If you pay close attention to the details of the fourth Gospel, you’ll notice that words such as testimony, witness, judgment, and truth appear quite frequently throughout this text. And this has led various scholars to conclude that the basic underlying structure of this Gospel is actually that of trial narrative. Though Jesus was rejected by his own people and sentenced to death, the goal of John’s Gospel is to set the record straight by presenting a number of witnesses who give us insight into Jesus’ true identity and mission. Join us for this edition of White Horse Inn as we kick off our brand new year-long series on the Gospel of John.
SHOW QUOTE
“Many people in our day don’t take the Christian faith for granted. And so when someone watches a documentary about Jesus on The Discovery Channel or sees an atheist video online, doubts begin to emerge; and so we need to do a better job addressing those doubts.”
Shane Rosenthal
TERM TO LEARN
“Apologetics”
Apologetics attempts to render the Christian faith persuasive to the contemporary individual. For unbelievers, it is belief forming; it helps to defuse attacks upon Christianity, and to establish Christianity as credible by giving intellectual support to the explanatory value of a biblical world view. For believers, it is belief sustaining; it nurtures Christian faith by calling believers to love their Lord with their minds (Matt. 22:37).
(From Evangelical Dictionary of Theology, 2nd Ed., s.v. “apologetics”)
