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Christianity: The Unique Religion
This page, BRIEFLY, HERE.
Quoting George Will's op ed newspaper column of 24
Dec. 1998, "Truth survives Christmas in America", "A sardonic British skeptic of the late
19th century suggested that three words should be carved in stone over all church doors:
'Important if true.' "
Jesus claims to be divine & the Son of God and
to have all authority in
Heaven and on earth. Along with early Judaism, Christianity is God's divine revelational
effort to link up with man (other religions not based on actual divine revelation). Although
the list below speaks of the uniqueness of Christianity, I urge everyone to remember that the
thing of utmost importance is not to be a student of "religion"...it is to be one who truly
searches for truth & finds a personal relationship with God through Jesus. Also, being
"religious" (using "religion" as a higher, more moral kind of lifestyle) is different from
being a Jesus follower and believer (knowing about God is different from
knowing God). Did you know that the Bible never records Jesus telling a
sinner that, "You are going to hell!"? [types of "Christians"]
Only one unchanging God has been proclaimed
uninterruptedly for thousands of years, through all of those changes of mankind, and through
virtually all cultures: the God of Abraham...the actual original creator and the continual
current creator and sustainer of all there is, the only true supreme being...true God.
[check out God's ways] There
have been several major religious views of this God of Abraham: Judaism, Islam, and
Christianity (see below) [views
compared].
Mankind failed; a PARDON is Crucially
Essential
It has been clearly and copiously demonstrated in
the Bible Old Testament that mankind...on his own...is unable to be "good" enough for eternal
life with God, The Father. So, Jesus was sent to obtain a general pardon...by the grace and
love of God...as the saving doorway (The Way) to (1) a current relationship
and (2) eternal life with God. There is a wide & deep difference in
knowing Jesus and knowing ABOUT Jesus!
It is Jesus of Nazareth that "makes" Christianity
as He brings salvation through the love and grace of God. Tried in a Roman court, condemned
to crucifixion by the demanding clamor of His own people, killed by the Romans, and beloved
by thousands of the ordinary Jews of His day (hated by the Jewish power structure)...all
according to the prophecies (delivered by
prophets [unrefuted
over the past 3000 years]) from God. Jesus has promised such a "knowing" God
relationship through his resurrected self as savior...with you as a Jesus believer.
The savior, Jesus, is available even to the lowest and most ignorant of humans if they will
"believe" (see the
gospel New Testament of John).
So, intellectualizing it all into "religion"
becomes a "human effort"; it is then liable to distortion into "doing" in order to be
pleasing enough to merit God's favor. Christianity is about what God has already
done for you! Religion is about working your way to heaven; Christianity is God's
good news...Gospel... that heaven is a free gift of God through Jesus. "Religion" puts a new
coat on the person; Christianity puts a new person in the coat. The pardon is "on the table"
for you! Will you claim it?
While considered important by many, the
study of any and all religions runs the risk of making an idol out of
theology and religiosity. In 1960, estimates indicated 3% of the world's population were
Christian; in 1998, it is 10%. Further, it is currently estimated that at least 1.7 billion
have hardly any access to the hearing of the Gospel! Yet there are realistic hopes that all
of the world's people will have a really decent chance to hear the "Gospel" [defined] of Jesus by the
year 2005 AD.
WHAT GOD DID FOR
YOU: There are only two kinds of religions. One kind (all but one religion is in this
category) has to do with the "religion" that YOU carry: all of these are predicated on what YOU do
to get to God. The other kind is the religion that carries you: there is only one in this
2nd category...Christianity. Uniquely, Christianity starts with what GOD did to make it possible
for any human to get to Him: He made Jesus of Nazareth to be the atoning Christ, the Messiah, the
pardon-obtaining Savior available (through one's personal acceptance of the general pardon) to the
entirety of mankind! To get to heaven, you must be pardoned! As C. S. Lewis has pointed out, "The
Son of God became a man to enable men to become sons of God." He made the Holy Spirit to indwell
& empower the believer. God exists as Father, Jesus (the Son), and the Holy Spirit. The Father
came to Adam & Eve after they sinned...Adam & Eve did not search for God to atone. Jesus
came to the Christian exterminator, Saul, and transformed him into His apostle to the gentiles
& even changed his name to Paul. And, Revelation 3:20 assures that Jesus is knocking on the
door to the hearts of mankind so that He might come in and dwell through the Holy Spirit. From the
viewpoint of Christianity, God seeks you!
