New Testament Survey

"In chapter 4 of our text, our author gives a good survey of Matthew's Gospel. Beginning on page 66, he discusses several characteristic features of Matthew. For this forum, each student should choose 2 of those characteristics and discuss how those features help them understand Matthew's Gospel better."


My Answer

Matthew's Reassurances

Matthew emphasizes the importance of the fact that Jesus fulfilled the promises of the Bible as proof that he is "the living God."  God "shows himself" throughout Jesus's life, for instance when an angel appeared to his adopted earthly father Joseph in a dream about taking care of Jesus's mother Mary and Jesus.  Jesus also is recorded to have risen from the dead, as any recording of any other miracle has truth.  He was tested by the devil, as well.  Actually, the Bible predicted what would happen in Jesus's life in many ways long ago.

Jesus saved Israel.  He is fulfilling needs like people such as Abraham from the Old Testament.  He ruled like King David.  He makes people believe in him with the validity of the physical miracles he performed.  He says Jesus is the final Messiah, though I notice He "will come again in glory."  Jesus didn't discriminate against gentiles, didn't just preach to people such as the Jews themselves.  Mark ties up his gospel by telling people to "go out" and help others, telling them of the good ways of being he preached to them.

General Psychology

• "Ask a probing question.
• Share an insight from having read your colleague's posting.
• Offer and support an opinion.
• Validate an idea with your own experience.
• Expand on your colleague's posting."

Andrew M Lewis

"In have decide to compare the effects parenting styles may have had on two of my nephews that are only six months apart. The two parenting styles I will be comparing are permissive and authoritative. But at the end of my post I will through a wrench in to the mix as how nature may have made the impact.

The first nephew I will refer to as Sam for the extent of this post. Sam’s parents while they would likely disagree with me use a permissive parenting style. Sam frequently acts out when put in unfamiliar environments or unpredictable situations. This is more likely to occur when Sam does not get his way in these situations. To avoid negative behavior his parents, do everything in their power to control both environment and situations. When they are unable to control these two variables they give him or allow him to do what he wants. Example one, Sam was being watched by a relative one afternoon when I stopped by to visit. This relative is older and not as fast as I or Sam. When Sam managed to get a handful of sharp objects I kindly asked him to give them to me. Explaining that they could potentially hurt him. Sam reluctantly handed me the objects, but immediately ran to grab one remaining one to keep it. This time my approach became more demanding as I told him not to grab it. As he began to run I stopped in front of him he looks at me and I explain as before that it could hurt him, so he had to give it to me. But unfortunately for both of us he decided to bite my arm instead. More examples of could be pulled from every time we go out to eat as a family.

Second nephew I will refer to as Matt for this post. Matt’s parents are aware of their parenting style being authoritative and work hard to achieve this. While Matt’s parents often must stop him and take more time to explain the reasons behind what they are telling him it has a much better result. Matt thrives in any environment and enjoys trying new things, meeting people, and learning. One of many awesome milestones I have got to see from Matt happened while we were packing up from camping. Matt wanted to help his dad put the tent away but was not aloud because he had just gotten washed up. Matt then plied that he wanted to be helpful and contribute to cleaning up to do his part. Matt had multiple points to his plea each unfolding that he is now aware of complex thought processes and understanding his feelings while using his understanding to express himself without getting emotional or violent. Matt’s parents still made him wait and not help with the tent he obeyed them despite his disagreement.

While this post so far has been about nurture I will now put a twiy t on it by saying in Sam was adopted from a mother that used a variety of hard drugs during her pregnancy. So the question still remains a mystery to me in nature vs nurture."

My Response

Different Strokes for Different Folks

Do you think both boys had some potential but that it doesn't mean they're boring in an identical way like robots?  Like, if Sam's mom didn't do drugs while she was pregnant with him or maybe other things were different, do you think he would have been different but not exactly like Matt?  Matt seems like a goody-good, but people who are good don't like to be ignored socially.

Some people might not listen, but they still have a personality.  Most good people as older kids or teenagers or young adults might just be luckier or normal.  People who are wayward in behavior as kids are going to have to make a change someday.  Why wait so long?

I think kids being bad is something they just learn to do and need to learn to be aware of things more socially.  They aren't as conscious and as they grow still face more and more difficulties.  They are not totally aware to you like an adult usually is.

When I was little, I didn't stop and think and focus how bad it was I hated on people for treating me how they did.  I didn't know to stop doing some things that were wrong or I did and just did them because they didn't seem that bad.

I think people don't like being talked about like that and that they could always find out or see if you act differently around them.  I think that's a violation of freedom of speech with a domino effect and that it only seems to apply to some people.  I think that some kids have problems if they don't eat enough etc. and get good activity, like exercise, play, and when they listen to good music or do things like art.