Here’s my attempt to explain the Christian Worldview in less than four-hundred words. This activity helps you share what you believe when there isn’t much time to do so. Try it out!

Christianity is a monotheistic, supernatural, historical, evidence-based worldview centered on the historical person Jesus Christ rather than a system of ethics. Believing in Jesus Christ and the evidence (Scriptural, Historical, Miraculous) which supports his identity and work is the key to understanding this worldview.

Creation was made and is sustained by one eternal triune God (Father, Son, Holy Spirit), perfect in truth, power, goodness and love. It follows that creation is good. Humanity was made in God’s image. So, humanity was created good. Free will is a good thing given to people by God, but humanity used it to disobey him. God’s commands are not separate from his goodness. This level of goodness demands judgment when violated. But because he is love, God planned to save humanity before its creation and eventual disobedience. Salvation centers on the life, crucifixion, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. And through him, God enters our suffering, pays for our transgressions, and gives believers power to live morally upright.

All of humanity finds its meaning and purpose in knowing God in truth, glorifying (revealing) him in obedience, and worshiping him in love. God discloses himself to those who seek him in truth. Individuals who know him will understand their life’s general and specific purpose.

Right and wrong are knowable through God and his commands. There is also an intuitive or experiential disconnect between people’s knowledge of righteousness and their inability to live it out perfectly. Human disobedience echoes a sense of God’s moral standard in a feeling of guilt or shame when personally broken; or outrage and injustice when the standard is broken against them.

Human destiny extends beyond the life of the physical body. God’s judgment is coming to humanity for sin. Individuals who admit their sin, receive the Savior Jesus, and keep following him will live forever with God. Suffering and pain will be removed from creation at a point in the future. Individuals who persist in sin and refuse the Savior will enter conscious, eternal punishment, separate from God.

-Marty Parker

I recently came across a question as to why Jesus had to die on a cross rather than by some other form of execution. So, I came up with a short list of some initial thoughts on this subject. I hope that you find them beneficial as you sort through the ultimate meaning of Christ’s crucifixion.

1. Execution by crucifixion satisfies the brutality foisted upon the ‘Suffering Servant’ in Isaiah 52:13-53:12 (read Psalm 22 as well) depicted according to Bible prophesy. The way I use the term Bible prophesy here is to indicate God’s overall plan for saving humanity from sin and the obvious Biblical passages which support this.

2. Roman Crucifixion is an official, public, shameful condemnation of the one being crucified. While this display of justice is over-the-top by today’s standards, there is no ambiguity about what is being communicated and accomplished by crucifixion.

3. Not only did the Crucifixion of Jesus match OT prophesy, it also specifically fulfilled the content of what John the Baptizer preached as it related to the then Jewish Sacrificial System. “Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world (John 1:29)!” John the Baptizer’s message and persona were well known throughout the Jewish community in Jesus’ time and he was recognized as a prophet. It’s not surprising then that what happened to Jesus would match John the Baptizer’s admonition. There are also many  OT sacrificial images that fit the content of Jesus’ execution (i.e. being crucified outside Jerusalem, see Hebrews 13:11-14).

4. The Cross makes the most sense in terms of the lengths God will go to reestablish fellowship with people. Christian apologist Vince Vitale, indicates that the act of crucifixion is a dramatic display of God’s love for sinful people. Another Christian apologist, Michael Ramsden, elucidates that the Crucifixion of Christ Jesus reveals the mercy of God exercised through justice. God is just and holy so He could not let sin exist in His presence forever without condemnation; but because He is love, God aimed for reconciliation.

5. Also, one of my classmates indicated that Jesus was exonerated by Pilate before being unjustly executed (Luke 23). This point synthesizes the previous points quite nicely. There is nothing more painful than the public execution of an innocent man in fulfillment of God’s justice for the mercy of sinful people.

-Marty Parker