Taking classes

I’m taking classes online at Global University right now to be a certified minister with the Assemblies of God. Right now, my first class is the Christ in the Synoptic Gospels. In the book, the first Books of the New Testament are the Synoptic Gospels, Matthew, Mark, and Luke. The Book of John is not considered a Synoptic Gospel. Synoptic Gospel means the three Books are written in a similar way through different viewpoints by different men through the Power of the Holy Spirit. It has been a wonderful class to go through. Not only has it been about the Gospels themselves, it also has been about the period in the Book of Daniel, when King Nebuchadnezzar had his dream of the statue that he saw of the 4 kingdoms, the head of gold which was his kingdom, the Babylonians, the chest and arms of silver, which were the Medes and Persians, the skirt of bronze, which was the Greeks, the two legs of iron, which were the Romans, and last but not least, which were the feet, which were made of iron and clay, which are today’s time, the world. Iron and clay never exactly mix together, which is true of today’s world. Then the class talks about the period between the Old and New Testaments, which was called the Intertestamental Period, when there were no actual Books of the Bible written, but where we have the books called the Maccabees written, of which there are 5 books written of history. They have been very interesting to read to read. Most people only read 2 books of the Maccabees, because in the Apocrypha, there are only 2 of them in there. Also, in this class, I learned about the history of the Herods that ruled in Israel, and how cruel they were, but I knew they had been, especially Herod, the Great, the Herod who murdered the baby boys 2 years old and under when he was looking for Jesus and couldn’t find Him when the Wise Men had told King Herod they were looking for the King of the Jews because they found the Star that lead them there. Then there was King Herod Antipas that was responsible for crucifying Jesus 31 years later, so the Herods are not the men I’d want to be around. Later in the class, I learned about the Israel religious leaders, the Pharisees, Sadducees, Scribes, the Essenes, and all the other groups that cropped up in Israel. The Pharisees came out of the Hasmoneans during the Intertestamental Period and they were very strict law keepers. The Sadducees didn’t believe in the Resurrection. The Scribes were the lawyers of the Israelites. The Essenes lived out in the wilderness.  Even though John was not considered a Synoptic Gospel, I read his Gospel, because I had to read on the miracles that were mentioned only in his Gospel that weren’t mentioned in the other 3 Gospels. But that was alright with me because I just love reading the Book of John. John is one of my favorite Bible writers. After all, he wrote the Book of Revelation and the 3 Books of 1, 2, and 3 John. All in all, this class has been very good and I’ve learned a lot. I’ll be taking the end test for it soon. I pray I do well on it.