From:  (Nigel B. Mitchell)
Newsgroups: aus.religion.christian
Subject: Jesus
Date: Mon, 01 Jun 1998 03:31:45 GMT

Christianity is about Jesus.

Believing that Jesus is the son of God. Beliving that Jesus rose
from the dead. Accepting Jesus’ offer of forgiveness and reconciliation
with God. Living acording to Jesus’ teachings.

To most Christians this is a statement of the ‘bleeding obvious’,
but far too often we see people who claim to be preaching a Christian
Gospel on this newsgroup who never, or hardly ever mention Jesus.

It would be amusing, if it were not so sad, that some people who
claim to be Christians devote their time and energy to doing exactly
what Jesus’ opponents did – trying to make the scriptures into a system
or formula which must be followed to the letter in order to be ‘saved’.
You can always tell people who do this, mainly by the way they never
quote the teachings of Jesus directly, but just pick out a word or a
phrase here and there that seems to fit their pet theories. These
peddlers of religious formulae (“All Christians Speak in Tongues” is the
most common, but by no means the only one we see on this neswsgroup)
offer something which bears no resemblance to the teachings of Jesus,
and which has little or no content relating to Jesus as the Son of God
or his Ressurection.

Honest Christians admit that all our undestanding and interpretation
of the scriptures is partial and fallible. By worshipping God together
in Christian community and reflecting together on the best ways to put
Jesus’ teaching into practise in our lives, we stand in continuity with
the early Churches described in the Acts of the Apostles.

A mark of Christian community is also service to the poor and needy.
Jesus, by word and example, made it crystal clear that acts of
lovingkindness within and reaching out from the Church were a
distinguishing characteristic of his followers. In Matthew 25 he is
recorded as having gone so far as to say that our record of action in
this respect would be a crucial point in God’s ultimate judgement on our
lives. Jesus’ opponents thought that scriptural formulae and obedience
to scriptural laws were the paths to salvation. Jesus, Paul, and all
other New testament authors opposed this view and coutered that our
faithin God and our acts of lovingkindess weighed far more heavily in
the balance than any other factors.

The teachngs of Jesus, as recorded by the early Church in the four
Gospels, must be the ultimate source and authority in Christianity.
Beware of substitutions.

Jesus is Lord

Cheers

N+

Nigel B. Mitchell