The End of Christianity

Jesus introduced ideas completely different to all that had come before – love your enemies and pray for them; First seek God and everything else will be added to you; Whoever does the Father’s will is my brother and sister and mother; I am the way, the truth, and the life; No-one comes to the Father except through me; Forgive and you’ll be forgiven, don’t forgive and you will find yourself in a prison of torture; humility trumps superiority; and many, many more! He also introduced a way of thought that took even the disciples by surprise. Some women came to see him bringing their small children with them. The disciples were staunch believers in the patriarchal style of life and started to ward off the women and children. This made Jesus angry and he rebuked them saying the kingdom of heaven is made up of expectant and accepting gentleness like a child and if they didn’t follow this attitude they would never be received by God. He presented the black and white harshness of the Old Testament Law as colourful - a bit like upgrading a black and white computer into colour! These new ideas later developed the backbone of Western civilization especially with regard to Presumption of Innocence, and the Magna Carta, recognizing the basic values of the individual, women and children – the equivalent of which is found in no other civilization. Jesus purposely hand-picked 12 disciples and informed them that he had come specifically to be the human sacrificial lamb on behalf of humanity, and confirmed this when he was crucified on the day of Passover sometime around 30 AD. He declared he was the reason for and fulfillment of the original Passover that was instituted during Moses time, by shedding his blood on behalf of mankind. John the Baptist identified and confirmed this at Jesus’ baptism. Jesus also clarified and demonstrated the correct method to live a pleasing life before God as well as revealing how the Law was merely symbolic of God’s vital moral standards for man’s success. This is perhaps well explained by the following verses found in 1 Corinthians 9: 9,10: ‘For the Law of Moses says, “You must not muzzle an ox to keep it from eating as it treads out the grain.” Was God thinking only about oxen when he said this? Wasn’t he actually speaking to us? Yes, it was written for us, so that the one who plows and the one who threshes the grain might both expect a share of the harvest.’ NLT (Spoken in the context of providing material and financial support for gospel workers.) He prophesied he would rise on the third day after his crucifixion and he did. He also assured his followers that he would return to collect them. 3000 people died when God’s moral Law was originally given to Israel after their rescue from Egypt, but 3000 people were born again into the Church at Pentecost when the Holy Spirit physically entered man’s domain thus highlighting the vast superiority of Christianity over the Jewish Law – life versus death! Jesus declared that the only way to eternal life was in practice to abandon one’s self-centred personal drive, acknowledge the risen Christ as their guiding head and seek God’s direction – in other words; become a new creation in Christ; turn away from wanton error and pay attention to the Spirit’s guiding through the conscience; develop a relationship with God. The Jews had become fastidious about the physical observation of prescribed feasts and rules but Jesus came to embody the reason behind those symbolic feasts and to nail the culpability of human failure to the cross. To further explain: the Jews were (and still are, largely) completely focused on maintaining the physical aspects of the ‘Letter of the Law’ whereas Jesus came to reveal the ‘Spirit of the Law’ – the reality and intended purpose behind all the Law and feasts. The Law, in itself, was never designed to bring eternal life to mankind because the Law demands perfection and no man is perfect, however, Jesus came to bring life eternal by faultlessly fulfilling the law on mankind’s behalf. Paul described how relying on and meticulously observing the Law was actually a ministry of death carved in stone (referring to the law given to Moses) compared to the freedom from condemnation which is found in the Spirit of God. Jesus, who was God on earth, introduced a revolutionary concept of recognizing and acknowledging a deity figure. On a number of occasions he spoke of God as ‘Father’ and instructed his disciples (when they asked) to speak to God as ‘Father’. No religion has ever identified its head as ‘Father’. They mostly rely on obedience to a supposed superior figure that has requirements and ideals that certainly don’t consider the health and welfare of its adherents. In fact some religions demand establishing superiority over all others through violence. But the essence of Christianity is totally opposite. He is the epitome of perfect balance – slow to anger, but whose wheels of justice grind exceedingly fine! Whereas the Old Testament reveals his Justice largely, the New Testament reveals his Mercy. Whatever the Jews were expecting, the gentleness, the genuineness, the honesty, the humanity and the compassion of Jesus Christ was a stumbling block to their evaluation and expectation. The value of his miracles was merely ignored. Jewish history (like most other religions) had always largely regarded God as a retributive character. He must be appeased and obeyed or else! Even the disciples were confused and they asked Jesus to reveal the Father to them. Jesus replied that if they had perceived Jesus in action they had seen God. This seemed to be an oxymoron concept to a people that were steeped in the idea of the ‘angry, demanding God’ their scriptures seemed to portray.