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According to a so-called scholarly group, “The Jesus Seminar,” Jesus was a mortal man born of two human parents. They say He did not perform nature miracles or die as a substitute for sinners nor rise bodily from the dead. They say sightings of a risen Jesus were visionary experiences of some of His disciples, not physical encounters. But compare their views to what the Apostle Paul wrote in Colossians chapter 1 under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. He says, “Christ is the visible image of the invisible God. He existed before anything was created and is supreme over all creation, for through him God created everything in the heavenly realms and on earth. He made the things we can see and the things we can’t see—such as thrones, kingdoms, rulers, and authorities in the unseen world. Everything was created through him and for him. He existed before anything else, and he holds all creation together. Christ is also the head of the church, which is his body. He is the beginning, supreme over all who rise from the dead. So he is first in everything. For God in all his fullness was pleased to live in Christ.” I’ll take Paul’s view of Jesus Christ over the Jesus Seminar view, and I suspect you will too.
The Jesus Seminar has been prattling on about this for several years. But the fact remains that Christianity is still growing among all nations, including nations in the 10/40 window of the planet. The African continent is projected to be predominantly Christian by 2050. African Christians are now spearheading the re-evangelization of Europe. Christianity is growing rapidly in Asian countries, and Asian Christians are evangelizing actively throughout the United Arab Emirates countries. We are now seeing church growth in all the Islamic-dominated countries, including both Asian and African countries. Levantine countries–Israel,
Lebanon, Syria, Jordan–have also witnessed unprecedented church growth.
The spread of the Christian faith is also carried out by the extensive reach of
the new technologies, including the internet, file-sharing and music-sharing
applications such as YouTube, and the use of telecommunications satellites and
the spread of the smart-phone. Black gospel music, for example, is helping to
evangelize people throughout the world and is affecting populations in Europe, Asia, Latin America and island nations.
My guess is that, due to the resurrection of the Victorious Lamb of God, and the outpour of the Holy Ghost upon all flesh since the first Shavuot/Pentecost, Jesus Christ just didn’t get the memo that He was dead. He Who is “the Resurrection and the Life”, declared that if He “were lifted up”, He would draw all men to Himself. Since that has continued for over 2000 years, I am forced to conclude that God did not check with the Jesus Seminar group when He inspired humans to write His book!