The foundation of Christianity is the thirty-three year visit that the Son of God paid us at and about the city of Jerusalem in a region of the earth known as the Middle East more than two thousand years ago. At Bethlehem, the most Holy Trinity delivered to us a love note. They put a love note into our hands. The Son of God was the love note. Thirty-three years later, at Calvary, the Son of God gave us His personal guarantee that the love note was genuine. Calvary was the highlight of the Visit. We tortured and killed the Son of God. If the love note was counterfeit, it would have faded as we tortured Him and died when we killed Him. But it did not. It survived. The survival of the love note despite the brutal baptism into which we immersed Him is the guarantee that the love note was genuine. Two significant gifts were given to us during the thirty-three year visit: 1) a love note and 2) a guarantee that the love note was genuine. Two significant gifts not one.
Reality is reliable. We can depend on the reality of his love for us. His love for us is the rock on which the wise build their lives. Whom shall we fear? Of whom shall we be afraid? Will our almighty lover ever let us down? Will he ever disappoint?
To neutralize the the serpent’s anti-God propaganda, Jesus commandeered a cross - the instrument of our woe - and repurposed it to offer us a contradiction.
Armageddon is here and now. We are not fighting for something in the hereafter. The battle is now. Now is the time to join Jesus in the scrum at the line of scrimmage in the Valley of Tears facing off against Evil toe to toe, cheek to jowl. Christianity is not a sport for spectators. Christians partake in the fray.
