Jesus’ is probably the best story ever told. I mean that from a personal, emotional perspective and also based on my evaluation of how the story fits in with everything.
He didn’t say so, but I believe I lost my best friend because of my willingness to think and discuss what you’re about to read. Bliss is attained by some through acceptance of a belief system, whether flawed or not, and participation with others who hold the same. I respect him for his loyalty to his core beliefs.
There are only three logical possibilities for the genesis of Jesus:
- Jesus Christ was born, walked the talk, and then was crucified.
- Jesus Christ is a divinely inspired character.
- Jesus Christ is regular, human fiction.
I’m easily overcome by emotion, but just considering the depth and the beauty of the story of Jesus always brings tears to my eyes. It’s fantastic and almost perfect, history or not.
My mind is incredibly adept at pulling apart stories and seeing why they tick. I don’t take any credit for that ability any more than I take credit for my knowledge of physics. I had to choose a science class in my junior year at Union and I chose physics. I take credit for the choice, and I take credit for showing up, and I take credit for reading, but I know physics because others figured out what to put in a book, others built a school system, and Coach Moore showed up every day to make it all more interesting for me.
“Krista, please close the audio/visual barrier so we can get started.” – Jeff Moore
I don’t remember that Krista was in my class, but this is my story, so I’m putting her in it. Krista wouldn’t be my girlfriend in the 3rd grade, but I’ve since recovered. 🙂
Oh yeh, we were talking about Jesus.
The story of Jesus works on a number of levels.
Consider this: Jesus was a working class hero. Jesus’ individual contribution to humanity may never be topped, but he was a poor kid, from a poor neighborhood, who worked first with his hands and then with our minds. And he didn’t dodge his opportunity to sacrifice himself for everyone, even forgiving those whom had tortured him so brutally.
Forgive them Father for they know not what they do.
It’s a line so well placed, so well crafted, that it boils the whole New Testament and all the teachings of Jesus Christ into a single sentence. This is genius, at least, right?
The perfection and magic and power in that single line is so money that I know for a fact a single human being didn’t write it. And I know a human committee can never write anything as well as a lone author, so that leaves just two possibilities: (a) Jesus lived, or (b) Jesus was written by God.
No need to wad your panties because the distinction is irrelevant.
The Declaration of Independence is a fact. That the most powerful country in the history of mankind was founded on the premise that all men are endowed by their Creator with inalienable rights is a fact.
Whether Jefferson really lived is completely irrelevant because the ideas of his and his co-conspirators live today. Those ideas are bigger than the Founding Fathers and more powerful than the country they created — they’re God-sized, universal, perfect.
A man of God, Jefferson was a divinely inspired thinker and author.
“But it does me no injury for my neighbor to say there are twenty gods or no God. It neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg.” – Thomas Jefferson
I tear up thinking about those ideas, too. They’re so well crafted. The story that created the United States of America runs a close second to the power and the glory of the story of Jesus Christ himself. Obviously, another story written by God.
Whether the story of Jesus Christ was written by God by sending his only begotten son to live among us or whether it was written by God through an author makes no difference to me. This might offend your sensibilities, and I acknowledge and respect that.
Please consider that Jesus Christ was the perfect bridge.
Man was accustomed to kneeling before men of power, earthly kings. Submission to the power of a king is written into our DNA — survival of the fittest, hitch your wagon to the horse that brings home the meat, respect for good leaders, respect for our providers, respect for our parents.
Please consider that the power of earthly kings was a necessary step on the road to our modern, civilized societies. Kingdoms meant safety and stability. Suddenly people had more free time to think about something other than finding their next meal or keeping other tribes from stealing their daughters.
Suddenly, there was more room for God.
But first there were gods. Fractured beliefs in many gods and the expression of submission to idols meant more power for the men who controlled the idols.
Some men claimed to be gods themselves, worthy of giant tombs built by thousands of their subjects.
And then came Moses.
Did Moses warn the Pharaoh about the coming plagues and then lead his people out of Egypt? Did he go up on the mountain and come down with stone tablets? God will tell you the history is irrelevant — the story is what matters.
Moses’ story is what matters. And then Joshua’s story. And then…
But God wasn’t satisfied because the story wasn’t perfect. It had a great effect on a small number of people, but was eventually used to enrich and glorify priests in His name.
“He tripped on a stone and fell into the waste pit, laughing at his putrid predicament. There he resolved to stop his struggle and get to work.” – Jerry Wallace
And then came Jesus.
Through Jesus, God released man from the power of earthly kingdoms.
You don’t need the color to know who said this… even if you don’t know anything else about Jesus, you know these words:
Forgive them Father for they know not what they do.
Powerful stuff. We the people hear you.
“Forgive them” — Jesus says he’s on your side.
“…they know not what they do” — Jesus is identifying himself as quite important to God. This provides an avenue for you to think of him as THE KING, to channel your urge to follow.
Thankfully, since you can believe that Jesus is THE KING, the highest, you’re reminded that your submission to earthly kings is only a matter of convenience. This release from your earthly bonds is truly a gift from God, whether Jesus really died on the cross or not.
The very fact that Jesus makes this statement is an acknowledgement of the Old Testament Father, full of jealously and rage, quick to smite. Jesus shows respect to the Father by making a polite request that acknowledges His feelings and backs it up with a self deprecating argument, they know not what they do. Self deprecating because he was the Son of Man — they is him.
This single sentence is a bridge from the old to the new.
But, God still wasn’t satisfied because some people didn’t accept the genius of His son.
Jesus was His baby, by God. This blog post is my baby. Or is it God’s?
