That part of Matthew 19 has kept me going these past few years. The understanding that some day those who are ranked last here on Earth - the poor, the sick, the homeless, and so on - will be ranked first in the Kingdom of God while those who were ranked first here on Earth - the wealthy - will be last in the Kingdom of God has given me hope. I'm not saying to ignore the problems here on Earth, nor am I saying not work to improve existence here on Earth. We need to do our best to bring about the Kingdom of God here on Earth. What I am saying is that I feel is that no matter what the rich and powerful do to us, they will eventually come to a time and place where their wants and needs will come a distant second after those who were not rich and powerful here on Earth.

Where Christ is telling us that caring for others is necessary for salvation.

But you really have to read, compare, and contrast all four.

I wish more "christians" would spend more time in the gospels as opposed to languishing in Leviticus.

Such as not wearing clothes of blended fabrics, not working on the Sabbath, not eating shellfish, having tattoos, and so on.

http://static.fjcdn.com/pictures/Leviticus+18+22_6e6481_3761725.jpg

One of the unforseen drawbacks to the Reformation, with its otherwise-laudable call for the laity to study Scripture on their own, is that a lot of Christians then and thereafter have approached the Bible with no real training in hermenutic (guidelines for interpretation). As a result, a lot of assumptions based on "first impressions" get made, and one of the biggest, and most unconscious, is that the "truth" or importance of something can be picked up by how often you find it in Scripture. Now, the largest part of the Christian Bible by far is the Hebrew Scriptures (commonly called the "Old Testament&quot , and the primary author of the remaining parts of the Bible, of course, is Paul. By comparison to these, the Gospels only take up a small slice of the copy of the Bible on believers' shelves. Is it any surprise, then, that those who trumpet their devotion to "Bible truth" tend to focus on Paul and the Hebrew Scriptures, and seem to rarely know much about Jesus except for a few proof-text quotes, and what Paul wrote on the subject (which generally falls along the lines of "Christ died so that your sins might be forgiven, so repent before the wrath of God strikes you&quot ?

Because it is the closest to the time of Jesus.. written probably only 40 years after the crucifixion.

John, but I consider all 66 books to be the gospel not just 4.