Last weekend I had a conversation with a fellow who is an ex evangelical. After high school he got very involved in the Open Bible Church movement. After a few years though he became disillusioned and left the church. Today he doubts that Jesus even existed.
I must admit I was a little taken aback when he denied there ever was such a person as Jesus. His explanation for the existence of Christianity is that it is a self generated religion. In essence, what I heard from him was that Christians simply made it all up.
It seemed to me that much faith is required to deny the Historicity of Jesus and even more faith to think Christianity is self generated.
A number of non Christians historians from the first & second centuries do make passing references to Christians.
Had these pagan observers read the New Testament, though, they would have been amazed at the claims Christians made about themselves. According to the four gospels, Christians saw themselves as the principle agents by which the God who created the whole cosmos, heaven and earth, was at work in the world. In fact, according to one of their leaders, God intended to bring the whole world together under the authority and leadership of their founder, Jesus. (Ephesians 1:10). According to the New Testament, God had a future for the world and it was to come about through Christianity.
From the outside this claim would seem preposterous, even megalomaniacal. Christians would be considered delusional concerning their own power and importance. Upon what basis would reasonable or rational people develop such incredible ideas? Reading the New Testament one cannot help but think that the authors of these books are intelligent people. How then could they make such claims?
Their claims were not fanciful notions, as atheists assert, but were based upon certain experiences that the early Christians presently enjoyed. They believed they were no longer subject to the cosmic authorities that dominated their world, in particular, they were not subject to the Emperor or the worship of that Emperor. This is one of the complaints that turns up in the writings of Pliny the Younger, who tests the faithfulness of Christ followers by having them burn incense to the Emperor. (See The Letters of Pliny the Younger).
Not only were they not subject to ruling imperial authorities, they believed they were not even subject to ruling ontological authorities, in particular, the authority of death. They believed in and had as their current experience, the idea of salvation. Salvation was not something that happened to them a long way into the future, but it was a current reality. In it they found freedom, boldness, faith, hope and love.
These concepts generated very odd behaviors. Instead of weeping at funerals, they celebrated. (1 Thess. 4:13). Instead of succumbing to despair at persecution they submitted to trials with joy. (James 1:2). Rather than resentment in relationships they preferred one another over their own interests. (Phil. 2:1-3).
Further, the experience that generated these grandiose ideas of changing the world was something that came from outside of themselves. As Luke Timothy Johnson puts it in his book, The Writings of The New Testament,
If we try to cut deeper beneath the symbolization, we see that the Christian experience had to do with power: the Christians said they had been touched by an awesome force that in turn empowered them—a particularly paradoxical claim given their circumstances.
The terms for this power are various. It can be called
Ø an authority (exousia; see John 1:12; 1 Cor. 8:9; 9:4; 2 Cor. 10:8; 13:10; 2 Thess. 3:9),
Ø an energy (energeia; see 1 Cor. 12:6, 11; Gal. 3:5; 5:6; Eph. 3:20–21; Col. 1:29; 1 Thess. 2:13; Phlm. 6; Heb. 4:12), or
Ø a power (dynamis; see Rom. 1:16; 15:13, 19; 1 Cor. 1:18; 6:14; 2 Cor. 6:7; 13:4; Gal. 3:5; Eph. 3:20; Col. 1:29; 1 Thess. 1:5; 2 Thess. 1:11; 2 Tim. 1:7; Heb. 2:4; 2 Pet. 1:16).
This power manifested itself outwardly in certain “signs and wonders” (Acts 4:30; 5:12; 14:3; Rom. 15:19; 2 Cor. 12:12; Heb. 2:4) such as healings, prophecies, and spiritual utterances, but above all in the proclamation of the “good news” (Rom. 1:16; 1 Cor. 1:18; 2:4; 2 Cor. 4:7; 1 Thess. 1:5; 2 Tim. 1:8; James 1:21).
It also manifested itself inwardly by the spiritual transformation of those who received it (Rom. 12:2; 1 Cor. 2:16; 2 Cor. 3:18; Gal. 3:5; Eph. 4:23; Col. 3:10; 1 Pet. 1:22).
This power, finally, was not of their own doing, but was transmitted to them from another to whom it properly belonged (Rom. 1:4; 16:25; 1 Cor. 1:24; 5:4; 12:3; 2 Cor. 1:4; 6:7; 12:9; 13:4; Eph. 3:16, 20; Phil. 3:10, 20–21; 2 Tim. 1:7; Heb. 5:7; James 4:12; 1 Pet. 1:5; 2 Pet. 1:16; Jude 24). None of the elements listed here is found in the NT as a goal for which one is to strive; rather, each appears as a dimension of one’s present life. The relationships, states, dispositions, and transformations are experienced, not just desired. The case is succinctly stated by Paul: “The Kingdom of God does not consist in talk but in power” (1 Cor. 4:20).
Because of this new empowerment, Christians believed they represented something entirely new ... more »
