Christian Primer

A New Kind of Christianity?

March 26th, 2010 No Comments

There is another debate taking place among evangelicals in the Christian world. Did Jesus go to the cross as a sacrifice to God? Did he go willingly to give himself up for our sins?

The debate is welling up after the book “A New Kind of Christianity” recently came out. The author, Brian McClaren, is considered one of the country’s most influential envangelicals, and has started a firestorm of controversy with his theories.

He homes in on certain long-held beliefs, such as that of only Christians going to heaven and everyone else being doomed to hell.

”A young evangelical, Roman Catholic [or] mainline Protestant growing up in America today, if he goes to college, his roommate might be Hindu,” he says. “His roommate might be Muslim. His roommate might be Buddhist or atheist. So, suddenly the ‘other’ is sleeping across the room.”

For more details, read the full article from NPR here. What do you think?

Jesus and the Pharisees

January 26th, 2010 No Comments

So who were the Pharisees?
Around the time of the New Testament there were three main religious movements or societies in Judaism. They were the Pharisees, the Sadducees (sometimes also called the Herodians), and the Essenes. The Sadducees were associated more with royalty and the upper classes while the Pharisees were more connected to the the poor and lower classes. The Sadducees taught people to go strictly by the text of the Torah, while the Pharisees taught not only the text of the Torah, but also the interpretations made by the Rabbis. They believed that the laws handed to Moses on Mt. Sinai were the written book of the Torah and the second book was the oral interpretations.

Over time the Sadducees and Essenes lost their power and later their followers, leaving the Pharisees as the main source of religious instruction. The Pharisees wanted to have the Jews live lives apart from the heathens that surrounded them, to not take foreign wives, and to keep themselves pure.

Law versus Love
The issue that Jesus had with the Pharisees was one of law versus love. The Pharisees taught and believed very strongly that if they followed the word of God to the letter, not only the written laws of the Torah, but also the much more extensive oral laws of the Rabbis, then they could guarantee their places in heaven. On the other hand, Jesus taught that God’s lovewas paramount and the strict adherence to the Rabbinical interpretations of the law were not the intent of God.

"Christ and the tribute money", Gutave Dore' (1865)

In Matthew 5:20 Jesus said, “For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.”

Again in Matthew 15:3-6 He answered them, “And why do you transgress the Commandment of God for the sake of your tradition? For God commanded, ‘Honor your father and your mother,’ and, ‘He who speaks evil of father or mother, let him surely die.’ But you say, ‘If any one tells his father or his mother, What you would have gained from me is given to God, he need not honor his father.’ So, for the sake of your tradition, you have made void the Word of God.”

Conclusion
The Pharisees had become so wrapped up in what they were doing and avoiding to maintain their holiness in the eyes of God, they lost sight of the will of God. The Pharisees, unlike the Sadducees, believed in the coming of the Messiah and resurrection after death. But when confronted by Jesus, they could not believe that he was the Savior and banded together to work for hisdeath, thus proving what he had been saying about them all along.

For more information, check out these sources

Who were the Pharisees?

Pharisees

The Sermon on the Mount – The Beatitudes

January 5th, 2010 No Comments

Introduction
It seems that I’ve always know that the meek will inherit the earth. I just had no idea what it meant. This phrase and a number of others come from the sermon that Jesus delivered to his disciples that later became known as “The Sermon on the Mount”, perhaps his most well known sermon. The lines that begin with “Blessed are…” are what are now known as the Beatitudes. The word “beatitude” comes from the Latin word beatus which means “happy” or “blessed”.

There is a difference in the beatitudes written by Matthew from the Sermon on the Mount and those written by Luke that came from the Sermon on the Plain. Some believe that both sermons refer to the same event and that Matthew added four extra beatitudes that are not found in Luke. There is also a difference in that Luke follows up his “Blessed are…” lines with a number of “Woe to you…” statements that castigate the rich, happy, or those doing well in life.

Matthew 5: 3-10
3 Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
4 Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be comforted.
5 Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth.
6 Blessed are they that hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled.
7 Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy.
8 Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God.
9 Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called sons of God.
10 Blessed are they that have been persecuted for righteousness’ sake: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Luke 6:20-22
20) And he lifted up his eyes on his disciples, and said, Blessed are ye poor: for yours
is the kingdom of God. 21) Blessed are ye that hunger now: for ye shall be filled.
Blessed are ye that weep now: for ye shall laugh. 22) Blessed are ye, when men shall
hate you, and when they shall separate you from their company, and reproach you, and
cast out your name as evil, for the Son of man’s sake.

The Sermon on the Mount, Carl Bloch (1890)

Meanings of the Beatitudes
1. The poor in spirit are those who have given themselves to Jesus Christ and realize that he is their only hope of salvation. Those who are arrogant or confident in themselves and their relationship with God, but have not fully surrendered themselves to Jesus will not enter the kingdom of heaven.
2. They that mourn are expressing regret for their sins. If you repent of your sins and accept Jesus as your savior then you shall be comforted.
3. Meek does not mean weak. In this context meek means being under the control of God, not the world or Satan. A meek person sees God’s presence everywhere, all of the time and submits himself to God.
4. They that hunger and thirst after righteousness are those who have an overwhelming desire to know God and to strive to live a life dedicated to that purpose.
5. The merciful are those who offer help to those who need it, voluntarily and without complaint. As God is merciful to us, so should we be merciful to others.
6. The pure in heart are those who repudiate sin and cast off our selfish desires and intentions. Only the pure in heart may see God.
7. The peacemakers are those who first find inner peace and then seek to bring peace to others.
8. Those have been persecuted for righteousness’ sake follow in the footsteps of Jesus, his disciples, and many others over the centuries. Followers of Jesus Christ have been persecuted since the beginning but will find the Kingdom of Heaven as a reward for their struggles.

For more information, visit these resources:
www.jesuschristsavior.net
robertwells.tripod.com