9. Why Christianity

 

“I will build my church on this rock, and the gates of hell shall not prevail it.” Jesus

 

 

Christianity did not start at a certain point in time, nor was its holy book written by one man at once. If it were so, it would have been man-made. Its holy book, the Bible was written by forty prophets that lived several centuries apart. The religion itself is a story of a relationship that started in the garden of Eden where God promised Eve that her future son Jesus would kill the serpent that deceived her and get her kicked out of Heaven. There began man’s and nature’s hope of redemption to return back to paradise. 

     Abel, Enoch, Job and Abraham were righteous men who had a good relationship with God. Enoch had a relationship with God on earth for 300 years. So, God took HIM up. Since he was a good friend, He didn’t want him to die. Abraham was a friend of God and God made him the father of many nations. These people never started a religion but had a good relationship with God.

     However, things changed when more people started to believe in God and have a relationship with Him, which required some sort of organizing.

     It started when God promised Abraham in his seventies with no child and an infertile wife;

 

“Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and thy father's house, unto a land that I will shew thee: And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed.” 

 

Though it looked too late to be great or have children that would become a nation, Abraham believed in God and left his country, family and everything except his wife, his cousin, and what he possessed. Leaving Ur, an established city, he moved to the desert as a nomad. 

     He lived the rest of his hundred years in tents and had about a dozen children, without having a place he could call his own. He never started a religion but he passed on the relationship he had with God to  Isaac, his son, and Isaac to his son Jacob and Jacob to his 12 children that became the 12 tribes of Israel. Abraham had hardly a nation but the story was not over. Anyone could have laughed at him for believing in God who promised him to make his “name great and make him a great nation” while he had no place to call his own. This prophecy has come true. Now Abraham is revered by Christians, Jews and Muslims alike. And his descendants are a mighty nation called Israel and some Arab countries, which are also his children. God kept His promise.  

     God promised to Abraham that “By your child, all the families of the earth will be blessed” Therefore, came Jesus out of the bloodline of Abraham to save the world. God was not partial to Abraham or the Jews. In fact, salvation from hell or the gift of eternal life came to all the earth's families. When it comes to the families of the world, He gave what is dear to Him, His only Son who was willing to die for us because of the love He has for His Father and us.  

     As he was the first person chosen by God for a relationship, Abraham did not start a religion, nor did he write any part of the Bible. As God told Abraham, his children would be enslaved in Egypt, and God would deliver them with a mighty hand and take them to the Promised Land, where they would be a nation.

     Since there were 330,000 freed Israelites who believed in God, they needed to be organized. Under God’s instructions Moses, who led them out of Egypt parting the Red Sea by the power of God, wrote the laws to live by, God’s personality and how to live and prosper in life. This became the first five books of the Bible. These books chronicle the story of creation, Abraham’s story, the liberation of the Jews from Egypt and details the Law they should live by when they enter the Promised Land. The Law showed the newly freed slaves, the Israelites, what kind of lifestyle God expected from them if they were to live in peace and prosperity. Just as parents instruct their children, God told the Israelites how they should behave and what they need to be and do to succeed in life.