Jesus’ Plan of Salvation

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Jesus’ Plan of Salvation

Christianity has taken the side of everything weak, base, ill-constituted.

 
It has made an ideal out of opposition to the preservative instincts of strong life.

F. Nietzsche

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On of the remarkable aspects about Christianity is how much Jesus has been idealized beyond recognition with the biblical Jesus. Arguably, he is the most overrated personality in human history.

 

Christians, who think of Jesus as a kind loving person, are interpreting him according to their preconception. On examination, I couldn’t find anything likeable about him. He couldn’t find anything that makes life worth living, so he hated it. Maybe, it would be more accurate to say he hated himself. It is remindful of the saying about misery liking company. He hated what he could not change to his way of thinking. So he saw evil everywhere.

 

29“This generation is an evil generation; it seeks a sign, but no sign shall be given to it except the sign of Jonah. (Matt. 12:39, Luke 11:29)

 

19“Why do you call me good? No one is good but God alone. (Matt. 19:16; Mark 10:18; Luke 18:19)

 

7The world cannot hate you, but it hates me because I testify of it that its works are evil. (John 7:7)

 

Jesus obsession for power came at the expense of others. That is he took self righteous pleasure in inflicting pain on others and watching them suffer. Occasionally he was personally violent when he couldn’t get his way. His sense of power came by making false promises of immortality combined with an insistence on a depraved form of personal sacrifice. In a nutshell, Jesus held a pious view, that by believing in him, he can give you everlasting life. In exchange, you must not think for yourself. You must obey. You must not question what he tells you. You must not defend yourself. Do not show your temper. Do not have fun.

 

Suppose a stranger came up to you and made those demands. Would you pay him any attention? Not likely. This is what Jews faced in his day and what Christians face in this day. All Christians have to go on is four anonymously written Gospels, transcribed from hearsay information, at an uncertain time, of a person whose existence can’t be corroborated, who makes outrageous demands. Surely, this is the greatest hoax on earth, and the greatest testament to human incredulousness. Give the Jews their due.

 

If Jesus was truly a God, then the word of God should be paramount to what others say about him. If such a God came as a man to rescue believers from the sin of Adam, it is reasonable expect him to say so. But when this so called God states some other reasons for his mission, we have a serious contradiction.

 

The picture that emerges is that the Gospels do not come close to conforming to the Christian plan of salvation. There is not a word from Jesus about the sin of Adam. There is not a word that he came to die to lay a foundation for the Christian plan of salvation. As the Seven Deadly Sins and The Ten Commandments show, he wasn’t even innocent. As The Ten Commandments also shows, he even denied he was God. In Jesus’ Second Coming, he couldn’t even imagine that the world would be left standing in the twenty first century.

 

So where did the Christian doctrine of salvation come from? Paul’s epistles are a subject for another time, but suffice to say that he shows no knowledge of Jesus’ teachings. The foundation of Christianity rests on Paul’s deceits; Jesus is just a figurehead. The reasons will become apparent.

 

There is another lie that overrides any plan of salvation; and that is the nature of death. It is the most scientifically certifiable fact that death is final; even the sun will die some day. That people believe in an afterlife is something we could expect in Bible days. Why Christians can’t accept the finality of death is a task for psychologists to figure out.

 

Belief in an afterlife causes more problems than it solves. It brings about a worry about one’s fate upon death, whereas the finality of death brings assurance of everlasting peace. When we know death is final, it motivates us to make the best out of life. To spend one’s life preparing for death is depressing and counter productive.

 

Prerequisites

 

Belief

 

Disassociate yourself from reality. Don’t think; believe. Submerge your sense of integrity; it is not to be trusted. Belief is necessary so your mind does not contain competitive thoughts. Eternal life is the bait that hides the hook. The graveyards are full of people who thought they would have eternal life if they believed in Jesus.

 

15that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.” 
16For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. (John 3:15-16)

24“Truly, truly, I say to you, he who hears my word and believes him who sent me, has eternal life; he does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life.” (John 5:24)

25Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, 
26and whoever lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?” (John 11:25-26)

 

 

Defenseless

 

Jesus demands that you turn yourself into a human punching bag. Don’t judge. Forgive. Appease. Acquiesce. Do not trust your urge to defend. The more you are abused, the better God will take care of you in heaven. It almost means to give up your will to survive.

