CHRISTIANITY IS MORE THAN A RELIGION

Taupo Times, Volume XIV, Issue 59, 29 July 1965, Page 6

CHRISTIANITY IS MORE THAN A RELIGION

Christianity, says Mr F. N. Mercer in this week's Voice of the Churches, is more than a religion, it is a vital, living reality. Some 50 years ago, an evangelist was preaching on the embankment in London. He was heckled by a passing chimney sweep, who declared his message was nearly 2000 years old and had done no one any good. Quick at repartee the preacher retorted, "Soap, my fi iend, is more than 4000 years old and it appears it has never done your face any geod. It has to be applied

to be effective." There are numerous religions in the world, all professing to be the right one, and people use the old maxim "all roads lead to Rome" and so all will land in heaven in the end. The Bible declares this is not so. Great men and no doubt good men, like Buddha, Confucious, Mohammed and others, none of whom attempted to lay claims to diety, have all passed off the scene and their tombs are with us today. Other men have since made claims for them which are spurious. Christianity is more than a religion, for Christ was God manifest in flesh, the Saviour of all mankind, and His claims were substantiated by the works He performed. In other wrords, Christianity, as Paul declares, is Christ-in-you, the hope of Glory (Col. 1:27), not mere religion, but a vital living reality.

The aged priest, Simeon, in Luke 2, to whom it had been revealed "he would not die until he had seen the Lord's Christ," when Mary brought the infant Jesus into the Temple, to present Him to the Lord, took Him in his arms, and lifting his eyes to Heaven, exclaimed "Lord, now lettest Thou Thy servant depart in peace, for mine eyes have seen Thy Salvation." He had a living person in his arms, not a religion, or a code of morals, and no pious phrases or empty platitudes. To the people, Jesus said, "the scribes and Pharasees sit in Moses seat, all that they bid you, observe and do, but do not after their ways, for they say, and do not." They prayed long prayers in the streets to be seen of men and to be called Rabbi. But Jesus denounced them as "serpents, a generation of vipers and hypocrites, who having compassed sea and land to make one proselyte, ye make them two-fold more a child of hell than yourselves." And again "full well ye make the Word of God of none effect by your traditions." Matt. 15.6. Such is religion, but He also said to the people, "I am the way (not a way) the trnth and the life, no man cometh unto the Father but by Me." John 14:6 and as a newspaper

But let us never forget "He will by -no meang clear the guilty." Num. 14. Paul's message to the Gentiles was "Repentence toward - God and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ." Acts 20:21. And again " the times of man's ignorance God overlooked,- but now commandeth all men everywhere to repent (this is not a request), because He has appointed a day in the which He will judge the world in righteousness (not mercy) by that man whom He hath ordained, whereof He hath given assurance unto all men, in that He hath raised Him from the dead." Acts 17:30,31). To the seeker, Jesus said: "Come unto Me, all ye that weary and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest, take My yoke upon you and learn of Me, and ye shall find rest unto your souls." Matt. 11:28.