© 1959 William S. Sadler
The gospel is: the fact of the fatherhood of God, coupled with the truth of the sonship-brotherhood of men. UB 194:0.4
Unintentionally, some facts associated with the gospel were substituted for the gospel message. UB 194:0.3
Only baptism was required for admission to the Jesus brotherhood. UB 194:4.9
The Lord’s Supper was celebrated at the end of a fellowship meal. UB 194:4.8
At Pentecost, Peter really founded the Christian church. UB 195:0.1
Paul’s adaptations of Jesus’ gospel were superior to all other religions. UB 121:5.13
Philo’s teachings had considerable influence on Paul. UB 121:6.5
It was the second century before Greco-Roman culture turned to Christianity. UB 195:0.4
The Christians made shrewd bargains with the pagans, but did not do so well with the Mithraics. UB 195:0.11
The early plan of Christian worship followed the synagogue and Mithraic rituals. UB 195:3.6
The Christian concept of God combines three ideas.
Hebrew concept—God a vindicator of moral values—a righteous God.
Greek concept—God as a unifier—a God of wisdom.
Jesus’ concept—God as a living friend, a loving Father. UB 5:4.10
Christianity is a religion about Jesus, modified by much theology. UB 92:6.18
Early Christianity and Mithraism had many things in common. UB 98:6.3
Paul’s theology was based on Jesus’ life, but was also influenced by the Greeks and the Stoics. UB 121:7.7
Christ becomes the creed of the new fellowship. UB 194:4.6
Abner’s more authentic version of the gospel made little progress. UB 195:1.11
¶ III. INFLUENCE OF THE GREEKS AND ROMANS
The Greek Stephen’s death led to the organization of the first church at Jerusalem. UB 194:4.12
Greek culture was quick to embrace Christianity as a new and better religion. UB 195:1.5
Christians accepted the Roman Empire; the empire adopted Christianity. UB 195:3.1
Conditions at Rome were favorable for the adoption of a new religion. UB 195:3.2
The church, becoming an adjunct of society and an ally of politics, was doomed to suffer during the “dark ages.” UB 195:4.1
Viewing what Christianity has endured indicates great inherent vitality. UB 195:4.4
Christianity now faces the gigantic struggle between the secular and the spiritual. UB 195:4.5
Religion needs new leaders—men who will depend solely on the incomparable teachings of Jesus. UB 195:9.4
The hour is striking for the rediscovery of the original foundations of Christianity. UB 195:9.5
Christianity has become a social and cultural movement as well as a religion. UB 195:9.11
Christianity is handicapped because it sponsors a society which staggers under a tremendous overload of materialism. UB 195:10.20
Christianity is threatened by the doom of one of its own slogans: “A house divided against itself cannot stand.” UB 195:10.11
But Christianity contains enough of the teachings of Jesus to immortalize it. UB 195:10.18
The hope of Christianity is that it shall learn anew the greatest of all truths—the fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of man. UB 195:10.21
If man were only a machine, he could not formulate his materialistic concepts. UB 195:7.3
Machines do not struggle to find God nor strive to be like him. UB 195:7.14
Man exhibits the control attributes of mind and the creative qualities of spirit. UB 195:7.9
Religion is not so much concerned with science, morality, and philosophy—as it is with the scientist, the moralist, and the philosopher. UB 195:7.18
Secularism broke the bonds of church control, and now threatens to establish a new and godless control of men. UB 195:8.1
World wars are the result of overdoing the secularistic revolt. UB 195:8.13
Secularism discards ethics and religion for politics and power. UB 195:8.11
Materialism denies God, secularism simply ignores him. UB 195:8.5
The majority of Christians are unwittingly secularists. UB 195:8.3
Jesus is the new and living way whereby man comes into his divine inheritance. UB 101:6.17
Men evade the religion of Jesus for fear of what it will do to them and with them. UB 195:9.6
The apostles were demoralized by the Master’s death. UB 194:4.1
Comes the resurrection—God is no longer a doctrine in their minds; he has become a living presence in their souls. UB 194:4.2
Paul’s Christianity made sure of the divine Christ, but almost wholly lost sight of the human Jesus. UB 196:2.4
Jesus founded a religion of personal experience in doing the will of God; Paul founded a religion for the worship of the glorified and risen Christ. UB 196:2.5
Jesus did not found the Christian church, but he has fostered it. UB 195:10.9
The Oriental peoples do not know that there is a religion of Jesus as well as a religion about Jesus. UB 195:10.15
The time is ripe for the figurative resurrection of the human Jesus from the burial tomb of theologic traditions and religious dogmas. UB 196:1.2
You can preach a religion about Jesus, but you must live the religion of Jesus. UB 196:2.1
The New Testament is a superb Christian document, but it is only meagerly Jesusonian. UB 196:2.1