What we preach!

What we preach?

The Gospel of Salvation

In terms of the Christian’s preaching, teaching and the Christian Theology, we establish the basic and firm foundation of preaching/teaching of the Christian gospel in a proclamation with its theological root and foundation in the Christian faith and principles. We read in Acts 4:10-12 "let it be known to you all, and to all the people of Israel, that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead, by Him this man stands here before you whole. This is the 'stone which was rejected by you builders, which has become the chief cornerstone.' Nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved." The essence, root and message of the Christian’s Theology is Christ as a sacrifice in the fulfillment of purpose that was in Him before the world began. The apostle declares in Acts 5:30-31 "The God of our fathers raised up Jesus whom you murdered by hanging on a tree. Him God has exalted to His right hand to be Prince and Savior, to give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins." Again Matthew 1:21 say “And she shall bring forth a son and thou call His Jesus for He shall save His people from their sins.” Acts 16:31 reads “So they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved, you and your household."  Reading in Acts 19:4 Then Paul said, "John indeed baptized with a baptism of repentance, saying to the people that they should believe on Him who would come after him, that is, on Christ Jesus." Again, the preaching/teaching is clear from Apostle and others, it is the gospel of the ‘gospel of the Kingdom.’ The scriptures read in Acts 28:30-31 Then Paul dwelt two whole years in his own rented house, and received all who came to him, preaching the kingdom of God and teaching the things which concern the Lord Jesus Christ with all confidence, no one forbidding him. Paul taught Christian Theology. He preaches Christian Theology and explains his position in this manner in 1 Corinthians 1:22-24 For the Jews request a sign, and Greeks seek after wisdom; but we preach Christ crucified, to the Jews a stumbling block and to the Greeks foolishness, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. And after some days, when Felix came with his wife Drusilla, who was Jewish, he sent for Paul and heard him concerning the faith in Christ (Acts 24:24). Then Paul said, "John indeed baptized with a baptism of repentance, saying to the people that they should believe on Him who would come after him, that is, on Christ Jesus" (Acts 19:4). The Apostle boldly explains in Acts of the Apostles chapter 17:30-31 "Truly, these times of ignorance God overlooked, but now commands all men everywhere to repent, because He has appointed a day on which He will judge the world in righteousness by the Man whom He has ordained. He has given assurance of this to all by raising Him from the dead." “And when they had preached the gospel to that city and made many disciples, they returned to Lystra, Iconium, and Antioch, strengthening the souls of the disciples, exhorting them to continue in the faith, and saying, "We must through many tribulations enter the kingdom of God" (Acts 14:21-22). The Apostle says in Acts 13:32-33 "And we declare to you glad tidings; that promise which was made to the fathers. God has fulfilled this for us their children, in that He has raised up Jesus." In Acts 8:5 the bible says “Then Philip went down to the city of Samaria and preached Christ to them.”

Is Christian Theology preached today as the Apostles preached and taught in the first century?

Today, we must admit we do not hear often sermons about Jesus and His power over sin and death in today’s world. Perhaps this takes place within many of our churches because often the churches we attend and the ministers in the pulpit don’t consider the priority of Christ’s gospel but often rather a priority upholding their denomination. This also happens sometime in many mainstream churches. In terms of Christ’s presentation in many of ministries, there are an occasional parable or saying of Christ or a miracle- healing work of Jesus that may be preached in a series of church meetings, but there are not an abundant amount of sermons and courses of study about Jesus as the center of Christianity. Nor are there often-thorough presentations on Christ Theology. At other times there are exception when Christmas season are honored or during a Holy Week in some religious faiths, even then there may be few times Christ emphasis is dominant, and of course occasionally there may be certain periods during other church ministries’ festivals, which celebrate Christ divine identity as the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. But again, hardly ever in today’s preaching is heard constantly a sermon about what Jesus is as a historical figure, or about His purpose as to the plan of God and His Kingdom upon the earth. The questions of how Christ related to the society of his own time and the eternal effects His Word had upon that society is understood in today’s preaching. Jesus Christ became God in the flesh; in Jesus we then have a sure picture of the historical life of God in the flesh of men and a disclosure about His Word among men and women. Paul’s had recognition that "we no longer know Jesus according to the flesh" but we should know Him after the spirit; this should not be construed to mean that Jesus’ historical life, as a man in the earth is irrelevant. Rather, we should come to know in Christ a total theology of Him. We often times lack what this knowledge is because neither the popular image of Jesus nor the dominant scholarly image learned of Christ in seminary and Bible colleges provides a clear view and spiritual understanding of the historical Jesus suitable for denominational or mainstream preaching. The popular image (or the most widely held image) most times identity Jesus and His purpose with great clarity as the only begotten Son of God, whose purpose was to die for the sins of the world. Christians and non-Christians often share this same image, drawn from the Gospels and church creeds, carried through out the world’s history especially that of the West. We in the western world have nurtured this truth by our culture’s celebrations of Christmas and Easter. Christians are those who believe the image to be true, while non-Christians are those who do not believe it to be true. This book was largely written to those who accept these facts as truth and written as a document to non-believers to consider the claims of the Christian Faith.

