To whom was Saint Paul writing when he sent his letter to the Romans.  We know his audience was the fledgling church started in Roman, but who started the Church and did Paul have a particular person in mind when he wrote the letter.  We know that Paul did not personally start this church because he laments about his lack of opportunity to visit Rome.  At the time the letter to the Romans was written, Paul had still never been to Rome. So who was the founder of the church in Rome?  Was it Peter, the apostle to the Hebrews? Would Paul write such a letter like romans to Peter?  I think not.  We know from ancient sources that a large population of Jews lived in Rome in the early first century. As early as 59 B.C., Cicero offered his opinion on the Jews: “You know what a big crowd it is, how they stick together, how influential they are in informal assemblies… every year it was customary to send gold to Jerusalem on the order of the Jews from Italy and from all our provinces.” Cicero, Flac. 28.66 (Lord, LCL). Philo of Alexandria, Egypt, a Jewish historian who died around 50 A.D., commented about the Jews of Rome. “[T]he great section of Rome on the other side of the Tiber is occupied and inhabited by Jews, most of whom were Roman citizens emancipated. For having been brought as captives to Italy they were liberated by their owners and were not forced to violate any of their native institutions…. [T]hey have houses of prayer and meet together in them, particularly on the sacred Sabbaths when they receive as a body of training in their ancestral philosophy … [T]hey collect money for sacred purposes from their first-fruits and send them to Jerusalem by persons who would offer the sacrifices.” Philo, Legat. 155-156 (Colson, LCL). Philo also mentioned the reason that most of these Jews now lived in Rome: their ancestors had been forcibly taken to Rome as slaves when the Roman General Pompey captured Jerusalem in 63 B.C.  Once freed, the Jews bore the title libertini.
            It is thought that during the reign of Claudius (A.D. 41-54), the Roman Emperor issued an edict either forbidding the Jews to congregate or expelled them altogether from Rome.  Luke seems to confirm this in Acts 1:1-2. “Paul left Athens after this, and went to Corinth.  Here he met a Jew named Aquila, born in Pontus, who, with his wife Priscilla, had lately come from Italy, when Claudius decreed that all Jews should leave Rome.” After Claudius’ reign, Nero became Roman Emperor from 54 to 68 A.D.  We know that Nero considered the Christians a Jewish cult and that the Jews incited Nero to persecute the Christians.  Paul arrived in Rome as a captive from Jerusalem during the reign of Nero and is believed to have been executed by order of Nero during his second captivity.
            From Paul’s greetings in Rom 16, we can discern the existence of several gatherings of Christians in the city. Rom 16:3-4 speaks of the church in the house of Prisca and Aquila, who must have returned to Rome from Corinth after their encounter with Paul in Corinth.  Also note the long list of fellow Jews mentioned in chapter 16 as fellow workers for Christ.  With all this said, no one really knows who was the first to preach Christ in Rome, but we can be fairly certain that it was a converted Jew who had exposure to the teachings of Christ in Jerusalem and/or Antioch, the birthplace of Christianity.
            This article will take the position that Paul’s letter to the Romans was addressed specifically to Jews who were converted to Christianity, the elect, the large majority of whom formed the first Christian church in Rome. And according to Paul, the Israelites were the predestined race from the beginning of time.  Calvinists and many other varied protestant denominations believe that the final, eternal destination of each person on this earth was determined by God before the world was made. Each Gentile was either predestined for eternal salvation or eternal damnation.  Those foreordained for salvation are called the elect.  A Gentile can do nothing to change the plan God established for his or her life. These ideas were formulated from the writings of Saint Augustine of Hippo who lived from 354 A.D. to 430 A.D.  Be it resolved that no Gentile was sufficiently versed in ancient scripture and the new gospel to receive such a letter as Romans, therefore the intended audience were the Jews of Rome. It is further resolved if the letter to the Romans was addressed to Jews, then those whom Paul addressed as predestinated and elect throughout Romans was in fact the Jews, their ancestors and prophets.