 

Forgive the trespasses of others, and God will forgive yours.

 

14For if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father also will forgive you; 
15but if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses. (Matt. 6:14-15)

Do not judge others, otherwise they will judge you. This is useless; people will judge you anyway. Or in other words, don’t think; trust God to do your thinking for you.

1“Judge not, that you be not judged. 
2For with the judgment you pronounce you will be judged, and the measure you give will be the measure you get.” (Matt. 7:1-2)

If someone strikes you on the right cheek, show him the other cheek. Cooperate with your aggressor. Give him more than he asks.

38“You have heard that it was said, ‘An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.’ 
39But I say to you, Do not resist one who is evil. But if any one strikes you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also; 
40and if any one would sue you and take your coat, let him have your cloak as well;
41and if any one forces you to go one mile, go with him two miles. (Matt. 5:38-41)

Love your enemies and pray for your persecutors. Pray for what? Dear God, please send my persecutors to heaven. Or, Dear God, kill the bastards!

44But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, (Matt. 5:44)

Make friends with your accuser, otherwise you may wind up in prison. You won’t get out unless you pay for what you did. What he means is that he is your accuser. Isn’t that Satan’s job?

25Make friends quickly with your accuser, while you are going with him to court, lest your accuser hand you over to the judge, and the judge to the guard, and you be put in prison; 
26truly, I say to you, you will never get out till you have paid the last penny. (Matt. 5:25-26)

 

Dependence

 

Money gives you too much independence. Don’t work. Give up your worldly possessions and follow Jesus. Considering how far, human civilization has advanced since the time of Jesus, this dictum has been almost universally ignored. The few who haven’t are called saints.

 

You cannot possess money if you are to serve God.

 

24“No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon. 
25“Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you shall eat or what you shall drink, nor about your body, what you shall put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? (Matt. 6:24-25)

Give up everything and follow Jesus.

34And he called to him the multitude with his disciples, and said to them, “If any man would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. 
35For whoever would save his life will lose it; and whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel’s will save it. 
36For what does it profit a man, to gain the whole world and forfeit his life? (Mark 8:34-36)

Don’t worry about worldly goods. God will take care of you because he knows your needs. Yeh, sure! (The human race wouldn’t survive a year.)

31Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ 
32For the Gentiles seek all these things; and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. 
33But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things shall be yours as well. 
34“Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Let the day’s own trouble be sufficient for the day. (Matt. 6:31-34)

Don’t work. God will provide. Become a priest.

27Do not labor for the food which perishes, but for the food which endures to eternal life, which the Son of man will give to you; for on him has God the Father set his seal.” (John 6:27)

 

Desolation

 

Jesus likes it when you cut yourself from outside influences. To Christians who think they will see their loved ones in the next life. Jesus says it ain’t going to happen. He doesn’t like family ties.

 

Whoever leaves their family will inherit eternal life.

 

29And every one who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or lands, for my name’s sake, will receive a hundredfold, and inherit eternal life. 
30But many that are first will be last, and the last first. (Matt. 19:29-30)

He came to break families apart. Whoever loves his parents more than him is not worthy of him.

35For I have come to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law; 
36and a man’s foes will be those of his own household. 
37He who loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; and he who loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me; (Matt. 10:35-37; Luke 12:51-53)

The world hates you. It’s you and Jesus against the world.

18“If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you. 
19If you were of the world, the world would love its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you (John 15:18-19)

You can’t trust anybody. Trust Jesus and he will give you peace.

33I have said this to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.” (John 16:33)

 

Feelings

 

Don’t trust your feelings. It is better to cut them off and trust Jesus. Do not trust your conscience; give deference to Jesus.

Displays of anger and insults make one subject to being sent to hell on judgment day.

 

21“You have heard that it was said to the men of old, ‘You shall not kill; and whoever kills shall be liable to judgment.’ 
22But I say to you that every one who is angry with his brother shall be liable to judgment; whoever insults his brother shall be liable to the council, and whoever says, ‘You fool!’ shall be liable to the hell of fire. (Matt. 5:21-22)

It is better to cut off your offending body parts than to go to heaven. If he doesn’t mean it literally, he means to deny yourself from what is referred to as the “pleasures of the flesh.”

