RUNNING AWAY FROM HISTORY
Many people regard Christianity as unhistorical and many who say Jesus never lived, taking it as a myth. These rationalists have written books indicating Christ as a myth while some say the question of whether Jesus ever lived is open. These are seen in the books of J.M. Robertson, Gilbert Murray and John Allegro. The article of Allegro on the Daily mail newspaper in October 1967 shows that the idea of Christ myth is not dead and that some people are anxious to believe that the Christian story is false. Unfortunately, there is no evidence for that. It has been communist policy to deny Jesus Christ’s historical existence reason for the subjection to this propaganda in Eastern Europe and Asia. This became part of communist position in 1842 when the German theologian Bruno Bauer was deprived of his chair on account of his heterodox opinions; which influenced Karl Marx who thought he had been cruelly wronged by the men of religion.History matters to Judiasm and Christianity because if it can be proven that the founder never lived then it will fail to exist. Christianity is good news about a historical person, who was executed under the Roman procurator of Judea, Pontius Pilate. He matched his teachings with moral miracle of his sinless life and his resurrection from the grave. What makes the Christian claim so challenging is that the historical figure is known by some of the writers of the New Testament document. It is all about the historical Jesus who was God manifest in human flesh. It is a fact not an idea or myth.A non_christian, Pliny the Younger who was sent by the emperor Trajan to govern the province of Bithynia in Northen Turkey, in AD112 wrote in one of his letters to the emperor concerning Christianity. That he found Christians everywhere and that pagan temples had close down, sacred festivals and demand for sacrificial animals ceased. He executed Christians who persisted in their faith but was perplexed about the nature of their crime; as he confessed that no enormities were practiced in the Christian assemblies. Their problem was that they refused to worship the imperial statue and the images of the gods and that they met on a certain fixed day and sang to Christ as God. They took an oath not to commit crime. Cornelius Tacitus, the greatest historian of imperial Rome says Christians were hated and persecuted in the reign of Tiberius by the procurator Pontius Pilate. He notes that in destroying the temple at Jerusalem in AD70, the Roman general Titus hoped to put an end to both Christianity and Judaism. These writings justify the historicity of Jesus of Nazareth. The Samaritan historian Thallus, wrote in Rome about AD52 as Julius Africanus tells us the darkness that fell when Jesus died on the cross (Mark 15:33). Thallus says it was an eclipse of the sun, but noted that it is unreasonably as it seems to him. Of course true since these can’t be total eclipse when the moon is full. So Jesus’ death was well known in Rome as early as the middle of the first century as the non_christian historian comments. The inscriptions belonging to the time of Clausius Caesar (AD41-AD54) gives an order that if anyone is found tampering with graves, the person is liable to death penalty. Something which the Roman historians such as prof. Momigliano and Prof. Blaiklock regard as reaction concerning the report on the crucifixion of Jesus and its sequel. Suetonius, a court official under Hadrian records that Clausdius expelled the Jews from Rome for making disturbances at the instigation of chrestus. Orosius dates this to AD49. Aquila and Pricilia were among those expelled (Acts 18:12). Pliny (AD61-140?) wrote about events which took place 30 years before they were born, and their official position gave them access to good historical information; hence establishing the historicity of Jesus.The Jewish after AD70 thought the Christians did not help them in the life and death struggle against Rome. So the relations between Judaism and Christianity by the end of first century were very poor reason why there’s not much about Christ in Jewish writings. Josephus, one of the Jewish commanders in the war with Rome wrote the antiquities of the Jews (Published AD93) and his Jewish war (published AD75-79) to inform Romans of the his fathers religion; Judaism. Josephus wrote about Pilate, Annas, Caiaphas, the Herods, Quirinus, Felix, Festus and others; names familiar in New Testament. He talks of John the Baptist, his preaching, baptising and execution. He talks of James ‘the brother of Jesus, the so_called Christ’ as well. He talks of Jesus in the time of Pilate (AD26-36) as a wise man, doubting if he should be called a man as he did marvellous deeds. He