PUBLISHING DETAILS
TITLE: Christianity: Keeping
the Faith
FORMAT: Paperback
CHAPTERS: 52
PAGES: 212
WORD COUNT: 47 341
PUBLISHER: Amazon. PJ Stassen Author Page
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Keeping the Faith
An Easy Reader for Busy People on the
Run
©
Copyright 2021 P.J. Stassen
All Rights
Reserved
P.J. Stassen
Centurion
SOUTH AFRICA
PART ONE: CREATION
1. YHWH (Jehovah) Of Moses and
Mt. Sinai: Maestro of Maestros!
2. Cosmos or Chaos?
3. Thumbs-Up for The Grand
Designer
4. Biblical Creationism vs.
Darwinian Creationism
5. The Problem with Darwinian
Creationism
6. Why Was There Nothing
Instead of Something?
7. With God All Things Are
Possible.
PART TWO: CHRISTOLOGY
8. Christ and the Great
Commission
9. Where Christians Come From
10. The Prophetic Integrity of
Jesus Christ Affirmed
11. The Resurrection of Jesus
Christ: How Credible?
12. The Triple Guarantee of Jesus
Christ as The Son of God
13. The Ultimate Scientist
14. The Words of God
15. They Are Crucifying Our LORD
All Over Again!
16. Three Things That Would
Nullify the Sacrifice of Christ at Calvary
17. What Are We to Make of Jesus
Christ?
18. What Jesus Christ Probably Is
Doing Today
19. Who Is Jesus Christ?
20. Who Really Killed Jesus
Christ?
21. Why Did Jesus Christ Do So
Many Miracles?
22. Why the Authorities Were Afraid
of Jesus Christ
23. Wise Men Still Seek Jesus
Christ
PART THREE: EVANGELISM
24. How to Say No to Communism
25. No Demilitarised Zone in
The War of Ideas
26. Softly and Tenderly Jesus
Is Calling
27. The Dogs Bark but This
Great Gospel Caravan Just Keeps Rolling Along!
28. Yankee Stadium and The
Foursquare Gospel
PART FOUR: ESCHATOLOGY
29. The Day the Wicked Cursed
the Faithful
30. Dream of The Second Coming
of Jesus Christ
31. Global Warning!
32. A New Heaven and A New Earth
33. Armageddon: A Clash of
Civilisations
34. Behold He Comes ... Riding
on A Cloud!
35. Capitalism vs.
Socialism
36. Christians: The Best Is
Yet to Come!
37. Are the Days Being
Shortened?
38. Here Comes the Real
Reality Czar
39. In the Father's House of
Many Mansions
40. Just as In the Days of
Noah
41. Perspectives on The
Rapture of The Church
42. Planet Earth at The End of
Days (Prophecy)
43. The Crazy March to
Mars
44. The End of The Age
45. The Pilgrim's Progress:
Fast and Furious!
46. The Sands of Time Are
Running Out
47. The Second Coming: Is It
Still On?
48. The Ultimate Space
Programme
49. There's A New World
Coming!
50. What Is the Spirit of
Antichrist?
51. Zero Hour!
52. Read the Last Chapter!
Acknowledgements
Grateful for/to:
1. Bible translations interchangeably consulted:
King James Version (KJV/KJV+) & Modern King James Version (MKJV) unless otherwise indicated e.g., Young’s Literal Translation (YLT) & Hebraic Roots Bible (HRB). The reader may find that, occasionally, I have inserted capitals (in brackets) into Scripture references for the purpose of clarity.
2. E-Sword.net: The Sword of the Lord with an Electronic Edge (Free Bible Study for the PC). Online 2021.
3. All the sources, scholars, historical figures and authors I have been allowed to mention, quote or use as examples in the course of writing.
4. Cecilia Stassen, for her ongoing assistance, encouragement and invaluable help.
Foreword
An informative book, I believe, should be
like a sumptuous dinner … lavish, interesting, easily digestible and to be
remembered for years afterwards, and with this book I have aimed to accomplish
exactly that, for what could be more interesting and memorable than the persona,
life and ministry of a man who has changed the history of the world to the
matchless extent that Jesus of Nazareth (the Christ) had done?
Unlike many postmodernists, who have so
superficially dismissed the historical Jesus (for all intents and purposes) as
nothing more than a deluded first-century religious fanatic and rabble rouser
of a charlatan who was arrested by the authorities, not as political zealot or
aspiring messiah, but as a common, albeit charismatic public nuisance who
disingenuously passed off cheap street magicians’ illusions as Biblical quality
miracles, i.e., postmodernists who today, like
pagan sorcerers and derelict, toothless oriental mystics, dare to
determine the measure of a man and his words by (of all things!) the application
of coloured beads.
