Interactive Gospel
- Two Second Summary -
by Paul Hazelden
1. Summary
Jesus is Lord - absolute ruler of the universe - and this truth
must change your life.
- I'll go along with that
- Please explain further
- I object to what you've said
- What are the alternatives?
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2. Further Details
By 'Jesus', we mean the historic man who was born in Palestine
around two thousand years ago, who exercised a short public
ministry of teaching and doing good to people, and who died on a
Roman cross.
By 'Lord', we mean that Jesus had been placed in the position
of absolute authority over everyone and everything in the
universe. Currently, His rule is not seen, as many
creatures are in rebellion against Him, but one day He will defeat
all those who oppose Him, and He will rule over all those who
accept Him as their master.
This truth must change your life, because you have to make a
choice: either oppose Jesus, or submit to Him and follow Him.
His claim is all-embracing, so only those two positions
will be, in the final analysis, possible.
This truth must change your life for a second reason, too.
Because Jesus was really a human being like us, the life He
lived opens up for us the possibility that we, too, can live a
different kind of life. If we follow Him, He gives us His
Spirit, to guide us and empower us - to enable us to live the life
we want to live.
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3. Objections
There are all kinds of objections people raise. Apart
from the alternative ideas people put forward, there are a few
common reactions.
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This objection can be expressed in a number of different ways:
by reference to science, or the modern world, to various schools
of philosophy, or multiple worldviews.
However it is expressed, the basic content is the same, and the
basic response is the same, too. Truth can never be
outdated. Two plus two always was four, and always will be
four.
People have come up with all kinds of ideas and views in which
the Christian message has no place or relevance. But they
would only invalidate the Christian message if they could be shown
to be true themselves. This can't be done.
Not only can't it be done, but people are increasingly seeing
these 'modern' views as being inadequate as a
foundation on which to base your life. The Christian faith
has stood the test of time, not only in terms of its message, but
also its philosophical underpinning: the Christian view of the
world enables people to make sense of the world, and enables us to
live meaningful lives in the world. In practical terms - it
works. Whether you accept the truth of the Christian
message or not.
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If the previous object is the 'scientific' objection, this is
the 'new age' objection. Or, if you prefer, the previous
objection is the 'modern' objection, and this one the 'postmodern'
objection.
There are some stories, some messages, to which this is a
reasonable response. But the Christian message is not one
of them. The Christian message is one of a universal truth
- it claims to be the one great universal truth of all time.
You may not like the message, but of all the messages in the
world, this one is either true for all people, or it is not true
at all.
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4. Alternatives
There are three main alternatives I hear people suggesting.
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A few people still put this idea forward, but it is way past
its sell-by date. Using any normal basis for historical
investigation, you have to conclude that the person who has had
greater impact on human history than any other - he really did
exist.
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Some people will accept that Jesus really existed, but claim
that we cannot know anything for sure about him, because we cannot
trust the Gospel records.
But, again, there is no historical basis for discounting the
historic records we have. The documentary evidence for
their accurate transmission and preservation is overwhelming.
And the suggestion that the four Gospels are works of fiction
is so far-fetched that it would need a major essay just to
summarise the problems it throws up! But, just for
starters:
- Fiction had not been invented at the time.
- Inventing five stories (the four Gospels and Acts)
that work together the way they do, would be an act of genius
unrivalled in the history of art.
- No author of fiction has ever been able to solve the problem of representing
goodness in a believable (non-vomit-inducing!) way - except the
writers of the four Gospels.
- If it is fiction, the writer (or writers?) of the Gospels
produced the four greatest novels of all time, plus a convincing
sequel in Acts, yet remained totally unknown, and never wrote
anything else.
- Our writer or writers of fiction somehow convinced people
living at the time when they composed these works that these
imaginary stories were true, that this person really had lived,
and that they should suffer horrible deaths for the sake of this
imaginary person.
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Some people who accept that the Biblical record is essentially true
also think that the church through the centuries has
consistently misunderstood and misrepresented the person and
message of its founder.
These people fall into two very distinct groups: those who
accept the full range of the Bible's teaching about Jesus, and
those who wish to 'correct' parts while holding on to other parts.
The distinction is generally between those who accept the Divinity
of Jesus and those who deny it, but still claim to respect Him
and follow His teachings.
These folk often claim that Jesus was some kind of 'spiritual
master' or 'advanced soul' - and they then go on to explain what
Jesus was 'really' teaching. Interestingly, they rarely go on to
explain what He was 'really' doing. Of course, it always turns out
that the core of the message Jesus taught was exactly the same as the
message of the author or teacher making this claim.
There are all kinds of alternative images of Jesus, presented
by people who are not Christians. But history shows, time
and time again, that when people examine the historic records we
have preserved for us, they discover faith in the same Jesus that
other Christians have worshipped and followed through the
centuries. The differences arise when people choose to
ignore some aspects of the record, not when they gain deeper
insights into the original texts.
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