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John's Creation: A Model for Understanding the Gospel of John

by John Pople

297 pages; quality trade paperback (softcover); catalogue #05-2326; ISBN 1-4120-7430-4; US$29.95, C$34.44, EUR24.60, £17.22

John's Creation provides unique insight into the Biblical Gospel of John: proposing that Jesus' life and ministry is presented as a spiritual parallel to the Genesis Creation * and explaining why!

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About the Book      About the Author      Excerpts      Catalogue Information

About the Book

John's Gospel begins:

"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him, nothing was made that has been made."

This opening reflects the presentation of the Creation sequence in the first book of the Bible. Beyond this, we hypothesize that John's Gospel presents Jesus' life and ministry as a spiritual parallel to the physical creation sequence in Genesis. This makes John's Gospel markedly different form the other three Gospels, which portray a more chronological narrative.

This spiritual creation structure is employed in interpreting John's Gospel, though the interpretations are not constrained by this thought. Successive chapters in this analysis consider the successive days of the spiritual creation sequence in John's gospel; with an expositional section and an exhortational one. This couplet is repeated seven times in the book, for each of the spiritual days. In each chapter, the spiritual equivalent of the component in the 'physical day' of the Genesis creation is considered alongside the presentation of Jesus Christ in each "spiritual day" of John's Gospel.

The final chapter addresses questions of overall conceptual format to ensure that we have not "missed the forest for the trees," i.e.:

- How are the Father and Son glorified from a spiritual creation sequence embedded in a Gospel?

- Are there othe portions of scripture patterned this way and, if so, what do we gain perceiving the spiritual creation sequence within them?

- How does the perception of John's spiritual creation help us to be better disciples of Jesus Christ?

It is hoped the analysis presented in John's Creation will answer these questions and therefore prove of genuine worth to one walking the path of discipleship in Christ.

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About the Author

I was born in Great Britain in January 1970 and moved to the United States at age 28. Primarily I am a Christian, baptized into the saving name of the Lord Jesus, and consequently a member of the Christadelphian (Brethren in Christ) faith.

My professional training in the sciences culminated in a physics doctorate in the fields of laser optics and materials science in 1996 and I now have more than 50 publications in internationally recognized scientific journals. I am currently employed as a research physicist at a synchrotron radiation laboratory in California, which is a particle accelerator designed to generate a powerful flux of X-radiation. The X-rays are focused into a beam with laser-like qualities which are used to reveal the molecular level structure of samples they probe. I am daily called to utilize critical and hypothetical analysis in detection and characterization of the X-ray diffraction data, seeking to determine statistically significant patterns within the source streams yielding both coherent and incoherent data. These pattern detection and analysis skills, as with all blessings from God, find useful employ in analytical approach of the scriptures and feature significantly in any attempted Biblical exposition of mine ­ Biblical exposition being the sole arena of my publications advertised on this site.

I have not been schooled in languages nor literary critique, thus I am unable to offer linguistic analyses of Biblical texts (meanings of Hebrew, Greek, and Aramaic words or practices, where necessary, are referenced from expert sources), nor advance critique upon the veracity or authorship of any part of the Bible per se. My Christian faith (and other considerations not detailed here) convinces me the scriptural text is the inspired Word of God in its totality and Bible study I undertake is always approached in this spirit: in the spirit of humility of one trying to listen and learn from it, not the arrogant air of assumed wisdom beyond that of a simple people from apparently primitive societies of yesteryear. Thus, in the publications listed here, the Bible is regarded as a sole source of truth and the only appropriate authority for its (self-) interpretation.

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Excerpts

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Catalogue Information

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