Christian? After Taking the Course and Learning

¶ … Christian?

After taking the course and learning a lot of different concepts, I have asked myself at least a 100 times, what does it mean to be a Christian? Does being a Christian mean just going to church on Sunday mornings? Or bible study on Wednesday nights, and then after that you take a break from being a Christian and go on a week vacation? I bring this up because I have seen this behavior more and more, particularly in close friends. Many people are going around wearing the "What Would Jesus Do?" bracelet on their wrists and wearing the Jesus shirts, nevertheless in my opinion where is the change process? Are these people living their lives like a Christian? Is there an obvious alteration in them after they have acknowledged Christ? With that said, I will address the following principles that I have learned throughout this course that have changed my understanding of what it means to be a Christian: Did Jesus need to be born of a virgin?, How can we be confident that Jesus is returning?, If a person is a Christian, does it matter how they live their life?

Did Jesus need to be born of a virgin?

It is clear that a lot of people really do have a hard time trusting the idea of believing in the Virgin Birth. If a person normally believes in the Bible, then more than likely they will have no problems believing in the Virgin Birth. In the course, we learned that as a person deals with the derivation of humanity, it is important not to restrict the study merely to the opening of man that is upon the earth; rather consideration should also be given to the resolve of man's origin. Well, our origin as new creatures in Christ Jesus has a lot to do with our second birth which is by accepting Jesus as our Lord and savior. However, this new birth could not have happened without the virgin birth.

Inside the outline of purpose, the origin of man provides us a stronger and more whole description of his nature and mode of entrance upon the earth. The Bible shows us that God Almighty was mystically perceived in the womb of a virgin (Matthew 1:23). If a person gives it a lot of thought, they can see that it does make some sense. God chose to do it how He saw fit, and yet he could have sent Jesus to this earth all grown up, yet human body that was sinless. A meteor could have shot out of Heaven with Jesus plunging to the ground as a mature man. Nonetheless if Jesus had come down in that form, it would have been hard for individuals to relate to him as a person, as a part of the mortal race. God also could have had Jesus come into the world the normal way with a man and woman. It could have been a normal natural birth. Nevertheless then most of us would have distrusted His spirituality. That is exactly the reason why the Incarnation does not sound illogical.

It is clear that Jesus needed to be born of a virgin in order to prove his birth was from something that came from beyond humanity. Jesus was created by God therefore being completely God, and born a birth that was human. This way he would undergo the human life, going through pain, love, adversity and even death. Jesus was also able to utilize his spirituality to aid persons to see the supremacy and grace of God. His health-giving wonders, his wisdoms and particularly his death presented the world that he was not just a mere human but something more powerful. As mentioned earlier, He had not a drop of sin in him because of how he lived his life, not because he was born supernaturally. Jesus would have to be entirely human and completely celestial in order to produce the bridge that transports us nearer to God during the course of our lives. He recognizes our sorrow, and can bring the mercy and power of God into our lives. A father from the earth would make him only human, not heavenly.

How can we be confident that Jesus is returning?

It is not unusual for a person to go to some church and discover that these churches where there are different types of idols and various forms of statues that people decide to worship . They do this in pretend of giving to the Lord but in reality they are worshiping the devil. These types of incidents are some of the things that the Bible tells us that we are living in the end of times. As we learned in the course, the last book in the bible is revelation, It is in revelation that we get an understanding about the end of the world, for instance Revelation 14: 9-11makes the point that if a person decides to worships the image of the beast and takes the mark, then they will drink of the wine of the anger of God. The return of Jesus is supposed to be a time of triumph and joy for those that are believers but for the non-believers it will turn into a day of pain and suffering. Since the times that Jesus mentioned about in the bible are coming to pass, a person can be certain that Jesus is on his way. For instance, in Matthew it talks about rumors of wars and earthquakes that would happen more and more. Today, we live in a world that has had this form of disaster right after another.

If a person is a Christian, does it matter how they live their life?

There are a so many reasons that can be stated why this matters. In the readings in the course it talks about how significant Jesus resurrection plays into the big picture. If the depiction provided us in the Bible of the personality of God, the purpose and nature of human beings, and God's dedications for those that are Christians in the present life and the afterlife, then certain events or situations have to take place. In order to have joy that is true and real it will only happen we Jesus in our life and the fulfilling of these events. It also means that our helpfulness in this lifetime will be contingent on that connection with him. Others people who can be assisted and blessed along the road to discover their own true purpose will take place by having a personal relationship with him and living the way the word of God says to live. Something that is for sure: we come through this life in a blink of an eye. Some believe in reincarnation, that we will have the opportunity to come back in another life and have another shot at it, but the Bible clearly and constantly denies this possibility - "We die only once and then we are judged" (Hebrews 9:27).