29“If your right eye causes you to sin, pluck it out and throw it away; it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body be thrown into hell. 
30And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away; it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body go into hell.” (Matt. 5:29-30)

Desire for material things deafens you to God’s word.

19but the cares of the world, and the delight in riches, and the desire for other things, enter in and choke the word, and it proves unfruitful. (Mark 4:19)

 

Ignorance

 

Jesus describes the type of people who would be susceptible to his drivel. They have to be ignorant, stupid, child like and void of unsanctioned prejudice. Jesus does not flatter his prey.

 

He spoke in parables so he could not be understood by those he didn’t want to save.

 

13This is why I speak to them in parables, because seeing they do not see, and hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand. (Matt. 13:13)

God doesn’t want the wise and understanding.

25At that time Jesus declared, “I thank thee, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that thou hast hidden these things from the wise and understanding and revealed them to babes; (Matt. 11:25)

You must be like a child to be the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.

3and said, “Truly, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. 
4Whoever humbles himself like this child, he is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. (Matt. 18:3-4)

 

Obedience

 

Your first duty is to keep the big boss happy. Otherwise you are against him. The big boss puts himself before you. Every screw up he makes, he blames on human disobedience.

 

24“No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon. (Matt. 6:24)

21“Not every one who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. (Matt. 7:21)

30He who is not with me is against me, and he who does not gather with me scatters. (Matt. 12:30)

40For this is the will of my Father, that every one who sees the Son and believes in him should have eternal life; and I will raise him up at the last day.” (John 6:40

51Truly, truly, I say to you, if any one keeps my word, he will never see death.” (John 8:51)

 

Temptation

 

If it is fun, it must be something tempting. The more pleasurable it is, the more tempting it is. Jesus is not happy when you are having a good time.

 

Looking at a woman with lust defines adultery. Adultery will land you in hell. This demand is absurd. If taken seriously, it would virtually abolish human procreation. He is advocating self-castration.

 

27“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ 
28But I say to you that every one who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart. 
29If your right eye causes you to sin, pluck it out and throw it away; it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body be thrown into hell. 
30And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away; it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body go into hell (Matt. 5:27-30)

Believers think that only Satan tempts; but here, Jesus is asking God not to lead him into temptation.

13And lead us not into temptation, But deliver us from evil. (Matt. 6:13; Luke 11:14))

Woe to whoever gives into temptation. It is better to cut off your body parts than to land in fiery hell.

7“Woe to the world for temptations to sin! For it is necessary that temptations come, but woe to the man by whom the temptation comes! 
8And if your hand or your foot causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away; it is better for you to enter life maimed or lame than with two hands or two feet to be thrown into the eternal fire. 
9And if your eye causes you to sin, pluck it out and throw it away; it is better for you to enter life with one eye than with two eyes to be thrown into the hell of fire. (Matt. 18:7-9)

The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak. God made pleasure desirable; now he disparages it.

41Watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation; the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.” (Matt. 26:41; Mark 14:38; Luke 22:40, 22:46)

 

Who gets in

 

After you strip yourself of everything that makes you human, Jesus says the odds of getting in are almost impossible anyway. Conversely, all others belong to Satan, which proves Satan is more powerful than God.

 

28Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. (Matt. 11:28)

34Jesus answered them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, every one who commits sin is a slave to sin. 
35The slave does not continue in the house for ever; the son continues for ever. 
36So if the Son makes you free, you will be free indeed. (John 8:34-35)

 

Difficulty

 

The gate is narrow; the way is hard to find for all but a few.

 

13“Enter by the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the way is easy, that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. 
14For the gate is narrow and the way is hard, that leads to life, and those who find it are few. (Matt. 7:13-14)

Beware of false prophets who lead the elect astray. Who are they? One can never know.

22False Christs and false prophets will arise and show signs and wonders, to lead astray, if possible, the elect. (Mark 13:22)

Only the elect will get to heaven. Who are they? One can never know.

27And then he will send out the angels, and gather his elect from the four winds, from the ends of the earth to the ends of heaven. (Mark 13:27)

It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to get to the kingdom of God. By world standards, Americans are rich.

