Jesus, the Christ or Messiah, is central to Christianity. We believe that Jesus is God; not a sub-God or a deputy God (if such beings can exist) but of "one substance with the Father" as the Nicene Creed puts it. We believe Jesus set aside some of his Godly attributes and became fully human, living in Palestine about 2000 years ago.
It was Jesus' death that lead to the rise of Christianity. He was crucified - a nasty way to die - by Roman soldiers (skilled and experienced at their job - there is no doubt he was dead) after being falsely accused.
Three days later the grave was empty, and Jesus was reported appearing to individuals and large crowds, talking and eating with them. 40 days later he returned to full unity with God, but 10 days later as the Holy Spirit and empowered his disciples to proclaim Jesus and start the movement that is the growing church we see today.
Jesus - in the form of the Holy Spirit - is still with us today and is able to communicate with us. This is why Christianity is primarily an on-going relationship with God, not an adherence to a set of ancient writings.
Christians celebrate these events each Sunday, but especially at Easter and Pentecost.
The rise of the church required that more information was needed about Jesus' time in Palestine, so three of who were with him - Matthew, Peter (written by Mark), and John - were guided by the Holy Spirit to write about Jesus. Luke - not one of the original 12 disciples but a friend of Mark - also researched and wrote about Jesus, and followed it with an account of the actions of the early church. These writings form the first five books of the Christian New Testament.
The centrality of Jesus is why other faiths seek to deny that Jesus is God, giving him a lesser, human, title of a great teacher or a prophet. However C.S.Lewis, best known for his 'Narnia' stories, wrote the following in his best-selling book, 'Mere Christianity' (Harper Collins ISBN 0006245706)
A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said wouldn't be a great moral teacher, he'd either be a lunatic - on a level with a man who says he's a poached egg - or else he'd be the devil of hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was and is the Son of God, or else a madman or something worse... but don't let us come up with any patronising nonsense about his being a great human teacher. He hasn't left that open to us. He didn't intend to."
Copyright © Whaddon Way Church 2009 This website was designed and built by Michael Kelly