If Christianity is equated to other great religion's of the world and is nothing more than a set of rituals or a set of beliefs to embrace what good is it as compared to those other great religions? Why elevate it and why aggressively promote it over the many other religions of the earth?
First it has to be defined as to what it is and is not. It is not it is supposed, man made nor of earthly origins. It revelatory in nature and reveals to us the given nature of a one true God and his efforts to be made known to people that lost the original knowledge of him.
Separated in our sinfulness we have lost our way and the intimacy of walking with him. God himself set out plans for redemption of the human race and has throughout our mortal history intervened in our lives in such a way as to reveal his nature to us.
It is a love call...if this sounds too easy it shouldn't be misconstrued as so. Reading through the Old testament that is filled with stories of bloodshed, overthrown kingdoms, wars and treachery it would seem that the message of a kind and benevolent God is lost or at best is one who you do not want to tangle with or get to know! The Israelites a chosen people? This is arrogance isn't it? A chosen nation and royal priesthood? This can seem unbelievable that is until you step into our present day and experience for yourself the promise of the Holy Spirit still at work in men and women and redemption.
If then you receive the Baptism of the Spirit of which Christ spoke then suddenly it brings full circle the history of the Old Testament and New Testament (interpreted as nothing more as a will from a testator) and begins to transform not only our thinking but adds to us the promise of new life as living water Jesus spoke about. How is this so?
The Old Testament is filled with idolatry and images of man made Gods and sacrifices made to those Gods sometimes of human bloodshed in offering to appease them. Far from animal sacrifices and atonement rituals that the Israelites performed to appease our God from their sins. These sacrifices were replaced as Paul said by GRACE of the Lord's death the only blood that redeems. Though grotesque, death on the cross revealed the side of God that would willingly sacrifice his own son for us to bring about a total world redemption of his creation.
Moral codes, commandments, and rituals did nothing for us internally to change our nature and our desire to run away from the presence of God.
Rather if we embrace other major religions (and I have not experienced many) is there a fearful presence associated with their belief systems and is there any change internally to benefit our nature or add immortality? I have not seen evidence of this. Elephants and Rams heads or Cows do not provoke a fear in me but a God wrapped in pillars of fire by night and clouds by day and who shakes the Cedars of Lebanon do! A God who proclaims he made the Leviathan whose scales are so tight that arrows and spears would not pierce his hide and a God that is not man that he should lie or made Orion and the Pleadies and set them in the sky and arranges them for navigation is an awe inspiring God.
We must be careful not to mix our imaginations with truth. Getting back to present day, God has poured out his spirit on all flesh as the book of Joel proclaims and as Jesus promised, he did send the comforter after his ascension from earth. Peter and the disciples clearly preached this so did Paul, Barnabas and many others. Do we believe it today? There is ample evidence of their lives lived and how these men changed the world for us today as well. Historically we have Archaeology to confirm many of these things. Dead Sea Scrolls for one confirm ancient writings of Isaiah and of the books of the Pentateuch. Stone inscriptions on marble mention Paul. Pilate was real and governed an unruly people full of laws the Romans saw as foolish. Jerusalem was reduced to rubble one stone upon another torn down in A.D. 70 as Jesus foresaw and wept for.
What Jesus did when he came and preached the kingdom of God to us was a break through of the eternal into the mortal. The miracles performed weren't the issue that he wanted to profess and show (because men wanted signs) but rather he wanted us to become like him...without sin.....and raised to new life uncorrupted by the Devil's kingdom and hold on our lives. To wreak havoc with our thinking so to speak and re-orient us to his way of thinking. A revelation of God, as near to us and anything else we could imagine.
So Christianity is not a group of people that gather every Sunday to perform rituals sing songs reduce guilt temporarily, and get their kids into a Sunday school and teach moral systems that may or may not be true. It is so much more. It is PERSONAL living and sacrifice and obedience to a God who bought us back with his own blood. It is a change of heart a repentance (turning away from our ways) and realization that we are limited in what we can do in our own strength and rather what God wants for us. It is a culmination of his plan from the beginning that was interrupted by our decision to disobey his original command not to eat from the tree of knowledge of good and evil. Though this sounds hokey, look at what exists in our world and ask yourself do we need the knowledge of mass shootings of children, insanity, insecurity of financial situations daily, government shutdowns, and Middle East unrest that won't go away? If there was an Adam that had knowledge enough to name each and every single animal that "came to him" (think Lion and be afraid) and was clear in mind enough to do so as these animals exhibit traits of falleness now like Scapegoat (sin), stubbornness (Mule) Hawk(war) or dove (peace) etc. etc. then one can wonder if the story for all it's simplicity is true, too simple as to be ignored or endlessly debated about and bandied about in doctrinal circles and pulled apart and analyzed to death.
If then Christianity promises what has become to be associated with Jesus's teachings and of the things he promised us, why not embrace it? It's because the majority of people see that it has become commercialized and promoted with men's interpretation over the years and it weakens the truth. De-nominationalized and packaged into beliefs palatable to the way "we" want to know God and ignoring the thousands of years of the working out of God's plans for us in his way of revelation.
So what of Islam?, Confucianism? Hinduism?... Do these offer change of our nature and do they reveal an awesome God interested in our growth and becoming like him? Can we be broken in tears, filled with joy, our fears subdued, and least of all..... raised from the DEAD? Like Lazarus?
You be the judge! It has to come by ......revelation... a preaching and hearing of the Gospel of good news correctly understood,received and walked out.... a personal touch of God himself. If this is a trait of arrogance or narrow mindedness of Christianity then let it be so. For Jesus said himself narrow is the road that leads to salvation but wide is the gate that...leads to destruction. The blindness is all over the world the scriptures reveal but one day we will see as he sees.
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