            We know that Paul always began his preaching in a synagogue when he entered a new town.  It makes perfect sense, because who else accepted the idea of a one, true God and knew about the concept of a coming Messiah accept the Jews.  Paul would convert a few Jews and a Christian church was established, who in turn converted the Gentiles. So who was the first person to preach Christ in Rome?  It had to be a Jew, possibly even the Apostle Peter.  A Gentile Christian would never have an audience or the authority within a synagogue to form a church among the Jews in Rome.  So let’s look at Romans in greater detail to flesh out these ideas of predestination and election.
            As was customary in most of Paul’s letters, he most never addressed a particular person, but his letter was addressed to the church.  The letter to the Romans was typical, he addressed no one by name.  But throughout the letter his emphasis was toward his fellow Jews. This is revealed to us by the pronouns he used.  Paul placed the Jew in a prominent position in the opening chapter.  In Romans 1:16 he says the “gospel…. is an instrument of God’s power, that brings salvation to all who believe in it, Jew first and then Greek.”  Paul confirms my resolve that the Jews were his primary audience.  Paul was a Jew, Christ was a Jew, and the 12 apostles were Jews.  The Christian church was originated by Jews among Jews in Jerusalem and in Rome. 
            God picked the Jews as a chosen people from the beginning of time, or at least from the appearance of Abraham.  (Adam and Eve were probably Jews.)  Paul directly addressed these chosen Israelites in Romans 1:20-21. “[F]rom the foundations of the world men have caught sight of his invisible nature, his eternal power and his divineness,…Thus there is no excuse for them (Jews); although they had the knowledge of God, they did not honour him or give thanks to him as God; they (Jews) became fantastic in their notions, and their senseless hearts grew benighted.”  God’s mercy was first bestowed on the Jews. But their hearts grew cold and God administered justice. See what Paul says of the Jews in the following two verses. “And as they scorned to keep God in their view, so God has abandoned them to a frame of mind worthy of all scorn.” Romans 1:28.  “There will be affliction then and distress for every human soul that has practised wickedness, the Jew in the first instance, but the Gentile too; there will be glory and honour and peace for everyone who has done good, the Jew in the first instance, but the Gentile too.” Romans 2:9-10. The scorn dished out to the Jews caused God to extend mercy to the Gentiles, as the Prophets consistently preached would materialize in the future in the Old Testament and as Paul explained the current situation of the churches of his day.    The Jews continually disobeyed God in the Old Testament and consistently received justice under the Law as told in Romans 2:17-19. “Thou claimest Jewish blood; thou reliest on the law; God is all thy boast; thou canst tell what is his will, discern what things are of moment, because the law has taught thee. Thou hast confidence in thyself as one who leads the blind.”  Notice the use of the pronouns and how Paul is criticizing the Jews again for their boastfulness and pride in this passage and in Romans 2:24. “The name of God, says the scripture, has become a reproach among the Gentiles, because of you (Jews).”  In Romans 2:28-29 Paul consoles his fellow Jews. “To be a Jew is not to be a Jew outwardly; to be circumcised is not to be circumcised outwardly, in the flesh.  He is a Jew indeed who is one inwardly; true circumcision is achieved in the heart, according to the spirit, not the letter of the law.”  Paul displays the depths to which the Jews had sunk in their reliance on rituals. Then in Romans 3:1-2, Paul begins his message about the elevated position of the Jews in the eyes of God.  “Of what use is it, then, to be a Jew? What value was there in circumcision?  Much, I answer, in every respect; chiefly because the Jews had the words of God entrusted to them.” Here Paul states that the Jews were the depository of the word of God from the beginning of time because God predestined them as a chosen people. But as chosen people they stumbled according to Romans 3:5. “Thus our (Jews) fault only serves to bring God’s integrity to light. (Does that mean that God does wrong in punishing us (Jews) for it?”  