"Don't Judge A Philosophy By It's Abuse"
Above is the painting called, "The Prince of Peace". It was painted by eight year-old Akiane Kramarik. Whenever I think of Jesus Christ I always picture this painting in my head. This is the face that I see; the eyes that I look into. I recall the scriptures that speak of the nature of Jesus and the love He held for everyone. Jesus died for all of us; sometimes it is crazy to think of Him taking my punishment. It really is crazy, but it is also perfect, the perfect plan.
The quote above comes from Dr. Ravi Zachrias. A very well-spoken man and a great defender of the faith. His apologetics are out-standing. This certain quote comes from a forum he had at the University of Kentucky. Many people asked questions about Christianity and Jesus and Ravi answered them all very well. Ravi gave a lecture before the Q&A opened up and he was stating the reasons why he wasn't an atheist. One of the reasons happened to be that you can't get morals from merely nature itself, basically you can't get morals from nothing. Even though atheists claim this is possible and that nature and aquired experience is where we truly get our morals from.
A certain person, when asking a question, went on a bit of a rant accusing Christians of immorality because of the Crusades. Those times were so dark and they are so clouded also, everyone most of time comes out with the wrong judgement of that period and the Christians that lived during that time. Ravi answered the young man with a bit of a history lesson on how the people of that time made the biggest mistake in making the Church political. A political institution. Suddenly the teachings of Jesus Christ didn't matter anymore, it was all about politics and misinterpretation of the Word of God. The lack of literacy among the people did not help matters either. His final statement to the questioner was, "Don't judge a philosophy by it's abuse." In other words; look at Jesus, not at Christiandom or the supposed followers of Christ. Because if you are a true follower of Jesus Christ you would be completely against the idea of the Crusades, the buying of indulgences, and tendency to fall into ignorance.
People forget that there was a Reformation for a reason. I know I am probably preaching to the choir on this one, but fix your eyes upon Jesus not on those who claim to follow Him. I always used to think it was a great idea to model myself after C.S. Lewis or another "great Christian", but that is completely wrong. In fact, that is idolatry. Model yourself after Jesus Christ, the Holy One! After all the word Christian means, "little Christ".
