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When I looked at my calendar this morning (as I write this, it is April 6, 1993), I saw that this day is marked as Passover. As a student of the Bible, I understand that Easter and Passover are linked. Easter is recognized as the celebration of the resurrection that occurred on the third day after Passover. As a student of church history, I also understand that the linkage was severed early in the history of a church that had lost its appreciation for where it had come from for less than Christian reasons.
Without going into that, I want to salvage something for our consideration. What I want to salvage is this: there is a deliberate, divinely-planned, linkage between the Jewish feasts and the significant events of the Church's history. Her Savior died on Passover; His Spirit was sent to her on Pentecost; and His coming for her will, more than likely, occur on the Feast of Trumpets. Two of these phenomenal things are past. History. The third is future. Prophecy.
In the articles to follow I would like to remind you of the history and the promises of the prophecies.
Christianity is rooted in history that was once prophecy. It is the only approach to God, of all the religions of this world, that was predicted before it was history. It is this that gives Christians the confidence that theirs is the correct way of approach to God. There are countless religions in this world. Most of them are regional paganisms that cannot stand the test of time. They hold sway over their regions, but they are vulnerable to exposure as fraudulent once they break out of their geographical boundaries and come into contact with the broader world.
However, there are three major monotheistic competitors for the loyalties of men that have broken out of their original boundaries and still hold millions in their doctrinal systems: Judaism, Islam, and Christianity. If we can lay aside our questions about the lesser paganisms, we still have to ask ourselves which of these three is really the one true approach to God. To this task we can bring three disciplines: ethics, logic, and history. By the careful application of these three we can make very sure which is truth and which is simply a competitor that has no real status before God.
To summarize what I will write in the articles to come by the grace of God, let me simply say that Christianity is the Truth because it alone teaches an ethic of love that is sufficient for the Truth; it alone maintains itself in a logic that is sufficient for the Truth; and it alone had a prophetic identity before it had a historical identity that fit the prophecies.
There is a way to know the true God. It is not the way of prejudice (I was born into the true religion), tradition (we have always sought God according to these precepts), or dogmatism (our church has the inspired truth). It is the way of inquiry in the search for Truth. God said, "You shall find Me when you seek for Me." A solid promise that ought to evoke a determined search.
Do you really want to find Him?