| THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION I offer the following: Christianity is a religion of reliance. Christianity is a reliance that is not based upon formula, ritual, laws, or regulations. But upon complete and total reliance on God. Christianity relies upon Jesus for Salvation, Righteousness, Holy Living, and Heaven when our time on Earth is through. God gives all these to us; there is nothing we can do to win them for ourselves. The first step on the path to becoming a Christian is Humility. This humility arises from the fact that there is NO innate goodness within us, but instead there is a continual tendency toward corrupt behavior and actions called Sin. Because there is no innate goodness within us and because of our corrupt nature we cannot do anything to free ourselves from these bad tendencies inside of ourselves. Human effort alone has no power to set us free from our evil condition. And though many of the world�s religions, and religious leaders have tried heroically to find a human path to the divine-all human efforts and philosophies ultimately fail, as do the religions born out of those efforts and philosophies. Attempts to attain Enlightenment, Nirvana, or acceptance of some great �Power�, cannot be accomplished by human effort. Annihilation of the ego, control of the self or human nature is not wholly possible either. Human attempts to change a corrupt nature cannot wholly succeed. And even when corrupt external practices are bound up-much more sinister thoughts of the heart and mind can corrupt a person within, making everything around them appear to be dark and evil, fouling the very imagination of a legally controlled person. Even if it were possible to annihilate the ego, what would remain? What would take its place? Would we want a passionless existence without drive or creativity? Without the very joy and passion for life that makes existence possible? No! Our human nature though manipulated, or held in a vice-like legalistic limbo, cannot be overcome, it must be removed, and replaced with a new, holy and loving nature that is from God. After humility in seeking to become a Christian must come the Willing Heart. A heart that is fully open to God like furrowed ground, so that an Awakening can come that is Supernatural-beyond human limitations. At this stage two things must occur. The first is our realization that something within us is not right. An intuitive feeling that arises out of our human spirit that warns us of the dangerous condition of our soul. We must become willing to seek out the true cause of this spiritual malaise. Too many people try to silence this inward call of the soul with things of pleasure: drugs, alcohol, sexual perversion, and anything else that can distract. Others take a slightly higher path and try to fill this emptiness with another person, a busy job, or through acquiring great personal wealth. Still others seek political power, prestige, or public acceptance through entertainment and the arts, or even noble service to mankind. The list is nearly endless. But the danger here is that a person resists this wake up call of the soul for so long; that they become deaf to it, and thus lose out on the Awakening offered to them by God. The second part of this process is that God Himself will call to us Supernaturally by His Holy Spirit. Not only do our inward parts give us the alarm to lead us to our Awakening, but also God is personally involved in drawing us to Himself. He does this in subtle and not so subtle ways. His Spirit may drop suggestions into our minds about going to Church, or reading the Bible. He may put people in our path that will lead us to Him. In certain instances He may allow great pain, or even tragedy to enter our lives as a �wake up call� to cause us to seek Him out. Again the danger here is that a person can continue to resist Him to the point that they become hardened in their hearts, and will no longer hear His call to a spiritual Awakening. If a person humbles themselves, recognizes their corrupt nature and tendencies, hears the sorrowful call within themselves, and the answering call of their Creator, they must ask the God who made them to remove their inner corruption, and replace it with a new nature that is free of the corruption they were born with. We have been given the very picture of a life with this new nature, it is told of in the Bible. The person named Jesus Christ was born without a corrupt nature, even though He was born in a human body like us, though not like us in that He was conceived by the Holy Spirit of God, whereas we are conceived biologically, without supernatural intervention. The Bible tells the story of Jesus' sinless life, and then His guiltless death on a cross. In a Spiritual, Psychological, and Physical reality Jesus became you and me on the cross. And through a supernatural transformation of rebirth in our lives-we become like Him. Jesus died without ever having committing a crime, convicted at an illegal trial, by a judge who himself said Jesus did nothing deserving death. Jesus died a death that we must each die, not on a physical cross, but in our corrupt nature. His physical and spiritual death on the cross (spiritual in that He was separated for a time from God the Father, and went for a short time into Hell itself) was in the place of the holy death we could not die. Jesus died without ever having committed any sin. He never had the corrupted nature that we have, though He did live in a human body that could be tempted by the natural world around Him. No man except Christ has lived a sinless life. Those of us, who have asked Jesus to enter our being by His Spirit, have in essence died on that cross with Him. Our wicked nature was crucified there, and our new resurrected nature came into being supernaturally, just as Jesus came back to life supernaturally three days after His physical death. This is the mystery of Christianity that must be accepted by faith through an inner conviction in a written record, by eyewitnesses, and recorded in The Holy Bible-the God-breathed Word. This transformation in us happened when we asked Him to bring His new nature into us. And we then become like Him, and are Resurrected into a new life in our Spirit. Jesus did arise after three days of being dead, and separated from His body. He arose with a new Resurrected body, and so will we! We will if we ask Jesus to come into our hearts. Then our corrupt nature dies inside, to be replaced with the new Holy Nature of Jesus. This is a Supernatural occurrence which cannot be manufactured by any of the other world religions-thus they are null and void as far as changing the corrupt nature of mankind. Without a rebirth, there is no true Christianity, and no true Christian. But each person who will ask Christ to come into their heart (spirit) will be changed by Him, and will receive a New Nature that is of Christ. (This inner spiritual change will be manifested in our physical bodies in the future, when these bodies are resurrected to life at the return of Jesus Christ to earth. Our already renewed spirit will join a suitably renewed body.) Next comes a stage, which has confused many people, including Christians themselves. It takes time to learn to follow this New Nature given to us by Christ. Just like a baby may be slow in learning how to walk, many new Christians will stumble around a good bit, even taking some falls in learning how to follow new desires that have replaced old desires that they may have followed for decades. But through reliance upon the God who changed them in the first place. And by learning about Him by Prayer (talking to Him), Bible reading, and getting together with other Christians, a gradual change takes place which shows them becoming more and more like the Christ who now resides in their hearts. Just like every naturally born baby is different, so it is with every newborn Christian, some go from walking to running in their new nature very quickly, while others stumble about for years. But the nature in them has changed, a Spiritual, Supernatural Act has occurred that has transformed them on the inside, and will begin to show in their actions on the outside. God motivates this change in us through the power of Love, worked out by His own Spirit within us. The more we rely upon Him, the greater the manifestation of this change. That reliance, Faith in God, is the only act, effort, involved in the Christian Religion-Reliance upon God is the Christian Religion. This eliminates human pride, and any claim to achievement in the process of the Awakening on our behalf. Our part is to ask, God�s part is to give. The very simplicity of this turns many seekers away from the Christian religion, as human pride wants to �do� something to earn goodness, or make the change by human effort-which is an impossibility, as previous stated. Only the power, love, goodness, and very character of God within a person can give them what the world�s religions are vainly seeking for. Philosophers in all their great thinking cannot make the change that must be performed by God Himself in each individual to make them what they were destined to be-The Children of God. This is in essence what real, personal, Christianity is. Karlton Douglas � 2001 |