This is the book of
the genealogy of Adam.
In the day that God
created man,
He made him in the
likeness of God.
He created them male
and female,
And blessed them and
called them
Mankind in the day
they were created.
Genesis 5:1–2
In this
series of blogs that addressed the Christian Religion as to it being a fact of
its existence and its affect upon many people due to the history that even men
and women steeped in Paganism, after inspection, contemplation, writing for and
against the Christian Religion became Christians. The Christian Religion is to be found, not as just another
religion, rather a religion that has “real” basis. That basis and foundation of
the Christian Religion is in the Person Jesus Christ. The life and death of
Jesus Christ so impressed the world and was so sacred to those who saw and
lived, at least, some of the events of the life of Jesus, that the Christian
Religion and it truth, was carried to the further parts of the Roman Empire and
to the far away lands and nations of the then known world, that its historicity
and fact cannot be denied. Those who would deny the truthfulness of the
historicity of the Christian Religion are either misinformed or ignorant.
Ignorance in the avoidance of the facts of the Christian Religion is either formed
by apathy, or a personal desire for the life that a person may live and has no
pleasure in making any changes; truthful or not. Yet, I have shown in these
blogs that the impact of the Christian Religion did make changes in many, many,
people of all walks of life, of every station in life, to those Pagans, even
Pagan philosophers, who when having examined the Christian Religion became
aware of the falseness of their religion and the truthfulness of the Christian
Religion and set aside, shunned, the religion that they had previously held as
truth. One strong fact of the Christian Religion that only the ignorant will
refute is the changed lives of converted men and women to the Christian
Religion, the willingness to maintain their faith, a faith grounded in the
truth of Jesus Christ, the words and commands of Jesus Christ that led them to
aid others in love, and to not mix with the Pagans in their festivals to other
gods, to the hideous games whereby many died as gladiators, and where many
Christians died as martyrs. This steadfastness did not come about by some
fanaticism, no, it was simple people living what they came to know as truth,
first by living witnesses, and to those who were recipients of the gospel by
men and women who transmitted the life and teachings of Jesus to them, and they
in turn pass this orally at first, then copying the epistles and letters of the
apostles and men who recorded what we call the Bible. The truth that people
came to understand to be “truth” and not just some man’s idea of truth is not
only found in the lives of changed people, but, this change came about by the
power of the Holy Spirit working in their lives so that they could face life in
all of its circumstances not wavering, for they knew that Jesus Christ was God
in the flesh, and that the promises of Jesus Christ, those promises to be found
in the Old Testament were always fulfilled as recorded and they had the one
hope that is to be found in all Scripture: everlasting life with God. This sure
hope was more than some enticing hope, it was not to be found in blind faith
for it was and is founded in the Person of Jesus Christ who came to earth to do
one thing: die. To die not just the death that all men must succumb, rather to
die as a ransom for the debt of sin, to be the efficacious person in His death
that would satisfy the debt of sin, and by paying that debt we receive as an
extension payment for our sins. Many religions have sacred and morality, even
making cause for living a “good” life, but their gods does not offer to them a
life now, a life that lives in such a way that under all circumstances they
press forward to demonstrate their love of God in all things they attempt;
i.e., sciences, medicines, and inventions, all because the Christian Religion
is founded in a sure fact and that fact is Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit
invigorating them to a separate people who love and live their faith, not in
some government controlled faith, not in performing horrendous acts, not in
believing in many gods, rather that they believe in the One God, Jehovah, and
the Son of God, Jesus Christ.
So many of
he Pagan converts to the Christian Religion should make an impression upon our
minds, as they perused the Old Testament writings, those prophecies of the
coming Messiah, and of the history of our Savior, Jesus Christ, and that those
writings, and oral transmission were deposited among the Pagans, into the hands
of the enemies of the Christian Religion, even though many are no longer
extant, we do have many extant writings that prove that the Christian Religion
was not only regard as important, but many came to see the truth and believed,
converted. How astonishing it must have been for a Pagan to see that the whole
history of Jesus Christ the Messiah was published before they were born, to the
find that the evangelists, and prophets, in their accounts of the Messiah,
differed only in point of time, one foretelling what would happen to Him, the
other describing those particulars that actually happened. Jesus Christ,
Himself, made use of a strong argument of His being the Messiah. This argument
of Him being the Promised Messiah was necessary for without it many would never
have reconciled themselves to the ignominy of His death. You can read this
account in Luke 24: 13 to the end.
The learned
Heathen converts in their learning, being fortified with the knowledge of arts
and sciences, were particularly qualified to examine these prophecies which
they did with care and impartiality, without prejudice or prepossession. These
learned men would be fronted with the unnatural interpretation by the Jews who
desired to discredit the Christian Religion, and they would be able with
neutrality, as this writings were new to them. Leaving them to be free and
indifferent. These learned men among the early Christians, knew how the Jews,
who had proceeded Jesus Christ, and their interpretations of the predictions of
the coming of the Messiah, how He would be discovered, and even when the Jewish
leaders deviated from the interpretation and doctrines of their forefathers,
due to some purpose to satisfy their convictions, these learned men would
discover such error.
We have an
invincible force for our argument that the Christian Religion was a real
religion for it had as its foundation a “real” Person who met all the
prophecies concerning Him and we find such as to be recorded in those Pagans
who became Christians. These converts to the Christian Religion could not
disbelieve the history of Jesus Christ as to be the Messiah, and all history
pointed to Him as the One promised. They agreed exactly with every thing that
had been written of him so many ages before His birth. There was no way to
doubt those circumstances being fulfilled in Him, those events and
circumstances that could not be fulfilled in any man accept Jesus Christ. Men
and women of all walks of life, of learning, of simplicity of life carried the
excellence of the doctrine everywhere they went and the Christian Religion
survived persecutions, misunderstanding, yet survived to bring to the world
good things, in the arts, sciences, and philosophies. We who live many years
after those early men and women are recipients of the truth and we are called
to adhere to the truth, to live the truth as did those early Christians. It is
either Jesus Christ first, it is that we have the power of the Holy Spirit
operating in us so that we demonstrate the gospel wherever we go, whatever we
do, so that all can see that the Christian Religion is not just some other
religion; it is the true religion that has as its foundation a “real” Person
who came as promised and died so that sin may be destroyed. The question for us
is; will we live the life in the truth of the Christian Religion?
Now may the God of Peace Himself
Sanctify you
completely; and may
Your whole spirit, soul, and body be
Preserved blameless
at the coming
Of our Lord Jesus Christ.
2Thessalonians 5:23
Pray To God in Faith
Richard L. Crumb
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