I, instead, insist that only a
carpenter-rabbi of His divine origin, moral stature and matchless wisdom could
have transformed this 1970s runaway freight-train and weirds-mobile of a
cynical, suburban hedonist and amoral agnostic into a person so enamoured with
this Messiah that I, in the sunset season of my life, have aspired to write not
only one book about His sacred cause and merciful gospel, but several.
Today, when I read the popular atheists of our times, or debate a seasoned agnostic about the existence of God, I can only heartily agree with the wise theologians who, upon hearing people say that the character of the first-century Jesus of history was so remarkable that He must have been ‘forged’ (and should be considered a ‘fake’) instead have so aptly retorted (among others) as follows (my paraphrasing):
“The man Jesus of Nazareth was so
unique, gifted, remarkable and special that only a real Jesus Christ
could have forged a Jesus Christ; furthermore, if the Bible really were only a
collection of fairy tales, then why is it either banned or severely persecuted
in at least 52 countries?”
PJ
Stassen
Centurion,
South Africa.
December 2021.
Introduction
I wrote this book, not as a theologian (which I am not), but as a sinner saved by grace and a social commentator concerned with the cause and future of Christianity in the world. This book comprises the following themes:
Part
1. Creation: Reaffirming the worldview of the intelligent design
of the Cosmos by an Intelligent Designer (Creator) and Biblical Creationism
exactly as the Bible teaches.
Part
2. Christology. Reaffirming the persona, ministry,
teachings, moral gravitas, character and divine stature of Jesus of Nazareth,
the Christ (‘Anointed One’).
Part
3. Evangelism: Emphasizing the Good News of the Gospel of Jesus
Christ (of salvation by faith and the gift of Everlasting Life through Jesus
Christ) to all those who would accept Him as Saviour and Lord irrespective of race,
skin tone, nationality, age, gender, current religious affiliation &
political persuasion and socio-economic status … offered to all but forced on
none.
Part
4: Eschatology: The study of the ‘end times’ or ‘last things’ as
precursors to the Second Coming of Jesus Christ and, eventually, the Great
White Throne Judgment.
The story of the Bible and God’s designs for man; the Commandments of Moses and the Gospel of Jesus Christ, can, for all intents and purposes, miraculously integrated to be summarised by a single Scripture reference:
“For as by one man's
disobedience [THE FIRST ADAM] many were made sinners, so by the obedience of One
[THE LAST ADAM, JESUS CHRIST] shall many be made righteous.”
[Romans5:19MKJV].
I am reminded of what C.S. Lewis has said
(my paraphrasing):
“There are only two kinds of people, i.e., those who say to God, ‘Thy will be done!’ and those to whom God must say, “Okay then … have it your way!”
The lot and final destiny of
every (fully informed & evangelised) person that ever lived will, in other
words, be decided on this, i.e., a choice between Good and Evil, Light and
Darkness, Jesus and Barabbas, Christ and Satan.
With those who object that anyone could
exercise such a critical choice still wrongly from pure ignorance, or from
cultural and/or religious biases, I can only in sympathy say that I fully
concur, and although I insist that there is no other name but the Name of Jesus
Christ by which we are saved, we probably should leave such metaphysical
judgments (i.e., in respect of the ‘inadequately informed and poorly
evangelised’) for God to decide and deal with.
There is a huge difference between being a ‘sinner’ and being ‘ungodly’/’wicked’. All the ‘ungodly’ and ‘wicked’ are sinners, but not all ‘sinners’ are necessarily ‘ungodly or ‘wicked’ … they are simply lost and must be found. God has said:
“And He [GOD] said, I will make all My
goodness pass before you [MOSES], and I will proclaim the name of Jehovah
before you. And I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will have
mercy on whom I will have mercy.”
[Exodus33:10MKJV].
Bon
voyage!
Chapter 1
YHWH (Jehovah) Of Moses and Mt. Sinai: Maestro of Maestros!
1. The God of Moses (YHWH) is:
1.1
An ADVOCATE.
[1John2:1].
1.2
An ARCHITECT (DIVINE).
[Genesis1:1; Isaiah45:12; Romans1:20].
1.3
An ARTIST.
[Psalm8:1; 19:1; 29:3; 48:2; Ecclesiastes3:11].
1.4
An ASTROPHYSICIST.
[Genesis1:1;
Psalm19:1-6; 147:4;
Isaiah45:12; 2Kings20:9-11; Job26:7].
1.5
A BIOLOGIST, BOTANIST & ZOOLOGIST.