It is a fact that this popular image of who and what Jesus is continues to grow, live and thrive among fundamentalist, most foundational and conservative preaching, but for those of us learned and schooled in mainstream Bible colleges, seminaries or divinity schools, this image seems to be dying or have died as part of the modern day educational process of liberal minds toward Christianity. There must be a revival in true Christian Theology as based on the New Testament doctrines and principles, if not before or after our training. We must learn that the popular image of Christian Theology today does not correspond with what Jesus is (was) and what He is like as a figure of history. Rather, we are made to see that the popular portrait came about by projecting the church’s secular and modern beliefs and its images and carnal understanding dated back into the church’s history itself. We are led to accept this understanding with a lack of spiritual depth and in close observation of our learning Jesus did not speak as he does in John’s Gospel; that even the synoptic Gospels are a complex mixture of historical memory or suggestion given us in a modern age and a kind post-Easter interpretation; that the image of Jesus as one who deliberately gave his life for the sins of the world is the product of the church’s sacrificial theology; and that Jesus probably did not proclaim his own exalted identity, or even think of himself in such terms.

In brief, we must come to see that the true image of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ is (was) the product of Christian theology and Christian popular culture of all times. Looking at the image of Jesus as one that proclaimed his identity in the most exalted terms known to Judaism, who asked his hearers to believe his claims, and whose purpose was to die for our sins is the bottom line of Christian Theology. Christian Theology in it purest form is about man’s salvation. In man’s self he died, he need to be reborn and maintain the rebirth. This is the purest message of Christian Theology.

We understand the scholarly and educated understanding of Jesus that emerged from the fires of historical examination and criticism was Jesus of the prophets who believed that the final message and judgment of Christ was coming in the generations to come. When we examine the writing of Albert Schweitzer around the turn of the century, and other versions of similar writers (Rudolf Bultmann) who produced a conviction concerning Jesus’ and His coming end; these convictions was central to their sense of who Christ was and what his mission was. Christ himself was conscious of being "the eschatological prophet" (the prophet pronouncing the end of all things upon the earth); Christian Theology carries a line throughout its teaching that the imminent end of the world is upon humanity; Christ historical purpose was to warn his hearers to repent before it was too late and be invite to ground their existence in God, for the world was soon to come to an end and pass away. We face in Christian Theology this view and it does yield powerful existential insights that should readily be made into subjects of Christian preaching and teaching. Often holding just the image of the historical Jesus, it is very difficult to incorporate this teaching into the life of the church. According to Jesus himself, it can become a mistaken error for a preacher to omit preaching the end of all things upon this planet earth; Christ was not wrong about the most central convictions, which animated his mission. We must realize as Christians it is difficult to promote and preach these tenets of the faith without a forming conviction in a sermon. As a Preacher, there must be a conviction in delivery of the message, thus inducing the hearers to convictions of faith in Christ, His message and mission. Our age have become one with little or very limit compelling imaginations about Christ. Again, often our image is very weak in the depth of Christ’s Theology.

