RRR_Defending_God
Take, for example, a section of the New Testament, the gospel of John, that goes from 7:53 to chapter 8:11. And here's what it says "this paragraph can no longer be considered a part of the gospel of John, but it is in all probability a true story of Jesus."
Now, this comes from A.T. Robertson, in his harmony of the Gospels, which is copyrighted in 1922. And then this reprinted version is copyrighted 1950. A.T. Robertson's harmony of the Gospels, is considered as a seminal work and a great harmony of the Gospels, but it's his inserted comments that are great.
And this is at the bottom of page 115, he says that "in all probability, it is a true story of Jesus very likely, drawn by early students from the collection of Papa pious published about AD140, and he says that we should see Hovey on John, in the American commentaries on the New Testament, observe that without this section, 98 goes on right after 96." And that's in his harmony.
So this particular incident that most people are familiar with where they had set up a woman evidently, and so they're able to say as they come into the area there where Jesus is.
And they throw her down at his feet. And they say we caught her in the very act. Well, there's only one way that they could catch her in the very act right? And the scribes and the pharisees bring a woman taken in adultery and having set her in the midst, they say unto him master.
This woman has been taken in adultery in the very act. Okay, so how could that happen? If they hadn't been doing those sorts of things?
My point is that sometimes when you are trying to do good things, evil people, perhaps even people who believe that they are in the right And sometimes those are even the most evil of people?
Because they believe that they're defending the righteousness of God, and they've chosen a course that's going to run contrary to the word of God, see, that's what's happening here, the very word of God, Jesus is in this temple area; and they bring this woman that they have obviously involved in a situation. And that's how they caught her in the very act, and they throw her down at his feet.
Because what they want to do is stone her. And very often, people who are defending religion defending the law, defending God, who, by the way, God needs no defending. Does He Does God; need any defending?
His word is the Bible. Does the Bible need defending really? So what we've got here is an incident that never should have taken place.
But most people are familiar with the result. The result is the famous statement The one of you who is without sin. Let you cast the first stone.
We live in an age in 2025 America, where casting stones has become an art form. Is that the art form that you wanna pass on to disciples? I think not. What we might want to pass on to disciples is something called the great love and sacrifice of Jesus Christ, who bled on a cross that our sins might be forgiven. Let's pass that on to disciples.
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