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Post Script

 

 

These words, and thus the topics that make up this book, were not written with the goal of creating controversy. But when you consider the current state of a divided Christianity, it becomes obvious that what this book proposes clearly is not in accordance with Church tradition and dogma.

Controversy is not necessarily bad or evil. When Jesus arrived and faced off with the religious elite of his time, it was not without controversy. Who is there today who can deny that Jesus reserved his harshest words for the religious, those who were steeped in tradition and dogma?

In fact, the loving Jesus of the Church is not the Jesus of the New Testament scriptures, who spoke against those defending their religious pretensions. We need to keep in mind it was those same men who, in the end, turned him over to be condemned by Roman law and to die a criminal’s death by crucifixion. Religion did that!

Religion is evidence of an incurable phenomenon entrenched in human nature. A man will often defend his religion (belief system) at the cost of his life and/or at the expense of others. How many wars have been fought over religion? How many people have died over the course of human history because a man believed something different from his neighbor?

Because of the globalization of our world today, that neighbor can live halfway around the world, and the religious fanatic, with his long reach, can still strike out against you. It is a reality witnessed daily on our TV screens, filled with images of religious violence, giving the impression that it may well consume the world. But violence over beliefs has been there since the beginning of human history—remember Cain and his brother Abel?

As human history began, so it will surely end. That end will ultimately be predicated on violence[1] stemming from the conviction of men who have determined, as predicted by Jesus’ parable, “we will not have this man to reign over us.”[2] It is this conviction which reveals the murderous heart of Cain.

 

The fear of being wrong is an overriding factor in what makes man the religious creature he is. This is mentioned because man by his nature is a proud creature. Nobody wants to be found in error. People kill each other every day because of what they believe is right! Remember those to whom Jesus said "you are in error not knowing the scriptures."[3]

Imagine it was you Jesus was talking to, and that after a lifetime of devotion to a particular belief system (even if your belief system was based upon the scriptures), you were the one found wanting. If, hypothetically, Jesus returned to visit the different Churches and begin to speak the way he did to the religious elite of his day, it is almost certain that people, in defense of what they believe, would grab their guns and, if a gun was not available, would pick up rocks to throw at him.

True Christianity is about learning that we are a desperate lot (short of the glory of God), and that we each need the grace and mercy of God. Do you not hear the words of Jesus in the parable, to sell all, no matter the cost, even if that cost is your pride, because you have been wrong all your life?

 

This book was conceived and written in the hope that what you find within these pages will allow you to see and hear things that will help you overcome the fear of being wrong, and allow you to change the way you think about the God of the scriptures. For He calls out, "'Come now, and let us reason together,' says the LORD, 'Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be white as snow, though they are red like crimson, they shall be as wool.'" [4]

The God of the scriptures is the God who has revealed Himself. He is the faithful God who beckons His people to seek Him out and reason together with Him. If you are seeking to reason together with Him, then you may approach Him with the assurance that it is He who is calling out His people to do so. Not everyone seeks God, and many who have come into this world are not called, nor chosen, or faithful.[5]

When you accept this knowledge, perhaps it will change your thinking about who Jesus of Nazareth was and is today. Perhaps within this knowledge you will feel the endearment, the kindred spirit, which draws us to the man who loved his God to the point of willingly laying down his life to become the sin offering that satisfied God’s justice. Perhaps you will see that Jesus was made like us in every way, a brother and a kinsman who has since been declared the Son of the living God. For it is in this revelation that He has been made the way to God.[6]

The Jesus who lived and walked among us died, because he was a mortal man, and as such was under the condemnation of death, as all men are.[7] But Jesus was a special man. He was special because God had given him a heart bent on obedience. In the proleptic words[8] of the Psalmist, God spoke to him, for our benefit, these words: “You have loved righteousness and hated wickedness. Therefore God, your God, has anointed you with the oil of gladness beyond your companions.”[9]

In the sense which eclipsed all others, Jesus was the man who loved righteousness and hated wickedness. It took this special man to show the world it was possible. His love for righteousness and his hatred for wickedness were ultimately why other men hated him and wanted him dead.

But today Jesus ever lives; having been made a life-giving spirit, for it was God who raised him from out of death.

The Jesus of the scriptures, seen both prophetically and now realized, has been exalted above all others, and now sits as the express image of God. He does so with the promise, for those who believe God, that they, too, will be conformed to his image.

There is no greater promise or hope to be found in the God of the Scriptures, because as He has determined, what Jesus has become is the hope of those who are called, chosen, and are the faithful of God.

 In the freedom God has afforded us, we can say these things without fear. With hope and expectation, we look forward to His return to establish God's kingdom on earth.

"But truly, as I live, and as all the earth shall be filled with the glory of the LORD."[10] Even so, come Lord Jesus. May it be soon.

 

To God is the Glory.

 

Next Chapter

 

 

[1] See Revelation chapter 16, a picture of the violence of God's judgment upon the world of ungodly men.

[2] Luke 19:14

[3] Matthew 22:29 Mark 12:24-27 *Hebrews 3:9

[4] Isaiah 1:18

[5] Revelation 17:14 ESV "They will make war on the Lamb, and the Lamb will conquer them,
 for he is Lord of lords and King of kings, and those with him are called and chosen and faithful."
 See also Matthew 22:14

[6] "I am the way." John 14:6 "…the way into the holiest of all" Hebrews 9:8

[7] Hebrews 9:27

[8] Prolepsis: The words which God speaks as if they are a current reality.

[9] Psalm 45:7 ESV

[10] Numbers 14:21