The name of Christian is extinct – This is the English translation of the very words chiseled on a monument erected many centuries ago by a Roman Emperor named Diocletian. He was known for his hatred of Christianity. The monument I’m referring to was actually mounted on top of a burnt bible. His hatred of the Christian faith was that tangible.

The hatred of Christianity is not a new thing. It did not start with Diocletian and it certainly hasn’t stopped with him. Many have tried to declare Christianity extinct. Many have predicted the demise of the faith. Many have concluded that emerging knowledge and enlightenment will lead followers to conclude that Christianity is for the weak.

Many have been wrong! The Christian faith has survived thousands of years of persecution and attack from intellectuals. The Christian faith has been through more challenges than any other faith in the human existence and yet, billions still profess to be Christ followers. Christianity has outlived many so-called great men who took it upon themselves to kill the faith.

The Jewish High Priests and Sanhedrin tried to stop Christianity right at its inception. Some of the Roman Emperors despised what Christians stood for and fed them to lions at the Coliseum. Peter Berger, who was once a former president of the Society for the Scientific Study of Religion, said that, “People will become so bored with what religious groups have to offer that they will look elsewhere.” He also said Protestantism “has reached the strange state of self-liquidation,” that Catholicism was in severe crisis, and anticipated that “religions are likely to survive in small enclaves and pockets” in the United States. He made those predictions in February 1968.

Many continue to pronounce God as being dead but He keeps proving them wrong all the time. I believe that God would like to see the death of organised religion as we know it. Jesus did not come that we may have organised religion and have it more abundantly! He came that we may have life. His life, drawn from a direct and vibrant relationship with God Himself by faith in His Son. That kind of Christianity will never die because it is based on a personal relationship with God. No one can take that away from you and I regardless of what level of logical arguments oppose our beliefs.

The truth can never become extinct. The truth out lives anything that comes its way. Truth emerges out of the rubble of lies and deceit. Truth brings the kind of light that overpowers the darkness. Truth smashes through all obstacles and stands tall for all to see. Truth makes no apologies for what it is. Christianity is not based on facts but on Truth. What is Truth? Jesus is Truth and He lives forevermore. Extincto nomini christianorum? I don’t think so sir!

Related articles

• …No Christianity At All (reformedreader.wordpress.com)
• Douglas Groothuis’ exhortation to Christians to study apologetics (winteryknight.wordpress.com)