CHRISTIANITY DEFROCKED | |||||||||||||||
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Introduction:
Who exactly was and is Jesus? Some clever teacher that stirred up the
crowds. A demon possessed man as accused by some in the Bible. Something
you say when you are surprised or angry. A myth. A magician. Some
deluded hippie wandering about in sandals. Jesus has been called all
sorts of things and maybe you have your own take on him. Many people
react when you say the name seriously. I have found that you can discuss
God and church and religion, but start talking about Jesus and people
start to get edgy. Try saying “Jesus Christ is Lord” out loud and see if
you get a reaction inside you. The Bible also says “The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being…” We might not fully understand this but it sounds wonderful. The Way. God’s way. Why do we stubbornly refuse to even take a look at this option? (Thanks for reading this though) The Truth. Amazing how desperately the most intelligent people will seek to prove Jesus wrong. Why? The Life. Are you dying? The Bread of Heaven. Are you spiritually hungry or starved? Maybe even physically hungry. The Lamb of God. A sacrifice sent to appease God’s wrath against mankind (but only for those who choose to accept this) Below is a quick run through of the life of Jesus. From the beginning of A.D. Jesus came as a babe born of a virgin Mary (see Christmas). Pretty much unannounced and unrecognised. At age 12 Jesus amazed the religious leaders at the temple with his wisdom and grew up as a carpenter like Joseph. At age 30, Jesus was baptised by John the Baptist. Jesus had never sinned so technically was not required to be baptised, but chose to as an example to all his followers. This is where God the Holy Spirit came onto him in the form of a dove. Following this the Holy Spirit led Jesus into the wilderness where he fasted for 40 days and 40 nights. Then Satan visited him in his weakened condition and gave him a real heavy session of temptation. Satan realised that if Jesus sinned, then his whole mission on earth would be rendered void and the human race would be lost without hope. Jesus defeated Satan and would not succumb to the delights he offered. Many people have accused Jesus of all kinds of things, but the Bible says he never ever sinned, because he chose not to. Then Jesus’ three year ministry began. He started by choosing his rag tag band of followers (see God & Men). Then he went throughout the land, teaching, healing doing miracles* and generally rubbing the Jewish religious leaders up the wrong way. Strange that in our country we love the story of the myth of Robin Hood, but have no time for the true life exploits of Jesus – God the Son, who did much much more in helping the poor and healing the sick. Jesus hates the corruption of church leaders too. At the end of three years he rode into From that date till forever, Jesus now sits in Heaven at the right hand of the Father as King of kings and Lord of lords and the Bible says about him, “Your throne O God will last for ever and ever, and righteousness will be the sceptre of your kingdom.” The Lord Jesus Christ to give him his full title will actually judge the whole world when he chooses. To him has been given honour and authority over all things. He holds the keys of death and Hell. John the writer of Revelation was taken into heaven (a bit like a journalist being invited in to write about what he saw and was shown incredible things) and describes what Jesus looks like now. “His head and his hair were as white as snow, and his eyes were like blazing fire. His feet were like bronze glowing in a furnace and his voice was like the sound of rushing waters.” * There is debate about the miracles that Jesus did. To a God who created the world in six days, why should raising someone from the dead or walking on water, or healing the sick be a problem? He did miracles for three main reasons. To demonstrate the |
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