I grew up and now have adopted practices from the Christian religion. The Gospels of Matthew, Luke, and John are similar in the sense that they explore the teachings of Jesus while he was on earth but they are also different because after all each book was written by a different author. The book of Matthew was written by a man named, Matthew sometime between A.D. 60 and 70. Matthew gives a description of signs of the end, “At that time the son of man will appear in the sky, and all the nations of the earth will mourn. They will see the son of man coming on the clouds of the sky, with power and great glory. And he will send his angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of the heavens to the other” (The Bible, Pg. 1325). This means that when Jesus comes everything will be in an uproar because the son of God has returned. Jesus will come back to bring those back with him that will return to heave. There are many descriptions of what you need to do before you can get into heaven such as living your life for God, and giving our commitment to Jesus and practicing his teachings.
The book of Luke was written by Luke around A.D. 60. The book of Luke was written to explain why Jesus came to earth which was to save us from our sins. “Then he said to them all: ‘If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life will save it” (Luke, Pg. 1380). This passage is significant to me personally because it connotes that in order to save ourselves we must reject ourselves, because our ways are not his ways, and we must follow Christ wholeheartedly. It’s not possible for one to be born again but not live out the life that Jesus wants us to. Matthew and Luke are similar because both claim that in order to get into heaven one must follow the teachings of Jesus but the difference is that in the book of Matthew there are many parables and the people that never accepted Jesus were not invited to the banquet or accepted by God. However, in the book of Luke there are many opportunities to accept Jesus as the Son of God.
The book of John was written by John sometime in A.D. 85-90. The book of John was written in the same respects as the other books were written which is to honor that Jesus is God and he was sent for the forgiveness of our sins and to live in our hearts eternally. “Jesus said to her: I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die” (The Bible, Pg. 1429). This passage relates to the book of Revelation which is the last book in the bible and guarantee God’s control and eventual return. “Then I saw a new heaven and new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband….The twelve gates were twelve pearls, each gate made of a single pearl. The great street of the city was of pure gold, like transparent glass” (The Bible, Pg. 1650). It’s interesting that heaven is being compared to a bride beautifully dressed for her husband and this is a symbol of God’s love for us. The chapter also mentions being carried away in the sky through the spirit, not the physical body. These chapters compare because throughout the bible the promise of heaven is mentioned but each chapter of the bible has a different value to help us live our lives the way god wants us to.
I interviewed a leader from my church about her perspective of heaven and this is what she said: “Well I believe that heaven for us Christians is a place where we get to finally see the God who we put our trust in the creator who helped us through our situations over and over again. We get to give him honor and praise for the many blessings he has done in our lives. Heaven is just indescribable because we get to interact with people that made it to heaven and ask them questions about why they did what they did (ex: Adam and Eve). Heaven will be a place of rejoicing and love.”
I agree with everything that was said and I noticed that there were so many different examples she used to describe heaven because it means so much Christians. One thing that is mentioned a lot is the fact that people are afraid of death because they don’t have something to look forward to. People would be less fearful of death if they knew they would be going someplace whether its heaven or any other beliefs.
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