Paul acknowledges that because of the failure of the Jews, God turned His gaze toward the Gentiles, but God did not abandon the Jew completely. “Well then, has either side the advantage? In no way. Jews and Gentiles, as we have before alleged, are alike convicted of sin.” Romans 3:9.  Both groups were frowned upon by God, the Jews because they disregarded the Law and the Gentiles because they were never predestined but were always heathens to begin with.  “So the law says, and we know that the words of the law are meant for the law’s own subjects.” Romans 3:19. Who are the subjects of the law but the Jews? The Jews were given the law so the Jews could obey. But in Romans 3:21 Paul convincingly states to his Jewish audience that God has extended his mercy to the Gentiles through Christ apart from the law. “But, in these days, God’s way of justification has at last been brought to light; one which was attested by the law and the prophets, but stands apart from the law.”  And in Romans 3:29-30 Paul questions his Jewish friends. “Is God the God of the Jews only? Is he not the God of the Gentiles too? Of the Gentiles too, assuredly; there is only one God, who will justify the circumcised man (Jew) if he learns to believe, and the Gentile because he believes.”  God planned all along to bring salvation through faith in Christ and not the law but the law had to be promulgated to establish a basis in faith. The Jews had to learn to believe in Christ because they had heretofore always believed in the law.  The Gentile who never had the law must simply believe Christ exists when told by Paul and others. Paul again asks his Jewish audience a question in Romans 3:31 “Does that mean that we (Jewish apostles) are using faith to rob the law of its force? No, we are setting the law on its right footing.” Here he is justifying the law to his Jewish audience while establishing a new law, faith. “All those who from the first were known to him (God knowing the chosen Israelites- predestination), he has destined from the first to be moulded into the image of his Son, who is thus to become the eldest-born among many brethren.” Romans 8:29.  According to God’s plan, the converted Jew would be the pattern for unbelieving Jews and the Gentiles. “Who will come forward to accuse God’s elect (the converted Jew), when God acquits us (the Jews)?” Romans 8:33.  The elect are the Jews who believe in Christ, not the Gentiles in Paul’s day or the Gentiles of our day. And Paul would give his life to save all of his Jewish brethren according to Romans 9:3-5. “[I]t has ever been my wish that I myself might be doomed to separation from Christ, if that would benefit my brethren, my own kinsmen by race. They are Israelites, adopted as God’s sons; the visible presence, and the covenant, and the giving of the law, and the Temple worship, and the promises, are their inheritance; the patriarchs belong to them, and theirs is the human stock from which Christ came.” But Paul knows and states to his Jewish audience that all Jews will not be converted, but only a remnant, the elect.  “Not all those who are sprung from Israel are truly Israelites; not all the posterity of Abraham are Abraham’s children; It is through Isaac, he was told, that thy posterity shall be traced.” Romans 9:6-7.  “The number of the sons of Israel may be like the sand of the sea, but it is a remnant that will be left.” Romans 9:27.  All Israelites were of the predestined race but only the Jewish believers in Christ are the elect.  “Every one who calls upon the name of the Lord will be saved.” Romans 10:13. “Tell me, then, has God disowned his people (the Jews)? That is not to be thought of. Why, I am an Israelite myself, descended from Abraham; Benjamin is my tribe.  No, God has not disowned the people which, from the first, he recognized as his (predestined).” Romans 11:1-2.   God chose or predestined the Israelites as His people, even though many have rebelled against God.  God didn’t chose the Akkadians, the Sumerians, the Egyptians, the Greeks, or the Romans.  He chose the descendants of Abraham because Abraham was righteous.  In Romans 11:4-5 Paul states that in the Old Testament period some Jews had remained righteous. “There are seven thousand men I have kept true to myself, with knees that never bowed to Baal.  So it is in our time; a remnant has remained true; grace has chosen it.” Who is this remnant in Paul’s time?  The converted Jew- the elect. And Paul describes the elected Jew. “What does it mean, then? Why, that Israel has missed its mark; only this chosen remnant has attained it, while the rest were blinded.” Romans 11:7.  