GOD, Working Jesus made the enigmatic statement: "My Father is still working, and I also am working" (John 5:17). What does this mean? In the first chapter of Genesis we have a six day record of all that was needed for this world to work "naturally." In one sense the work of creation ended: "And on the seventh day God finished the work that he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all the work that he had done in creation" (Genesis 2:2). We are still in that seventh day of God's rest from creation, but that does not mean the world is left to go on like clockwork (a view that is called Deism). The Father still works like a parent watching over us, and hears and answers our prayers (see GOD, Openness). The Son's task is to intervene both in the world and in personal contacts. "The works that the Father has given me to complete, the very works that I am doing, testify on my behalf that the Father has sent me" (John 5:36). The Holy Spirit works from deep within our hearts to give us the inspiration and power we need for our creative work.

GOSPELS Among the Greeks when someone brought good news it was called evangelium, so those who proclaimed God's good news were called evangelists (Acts 21:8, Ephesians 4:11). God arranged to give us his good news in writing through the impressions of four different people who had encountered his Son. MATTHEW was a tax collector, who recorded some of Jesus' words verbatim. MARK was assigned to write down what Peter remembered. LUKE was a physician who was sent by Paul to collect as much information as possible from eye witnesses. JOHN, the Apostle  probably wrote his reflections in exile on the Island of Patmos.. Some scholars deny that these are historical documents on the assumption that a virgin birth is impossible, the blind and crippled don't get healed, and no one can rise from the dead. But all four Gospel are given to us without embellishment or moralizing. It is hard to see why they were written if the object was to tell us a pack of lies. They certainly work very powerfully if we want to hear and live by what Jesus had in mind for us (Matthew 28:20).

GOSPELS, Dating Scholars assumed that the detailed account of the destruction of the temple (Mark 13) could not have been prophesied by Jesus, and so must have been written after the fall of Jerusalem (AD 70). From the accounts in our Gospels it is evident that Jesus prophesied that the events would take place in the generation of his hearers (Matthew 23:36, 24:34, Mark 13:30, Luke 9:27, 21:32). That means the synoptic Gospels (see SYNOPTIC PROBLEM) were probably written between 44 AD (the beheading of James) and Paul's imprisonment in Caesarea (58-62 AD). Bishop Robinson showed that there is no evidence for the late dating of the Gospels, and suggested that all the documents of the New Testament were written before 70 AD (John A. T. Robinson, Redating the New Testament, London: SCM, Westminster, 1976)

GOSPEL WRITERS When James was beheaded (44 AD), and Peter only escaped by angelic intervention (Acts 12:1-9), the church in Jerusalem realized it was urgent to have a written eye-witness record of what Jesus preached. I imagine they appointed Mark to go and interview Simon Peter. The style of his Gospel reads like brief responses to questions from an interviewer. Then I picture Matthew reading and using 90 percent of the verses in Mark's Gospel as a framework to splice in the sayings (logia) in Aramaic that he had taken down verbatim during Jesus' ministry. He prefaced these with the genealogical records of the Messianic line in the registry in Bethlehem, and an account of what he had written down from Mary's story. While he was in prison in Caesarea (58-62 AD) Paul had Luke with him (based on the "we" passages in Acts 21:15-17, 27:1,4). So he may have asked Luke to take Mark's Gospel, and the logia that Matthew had written, and then go and interview Mary, people in Nazareth, and other apostles. Luke claims to have produced a reliable account of what had happened (Luke 1:1-4). When John the beloved disciple had read the synoptic gospels he decided that he must share what he remembered of his own experiences and conversations with Jesus. To fit his gospel on to one papyrus roll the Apostle John left out the information which the other Gospels had already recorded (John 20:30-31). Obviously this imaginative reconstruction is only a guess. But I can only abandon it if I am offered a more plausible explanation.

GOTHS A group of Nordic Indo-European people (distinct from the Indo-European CELTS), moved south into Germany and then into the Balkans during the reign of Gallienus (Roman Emperor, 260-68). They even tried to besiege Athens. They were allowed to settle in the Roman Empire, but they were badly treated, and they rebelled and defeated the Romans at the Battle of Adrianople (Edirne, 378). Under the leadership of Alaric they sacked Rome (410), and then established a west Goth (Visigoth) kingdom in Spain. Alaric's son, Theodoric I reigned as King of Spain (418-51). The Visigoths had been followers of ARIUS, but they adopted the Trinitarian faith of Rome (c.576). The Visigoth Kingdom of Spain continued until the last Visigoth King (Roderick) was overthrown by the MUSLIMS (711-13). In Eastern Europe the Ostrogoths) were overrun by the HUNS, but they regained power for a time by serving the Emperor in Constantinople. The people of Sweden could be viewed as the Goths who survived by not going out to ravage other nations. Could their name be connected with the city of Gothenburg or Goteborg on the mouth of the Gota Alv river?

