I don’t have a script, a systematized study, or a research paper to share with the community, only a smile and a book. My heart is aflame over John’s Gospel because of its revelation of a Person. And in these weekly installments of neighborhood surveys, my purpose is to share the input received from neighbors as I explore various details of the fourth Gospel. In these articles, I welcome the clarifications, suggestions, questions, and even strong challenges (really) from those I have talked to and others just reading this entry.

With my backpack loaded with KJV Gospels of John stapled with business cards featuring this website, I hit the streets asking two questions to anyone kind enough to respond.

1. A question of historical interest on John 1:28. Do you believe John the Baptist ministered water baptisms at Bethabara (KJV) or Bethany (NASV, NIV, etc. – utilizing earlier Greek manuscripts)?

2. A question of doctrinal importance on John 1:29. John gave an opening introduction of Jesus to the world, “Behold the Lamb of God which taketh away the sins of the world.” Does this metaphoric title for Jesus speak of Him as the sacrificial lamb dying as a substitute for the penalty of our sins? Or does this title speak more of His nature being meek and gentle?

This week, I made contact with 31 homes near our church building in Ammon, Idaho. Fifteen were non-LDS (Muslim – 1, Buddhist – 1, Christian Scientology – 1, Jehovah Witness – 1, Catholic – 3, no faith – 3, and evangelical, representatives from all different local churches – 5). The other sixteen residences were LDS. No, that’s not technically true—only fifteen were mainstream; one was Reorganized.

The non-LDS were a uniquely mixed bunch. The Muslim and Buddhist were kind at the door but not interested in talking. One Catholic unhesitatingly declared Bethany and the sacrificial, substitutionary lamb as his answer. But another Catholic lamented over all the various interpretations and religions, and that personally he had no idea. After handing me a pamphlet on false religions, the Jehovah Witness needed to pull out her church translation to decide on the first question, sure enough – Bethany. The cross-reference in her Bible margin took us to Revelations 5:6 for the second question (and let me add, a very excellent passage pertinent to John 1:29 – the only problem is that we are in total disagreement over John 1:1). If the Christian Scientologist had time, she would have fully expounded to me all the mysteries of modern metaphysics, pure light, the reality of spirituality, our god oneness, Adam dreams, and that the Christ inhabited the human Jesus, his representation to the world. Obviously, she doesn’t like John 1:14.

One of the representatives from a large, evangelical church in town, who even attends BSF (Bible Study Fellowship) regularly, stunned me by responding, “I don’t know the answers. I am not familiar with your Baptist doctrine.” Screeeeeech! Halt. Let’s back up a minute. Baptist doctrine? Are these two questions couched in Baptist distinctives? Honestly, that was not my intention.

One man from Shiloh Foursquare said, “I strictly retain the KJV—it is Bethabara.” And then after speaking of Jesus as meek and gentle, he raised his arm in triumph while declaring Christ as the Lamb that sacrificially died for our sins. Two other evangelicals in other homes resoundingly joined his answer on the second question, but choose Bethany as their answers to the first question.

And yet it was the actions of a fifth evangelical that showed me Christ this week. This young lady, mid twenties, almost died in a serious car wreck. But God woke her up from a coma on Easter Day, ten years ago. After a warm conversation of listening to her love for Jesus and noticing her beautiful spirit expressed through her mental and physical handicaps, I moved on. Yet as I was talking to an LDS patriarch at the next home, she left her house, hobbling and lurching over to me, stopped, and then quietly waited.

After ending my conversation with the grandfatherly LDS, I looked at this girl, puzzled. With a smile from ear to ear, she beamed, “I want to thank you, Pastor. Since my accident, I never want to forget to thank people.” On Tuesday afternoon, God sent to me a girl who is the Christian embodiment of the Thanksgiving season.

