SourceURL:file:///J:New_Book3-April.doc

1 Corinthians 15 – 16

Verse 15:6 should dispel any ideas that Jesus is not who He said He was:

If that were not amazing enough, on one occasion, He appeared to more than 500 believers at one time. Many of those brothers and sisters are still around to tell the story, though some have fallen asleep in Jesus.

Now Christianity grew wildly after the death of Paul and was a thorn in the side of Rome and the established Jewish system. If any of those wanted to disprove Jesus surely one of the 500 would “break ranks” and snitch. We don’t see this in history, rather we see it grow. Remember both parties would have done anything to prove this movement to be false, it couldn’t.

One quick note on Rome, many believe that Christianity was a fabrication to control the Jewish people. First off Christianity was exploding before Rome turned. Second, if it was to control the Jews, why did they make a story that did not match their “Messiah”. Instead they went with the most unlikely of storylines that on the surface did not match their perceptions of who the Messiah was.  Third, if it was to control the Jews, they did not do a very good job, since the story spread more with “gentiles” than the Jews.

It wasn’t until Constantine in 324 AD that Rome stated to turn and the Catholic Church was formed. If it was to control the Jews why did it take 324 years of persecuting Christians, not Jews to turn? Was it heart or was it control. The fact they quickly ended all translations of the Bible to Latin leads me to believe it was a control issue, but not by changing the story but manipulating it to control the people. Wycliffe changed everything when he produced an English version. By that time the church for the most part had been to two basic factions until this time, the Roman Catholic Church and the Eastern Orthodox Church. After this it spilt and after the reformation there are upwards of 33,000 today. I will not judge if this is good or bad, but it seems to fit the message of Jesus into a package more can understand.

Paul gets into end times and how things will finally play out. The key is do you want to be on the sidelines missing out or in the game watching your friends on the sidelines missing out. The key here is we need to work more at salvation for our friends than just go on our own way. I think Paul’s urgency is not to remain self-centered, but rather focus on God and expanding His kingdom. How are you living? I know I am not living with passion to save my friends who do not believe.