He Cares

When we look at babies we see the most beautiful little things, innocent, with brand

new brains that as yet contain very little knowledge. Aveline, this little Great Grand Daughter of mine (Ava, for short), lives in our English speaking Australia, and English is not a very easy language to learn, but by the time Ava is about six years old she will have a very good grasp of the language. However, Australia is a fairly isolated country and we hardly ever hear other languages spoken so if she hears another language she will not understand it, unless she studies it at school, of course.

Likewise, she was born into a devout Christian family so will visit a church to worship God every Sunday, will say grace at meal times, and pray for family and loved ones as well as lots of other people before going to bed at night or to school each day. Therefore, by the time she is about six years old she will not only understand English, but will also look on Christianity as a normal part of her life and if she hears someone say that Jesus was the “Son of God”, she will have no problem accepting that.

I know all this is true because I was brought up in a similar manner. However, in recent times there have been a lot of people from foreign countries coming to live in Australian and these people, in many cases, don’t speak or understand the English language very well, and to complicate the matter still further they often don’t understand the Christian way of thinking, so if they hear me talk of Jesus as “the Son of God” or talk about Him being “Divine” they may well think I am being sacrilegious, and even deserve to die for making such a statement about a person, after all, (when you think about it), it was the very religious Jews who arranged for Jesus to be Crucified because he made such a claim, and people don’t change: for example, the war in Syria at the moment is between two religious groups who just have two different interpretations of the same religion. Considering all the above and its importance to the future of peace and understanding within our land, I will attempt to explain, very briefly, why Christians believe the way they do and what backing they have for their beliefs, (obviously I will have to leave a lot out or this will become a book). Of one thing you can be certain though: I love my God and would never be sacrilegious.

Firstly, then, Jesus was born to a virgin and I am pleased that the Muslims believe this too. Virgin birth does occasionally occur.  It happens under a process which is called parthenogenesis. However, on her own a woman cannot produce a male baby, only a female. That is why when the Angel Gabriel appeared to Mary (as recorded in Luke 1 verse 26) He said in verse 35 “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the highest will overshadow you therefore also the Holy One who is to be born will be called The Son of God”. A deliberately arranged virgin berth would be miracle enough, but a male baby as well, requires God’s intervention.                                                                                                                           At 12 years of age Jesus showed that he knew who His Real Father was: on a visit to Jerusalem he became parted from his family and when they found him he was “in the temple, sitting in the midst of the doctors, (religious leaders), both hearing them and asking them questions, and all that heard him were astonished at his understanding and answers”. When Mary said they had been looking for him everywhere, he replied, didn’t you realise “that I must be about my Father’s business”. (Luke 2: 49).

When he reached manhood he had many followers, but the closest ones were the 12 disciples who were with him constantly: they saw him feed five thousand men plus women and children with 5 loaves and 2 small fish and collect 12 baskets full of leftovers, and later feed four thousand in a similar manner. They saw him walk on water, heal mentally and physically sick people. Raise the dead, one of which had been dead for 4 days and whose body was putrid. But when he said “Lazarus come forth” he came out of his tomb perfect. They heard him tell a raging storm “peace be still” and it stopped immediately. They heard him preach wonderful sermons, and when he asked these disciples who they thought he was, Peter replied immediately: “Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God” and his reply was: “Flesh and blood has not revealed this unto you but My Father in heaven”. Then speaking to Phillip he said: “he who has seen me has seen the Father, for I and the Father are one”. For this sort of statement, the Jews had him crucified and he went along with that because it was the reason he came to earth (to die for the sins of all of us so God could forgive us and accept us into heaven, if we repent and believe on Jesus (John 3:16)). Of course that wasn’t the end of him. After 3 days he rose from the dead and mingled with the disciples and others for many weeks; just appearing in locked rooms but nevertheless having a body that was solid to the touch (not like a ghost).

I have run out of room, so I will continue next week, or you can read the New Testament. It is all there.  Best wishes, Tom.