Lessons learned in Christian Theology

    First, Jesus was vividly in touch with the world of Spirit. Whatever else Christ was, he was a "holy man, sent of God" (or better yet God in human form). When I used the word "holy" here, it is not an adjective pointing to righteousness or purity, but is used in the sense made famous by Rudolf Otto: as a noun, pointing to the numinous, the mysterium tremendum, the awesome reality and power at the heart of existence. Jesus Christ (was) is a holy man; a person who in being was Holy and who experienced the holy nature embody in Him from all creation, who (was) and is in reality and experientially in contact with the power of another realm, the power of the Spirit. Christ is Divine. He resides in the Kingdom realm of God. When we consider this placement of Christ, there is no known culture of any religion known or delegates of any faith realm of any teaching of religious understanding or belief equal to such. Christ stands categorical all by Himself. In this characterization, it places Christian Theology in a supreme place of teaching and perception. Present day and past mystics and healers can’t come near Him or His theology.

We preach Christian Theology

Another feature of the gospel preach in Christian Theology (in the theology of the historical Jesus which should significantly impact the life of the church today), is it relationship to the society of all times. Jesus was deeply involved in the historical life of his own people when He walked upon the earth. Specifically, he saw them headed on a course toward historic catastrophe, flowing out of their loyalties and blindness to a dead religion; he called his hearers to a radically change and accept a different understanding of what faithfulness and righteousness’ to God meant, an understanding which was to be embodied in the life of a new way of thinking, living; forming a new and different community in history. Christian Theology is transforming and changes. It is a life change.

Jesus Christ connection to the life of his own time can be seen in his roles as prophet and spiritual renewal. The Christian movement He founded was such a movement. We emphasized in this document as the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ founded a renewal movement within Judaism, which emerged and completed and competed with other Jewish renewal movement’s contemporaries of the time. Christ founded Christian Theology and demanded an allegiance to His teachings. Many had different visions of what the people of God should be, each with different historical consequences. Jesus sharply denounced the path on which the (His) people had embarked, including the ways advocated by the other renewal movements. He warned of catastrophic consequences war, the destruction of Jerusalem and of the Temple if their blindness and ways of rebellion continued from His teaching. Jesus’ connection to the historical crisis of his time was obscured throughout much of this century by the portrait of Him as the eschatological prophet of doom by many. Jesus Christ stands as the answer to a lost world. In this role, Christ is not be seen or concerned only in a historical light. The crisis of mankind is an announced to man that the end of the world is not only an historical event or crisis, but it is the judgment and end of sin in the universe. We preach Christ realizing it to that of the eschatological theology and understanding of Jesus’ message. That these view was founded on the "coming Son of man" sayings as authentic to Jesus only; yet as a New Testament theologian and scholar, I now routinely and correctly accept that the "second coming of the Son of man" is a two-fold event when it comes to Jesus Christ as taught in pure Christian Theology.

Second Coming of Christ

The early church lived and placed much emphasis upon the reign of Christ. They believed in Christ overthrow of evil powers (those evil powers they faced in the Roman Empire) and they longed for the second coming of Christ. The facts of Christ second coming are seen from Genesis to Revelation. Christ second coming is talked about more in the Old and New Testament in the bible than His first coming. His coming is referred to often in direct statements, and many times in a figure, type, symbol, or in illustrations and parables. Christ’s coming were spoken in John 14:3; Acts 3:19 to 21; I Thessalonians 4:16, 17; Hebrews 9:29; Philippians 3:20, 21 and numerous passages throughout the Old and New Testament. Several facts must be made clear about Christ second coming.

Christ second coming will be visible. Christ will come again in the same manner as He went away (Acts 1:11). Everyone, the church and the world will see Jesus Christ! Christ will come in what we call the Rapture and then He will come in what we call the Revelation (Matthew 24:26,27; Hebrews 9:28; Revelation 1:7). The reference, we will see Him, is accurate. We see His visible, tangible and with our very eyes. In Matthew 26:64, the bible says, “Ye shall see the Son of Man coming on the clouds. There is a clear visible return of our Lord. As Christ ascension was a literal fact seen by many and witness in a physical sense, so shall Christ second coming be a literal fact witness by mankind.

