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The Baptism of Jesus These are ancient pictures of Jesus' baptism. It is estimated that the original painting was made at the beginning of the second century.
Notice the position of John, on the bank and not in the water. Also note that Jesus was not wearing any clothes. Just as our cultural clues indicate, Jesus immersed himself and was not be dunked under the water by John. You should also note that in the picture on the left, the person on the right side of Jesus is a "pagan river god." This is just another piece of evidence that pagan ideals were incorporated into Christianity beginning at a very early stage. In
the story of John the Baptist, more correctly called "John the Immerser,"
the immersion of Jesus was followed by a withdrawal period in the wilderness
where he was tested by an adversary. This fits perfectly into the Judean culture's concept of
ablution. After completing that
period and passing the tests, Jesus would have been rendered "clean"
and permitted to perform acts which his impurity had prevented.
Technical terms may take a little more work to understand, but without
that information you will never be able to have a Successful Communication
Experience. Staying
Out of Old Ruts
Old
definitions are like driving on a road with deep ruts.
If you aren’t paying much attention to what you are doing, you
will find yourself slipping into the ruts.
Your car will go where the ruts take it.
The same thing can happen when you are dealing with new definitions
or definitions from another culture for old words.
If you aren’t paying attention, you will automatically use your
old definition. Make sure you assign the “Source's bundle of associations
” to the word of your Bible -- or you will quickly find yourself stuck
in your old linguistic ruts. This
takes practice and work. Memorize
means “the power or process of reproducing or recalling what has
been learned and retained.” Unless
you can reproduce the Source's meanings you will have an Unsuccessful
Communication Experience. Relentless
determination means that we must "go on resolutely or stubbornly in
spite of opposition. Most of
the time the greatest opponent is forgetting what we have discovered. The
meaning of one word can make a big difference. The
Cost of a Misinterpretation -- A
Japanese word, MOKUSATSU, may have changed all our lives. It has two
meanings; (1) to ignore and (2) to refrain from comment. The release of a
press statement using the second meaning in July 1945, might have ended
the war then. The Emperor was ready to end it and had the power to do so.
The cabinet was preparing to accede to the Potsdam Ultimatum of
the Allies- "surrender or be crushed", but they wanted a little
more time to discuss the terms of surrender. A press release was prepared
by the Japanese announcing a policy of` MOKUSATSU', with the "no
comment" implication. But the press release got on the foreign wires
with the "to ignore" implication through a mix-up in
translation. To recall the release would have entailed an unthinkable loss
of face. Had the intended meaning been publicized, the cabinet might have
backed up the Emperor's decision to surrender, in which event, there might
have been no atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, no Russian armies in
Manchuria, no Korean war to follow, the lives of ten of thousands of
Japanese and American boys might have been saved. ONLY ONE WORD
MISINTERPRETED. The Japanese sent the message "We refrain from
comment" but the Allies received the message "We choose to
ignore your demand for surrender." How important is it for us to have a culturally correct understanding for the biblical words such as -- God, Christ, saved, love, sin, forgiveness, hell, heaven, peace, faith, repentance, etc.? If you chose Option 2 and are participating in the BHC Leadership Development Program you are to write a summary of this lesson. Tell us what you learned and make any suggestions on how to improve the lesson. Include any comments on how this information affected your spirituality. E-mail your paper to us by clicking here and attaching your finished paper. If possible use WORD format. END OF LESSON FIVE |