No, just as in the old, in the new some are righteous still, of course they must believe. Can you see that Paul commands the Jew to be righteous and believe in Christ? “Tell me, then, have they stumbled so as to fall altogether? God forbid; the result of their false step has been to bring the Gentiles salvation, and the result of that must be to rouse the Jews to emulate them.” Romans 11:11. The Jews have not lost their rights to predestination but their non-belief in Christ has resulted in God’s gift of salvation to the whole world. In Romans 11:13-14, Paul turns his attention to a different audience. Paul’s whole discourse in Romans up to this point has been addressed to Jews but then his attention shifts. “(I am speaking now to you Gentiles.) As long as my apostolate is to the Gentiles, I mean to make much of my office, in the hope of stirring up my own flesh and blood (fellow Jews) to emulation, and saving some of them.” Paul is saying to the Gentiles that by converting the Gentiles, he will use his assignment to persuade his fellow Jews also.  Again he addresses the Gentiles.  “The branches (unrighteous Jews) have been thinned out, and thou (Gentiles), a wild olive, hast been grafted in among them (Jewish elect); sharest, with them, the root and the richness of the true olive.” Romans 11:17 “God was unforgiving with the branches (Israelites who rebelled) that were native to the tree, what if he should find occasion to be unforgiving with thee (Gentiles) too?” Romans 11:17.  Paul is saying that God forsook the unrighteous Jews and God can forsake unrepentant Gentiles too.  He again addresses the Gentiles. “In the preaching of the gospel, God rejects them (Israelites), to make room for you (Gentiles); but in his elective purpose (chosen people from the beginning of time) he still welcomes them (Israelites), for the sake of their fathers.” Romans 11:28.  And he again addresses the Gentiles.  “You (Gentiles) were once rebels, until through their (Israelites) rebellion you obtained pardon; they (Israelites) are rebels now, obtaining pardon for you (Gentiles), only to be pardoned in their turn.” Romans 11:30-31.  In Romans 15:4 Paul’s attention reverts back to his Jewish audience since the reference to his audience changes by the use of different pronouns.  “(See how all the words written long ago were written for our (Jewish) instruction; we were to derive hope from that message of endurance and courage which the scriptures bring us.)” Romans 15:4.  From this point to the end of Romans, Paul is addressing his Jewish audience again. “I would remind those who are circumcised (Israelites), that Christ came to relieve their (Gentiles) needs.” Romans 15:8.   “[A]nd again it (Deut. 32.43} says, ‘You too, Gentiles, rejoice with his own people’ (Israelites).”  Romans 15:10.  “It is not for me to give you (Jews) any account of what Christ has done through agents other than myself to secure the submission of the Gentiles (third person).” Romans 15:18.  “The Gentiles, if they have been allowed to share their (Jews) spiritual gifts, are bound to contribute to their (saints in Jerusalem) temporal needs in return.” Romans 15:27. Paul is again addressing his Jewish audience and validating the wish of the Gentiles to make offerings of their first fruits for the apostles in Jerusalem.
            Paul’s message in Romans was first and foremost to his Jewish Christian brethren in Rome but secondarily to a few of their Gentile companions.  Paul confirms clearly to me that he had great praise for his converted Jewish brothers and considered the Israelites the predestined race of humans from the beginning of time.  Paul also confirms to his Jewish bothers that God elected a remnant of converted Jews to bring light to the world.  The Gentiles, then and now, were not predestined or elected. We Gentiles are brought into the fold, through Christ, a Jew, all within the foreknowledge of God.
            Pride and the boastful side of life seem to have corrupted some “believers” today. You doubters, don’t be discouraged.  God calls all to be saved. And His grace will be given to you as soon as you fully commit your life to God and begin the work necessary to change your life from unbelief to belief with the help of God’s grace. We gentiles are not the predestined, chosen race or the elect, but God has extended his grace to us in order that all peoples in His creation may be saved from the damnation of Hell.