Now for all my LDS friends, remember one was Reorganized. With firm resolution, she answered Bethany and sacrificial, substitutionary Lamb to my gentle probing. Two LDS grandmas didn’t want to respond to my two questions. One had hands covered in flour dough (ahhh, it smelled good in her house); the other said she was very happy and would pass up the opportunity for answering Bible questions. The breakdown of responses for the rest is as follows:

1. Bethabara – 7, Bethany – 3, Don’t know – 4

2. A Lamb sacrificed as a substitute for the penalty for our sins – 4, Meek and gentle spirit – 4, Both – 5, Other – 1

The “other” happened to be the response of another LDS grandfather. He lectured me on all the problems of various religions in not understanding the true path and that the King James Version is clearly what one is to use. “Obviously, it is Bethabara.” But then he threw in the disclaimer, “Yet we only believe the Bible as far as it has been translated correctly.” For the second question, he remarked, “It is just a term, like Savior, like elder Brother, that we use for Jesus. That’s all.” But this grandfather directly contradicts what a young, intelligent LDS woman said to me, “They teach us it is Bethany.” For the moment, I don’t no what to think about this contrast.

Closing observations, questions, and comments: Regarding the first question, I understand earlier Greek MSS possess Bethany. Origen couldn’t find this place on the map in his travels but did discover Bethabara, and thus we have the textual variant. Because of this, I tend to square myself with the earlier Greek MSS on this particular verse. Yet here’s the twist: According to the Book of Mormon, Nephi writes the predictions of his father, Lehi in I Nephi 10:7-10 (between 600 and 592 B.C., just before Ezekiel’s day in Babylonian exile at a Jewish settlement along Chebar), “And he spake also concerning a prophet who should come before the Messiah, to prepare the way of the Lord—Yea, even he should go forth and cry in the wilderness: Prepare ye the way of the Lord, and make his paths straight; for there standeth one among you whom ye know not; and he is mightier than I, whose shoe’s latchet I am not worthy to unloose. And much spake my father concerning this thing. And my father said he should baptize in Bethabara, beyond Jordan; and he also said he should baptize with water; even that he should baptize the Messiah with water. And after he had baptized the Messiah with water, he should behold and bear record that he had baptized the Lamb of God, who should take away the sins of the world.”

1. Does the BoM Lehi rule out the possibility of Bethany in early MSS?

2. So John the Baptist is not the forerunner, the first to announce to the world this unique Messianic title, “Behold the Lamb of God”? Of all the O.T. kings, priests, and prophets, none of them had ever mentioned this. Not one of them among all the salvic pictures throughout human history before John. But the BoM Lehi seems to jump the gun on John’s unique roll among mankind.

3. Was Ezekiel, the son of dust, in the dark about Jehovah on His throne chariot being the Lamb who would need the tying and loosing of a “shoe’s latchet”? In all those divine oracles given to this godly, obedient, exiled priest far from the destroyed temple in Jerusalem, Jehovah didn’t tell him once that He was the Lamb of God? And what about any communication to Jeremiah battling it out among the disobedient back at Jerusalem in the final Babylonian deportation? These guys were both back there during the 590’s to 570’s B.C.

4. Of course, Isaiah did prophesy in Isaiah 61:1. Didn’t the unique events engulfing John’s baptism of Jesus fulfill this text in order to make utterly clear that He is the Messiah? Even John didn’t know till then. Right?

5. Did any peoples following the BoM Lehi and Nephi come to know the central object within the perfect symmetry of Ezekiel’s temple vision? Shouldn’t LDS, today, have a clear understanding of the meaning behind Lamb (used an unbelievable 56 times in I Nephi 10-14) when thinking of Ezekiel’s temple complex? What is absolutely central to the mission of the Lamb of God? Since the temple in Ezekiel belongs to the Lamb, how does the altar directly speak to His atoning work?

Are these questions making any earthly sense? 🙂

I believe that the Scripture teaches that Jesus was that Lamb offered on the altar as a substitutionary sacrifice for the penalty we deserved because of our sin. John the Baptist is not using the title, “Lamb of God,” in John 1:29 to declare to you that Jesus has a meek and gentle nature.

Thinking of heart issues . . .