GOD BECAME A MAN: Rev. Eli Stanley Jones (1884-1973) is quoted
as saying that the uniqueness of Christianity is summed up in John 1:14...the incarnation.
Christianity...the only religion claiming that God became a man.
SINLESS SAVIOR: No other religion offers a sinless savior through whom people can be
saved; others offer prophets, gurus, founders, and leaders...usually promising enlightenment
and position through merit. And, that Christianity savior
was killed and arose from the dead, appearing over a 40-day period to over 500 witnesses, and
He is a living savior at work in the world to this very day. And, true Jesus believers
must be eternally saved (the believer's guarantee of
Acts 4:12). By personally accepting the One who obtained
the general pardon on our behalf, we thereby actually and specifically accept our share of
the pardon and get saved for our time on earth AND eternity in
heaven.
THE ONLY ACCEPTABLE
MEDIATOR: in that God's most distinctive attribute is "holiness", then it is
impossible that any human could not have offended God by sinning. How arrogant that any human could
feel qualified to represent themselves as the offending party before an almighty God. The only
acceptable mediator is one on a par (Christianity uniquely makes this provision) with the offended
God...Himself as His only son who came to dwell amongst us as a man, Jesus of Nazareth, the Christ.
(Job 9:32-34; John 14:6; Hebrews 10:11-14; Hebrews 7:26; 1 Timothy 2:5-6) "We can access God only
on the coattails of the one Man who has the right to enter into His
presence." "God does business with us by doing business with Christ. To stand in the presence of
God without representation would be like standing a hundred yards from the sun; God's holiness
would liquefy us." (Lutzer, 2000). As mediator, Jesus is the final judge of all humans (John 5:22
& 27):Jesus is the Son of Man & can relate to each one that He is judging; and, as the Son
of God, He can relate to God's concept of justice. Jesus is the perfect mediator (Evans,
2002).
THE ONLY ACCEPTABLE
SACRIFICE: Justice demands a sacrifice or payment for an offense (sin) against God. A
sacrifice must be equal to the offense committed; and, to God, all sins are equally offensive.
With any sin being an awful thing to an infinite God, we need a sacrifice of infinite
value: it must be the sacrifice that He, Himself made for us, uniquely believed and honored in
Christianity...Jesus of Nazareth, the Christ. That is the meaning of the gospel: God met His own
requirements for us (by providing/being the savior, mediator, and sacrifice... Jesus obtaining the
general pardon for all of mankind).
THE ONLY RELIGION
WHEREIN THE MEDIATOR AND THE ACCEPTABLE SACRIFICE ARE ONE AND THE SAME: This
combination of factors, provided in the person of Jesus, is unique to Christianity. Jesus is
divine. Among other citations see John 6:20 where Jesus says "It is I [I...ego eimi..."I am"];
don't be afraid." See "Trinity" [here]
BASED on
FACTS: While there is some factual material in other religions, most of them consist of
philosophies or world views based on words or writings of a single human individual. Christianity,
including the prophecies and co-beliefs embedded in Judaism, is extremely rich in
fulfilled prophecy, documented facts by the hundreds (in at least 39 ancient,
non-biblical sources), the testimony of numerous eye-witnesses, and the documented presence of
hundreds-to-thousands of other witnesses. All of this is documented in copious historical documents
which have been tested over the millennia by thousands of the best minds of the human race. No
archaeological discovery has ever disproved a single Biblical reference! It is The Truth because
the facts are there for all to see and for the believers to believe! Ironically, one of the surest
ways for a skillfully investigative, truth-seeking doubter to become a Jesus believer is for that
doubter to set out to disprove Jesus and Christianity.
mediator CLAIMS
TO BE GOD and KING of kings and LORD of lords: Except that Judaism and Islam recognize the
God of Abraham (who is "triune," and is thereby also Jesus), Jesus of Christianity is in a league
of His own, by comparison to the key figure of all other religions: Jesus claims to be God (no
leader of any other major religion has ever even pretended to be God). Seven secular sources and
several very early creeds concern the deity of Jesus. And He, Himself, indicated that he is King of
the Jews (Luke 23:3), while others indicate that He was and is King of kings and Lord of lords
(Paul says so in I Timothy 6:15). And the angel says so in the revelation vision to John in
Revelation 17:14; and John sees it written on Him, too, in Revelation 19:16, now and into eternity.