confesses that Jesus appeared to his followers the third day after his death. Mishah, the Jewish law code and Talmuds has evidences such as the unusual birth of Jesus. The Rabbi Eliezer wrote with opposition to Christianity but indirectly attesting to a prophecy of the Gospel story as he refers to Jesus as ‘born of a woman’ and ‘seek to make himself God’ and his return. So the Jews supported the historicity, unusual birth, miracles, teaching, disciples, messianic claims, crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus, the author of the Christian faith.From the discoveries at Qumran, the dead sea scrolls have been used by Edmund Wilson and John Allegro to say that it has disproved Christianity. Their literature shows that the community was non_conformist baptising sect of Judaism, Zealous for purity, antagonistic to marriage, living in monastery disclosed by excavations. Prof. Rowley notes that the dead sea scrolls can only tell us about the sect from which they came, enriching our knowledge of the Jewish world at the time of Christ and in the proceeding two centuries. They do not overthrow or confirm a single Christian octrine. If Allegro had considered the evidence by Tacitus and Suetonius, Pliny and Josephus he would not have claimed the New Testament stories of Jesus to be a reminiscence of real essene history; getting lost in his created myth. There is not doubt that Jesus lived and died under Pontius Pilate.Christian evidence based un archaeological findings especially from acrostics of ancient world. This show evidences of Christian existence as seen in those found in Pompeii destroyed by the eruption of Vesuvius in AD79. Anagram from the acrostic show the Christian view of Jesus being the alpha and Omega, as well as indicating the cross in the arrangement of the letters. The fish was also symbolic to Christians with each letter in fish representing Jesus Christ, Son of God, Saviour in Greek. A tomb was discovered outside Jerusalem in 1945 with decoration style and coins indicating approximately AD50. The inscription in Greek said Jesus help and another in Aramais (?’Jesus, let him arise’). These indicate the historical figure of Jesus. The pool of Bethesda was discovered around the church of st. Anne in Jerusalem with five porticos. Bethesda is also mentioned in one of the dead sea scrolls confirming the gospels of John. The French archaeologist Pere Vincent also dug out the pavement (Gabbatha) in 1930’s. this measures fifty yards square ,and was buried under piles of rubble in the fall of Jerusalem in AD70. This confirms John’s gospel (John19:13). The same vindication was seen with the accuracy of Luke’s gospel and Acts until discoveries show them to be accurate, reliable historical material for the understanding of first century world. Inscriptions have confirmed him accurate in the nomenclature of local officials and others such as proofs that Gallio was proconsul in AD51.In looking at New Testament evidence we note that its reliability is well attested. Also in like manner as classical scholars accept the writing of Thucydides ‘History’ and the case of Tacitus with gap from oldest manuscript of 1500 and 800 years so shall it be for the exceptionally attested New Testament. With variant readings in these manuscripts, no single point of doctrine hangs on disputed reading. In addition the extant manuscripts do not have large gaps from autograph copies. Paul who was a violent opponent of Christianity testify for the resurrection as he tells us in 1Corinthians 15; as he says at the time he wrote the letter ‘AD53), most of the people who so Christ after resurrection were still alive.The gospels are not biographies of Jesus as it concentrates up to half of its account on his death. They are not histories as it brings God and his actions into the story lacking the interest in chronology or what is happening in the outside world. But the gospels are proclamations of good news about Jesus; God’s way of rescue for men. Reason why it took some time for the Christians to write down their gospels as they were busy preaching this gospel. The teaching of Jesus falls into a poetic form when retranslated to Aramaic reason why the people could remember the Gospels. The New Testament offer reasonable grounds for belief; it does not induce people to believe: Pontius Pilate and the Pharisees had the evidence but did not believe. Atheists runaway from truth, neglecting the evidence while some escape it by intentionally running away from Christian living as Aldous Huxley testifies of himself. We find that the Jews came to conclusion that Jesus was God almighty accommodating himself to human nature and living in their midst; as we find in the gospels.
