Sunday, April 16, 2017

The Gospel Creed - Music Story

November 22, 1963. I approached the check-out counter of a Ma and Pa grocery store. The cashier looked stunned and frightened. I could hear a voice in the background. When I looked around I was relieved to see that we were the only people in the store. In a trembling voice he said, “The radio. President Kennedy has just been shot.”

Five years later a different voice on the radio was singing this about Kennedy:
“Anybody here seen my old friend John?
Can you tell me where he's gone?
He freed lotta people but it seems the good they die young
I just looked around and he's gone”

The song, “Abraham, Martin and John,” became a folk-pop standard worldwide. It was so significant that, forty years after it was written, historian Ace Collins included it in his book, Songs Sung Red, White, and Blue: The Stories Behind America’s Best-Loved Patriotic Songs.
Book Cover
Check out the book here.
 What were people saying about Jesus five years after he was crucified?

Critical scholars consider ancient documents as historical if they have a historical setting and the author is named. Based on those two criteria at least six of the Apostle Paul’s letters are considered authentic by skeptical, liberal, and conservative scholars. When you trace the timeline of events in these letters, you discover that four to six years after Jesus died, people were reciting this creedal statement about him:
“Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures
He was buried
He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures
He appeared to Peter …”

The creed was so significant that twenty years later, Paul included it in his letter to the Corinthians, a letter skeptics consider as authentic.

Jonathan Morrow lays out the timeline of events in his book, Questioning the Bible: 11 Major Challenges to the Bible’s Authority.
Book Cover
Check out the book here.
Five years after the assassination the song said JFK was gone. Five years after the crucifixion the creed said Jesus is alive.

Happy Easter! He is risen! He is risen indeed! From the album “Main Street” this video is scrolling playback of the song.
Kathy

Click here to for “3 Startling Truths about the Early Church from the Pre-New Testament Texts.”

You can get print (PDF) and/or digital (MusicXML™) sheet music for The Gospel Creed.
The Gospel Creed
Click here for print sheet music (lead sheet format).
The Gospel Creed
Click here for digital sheet music.
(MusicXML™ is the standard open format for sharing digital sheet music.
Check the help files in your music notation app for directions on importing MusicXML™ files.)


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