Napoleon credits Christ

This is an excerpt from Jesus Among Other Gods, a book by Ravi K. Zacharias …

Jesus Among Other Gods: The Absolute Claims of the Christian Message
By Ravi K. Zacharias
Published by Word Pub., 2000
ISBN 084991437X, 9780849914379
195 pages

Yet, in an extraordinarily staggering statement about Jesus Christ, Napoleon said something that is almost unexcelled by any political leader. I quote it at length because of its incredible insight. I only wish I had had it with me when I met with these generals. Napoleon expressed these thoughts while he was exiled on the rock of St. Helena. There, the conqueror of civilized Europe had time to reflect on the measure of his accomplishments. He called Count Montholon to his side and asked him, "Can you tell me who Jesus Christ was?" The count declined to respond. Napoleon countered:

“Well then, I will tell you. Alexander, Caesar, Charlemagne and I myself have founded great empires; but upon what did these creations of our genius depend? Upon force. Jesus alone founded His empire upon love, and to this very day millions will die for Him. ... I think I understand something of human nature; and I tell you, all these were men, and I am a man: none else is like Him; Jesus Christ was more than man. ... I have inspired multitudes with such an enthusiastic devotion that they would have died for me ... but to do this it was necessary that I should be visibly present with the electric influence of my looks, my words, of my voice. When I saw men and spoke to them, I lighted up the flame of self-devotion in their hearts. . . . Christ alone has succeeded in so raising the mind of man toward the unseen, that it becomes insensible to the barriers of time and space. Across a chasm of eighteen hundred years, Jesus Christ makes a demand which is beyond all others difficult to satisfy; He asks for that which a philosopher may often seek in vain at the hands of his friends, or a father of his children, or a bride of her spouse, or a man of his brother. He asks for the human heart; He will have it entirely to Himself. He demands it unconditionally; and forthwith His demand is granted. Wonderful! In defiance of time and space, the soul of man, with all its powers and faculties, becomes an annexation to the empire of Christ. All who sincerely believe in Him, experience that remarkable, supernatural love toward Him. This phenomenon is unaccountable; it is altogether beyond the scope of man's creative powers. Time, the great destroyer, is powerless to extinguish this sacred flame; time can neither exhaust its strength nor put a limit to its range. This is it, which strikes me most; I have often thought of it. This it is which proves to me quite convincingly the Divinity of Jesus Christ.”

I lost my Son

This was an idea to show that God can relate with the grief we have over losing someone, including as a result of a tragedy or being the victim of a heinous crime. This case is a result of being falsely charged and executed.

I lost my son.

I watched him die.

There is nothing harder than burying a child, even if he was the age of a man. He will always be my son.

I watched the court prosecute him. The crowd demanding public execution. The magistrate wringing his hands…wringing his hands.

Then the final verdict, guilty. The crowd roared.

My son had watched his friends leave. At his arrest they fled. They abandoned him.

Some hid in the crowd pretending not to know him.

Then they led him away. The guards mocked him, taunted him and beat him. Over and over they beat him. In front of me.

He winced in pain, I could not do anything. I cried a deepest cry, inside. The pain, the anger. I was beside myself. My son. He winced in pain. They whipped him. Scores of flesh fell from his bones. The lines on his body, the bruises, blood everywhere. He winced in pain.

I watched as they led him away, they punched him and shoved him. He fell again and again. They spit on him and pulled out his hair. They ripped his beard off of his face.

The blood, he winced in pain. He shuddered. I shuddered, I held my head, I closed my eyes, yet I couldn't look away. I could still see him. My son.

He carried the very instrument of death for the officers. They mocked him, the crowed thronged upon him, yelling at him, and some cursed him. They spit on him again and again.

My angered roared. My sadness sickened. My depression great. My son, my son. I felt he was innocent. I knew he was innocent of the crimes they accused him of.

The blood spattered, he fell to his knees. The cross drove thorns in his back, what was left of his back. Bones exposed, muscles hanging, was he even a man?

They threw him to the ground. They hammered and laughed. They yelled in delight. They spit on him, they hurt him. My son.

I saw him struggle, to breathe.

They strung him up. They put him between two others. They were killing him. I watched. I felt numb, shocked.

They gave him vinegar when he cried for water. They laughed; they wanted to prolong his suffering.

The blood streamed down the cross, then seeped into the dirt. It cried out My name.

His mother watched, she stood at the edge of the crowd, where he could see her. In horror she watched the death of her son.

Some friends were there, most would not come forward to speak or be seen. I saw them watching my son die.

He cried for me, I could not do anything, but look away. It was almost too much to bear.

The darkness, the dank, the vile and the destructive. The sin, the death. He felt it all. My Son.

The weight of everything belonging to everyone even the world itself, the very thing He created. The people rejected him, the very ones He created.

With one last declaration he gave up His ghost. His body went limp. The blood spilled and flowed. Broken, poured out. His head went down.

It grew cold, the sky grey, the thunder roared, the earth shook, my anger burned.

The guard stuck him with a spear just to make sure. Water and blood streamed from his chest.

They killed my son. I watched the whole thing, yet couldn't do anything.

That day I buried my son.

Will you come honor my son?

Romans 5:19 For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so also by one Man’s obedience many will be made righteous.

Joh 8:58 Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Before Abraham was, I am.

Isa 40:22 It is he that sitteth upon the circle of the earth, and the inhabitants thereof are as grasshoppers; that stretcheth out the heavens as a curtain, and spreadeth them out as a tent to dwell in:

The monkey believed in him first...

Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium, cool movie. Dustin Hoffman is a legend.

The movie shows a little sock monkey who desperately wants a hug from a non-believing accountant. My daughter spoke with the wisdom from the Ancient of Days stating, the monkey believed in him first (referencing the accountant). Isn't that the truth? The monkeys believed in God who created man first before humanity started believing in the monkeys.

Evolution teaches that we evolved from the critters, from amoebas and then finally monkeys. I heard a preacher say once that if you believe first there was spineless slime… Then the slime critter formed a backbone and over millions of years eventually crawled out of the ocean and started climbing trees, hopping around or walking around. Then eventually the critter started to look like man and then eventually evolved into man… Well that takes more faith to believe in something as random as that than to believe in God as a creator.

Given evolution is supposedly to have happened by chance after all… and the fact that there are so many other possibilities in the universe etc…

Well

I can grasp the concept, but doesn't it seem a little far fetched, no pun intended? Universe… far fetched… You get the picture… I just find it really interesting that we can understand most of the inner workings of a butterfly and say for example the construction of it’s wings, yet we can’t believe that someone greater than ourselves created the universe? Think about it and let me know… Even if you think I’m just ignorant… Educate me…

Peace

Genesis 1: 28 And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.

The monkey believed in him first...