BLUE VIEWPOINT
The Jesus of the Bible was a real person. He was born, lived, and died just like the rest of humanity will do until the end of the age - with a couple of exceptions.
My wife and I just watched God's Not Dead 2, and there were two characters who played themselves in the movie. One was Lee Strobel, the author of several books dealing with God and Christ. He is fairly well known for his books that make a case for believing. The other was J. Warner Wallace, a lesser known person who was once a non-believing atheist homicide detective who investigated the existence of Christ as a real person.
The results of his investigation proved to him that Christianity is "demonstrably true" (see his web site at the Cold Case Christianity site). Now, I don't expect you to believe me because I just say something on this page. However, if you see the movie, and then investigate for yourself what these men say, you will have to be "willingly ignorant" (2 Peter 3:5
For this they willingly are ignorant of, that by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of the water and in the water: (KJV)
, it means "dumb on purpose") in order to not recognize the validity of the evidence.
Jesus was a real person
What are some of the points they make in this movie? Well, the biggest one is that the life and times of Jesus himself can be verified by looking at records from secular historians who have no dog in the fight. Historians like Josephus (93 A.D., in the Antiquities of the Jews), Julius Africanus (221 A.D.) who quoted earlier writers Thallus from 52 A.D. and Phlegon (140 A.D.), Tacitus (116 A.D., Mara Bar-Serapion (70 A.D.), Pliny the Younger, Suetonius, Lucian of Samosata, Celsus (175 A.D.), and others, who all wrote comments about Jesus and His life from a worldly viewpoint, not trying to either verify or deny His divinity. They merely made comments about what they knew of Him - not all of the comments were kind.
Jesus is the Son of God, and the Savior of the believing world.
I say "Savior of the believing world" because, according to the word of God, you must believe in Jesus to be saved. What does it mean to really believe in Jesus? There are so many versions of who Jesus is, and what it means to believe in Him, that it makes me wonder how they can all think they are the only ones who are right. There are many questions being asked about Jesus today. Can you describe who Jesus is? When will He return? Will He return? When you pray to Him, and ask Him for something, are you asking for something that is within the will of God? Is it necessary for your requests to be within His divine Will? What does it take to be saved by Him?
Just a genie?
By all we have heard in the sermons we hear, when we pray "in His Name", we are promised we will get that for which we ask. Even Jesus said "If you believe, you will receive whatever you ask for in prayer." (Matt 21:22
If you believe, you will receive whatever you ask for in prayer.
) There is so much more to Jesus than His just being a genie that grants our every wish when we ask. It seems that many people think that they can make a list, pray it, and then sign their prayer "in the name of Jesus I pray" to get everything on the list.
Yeah, I know, you can't believe that people really think this. Well, they probably don't think "If I say 'in Jesus' name', I'll get it all.", but they are told in sermons and books that, if they are good people, and give lots of money to the church, God will answer their prayers. However, if you get into a real discussion with people, they often say things like, "I prayed and prayed in Jesus' name, but my baby still died. God is not there." You get the idea. The secret seems to be the "in Jesus' name" part. What does it mean to pray "in Jesus' name"?
What's in a name? More than you think.
Name: Your name is more than a tag that people use to get your attention. Think of it like this; If you are an honest, God-fearing person named Bob, with all the concepts that come to mind regarding a good Christian man, that is how you are known by those who know you. When others who know you speak of you in a conversation, that is the person of whom they speak. If one person in the group refers to Bob as a murdering terrorist who had just bombed a grade school with children present, how would the group respond? "That's not the Bob I know!" or "No way! He would not do that!" Now, they may be speaking of two different people with the same name, but ultimately, the person who comes to mind when a name is mentioned is the one represented by the name in the experience of the speaker, not the name itself.
Jesus is that too?
Jesus is the Name of our Savior and that Name represents all that He stands for. Now, define and list what you believe that He represents. Love, truth, loyalty, honesty, kindness, generosity, righteousness, and faithfulness, of course, and much more. But what else? What is many, many times left out of this list in conversations and sermons and articles written about Jesus? Justice, vengenance, wrathfulness, protection, punishment, hating evil and sin, and much more here as well. Where are these attributes of our Lord when people speak of faith in the name of Jesus?
But that means...
Since these are also what Jesus stands for, we really should expect some kind of "thinning the herd" to happen before salvation and wrath are complete. At a funeral, do we really think that old Bob, right to the end a practicing lecher, thief, and adulterer is up in Heaven right now smiling at us, as the preacher just said? Yes, Jesus forgives us, but He Himself has answered questions about how to gain eternal life with answers like:
20"For I tell you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven." (Matthew 5:20),
and
21"Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven." (Matthew 7:21),
and as Paul said,
9"Or do you not know that wrongdoers will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor men who have sex with men 10nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God." (1 Cor 6:9-10)
Why do people forget these things when they speak of the love of Christ? There must be some criteria He will use to separate the goats from the sheep. How will He distinguish between those who are to be saved and those who are not? He uses a tool He Himself gave us - Matthew 19:16-19 says:
16"Just then a man came up to Jesus and asked, "Teacher, what good thing must I do to get eternal life?"
17"Why do you ask me about what is good?" Jesus replied. "There is only One who is good. If you want to enter life, keep the commandments."
18"Which ones?" he inquired.
Jesus replied, "You shall not murder, you shall not commit adultery, you shall not steal, you shall not give false testimony, 19honor your father and mother," and "love your neighbor as yourself."
"But, those are the "old" commandments!"
I included verses 18 and 19 because some say that Jesus' commandments are not the ten commandments, but that His are only the two commandments that replace them. However, here one of those is mentioned and it is added to the ten, not replacing anything. Some (many) say that "Love your God..." and "Love your neighbor..." replace the ten, so all we have to do is love Jesus and we are saved. They seem to feel that these are "softer, gentler" commandments that do not hold us to any rigid standard.
These people to not seem to realize that these two "new" commandments are from Deuteronomy 6:5
5Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.
and Leviticus 19:18
18" 'Do not seek revenge or bear a grudge against anyone among your people, but love your neighbor as yourself. I am the Lord.' "
, the OLD testament. And, all during the OLD testament, they have been there right along side the ten commandments and meant exactly the same thing as they do today. These two "commandments" are NOT a replacement that is now called the NEW testament or covenant, replacing the ten commandments. Both are still valid, as are the ten commandments, and all are representative of Christ.
In Whom is your faith?
If you do not believe everything He (and His name) stands for, then you cannot love the real Him completely. You beleive in a Jesus of your own making. You cannot separate who someone is from their name just by ignoring the part of their character you do not like or want to recognize. When you speak of salvation, it must include the concepts that make salvation necessary (sin), as well as those that make it possible (grace).
I realize that this is a hard way to look at salvation and the love of Christ. However, we ignore what He tells us at our own peril. Remember the five virgins who ran out of oil, went to get some, then came back:
11"Later the others also came. 'Lord, Lord,' they said, 'open the door for us!'" 12"But he replied, 'Truly I tell you, I don't know you.' " (Matthew 25:11-12)
We don't know the whole story, but we do know that they were not ready by His standards, regardless of whether or not they thought they were.
How about us? Do we now think we are within His will, only to find later that we will be left standing outside the door? The standards of Jesus are those of His Father, and we have been told what they are. Regardless of what the pastors are saying in the sermons, don't we still have a set of rules to follow - not just because they are the Law, but because we love God enough to do what He and His Son say is best for us?
Disagree? Find an error? Contact us at glenjjr@gmail.com and give us your view.