In addition, in that status as King, Jesus will be the leader of the final war on earth and will be
the final judge of every human who has ever lived (Revelation
19:11)!
Where is the reign of this King Jesus? How do we show our allegiance to Him?
Jesus was never to be a political or conquering king. He rules by faith and not by force! He
is King of a Kingdom that is in peoples'
hearts...He asks for a person's heart! His throne is in the head & hearts of believers.
Therefore, He rules & reigns through these followers as their lives reflect Him to all
others.
POWER SOURCE: Other religions indicate blessings from the founder or
from "gods"...even to the extent of perceiving answering of prayers in a positive way. Such answers
may be coincidental. In Jesus, however, the born-again, true believer has the relational "plug"
into the true, all-sufficient (2 Corinthians 12:1-10) power source of the universe...the one and
only, true and living God. I'm not aware of stunning and miraculous and
lifelong changes in lives by other religions that are a common and regular feature
of true Christian believers: hardened sinners, scofflaws and criminals fully and nearly instantly
changed. [see only a few
examples] The changes true Jesus followers undergo and participate in are
supernatural because True belief in Jesus brings the Holly Spirit to indwell the believer and be
the needed supernatural power source. Through the leading of the indwelling Holy Spirit, a believer
now has the open door potential that scriptural truth be no longer closed, no longer foolish, and able to be understood with study so that
there is no longer mystery in Scripture.
MORALITY: As with many other
religions, the Jesus follower believes that God has spoken regarding right & wrong (The Bible).
therefore one does not attempt to develop a morality of one's own, attainable only by one's own
efforts. The moral structure has already been divinely spoken, and the true Jesus follower has
become indwelt by the Holy Spirit...morality is attainable by a combination of one's willingness
and the power of the Holy Spirit.
SPREADING THE
WORD: Most other religions are content to, either culturally or by other means (such
as "the sword"), let their religion spread. Christianity (and a few Jesus-related
cults) is the only religion which has such a compelling message and such supernatural
empowerment of the believer (because it is real and true and Holy Spirit empowered) that a
large number of its believers willingly risk ridicule and persecution in their efforts to
spread The Word...the "good
news" (the Gospel). A small percentage are even being "called" in a life-risking way
into savage or uncivilized regions or regions where they will suffer death if discovered. If
a chronically starving person finds an unlimited source of food which is free to any and all
who will eat it, would that truth not be such "good news"...so powerfully compelling...that
he would spread the word to all he saw (especially who appeared to be "starving")? The Bible
book of Acts is all about how there is no force in the universe which can turn aside the
Gospel of Jesus the messiah from Nazareth.
FOUNDER'S
DEATH: Other religions base their claim to recognition on the teachings
of their founder (s); Christianity, alone, distinguishes itself from all others by the importance
it assigns to the prophecy of, the circumstances of, the facts of, and the significance of the
death of its "founder". All other founders or key figures are fully dead; only
Jesus still lives (over 500 witnesses to His resurrected self).
BONES:
Uniquely, there is no grave containing the bones of the key figure in Christianity...Jesus. The description of the family tomb of Joseph of Arimathea in the Gospels is precisely accurate archeologically with what is known about rock-cut tombs containing locculi for each dead body. of the wealthy in Jesus' time. It was very unusual that a non-family member be entombed in a family tomb. Jesus' followers have vanished. By Jewish law, (1) burial must be within 24 hours after death and (2) burial may not be on the Sabbath (after sundown Friday until after sundown Saturday) or festival days. And, there is not enough time to dig a trench grave. To comply (being concerned with the proper following of Jewish law), Joseph hurriedly got permission from Pilot & buried Him in Joseph's tomb.
In 2011, the Discovery Channel reported on the "Talpiyot Tomb", proposed as the tomb of Jesus' family & Jesus; but Prof. Jodi Magness...her The Holy Land lectures, The Great Courses...finds faults in the reasoning of the presentation: (1) the Gospel accounts are specific and concordant & (2), if Talpiyot true, there would have been no need of Joseph's tomb. (3) Plus, the family of Jesus would never have been able to afford such a rock-cut tomb as the Talpiyot tomb (&, were they to have had wealth enough, they would have had their family tomb in Nazareth & not Jerusalem).
