Death is coming

The closer death creeps up upon me the less I am able to understand the reasons for life or living.

Yes I have experienced a close family member dying and unlike television it takes decades to handle such a thing. To think I am going to put my family through such a thing when I finally leave is more horrific to me than the thought of death itself.

My life was and is still a learning experience but when all said and done what am I to do with all this accumulated learning over my lifetime if I just die. There is no logic or reason to this.

Long ago I became aware that the God story that is sold to the majority is just a nice story to give mankind with a message of a basic layout of how nice life could be if everyone followed these ideas. Not many in life do and if one thinks about it the good and evil structures actually depend on each other. The good that can be experienced in life is only understood as good when there is it's opposite to compare it to. This is not rocket science only common sense in reality. I am not saying we need to experience bad but understanding in it is needed to appreciate the great things many of us can have in our lives. From birth to death there are many ways mankind helps his fellow man. How many ways can you help?


Thursday, May 2, 2013

A Brief Look Into Jesus Genealogy

By Adela Beasley


The Bible has two records of Jesus genealogy. They can be found in the Gospel of Luke chapter three and Matthew chapter one. However, these two gospels have some variations. According to Matthew, it traces the ancestry of Christ from Abraham. It then follows to Solomon, the son of King David through Jeconiah and lastly to Joseph, the father of Jesus.

According to the gospel of Luke, Adam is the first member of the lineage of Jesus. He was the first man on earth. Other members that followed after Adam were Solomon, the son of King David, Nathan and Joseph. Regardless of various discrepancies present, they have some common similarities. For instance, the issue of virgin birth arises. Mary was a virgin when she became pregnant. Another similarity is that the Holy Spirit begot the Messiah. As a matter of fact, the biological father of the Messiah was not Joseph.

Here is a breakdown of some of the differences. First of all, there is a gap of about 76 generations between the generation of Jesus and Adam. There is a difference of 46 gaps from Abraham up to Christ according to the records of Matthew.

Aside from that, Luke gives the life history of the Messiah in an unusual manner. It begins with the story of Christ and then gives the history before Christ. Matthew gives a chronological order of events based on all the events that transpired.

One issue that stands out in both accounts is that of Shealtiel and Zerubbabel. These are the only names that appear in both accounts after David. Both Luke and Matthew offer a different list of descendants but only these two appear in both accounts.

Several explanations have been offered to justify the differences between the two accounts. One of the explanations may be based on the Levirate marriage traditions. The Gospel according to Luke claims that the grandparents may have married the same women. This therefore means that Joseph had two fathers. Jacob was the biological father and the legal father was Heli. Luke may have focused on the legal lineage while Matthew emphasizes on biological and primary lineage of the Messiah.

Another theory proposes that Heli and Jacob are actually the same. However, this theory has been opposed by historians and theologians. There is another theory that the genealogy of Luke is that of Mary, the mother of the Messiah while Matthew follows the one of Joseph. These are only but a few theories that come out to explain the differences between the two gospels.

Jesus genealogy, as per Luke claims that the role of Christ was to be the Messiah of Jews. A lot of verses in the book point to Christ as a Messiah of all people. In addition, it can be compared to what happened during the era of Abraham. According to Matthew, Christ is seen as a savior to humankind. Several verses have shown and explained how Christ was a perfect friend to the people. This has some relationship with what happened with Adam.




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