in’ Jesus Christ.

It really IS that simple.

So, tell me now, do YOU want to recognize Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior?

If so, are you willing to abide in him?

Will you accept that you are a mere branch that requires the Vine of Jesus to bring you life AND the careful pruning of God as the Divine Gardener to help you flourish?

Are you ready to allow Jesus into your life?

If so, all He asks of you is to bear much fruit for Him.

How do you do that, you ask?

Well, He already gave you the answer.

Love one another.

My friends, if you do that, you will fulfill your purpose in life – you will bring glory to your creator and you will then be rewarded with the Gift of Eternal Life!

Welcome, my brothers and sisters, to a Life of Everlasting Joy!!

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Mary Magdalene, Tantalizing Tidbits

Was Mary Magdalene the Adulteress from The Gospel of John?

January 22, 2019 ThatHelpfulDad Leave a comment

Was Mary Magdalene the Adulteress from The Gospel of John? Many Christians have been brought up believing that famous Adulteress from the Gospel of John was in fact Mary Magdalene and for nearly 1,300 years this is what was formally taught in Catholic doctrine – but is this legend even true?

In this article, we’ll explore the connection between the woman caught in adultery from John’s Gospel and the disciple Mary Magdalene from the Bible.

Editor’s Note: This article is part of a larger article about Mary Magdalene titled “Mary Magdalene – Saint, Sinner, or Something More?”

Why Do People Believe Mary Magdalene is the Woman Caught in Adultery?

The notion that the adulteress was Mary Magdalene traces back to (at least) the early 6th century when Pope Gregory I officially proclaimed her to be the adulteress from John 8.

In order to make the association stick, Pope Gregory also had to connect the dots by proclaiming that Mary Magdalene was in fact also Mary of Bethany – the sister of Martha and Lazarus. This was necessary because Mary of Bethany was the proclaimed to be the woman with the sinful past who washed Jesus’ feet with her tears and/or anointed him with the alabaster jar of perfume in various gospels).

Why all the Mary’s?

The reason Mary of Bethany had to be the woman who anointed Jesus in order to trace her back to Mary Magdalene is a bit of a circuitous route. The apparent basis for Pope Gregory’s decision relates to Luke 8:2 where Mary Magdalene is specifically named as having been cured of “7 demons” by Christ. One or more of these ‘demons’ was thought to relate to a sinful ‘sexual’ past and from there it was apparently just a hop, skip, and a jump for Pope Gregory to connect the dots from Mary Magdalene, to Mary of Bethany, to the woman who anointed Jesus, to the Adulteress of John.

Well that makes perfect sense, right? Not!

Is there ANY Evidence that Supports Mary Magdalene is the Adulteress?

Besides the ‘sexual demon’ theory, there are some who claim that Mary’s place of birth was the best ‘evidence’ of all.

To wit: Mary Magdalene also means Mary of Magdala. This is important because Magdala, located along the Sea of Galilee near Tiberias, was a prosperous port city during the time of Christ. And what do we know about nearly all ‘port cities’ the world over? They are a haven for prostitutes.

It’s reported that Rome eventually destroyed Magdala “because of its moral depravity and its participation in the Jewish revolt.”

Additionally, the Jewish Talmud word Magdalene may be translated to “curling women’s hair,” which apparently is code word for “adulteress.”

Thus more ammunition to support Pope Gregory’s claims that Mary Magdalene was a woman of ill-repute and that she was committed to Christ for saving her from her unsavory past.

So Was Mary Magdalene the Adulteress?

Honestly we may never really know, however it’s worth digging a bit deeper into Pope Gregory’s decision.

Clearly we can conclude that Mary Magdalene was definitively the “Mary” of Luke 8 – after all she was specifically named by her full name in this verse. However one is left to wonder why the mention of her past demons and her place of birth must also necessarily mean that she was the adulteress, or Mary the sister of Martha, or the penitent woman with the perfume.

Consider the following…

Mary was one of the most common names among the people of this time in Israel (even Jesus’ mother was named Mary), so just because a “Mary” is mentioned in the Bible that doesn’t mean it must be Mary Magdalene, right?
In every other Biblical story that references Mary Magdalene, she is called by her full name at some point in the story. Why would she not be identified by name in the story about the adulteress or if Mary Magdalene was also Mary of Bethany?

We may never know why Pope Gregory made this decision (although our discussion of Conspiracy Theories about Mary Magdalene is of interest here), however it should be noted that while the Catholic Church held this view from the 6th century onward, it was officially reversed in 1969 by Pope Paul VI (although without much fanfare). As it stands now, the Church no longer associates Mary Magdalene with Mary of Bethany or the Adulteress. And as an interesting side note, the Eastern Orthodox Church apparently never did.

What’s the Truth about Mary Magdalene in the Bible?

In spite of her past demons and her place of birth the fact is that there is no concrete evidence that Mary Magdalene is the famous adulteress from the Gospel of John 8:3-11.

The name of the adulteress in these verses is actually not given so we have no way of knowing who the woman was.

The Adulteress could have been Mary Magdalene…or pretty much any other woman alive at the time who lived there.

