My son, keep my
words,
And treasure my
commands within you.
Keep my commands and
live,
And my law as the
apple of your eye.
Bind them on your
fingers;
Write them on the
tablet of your heart.
Proverbs 7:1-3
History
reminds us that God has chosen those who would carry to the world that He
exists and that He, as God, has revealed to us what is best for us. That is, if
we keep His commands and His law we shall live, now, and forever. If we don’t
then we cannot expect to have God redeem us from the power of sin. If a person
does not believe in “sin” then that person is like an ostrich with its head in
the sin. Any sentient person can see that bad things occur at all times,
everywhere, and that if those involved in doing bad things followed the law of
God, His commands, then they would not do those bad things. Yet, man does bad,
and seems to have a propensity for bad, and this is revealed to us as why it
happens, and what is the cure. It is God’s revealed will for man, His commands
and His law and we are to write them on our heart. In an attempt to avoid
dealing with God man has devised many ideologies to try and explain life. As I
have been writing on, the subject of the Christian Religion, and the fact that
there is much proof that the Christian Religion is of God, there are still
those who will not allow this proof to either change their thinking or to
increase their faith. They are like the ostrich, they wish to avoid that which
may be at first hard to understand, or that which may make cause for them to change.
I will continue through this subject for those who do desire to have an arsenal
or proof for what the believe, The Christian Religion.
Did the men
with all their leaning and have means of opportunities to inform themselves of
the truth about the history of Jesus Christ? If this is not true or cannot be
pointed out, their testimonies will be invalid and ineffectual. Many thousands
of people had seen the events surrounding Jesus Christ and many of those were
eye–witnesses. Some, if not many, were the recipients of oral testimony of the
account of Jesus Christ. I shall begin with the twelve disciples that include
Paul the Apostle for they had a particular call and published, spoke, preached
about Jesus Christ, His life, and His miraculous events. Also, others had share
in publishing this history of Jesus Christ, the foundation of the Christian Religion.
There are those who cavil about the history of the twelve disciples and of the
Christian Religion pointing out that the Gospel was a local occurrence and the
rest of the world was left in darkness. This is not borne out in historical
records of Christianity for many of the apostles and disciples did travel to
the remotest parts of the world. These
travelers gathered many people about them, acquainting them with the history
and the doctrines of Jesus Christ. If were to admit that all Christian records
were lost, and many have been, the effect is that plainly the truth of them
were evinced, for how else could as many lives accept Christianity, and such a
rapid spread is amazing as it coursed through several nations of the Roman
Empire. Remember the Roman Empire was large and spread north into the
Scandinavian Countries, to England, to India, and even into China there are
reports of Christians traveling there and preaching the gospel there. This message
delivered to all parts of the known earth resulted in many to become convicted
and convert to the Christian Religion.
Pagan,
heathens of every age, sex, and quality, born in cultures different from Judaism,
and bred up under very different institution, who when they saw men of plain
sense, without the help of learning; men who were patient, and courageous, no
wealth, no pomp or power, expressing in their lives the excellency of morality,
those things they expressed in their lives as having been taught by Jesus
Christ, who had seen His miracles, spoke with Him after His death; they saw no
falsehood, no treachery, or worldly interest. The witness they lived in their behavior and conversation and
often they were submitted to a horrible, cruel death rather than retract from
their testimony. These men of Christ followed to the letter Christ’ command to
take the gospel to every part of the world and when they did many saw no reason
to doubt the veracity of these facts as related to them, those facts which
these men of the Christian Religion were employed.
No matter
how those motives to faith in Jesus Christ were, they would not have been
sufficient to have brought about, in so few years, the many conversions, had
not the apostles been able to exhibit with greater proofs of the truths which
they taught. The Jews and the land of Israel were despised among many countries
and many people who despised this nation would not have come to a conversion to
Jesus Christ had they not been shown without doubt credentials from Jesus
Christ who had sent these men. Men with such a message as for these heathens to
turn from their gods to the One Great God and His Savior Jesus Christ. We can
be assured that these apostles were given the power of working miracles which
would be convincing others of the miracles of Jesus Christ giving validity to
the message, and the reason for these heathens to convert to the Christian
Religion. These miracles would have the impact of overcoming every cavil, every
prejudice, and all ignorance. Would we then believe, as some do, that these men
who carried such an important message, to be commanded to take this message to
the world would not be equipped to be able to dispense the truth. Jesus Christ
did not authorize these men to establish a religion in the world by a lie,
which would be displeasing to Him, or that evil spirits would lend them the
ability to be effectual to beat down idolatry and pagan gods.
In time
these apostles would leave this earth in death. They formed assemblies who
preached the same message of the gospel, they appointed men from these new
converts who were mature in the faith, had unblemished lives to preside over
these assemblies, and to inculcate what they had heard from the mouths of these
eye–witnesses.
I will
continue to teach the evidences for the Christian Religion in the next blogs.
There is much to learn. We will, with the help of the Holy Spirit, grow in our
Sanctification, and in the practicality of our lives.
But if they confess their iniquity
And the iniquity of their fathers,
With their unfaithfulness in which
They were unfaithful to Me, an
That they also have walked contrary to Me…..
Then I will remember My covenant
with Jacob,
And My covenant with Isaac, and My covenant
With Abraham I will remember:……I am
the LORD their God.
Leviticus
26:40,42, 44b
Praise God for He is Merciful
Richard L. Crumb
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