Reason To Believe Series

could have just as easily faded back to their former lives in the Galilean region after the crucifixion?

Dr. Gary Collins, a prolific author and a Ph. D. in clinical psychology, recommends that the honest inquirer spend time reading the extended words of Jesus as reported in the Gospel. He says you will find no sign of dementia, delusions, or paranoia. You will not find a preoccupation with self. Instead you will find wisdom, insight, and deep compassion for others. These are not the traits of a madman!

Thus John declares:John 1:9-14

The true light that gives light to every man was coming into the world. He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him. He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God— children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God. The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.

If Jesus is the Christ, why then is His message rejected with such intensity by so many in the present world?

Listen carefully so that you do not misunderstand what I am about to say.

Often what people reject is not Christ, but the Christian religion wrapped around Him.

We must not confuse a world view with truth! When presenting what you believe to be the Gospel of Christ, are you talking about Jesus or are you asking people to adopt your particular understanding about life and how the world is organized? That is no easy question.

Many of us live within our world view much as fish lives in water! It’s all we know. Our assumptions about life are deeply ingrained and only with great effort, are we able to separate the pure Gospel from world view that envelopes it.

Pastor Brian McLaren writes in a challenging and interesting book, A New Kind of Christian, that if we (evangelical Christians from this time) were to be transported back 500 years in time, NO ONE alive then would accept us as true Christians! Why?

∙ Christians of that era nearly universally accepted that the Pope was Christ’s representative on earth,

∙ Christians of that era nearly universally accepted that kings ruled by divine right,

∙ Christians of that era nearly universally accepted that the universe was created in concentric rings by God with the earth at the center of it all with the sun revolving around the earth.

Remember Copernicus and Galileo? With a new invention, the telescope, they peered at the heavens and learned that the earth actually revolved around the sun and that the earth rotated on it’s axis. This discovery did not fit the accepted world view and the Church felt that the very existence of Christianity was threatened by this discovery. These men lived under constant threats because they challenged a world view that had persisted for nearly 2000 years! A true Christian, by church dogma of the time, had to accept that the Bible taught that the earth was the center of the created universe. Within 200 years, however, Galileo’s theory were accepted and the model of the solar system that are taught today was accepted. Christianity survived the shift in world view.