Hope In the Word Christian Ministries International HOPE TRAINING CENTERIntroduction to Theology Class

24 September 2010

Ptr. BRIAN TRACY L. DOMINGUEZ, Elder

Christianity is not a belief about something, it is a belief in someone, namely, JESUS CHRIST, who came that we might have, now and forever, eternal life.

In the NT God meets us – that is, comes to save us – in Jesus of Nazareth who, as to His “person,” was both human and divine:

Human so that we can identify with Him (“one like us”) and

Divine because only God can save us.

Some put more emphasis on Jesus’ humanity, others of his divinity.

Jesus was born of a woman (Virgin Mary); was tested in the wilderness; ate with friends and sinners and went to weddings; preached to the crowds and debated the Pharisees; was often weary and sorrowful, and at times even angry; and suffered, died and was buried.

Jesus was conceived by the Holy Spirit (thus by God Himself); performed miracles, which pointed to His divinity; claimed “oneness” with God (John 10:30); and assumed attributes of God, such as forgiving sin (Mark 2:5).

This is the supreme paradox of Christianity:

God became human while, at the same time, remaining God.

How was this possible – how did “The Word of God became flesh (Jesus) and live among us (John 1:14)?

Matthew and Luke tell us that it occurred through the agency or power of the Holy Spirit.

The empty tomb, which does not prove the resurrection but does explain it.

If the Jews had produced Jesus’ body it would have put an end to his followers’ claim that he had risen from the dead.

Further, in the 1st century AD, it was customary to venerate the tombs of revered leaders.

There is no evidence that this was ever the case with Jesus’ tomb.

Why? Because it was EMPTY!

Jesus’ numerous reported appearances, which recorded in the Gospels and elsewhere in the NT (I Cor. 15:5 – 8).

These testimonies were written because they were TRUE!

No one would have taken time or gone to the expense writing about a dead peasant from a no-name village in Galilee.

The changed lives of the disciples, who came out hiding to preach the risen Christ – and many were martyred (for almost 300 years since Jesus ascended to heaven) for doing so.

No one willingly dies (as St. Stephen, St. James, St. Peter, St. Paul and million others) for something they know false!

In a pagan (Roman Empire) and hostile (Jews) environment, a church whose message was that God had raised Jesus from the dead! Acts 2:24

The dramatic conversion of St. Paul, who met the risen Christ on the road to Damascus and changed, overnight, from the bitterest foe (enemy) of Christianity to its greatest champion on the propagation of faith in all imaginable and unimaginable perils and circumstances.

IN CONCLUSION…