The
grave of Jesus is empty; and, of all the world's religions, only the bone-containing grave of Jesus
can't be located. Why not? Because, uniquely, Jesus arose from the grave (see below) &
lives today!
PROPHECY
FULFILLED: A religious prophecy is the passing on of a word from God. Therefore, if truly
a prophecy, it must be fulfilled. Written at least 400 years prior (and possibly
as many as 1000 years) to the birth of Jesus, the Bible Old Testament (Jewish) contains some 333
prophecies about the messiah (the savior; the Christ...an example is Isaiah chapter 53). Jesus
fulfilled every one, and the subsequent 2000 years have failed to refute them. A calculation has
been made that to have just 8 prophecies come true is less than one in a quintillion
odds!
RELATIONSHIP: It is the only religion based on a personal (your)
relationship with God (through Jesus): take Christ (Jesus) out of Christianity and Christianity
disappears. By way of the Christian "believer's" union with the body of
believers and his personal relationship
with God/Jesus/Holy Spirit [the
Trinity], Christianity is unique. (The religion of Christianity
is an organization and effort of humans. It is a mix of "cultural Christians"...those
choosing, or born into, or ethnically situating their church identity as
"Christian"...and the true "Jesus believers." It is, therefore, a blend
of human influences and the workings of God through the people...and
fully subject to human frailties...thereby accounting for major atrocities and daily, smaller
bad things done "in the name" of religion).
ELECT: It's the only religion (with the possible exception of
Judaism) where God already has foreknowledge of the "saved" (The Elect) from the beginning of time.
And, for The Elect [check out how "election"
works], God initiates the saving process for a given individual based on His timing
at a point in the person's life. God seeks a person; the person doesn't seek God. People
don't beg or merit themselves into God's favor. And the effecting of prophecy and election
into salvation is through a "savior", Jesus, Christianity being the only religion
with a savior.
DEATH:
It is the only religion with such a clear word on death: the unsaved go to hell (apart from God);
the saved are, at death, absent from the body and present with The Lord (Jesus)...ultimately to be
in eternity with God (in Heaven).
RESURRECTION: It is the only religion with a resurrected
mediator/savior (key figure is not dead), proof already being on record that
God accepted the pardon-obtaining sin sacrifice of Jesus...the resurrection is the
proof (and the proof is outstandingly documented in the Bible and many
modern books)! And, it is the only religion with a clear statement as to the mechanism of eternal
life...in that Jesus is the resurrection for the Jesus believer. Jesus
himself arose from death, leaving an empty tomb, and will be the
life-changing, eternity-with-God resurrection mechanism for the believer (John 11: 25). Skeptics
claim that the resurrection is a lie. Some of The Apostles witnessed the death of Jesus and the
empty tomb...and over 500 witnesses saw Him [see
Easter] during the 40 days between His resurrection and ascension to Heaven. It is
true: men can't hold so dramatic a lie or conspiracy silent [example] [and, see the History
channel's documentary, "Jesus: the Lost 40 Days" on line at such as You Tube
or on TV]. Men won't die for what they know to be a lie (11 of the 13 Jesus-selected
Apostles...the closest associates of Jesus... died as
martyrs unwilling to deny the truth
of the facts of Jesus)!
TRIUNE
GOD: It is the only religion worshipping one God who is recognized, scripturally
declared, and manifests Himself as three persons (the
Trinity): the Father...when He is exerting the divine "will" He is
God; the Son...when He is exerting the grace of salvation He is Jesus; and
the Holy Spirit...when He is enabling/empowering the Jesus believer He is
Holy Ghost/Holy Spirit.
SERVING:
It is the only religion truly reaching out also to the needy (and most societal efforts of true,
sacrificial "good will" can be traced to Christian origins), the lowest, the poor, and the worst
(as well as all other humans), educated or ignorant, regardless of race or ethnic origin. All are
potentially gracefully granted love and fellowship of each other in a boundary-bridging way. One
reflection of this is in the volunteerism and response to tragedies pouring out of Christian
societies toward others. Another example is the community-rich societies of Amish or Mennonites,
which have succeeded for centuries (based on Jesus). Whereas the communes of the secular hippies
(based on primary human "goodness") rarely, lasted even a year.
