Questions:
When many non-Christians think of Christians today, what are the thoughts that come to their mind? Is it "loving, patient, kind, thoughtful" or "crazy, narrow-minded, old-fashioned, hypocrite"? I'm going to guess it would be one or more of the latter ideas.
Why is that? Perhaps, the church needs to go back to the start...
A Little History
Christianity started due to Jesus the Christ. Christian was a term that came about shortly after the crucifixion of Christ (probably surfaced some time in AD 40 or so). It was a derogatory term that literally meant "little Christs." I bring this up to say that at the beginning of the Christian movement, Jesus' followers were named after him.
I myself would probably be labeled by most as a Christian, though I honestly hate the tarnished reputation that label has in our society today. To be called a "little Christ" should be a title taken with great seriousness and humility. It is what all of us should aspire to be.
Who Jesus Was
So, what kind of man was this Jesus the Christ? The best way to find out is to turn to verified and accurate sources regarding Jesus. The best resource is the New Testament itself as the epistles (letters of Paul, Peter, John, etc) were written shortly (10-20 years or so) after Jesus' departure, and the four gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke, John) were written within that same generation. I won't go into the details of the historical accuracy of these documents (that will be saved for a later blog).
Jesus was a man of virtue, love, compassion, and strength.
What Jesus Said
Jesus said that you can basically summarize the entire Bible with the following:
1. Love God
2. Love each other
(Matthew 22:36-40)
Funny how many of us Christians still don't understand the most basic, elementary thing that Jesus said. Within the church itself, we still see a divorce rate that is just as high as outside the church, churches are often splitting; we the church judge each other, we judge those in the world, we bash the gays, we murder abortion doctors, we condemn people who don't follow our rules, we get caught up on rules and legalistic ideas....we simply don't get it.
Jesus made it very clear that God finds that legalism to be disgusting. I like what 1 John 4:20 says "If anyone says, 'I love God,' yet hates his brother, he is a liar. For anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen."
The Point of This Rant
Where I am going with all of this is that part of the church (not all) has missed the most profound, yet simple point: this life is all about love. We can't work our way into Heaven, we can't impress God with our righteousness; heck, we can't even practice half the stuff we preach. But if we can learn to simply love God and each other, then we will have begun to grasp the very essence of God himself, for 1 John 4:8 states
"Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love."
Interesting posts you have, though I think Christianity is dead and will be redeemed and brought to fruition and perfection through Thelema. Check out my blog at http://christianityisdead.wordpress.com/ if you will. Love is the law, love under will. ;)
ReplyDeleteHmmm...after reading about Thelema on your blog I would have to reply stating two things:
ReplyDelete1. Christianity is certainly far from dead
2. I won't call Thelema dead, because it was never living in the first place.
Thelema is a nice idea, but one of the first things I noticed was the misunderstanding of Jesus. There is countless historical and theological documents from the time of Jesus that show he claimed to be the Messiah and to be the way to God (he didn't state that we are God). He even stated that He came not to do his will, but his Father's will.