GRACE We might call it "the giving of love without limit to those who don't deserve it." Virginia Molenkott said "There is nothing you can do to make God love you more. And there is nothing you could ever do to make God love you less" (Ephesians 2:8). But that does not mean humans can behave abominably. Grace and wrath are both aspects of love.. And God's wrath assigns consequences for harmful behavior in our nation, in our family, and in ourselves. But the good consequences we enjoy and the worst consequences we can experience are both part of the same love of God. We tend to assume that we deserve the good we enjoy. But there is no explanation in this life of the good we do not deserve or the bad that often seems erratic and unjust. Faith is believing that the grace of God has been with us and for us throughout life. What unbelievers miss is knowing, believing , and living with the assurance that God's grace is for our ultimate freedom, and it will never fail us whatever happens (2 Corinthians 12:7-9). Which is why Philip Yancey wrote "I rejected the church for a time because I found so little grace there. I returned because I found grace nowhere else."

GREEK ORTHODOX By the sixth century, city churches were grouped by languages under five patriarchs in Jerusalem (Hebrew), Antioch (Syriac), Alexandria (Coptic), Constantinople (Greek), and Rome (Latin). The Patriarch in Constantinople (Byzantium) still claims authority as the Oecumenical Patriarch of the East. But he has a precarious existence under Turkish rule, and the Cathedral of Saint Sophia has been made into a museum. The Greek Orthodox DENOMINATION derives its authority from the Nicene Creed and the fact that Greek speaking people still read and understand the language of the Septuagint version of the Old Testament, the original Greek New Testament, and the very important writings of the Greek Fathers. Greek Orthodox church buildings flourish in most villages of Greece (and the islands), Crete, and Cyprus. As the denomination has mushroomed by immigration among the many other denominations of North America, it is only a matter of time before more and more of its administration and services will have to be in English. But the ancient LITURGY and elaborate ceremonies will continue to attract worshipers in every city. They allow the marriage of priests, but bishops are still expected to be celibate.

GREEK RELIGION The original Greek tribes that came into mainland Greece spoke a form of the INDO-EUROPEAN family of languages. These are listed under JAPHET in the Table of Nations (Genesis 10:2-5). Their languages included Celtic, early English, Nordic, Germanic, Latin, Iranian, Sanskrit of the Aryan tribes that invaded India. And they had a common word for the one Creator God (Dieu in French, Deus in Latin, Zeus in Greek, Dev in Sankrit). But they soon added other names for God (HENOTHEISM) as among the Aryans. The Greek myths described various minor gods lusting and competing for power among themselves (POLYTHEISM). This popular religion of a multitude of gods was rejected by the Greek philosophers (see SOCRATES, PLATO, ARISTOTLE), and many of them became atheistic. But Paul explains that "What can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. Ever since the creation of the world his eternal power and divine nature, invisible though they are, have been understood and seen through the things he has made." The result was that "they became futile in their thinking, and their senseless minds were darkened. Claiming to be wise they became fools (Romans 1:19-22). Paul then goes on to explain the terrible decline of Greek religion and civilization after the Golden Age.

GREGORY PALAMAS (c.1296-1359) was ordained priest in Thessalonica (1326), but his adoption of HESYCHASM (taught by the monks of Mount Athos) resulted in him being condemned and sent to MOUNT ATHOS. But he was restored and made Bishop of Thessalonica (1347). His teaching is that we are made God's image, and that includes our body and soul together. He says the incarnation affirms the goodness of the body and it is the means by which humans are saved from corruption and death. The ascension resulted in the sending of the Spirit through whom the deification of humans is accomplished by making us participate in the life of the Holy Trinity. This is received by participation in the sacraments, particularly Baptism and the Eucharist. But our deification is always a gift of grace through prayer. One of his important insights is that "The goal of the ascetic life does not consist in a mortification which suppresses the passions of the body but rather in the acquisition of a new and better energy" which permits the body as well as the soul to be transformed (theiosis). See Gregory Palamas: The Triads, trans. Nicholas Gendle. New York: Paulist Press, 1983 (the above information is based on a paper for Regis College, Toronto, November 2002, by Renee Desjardins). Transformation by the Spirit to be perfected in the love of God is an essential part of our model on this website (see our book on Creative Love).

GUIDED Many people destroy themselves and others by insisting that God has guided them to solve the world's problems. "God told me to mount a crusade, have an inquisition, burn the witches in this town, start a community in Jonestown, point out what is wrong with you." That is not to deny the importance of God's guidance. In fact Paul said "All who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God" (Romans 8:14). Such good guidance is easily recognized. "The wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, willing to yield, without a trace of partiality or hypocrisy" (James 3:17). People who are moved in those ways don't irk us. We may not always agree with them, but they soon establish their credibility and we can take their vision seriously.

GULAG Alexander Solzhenitsyn (born in 1918) was given the Nobel prize (1970) for his books that described life in Russian prisons (A Day in the Life of Ivan Deniscovich, 1962, Cancer Ward, 1968, The First Circle, 1968). But it took another 12 years to write the horrifying story of The Gulag Archipelago (in Russian 1974, New York: Harper & Row, 1975). An archipelago is a string of islands, and in this case he used it as a metaphor for the string of death camps in Siberia from 1918-1956. These continued for three years after the death of STALIN (1953). Solzhenitsyn was able to show that the Gulag was the inevitable outcome of a model of MATERIALISM in which there are no values to support human freedom and dignity.

GURKHAS see NEPAL, Early

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