subject: Is The Christian Faith Real? [print this page] An author makes a decision to write a short history of a small American town. He begins by tracing its origins, slowly progressing up to modern times. Through the book he records people and industries which made the town prosperous or famous. Which people will make the book? Which companies or churches or organizations will be included? They will be the ones who were successful, who grew in strength, numbers, or in finances.
Now, lets pretend for a moment that The Cumberland Falls Community Church was a church that had just laid their foundations when this book was being written. During the time of the books authorship this church had a rise and fall in its attendance. It was one of several churches that were being started, so it was not unusual or different than any of the others. It was not an existing church or a church which had been started when the town first begun. It did have some unique doctrinal beliefs, which as a result had a tendency to provoke persecution against this church. Those who attended this church were branded as heretics or idiots. As a small town, certain things could be done that would be illegal in larger towns. But here they were overlooked. If, for example, you were a member of this church, you might have a hard time finding work in the town. Your children would not be invited over to other childrens homes. In short, a lot of pressure was put on people not to go to this church. So in the overall estimate of the authors mind, this church would not be able to stay open for business very long. Because of the pressures being applied to people who went to that church, it only seemed obvious that this church would soon go out of business. So this church was not included in the history of the town.
Fast forward four hundred years. The Cumberland Falls Community Church has grown to become the worlds largest church. It has churches in almost every nation, and in every state in America. A group of people want to make this church look bad, so they attack it from its roots. They go back and look at the history of the town where the church was first started and point out that the historians who wrote about the town did not even mention this church. And the few passing references were thought to be biased, probably placed there by members of this church sometime after publication.
Why, they ask, if this church is so important, wasnt it mentioned in any of the early history books? Why are there so few references to its existence, with the exception of works put out by early members of the church? It only stands to reason, they say, that there are no references because this church did not exist in this time period; and that it is a byproduct of later churches which built upon passing fads or beliefs that were in vogue at the time.
Stop right here and take out the words Cumberland Falls Community Church and put in its place The Christian Faith. And instead of fast forwarding four hundred years, make it two thousand. How many questions do we have about Christianity that suddenly has a light bulb go off overhead when we look at it from this perspective?
A lot of people want to put down the Christian faith because of the lack of historical reference. At the time the Christian church was just one of many faiths that were beginning to take roots. It was heavily persecuted, not only with peer pressure but also with bloodshed. Seriously, nobody thought for a moment that this church would survive. Even the Roman government was exclusively selecting this church for extinction. And at the heart of this faith was a glorified Roman crossa repulsive, humiliating symbol that stood out like the swastika does today. Is it any wonder that historians did not mention this church as being important? Is it any wonder that there are only passing references, most of which refer to the disgraceful cross or the Messiah which was crucified on it? Is it any wonder that other references would be in regard to its persecution?
Now, if you were to have taken a handful of people from Rome during who lived during the first century and transported them to the twenty first century, history might be a little bit different. If they had known that the Christian church would grow up to become the worlds largest religion, things might be a little bit different. But nobody knew. Nobody even guessed.
A handful of references to this church are all that one should expect when researching the Christian faith from a secular viewpoint. What we should expect is ongoing correspondence between the churchesand that is exactly what we find. Any ideology that Jesus was not considered being a real person, or that he rose from the dead, or that He was considered divine, until after the first century is hogwash. The correspondence of Paul, the first century evangelist, has never been debated as genuine and he addresses all those issues in his letters. Pauls letters serve to highlight the doctrinal beliefs of the first century churchhe was an evangelist who had the full support of the original eleven disciples.
The Christian faith is true and fully believable when one takes the time to examine the facts. I started as an agnostic and wound up as a full-fledged Christian after I took several years to examine the proofs. I know that it is difficult to find a good church today, but that is the largely the result of the church attempting to grow from a business standpoint. If you take your time and explore some of the churches around you, you will find one in which you feel at home and where you can grow spiritually.
Dont give up on God because of modern, humanistic theology. The truth is still there; all you have to do is to look for it.
