Revelation GOD Christians believe theres a real God

Revelation

GOD Christians believe there’s a real God who made the world creation

GOD How could a real God who is a spirit (i. e. no physical body) and can’t be seen let human beings know he actually exists?

GOD revelation creation

The heavens keep telling the wonders of God, and the skies declare what he has done… They don’t speak a word, and there is never the sound of a voice. Yet their message reaches all the earth, and it travels around the world. Psalm 19: 1, 3 -4 (CEV)

God’s eternal power and character can’t be seen. But from the beginning of creation, God has shown what these are like by all he has made… Romans 1: 20 (CEV)

= general revelation stuff God shows us that everyone can see easily

But there’s lots of bad stuff in the world too…

If all we have is general revelation it’s going to be really hard to figure out who God is and what he’s really like. . . we need more information!

special revelation stuff we can’t work out for ourselves… God has to actually tell/show us more clearly

Christians also believe that the clearest, most complete way God has revealed himself to us is in his son JESUS

i l ly ? e k s ’ t a h W l Whichrea s Jesus? u s Je

EP Sanders: The Historical Figure of Jesus (1993) What the majority of contemporary historians agree on about Jesus’ life: Jesus was born circa. 4 BCE, near the time of the death of Herod the Great He spent his childhood and early adult years in Nazareth, a Galilean village He was baptised by John the Baptist He called disciples He taught in the towns, villages and countryside of Galilee (apparently not the cities) He preached “the kingdom of God” About the year 30 [AD], he went to Jerusalem xecuted e s a w He for Passover s of r e d r o e on th He created a disturbance in the Temple area the fect, e r p n a Rom He had a final meal with the disciples Pilate s u i t n o P He was arrested and interrogated by Jewish authorities, specifically the high priest

. . . the most often overlooked is the last point – circumstantial evidence. I’d like to ponder this briefly. Christianity has existed on this planet for a very long time. Christianity has more followers today than any other religion on Earth. However, we know that there was a time when there were no Christians on this planet. So, why are there Christians today? Rational cause and effect tells us that at some point in the past, something must have happened (some cause) that had the effect of compelling some people who weren’t Christians to become Christians. Now this might sound like stating the obvious, but for all of us – atheists, agnostics, Christians, those of other faiths - this provides a direct challenge. Cause and effect tells us that the start of Christianity is a historical event. As a Historians of all faiths and no faith have been doing this very thing for centuries. The key point we must not lose sight of is that “something happened” to cause all the Christianity we see all around us today. Something happened to start it all in the first place – and given all the historical research that’s been directed towards finding out “what happened”, all of us (you, me) can come to our own, informed view of what we think happened. Derek Mc. Intyre – Jesus: The Evidence http: //www. jesustheevidence. com/

Christians believe we can find out about God’s living (incarnate) word JESUS by reading about him in God’s written word the BIBLE

Christians believe. . . Jesus is totally human and totally God

because he was really human… he was born as a human baby he experienced tiredness hunger and thirst temptation love and anger happiness and sadness life and death

because he was really God he didn’t give in to temptation he had the power to stop a storm heal sicknesses and injuries bring dead people back to life

and because he was really God he was consistently loving and compassionate to others he did not sin

and because he was really God he was consistently loving and compassionate to others he did not sin* *he always chose God’s way instead of his own way

Jesus gave up his equality with God so that he could become human… choosing to serve others rather than to be served by them

Jesus perfectly lived out the priorities he taught: love for God and others

Even death could not permanently hold him… his resurrection is the greatest proof of his deity

Even death could not permanently hold him… his resurrection is the greatest proof of his deity* *being God

After his resurrection Jesus promised his friends that he would be with them always Christians believe this promise is also true for them today

EP Sanders goes on to provide what he refers to as: “a short list of equally secure facts about the aftermath of Jesus’ life. ” Again, these are historical facts that the majority of contemporary historians are agreed actually happened after Jesus’ death. These are: first fled His disciples They saw him ([but] in what sense is not certain) after his death As a consequence, they believed that he would return to found the kingdom They formed a community to await his return and sought to win others to faith in him as God’s Messiah.

Jesus is the absolute centre of Christian faith. Christians believe he is fully God and fully human.

…and that his death and resurrection made friendship with God possible for us