INCLUSIVENESS: It is the only religion immediately and fully
available to any human who chooses to believe. Claiming the pardon personally results in the
conferring of eternal salvation and marks instant membership into the universal "church", the
universal body of believers. All other religions of the world require man to perform in his own
power, in a certain way, for a certain time in order (or trying to) to merit the favor of God
(reflecting the man-madeness of those religions: performance is the manner by which
man himself goes about reconciling relationships and bestowing grace and
mercy). They are performance-based, self-centered, and self-actualized. Christianity is grace-based
with its believers being heaven-bound so that they become freed to be God-centered (not worrying
and anxious about the future). God's "grace" (it's a grace-based religion,
uniquely) is dispensed even in our disgrace and sin...unique among religions. In fact, it has been
pointed out that the lesson of the Tower of Babel (Genesis 11) was that mankind will never be
allowed to co-operate and bridge cultural and racial differences successfully apart from the
blessing of God (Jesus). God being the Father and creator of all humans, we are all "brothers and
sisters": hence, Christians have been the key moral force behind all positive change in slavery and
racism.
STAY
PUT: It is the only religion in which you don't necessarily give up your culture or turn
your back on current/former relationships. As a Christian, you become a "fisher of men", and
you "fish" at least from where you are. A Jew who becomes a Christian believer need not quit being
a Jew; he becomes a Jewish believer.
GRACE-BASED: It is the only religion in which salvation
is entirely apart from human effort or merit...it is based entirely on the
grace of God. All others are
based on the works/meritoriousness of the worshipper. Though it is implicit that it is
possible to be good enough...the Bible suggests that perfect holiness is
required...to be approved by God as "righteous" and worthy of eternal life, only Christianity
offers a guarantee of approval...absolutely free. There are no strings
attached: you must only hear the news of it, ask for help from the Savior, and believe in Him.
You must recognize and claim the pardon! Christianity, alone, is based on the "done"
plan...Jesus has done for us on the cross what we cannot do for ourselves: He has paid the death
penalty that we deserve for our rebellion and wrongdoing, you don't do anything except believe,
accept, and receive.
SIN:
While other religions deal with specific sins, only Christianity (and maybe part of Judaism) deals
with the innate sin disposition of the natural (human nature) man and man's inability at
self-redemption. Jesus actually delivers people from sin.
EDUCATION: It alone, of the world's religions, insists on the
primacy of language and the need for literacy for all (so that scripture...the Word of God...can be
studied by all)... hence, Protestant Christianity's impact on worldwide education.
Voted the most important man of the 2nd millennium (1000-2000 AD), Johannes Gutenberg was an
ordinary German with a passion to make The Word of God available to the masses; and God blessed
his passion by giving him the idea for inventing (1448 AD) the movable-type printing press. With
widespread reading of The Word of God, common Europeans became interested not only in religious
freedom but in migration to the New World and other parts of the world (by the 1600's AD) in
order to evangelize and carry out The
Great Commission.
COUNTER-CULTURAL: Contrary to popular notions that Christianity
is equal to mainstream, good/wholesome society, true, biblical Christian characteristics are so
counter-cultural that the significant presence of Christians in a society will balance off some of
the tendency of "fallen" mankind to sink lower. And, with the principal of God creating all humans,
then evangelical outreach goes to all people and leads to an inclusiveness (all Christians are
brothers and sisters in Christ) which fosters a willingness toward multiculturalism (the antithesis
of raw human nature).
MULTICULTURAL: Contrary to perceptions held by non-Christian and
Christian alike, the majority of Christians are not white (not Caucasian). Christianity was in
Africa before Europe, India before England, and China before America. Seventy-five percent of all
Christians live outside of the western world! Jesus was as "eastern" as one can get! How can such
diversity be accommodated by the church...what is the church?
CALENDAR FROM
POWER: So powerful a force is Christianity that the world's calendar reflects BC and
AD...time is split by the birth of Jesus. The force and power of Christianity became so resounding
after the Protestant Reformation that nations such as Russia honored God with artistic treasures
(have you seen the "Treasures of the Czars" touring exhibit?). And monarchs were successively named
in honor of Christ, as in Denmark...beginning with Christian I. Many believe that the collapse of
the Soviet Union and Eastern European godless communism can only be explained as a direct result of
active, prolonged, and intensely organized Christian prayer by students and adults, followed by
God's response. The power is incredible, and it continues to be acknowledged in the conventions of
dating of the calendar. Secular and academic changing of "AD" and "BC" will only give enhanced
opportunity to discuss Jesus. By the way, note the key annual periods in the modern
church calendar.