Calvinists and many other varied protestant denominations believe that the final, eternal destination of each individual was determined by God before the world was made. Each individual was either predestined for eternal salvation or eternal damnation.  Those foreordained for salvation are called the elect.  These ideas were formulated from the writings of Saint Augustine of Hippo who lived from 354 A.D. to 430 A.D. Augustine’s mother was a devout Roman Catholic and his father was a Roman pagan. After living a heathen life, Augustine converted to Christianity at the age of 31 and wrote extensively. Listed here are some of his writings on predestination and election.  “…Both the commencement of faith and perseverance to the end are gifts of God; and that it is impossible that God should not foreknow any of His future gifts, as well what should be given as to whom they should be given; and that thus those whom He delivers and crowns are predestinated by Him; they (the Pelagians) think it well to reply, ‘that the assertion of predestination is opposed to the advantage of preaching, for the reason that when this is heard no one can be stirred up by the incentives of rebuke.’  When they say this, ‘they are unwilling that it should be declared to men, that coming to the faith and abiding in the faith are God's gifts, lest despair rather than encouragement should appear to be suggested, inasmuch as they who hear think that it is uncertain to human ignorance on whom God bestows, or on whom He does not bestow, these gifts.’ Why, then, do they themselves also preach with us that wisdom and continency are God's gifts? But if, when these things are declared to be God's gifts, there is no hindrance of the exhortation with which we exhort men to be wise and continent; what is after all the reason for their thinking that the exhortation is hindered wherewith we exhort men to come to the faith, and to abide in it to the end, if these also are said to be God's gifts, as is proved by the Scriptures, which are His witnesses?” On the Predestination of the Saints (Book II), Chapter 43. Augustine had a deep desire to refute anything and everything the Pelagians held as true.  Because of this disdain, Augustine developed an unjustified theory of election and predestination to refute the Pelagian idea which held that the receipt of grace was based on merit. By trying to refute the idea of “saved by works,” Augustine created a heresy himself.

Does not God call all to be saved? Saint Augustine and many protestant denomination preach the doctrines of election and predestination based upon the misinterpretation of scripture by Augustine.  He becomes confused because he cannot justify free will.  According to Augustine, man cannot have the free will to believe in God (faith).  Faith is only given to individuals by God.  Individuals do not acquire faith on their own merit.  This gift of faith is the result of God’s grace.  (Most everyone will agree with these statements.) But then Augustine’s reasoning falls apart.  Because God gives this faith, God only gives to some and not others according to Augustine.  If you worked for this faith on your own or had any part in achieving your faith, you would be like God and God would not be omnipotent. And this dispensing of faith was determined at the beginning of time, at creation, according to Augustine.   “It is impossible that God should not foreknow any of His future gifts, as well what should be given as to whom they should be given; and that thus those whom He delivers and crowns are predestinated by Him.”  On the Predestination of the Saints (Book II), Chapter 43. This is where his arguments fall apart and lack any merit.   Why does God have to give this faith to believers only at creation (the beginning of time)?  God can still be omnipotent and give this faith to anyone He choose at any time He chooses. Augustine also confuses grace with faith and seems to imply that they are one and the same.  Some now define grace as the unmerited favor of God.  The grace of God is so much more.  Grace includes wisdom and knowledge of God’s truths wrapped in His glory in dazzling brilliance.   Faith is an undeniable and irrevocable belief in the existence of the Trinity and its power.

If the idea of predestination as preached by Augustine were true, the statement that ‘God wishes all to be saved’ cannot be true and will never come to fruition.  Only the predestined established with God’s foreknowledge at the beginning of time will be saved and that seems to exclude a lot of people.  Religion and preaching can have no effect.  Preaching and religion are worthless if predestination is true.  There is nothing you can say or do to change or convert any person in this world if predestination as preached by Augustine is true, and why would Augustine preach such doctrine?  Does he fear the lack of or ineptitude of God’s omnipotence?  Is God a lesser God if all are not saved?  What if someone who is predestined to be saved, dies as a worthless evil, unrepentant, fool?  Would such a death would question God’s omnipotence?  Augustine would say that that person was obviously not predestined by God?   Well who is Augustine to know God’s will for each individual person?  Is Augustine God?   How does one go about determining if he is predestinated anyway?  Are you listed in some book of life?  Has god revealed this to you?  Has God spoken to you with an audible voice? Are you 100% certain that you are saved?  How about a person who traipses around all his life declaring that he is predestined to be saved and goes to hell at his death?  Was God fooling this person all of this person’s life?  Or how about a person who declares that he is not predestined?  Can and should such a person do evil all of his life?  How about if he never repents or changes his evil ways and dies but finds out after death that he was predestined?  Will God let him into heaven? How about a person who thinks he is predestined and does good all his life only to find out at his death that he wasn’t predestinated or an elect?  Would a loving God refuse this person entrance into heaven?

