Have you ever been lost? In trying to get back on track did you ever become more lost? I began reading an old textbook on the life of Christ a few weeks ago in hopes that I would better know the order and progression of the events of His life and where the recorded teachings all fit together. I am beginning to understand why we don’t have a better map for remembering the order of Jesus’ life.
Some have tried. The book I am reading (“The Modern Student’s Life of Christ,” by Philip Vollmer) presents an order based on a calendar. It is certainly detailed but not memorable. Harold Willmington wins the “memorable” award with his life of Christ arranged as “Seventy Two Steps from Glory to Glory.” But it is not concise. In his book, “The Life of Christ Visualized,” Ray Baughman is concise but raises a new issue as to whether Jesus’ ministry extended over three Passover Feasts or four (the “unnamed feast” in John). While John Broadus and A.T. Robertson in their respective Harmony of the Gospels blazed a new trail that did not feature the Feasts as turning points in Christ’s ministry, their purpose did not seek to reconcile the places where opponents believed the Gospel writers did not agree. After much debate and nearly a hundred years later Johnston Cheney cleared many of these “discrepancies” in writing, “The Life of Christ in Stereo.” In that work the text of the four Gospels is pieced together as if one book.
I don’t expect to find some “new,” “easy,” of “life-altering” secret to remembering the life of Christ. However, I have been using the guaranteed fail-safe method of becoming un-lost: “keep moving, you’re sure to find your way eventually.” I hope it works. What map or tool has helped you? How do you remember the progression of the life of Christ?
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