What is the appeal of Jesus?
Part 6: So, what is true and not true?
What I believe this review shows is that all the Christian claims are true. Though for clarity we need to say exactly what is true.
It sounds rather damning:-
- God does not exist
- Jesus was not God’s Son
- He was not raised from the dead
However, all these things are true:-
- Christians do believe that the ultimate spiritual values are those expressed through belief in the person of God
- Christians do believe that Jesus expressed those values perfectly
- (Whatever the actual socio-political details of events that contributed to it) Christians do believe that Jesus’ death correctly expresses how much God loves us
- They are right in saying that these beliefs are stronger than death, because it is possible to still believe in them no matter what
- They are correct in saying that trusting in the belief that God does indeed forgive all sins, and calling on a trust in the death of Jesus, and in his resurrection, is the way of expressing complete trust in God, and complete commitment to their ultimate spiritual values.
What we see is that, in practice, Christianity operates in exactly the same way as it always has. Moreover, Christians are entitled to adopt the same terminology as they always have. What is required is a different framework of understanding, and from time to time Christians will have to keep reminding themselves of what it is in order to avoid lapsing into error and saying something that is untrue. However, in practice, this will be rare, and mainly when conversing with those outside the Christian community.
Spiritual Devotion 