Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that entereth
not by the door into the sheepfold, but climbeth
up come other way, the same is a thief and a robber.
But he that entereth in by the door is the
shepherd of the sheep. to him the porter openeth;
and the sheep bear His voice: and He calleth
His own sheep by name, and leadeth them out.
And when He putteth forth His own sheep,
He goeth before them, and the sheep follow Him
for they know they know His voice. And a stranger
will they not follow, but will flee from him:
for they know not the voice of strangers.
John 10:1-5
Yesterday I was gone to have another 6 month checkup in Palo Alto, a 5 hour one way trip from my home. This I must do for the next five years. So no blog, but much time to think. Oh! So far no sign of the Melanoma and no signs in my neck lymph nodes. Next Monday I go for a consult with my doctor who remove the large lipoma from my back and neck area and will find out if they is liposarcoma a cancer that is associated with some lipomas. Whatever the case: I will deal with it for my trust in in God who has promised me to be with Him forever upon my death. Until then: I enjoy life, and I will continue to give aid to those who are honestly seeking to be Authentic Christians.
How can a person know Jesus? How can a person be assured that what they know is Authentic Christianity? For Liberal Christians they believe that they can become acquainted with God "only" through Jesus. Does this not sound right? It does have the appearance of authenticity. Yet Jesus Himself plainly recognized the validity of other ways of knowing God, and has shown us what we are to reject, those things, those other ways, yet we must understand that Jesus spoke of other things, other ways and those ways laid at the very foundation, the center of Jesus' life. How did Jesus do this? Well... Jesus taught us about God's hand in nature for He spoke of the lilies of the field that they revealed to Him the weaving of God. Jesus found God in moral law: the law that is written upon the hearts of men and that law was and is God's law, a law that revealed His righteousness. Jesus found that God was revealed in Scripture. Jesus showed this by His many uses of the Psalms and to say that such revelation of God is or was by Him invalid, or useless for us today, is to despise the things that lay closest to the mind and heart of Jesus.
To say that Jesus can only be the way to know God they they are denying all that Jesus revealed to us about God, and they deny the real knowledge of God.This is to say that the idea of God is independent of Jesus, This ascription of deity to Jesus has no meaning if when we say "Jesus is God," if we do not come to know the word "God" that has an antecedent meaning attached to it. If you do not know "God" and all that that word means, then to say Jesus is God is to say that which has no basis, no real meaning. We must remember this: Jesus said: "No man hath seen God at any time: the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hat declared Him" (John 1:18)."He that is of God heareth God's words: Ye therefore hear them not, because you are not of God" (John 8:45). What John is telling us is that the words of Jesus does not mean that men cannot know God only that a man who has not come to believe in God, in Jesus Christ has attached another meaning to that word that a person can come merely acknowledging the character of Jesus. This is not correct for Jesus spoke to His disciples already had a idea, a very definite conception of God and presupposed in all that Jesus said the supremacy of God. The disciples, and we too should not just have a knowledge of God, of Jesus, but to have an intimate, persona contact and this comes only through an intercourse with Jesus. Jesus revealed in an most intimate way the character of God and this revelation has true significance only on the basis of both of the Old Testament heritage and of the teachings of Jesus. Let us be rational creatures, to have a rational theism, that the knowledge of God, the Supreme Person, the Creator, the Ruler of the world is at the very root, the very basis, the foundation of Christianity.
In the next blogs I will expand this thought about rational Christianity so as not to confuse you with rationalism.
Keep silence before Me, O islands;
and let the people renew their
strength: let them come near;
then let them speak; let us
come near together to judgment.
Isaiah 41:1
Are you being led by a stranger? Or the true Shepherd?
Richard L. Crumb
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