GOODNESS: Uniquely, Christian believers are divinely
declared righteous (good)(2 Corinthians 5:21); they are still subject to sin and to being
bad. "The Way" of the gospel is "good".
NEW: To
quote from Reynolds Price's book, Three Gospels: The Good News According to Mark, The Good News
According to John, an Honest Account of a Memorable Life, page 166, "That seems a fair outline of
John's story. Yet the outline can be pressed further down, to a sentence- the force that conceived
and bore all things came here among us, proved his identity in visible human acts, was killed by
men no worse than we, arose from death, and walked again with early believers, vowing eternal life
to those who also come to believe that he is God and loves us as much as his story shows. None of
the other active world religions says anything remotely similar or comparable. John's story, which-
more than the story of the other gospels- became the Orthodox Christian faith, is in fact repugnant
to Judaism, Islam, Buddhism, and to all the indigenous beliefs of India and Japan. There is
likewise no parallel in the theologies of John's contemporaries- the dead myths of Greece or Rome,
with their demigods and deified bureaucrats. Again, John hands us a brand-new thing."
JUDGMENT: It is the only religion asserting that there will be
an accurate, detailed, and final reckoning of the behavior of every human being who ever lived
(Romans 14:9-12) [and Jesus will be the Judge...Rev. 19:11].
SPEAKING
GOD: Christianity not only asserts that God is capable of intelligent speech but that He
has (being the triune God) actually chosen to speak directly to all of mankind, Himself also
becoming the incarnate messenger (as Jesus).
SPIRIT
DETECTOR: Christianity alone asserts that one can accurately identify "The Spirit" as
truly coming from the One True God if that Spirit acknowledges that Jesus Christ has come in the
flesh. (I John 4:2)
THE
TRUTH: While all "prophets" have simply claimed to speak the truth, Jesus actually
claimed to be THE TRUTH (John 14:6). This either is or is not so...each human is entitled to their
own opinion about each issue of life; but, persons are not entitled to their own private and
personal "truth"...truth must be universal (whether "believed" or not). Jesus is the only one to
make such a claim!
A
FRIEND: In no other religion is the key figure actually a friend (who sticketh closer than
a brother does) to the believer (Proverbs 18:24). During his life on earth, his opponents cast
condemnation on Jesus by saying that he actually was a friend of sinners, tax collectors and other
low people.
EXISTED, BORN,
DIED, EXISTS: It is the only religion declaring: (1) the existence of the key figure
since before creation, (2) non-human conception [virgin as to any human male participation] but a
very human birth (the incarnation), and (3) a violent death followed by
resurrection to an earthly, then a heavenly eternal existence as a living and ruling Lord...all of
which was prophetically declared 400-1000 years before his human birth. Written 600 years after
Jesus, even the Islamic Koran [see Surah 19.19-21] affirmed Jesus' virgin birth! The true
"incarnation...putting on of human flesh". Spurgeon is said to have commented
on the incarnation, "How great a stoop: from the highest height of Heaven down to the dunghill of
humanity!" (John 1:1-18)
DIVINE:
It is the only religion where the key figure actually claims to be (and is) God...God who came down
as a man (Jesus). Jesus came, fully as man (human), yet fully God: The Word became flesh (but
devoid of sinful human "nature") [see John 1:1-14]. Were Jesus only fully God, he would have been
able to die on the cross devoid of pain and suffering as a human. Yet, so obedient was Jesus to the
will of God the Father that he also "stooped" and took on all of the physical attributes of man.
When the nails were driven in, Jesus felt the pain as you or I would; he felt the thorns and the
spear; he felt the life draining away; and he felt the pain of the weight of his body hanging on
his arms and hanging beneath his diaphragm such as to slowly suffocate him. Keep this dual nature
in mind and truly appreciate what God willed (as The Father God) and then what God
did (lived as Jesus and agreeably & obediently & voluntarily suffered the
agony of The Cross) in order to get in further touch with the miracle of God's love for mankind. He
did this to atone for the sins of man before a holy/righteous and just Jehovah God. The key figure
in all other religions simply represents "The Pattern/Figurehead/Example"...Jesus does that and so
much more!
