John used a variety of techniques to communicate to his readers the nature of Jesus. To accomplish that goal, John presented a riveting and distinctive picture of Jesus Christ, one in complete unity with the portraits in the other three gospels, but one that also adds significantly to the Bible’s revelation of Jesus Christ, the He wrote so that his readers might “believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God,” so that they may have life in His name (John 20:31). John stated his theme more clearly than any of the other gospel writers. While the other three gospels portray Jesus as the King, the Servant, and the Son of Man, John portrays Jesus as the Son of God. It also comes through clearly elsewhere in the book, particularly in John 8:58 when Jesus claimed the divine name-“I am”-for Himself, which led an angry mob of Jews to try and kill Him for blasphemy. The emphasis on the deity of Christ is a striking quality of John’s gospel. Invoking the “in the beginning” language of Genesis 1:1, John made a direct link between the nature of God and the nature of the Word, Jesus Christ. John did not include the nativity story in his gospel instead, he introduced his book by going back even further into history. These factors suggest that John wrote the bookīetween AD 85 and AD 95. Polycarp, a second-century Christian martyr who knew John personally, told Irenaeus that John had written the book during the apostle’s time serving the church in Ephesus. In Christian tradition, John’s gospel has always been referred to as the fourth gospel, meaning it was composed after the other three. The second significant evidence for John’s authorship is the unanimous testimony of early Christians, among them the second-century Christian Irenaeus, who declared that John was the disciple who laid his head on Jesus-the disciple “whom Jesus loved” (13:23)-and the author of the gospel.
This description likely pointed to John for three reasons: the author had to be one of the twelve disciples because he was an eyewitness to the events in the gospel (John 21:24) he was probably one of the inner circle of three disciples (James, John, and Peter) because he was among the first Mary told of the resurrection (20:1–10) and this disciple is distinguished from Peter in the book, while James died too soon after the resurrection to be the author. First, the book itself identifies the author as the disciple whom Jesus loved.
However, two significant factors point to the identification of John as the author. Such identifications were not made in any of the other three biblical gospels either. The author does not expect everybody to concur with his arguments although he would certainly like to hear some answers if you believe that he is mistaken At the very least 'No Happy Endings' is a book that should ultimately give you plenty of food for thought.Not surprisingly, the gospel of John never provides the name of its author. Whether the reader agrees with the ultimate conclusions laid out in this book is not the issue. An indepth exploration of the whole messy business that makes it clear from the start that no stone will be left unturned in search of the truth regardless of how much offence, shock and dismay the contents may cause. A sceptical, uncompromising and perhaps rather controversial overview of the entire life after death, spiritualism and organized religion scenario. However after many years of intensively studying and pondering this most elusive question from every conceivable angle and equation he has come to a very different set of conclusions concerning the true facts behind what is a deeply mysterious subject. Author John Seaton used to be one of them. The belief that life of some description carries on after we die is a worldwide concept accepted as a reality by billions of people across the planet from western religious devotees and eastern mystics, right through to primitive tribesmen in the Amazon jungle and one which people believe in wholeheartedly regardless of the fact that they have no personal proof of it themselves whatsoever. If you do happen to believe in life after death then you are not alone. It is the only thing you can predict in your life with absolute certainty. There are no options about this and there is definitely no escape. Is there life after death? Could there possibly be a more important question facing mankind than this? Can you think of one? After all all of us eventually will die.