Do you have questions from your HIS Story study? Were you confused by something you read in the book and you would like an explanation?
Here we will answer all of your HIS Story questions!! If you have a question please submit them to mystories@hisstoryccc.com
Jan 16th, Steve W asks…
Q: We have had some interesting discussions regarding the His Story (great!) book. If Jesus was conceived by immaculate conception, then what relevance does Joseph’s genealogy have as he would not be the biological father? It appears inclusion was to validate Old Testament prophesy, but again at best Joseph would be the dad, but not the biological father. There are a number of different theories on the internet, but I would appreciate your input. This does not impact our faith negatively, but triggers interesting discussion. Thanks in advance!
A: Great and perceptive question. There is an amazing history around this question and again, as of last weekend’s message, a marvelous moving of God’s hand to point to Jesus as the Christ.
The last legitimate King of Judah/Israel of the lineage of David was a horrible King named Jehoiachin. His wickedness (1 Kings 24) along with his mother’s were so great that God pronounced through Jeremiah the Prophet that it would be as if he were childless, thus leaving no heir and no chance of a direct king of the lineage of David.
Jeremiah 22:30 “This is what the Lord says: ‘Let the record show that this man Jehoiachin was childless. He is a failure, for none of his children will succeed him on the throne of David to rule over Judah. ’“ (NLT)
Since Joseph’s lineage traces back through Jehoiachin: Matthew 1:11 “Josiah was the father of Jehoiachin and his brothers (born at the time of the exile to Babylon).” (NLT) he is of direct linage to the legitimate throne of David, except that Jehoiachin lost that privilege and place.
So the only one with a direct line to the legitimate throne of David would be a “son” of David/Jehoiachin/Joseph. Now, here is the amazing piece: thus Jesus qualifies since he is not the physical son of Joseph but the “adopted” son.
Again God’s amazing hand is observed!
Jan 6th…
Q: In Revelation 22:18, it says, 18 I warn everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this scroll: If anyone adds anything to them, God will add to that person the plagues described in this scroll. 19 And if anyone takes words away from this scroll of prophecy, God will take away from that person any share in the tree of life and in the Holy City, which are described in this scroll. So how are our pastors scholarly enough to translate it correctly from the bible?
A: We agree with this question. And we would not stand for us “changing” the Scriptures. Now the truth is, we didn’t translate the Word. We used a well-documented translation, NET Translation as our source (http://bible.org/netbible/).
What we have done is exactly what was done with The Story. We have taken the 4 gospels word-for-word and harmonized them and combined them together into one account. Think of it this way…you have 4 witnesses who each tell the same story, but each of them add a few different details. We have taken these accounts and combined them so in essence you have one witness statement including all of the details. The method of harmonizing the Gospels was the same as Dr. Mark Moore who used Thomas & Gundry which is a universally accepted harmonization of the Gospels (http://www.booksofthebible.com/p5821.html).
And in order to be accountable, we have included a footnote that gives the passages in Matthew, Mark, Luke & John that we harmonized into each particular chapter.
We will have a FAQ page this weekend and will receive and answer questions via email, just as we did with The Story.
Hope this helps.
