Christian Author Discussed Nature Of Christ

An abstract is the essence of something. This idea of essence was certainly the theme of the night as Christian author Rick James made a guest appearance at Virginia Tech's Squires Colonial this week to talk about his new book, “Jesus Without Religion.”

An art major and former television commercial producer, James said he decided to go into ministry, specifically student ministry, because he wanted to feel he was making a difference. Currently, James uses his artistic skills to produce materials for campus ministries that are geared towards students.

He also conducts tours speaking and giving presentations at various college campuses. “I hate speaking, but it seems to be how God has worked in my life,” James explained.

Nothing in this presentation suggested that James hated speaking. He began by stating that culture too often affects how people view Jesus, and that he wanted the context of the evening to focus on who Jesus really was, or his essence.

James used several abstract ideas and metaphors to explain passages from the Gospel of Mark in a very literal way.

The common idea as he analyzed passage after passage was that through looking literally at the Bible, it is clear that Jesus made a claim to deity. To many Christians, who believe in the trinity of God the Father, God the Spirit, and God the Holy Son, this idea is quite unconventional, James said.

“In every gospel in the Bible, whether you believe them to be truth or not, Jesus claims He is the Messiah," James said. "He is literally the bridge between God and man.”

James linked this back to other religions in saying that humans sense a distance between them and whatever god they believe in, and all religions are based on closing that distance and building a bridge to get back to their god.

James offered an abstract explanation of faith. He answered the question that so many ask: if Jesus is so real and powerful, why doesn’t he just show himself? “His absence is more important at times than His presence,” James said. James argued that no human could ever experience faith and undergo a spiritual journey if Jesus were present.

James used the analogy of the many miles between Earth and the sun to explain the perfection of distance. If the sun were any closer, Earth would burn under its strong rays; conversely, if it were any further, it would never be seen.

“We live in a perfect world for a spiritual journey primarily because of God’s distance. We live in a perfect world for freedom…that is exactly how God wants it,” James explained.

“We all believe what we want to believe and then we find facts to back it up," he added. "In this environment, your heart is free to feel and believe what it wants.”

James said that people are going to believe what they want. If people believe in evolution, they will only see the scientific facts that prove it. However, if people have faith in God, they will be able to find evidence in everything, he said.

“He is not only truth but he is beauty,” he said of Jesus and his subtle communication throughout the Bible.

James highlighted the importance of aesthetic knowledge in understanding the Bible. “Logic is not the only way of knowing…there is a certain aesthetic wisdom. There are things about God you will never see with logic.”

He related this aesthetic knowledge to poetry. “It is a different manner of communication, one that requires a heart to know the truth and to discern meaning,” he said.

Many people, he said, consider the Bible to be a scientific and historical textbook-type document, when in reality the genre of the book must be taken into consideration when interpreting. James argued that much of the Bible is written poetically.

James used humor and analogies and metaphors and even modern pop culture references to explain his messages to the group of 500-600 students that attended his presentation.

“I like the fact that he is kind of unconventional in most people’s eyes about what a Christian speaker is. He is very funny and very in tune to what society is into,” said Virginia Tech senior and Campus Crusade for Christ event contact person Kelsey Haynes.

Junior Ashley Thompson said, “He did a good job speaking the truth about who Jesus is in a touching way.”

“He made everything really understandable and brought it to a level that was easy to comprehend,” agreed junior Matt Murch.

After his lecture, James conducted a question and answer session during which students asked many difficult, philosophical questions. Despite the sensitive nature of their subject, James answered all the questions to the best of his ability. If he did not know something, he simply communicated that he was unsure. “I really like how honest he was even when he didn’t know the answers to some of the hard questions asked,” Haynes said.

James left his audience with an evangelical outreach on the “incredible security” of Christianity. “The essence of most religion is that if you do A, B, C and D, the god of that religion will forgive you. God’s message was because you are forgiven, he will give you A, B, C and D.”