RUNNING AWAY FROM SCIENCE
The astonishing advances in science has opened up vistas to the human spirit and have induced a feeling of self confidence in many like sir Richard Gregory such that they consider the God hypothesis dated and unreal. The man on the street things scientific humanism has killed religion. The free thinkers at the congress of liege in 1865 concluded that science does not deny God but that she makes Him unnecessary. Martin Heidegger says God’s absence is not even noticed. They claim that Christians are running away from science to persist in their beliefs.The scientific pioneers of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries were Christian men. All these discoveries took place in Christian era. Men like Francis Bacon, Kepler, Galileo and Copernicus who glorified God despite the obscurantism of the Catholic church of the day; were devout Christians. Newton, Robert Boyle with Ward, Wallis, Wilkins and Barrow all of the royal society were all sincere Christians.In science we have both Christians and atheists just as in other fields. So it wasn’t new to have the Russian authorities decree that the last relics of religious faith be wiped. But we find scientists these days who have written extensively both in science and Christianity. Men like Prof. Coulson, Prof. MacKay and Prof. Boyd are examples. The misunderstanding is the way the Christian church has adopted a dogmatic attitude when it concerns science while forgetting that God of grace is the God of nature who made man and gave him dominion over his universe. The bible is not a science book, it speaks of total relationship of man to man, to the universe and to God. When it speaks of science it does so in ordinary everyday language and so its interpretation of science cannot be imposed to a scientist. There shouldn’t be discrepancies in the teaching of scriptures but if it does, one has to re-examine the implications as well as his own interpretation of scripture. Bertrand Russell judges Christianity with science and prescribe that those teachings that cannot be scientifically assessed should be discarded. With technology men have tamed the physical world, but haven’t begun to tame human nature.The relation of science to religion and God’s claim only in areas where knowledge had not yet reached; is misleading and blasphemous because God is not there just to close the gap in our knowledge but He is immanent in every part of His universe. Prof. CA Coulson writes that a God of the gaps has been disastrous in history; noting that Newton is guilty of this view. Either God is there in the whole Universe or He is not there at all. Prof. Mackay notes in his book that God holds the whole universe in being by His own power (Heb.1:3). Acts 17:25,28,29; Col. 1:16,17 tell us much about God.Prof. Boyd wrote in “Can God be known?” that there are three senses of knowledge. Mathematical knowledge which requires the assumption of axioms and of meaningfulness, scientific knowledge which assumes the existence of an external world and the uniformity of nature, and the personal knowledge which requires the assumption of other minds and personalities like our own. Science is concerned with description and material aspect of things while religion is concerned with encounter and belongs to the aspect of mind. Christianity belongs to personal knowledge. So the argument of science and human potentiality is that between those who see man as the product of a personal creator, and those who see him as the product of an entirely random collocation of atoms, a giant fluke.On the side of human values scientific humanists are extremely enthusiastic about man hence keen on social and educational reforms, relief of need and the support of the aged, the hungry, the underprivileged and those suffering from war and discrimination. The church has been sometimes on the side of the status quo due to the lead of men in power who profess Christian states but not personally committed to the program and the standards of Christ. But this is not a generality as some Christians have the other side of the story such as the emancipation of women and slaves, the pioneer work in education and medicine, foundation of the trade unions, worldwide concern for underprivileged people and underdeveloped countries and the preaching of the gospel of peace, integration and forgiveness. If not of the gospel of Jesus Christ, it would not have driven men like Wilberforce and Newton to battle against slavery in Europe. Christianity has always been against totalitarianism because of the conviction that the state is accountable to God, and that men matter because they are made in the image of God. Being made in the image of God human values are derived from God who made them and so Christian values because they matter to