As one of my favorite theologians says, "I plan to present nothing new or original in these pages... I am dedicated to unoriginality." It is my contention that ordinary, garden variety Christianity is the most exciting thing in the world. We just have trouble hearing it.
In his book Jesus: An Interview Across Time, Andrew Hodges portrays Jesus as telling an interviewer, "I never had any trouble finding a great many people who were interested in God... If God is not very popular today, it is not His fault. It is the people who tell his story. They are using the wrong version."
"Which version is that," the interviewer asks.
"The boring version."
The purpose of Authentic Light is to teach simple, radical Christianity to interested parties, particularly people who don't follow Jesus yet. I thought it might be interesting if I did that in normal language and without much yelling. I try to cite back up material, either by links or a little note in the post, so you can check up on me.
St. Paul proclaimed that the Gospel -- the "Great Announcement" of the Messiah Jesus and his kingdom -- was nothing less than "God's own power for salvation," (Letter to the Romans, chapter 1, verse 16, CEB). That message still sizzles with transformative power if only we can hear it again. This site is content to turn that message loose in all its rugged glory and let it work.
Short History
Authentic Light is the successor of an earlier website called Followers of Jesus that I founded in 1999. It ceased operation in 2002 and the domain is now owned by another group, but remnants can still be viewed here. Authentic Light itself began in 2003.
Bibles
Naturally, since this is a site about Jesus, I sometimes refer to the Bible. Usually Authentic Light uses the New English Translation (NET), a very accurate and readable rendering. If I don't have a note identifying what translation I used, it's this one.
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Who Writes This?Authentic Light is mainly written by J A Carter, a Christian teacher, writer, and SQL Developer who lives with his wife, children, and Cheesecake Charlie the cat in Houston, Texas.
