Friday, December 12, 2014
Jesus and the completion of Christianity
One of the review questions that we were given was 'How is Jesus the beginning and the completion of Christianity?' The beginning part is self-explanatory - Jesus created the religion of Christianity. But I'm confused as to what the completion of Christianity implies here. My interpretation of it was that the end of Christianity is judgment day, or when we enter Heaven and the afterlife, but I'm not sure that this is what's being asked here. Any ideas for other interpretations?
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I think your interpretation is correct, but I think this can also be related back to in the proverb 26:27 in the parallel verse of the bible hub: "whoever digs a pit will fall into it; if someone rolls a stone, it will roll back on them." How, if you put this in terms with the new testament, that whoever creates something that thing that they created will end with their demise or absence. Like you said Yuan in your post "jesus created the religion of Christianity" and thus the death of Jesus will ultimately end off with the completion of christianity.
ReplyDeleteI definitely agree that your interpretation is correct as well, but when I first saw this question I looked at it a little differently. Jesus is both the beginning and end of Christianity, not in the way that he created it, and he took it away. He was the beginning of it because he brought about what Christianity is today, he added onto what the Old Testament laid out as a foundation of religion. However, the completion of Christianity does not imply the end of Christianity. Jesus brought about the concept of the after-life, he brought about the idea that there is a point of "true completion" of Christianity–that there is something to strive for to become as close to God as one possibly can. This is what I see as the completion of Christianity...he defined the goal of faith and loyalty to God–and that is the completion of faith.
ReplyDeleteI agree as well with your opinion that the end of Christianity is judgement day, but also that Jesus' second coming could mark the "completion" of Christianity. Mark 8:38 says "If anyone is ashamed of me and my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man will be ashamed of them when he comes in his Father’s glory with the holy angels." There are many instances in the New Testament that mention the second coming of Jesus which I think is a good indication of a continuation/completion of Christianity since the creation of it by Jesus.
ReplyDeleteIn the bible, the disciples were called christians. The disciples were followers of Jesus, and Jesus is the Christ who made it a way for people to enter the Kingdom of God. They preached the good news of the Kingdom of God. So, I think the end of christianity is when preaching the gospel is no longer necessary. I also think it is judgement day.
ReplyDeleteI think what you guys have said is all really interesting. Until now I didn't think of the prompt in the sense that Jesus completed the process of Christianity, I took it as the "end" as Jessica Li did. However, Christianity still exists as a religion; I really like how Jessica Lee put it: the end of Christianity is when preaching the gospel is no longer necessary.
ReplyDeleteOriginally I believed the same thing when I read this question in the study guide, and came to the same conclusion that the "completion" of Christianity is Judgement Day. However, after thinking about it, perhaps we could look at it differently where instead as seeing "completion" as an ending to Christianity, we see it as a fulfillment. From Christianity's point of view, something was missing in the OT, thus when Jesus came along he completed/ fulfilled that hole that Christians felt was in the OT.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Torrey's argument about Jesus introducing the importance of the after-life to the believers. To answer this question, I would develop on the goal and role of Jesus in the New Testament. Through Jesus, redemption is given to Jesus. The notion of evil is also only presented in the NT as the absence, privation of God. As stated in the Galatians, the presence of Jesus as an act of salvation redeems God’s believers. Thus, they are freed from sin and its consequences (After the original sin of Adam and Eve). And as Jessica Lee says, the apostles’ role is to let people know about Jesus and his power of redemption. However, I think Sophie was supposed to cover this in her presentation, we didn’t get the chance to go over it and discuss it in class.
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