[Genesis1:24-31;
Psalm36:6; 50:10-11; 104:14; Psalm107:38].
1.6
A COSMOLOGIST.
[Isaiah55:8-11; Psalm147:4-5].
1.7
A CREATOR.
[Genesis1:1;
Isaiah40:26; 42:5; 45:8,12;
Psalm148:4-5;
Hebrews1:1-4].
1.8
An EDUCATOR.
[Job28:28; Psalm119:66; Proverbs1:7; 2:5,6; 3:19-20; 9:10; Proverbs8:1-36; Job40:1-2; Job38:1-41; 39:1-30; & 41:1-34; Ecclesiastes2:26].
1.9
A HEAVENLY FATHER.
[Matthew5:45,48; 6:1,14; 6:26,32; 7:11,21; 10:33; 12:50; 15:13; 16:17; 18:10; 18:14,19,35; 23:9; Mark11:25,26; Luke11:13].
1.10
A JUDGE.
[Genesis16:5;
18:25; 31:53; Job23:7;
Psalm9:8; 10:18; 50:4,6].
1.11
A (THE) MESSIAH.
[Daniel 9:25-26; John1:41; 4:25-26].
1.12
A MILITARY COMMANDER.
[Joshua5:14,15;
1Samuel17:45;
2Chronicles13:12; Matthew26:53].
1.13
A MUSICIAN/MUSICOLOGIST.
[Genesis4:21;
Exodus15:1-2;
Deuteronomy31:19, 30; 1Samuel18:6; 1Chronicles15:16; 2Chronicles5:13; 34:12; Psalm144:9; 149:1-3; Amos6:5; Isaiah12:2; 42:10-13; Revelation5:9; 14:3; 15:3.
1.14
A PASTORAL COUNSELLOR.
[Psalm34:18; 147:2-3; Isaiah61:1].
1.15
A PHILOSOPHER.
[Job40:1-2;
38:1-41; 39:1-30; 41:1-34;
Proverbs8:1-30].
1.16
A PHYSICIAN.
[Psalm147:2-3; Isaiah53:5;
2Kings20:7; James5:16; Matthew8:7; 12:13].
1.17
A PROJECTS MANAGER.
[Genesis1:1; Hebrews1:1-4; Luke14:28-30].
1.18
A PROPHET.
[Genesis13:16; Job8:7; Ecclesistes3:11; Isaiah46:9-10,; 48:3; Matthew13:57; 14:5; 21:11,46; Mark6:4,15; Luke13:33; John4:19,44; Acts7:37].
1.19
A PROVIDER.
[Genesis13:16; Genesis22:8,14 (Jehovah-Jireh); Psalm65:19; Job38:41’ Proverbs6:8; Matthew6:28; 10:29,31; 12:27; Luke12:6-7; John1:29].
1.20
A QUANTUM PHYSICIST.
[Job32:8; 33:4; 34:14-15].
1.21
A (THE) SAVIOUR.
[2Samuel22:3;
Psalm17:7;
Isaiah43:3; 45:15,21; 49:26; 63:8; Jeremiah14:8; Hosea13:4; John4:42; Act5:31; 13:23; Ephesians5:23; Philippians3:20; 1Timothy1:1; 2:3-4; 2Timothy1:10; Titus1:3,4; 2:10,13; 3:4,6; 2Peter1:1,11; 3:2,18; 1John4:14; Jude1:25].
1.22
A SPACE TRAVELLER.
[Deuteronomy33:26;
2Kings6:17;
Psalm68:17;
104:13; Isaiah66:15; Daniel 7:13; Ezekiel 1:1-28; Matthew24:30-31; Mark13:26;
14:62; John14:1-3; 1Thessalonians4:16-18; Revelation1:7].
2. WHAT GOD HAS ACCOMPLISHED. The Bible says:
“For He [GOD THE FATHER] has delivered
us from the power of darkness and has translated us into the
kingdom of His dear Son [JESUS CHRIST]; in whom we have
redemption through His blood, the remission of sins. The Pre-eminence of Christ who is the image of the
invisible God, the Firstborn of all creation.”
[Colossians1:13-15MKJV].
3. THE WISDOM OF GOD.
“With Him is wisdom and strength; He has
wisdom and understanding.”
[Job12:13MKJV].
“I will bless Jehovah, who has given me
wisdom; my heart also instructs me in the nights … “To Him who by wisdom made
the heavens; for His mercy endures forever … He appoints the number of the stars; He calls them all by their
names. Great is our LORD, and of great power; There is no limit to His
understanding.
[Psalm16:7; 136:5; 147:4-5MKJV].
