The Gospel Through Ibero-Roman Art

Last night, as I went to bed, I asked God why on earth He has me taking
these classes at the Complutense--and this wasn't the first time. I was
still sure that this is something God has lead me to do, but until this
morning, I hadn't really seen what exactly God is doing in these classes.
This morning, in my Spanish Art History class, I heard an answer, loud and
clear--from the mouth of my professor.

Today, professor Abrantes (who is not a Christian) began lecturing about
Spanish-Roman Art and symbology in the early church in Spain (which dates
back to before 300 A.D.). I know, I know, if you're not an art buff, it
sounds really boring, but he's a great teacher, and his lectures keep us all
on the edge of our seats, or at least awake. Abrantes began his lecture by
saying that from this point in the class until around 1600, the art that we
will be studying will almost exclusively be Christian art. To begin, he
took today to show us what some of the most common symbols were, what they
meant, and why they were used. He began with a picture of a fish, spelling
out the greek word for fish, and explaining that the letters were an
acrostic meaning Jesus-Christ-God's-Son-Savior. He then went on to talk
about the use of old testament stories that point to Christ--he used the
examples of Abraham's sacrifice of Isaac as pointing to the sacrifice of
Christ, and of Jonah's three days in the belly of the fish representing
Christ's death and resurrection. For the next 15 minutes, he went through
slides of pictures on different tombs, all representing resurrection and
eternal life. He ended his lecture by showing us a picture of a tomb that
had the scene of the 3 magi worshipping Jesus carved into the side of it.
After showing us the picture, he explained to us that the reason this was
such an important Christian symbol to include in a tomb was that just as
death is for all of us, and not just the Jews, Christ's resurection and
therefore salvation is also available to everyone.

I was totally blown away. Had I really just sat in class and listened to a
non Christian professor explain the Gospel to 30 or so people? Over and
over in the class, all I could think to do was just pray "God, open these
people's ears--use this!!!" This is was amazing in and of itself, but then
when I started looking around the room, I was more amazed by what God had
just done through this man. Our class is all internationals--about half are
from western cultures that have probably heard the Gospel in some form at
least once. The other half, however, are from China, Taiwan, Japan,
Pakistan, Israel, and the Phillipines--meaning there is a good chance some
of them were hearing this for the first time.

Right now, we are somewhere between 200-300 A.D. in our Art History class,
and because we are concentrating on Spain, almost all of the art we will
study until after 1600 has to do with Jesus. Please pray with me the next
few months that God will use these lectures--that He will open up
conversations with some of my new friends in class to talk about Jesus
naturally, and that they will ask questions about the things they don't
understand or haven't heard before.

I am amazed that God can use a non-Christian teacher at a secular university
to show His glory.

Thanks so much for your prayers and support--I praise God for you!
Praising HIM,
Kelly
Kelly Wills