This past Sunday, we finished the Book of Signs.
We started in October of 2006. The final appeal in John 12 speaks volumes about the Lord Jesus Christ, His word, and His Father.
Please. Note this. It is very important.
his commandment is life everlasting
Jesus in Idaho Falls 
Great picture!
You quote reminds me of when God was speaking to Moses:
“For behold, this is my work and my glory—to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man.” (Moses 1:39)
This tells me that God’s priority is to do all that He can to help bring us back into His presence. However, because of agency, he can’t and won’t force us — so it’s up to us to decide to accept his help or not.
“Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me.” (Rev 3:20)
Tell me more about the Book of Signs you finished.
“For behold, this is my work and my glory—to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man.” (Moses 1:39)”
Ah, so perhaps JS, Jr. had read Ireneus?
“This tells me that God’s priority is to do all that He can to help bring us back into His presence. However, because of agency, he can’t and won’t force us — so it’s up to us to decide to accept his help or not.”
And perhaps you have been reading the Cappodochians?
“Tell me more about the Book of Signs you finished.”
This is a “higher critical” designation for a portion of the Gospel of John.
Greg, I hope the higher critic would acknowledge the seven signs as authentic to Jesus.
What would he or she call the next chapters?
Todd, me too. Some would, some would not.
The “Jerome Biblical Commentary” labels John 13:1-17:26 as “The Book of Exaltation”.
Contemporary “higher criticism” is not what it was in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
Sorry, that last reference should be John 20:31.
Ahh, the Book of Glory . . . and we are starting tomorrow.
And I am stunned by how it is all introduced.
Speaking of “higher critical” scholarship, you may find the following interesting from a confessional Anglican:
“Reply to the Questioning Christian”
And, from the always insightful Fr. Stephen Freeman of the Orthodox Church in America:
“The Meaning of Scripture”