Question 2 will cover many of the points that I have made in question 1B because they are both to do with modern day Christians on discipleship.
I do not think it is possible for a modern Christian to be a true disciple of Jesus because the world is completely different to what it used to be in 1st Century Palestine. Life was different then: you were born and as soon as you were old enough you would just work to obtain the bare necessities of life. Things are very different now, we are educated and have vast amounts of entertainment, and we also live much longer. We now have equal rights almost everywhere in the world, one of the exceptions being Afghanistan where women have very little rights today. A servant has the same rights as a king 2000 years ago. One could argue that in the time of Jesus it was not so hard to give up everything to follow him has life did not have so much to offer, unlike today were you would be considered out of the ordinary to give up everything as so many of us have so much. Science proves that much of the bible is wrong and contradictory. In school we are taught how science is fact and given examples of how things work by science. But in R.E. we are only told about events that happen in the bible and what they could have meant, but we are not taught that such things really happened. We are brought up with science whether it is on the T.V. or at school, it is very difficult to avoid and most of our lives involve science. Because we do not have Jesus to teach us directly about discipleship we have to use the Bible. The problem with this though is that the Bible may not be entirely accurate in places, as the Bible was copied and copied again and again until one book was kept the same printed in mass numbers when printing was invented. Before then it had to be hand copied so this is not reliable. How can we be sure we are following the word and example of Christ when there are doubts over the veracity and reliability of the few texts we have?
We cannot compare the work of Jesus’ disciples to modern day disciples, but if you consider yourself a true disciple then you are. It all depends on how you interpret what a true disciple is; it is very much down to what the individual believes. As already shown in part B there are people who most people would consider true disciples such as Mother Teresa and Martin Luther King. These people understood the values of sacrifice, unselfishness and courage. They followed Jesus’ example very closely; Mother Teresa in working with outcast and King by challenging oppressive laws. Although they worked with, and against, the quoted the words of Jesus in every speech, interviews and conversation they had. He was integral to their lives and his example shone through their every action. You can still have a personal commitment through faith and prayer and by following at least five of the seven sacraments. How you show your faith is again by believing what is the right way to show it. This maybe simply attending church or working for a charity organisation such as the Red Cross. What one considers being a true disciple depends on how they interpret the passage of the bible.
Whether you consider it possible being a true disciple of Jesus in the modern world is entirely dependent on what your opinion is. I personally do not believe it possible to be a true disciple in the year 2002 because so much has changed over 2000 years. And society brainwashes us into having so much, which is just to tempting to resist.
