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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.
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Foreword
Driving home late at night, I caught a snatch of an interview on the radio. A learned and obviously esteemed man was asked his views on religion. "I suppose that I am almost a Christian," he said. "I find the Sermon on the Mount to be the most sublime passage I have read anywhere. If Christians would just live by this and forget the other emotional and magical bits of the New Testament, then I would be a full-blown Christian." I am sure that central to the "emotional and magical bits" to which he was referring is the resurrection of Jesus.
The station faded and I fell to thinking, "Was he right? Was the resurrection of Jesus superfluous to the majestic scope of his inspired teaching? By insisting on talking about it again and again, was the Church turning people away who find that this story is not credible?"
However, my life and the life of the world has convinced me that the Sermon on the Mount was not enough. The problems confronting the human race and the pain in individuals' lives, my own and others, is such that nothing but a crucified and risen Saviour will do. The people who stand at the heart of the intractable wars in the world are not short of knowledge of the Sermon on the Mount, or its equivalent in another religion. But this head knowledge of fine sentiments does not lessen their hate or bring them closer to reconciliation. I think of those whom I know personally, who suffer as I write, and I know they need something more than fine words about how to live.
They need someone who can penetrate the very core of their aloneness. They need someone who can meet them in their suffering. They need someone who can walk with them through the valley of death. Some need someone who can guide them out of the hopeless and poisonous maze of hate and self-hate.
Call it "emotional and magical" if you will, but of one thing I am sure; nothing less than a personal confrontation with the radical and explosive force of the death and resurrection of Jesus can possibly meet their needs. More than lofty ideas, this leads to a living relationship - a relationship with a loving God who has faced and overcome all they face, and more. I have found it to be so in my own life and I believe it is true for the entire human race.
Dick Tripp's booklet speaks to me with compelling force. It rings true. It will serve many as an introduction to the central fact of the Christian faith. Readers who grasp this message, or allow this truth to grasp them, will find themselves on the threshold of an exciting new way of thinking and living.
Rev Stan Stewart
Christian Educator
Minister of the Uniting Church of Australia
and the Presbyterian Church of New Zealand
Paeroa, New Zealand
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Foreward
Did Jesus really rise from the Dead?
No Christianity without the resurrection?
A historical event that can be examined
Some implications of the Resurrection
