August Reading

1. The Case for Christianity - C. S. Lewis
2. The Waste Land and Other Poems - T. S. Eliot
3. Miracles: A Preliminary Study - C. S. Lewis
4. Dracula - Bram Stoker
5. Sound Doctrine - Bobby Jamieson
6. C. S. Lewis on Joy - Lesley Walmsley
7. Out of the Silent Planet - C. S. Lewis
8. Favorite Father Brown Stories - G. K. Chesterton
9. Mystery of the Midnight Message - Florence Parry Heide & Roxanne Heide
10. Rhodes - D. &. I. Mathioulakis
11. The Screwtape Letters - C. S. Lewis
12. On the Shoulders of Hobbits - Louis Markos
13. The Joyful Christian - C. S. Lewis
14. The Power of Positive Praying - John Bisagno
15. The Wisdom of Father Brown - G. K. Chesterton
16. Three Score & Ten - Vance Havner
17. Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen

Mark's Cameo

This week I read an article in a newspaper in which the author claimed that Mark (the writer of the Gospel that carries his name) inserted himself in two cameo appearances.  I have no problem with the first case, which can be found in Mark 14:51-51:

          A young man was following [Jesus], wearing nothing but a linen sheet over his naked body;

          and they seized him.  But he pulled free of the linen sheet and escaped naked (NASB).

Of course, this is not the sort of thing we can say with absolute certainty.  There are some pointers that make it quite possible that this young man was Mark.  However, if it could be proven that this indeed was not Mark, no big deal.  My faith would not be altered in the slightest.  It changes no essential doctrine of the faith once and for all passed down to us.

It is the author's second example in which I have no accord with him.

          Entering the tomb, they saw a young man sitting at the right, wearing a white robe; and they

          were amazed.  And he said to them, "Do not be amazed; you are looking for Jesus the

          Nazarene, who has been crucified.  He has risen; He is not here; behold, here is the place

          where they laid Him.  But go, tell His disciples and Peter... (Mark 16:5-7 NASB)."

The writer of the newspaper article claims that this "young man" is also a case of Mark inserting himself into the scene.  If Mark's Gospel were all we had to go on...maybe.  However, when we compare Matthew 28, Luke 24, and John 20 with Mark 16, then it becomes evident that the "young man" that Mark mentions actually turns out to be one of the two angels at the tomb.

This brings up an important lesson for anyone who wants to teach the Bible:  DO YOUR HOMEWORK!  I am willing to allow a couple of possibilities for this article writer.  Maybe he read a dubious and questionable source without realizing it.  Maybe he had a deadline looming ominously close and quickly repeated something without checking it out.  But that still does not excuse this kind of journalism.

Now there is also a great lesson for anyone who reads an article dealing with the Bible.  Always ask the question, "IS THIS TRUE?"  Check it out for yourself.  In Acts 17:11 we are told that the Bereans "were more noble-minded than" the Thessalonians because "they received the word with great eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see whether these things were so" (NASB).  In other words, they didn't merely take Paul's word for it, they checked everything out to make sure it was legit.  Let us do likewise.