·                     Christ will be seen bodily. That is, He is to come in the same manner as He went away. He left in a literal body, the same body He was crucified in, raised from the dead, transformed and changed into a heavenly and glorious body, yet real enough to be touched, handled. A body He ate a piece of broiled fish, and honey. We must understand that Christ came in His first coming and became so veil with our humanity that even in His incarnation, He is united with our humanity in deity- though He is the resurrected Savior seated as the Mediator between God and man, the man Jesus Christ is coming again in visible form (bodily) as the Son of Man” (Matthew 16:27; Acts 1:11; I Timothy 2:5).

·                     Christ coming will be sudden, glorious and in two fold. Jesus Christ will come as a thief in the night. He will come without warning, unannounced, suddenly and unexpectedly. The world at large will be shocked. Reading of Christ sudden return can be found in 1 Thessalonians 5:2,3; St. Luke 21:34,35; St. Matthew 24:37 to 35 all indicates His sudden appearances. In revelation 22:7,12, 20, the Greek word translated “quickly” “tachu” from the Greek gives the meaning of Christ return as more than simply without delay or soon return; but its meaning is the urgency, a sudden and speedy event. This should cause us to literally shake in our shoes when we consider how near the coming of the Lord is. Christ coming will be glorious. It will have the splendor of heaven. “He will come in great power and great glory with the glory of His Father and the holy angels” (St. Matthew 16:27; 24:30; Mark 8:38; II Thessalonians 1:7,8).

·                     Christ twofold Coming:

·                     There will be a time lap in Christ coming. This is called “the revelation.” The coming will be in two stages.

·                     The first stage of His’ coming will be the Rapture. In this stage, Jesus Christ comes and stops in the mid-air, all saved, believers in Him are caught up to meet Him in the air (1 Thessalonians 4:13to 17). In this stage, there are two important events to take place; one, the resurrection of dead in Christ and the changing or transformation of their bodies along with the living saints; they both shall be changed. Second, after the change, they all are caught up together (raptures) to meet the Lord in the air.

·                     The second stage will be the Revelation. Christ will come in the second stage to the earth (first stage He stops in the mid-air). In this stage, Christ comes to the earth and His saints come with Him (the ones who were previously caught with Him) (II Thessalonians 1:7-9; chapter 2:7,8; Colossians 3:4). This stage of Christ coming indicates a time of preparatory for the millennial reign of His Kingdom upon the earth. It will be a time of Judgment and the establishment of His Kingdom. We must make clear that the two stage of Christ coming is twofold and not two comings. There are two stages in the one coming. There is only one great event. In the first stage, Christ comes as the “Morning Star” (Revelation 22:16) and in the second stage, He come as the “Sun of Righteousness” (Malachi 4:1,2). In this first stage, Christ comes and stops in the mid-air (II Thessalonians 4:17), but in the second, He descends upon the Mount of Olives (Zechariah 14:3,4). In the first stage, Christ comes to receive His bride unto Himself (John 14:3); but in the second, He comes as the loin of tribe of Judah to receive Israel in repentance (Zechariah 12:10). The first stage is called the “gathering together unto Him” (II Thessalonians 2:1); the second is called the “revelation of Jesus from heaven” (II Thessalonians 1:7).

Preaching the Eschatological Prophet’s coming is vital in these times and today’s world

For the most part, the undermining facts of Christ’s return to the earth goes unnoticed; the portrait of Jesus as past Prophet remains as aging is often viewed as an end to a person life upon this planet. Even more challenging is the foundational teaching of Christ being undermined. But if the crisis of our present world is not as Jesus announced and there is not the imminent end of the world, what was it?  Is it just a coming historical catastrophe, probably not yet inevitable, which would result from the combination in Christ’s day of Rome’s imperial needs and insensitivity with the cultural direction of his own people (the Jews)? Jesus Christ in His day upon the earth was considered as an Old Testament prophet (to whom he was compared by his contemporaries), criticized the present path and threatened destruction if it did not change. As a prophet and renewal movement founder, Jesus called his hearers into "an alternative life styles, heart changes with world and community consciousness.” The marks of Christ’s theology as a founder and Savior of a movement stand out sharply against the background of his time. His acceptance of the outcaste’s people, the racial neglected was a radical act; this again pointed to an identity defined by one’s relationship to God rather than by Christ cultural standards of performance with His people (the Jews). CHRIST STOOD ABOVE HUMANITY. He proclaimed the way of peace instead of war, both in his teaching and in the deliberately dramatic manner in which he entered Jerusalem on an animal that symbolized peace rather than war, an action very much in the tradition of prophetic acts in the Old Testament. The Jesus movement was AND PRESENTLY IS the "peace party" for our century. Jesus’ made it clear that His intention were the transformation of people in the face of a historical crisis and change. Jesus Christ came to give His life in substituted for different and new blueprint for the life of all men and their the communities: Jesus taught "Be compassionate as your heavenly father is compassionate" (Luke 6:36); These directives and more are taught in His theology and is intended for the earthly life of the people of God everywhere.