24Jesus looking at him said, “How hard it is for those who have riches to enter the kingdom of God! 
25For it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.” (Luke 18:24-25)

You can’t come to Jesus unless it is approved by the Father. And who is the Father? It is Jesus. Go figure!

44No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him; and I will raise him up at the last day. (John 6:44)

65And he said, “This is why I told you that no one can come to me unless it is granted him by the Father.” (John 6:65)

 

Jews

 

Jesus came to save Jews; there were no Christians at that time. This leaves an impassible conundrum. Jews don’t believe in him and Christians aren’t Jews.

 

5These twelve Jesus sent out, charging them, “Go nowhere among the Gentiles, and enter no town of the Samaritans, 
6but go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. (Matt. 10:5-6)

24He answered, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.” (Matt. 15:24)

28Jesus said to them, “Truly, I say to you, in the new world, when the Son of man shall sit on his glorious throne, you who have followed me will also sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel. (Matt. 19:28)

 

Final thought

 

Take Jesus seriously and you will wish you were dead. That is the true meaning of salvation.

http://www.usbible.com/Jesus/jesus_plan_of_salvation.htm

 

1500 Year old Bible claims Jesus Christ was not Crucified!

 

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Recent reports have revealed the discovery of a 1500-year-old bible in Turkey. However a new article from the Vatican Insider of “La Stampa” claims that the 1500-year-old bible is a “probable forgery” and “hoax.” Shutterstock

 

Recent reports have revealed the discovery of a 1500-year-old bible in Turkey. The bible was reportedly retrieved over 14 years ago in 2000, when it was seized from smugglers in the Mediterranean area and held in a Turkish courthouse until safe transfer to the Ethnography Museum of Ankara could be arranged. The holy book allegedly contains the Gospel of Barnabas, who was a disciple of Jesus, in the work, claims that Jesus was not crucified, instead it says he ascended to heaven alive and Judas Iscariot was crucified in his place. Furthermore, the 1500-year-old bible states that Jesus Christ was not the Son of God, but simply a prophet who passed on the word of God.

The bible, which is said to be worth a whopping $28 million dollars, is an obvious hot commodity, so much so that the Vatican has requested an official application to access the alleged Gospel of Barnabas. According to the Christian Post, merely photocopies of the holy book’s pages are being sold for a staggering $1.7 million. In addition to the age and impeccable construction of the bible, the contents of the holy book are what make it so valuable. The Gospel of Barnabas is not included in the New Testament alongside Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. This work opposes the ideas proposed in the widely spread New Testament, and instead has noticeable similarities to the Muslim interpretation of Jesus.

Despite the interest and growing number of media reports confirming the authenticity of the holy book, the Vatican Insider, a project run by the newspaper “La Stampa,” claims that the book is a “hoax.” Vatican Insiderbelieves that the holy book is not the Gospel of Barnabas, instead the site claims it is most likely the work of a forger, more specifically, a European — Jewish scholar from the Middle Ages. Their main reason for claiming the work to be an “extraordinary hoax” is due to the main inscription on the 1500-year-old book.

According to their translation, the main inscription reads, “In the name of the Lord, this book is written by monks of the high monastery in Nineveh in the 1500th year of our Lord.” The main issue with the inscription that apparently deems the recently discovered Gospel of Barnabas a fake is the lack of the work ”bible” or even “holy book” in the inscription. According to their sources, who are unnamed, biblical works from 1500 years ago would not have been called a “book” instead; it is either referred to as “New Testament” or “Old Testament,” or “Holy Book.” Vatican Insider claims that the monk’s apparent oversight would have been unlikely when creating the Gospel of Barnabas.

The site continues to disprove the authenticity of the discovery by claiming that the media, specifically the Muslim media is confusing the age 1500-year old of the book with the year 1500 AD. The Muslim media has supposedly reported that “‘an ancient, 1500-year-old bible predicted the coming of Muhammad,” but once again the site disagrees. The Vatican Insider claims that media reports are confusing the 1500 years attributed by the media and the date of 1500 AD written in the book’s main inscription and due to this confusion, the Muslim beliefs and claim that The Gospel of Barnabas predicted a great prophecy are in their opinion null and void.