HISTORICAL
DOCUMENTS/BIOGRAPHIES: As legalist and investigative reporter Lee Strobel has so well
pointed out in his 1998 book, "The Case for Christ", Jesus is again unique in that his biographies
began to be written in only 20+ years after his death. Whereas biographies of key figures in all
other religions begin no sooner than 5 generations (over 100 years) after their deaths...such a
long interval allowing ample time for legend making and revisionism. These and the abundance of
written documentation provide credibility for truth seekers that the claims of Jesus are
true!
THE 10/40
WINDOW: Does hard evidence of consequences/results help to illuminate The Truth?
Every nation or society [since the death of Jesus] which has been peopled by a large percentage of
Jesus believers/followers has been blessed. God's chosen people, the Jews, have been a blessing o humanity, no matter how many forces have tried to exterminate them! Today, the greatest concentration of
alternative-religions peoples is in the geographical "window" between north latitudes 10 degrees
and 40 degrees and from the longitude just to the west of the west coast of Africa to the longitude
to the east of Japan. There currently being 6 billion people on earth, this window of our earth's
surface: (1) contains 3.2 billion people, (2) 85% of them are the poorest of the world's poor, (3)
95% of these people are unevangelized (not exposed to the Gospel of Jesus), and (4) millions of
them have never even once heard of Jesus or this Gospel. The true God of Abraham,
possessing an array of perfect personal attributes (including being
sovereign and all-powerful) must have at least allowed (the "curse" of their
ignorance or misguidance?) this result. Afghanistan under the Taliban is in the center of this
window! What does it mean when peoples with the highest concentration of the poorest and most
desperate of lives on planet Earth are also the least committed to Jesus? Are largely Islamic? In
the USA, why is Islam so attractive to hate-filled incarcerated (because of their
own crimes) prisoners? Go figure...
"THE TRUTH" IS
THE MOST-VIEWED FILM IN HISTORY: What story, what message, what power could possibly
transcend cultural and political barriers and, since 1979, have been viewed on film, TV, or the
internet by (as of the end of Jan. 2000) billions of people...3.3 billion to be exact?
[check out more]
ONE SOLITARY LIFE
He was
born in an obscure village, the child of a peasant woman.
He grew up in another obscure village,
where he worked in a carpenter shop until he was thirty.
Then for three years he was an itinerant
preacher.
He never
wrote a book.
He never held an office.
He never had a family or owned a home.
He never lived in a big city.
He never traveled 200 miles from the place where he was
born.
He did none of the things that usually accompany
greatness.
He had no credentials but himself.
While he
was still a young man, the tide of popular opinion turned against him.
His friends deserted him. He was turned over to his
enemies,
and went through the mockery of a trial.
He was nailed to a cross between two
thieves.
While he
was dying, his executioners gambled for his garments,
the only property he had on earth.
When he was dead, he was laid in a borrowed grave,
through the pity of a friend.
Nineteen
centuries have come and gone,
and today his is the central figure for much of the human
race.
All the armies that ever marched,
All the navies that ever sailed,
All the parliaments that ever sat,
All the kings that ever reigned,
put together have not affected the life of man upon this
earth
as much as this
One Solitary Life.
Anonymous
IT
IS UNIQUE BECAUSE IT IS THE TRUTH!!
###########
Recommended
reading: the modern findings of a legally trained Chicago investigative reporter who
was an atheist...The Case For Christ, A Journalist's Personal
Investigation of the Evidence for Jesus, by Lee Strobel (1998).
Recommended
reading: a native of India and authority on Eastern culture, scholar, Christian, and
popular (now American) speaker, Ravi Zacharias, pens a 197 page, highly readable and convicting
book, JESUS Among Other Gods: The Absolute Claims of the Christian Message (2000).
Recommended reading: Life After Death: The Evidence by Dinesh D'Souza (2009).
Note:
secular writer Michael Hart's out-of-print book, The 100: A Ranking of the Most Influential
Persons in History, even ranks Jesus #3. But, Reynolds Price, having been requested by
Time Magazine to write about Jesus at the close of 1999, notes, "It would require much exotic
calculation, however, to deny that the single most powerful figure--not merely in these two
millenniums but in all human history--has been Jesus of Nazareth." [Time, Dec. 6,
1999]
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check out the Highest
TRUTH
Some miraculous, authentic
testimonies
[posted June 1998; latest addition 6 October
2008]
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