God. Atheistic humanism is illogical and absurd as they profess such deep regard for the random products of a universe where chance is king; no surprise why they are ruthless in torturing and eliminating unwanted people such as in Hitler’s Germany, Mao’s China or communist Russia. Atheist like Dr. Isaacs and Democritius look at the universe and even man as a composition of ultimate particles which develop in complexity by a process that is self sustaining with no intervention hence no place for God. This is absurd because they’ve not explained the existence of the ultimate particles. What gives them the remarkable possibilities? Science has no answer for such materialism. This advocates for a mind behind the universe. This view of Russell and Isaacs is not satisfactory to explain how you get ethics out of an unfeeling concourse of atoms, how you get personal being from impersonal and how you get freedom or an illusion of freedom from a determinist world. If the theory of scientific humanist were true it would be no more than the product of wandering atoms, as meaningless as everything else in a world devoid of meaning and purpose. Who would believe such a theory to be true? The value of human beings depends upon being made in God’s image and this is what gives man dignity and worth.On human behaviour, love is a common concern for both Christians and scientific humanists. With some humanists and some Christians who are unashamedly selfish others have shown considerable love. There’s an escape from truth, from social concern, and from freedom in different areas. This is not a characteristic Christian attitude, and it was not the attitude of Jesus. Jesus came to bring abundant life in contrast to John the Baptist he has no austere (Luke 7:33). Jesus graced a marriage and even supplied fresh wine (John 2:1-11) as Paul notes that opposition to marriage is devil-inspired doctrine (1Timothy 4:3-5). Why bother about love if there is no God and no future life? Many who hold the view of humanists are good and generous men as their loving actions speak louder than their rationalistic words because man is made in the image of God. When men turn their back on God’s revelation in scripture he still sets the truth of it in their hearts. Christians know that lasting love to your neighbour is grounded in the recognition of God’s love for you. “We love, because he first loved us.” For the humanist’s view morality is relative, there’s no absolute since it’s in an impersonal and mechanistic world. The society is manipulated in the way the majority thinks fits and the individual ceases to matter. On Christian view it’s the individual who matters to God, and society is improved by changed individuals who have been reconciled to God. On the humanists view, how is morality to be achieved? Education and effort will not make any man better. We see that the last two world wars took place between the most highly educated countries in the world. Education can’t erase the tendency to evil in human nature neither would effort do. What is needed is not good advice but practical assistance. Paul said ‘I do not do good I want but the evil I do not want is what I do.” This is due to the human nature, the original sin. Jesus taught the highest standards and kept them. The God of love expects love from us and came in the person of Jesus Christ to show how love works out in a human life.In looking at human destiny, scientific humanists think science is the key to making men good. But Martin Buber exclaimed in disillusionment at the end of his life that, “who can change the intractable thing, human nature? There is tragedy at the heart of things.” Colin Wilson wrote in “The Outsider” of how science has changed with the possibility of human technical progress but concerns about the danger, the boredom, the sheer hell of the evolving human situation. Existentialists like Jean-Paul Sartre, Albert Camus and others without doubt have taken to this attitude. It is due to the enormous power for destruction that is placed into human hands by scientific discovery. Only a religious mind can find an alternative and a hope by relying on God who is above history.Jesus shared the optimism of the hopeful humanists but taught extensively about the “Kingdom of God”. He said an unaided man can not produce this utopia as evil is external and extrinsic; and that what defiles a man is what comes out of him (Mark 7:20ff). Jesus was also pessimistic as he spoke about the awful reality of hell than anyone else in the whole Bible. Jesus did not misplaced faith in human nature as we see in John 2:24f. Jesus also showed that human nature can be changed in his matchless life right to the cross and his resurrection. His resurrection guarantees that Christianity is not escapism; we see the destiny of redeemed mankind.
