Christianity or Jesus?

“SPEAKING OF JESUS”: the art of not-evangelism. By Carl Medearis

This book was about telling others about Jesus, not Christianity. The author having lived in Lebanon for a number of years, seen the problem of speaking of Christianity and thus realized he had to shed “Christianity” and begin with Jesus. Whereas Christianity is seen in a negative light Jesus is seen more positive. That problem is also here with us in the United States. As the author quotes Don Miller (author of ’Blue Like Jazz’), “ask 10 people what Christianity is and you will get 10 different answers.”
The authors’ contention that the word ‘Christianity’ has come to mean almost anything except who Jesus really is. He feels that we should not even try to defend the term but ignore it. We need to get people’s attention back to Jesus and his life.

I totally agree with the author that we need to be speaking and pointing others to Jesus rather than Christianity. I had a problem with the authors downplaying of the death and resurrection of Jesus. The author wants to talk about Jesus life and almost ignore his death and resurrection. The problem here is that if Jesus did not die and rise from the dead his life and teachings will become meaningless. I don’t feel that people are interested in a good man or a good prophet as much as they are in a risen Savior. We cannot forget that it was his death and resurrection that makes his life worth studying.