CHAPTER XXXI
THE BIRTH OF CHRISTIANITY
The teachings of Jesus. Great trading routes had converged upon Jerusalem and the Jews had long carried on an extensive commerce with distant countries. Wealth poured from all quarters and the rich accumulated vast fortunes. Side by side with all this opulence, there was growing in large towns a propertyless, proletarian, discontented class. The Romans were drawing vast numbers under their yoke of slavery. Discontent with life upon earth was increasing among the helpless population. God had destined man to reap happiness upon earth, but through the life of inequity and sin, man had lost his fellowship with God the Father. Out of compassion for his erring children, God became man in Jesus. He alone among all, it was given out, could secure forgiveness of man's sins from God as the mediator and restore him to divine fellowship Jesus lived and suffered, and by his supreme sacrifice of dying as ransom for humanity, he undertook to save and redeem mankind.
The world was in great peril and there was no hope that man could save it. Superhuman help alone could revive its dying hope. God loved the world and therefore sent Jesus so that it might be saved through him. The Saviour of the world speaks authoritatively not only as a messenger or a prophet of God, but in the person of God so that despairing humanity may find supremest consolation. Jesus knows God, and is from him. Furthermore, he asserts that he and his Father are one, the Father being in him and he in the Father. It is the Father who dwells in him that does the works that Jesus seems to be doing. He owns those as his kith and win who do the will of his Father. They alone will enter the Kingdom of Heaven after death. Jesus promises eternal life to those who sacrifice their all to follow in his steps. God is a spirit. He does not relish burnt offerings and sacrifices. He demands that man shall worship him in spirit. He is merciful, forgiving, and just. He makes
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