RUNNING AWAY FROM REALITY
Christianity asserts that God immersed himself in human existence for thirty years; it makes a difference to the way ordinary people behave in their daily lives and so it’s not an illusion. Psychologists and communists say it is; that Christians are running away from the stark realities of everyday life. The church has a quota of escapists, just like any other group of people. There are many weak characters that can’t face the reality of their position. There are many Christians in psychiatric wards, many who call Jesus “lord, lord” but have no intention of involving themselves in costly discipleship. Jesus says they are “wolves in sheep’s clothing”. This escapism among Christians does not invalidate Christianity.Karl Marx considered Christianity as an opiate administered by the bourgeoisie to keep the workers docile. For him it was the illusory compensation offered to the oppressed, hence that religion will die a natural death as soon as true socialism came in. It’s true that there was hypocrisy in Victorian religion but the best preachers were just as vehement as Marx in denouncing this state of affairs; as with Charles Spurgeon.In the days of Jesus, there was a religion which was the opiate of the people as we find Jesus denouncing it; “you devour widows houses and for a pretence you make long prayers”. “Woe to you, hypocrites… how are you to escape being sentenced to hell?” Marx ought to have remembered that man’s nature without the power of Christ is likely to become self-centred. This is equally evident in capitalist and in communist societies as we see in the atrocities of Russian leaders. The Christian truth is that all men suffer the disease of self-will to which Christ provides total cure. Karl Marx was wilfully blind, to the historical evidence but swallowed the absurd theories about Christian origins by Strauss and Bauer which have many times been decisively refuted. It is a gaffe for Marx to view Christianity as a mass movement arising from the frustrations of the common man in the war-wearing world of the mid-second century because that age was one of the most prosperous; contented and stable periods in history. Christianity gave the ancient world a powerful injection of social equality. Communist like Lenin took on to the view of Marx on Christianity that it offered “cheap justification for all their exploiting” and “low price tickets to heavenly bliss”. The reason for communist hatred arises from the Russian Orthodox Church in the beginning of the twentieth century as it appeared to be a tool in the hands of Czar, and was implicated in appalling abuses of government and oppression of the poor. In 1918 all church property was confiscated, priests disenfranchised, seminaries closed, religious teaching forbidden except inside church, Christian marriage replaced by civil ceremony but the church refused to die. In 1921 persecution was added and in 1929 it was one of the first five year plans. During the rigours of German invasion in the Second World War churches were reopened and museums of atheism closed. Despite all these with intense atheistic propaganda the church is still stronger as we find Baptists and the orthodox flourishing. Stalin’s daughter returned to religious faith just as Martin Bormann’s (Hitler’s Lieutenant) children to Christians with one missionary speaks a lot; that the communists are running away from reality. The communists are escaping by forbidding Bibles, frowning at debates with believers as Michael Bordeaux notes that “no atheist ringleader has ever dared allow those under him to study the Bible, even for the purpose of spying out the enemy’s territory in order to conquer it”. The Marxist attack on religion and intensity of persecution of Christians is a form of escapism from reality.In the future of an illusion; Freud believed that when Christians talk about their heavenly Father, all they are doing is to project into the empty skies their image of their own father. Freud was ignorant of genuine Christianity and spent all his time among the abnormal and mentally ill which influenced his judgment. He failed to distinguish between religious fantasy as observed in the mentally sick, and religion as a reasonable attitude to life adopted by healthy and intelligent people. W.B. Selbie wrote in “Christianity and the New psychology” that ‘many of the psychologists are living in a fantasy world of their own, and the kind of religion they are dealing with is largely the product of their own not very healthy imagination.’ Freud says Christianity is a wish-fulfilment and obsessional neurosis, but he fails to note that this could be applied to his own pan-sexual theory of psychoanalysis. In his ‘Future of an illusion’ Freud said ‘science is no illusion. But it would be an illusion to suppose that we could get anywhere else what it cannot give us.’ He had an obsessional illusion that science and psychoanalysis were omnicompetent. The destruction caused by science is due to selfish human nature which is never transformed into love by any scientific process. This hope of a religionless scientific utopia was criticised as ‘the illusion of a future’ by Theodor Reik in his book ‘From Thirty Tears with Freud’.The limitations of psychoanalysis is that the analyst unconsciously attempts to establish a new and rival religion. This had been recognised by many psychologists as they realised that scientific optimism and infallibility of analysis were Freud’s illusions. The same was true with ‘Lenin’ and H. L. Philip says Freud’s “concept of reality was so narrow” in his book ‘Freud and Religious Belief’. The professor of psychology H.C. Rumke in ‘The psychology of unbelief’ rebutted Freud’s claim that religion is an illusion and gave reasons to show that unbelief is a symptom of arrested development. All these men gave value to psychoanalysis but they wanted to make clear that psychoanalysis can bring out, under favourable circumstances, the best in a patient, but it cannot supply anything extra to support weak personalities. The patient finds no comfort and no solace in this final attempt at self-sufficiency as Stafford Clark puts it. He says he knows no answer to this as a psychiatrist, but as a man he can only say with humility that he believes in God. This shows that when making judgments about God psychologists give their own opinion not the findings of their science. Psychology is a descriptive and not a prescriptive discipline; so it analyses the nature and origin of people’s beliefs, but cannot dogmatised upon their truth or falsity.In order to validly show that God is real and so is Christianity, we’ve to use the test of history. Christianity is a historical religion. It has been shown that Jesus is not a myth as the historical nature of Jesus of Nazareth is true and his impact on the world; right from the dating of our era which is derived from his birth; his love, courage, insight, integrity etc. his death and resurrection were real. The character is another test of validity as seen over the ages that this faith has made the immoral chaste, the greedy generous, the selfish loving, the cheat honest. Charles Darwin testifies about the transformation of character as he commends on the work of the preacher Mr Fegan in his own village; ‘Your services have done more for the village in a few months than all our efforts for many years. We have never been able to reclaim a single drunkard, but through your services I do not know that there is a drunkard left in the village’. Delusions tend towards disintegration of character, unbalanced behaviour, and either the inability to achieve one’s aims, or else the dissipation of energy in some strange byway of living Christianity on the other hand makes men whole. The next test to see that most illusions fade at the approach of death. Christians are convinced that death is a defeated enemy that’s why ‘they die well’. They are confident that because their master rose, they will share his life. They fear no death. Perfect love casts out fear. Note the letter Hermann Lange wrote to his parents in prison before he was to die ‘I am, first, in a joyous mood; and second, I filled with great anticipation.’ The victory over fear of death is one of the great moral triumphs of Christianity. It is inexplicable on the theory of illusion or auto-suggestion. Christ is at work on the side of fearlessness. He is real, alive, able to help, control and empower the Christian through out his life right up to the end and beyond it. Christianity is the key to life at its best.
RUNNING AWAY FROM ADVENTURE
Many people just as the sociologist Dr K. Busia complained that the church has an inward orientation, it is awfully dull and of an upper class; as Busia notes in his book ‘Urban churches in Britain’. Because the church in Britain is established by law, it isn’t endearing to a young man full of reforming zeal, radical ideas, and a disposition to react against all that is old, conventional and dull. The church going is occasional by the older generation showing the Englishman’s unwillingness to be extreme in any respect, as in the years up to the Second World War it was deemed socially improper not to go to church at all; but equally surprising and quaint if one went too often. They go to church but it makes no difference in their lives. It is therefore not surprising for the younger generation to see their churchgoing hypocritical. Since many who go to church do it because ‘it’s good for you’ and others to stock up capital in the bank of heaven and the old to be on the good side of God before they die’.This terrible indictment of the church has tamed Jesus, fossilised him, and imprisoned him inside conventional churches and institutional religion. This is not the spirit Jesus intended to instil in his followers; not to give the impression of a gentle orthodox figure with bourgeois values, less defensive and somewhat conservative. Some of the hymns we sing in churches