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THE
BIBLE
Can we trust a book written 2000 years ago?
EYEWITNESS
Did the writers of the New Testament get their picture of Jesus right?
GOD
- MAN
Is Jesus really God?
RESURRECTION
Did Jesus really rise from the dead?
RELIGIONS
With so many religions, why Christianity?
SUFFERING
If there is a God, why is there so much suffering?
TRINITY
Understanding the Trinity.
SCIENCE
The complementary nature of Science & Christianity.
FORGIVENESS
What it is and why it matters?
GUIDANCE
How does God guide?
REPENTANCE
What it is and why you can't get to heaven without it.
BORN
AGAIN
What does it mean to be converted and born again?
SAVING
FAITH
The kind of faith that will get you to heaven
ASSURANCE
Can I know for sure that I am going to heaven?
TRUTH
What is truth and does it matter?
MORALITY
Does it matter how we live? A Christian view of morality.
THE
CHURCH
God's vision for his family, the Church. A call to the churches of the
new millennium.
PURPOSE
How
can I find a great purpose for living?
IDENTITY
Who am I; Finding my true identity as a human being and as a child of
God.
SELF-ESTEEM
How
can I feel good about my self? The Christian basis for proper sel-esteem.
LIFE AFTER DEATHChristianity's Hope & Challenge.
THE CROSS
Why did Jesus Die? What the Bible says about the Cross.
Grace
The importance of grace in the New Testament.
The character of its founder, Jesus
Sundar Singh came to Christianity from the Sikh religion. He travelled around India and overseas, preaching the gospel. The story is told how, at a youth conference, he was questioned by some young people who wanted to know why he had turned to Christianity. What was it that made him change? He said, "My reason for changing was Jesus Christ." They then asked what Christianity offered that his mother's religion did not offer. His simple answer was, "Jesus Christ." They tried another direction and asked what the central doctrine of Christianity was. Again he answered, "Jesus Christ."
What is unique about Jesus Christ? One of the best short summaries about Jesus in the New Testament is found in the first three verses of the letter to Hebrews: "Long ago in many ways and at many times God's prophets spoke his message to our ancestors. But now at last God sent his Son to bring his message to us. God created the universe by his Son, and everything will someday belong to the Son. God's Son has all the brightness of God's own glory and is like him in every way. By his own mighty word he holds the universe together. After the Son had washed away our sins, he sat down at the right side of the glorious God in heaven."
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"Christianity
is about God revealing himself to us in historical acts, through
chosen people, and supremely in the person of Jesus Christ"
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This passage tells us that God is distinct from his creation and yet has chosen to communicate with us, his created beings. Sanatan Dharma, orthodox Hinduism, believes that the ultimate reality is essentially unknowable and that all religions of the world are mere guesses at truth. This is a common view. The celebrated agnostic, Herbert Spencer, maintained that no one has ever been known to penetrate the veil which hides the mind of the Infinite. The Infinite could not be known by finite minds, therefore his agnosticism was secure. (The word "agnostic" comes from a Greek word meaning "not to know" - the Latin equivalent is "ignoramus"!)
All this sounds perfectly reasonable. However, it ignores the question of whether God may choose to make himself known to us. This is exactly what Christianity claims he has done. Christianity is therefore a revealed religion. It is about God revealing himself to us in historical acts, through chosen people, and supremely in the person of Jesus Christ. It is the story of God's search for us, not our search for God. A Japanese, Susuma Uda, says:
Whenever sight is lost of the Biblical revelation, people's religious imagination will end up eventually blending either God and nature (Shinto) or God and self (Buddhism).
The blending of God and self is also very apparent in New Age teaching.
The above passage from Hebrews also tells us that God's most complete revelation of himself is through a historical person, Jesus Christ. He is often spoken of as the "Son of God" in the New Testament. This Jesus is not only the one through whom God created the universe and who now sustains it; he is also described as "like him in every way". This is just one of a number of places in the New Testament which emphasise that Jesus shares the very nature of God, who exists as the three Persons of Father, Son and Holy Spirit. In other words, in the person of Jesus, God himself has visited this planet. As John puts it, he "became a human being and lived here with us" (John 1:14)*.
In entering into our experience Jesus became fully human. In the New Testament, the four Gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John tell us the story of his life on earth. A good starting point in our search for the truth is to read one of these gospels through and see the picture they give of Jesus. We see there a wide range of both his divine and human qualities. He grew up normally from a child to adulthood. He attended the wedding feast in Cana and mingled with the guests, rejoicing with those who rejoiced. At that same feast he turned the water to wine revealing his divine glory (John 2). As a tired and thirsty traveller he rested by the well in Samaria, but as the divine Saviour he told the Samaritan woman the secret sins of her life (John 4). He wept at the tomb of Lazarus, but then declared his authority as the Giver of Life by raising Lazarus from the dead. He suffered desertion, betrayal and an agonising death, but was proved to be the divine Lord by his resurrection from the dead.
This appearance of the Creator God in history, as one who is both fully human and fully divine, is unique to Christianity. Jesus is a very different figure from the Buddhist bodhisattvas, enlightened beings who have postponed their own ultimate escape from suffering after many reincarnations, and have chosen rebirth to serve humanity. The Dalai Lama believes that Jesus Christ is the highest bodhisattva. However, the Bible presents him as the creator of the universe and the one to whom all authority in heaven and earth is given.
Jesus is also very different from Hindu avatars. These are beings who are said to have appeared at various times in human history. The most important, in terms of devotion accorded to them, are Krishna and Rama. They are incarnations of the god Vishnu, one of the most prominent of the many named gods of Hinduism. The Christian claim, however, is that God has revealed his true character fully and finally in the person of Jesus Christ. "For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form" Colossians 2:9). "We know that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding, so that we may know him who is true...He is the true God and eternal life" (I John 5:20).
If this is true, then it presents a problem in relation to other religions. This is highlighted in the ministry of a well-known missionary in India, Dr. E. Stanley Jones. Jones often lectured to Hindu audiences having Hindus as chairmen of the meetings. On one such occasion the chairman was a chief minister of state. During his introduction he said, "I shall reserve my remarks for the close of the address, for no matter what the speaker says, I will find parallel things in our own sacred books." At the close of the meeting he was at a loss for words. Dr. Jones had not presented "things"; he had presented a person, Jesus Christ; and that person was not found in their sacred books. As someone has put it, "Christ is the crisis of all religion."
*If you wish to explore further the evidence that Jesus was indeed God, I have dealt with this in some detail in a separate booklet, Is Jesus Really God?
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With so many Religions, why Christianity?
The character of its founder, Jesus
Its analysis of our real problem
The way by which we see forgiveness
A victory over evil and death which has already been won
The kind of commitment it asks of its members
