John 14:6, Jesus says, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man comes to the Father except through me”.
Lately, I have been reading a great book called The Urantia Book, which is deeply metaphysical and a bit universalistic. I have many met people during my Christian walk who are universal and subscribe to the thought that "all ways lead to God”, or as the famous phrase goes- “There is one God but many ways”. Now, as I have been reading through this book, and standing firmly upon my foundation of Jesus Christ, I have challenged myself as to WHY MUST IT BE JESUS? Why do I feel the urge to defend the inerrancy of the Word of God and salvation of men through Jesus Christ?
Well, let me start off by admitting I believe in absolute truth. The philosophers struggled with this concept of truth and it tends to get a bit sticky at times, but if there is truth there has to be absolute truth. Jesus Christ said, “I am the truth..”.
I love stories of people who have been completely against Christianity and sought to prove its error, but in the end face Jesus Christ, the Truth, head on and become Christians. (Admittedly, because that is my story). It requires alot of humility to face the fact that your presuppositions are wrong, and the lack of humility has worked to the disadvantage of many.
As I tell many people, I am a firm believer that if you set out on a truth quest (similar to Ghandi), and are honest in the face of controversy and facts, you will eventually be led to Jesus Christ.
A great book to read would be Lee Strobel’s, A Case for Christ. With that said, the documentation of the Bible and the historicity of the Christian movement clears many doubts. There are many external resources to document the life of Jesus Christ and his movement, so as to make the reality of His life and movement a fact. The issue does not reside in whether or not Jesus lived on earth and started a movement now called Christianity- that's all reliable and unarguable history.
Here are some research sites:
http://dmc.members.sonic.net/sentinel/naij3.html
http://www.leaderu.com/truth/1truth22.html
The issue resides in whether or not he was the Christ that the Israelite’s were waiting for and what exactly did He do?
Alot of misunderstandings of who and what Jesus Christ was and accomplished are to blame for the lack of many fully understanding this “Christianity thing”.
We must seek to understand God, after all isn’t that what this journey is all about. The expression of the Church that I congregate with -Messiah Reformed Church- holds to mission statement of “Pursuing and Sharing our Joy in the Knowledge of Him”. That is our goal to grow and develop in our knowledge of Him, which through proper understanding will produce joy.
As we study through the Old Testament, we learn of God creating a covenant with a group of people- First God saves Noah, leads Abraham to another land, Jacob (Israel) becomes the covenant people, and then Moses is called to be a leader of the people and to institute a way of life for the people of God. This is all leads up to what is called the Old Covenant.
These covenant people- which basically means those who are in agreement with God, are those who will receive God’s guidance and blessings. I recently asked my pastor- “Why did God choose to create a covenant with the Israelites”, we don’t know specifically, but what we can extract out of the Word of God is that it was for His glory!
God’s chosen people, were to be a separate people for the glory of God, and this came with responsibility which lead to the Law of Moses (much of what we understand as the 10 Commandments). This was a hard responsibility for the Israelites that’s why we have books such as Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel and all the others- who were prophets pretty much yelling at the people of God and the surrounding nations, and who spoke God’s divine judgments and in many senses God’s displeasure with how His people were acting.
So, this is where the plot thickens and Jesus Christ comes into play. From the outset we must fully understand that we cannot think like God, so there will be unanswered questions (Isaiah 55:8), but we can and must dig as deep as we can to understand what we can. The fancy words use to describe God are, He is Omnipresent, Omnipotent, and Omniscient, which basically mean that He alone is God and that He is beyond time, everywhere, and always able to do as He pleases. Jesus Christ was the plan from the beginning (best to always remember that this whole thing is for His glory!), and this was all to demonstrate His love and desire to have a people of His own, who love Him with all their hearts, minds, souls, and strengths.
Jesus Christ, was the fulfillment of what all the prophets were speaking about. The Messiah who would make all things new! If you ever take the time to read through the biblical prophets you will see a common theme- they all look to a time of judgment and restoration of Israel, and this was expected to come through the Messiah.
Read Isaiah 9:1-7;11:1-12:6; 40:1-5; 42:1-9; 49:8-26; 55:1-13;61:1-11; 65:1-28 (How can you not get excited when considering all of God’s “I wills...”
Jeremiah 23:1-7; 30:1-31:38 (The famous New Covenant prophesy)
OK, that's just to name a few..but really sit down and read through those verses..The time of the Messiah would be great and would open new doors for new stuff..Man, this New Covenant would be radical and exciting.
OK, so for those skeptical of Jesus Christ... I refuse to spend much time on this topic because proving the existence of the man Jesus who lived in the Middle East is similar to proving your existence, its that elementary. I venture to say that ignorance is the only reason people can still say “I don’t believe Jesus of Nazareth existed”. But...let’s say you do:
Was He a liar? Maybe just made it all up?!?!?! (that makes it more confusing).
Was He a madman? He obviously believed what He said because it’s simply, what He said and did that got him killed (which is also documented history).
Was He exactly what He said He was?
THESE ARE THE OPTIONS....
"A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic - on the level with a man who says he is a poached egg - or he would be the devil of hell. You must take your choice. Either this was, and is, the Son of God, or else a madman or something worse. You can shut Him up for a fool or you can fall at His feet and call Him Lord and God. But let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about His being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us." -C.S. Lewis
The reality of this new covenant- OK, so here we are. The New Covenant is a reality and it must be through Jesus Christ, simply because Jesus was the awaited Messiah of the Israelite people, who were God’s chosen, and their judgment and redemption made the redemption of all the other nations possible (read- Romans 9:4-5, 15:8; Isaiah 49:6; Matthew 10:5-6; John 4:22, or better yet read the whole Biblical account from Genesis to Revelation).
We have been welcomed into this agreement with God to be a people marked by love and truth. Live is a matter of restoration, it’s not through self-righteousness which the Israelite people had to do through the Law, but rather through Jesus Christ(2 John 6; Matthew 22:37-40; Romans 13:8-10; Galatians 6:2, and as always there is plenty more if you dig). A life of freedom and love, a revolution that the 11 men who followed Jesus started, and we must zealously live out today!
Simply said, this whole Christianity thing is not what it seems. Jesus Christ did not start a religion, instead He set religion on fire and started a movement through that fire( the New Covenant). The new way of doing things....
So, are you still skeptical? Are you telling me that this whole thing is a mass conspiracy of love???? What?!?
Ha, Ha..hope I ended that with a little laugh..guess what? We are free to laugh! I hope I challenged some thoughts concerning life and Life (Jesus Christ), as always would love to talk these topics out with you...It’s that important!
Love, peace, and joy,
Mike Miano
P.S.- Lately, I have been participating in a discipleship class called Alpha, which explains and fosters discussion concerning “Why Jesus”. You can watch the video’s at
http://www.alphausa.org/Groups/1000057989/VIDEOS.aspx
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