I have heard that question asked a number of times, in various ways the past few weeks. It has involved topics ranging from gay marriage, to is there a hell, to issues surrounding justice and the poor, or other religions, to unfortunately, the gut wrenching events in Connecticut. At the risk of being accused of dodging the question, I would say that before you can get to these issues, you have to start at the heart of what Christ’s followers have taught from the very beginning.
It was called the Good News. You see, if you don’t start there, you are putting the cart before the horse. The Gospel (good news) is the central tenet of the faith, the seed from which our spiritual fruit grows. It is the source of our ethics and the foundational truth of our creeds. Without it, you may have an ethical system, a religious organization, but you no longer have the Christian faith as it was understood by Jesus, his earliest followers or historic Christianity as it has been understood for some 2,000 years. There are any number of ways to unpack it, but I appreciate the way Tim Keller, a pastor, has explained it. When Jesus said he was the “way, the truth and the light” he was saying to a world that had up until then put its faith in 2 main ways to live life, either self satisfaction (hedonism or irreligion) or self righteousness (legalism or religion), but that Jesus had come to bring a third way, the Gospel way.
The Signs of the Times and the End of the Age 3 Now as He sat on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to Him privately, saying, “Tell us, when will these things be? And what will be the sign of Your coming, and of the end of the age?”
4 And Jesus answered and said to them: “Take heed that no one deceives you. 5 For many will come in My name, saying, ‘I am the Christ,’ and will deceive many. 6 And you will hear of wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not troubled; for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet. 7 For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. And there will be famines, pestilences, and earthquakes in various places. 8 All these are the beginning of sorrows.
9 “Then they will deliver you up to tribulation and kill you, and you will be hated by all nations for My name’s sake. 10 And then many will be offended, will betray one another, and will hate one another. 11 Then many false prophets will rise up and deceive many. 12 And because lawlessness will abound, the love of many will grow cold. 13 But he who endures to the end shall be saved. 14 And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in all the world as a witness to all the nations, and then the end will come.
In a horrific attack that’s prompting fears of terrorism, at least 60 people are feared dead in Nice, France, after a truck plowed into a crowd celebrating a national holiday Thursday evening, according to French TV channel BFM-TV. Read more at
when the muslims are out numbered they go along with the law of that land they are in till those numbers change.then it is muslims that will go with what is tought in the koran.
stringman Forum Posts (7,049)
RE: Say Anything