I read a book called ReJesus by Michael Frost and Alan Hirsch and finished reading it about a week ago. It got me asking some questions and most professing Christians I have asked cannot give me very good answers. And most of the Christians I asked go to my school, a Christian college. So, the following are some questions it got me asking. Who was Jesus? I don't mean that as in if he was the messiah or not or anything like that. I mean what was he like? What does it mean to be a Christian? How does our view of Jesus affect every other area in our theology? How does it connect with our missiology and ecclesiology? Is Jesus the Word or is the Bible and what in the Bible supports that? What would Jesus have to say with the way we currently do things in our churches, assuming we go to one? Do we interpret the Bible or do we let it interpret us?

Woah, slow down. That's a bit hard to read, but they're good questions. Can I just warn you now that if you ask those questions here, you might find some answers you don't like. That doesn't mean they aren't good answers, just that they may not be the traditional response. Having said that, you don't look like you're looking for a typical response. So let the fun stuff start! Who was Jesus? Well, he was a Jew. That's the first thing Christians tend to skip over. He would have looked, dressed and acted like a Jew. Mind you, he wasn't like the Pharisees, but he was still a Jew in both heritage and religion. What does it mean to be a Christian.. that's a little harder. I think it means total surrender. Giving your best for G-d and letting Him take what He will. I also think that I'm terrible at it, but He forgives me anyway. It's a lot more complicated and a lot more simple than that, but words.. *shrug* How does our view of Jesus affect every other area in our theology? Ooh. That's a rully interesting one.It's hard to be sure right now, because I'm not sure what my views are exactly. I think.. It does affect things quite a bit, but I couldn't tell you how, just that it does With our whatiology? Ooohh.. both? Yeshua (Jesus) is the Living Word and the Bible is the written word? I'm not sure exactly, but I can't see why both can't be the Word. What would Jesus have to say about our churches. Heh. Depends on the church I think. In general, I *personally* think all churches are screwing up, but that's to be expected. They're made up of people. Some are doing a better job of screwing up than others. I don't actively go to church, so no examples from me, sorry. Probably both. It is human nature to view factual information through the lense of our own preconceptions or ideas. Science 101.

These are some very basic, fundamental questions that should be answered by any and all who profess Christ. Acutally, I am going to wait until I get to work tomorrow to post a document that I just wrote that will adress some of this. I would venture to guess, though, that most Christians "could" answer these questions, but they also know what follow-up questions are to come... Ones like: Then why doesn't the Church do their part? (We could do an entire forum on ecclesiology..LOL!) The basic, short, very short answer is that Jesus Christ lived a completely selfless life, He came for selfless reasons, and He lived entirely for "others." Jesus Christ loved others. The Church is called to love others, and we are called to love others. However, like I said I just did a document on a similar topic that I will address many of these issues in. These are good questions that deserve good answers. It is sad that many "Christians" can't or won't answer them. What we need is a [b]C[/b]hurch of Christ followers, not a church (lower-case) full of Christians. -Matt Gaiser

Being a Christian is simple... it means to be like Christ. To be like Christ is to love others, and live for others. :laugh: Yeah... simple -Matt

Jesus was also a rabbi. The rabbi back in his time was a very well-respected figure. But in this, he goes against customs of his day. Jewish children were put through a school that taught them the Torah. Boys and girls, around the ages of 3 or 4, maybe 5, were put into this. All the girls would not be allowed to continue after this. All boys who did not do so well were also sent back to their families. Girls would learn how to do things around the house while boys would start learning their family trade. All the other boys would continue on to the second level of their education. All boys who failed went back to learn the family trade and boys who passed went to the third level. Same thing happens at the third level. All of them who pass this then go to something similar to a career fair by modern standards. Rabbis would come to this and the students would come to ask to become their disciples. The rabbis would then test their knowledge by asking them a few questions. If they passed this test, the rabbi would say, "Come, follow me." If they failed, they were sent back to their families to learn the family trade. Jesus defied this by going to the "rejects", a few fishermen. Everything got reversed. Read Mark and see how he is shown to be a prophet. Prophets were a little bit on the weird side and Jesus was definitley in that category. He was a deviant because he went against all religion. Christianity, if it is what Jesus meant it to be, should not be a religion. It should be an anti-religion. Religion focuses on what you do to please God. Anti-religion is based on love and trust. But don't think that this love is always pleasant. It becomes tough love quite often. And I'm sure Jesus' disciples saw their fair share of that.

I was talking with some people here last night while I was getting something to eat and one of them made a good point. Too often when people talk about Jesus and what he would do if he was here now, they push for changes, even if they don't totally line up with scripture. When we look at what Jesus did, he did not push for change. He pushed for truth. Change happens as a result of the truth. What do you think about that?

I think that is why Jesus was a better 'messiah' than Obama. . .

[b]Silent_K wrote:[/b] [quote]I think that is why Jesus was a better 'messiah' than Obama. . .[/quote] I should have known someone would say something like that. . . .

[b]lonikelam wrote:[/b] [quote][b]Silent_K wrote:[/b] [quote]I think that is why Jesus was a better 'messiah' than Obama. . .[/quote] I should have known someone would say something like that. . . .[/quote] Sorry, I couldn't resist. :P