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Topic: Was Jesus a Christian?
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KnowHim
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Was Jesus a Christian?
Published on: 9/17/06.
WAS JESUS A CHRISTIAN? To ask such a question could cast one as a heretic, or even occasion a sentence to be burnt at the stake in other era! But in today's age of information the question is legitimate and needs to be answered.
Both from a Biblical and historical point of view, Jesus was definitely not a Christian. He was born and raised a Jew, and taught as a Jewish Rabbi.
For one thing the term "Christian" only came about some years after our Lord's resurrection.
St Luke, author of the Acts Of The Apostles, records that it was at Antioch that the disciples were first called Christians, even if only as a "nick-name". (Acts 11:26).
Neither Luke nor any of the "other disciples" would ever refer to themselves as Christians. They always referred to themselves as "the people of the Way". (Acts 9:2; 19:9,23; 22:4; 24:14,22.)
Even Paul, who later became the Apostle to the Gentiles, defended himself before Governor Felix in this manner: "However, I admit that I worship the God of our fathers as a follower of the Way, which they call a sect. I believe everything that agrees with the law and that is written in the Prophets". (Acts 24:14)
The early church was not a Christian Church but a sect within the Jewish community. Bible scholars accept the fact that in Acts 2 we have the birth of the Christian Church – or what later became the Christian Church. But any honest interpretation of Acts 2 (and throughout the entire Acts Of The Apostles) we will discover that the group we so often refer to as the Early Church or the Young Church, really and truly, started out as another Jewish sect!
So Jewish that no Christian names had yet been attached to it.
We must face the facts. Jesus was Jewish. His 12 apostles were Jews. The recipients of the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on the Day of Pentecost were Jews. All the authors of the Old Testament and the New Testament were Jews. (Accepting the fact that St Luke was born a Gentile but became a Jewish convert before he wrote the Gospel that bears his name, and the Acts Of The Apostles)
If Jesus was never a Christian then we must ask: "Who was He?"
Perhaps Simon Peter, a fellow Jew and a leader of the sect called "The Way" has the answer. When Jesus confronted Peter with the question: "But whom say ye that I am?" Simon Peter answered, "Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God." (Matthew 16:15, 16 AV)
– WILLIAM H. CUKE
http://www.nationnews.com/editorial/288819480393807.php
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