are not challenging to attract teenagers too. The presentation of the church with emphasis on duty, conformity, accepted patterns of behaviour and speech, being silent while the clergyman preaches and prays, etc is on the death urge while the younger generation looks forth to life urge. This is what makes them think Christianity is dull, boring and useless.Jesus was adventurous as any radical in his teaching and in his attitudes to life though he too was gentle, meek and mild. Jesus assaulted priests who kept the people ‘a little civilized by religion’; a religion which was the opiate of the people. In his day the official religion was on the side of politics and economic conservatism. Not to let go traditions, and not to annoy the Roman forces. Jesus was penniless and was content to be so. He had revolutionary attitude towards wealth; warned men not to lay up ephemeral treasure on earth, but rich towards God, rich in love, in faith, in mercy and prayer. He told men it was happier to give than to take. The rabbi were convinced the Jews were superior to all others, and Pharisees to all Jews, then the Jewish men to all women. This was Judaism, just like Hinduism. Jesus had no time for formalism and hypocrisy, for washing ceremoniously before dinner or wearing special clothes to eat it; he was a radical to his fingertips.The first century Judaism had domesticated God to being merely the God of Israel. He was God of the whole earth in theory. Jesus showed that the devil has had a grip of Israel the chosen people just as the Gentile world. That God was gracious, so loving and merciful and longing to accept all as adopted children. Jesus asserted the value of man and acted on it by helping the poor, the underprivileged, the diseased, etc showing that mankind was made by God, loved by God and sustained by God. Jesus was strongly against the tendency of glorifying man to almost deifying man; something which entered Judaism from the Greek world. The achievements of mankind in the technical sphere has blinded us to the truth taught by Jesus, that evil deeds have their root in the human heart, that the troubles in the world proceed from human nature.Just like Mohammed, Confucius or Buddha has only made claims that they are prophets but Jesus Christ is different. He says ‘No one knows the son but the father, and no one knows the father but the son and those to whom the son may choose to reveal him (Matthew 11:27). The claim is similar to that in John 10:1,9. He was son of God in a different sense from other men who were God’s creation. He called God Abba which in Aramaic is Daddy as used by a child. He never referred to God as ‘Our Father’ as he aligned himself with the disciples but referred to ‘My God and your God, My Father and your Father’. Abba was the heart of the good news he had come to bring. Jesus laid claims to nothing less than sharing God’s essential and eternal nature as we find in John 10:28-30;14:9;1:1;8:58; Heb1:2;Exodus 3:14. Jesus told the Jews that God had committed all judgement to the son (John 5:27). He called to the hearers not to return to God but to him who is the way (matt 11:28; John 14:6; Mark 1:17) not like the Buddha who says this is the way. Jesus proclaimed forgiveness here and now on his authority (mark 2:5). He is the centre of his message, and he alone can bring men to God; because he alone brings God to men.Jesus’ claims were made before the most hostile audience imaginable; where monotheistic were they. He claimed nothing less than deity and got lots of men to believe it. All the earliest converts to Christianity who acknowledge that ‘Jesus is Lord’ were Jews. Jesus was a humble, modest man, a peasant teacher who sought no honour for himself. He liked the underprivilege, the poor and sick, friend of tax collectors and unsuspected of pride. Jesus’ claim played a two camp impact on the people. Either they responded to him with the love and devotion they would accord to God himself, or else they tried to kill him. No one said as many who’ve run away from evidence say ‘Jesus Christ was the best of men’. In trying to kill him they were escaping from the truth.On death Jesus made it clear that there were circumstances for which it was preferable to continue life on earth; but he said happy are those who were willing to be persecuted and killed for their testimony to him and the good news of the salvation he brought to men. Jesus made the difference in practically giving up his life at a youthful age in the prime of life. This is more adventurous and radical than his precept. Jesus knew in Jerusalem, he would be killed but he set his face towards it, embarking on a collision course with officialdom having only one outcome. Yet he continued teaching, healing and giving love being unconcerned about himself but for others. He said he would ‘give his life as a ransom for many’ (Mark 10:45). So Jesus identifies himself with what they are, in order that they may share what he is. Jesus declared it