A. What is the one main idea in the chapter? The Main Idea of this chapter is being called into a relationship with God. From the Pentecost to Sister Thea Bowman this chapter is all about how great personalities in biblical history have been called into a relationship with God. Many have been touched by him in different ways though. The people present at the Pentecost revived their relationship with God and began to spread the word of Jesus. St. Paul was the farthest thing from being in relationship with God until Jesus knocked him off of his horse, then he became a Christian and wrote wonderful letters of encourage to provide hope for new Christian communities in
a world that seemed pitched against them.
B. Two major ideas I would like to take note of are:
Moses and Jesus while seemingly completely different have many similarities. One of the most obvious similarities were their objectives, they had both set out to lead their people to a better place, weather physically or spiritually, and both achieved this. Both had moments where they had lost trust in God or felt very alone in the world. Moses had once distrusted God when he struck the rock twice instead of the one time that God had instructed him to do, this cost him his passage into the promised land over the Jordan. Even Jesus, the son of God, began to lose trust in him when he asked for his crucification to pass so he could live.
The stages of scripture development explain some of the seemingly outlandish stories to me. By going through the steps to development it becomes easier to understand that the actual event were usual probably closer to reality than they seem in the bible. In the oral stage the story is almost certain to grow and change every time it is told to make it sound more interesting. Then the written proclamation is only a story someone heard from a friend who knows a friend.