Christian Theology for our times

Christ focus in His’ thought and teaching are potent themes for our own times. They invite us to take very seriously the two central presuppositions of the Jewish-Christian tradition.

·                                             First, let us realize and accept there is a dimension or spiritual realm of reality above, beyond (and beneath if you will) the visible world of our ordinary experience, a dimension of life charged with power, whose ultimate quality is love and compassion for humanity.

·                                             Second, the true and real fruits of a life and living are in accord with the Spirit and are to be embodied not only within physical, but also in the life of spiritual things in the Kingdom of God. In brief, God cares about the shape and texture of spiritual self and gives us His’ Word and Spirit to live our lives out upon this planet to His will and Plan. Our duty is "give it over to Him in service and sacrifice." Yet these focuses of Christ are also threatening to us. The first threatens our sense of normalcy. What if it is true, as Huston Smith argues, that the world of our ordinary experience is but one level of reality, and that we are at all times surrounded by other dimensions of reality which we commonly do not experience? (Forgotten Truth: The Primordial Tradition [Harper & Row, 1976], Huston Smith speaks of the multidimensional model of reality and the self which he finds to be virtually a cultural universal and very real in the man humanity, stands against an experience of humankind in the spirit. This view challenges the practical atheism against our culture and church in these modern times. Christian Theology claims that there really is a realm of Spirit that is discerning, disconcerting with heavenly exciting and based in Christ Jesus. The second thought given threatens our comfort within contemporary culture we live in this world. The historical Jesus, with his call to counter this present world and its world’s flow and holding the counter - consciousness (including consciousness of another realm in the spirit world), challenges the central values of contemporary American culture which often expresses a roots in materialism, money, fame, popularity and carnality. Increasingly, in this modern age, our understanding of reality is one-dimensional, even within the church; our quest for fulfillment seeks satisfaction through greater consumption, flesh and human satisfaction; our security rests in human achievements, knowledge, nuclear weapons; our love for things have blinded us and our idolatry are visible in our willingness to blow up the world, if need be, to preserve our way of life for things. We are called to become a church in a culture whose values are largely alien to the Christian message, to be once again the church of another century, another world with another gospel.

What we preach now lies in images of Jesus who gave the church the message and gospel of His Kingdom. Can we give contentment to our loyalty to Him with seemly so little means? But, looking over our shoulders into the first century, we see a church battling similar experiences. As it were with those men and women in that century, loyalty becomes belief in the historical Jesus Christ and the conviction; commitment with all truthfulness to Christ words and statements about Him and that world as recorded in the Gospels; it was then as now in adverse and challenging times but those believers became their comfort in Christ’s theology.

The absence of Jesus Christ is the fruit of today’s theological education, often leaving us with no clear notion of what it means to take Jesus seriously, no notion of what loyalty might entail, no clear path for the life of discipleship in Christ. We have learned in this generation how to cerebrate Christ without Christ; how to worship without Christ’s Spirit: how to have church without the anointing. How horrible is our flight without the true Lord, the presence and image of Jesus Christ as a man of Spirit, deeply involved in the historical crisis of his own time? Christ is more historically adequate than ever, His gospel as potent than ever for a scholarly and educated society. Jesus Christ can shape the future safely through a true Christian theological church’s discipleship today. Rooted in the theology of the Kingdom of God, Christian theology is deeply a Kingdom’s teaching to complete a humanity destiny for a mis-guided age?