“Know About Jesus Christ And The Resurrection!”

“Know About Jesus Christ And The Resurrection!”(Acts 17:16-21).
Emperror Constantine the great made Christianity a national religion. To maintain one’s political position or rise politically people had to become Christians. This to me was a great calamity to Christianity because many became Christians without any attachment to Christ!
Secondly, the term Christendom was intended to describe territories that were “predominantly” Christian. However, no nation has ever been totally Christian.
In some European countries people pay their church taxes through the state, but that still does not make everybody of those states Christian.
This is to say so-called declared Christian centres are never fully Christianized. Such Christian nations are Athenian in nature. Athen had a synagogue, Jews and God fearing Greeks, but it was also a “city full of idols” and Epicurean and Stoic philosophers! And the worst of it all was that “All the Athenians and the foreigners who lived there spent their time doing nothing but talking about and listening to the latest ideas.” What an irony! Either Luke the author has exaggerated or it is that the presence of the synagogue, the Jews and God fearing greeks were all a facade!
Paul was “greatly distressed to see that the city was full of idols.” Oh yes, “in the abundance of water, the fool is thirsty.” A one time Governor of the north west regiin of Cameroon stood up the station hill and saw the imposing Church buildings and their towers, and the Mosques downtown, so he said, “Thank God I have come to work with a very religious people.” One year later he was saturated with political uprisings and tribal boundary rivalries. He was saddened, but that too was the sad reality! It is the same accross the continent.
Like Paul we would not relent our efforts to talk about Jesus Christ and the resurrection to a people who have relegated Christ to the background. Wherever we are as Christians we must preach Christ in and out of season so that those who call us “babblers” would soon invite us to their Areopagus and say to us,“May we know what this new teaching is that you are presenting!…”
My friend, I don’t know where you belong. You may be the representation of a Jew, a God fearer, an Epicurean or Stoic philosopher, we bring the undiluted word of Jesus Christ and the resurrection to you. For the sake of your salvation, come to us and ask us to tell you further.
Weekend prayer: Father open us to the words of your messengers so that we can know Christ more and more and the power of his resurrection. Amen!
Have a blessed weekend! Peace be with you!
Rev Babila Fochang