How My Faith Changed Drastically
James Francuz
Professor DiOrio
History & Literature of the Early Christians
12 December 2012
How My Faith Has Been Altered In being a college freshman at Hope International University and possessing a Christian-educated background, it has become relatively easy sometimes to take my faith for granted. As strange as it may seem, as time as progressed, hearing about the death/resurrection of Christ, His abounding love for mankind, and the importance of turning to Him in prayer have been just a few facts I have understood for a considerable period of time; thus, the good news does not always have as a profound effect on me as it used to. However, through my New Testament studies and with meticulous thinking involved, I have realized that faith is actually a gift from God that is meant to be shared with others and further developed at all costs. Nevertheless, I have also discovered that it is by grace through faith that we are saved, which is extremely reassuring information as well. Moreover, during the course of my New Testament rumination, there are specific subjects that I have learned a substantial amount of additional detail about that I never really thought about much before. The nativity chronicles are perhaps some of the most widely read stories in all of Scripture. However, while similarities in regards to the Matthian and Lukan depictions of Christ’s birth exist, the multiple differences between Matthew and Luke’s infancy accounts are striking when one closely compares these noteworthy segments of the New Testament. The various purposes with which the two Gospel texts approach the story influence the way in which Christ’s birth is communicated. Because both authors are primarily interested in establishing the divinity of Christ, they both call Jesus’s birth miraculous, and cite God alone as the Creator of Jesus’s life as a human being in the flesh. But Matthew, who is drawn to the Jewish lineage of Christ and the relationship between Christ’s
Professor DiOrio
History & Literature of the Early Christians
12 December 2012
How My Faith Has Been Altered In being a college freshman at Hope International University and possessing a Christian-educated background, it has become relatively easy sometimes to take my faith for granted. As strange as it may seem, as time as progressed, hearing about the death/resurrection of Christ, His abounding love for mankind, and the importance of turning to Him in prayer have been just a few facts I have understood for a considerable period of time; thus, the good news does not always have as a profound effect on me as it used to. However, through my New Testament studies and with meticulous thinking involved, I have realized that faith is actually a gift from God that is meant to be shared with others and further developed at all costs. Nevertheless, I have also discovered that it is by grace through faith that we are saved, which is extremely reassuring information as well. Moreover, during the course of my New Testament rumination, there are specific subjects that I have learned a substantial amount of additional detail about that I never really thought about much before. The nativity chronicles are perhaps some of the most widely read stories in all of Scripture. However, while similarities in regards to the Matthian and Lukan depictions of Christ’s birth exist, the multiple differences between Matthew and Luke’s infancy accounts are striking when one closely compares these noteworthy segments of the New Testament. The various purposes with which the two Gospel texts approach the story influence the way in which Christ’s birth is communicated. Because both authors are primarily interested in establishing the divinity of Christ, they both call Jesus’s birth miraculous, and cite God alone as the Creator of Jesus’s life as a human being in the flesh. But Matthew, who is drawn to the Jewish lineage of Christ and the relationship between Christ’s