Jan 11
28
Brad Cullen
If This is True, Then, What About That?
A passage in the book of Hebrews (13:8) is a real mind bender when we allow it to do so:
“Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever.”
Depending upon how we choose to look at it …this “simple” cluster of words can change our lives forever …because it can, if we so choose, dramatically change how we look at everything.
What on earth was the writer (of Hebrews) thinking about when he coined this one? I can only say what happened to me at precisely 3:00 a.m. this morning when this title, “If this is true, then, what about that?” awakened me abruptly out of a deep sleep. It came as a bright red neon sign. So, I asked, if what is true? Then the passage came into my consciousness and powerfully so.
I get a lot of e-mail each day precipitated by the articles I write for this website, asking what I believe about any number of religious issues. I answer each one, by asking the SOURCE of everything how I should respond. For example, “What do you believe about Jesus the Christ?” was the exact wording of one of these.
Because of how I perceived the tone of the rest of the e-mail I allowed my emotional reaction to dictate my response rather than to ask our SPIRIT-PARENT SOURCE.
Get All Your Answers Here, Learn the Secrets of the Universe, Everything You Ever Wanted... just 10 easy payments of $39.95
That mistake took me down a long road of intellectual claptrap of what I believe about the five issues I am most often asked about related to what I believe …God, Jesus, Holy Spirit, the Trinity and the Bible. The above referenced response began with,
“What difference does it really make what Brad Cullen believes about anything? But since you asked – here goes.” As I said, intellectual claptrap; because, in my not so humble opinion, what I acquiesce to intellectually, that is, what I believe, simply doesn’t matter.
Thankfully, the three page article that ensued never got uploaded to my publisher-webmaster, Ryan Bruce. In fact, I just now deleted it.
So then, back to the meaning behind the title of this little gem: If the passage is true or, at least contains truth, then what do we make of the thirty-three year life span of the man many of us refer to as Jesus? If the passage, as quoted above, again, “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever,” is really true and, for the record, I happen to believe that it is true, then dear friends let’s talk about that …more to come –
Okay, Jesus, where do I start? First of all, let’s repeat the quote: “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever” …now let’s come back to why the quote should be a “mind bender.” You see, if the quote is true, it reveals some crazy thinking among the millions of people past and present who refer, or have referred, to themselves as Christians.
Jesus’ appearance on the scene as a human being was a mere blip on the radar screen of history. Most historians agree that his life span was about thirty-three years. Now then, if Jesus is the same today, as he was “back then” we have some challenges in logic, do we not?
Jesus got pretty good results for just a blip on the radar, but who are they really following?
One of many significant changes in my life occurred while speaking to an assembly of perhaps two hundred people. It was one of those rare times when I heard an audible voice and this time so loud I had a hard time believing that the entire crowd didn’t hear it. “Ask them who I am.”
It had been an exciting week of healing and deliverance with people from several different churches in the area participating …and this was the final night. The pastor of the church had told me that he going to ask several people who had been healed that week to share their experiences and afterward he wanted me to share just a few words prior to a time of refreshments in the fellowship hall.
I had felt constrained from preparing anything and so it was easy, after his introduction… “I’ve asked Brad to close with just a few words,” to ask quietly, “okay what shall I say?”
Startled by the voice, I knew I just needed to be obedient and so I opened my mouth and, without thinking, the following words flowed, “Who is Jesus Christ?” I let the words just hang in the air. Finally, a voice on the front row and to my left (I had stepped down from the platform and was standing in the middle aisle) said, preceded by a loud and impatient sounding sigh, answered: “The Son of God.” I took a couple of steps backwards to see who had said it. One of the visiting pastors from another church; a quite large man with rimless glasses, balding, with a huge scowl on his face, his thick arms visible, because his sleeves on his white shirt were rolled up past his elbows and folded across his chest.
I asked him if he would like to explain what he had just said and he lifted one of his arms and waved me off dismissively, “No way, this is your show.”
OK let's play a game, guess which one is Jesus? It's a trick question, neither one is Jesus.
Facing the audience again, I said, “Well that’s a biblical answer, but what does it mean?” …and immediately began walking toward the back of the building pointing to various people along the way and asking them, “Who is Jesus Christ to you?” and to each answer I responded, basically, “that someone could make that argument from the Bible, but what does it mean?” to which there was never an answer. Then I asked, “Where is Jesus Christ this moment?” …the words, again, left hanging in the air, to which finally, and again, came the same impatient sounding, loud sigh from the same guy: “At the right hand of the Father.”
To which I repeated, basically, that that answer could be found in the Bible as well, but unless you know who Jesus is and where Jesus is right now, your experience in Christ will be to sit on a pew and, at best, talk about Jesus.
What now? I just asked Dad and got a rather interesting response …another quote purportedly from Jesus which I have not consciously given any kind of deep thinking toward before: “God is not the God of the dead, but the living.”
I had to check that one out with him …Are you still saying that?
_____________
I was just reminded what I was planning to write about when the above referenced title If This is True, Then, What About That? …first came roaring into my consciousness at 3:00 a.m.
I told Ryan yesterday that I would send him a new article by this morning and to prompt myself into a thinking/praying mode regarding what such a new article would be, I went back to some notes I had made from a conversation we had way back in the first of December when I felt led to do the series about spiritual “anti-aging” …he had wanted me to do a series on “believing.” What did he mean? I haven’t a clue now, maybe he’ll remember.
But first, what on earth does “God is not a God of the dead, but the living” mean? That’s next. Listen up and hear how Ryan tries to get me to make sense of what I’ve written so far. Podcast 56 jan 28 Is Christ the Same?
In Freedom,
Brad
