Richard Lawrence

Yahweh’s command to Israel to celebrate a year of Jubilee every fifty years (Leviticus 25:8-55), yet the nation had failed to do so for its entire history.

This paper attempts to answer the “why” question of Israel’s failure by viewing it through the lens of trauma. It asserts that they experienced numerous life-threatening traumas which impacted their responsiveness to God and that the three elements of God’s presence, God’s Law and God’s Tabernacle may have been intended to function as means of addressing their traumas with healing and recovery.

Problem statement A recent conversation with a Christian friend raised an interesting Bible question. He is writing his Ph.D. thesis on the topic of “discipleship” and has poured over many books on the subject and passages of scripture and noted that although the word disciple/s appears hundreds of times in the New Testament, it disappears from use after Acts 21:16. The apostles Paul, Peter, James, Jude and John never address anyone by this term in the letters to local church

In this brief study I would contend that John 14:6 is not just a verse about how to “get to heaven” but part of a bigger picture that Jesus is trying to get across to His disciples before He goes to the cross.

Two encounters Jesus had during his ministry show us how he viewed and used the Old Testament scriptures.