Another Jesus
As a small child in Texas I soon
discovered that everyone talked about Jesus. The adults were forever quoting and
misquoting him saying "Jesus said this, or Jesus said that".
Growing up
as a Catholic, I soon discovered that the Catholic Jesus was in some sense
different from the Protestant Jesus. I was horrified in History class to read of
the terrible wars between Catholics and Protestants and that the Ku Klux Klan
was organized out of hatred for blacks, Jews and Catholics.
When I was a
young man and began traveling the globe, I discovered that the Muslims believe
in Jesus, but not as the Christians do. In Israel I discovered most Jews believe
in Jesus, but not the way Christians do. I found Bahais in Iran who also believe
in Jesus, but with a different twist. In India many people have pictures of
Jesus on their altars along with their Hindu Gods. I met a man from Thailand who
said, "Oh yes I pray to Jesus and all the Gods. I wouldn't want to take the
chance of leaving one out.ä In Haiti I discovered that Voodoo priests believe in
Jesus. What I learned was that there are many groups saying they believe in
Jesus, but their views of Jesus are radically different from each other. In
other words, each group is following a different, or another Jesus. It appears
there are many Jesuses masquerading as the real Jesus. For example when a Muslim
talks about Jesus he is not talking about the same Jesus as a Christian, or a
Bahai.
Meanwhile as I matured, I continued to read the Bible and
especially the words of Jesus. But the more I read, the more I found that my
picture of Jesus was increasingly different from mainstream Catholics,
Protestants, Muslims, Jews, Thais, Bahais Hindus and Voodooists. As I read that
Jesus said to love your enemies and do good to them, exact no revenge, be as
harmless as doves and turn the other cheek, I could never see my Jesus bearing
arms, or waging war. In my picture, Jesus is a non-violent pacifist. That
immediately excludes me from mainstream Christianity.
In my early thirties I discovered that were some small groups of
Christians that saw Jesus as I was seeing him (Mennonites, Mennonite Brethren,
Quakers, and Amish). I spent many years among them and for awhile was a licensed
Mennonite Minister. They are collectively known as The Peace Churches.
So why didn't I stay among them? Unfortunately as I continued to read
the Bible, I was haunted by a nagging question: If Jesus was God why did he
never come right out and say so? He said he was the Messiah and the son of God
and he loved to call himself The Son of Man, but nowhere does he say he is God.
And if he is God, what on earth is going on when he is nailed to the cross and
cries out "My God my God why hast thou forsaken me?" Did he forget he was God
and thought he had forsaken himself?
The New Testament never says you
must believe Jesus is God to be saved. It says that to be saved you only need to
recognize him as the son of God;
"Whosoever shall confess that Jesus is
the Son of God, God dwelleth in him, and he in God" (1 John 4:15).
But
all Christians (even those in the Peace Churches insist that Jesus is God and
what's more there is another person in God, and you must believe in this Trinity
to be a Christian. So my emerging view of Jesus has put me out of the Peace
Churches. So now I'm all alone in the world with no church and no one to
fellowship with because I believe God is one without persons and that Jesus was
his man child created by his spoken word (rhema) according to his plan (logos).
The Apostle Paul in 2 Corinthians 11:4 warned that there would be false
teachers coming teaching another Jesus which would be different from the one the
Apostles taught.
So here I am with a different Jesus. My Jesus is
different from what 99.99% of the Christians believe in, and 100% different from
what the Muslims, Jews, Bahais Hindus, Thais and Voodooists believe in. Now
against such odds a reasonable person might be willing to say "I might be
wrong." So let me say it, "I might be wrong." But as I read the Bible, the Jesus
I see taught his followers to practice universal love, non-violence,
peacemaking, gentleness and to overcome evil with goodness and kindness and
prayer. My reading has further convinced me that he was a man, and not a God or
demi-god, or a god with a small g, or an angel, or pre-existent being of any
kind.
Hebrews 10:12: "But this Man after he had offered one sacrifice for
sins forever sat down on the right hand of God.ä
Yes he was unique in
that God created a human sperm (he is very good at that) spoke it into Mary's
womb and the sperm united with the mother's egg and grew into a man child, the
man of sorrows, Jesus (Yahshuah in Aramaic) who was a perfect, sinless man; made
perfect by the things he suffered. He died a real death, was buried for three
days and rose from the dead in his human body. He ascended to heaven where he
was transformed into the first Man/Spirit and was given all power from God to
wield until the end of the aion at which time he will kneel before God's throne
and lay his completed work before God.
So How is My Jesus Different from all the Other
Ones?
Both Catholic and Protestants see Jesus as condoning the use
of force in police, or national affairs. Their Jesus wears a uniform and carries
a gun. To the Jews Jesus was a bastard with delusions of Messiahship. He spawned
a gentile cult which has been killing Jews for thousands of years
(understandably they wish he had never been born. I too wish this other Jesus
(the militant Jew-hater) had never been invented).
To the Muslims Jesus
is not the son of God (their Holy Book says it is blasphemy to say God has a
son), the Koran also says he did not die, or resurrect.
The Hindu Jesus
is only one of many God/Men to come to the earth. They believe in a long line of
God/Men who have visited the earth for millions of years.
The Bahai's
are similar. They believe there is one God soul that has incarnated as Buddha,
Krishna, Mohammed and Jesus etc. culminating in their founder BahaUllah (1880
C.E.).
My Jesus is different from all of them. He is not an incarnated
being from heaven. He was born as real as anyone of us. He was hungry and cried
and wet his diaper. He really died and rose from the dead and is now
human-kind's only High Priest who can intercede with God to forgive our sins. My
Jesus is very close to the Peace Churches' view of Jesus, but my Jesus is not
the same as theirs for mine was a real man and never a hybrid-God/Man.
Was Jesus meant to change from place to place and person to person? I
think not. I think that what happened is what Paul said would happen. False
prophets have come among the sheep inventing False Christs. What makes me think
my Jesus is more real than anyone else's? Have I returned to the Jesus that the
Apostles taught? Or am I just another false teacher that Paul warned about? Well
that's for you to decide. I am not trying to start a church. I'm not looking for
followers and I don't want your money. What I do want you to do is read your
Bible and see if Jesus claimed to be God. And read the New Testament and see if
any apostles ever advocated the use of violence to defend themselves, or to
advance Christ's work.
As long as I'm on the earth I will be happy to
answer your emails
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