We are among Kings, queens, presidents, prime ministers and leaders of countries and states that presently exists on the earth. We are among lawyers, doctors, judges, scientist and the most brilliant minds that grace this planet earth. We are among the billionaires, the millionaires, the successful businessmen and those who fail in business and other ventures in life. We are among the downtrodden, the rejected, the destitute, the poor and the most miserable of humanity. We are Christians and we believe that some two thousand years ago a man named Jesus of Nazareth walked this earth. We believe that this man Jesus of Nazareth was God manifested in the flesh and now he provides the motive and the hope for our living.
We educate you in your universities and institutions of higher learning, we teach your children in the classrooms of schools, we treat you when you are sick, we dispense your medication, we serve your food in the restaurants, we wait on you in the supermarkets and banks. In fact we are everywhere and you relate to us but we do shout or make a noise and sometime we do not maintain the expected standards but we remain Christians.
You have to understand that for two thousand years we have endured the worst that humanity can devise and we have survived. We have been thrown to the lions and wild animals, burned alive at the stakes, been tortured, executed, persecuted, imprisoned and we continue being Christians. Those who hate us cannot understand why we have sung songs of praise while we are marched to our death. while they remain without hope we see our death as the beginning of our life. We are Christians and we believe that death is the door to living with Jesus Christ and while we are not careless with our lives or takes our own lives we do not fear death but we welcome death.
You may ask, if being a Christian is so great, who do so man walk away? The answer is that it is possible to begin enjoying the benefits of what Jesus Christ has promised here and now but many simply fail to access the benefits. There are many also who desire a life of ease and fail to recognize that in a similar way that God and Jesus Christ is hated, they too will be hated.
There are few persons who will have the time and opportunity to spend as much time studying and researching as the great philosopher Karl Marx , he is paraphrased as saying "Religion is the opium of the people". We as Christians do not need drugs to get high but the freedom that we find in Jesus Christ takes us to a height surpassed by drugs. Where drugs does damage to the brains and body Jesus Christ makes us better citizens and better persons. Marx knew that what we have as Christians can never be taken away because we presently enjoy the pleasures that awaits when we die so he encouraged that citizens be not exposed to or learn religion.
Why does a few brilliant minds choose to insult their fellows and those more brilliant than they are? When you say those who only believe should keep silent are you not suggesting that the unlearned are ignoramuses. Those who are learned just so happen to believe the same thing that the unlearned believe. Insulting the unlearned because of their belief is also insulting the learned who believe the same thing as the unlearned.
We are Christians and we have survived two thousand years of attacks on what we believe. It is just too bad that you have gained enough knowledge so as not to be able to understand what faith can do. Jesus Christ changes a man inside out. Jesus Christ reigns as king in the Christian's thoughts and actions. One of the reasons that Christianity continue to survive is the change that Jesus Christ makes in lives. The learned continue looking for evidence and proof in science and books to prove that a man named Jesus of Nazareth walked this earth two thousand years ago. Another man hears the same thing and believes and he finds the proof in his attitude and thinking and to him Jesus Christ becomes real and the Bible make sense.
We are Christians and you may ridicule what we believe but we have something that you don't have and you do not offer an alternative to what we believe. One of us have things wrong but at least as Christians we remain happy fools which you try to take away but offers nothing in exchange.
Have a Happy New year.
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