Augustine seemed to know that his arguments did not hold water.  He addresses the error himself. “Now, therefore, the definite determination of God's will concerning predestination is of such a kind that some from unbelief receive the will to obey, and are converted to the faith or persevere in the faith, while others who abide in the delight of damnable sins, even if they have been predestinated, have not yet arisen, because the aid of pitying grace has not yet lifted them up. For if any are not yet called whom by His grace He has predestinated to be elected, they will receive that grace whereby they may will to be elected, and may be so; and if any obey, but have not been predestinated to His kingdom and glory, they are for a season, and will not abide in the same obedience to the end.” On the Predestination of the Saints (Book II), Chapter 58. At least Augustine recognized that the he nor anyone else has the power and authority to determine if one is predestined except the person himself.  You can be sure that Augustine considered himself predestined.  But was he?

Augustine is so ashamed of his theory that he sought to hide this preaching from his congregations.  “But now I marvel if any weak brother among the Christian congregation can hear in any way with patience what is connected with these words, when it is said to them, ‘And if any of you obey, if you are predestinated to be rejected, the power of obeying will be withdrawn from you, that you may cease to obey.’ For what does saying this seem, except to curse, or in a certain way to predict evils? But if, however, it is desirable or necessary to say anything concerning those who do not persevere, why is it not rather at least said in such a way as was a little while ago said by me—first of all, so that this should be said, not of them who hear in the congregation, but about others to them; that is, that it should not be said, ‘If any of you obey, if you are predestinated to be rejected,’ but, ‘If any obey,’ and the rest, using the third person of the verb, not the second? For it is not to be said to be desirable, but abominable, and it is excessively harsh and hateful to fly as it were into the face of an audience with abuse, when he who speaks to them says, ‘And if there are any of you who obey, and are predestinated to be rejected, the power of obedience shall be withdrawn from you, that you may cease to obey.’ For what is wanting to the doctrine if it is thus expressed: ‘But if any obey, and are not predestinated to His kingdom and glory, they are only for a season, and shall not continue in that obedience unto the end’? Is not the same thing said both more truly and more fittingly, so that we may seem not as it were to be desiring so much for them, as to relate of others the evil which they hate, and think does not belong to them, by hoping and praying for better things? But in that manner in which they think that it must be said, the same judgment may be pronounced almost in the same words also of God's foreknowledge, which certainly they cannot deny, so as to say, ‘And if any of you obey, if you are foreknown to be rejected you shall cease to obey.’ Doubtless this is very true, assuredly it is; but it is very monstrous, very inconsiderate, and very unsuitable, not by its false declaration, but by its declaration not wholesomely applied to the health of human infirmity.” On the Predestination of the Saints (Book II), Chapter 61.  Augustine would lie to the poor fellow who was repentant and obedient to God’s word, but who foolishly believed that he was predestined for salvation. Augustine never addresses the question of how he, Augustine, and the rest of humanity comes to the knowledge that one is predestined. Is there a list I am not privy to? Preaching the word of God does not make one predestined. In fact preaching this doctrine my expose boastfulness and a distance from God which any false idea of predestination will never rectify.

