"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God at the beginning. Through him all things were made, without him, nothing was made"
The first witness was actually Mark. Peter thru Mark wrote this book.
The second was Matthew.
The third was Luke, the Greek. And because of Luke's background, he has the most accurate chronology of Christ.
Matthew is the only one that mentions the Kingdom of Heaven; which is actually the same of the Kingdom of God. But Matthew wants to emphasize that the kingdom of Christ is different the all earthly kingdoms.
Mark mentioned that Christ was a slave who came to serve people.
Luke has the character of the Man of Sorrow.
John wrote the character of God who became man. It is Word who became flesh. It is the only book that didn't write the story of the birth and the death of Christ. Because the birth and death are the character of humans. But to John, Jesus is God who doesn't need to go thru the humanism to go to heaven.
Jesus called his 12 disciples in Galilea, one of the most humble place in Judea. Because Jesus wants to choose the humble people who does not have arrogance in them. So that the influence, such as John and Peter overcome Socrates or Aristotle. For God can lift up the poorest one to the richest place.
Therefore, John didn't write like the others, who first wrote the story of Jesus's birth.
In the Bible, only the book of Genesis and John, that starts with "In the beginning..."
Moses wrote "In the beginning..." of the creation.
John wrote "In the beginning..."means prior the creations of all things. It is the beginning of God, the creator; about the contingent and in-contingent.
Humans are contingent, and survived by their children.
In our world the contingent of existence, there must be one in-cotingent existence forever and ever. (Thomas Aquinas), to keep the existence of the contingents.
(Five ways to prove the existence of God by Thomas Aquinas.)
The basic faith of Christians is there are differences between the Creator and the creations.
"In the beginning was the Word." It is "word" not "God". Why "word"? For it is about the Trinity.
Above the contingent world, there is the in-contingent, which is "WORD" (firman), the most absolute axiom. For example. 2 + 2 = 4 starts from the beginning, that has no beginning.
So, in the beginning there is the "TRUTH" and the TRUTH was God.
Kong Hu Chu, Muhammad, and other religion leaders never say that "I am the truth.". Only Jesus did.
When someone speaks, breaths, words come out. (Trinity)
The spirit of God is the breath of God. The word of God is the son of God.
In China, Confucius asked for another 5 or 10 years to learn about the book of changes
Heraclitus, a western philosopher , "There is nothing permanent, except change."
Difference between human and animal, animals only think of what is seen, while human can think of something that can't been seen.
Stoicism is the ones who are hardest to convert to Christianity, as they think they have the highest value than everyone else.
The first important person of stoicism in the 1st century is Epictectus (a slave), Seneca (very loyal to the king that he committed suicide by jumping to the blast of fire in a mountain).
The 3rd famous stoic people is the Roman King, Marcus Aurelius.
In Chinese culture, the highest dream is the unity between men and the ski. (天人合一)
Logos - The Greek word logos (traditionally meaning word, thought, principle, or speech)
According to the Chinese philosophy, there are 5 most important relationship in the world:
First the relationship between the King and the governors.
First the relationship between parents and children.
First the relationship between husband and wife.
First the relationship between brothers and sisters.
First the relationship between friends.
Can a perfect God create an imperfect world? Can a perfect God create a perfect one?
If God can create a perfect one means that God can create god. So there is a substantial difference between the creator and the creation. Therefore, world cannot be perfect because it is a creation. Only God is perfect. ("All things were made thru Him, and without Him was not anything made that was made.")
The one that came from heaven will speak heavenly; the one who came from earth will speak earthly. ("... without Him was not any thing made that was made." (John 1:3)
Plato wrote that Demiurge was the creator of the world.
-- (end ep. 4)
