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Two thousand years... from what?
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“It’s been said”
“There are millions of people in this country who have been touched somehow by Jesus Christ. The year 2000 is a unique anniversary of the arrival of Jesus in the history of the world. Why wouldn’t we want to celebrate that?” – Gary Walsh, President, Evangelical Fellowship of Canada
“Hope is tough for most people these days. The media see the year 2000 primarily as a plague of computer glitches. People are more aware now that technological quick-fixes leave some of the world’s deep wounds very much unfixed – wounds made by injustice, by indifference, by contempt. . . . The gospel we’re celebrating assures us that there’s unbounded forgiveness; so we’ll trust that, and ask God for a fresh start for each other and for the whole world. Hope really can be reborn.” – Janet Somerville, Canadian Council of Churches
In the United States, the business of freezing bodies in the hope of later resurrecting them continues to grow. So-called “afterlife insurance” is the latest fad in the financial services industry. An insurance broker in San Francisco has sold more than 200 contracts to people hoping to be frozen. Alcor Life Extension Foundation, based in Scottsdale, Ariz., says it charges $50,000 to freeze a head and $120,000 for a whole body. Alcor says it has 35 people frozen, with another 400 on a waiting list. – Pulse News, Dec. 18, 1999
“We’ve taken God and prayer out of the schools. . . . Those kids had no value for life because they haven’t been taught about God.” – Bill Davenport, a Baptist pastor, commenting on the Littleton, Colorado school massacre
“Children learn that eternity must not be important, because it is not being taught (in schools). . . . Then why should we be surprised when children embrace death?” – Marshall Fritz, director of the US-based Separation of School and State Alliance
“May God have mercy on this broken society and all the hurting people in it. . . . Lots of things have to change in our society. Lots of things need to be healed.” – Anglican minister Dale Lang, after the shooting death of his son Jason in a high school in Taber, Alta.
During the 1998 professional baseball playoffs, players, managers and owners complained about the frustrating lack of consistency in umpires’ calls. What is a strike and what is a ball seemed to change from game to game. An unnamed executive with one major league team vented to Sports Illustrated, “What bothers me is this idea of my strike zone, like it’s a personal choice. It’s not your strike zone. There’s only one strike zone, and it’s in the rule book.” There has to be a common understanding of the rules or the game doesn’t work. Similarly, God’s “rule book” (the Bible) is essential for the game of life to work. Yet, in a relativistic culture, people treat morality as simply a personal choice. God’s rules exist to eliminate frustration – not create it. – Plugged In, Jan. 15, 1999
“To a world ruled by fate and the whims of capricious gods, Christianity brought the promise of everlasting life. . . . The Romans threw people out into the street at the first symptoms of disease, because they knew it was contagious and they were afraid of dying,” says [sociologist Rodney] Stark [of the University of Washington]. “But the Christians stayed and nursed the sick. You could only do that if you thought, ‘So what if I die? I have eternal life’.” – “2000 Years of Jesus”, Newsweek, March 29, 1999
“In the New Testament, you find Jesus more among the beggars than the rulers, the sick than the healthy, the women and children than the conquerors, the prostitutes and lepers than the holy people.” – Martin Marty, director of the Public Religion Project at the University of Chicago, cited in Newsweek, March 29, 1999
“It can be said . . . that Christianity ‘discovered’ the individual. In the ancient world, individuals were recognized as member of tribes or nations or families. . . . But the Gospels are replete with scenes in which Jesus works one on one, healing this woman’s sickness, forgiving that man’s sins and calling each to personal conversion. He invites Jews and Gentiles alike to enter God’s kingdom.” – “2000 Years of Jesus”, Newsweek, March 29, 1999
“I thought fame and success would solve your problems, that there would be a sense of peace or self-esteem raised by having all this external success. So the question became, ‘If not this, then what can make me feel connected?’ ” – Rock singer Alanis Morissette, reflecting on her depression after the success of her 1995 CD, Jagged Little Pill
“I am a tribal leader. . . . I looked at what all the other religions, including Hinduism, had to offer and chose Christ because He made a difference in my life.” – Anand Jojo, a Christian in India, quoted in Compass Direct news service
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