Then Augustine makes a strange statement. “Consequently sometimes the same predestination is signified also under the name of foreknowledge; as says the apostle, ‘God has not rejected His people whom He foreknew.’ Romans 11:2.  Here, when he says, ‘He foreknew,’ the sense is not rightly understood except as "He predestinated," as is shown by the context of the passage itself. For he was speaking of the remnant of the Jews which were saved, while the rest perished.” On the Predestination of the Saints (Book II), Chapter 47.  This statement sounds as if Augustine believed that a remnant of the Jews were predestinated to be saved. This is where Augustine brought in the confusion.  Augustine misinterpreted Paul’s letter to the Romans. Paul was addressing this elect, the Hebrew, in his entire Epistle to the Romans.  Every once and awhile he would focus on the gentiles, who were grafted into the tree of presedination. The Israelites were the predestined race from the beginning of time. These elect were mentioned throughout the Old Testament.   Paul was addressing the Jews throughout Romans.  He confirmed that the race of predestinated peoples from the beginning of time, the Israelites, forfeited their election to the gentiles by a greater desire for the Law instead of the desire of the spirit of Christ. Don’t believe me.  Look to the writings of Douglas Hamp.  Hamp graduated from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem with an M.A. in the Hebrew Bible and he specialized in ancient languages including Biblical Hebrew and Greek.  Hamp is a Christian, never a Jew.  He concludes that the elect discussed by Paul in Romans are the Israelites and the term has nothing to do with predestination to salvation.

Pride and the boastful side of life seem to have captured some “believers” today. You doubters, don’t be discouraged.  God calls all to be saved. And His grace will be given to you as soon as you fully commit your life to God and begin the work necessary to change your life from unbelief to belief with the help of God’s grace. We gentiles were not the chosen race, but God has extended his grace to us in order that all peoples in His creation may be saved from the damnation of Hell.

                Christians always read or hear that we should be just like Christ or imitate Christ.  Well what exactly did Christ do during his lifetime here on earth that we should pattern our life?  We know so little about his life, especially his childhood years, to give us direction.  We know that Mary and Joseph brought him to the temple when he was seven or eight days old and offered him to God.  He was circumcised.  We know Paul always preached that circumcision was a Jewish law which need not be followed by the Gentiles who believe in Christ.  Paul said take it or leave it.  Well if Christ was circumcised, then all males should be circumcised.  We also know that Christ studied the holy writs, the laws and scriptures of the Hebrews at a young age, twelve years old.  He was found in the temple with the Pharisees studying when his parents returned to Jerusalem looking for Him.  So we must study and read the bible to be like Christ.  And we must encourage our children to read the bible at a young age.  As soon as they can begin to read, they must be exposed to scripture in a children’s format of course. Christ was baptized by John. We must get baptized, men, women and children alike.  Christ called disciples and preached repentance. We don’t need to have disciples of our own but we do need to share the gospel with others and offer to others the repentance won by Christ.  Christ attended a wedding at Cana where wine was consumed.  Christ obeyed his mother and publicly performed His first miracle even though His time had not yet come.  Christ changed water into wine.  When His time did come, He changed wine into His blood and bread into His body.  We must participate in the Eucharist.  We know that Christ, Paul and the other apostles performed miracles.  This gift was given to these men directly from Christ.  Man cannot perform miracles any longer.  But miracles still happen today.  A person may completely recover from inoperable brain cancer after prayer to God or a saint.  But a living human being did not miraculously cure the cancer.  Some people claim they have the gift of healing physical ills.  That claim remains to be proven.  Miracles were performed during the days of Christ so a religion could be founded and a belief in Christ and God established.  We no longer need miracles to establish our faith.  The power of the Holy Spirit will cause you to believe.  When the spirit resides within, your body becomes a holy temple for the Trinity. Pursue the Spirit Christ offers.  Christ forgave people. We can and must forgive all who have transgressed against us. Christ healed and cured people, clothed the naked and feed the poor. We must do likewise.  Christ suffered.  He lived without a home of his own during his preaching and was feed by the generosity of others.  