Additional References

Learn more about the debate with these links:

Catholic Straight Answers: Who was Mary Magdalene?
Wikipedia: Mary Magdalene Bio
Wakeup.Org: Mystery of Mary Magdalene
Bible Odyssey: Mary Magdalene
Bible Archaeology: Was Mary Magdalene a Prostitute?
Smithsonian: Who was Mary Magdalene?
The Bible Means: Where in the Bible is Mary Magdalene a Prostitute?

What do YOU Believe?

Do you have an opinion or theory on this topic? Let us know what you believe about Mary Magdalene and the Adulteress.

Immortality — Ugh (11)

January 1, 2019 ThatHelpfulDad Leave a comment

Book I: Chapter 11
June 11

OK, out with it – let’s hear your questions. I can tell that you won’t let me move on with my tale unless I start answering some of your nagging questions so let’s get it over with.

Am I immortal?

Yes. Alan, Miriam, and I are all immortal – we have been since He made us that way – nearly two thousand years ago. It’s a bitch. Trust me.

Take today for instance – here I am just sitting in my bed trying to get some sleep and shake this drunken haze. Yet I can’t get any peace because He keeps sending me more revelations. Enough already!

Being immortal is just not all it’s cracked up to be.

I know Alan and Miriam may feel different, but what do they know?

Oh sure, there was a time when I had a different opinion, but those days were long gone — two thousand years on this planet will do that to a guy.

Well, now that the cat’s out of the bag, I suppose I’ll have to tell you a few more things to keep you from bombarding me with questions…

Here’s a few more tidbits about my life – take them for what you will.

Obviously I haven’t always lived in upstate Pennsylvania; I was actually born half a world away and some two millennia past. And although I’m a persona unknown to most of the world now, long ago I was actually rather famous. Let’s see how quickly you can figure it out…

My father’s name was Zebedee and my mom was Mary Salome. My family was Jewish and originally lived in the Bethsaida region around the Lake of Gennesaret in what is now modern day Israel.

My mother was actually a sister of Mary, the mother of Jesus of Nazareth – yes, that means I was Jesus’s cousin.

I also had a rather famous brother too – a man who later became known as Saint James The Greater. I’m kinda proud of my older brother so obviously I have to show you a picture of him too.

To say James and I were close is an understatement – back in the day we tore it up and were known by all as The Sons of Thunder. Sure we got into a bit of trouble, but it was all in good fun.

Meanwhile, my dad had a fishing business that James and I helped him with it. The business was profitable enough to allow me to afford my own house and it even gave me a bit of status (I was a personal friend of the Jewish high priest at the time – hey, if you give anyone enough money, they’ll be your friend, right?).

Now Jesus and I we also cousins of another famous preacher – the legendary Jewish apocalyptist known as John The Baptist.

The Baptizer was the first great speaker I had ever met and I actually found myself captivated by all his talk about how “the Kingdom of Heaven was at hand” and what it meant for me and my fellow Jews.

(I wouldn’t fall for all that talk now, mind you, but back then it sounded rather good).

In any case, at the time Jesus and I were both looking for something meaningful to do with our lives (fishing just wasn’t exciting enough) so we decided to follow The Baptizer around for awhile.

Eventually Jesus became a pretty hardcore apocalyptic teacher himself and he too began evangelizing. Since I was closer to Jesus, I left The Baptizer’s group and followed Jesus around for a bit. But soon enough Jesus’s group ran out of money and reality set in, so we had to give it up — I went back home to my boring life in the fishing business, while Jesus wandered off into the desert to find himself.

I honestly thought that was the end of my time as a disciple (of anybody) and I was happy just living the life of a village fisherman. However, about a year later, Jesus came back home – and he was now a changed man.

Jesus claimed he’d a revelation that he was the Son of God!

Perhaps just as importantly, he also had a new plan for his evangelical work: expansion via recruitment.

He asked me and my brother James to join him and leave our fishing business to instead become “Fishers of Men.”

We took the bait and helped Jesus find more recruits. It was a wild success – we travelled around like rock stars for awhile and after that I was pretty much by Jesus’ side from there on out – until Jesus was crucified that is!

As you can imagine Jesus’s death at the hands of his jealous adversaries was quite an ordeal – events certainly didn’t work out as I thought they were going to when Jesus first roped me into the experience and when he was murdered so unexpectedly it left myself and the other disciples in a bit of shock. We had no idea what to do next and most of us were just trying to lay low for awhile in order to save our own skins.

Thankfully Jesus proved he was the Son of God when he rose from the dead just three days after his crucifixion and that, as I’m sure you can imagine, was rather inspiring.

On fire for his message, I took it upon myself to continue his Christ’s mission. In fact, I later wrote about my time with Jesus in a book called The Gospel of John. Watch it today on Amazon Prime (everybody has that now, right?)

Looking back now I regret the decision to get caught up with Jesus — it was all just a crazy idea. Back then I was young and stupid. Oh sure there was something charismatic about Jesus – even more so than The Baptizer.

But Jesus clearly said that he would return.

And he said that he was going to do so during our lifetimes back then.

So where the hell is he? And what’s taking him so damn long?

That’s right. I said it.

You wanted to know what has me so upset. Well now you know.

Happy?

The Last Temptation of John