Excuses, Excuses, Apologies, Alleviation

As ye therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord,

 so walk ye in Him: rooted and built up 

in Him, and established in the faith, as ye have 

been taught, abounding therein with thanksgiving. 

Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy 

and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, 

after the rudiments of the world, 

and not after Christ.

Colossians 2:6-8 

     Who is this Jesus who made so many outlandish claims: i.e., you cannot have eternal life unless you believe in Him. You must live this way if you are to have any thought of a blessing from God. What is more: Jesus claimed to be the Son of God, in fact, Jesus claimed to be God. We hear of many healings, and raising people from the dead, from a man who lives more than 2,000 years ago. What is more: Jesus claimed to be the One who would judge the world. It is this Jesus that will either give you everlasting life with Him, or be thrown into the Lake of Fire. And we are to put our faith in Him? Really? Now for us, we are to believe that this Book, the Book we call the Bible is the work of inspiration from God and written by men. Really?

     Those claims are what the world throws at those who claim to be a Christian. The world will say that those claims are unjustified. Really? The world, and liberal Christianity has come together and have adopted a policy of  palliation, that is, to attempt to mitigate and conceal the gravity by excuses, apologies, etc., they want to alleviate the pain that would be caused if they were to follow this One who claimed so much about Himself, Who He Was and Is, because they love the world and all its trappings and do not want anything to change. That is understandable, we do not like change even if that change could be seen to better our lives. Take a person addicted to drugs: they know the pain that comes by this addiction and they can see that not to be addicted is better for themselves, but they love the "high" and the "good feelings" that those drugs give them, so they do not want to change. Oh, let us get this closer: a man, or woman sees another person that they want to have sex with, even though they are married to another knowing that this is wrong, but they want that moment of thrill, that time of intimacy that will make them feel like a man or a woman, and knowing that this is wrong they do not want to change (at least until caught). Those who have taken time to read the Ten Commandments can see how good they are and how good they would be if implemented in their lives, but they love the world more than to change for something they know is better. 

     So, how do liberal Christians get around this difficulty? Reconstruct this Jesus to fit into what they want their Jesus to be even going so far as to reconstruct this historical Jesus. This problem that they attempt to alleviate is a moral and psychological problem. Liberal Christians in many ways, even subtle ways, make excuses that this One, this Man, would think of Himself as the judge of all the earth, and then be accused and put to death, and even then say that by His death He took on the sin of the world. Was this not defeat? Was this not to make Him immoral? Was this not a stain upon His character? To make this all palliative and alleviate they do this by excuses and apologies, to extenuate by covering up the truth. By doing all this the liberal Christians have lost all claim to be truly Christian. 

     Questions: Are you following a man or woman who write books and devotionals, that are doing nothing more than be palliative? Are you following a preacher or teacher that make excuses, in some way or the other by not teaching the "Real Jesus?" Are you one who has those same questions and concerns as was written in this blog? Have you come to have a personal relationship with Jesus or a Jesus that you have personal made for you so that you are not so troubled by His claims? 

     These blogs are all about Jesus and our faith in Him and how we can know that the claims of Jesus are truth and not some man who attempted to bring into this world another religion. The next blog will be about sin, the attitude of Jesus toward sin. 

      REALLY? DO YOU BELIEVE IN THE JESUS OF THE BIBLE?

Blessed is the man that walketh not

    in the counsel of the ungodly, 

nor standeth in the way of sinners,

    no sitteth in the seat of the scornful.

                     Psalm 1:1

It is ok to question: the answers are in the Bible

Richard L. Crumb