John 1 Come follow Me with Sam

 Welcome!

John 1 is a masterpiece worthy to be part of the gospels. John is thought to be talking mainly with the believers of the new church. So imagine you have a bunch of people full of faith, across many backgrounds, that were doing every which weird rites yesterday and now they are looking to you to know what they should do today to worship God. You have got to teach something in depth enough that the spirit can plant it deep in their hearts, yet simple enough that they don't get confused and fall back on false traditions.

Welcome to John 1

The Word

The beginning of John is much discussed because of its mysterious nature. We could try to figure this out for a long time. Unfortunately I don't have any amazing resources to point you to on this one. Here are the basics to ponder

 - the ancients wanted to breathe as the Gods, or to speak as the Gods

- The unique characteristic was that what the Gods spoke was justified of itself (needed no other justification, also justified in ancient times could also mean pure, without spot etc.) and that it manifested itself into reality as it was spoken, i.e. there was no difference between the words of a God and the reality manifest.

- the same idea is the fundamental positive root of the King's seal, word, decree, etc. being immutable. They wished the divine right of heaven (sometimes were considered the divine right of heaven) as as such they must speak in the same way as the Gods or their authority was broken. (Side note, check out Mosiah 17:12 - the accusation that the priests bring against king Noah, while undoubtedly playing off his pride, very likely implies that if Noah agrees with Abinadai, this authority is broken and he has not power in this vein of thought)

- The Greek word 'logos' has many implications which may have played into this used as the word that John chose.

- The Chosen film series about Christ has an episode about this. Here is a clip from it.


I believe in highlight, that John, in a way that could speak to believers of many backgrounds was explaining that here was perfection of all things, and it was God Himself, and that God Himself came down to earth, and that nothing could stand before Him.

Witnesses

John then starts with John the Baptist and shows how John prepared the way. Then he moves through the disciples and shows how the church, founded as apostles and prophets with Peter as the foundation stone (Christ being the chief cornerstone) began.

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