“For Jehovah gives wisdom; out of His mouth
come knowledge and understanding … He lays up sound wisdom for the righteous;
He is a shield to those who walk uprightly … Jehovah has
founded the earth by wisdom; by understanding He has founded the heavens.
[Proverbs2:6-7; 3:19MKJV].
“For the preaching of the cross is foolishness to those being lost,
but to us being saved, it is the power of God.
For it is written, "I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and I will set
aside the understanding of the perceiving ones. Where is
the wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the lawyer of this world? Has not God made foolish
the wisdom of this world? For since, in the wisdom of God, the world by wisdom did not know God, it pleased God by the
foolishness of preaching to save those who believe. For the Jews ask for a
sign, and the Greeks seek after wisdom; but we preach Christ crucified, to
the Jews a stumbling block, and to the Greeks foolishness. But to them,
the called-out ones, both Jews and Greeks, Christ is
the power of God and the wisdom of God.
But the
natural man does not receive the things of the
Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. But the
natural man does not receive the things of the
Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned
. [1Corinthians1:18-24;
2:14; 3:19-20MKJV].
“O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and
knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments, and His ways past finding
out!”
[Romans11:33MKJV].
Chapter 2
Cosmos or Chaos?
1. Defining
Cosmos & Chaos.
1.1 Cosmos:
“The word is generally used to suggest an orderly
or harmonious universe, as it was originally used by Pythagoras in the 6th
century B.C.”
[Merriam-Webster].
1.2 Chaos:
“A
confused mass or mixture … A state of things in which chance is supreme
especially: the confused unorganized state of primordial matter before the
creation of distinct forms … the inherent un predictability in the behavior of
a complex natural system …”
[Merriam-Webster].
2. What Christians believe. Christians
believe in Life-after-Death and that God (i.e., the ‘YHWH’ of
Moses and Mt. Sinai) created, maintains and manages the Universe (i.e., the
‘orderly and harmonious Cosmos’):
“Who has measured the waters
in the hollow of his hand, and measured out the heavens with a span? And who
has shut up the dust of the earth in a measure, and weighed the mountains in
scales, and the hills in a balance? … I have made the earth and created man on
it; I with My hands have stretched out the heavens; and all their host have I
commanded.”
[Isaiah40:12; 45:12MKJV].
3. What Atheist-Evolutionists ('Scientific Pantheists') believe. Atheist-evolutionists (scientific pantheists) ‘believe’ (!) in Death-after-Death and that the Universe (the ‘Chaos’, they should say) was created and is managed and maintained by the sheer serendipitous accident and random chance of ‘natural forces’ without any specific intelligently-designed reason or purpose in mind and without the help of any so-called ‘Intelligent Designer’ or ‘Almighty Creator’ (God).
4. Biogenesis vs. Spontaneous Regeneration. Christians
thus support the idea of biogenesis i.e. (perishable) ‘BIOS’
life driven and upheld by God’s pre-existing (imperishable) ‘ZOE’ Life. Thanks
to God’s ‘ZOE’ life, Jesus Christ was raised from the dead within only three
days, whereas evolutionists, after millions of years of so-called ‘evolution’
and centuries of the study of ‘Darwinism’, can still (at best) only promise us:
(i) Death-after-death.
(ii) a 100% mortality rate for all forms of life for every
generation alive on earth and with no better promise forthcoming; and
(iii) a membership card from your nearest atheist association or secular humanist society.
AUTHOR PROFILE
P. J. Stassen, born in 1947 in
Randgate, South Africa, holds a B.A. degree in Industrial Psychology &
Sociology (Industrial) from the University of South Africa. A former
businessman who, after mandatory military conscription, spent the first 12
years of his life in 1966 in the field of retail (Textiles & General
Dealer) in a family business begun by his father in 1964, thereafter worked at
various other jobs eventually arriving in the fulfilling position of a
corporate trainer with Kumba Resources (formerly Iscor Iron Ore Mine)
in the Bushveldt region of South Africa during the years 1986 and 1997. At the
time of his retirement in 2013 he was engaged in Occupational Health &
Safety Training in the corporate environment on a contract basis for a
Johannesburg company.
P.J. Stassen and his wife are both retired and live in Centurion, South
Africa after having also served in their capacities as gospel musicians
(pianist & organist respectively) in churches in some of South Africa’s nine
provinces, e.g., in places like Vanderbijlpark, Bloemfontein, Thabazimbi,
Sinoville and Centurion.
PUBLISHING DETAILS
TITLE: Christianity: Keeping
the Faith
FORMAT: Paperback
CHAPTERS: 52
PAGES: 212
WORD COUNT: 47 341
PUBLISHER: Amazon. PJ Stassen Author Page
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