BetterMost Community Blogs > The Twist Family Bible Study

Twist family Bible study: the Gospel of Mark

<< < (27/52) > >>

Shakesthecoffecan:
I am intrigued by the passage about having to take up your cross, it is like the individual crosses are unique to each person, or that is how it sounds to me.

Wayne:
Yeah ... e.g., for me, to pretend to be straight would be to lose my soul.

So maybe one way of taking up my cross is to be honest about being gay.

Shakesthecoffecan:
Wow. That is powerful.

Wayne:
Chapter 9 opens with an interesting statement by Jesus: "some of those who are standing here will not taste death until they see the kingdom of God after it has come with power"

Does he mean that the kingdom of God will come during the normal lifetimes of the people there? Or that some of them will live supernaturally long lives until the kingdom comes? A passage at the end of the gospel of John suggests that Peter and some of the other disciples thought that the author of the gospel of John might be one of those who would live for an extended time. John 21:22-23 But the author of John then clarifies that that is not what Jesus actually said.

I tend to prefer non-supernatural explanations when I can come up with any, so I'm inclined to think Jesus meant the kingdom, the new way of living, was coming soon, during their normal lifetimes. So probably within 30 to 50 years anyway.

Wayne:
What did happen in that time frame, about 40 years later, was the siege of Jerusalem.

The Roman army completely destroyed the city and led the Jews off to slavery.

Flavius Josephus, a a former Jewish commander now loyal to Rome, wrote:

"Anyone who had known the place before, arriving at the site, would have asked where the city was."

Navigation

[0] Message Index

[#] Next page

[*] Previous page