God wasn’t satisfied because there were others, right next door to Jerusalem, who were still enslaved by men holding idols. For political reasons, these people would not accept the teachings of a Jew, no matter how beautiful, even if they promised salvation through freedom of mind.
And then came Muhammad.
At some point Muhammad adopted the practice of meditating alone for several weeks every year in a cave on Mount Hira near Mecca.[51][52] Islamic tradition holds that during one of his visits to Mount Hira, the angel Gabriel appeared to him in the year 610 and commanded Muhammad to recite the following verses:[53]
The cave Hira in the mountainJabal al-Nour where, according to Muslim belief, Muhammad received his first revelation.
Proclaim! (or read!) in the name of thy Lord and Cherisher, Who created-
Created man, out of a (mere) clot of congealed blood:
Proclaim! And thy Lord is Most Bountiful,-
He Who taught (the use of) the pen,-
Taught man that which he knew not.
According to some traditions, upon receiving his first revelations Muhammad was deeply distressed.[55] After returning home, Muhammad was consoled and reassured by Khadijah and her Christian cousin, Waraqah ibn Nawfal. Shi’a tradition maintains that Muhammad was neither surprised nor frightened at the appearance of Gabriel but rather welcomed him as if he had been expecting him.[56] The initial revelation was followed by a pause of three years during which Muhammad further gave himself to prayers and spiritual practices. When the revelations resumed he was reassured and commanded to begin preaching: “Thy Guardian-Lord hath not forsaken thee, nor is He displeased.”.[57][58][59]
According to Welch these revelations were accompanied by mysterious seizures, and the reports are unlikely to have been forged by later Muslims.[10] Muhammad was confident that he could distinguish his own thoughts from these messages.[60] According to the Qur’an, one of the main roles of Muhammad is to warn the unbelievers of their eschatological punishment (Qur’an 38:70, Qur’an 6:19). Sometimes the Qur’an does not explicitly refer to the Judgment day but provides examples from the history of some extinct communities and warns Muhammad’s contemporaries of similar calamities (Qur’an 41:13–16).[18]Muhammad is not only a warner to those who reject God’s revelation, but also a bearer of good news for those who abandon evil, listen to the divine word and serve God.[61] Muhammad’s mission also involves preaching monotheism: The Qur’an demands Muhammad to proclaim and praise the name of his Lord and instructs him not to worship idols or associate other deities with God.[18]
The key themes of the early Qur’anic verses included the responsibility of man towards his creator; the resurrection of dead, God’s final judgment followed by vivid descriptions of the tortures in hell and pleasures in Paradise; and the signs of God in all aspects of life. Religious duties required of the believers at this time were few: belief in God, asking for forgiveness of sins, offering frequent prayers, assisting others particularly those in need, rejecting cheating and the love of wealth (considered to be significant in the commercial life of Mecca), being chaste and not to kill newborn girls.[10]
Sounds like a Christian, eh?
God doesn’t torture people at all. That part of the story was crafted to satisfy man’s earthly hunger for justice. When your dream ends and you live in the clouds, you’ll suddenly know everything that ever was and be able to witness what you did and how it affected everyone around you and how God felt their pain and how angry God was that you were hurting his children. But, it was only a dream, and everyone eventually comes to know the Father, forgives themselves, and goes on with Our Life.
How long you stay in hell depends on how long it takes to forgive yourself.
The phrase above, “goes on with Our Life,” is not a grammatical error or typo.
Oh yeh, Muhammad.
One of God’s beefs was with the merchants of Mecca who held idols in a big “temple” where people could pay to see their gods. This exploitation of idolatry was enhanced by the variety of monotheism. With monotheism, you can create a god to please anyone. If there’s a market, there’s a god. And the more gods, the bigger the market. The merchants of Mecca were great business people, providing the masses with what they craved, and lots of it.
So, Muhammad was tapped to bring his people together and then he and they brought down the temple of the idols in Mecca. God helped.
Oh yeh, Jesus.
“And there arose certain, and bare false witness against him, saying, We heard him say, I will destroy this temple that is made with hands, and within three days I will build another made without hands.” – Mark 14:57-58
“Jesus answered and said unto them, Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up. Then said the Jews, Forty and six years was this temple in building, and wilt thou rear it up in three days? But he spake of the temple of his body.” – John 2:19-21
Notice how that’s said two ways? Did Jesus say it or not? People bore false witness or not? Someone get an attorney to parse this out. Bill Clinton to the set, please.
Jesus destroyed the temple – The “temple” was the symbol of power reserved by the elite for controlled access by the masses, for a fee.
Jesus built a new temple in three days – Jesus was risen three days later and the temple of God was forever constructed in the minds of those whom believe in Him.
The old “temple” was destroyed because many Jews left Hebrew tradition behind for a new one — a new temple that accepted anyone regardless of race, health, or wealth.
You’re being told exactly how it is. The details are different in each telling, but these facts never change:
You are literally a Child of God. Originally you were a clone of God. You chose to forget, to live the life of a human, to love the sky, the flowers, the sweet smell of your mate, and the laughter of your babies.
We are not our physical forms, we are our consciousness. We should not concern ourselves with the physical form of God because his consciousness is the most important part of Him as our consciousness is the most important part of us.
Although we will go through a huge change when our body dies, that consciousness you’ve fostered since birth can never die.
This isn’t just symbolism. I’m not writing this to read myself write. This is the Truth as I have been Taught.
If I was writing to read myself speak, I’d’ve written in red.
What is written on the Internet also never dies. This blog is a reflection of what I was thinking today, but whether I really lived and loved burritos is completely irrelevant.
If your panties are getting wadded up again, then please pause for a breath.
I’m Thomas Jefferson as much as you are.
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