Neil Diamond: "Brother Love's Traveling Salvation Show"

This man had a string of hits through the sixties and into the eighties. The song I'm featuring is about tent revival meetings which were once popular in America and Canada. Check it out here.

In the first century, synagogues were the places where Christ's disciples preached the gospel of the resurrection. As we read in Acts 5:1-5 (Bible in Basic English), "And while they were talking to the people, the priests and the captain of the Temple and the Sadducees came up to them, Being greatly troubled because they were teaching the people and preaching Jesus as an example of the coming back from the dead. And they took them and put them in prison till the morning, for it was now evening. But a number of those who gave hearing to the word had faith; and they were now about five thousand."

Jesus' first sermon in a synagogue angered the locals but it was his announcement that he was the Messiah. Luke 4:21 and 22 (BBE) records, "Then he said to them, 'Today this word has come true in your hearing.' And they were all giving witness, with wonder, to the words of grace which came from his mouth: and they said, 'Is not this the son of Joseph?'"
 
They later tried to throw Christ off a cliff but he walked through the crowd and escaped.

Jesus often taught in synagogues. Even some of the religious establishment believed him, as John 12:42 (BBE) tells us, "However, a number even of the rulers had belief in him, but because of the Pharisees they did not say so openly for fear that they might be shut out from the Synagogue:"

Of course we know that the location of meetings doesn't matter. It's the Holy Spirit who works in people to save them. Neither do we need to say a formula or act out a certain ritual. The gospel is the message and its own message.

And if Christ hasn't returned by Monday, I hope to post regarding what people call the golden rule.