He was tortured severely by the Romans after his arrest and went through agonizing mental and physical abuse with a joyful heart.  We experience physical and emotional pain, but we must do it freely and lay the burden on the shoulders of Christ who will bear the load for us. Christ died on a cross for our sin. We must die to self and be reborn in a new life with Christ. This dying to self is the hardest challenge we humans face in the imitation of Christ. We seek to satisfy our own personal needs and desires in the pursuit of power, possessions and pleasure and fail to notice the Trinity standing right beside us who can overcome these unhealthy desires. Christ was resurrected from the dead. He conquered death for us, a death which previously resulted in eternal punishment.  Therefore we must prepare ourselves in this life to visit Christ in the next.  Our preparation requires us to rid ourselves of a long list of vices: abuse, addictions, adultery, aggression, agitation, alcoholism,  aloofness, anarchy, anger, animosity, apathy, approval-seeking, arrogance,  avarice, backbiting, bigotry, blasphemy, boastfulness, brutality, callousness, capriciousness, celebrity, chaos, chauvinism, complaining, conceit, condescension, conflict, confusion, conniving, contempt, contradiction, control, corruption, criticism, cruelty, cunning, cursing, cynicism, deceit, deception, delusion, derision, desecration, desire for fame, desolation, despair, deviance, discord, disrespect, disobedient, dominance, doubt, dysfunctionality, eccentricity, egotism, elitism, embarrassment, enmity, envy, evil desire, exaggeration, excessiveness, exploitation, extravagance, extremism, faithlessness, fame –seeking, fatalism, fear, fixations, folly, forgetfulness, fornication,  frailty, futility, gambling, gaudiness, gluttony, gossip, greed, grudges, guilt, hard-heartedness, hate, hatred, heresy, hoarding, hostility, humiliation, hypocrisy, hysteria, idolatry, ignorance, impatience, imprudence, impurity,  inattentiveness, incontinence, indecency, indecision, indifference, ingratitude, insatiability, insecurity, insidiousness, insult, intolerance, intimidation, intransigence, irresponsibility, irritation, jealousy, judgmental, know-it-all, laziness, lecherousness, lethargy, licentiousness, lies, loneliness, love of money, lust, lying, machismo, madness, maliciousness, malignancy, manipulation, masochism, materialism, meanness, mediocrity, mercilessness, misery, moodiness, naiveté, narcissism, nastiness, neediness, negativity, neurosis, nihilism, obsessive, obstinacy, oppressive, ostentatious, patronizing, pensiveness, perversion, pessimism, pettiness, pomposity, pornography, prejudice, presumption, pretense, pretentiousness, pride, procrastination, profanity, promiscuity, quarrelsome, racism, rage, rape, rapacity, rashness, recklessness, regret, rejection, remorse, resentment, revenge, ridicule, rigidity, rudeness, rumor spreading, ruthlessness, sarcasm, scandal, secrecy, seduction, self-centeredness, self-destructiveness, self-doubt, self-hatred, selfishness, self-pity, self-righteousness, sensationalism, sexual lust, shame, shamelessness, shyness, sin, skepticism, sloth, snobbery, spite, stinginess, stubbornness, stupidity, superficiality, superiority, suspicion, temper tantrums, terror, theft, timidity, torment, torture, treason, tyranny, ugliness, unkindness, unfaithful, uncharitable, vanity, verbosity, vindictiveness, violence, weakness, worry, wrath, xenophobia, yelling, and zealotry. Christ was none of these things. He was perfect and we must strive to be the same, perfect just like Christ.  This change is no easy task.  Somehow we acquired some or all of these vices throughout our lives so we can rid ourselves of them. But it takes conscience effort every minute of every day. One thing is for sure.  With Christ all things are possible.

                But what else can we assume Christ did?  We know that he loved people.  In fact he preached that we must love our neighbor as ourselves.  Christ loved all of humanity to the extent that he allowed himself to be put to a painful and physical death for us.  Who is your neighbor?  Is it just the family living next door to you in your neighborhood? Is it your extended family members and close friends? Your neighbor is every human being on this planet and you must love them as you love yourself.  You might think that such love would be impossible.  It wasn’t for Christ in his human nature.  You can love a complete stranger just as easily and as much as you love your father, mother or child if you practice and condition your mind and heart. Christ loved everyone as much or more than He loved himself. The imitation of Christ can be achieved because He did it in human form yet we make it so difficult.  We find it difficult to relinquish the misconception that our life revolves around our self in our own tiny, feeble world, when in fact we are but a whiff of smoke that quickly disappears in the wind. Begin your journey of love and in the process, shed those vices so as to imitate Christ.