was the destiny he had come to fulfil; gain our life through his death. He tasted God forsakenness proper to men who had deliberately forsaken God. He died that we might live; showing that what no man can do for us or for himself God has done for us.We think we live to wring the last drop of excitement out of life but Jesus Christ asserts that personal relationships must include God if they are to be lived to the full. Jesus lived a full, adventurous, supremely happy life which he surrendered on the cross, freely and vicariously for us. He forecasted that he would rise from the dead (mark 8:31; 9:31; 10:34) and he did. This vindicates his claims to deity (Romans 1:4) and this shows that he was victorious in the battle for evil and having borne the worst that evil could do to him, had emerged alive to show that wickedness will not have a final word in God’s world. A Christian is therefore a man who has encountered the risen Christ and shares life with him. Jesus says he is with the Christians always, to the end of time; so they are not lonely. They are not disappointed because ‘we know that to those who love God,… everything that happens fits into a pattern for good’ (Romans 8:28; Hebrews 13:5). So the Christian is free to live life to the full, sharing his experiences with his maker, Redeemer and indweller.To follow Jesus is costly, demanding involvement, love, self-sacrifice, but it draws the best out of a man. Just like in the days of Jesus the most dynamic Christians these days are won from atheism or apathy; because Christianity is the faith for men who are prepared to swim against the stream. It requires the courage to give oneself to a costly, demanding Christian program. One has to live dangerously with Christ, instead of safe and sound with the rest. Many are convinced that Christianity is true but are not honest with themselves to act on what they believe. The opposition is tremendous and so the adventure is costly. But the faithful are encouraged daily through the number of conversions.
RUNNING AWAY FROM CHRIST
THE ORDINARY PEOPLE ONLY PRAY TO God when they are in trouble or difficulty and this is partly due to the church. The church has been defensive, inward-looking, lacking in social concern, cowardly in speaking out about moral issues, at times reluctant to face the truth. It is the church, not Jesus Christ, that is the stumbling-block for the ordinary people. People escape from facing the challenge of Christian standards of behaviour and Christian discipleship. They are afraid of being reminded about the God we would rather forget, afraid of letting our lives to be scrutinised and spring cleaned by God, afraid of what people would say if we are on the side of Jesus Christ.The escapism which drives us to a fantasy world is caused by the mess the world is in, the mess society is in, and the mess our lives are in. one of the routes of escapism here is sex. People raise propaganda that sex satisfies, sex fulfills. The result of this is a rise in veneral diseases, illegitimate births, psychological disturbances and crime rate. Another route is irresponsibility and selfishness. This has led to increase drug habit, trying to run from the harsh realities of life into a cosy world of make-believe and the pleasant sensations induced by drugs. Eastern meditation is another form of escapism which is contrary to Christian meditation in which there’s communion with a personal God of the Bible in order to face the responsibilities of daily life with love and compassion. The Eastern meditation entails the withdrawal of the holy men from concerns of daily life, making them parasites on the community sending nations like India in states of semi-starvation. Some escape Christianity by becoming conformists to the shreds of post-Christian decencies and good deeds that still linger around the contemporary ethical scene. Some say they go to church because it makes them feel good, while others escape from their own conscience by being generous, or being decent. Saul of Tarsus has been decent for years before his conversion. We also have gambling, drinking and smoking which are more ways of escapism as well as scientific utopias. The rat race is a popular route for escapism; get a good job, earn more money, get a car, a house etc. whatever you do, don’t allow yourself time to wonder what life is all about because it is too depressing. That’s how many people behave.People practicing this irresponsible attitude accuse the Christians of running away from reality. It is not new but former companions may think you’ll no longer be part of their rioting and say any thing about you but it shouldn’t bother you (Peter 4:4,5) God will not allow them to lie for ever (Psalm 39; Isaiah 28:4-7). Those who’ve made the church as their escape route will be exposed to the truth of Jesus Christ (1Peter 4:17). God has been disclosed by Jesus who came in our midst as he declares that ‘I am the truth' and we shall be judged by our relations to him.