The debate between Christianity and the Muslin interpretation of Jesus is something that has raged on for centuries. The Gospel of Barnabas was not included in the New Testaments, reportedly due to its likenesses to the Muslim interpretation of Jesus. Due to this fact, many followers of Islam believe the Vatican Libraryrepressed the original work.

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SOURCE

http://www.latintimes.com/vatican-newspaper-calls-1500-year-old-bible-claim-jesus-was-not-crucified-probable-forgery-171831

 

The lack of abundance in our life is only a result of our belief in scarcity.

“The desire for increase is inherent in all nature; it is the fundamental impulse of the universe. Man instinctively knows this, and therefore he is always seeking more. This law of perpetual increase is set forth by Jesus in the parable of the talents: Only those who gain more retain any; from him who has not shall be taken away even that which he has. The normal desire for increased wealth is not an evil or a reprehensible thing. It is simply the desire for more abundant life. It is aspiration. And because it is the deepest instinct of their natures, all men and women are attracted to those who can give them more of the means of life.”

Wallace Wattles – The Science of Getting Rich

The Natural Desire for Increase

We all desire to have more of the good things of life. When you accept this truth, wonderful blessings will flow into your world.

Many of us have been taught to deny this desire, and thus we fight inside ourselves. A part of us wants increased life and wealth, and yet a part of us tells us this is wrong and bad.

When fragmented in this way, we can’t manifest the abundance that is possible for us.

The universe wants to manifest wealth for us as much as we want wealth for ourselves and our loved ones. We have to believe in an abundant universe and not a universe of scarcity!

Jesus said in John 10:10 that he came to earth that we might have life, and that we might have it more abundantly. In addition to the Science of Getting Rich, Wallace Wattles wrote some other books also, including a book about Jesus Christ and the abundant life.

The Teachings of Jesus and the Natural Desire for Wealth

Tony Mase is a friend who has, like myself, found great benefit in the books by Wallace Wattles. In fact, he has taken it upon himself to search out some of his “forgotten” books and bring them to the world. After many years, he found a copy of his book about Jesus.

Jesus, The Man and His Work. I bought the book and read it and it definitely helped me overcome some of my religious misunderstandings about increased wealth.

Here is what Tony says about the book:

“If you’re confused by what you’ve read or heard about Jesus and His teachings… or if your heart is telling you one thing while orthodox churches and organized religions are telling you another… or if you’re having trouble reconciling your desire for wealth and success with your religious beliefs… then please read this message very carefully. It might be the most important information you read all year. It may well be the most important information you’ll ever read!”

How Holographic Time Brings Increase Into Our Lives

The lack of abundance in our life is only a result of our belief in scarcity. Our belief in scarcity results from our belief in a future in which there will never be enough. Our belief in a scarce and fearful future results from our belief in linear time.

Did Jesus teach us to fear for the future? No, he taught that we should trust and that all would be taken care of. So let’s turn around the paragraph above – until it reads:

The abundance in our life is a result of our belief in an infinitely abundant universe. Our belief in infinite abundance goes hand in hand with the belief that this infinite abundance exists right now. Our belief in an abundant and giving universe results from our belief in holographic time.

Remember that we live in holographic time when we experience holographic consciousness – whole and complete at all times! A hologram is always whole and complete and cannot be fragmented.

One side benefit of living in holographic consciousness is the feeling of complete safety and security. You can’t fear the future when it doesn’t exist!

I never realized how much fear I lived in until I truly came to understand holographic time, and the power of the present moment. It feels good not to worry and fear about tomorrow.

Increased Life and Abundance for All People

In this infinitely abundant universe, there is enough for all. You never need to take away from another in order to get what you want for yourself or your family. Manifesting abundance doesn’t work for those who try to take from others.
Move away from the competitive model and into the creative model of wealth creation. There is literally no scarcity of any good thing in the universe.
The very idea of scarcity and competition for scarce resources is a function of living in linear time. Be whole and complete in each holographic moment and let the infinitely abundant universe manifest in your life!

By Christopher Westra, Author of I Create Reality

 

Despite the controversy surrounding it, faith healing has been an enduring force and will likely exist for many years.

Throughout the history of humans, faith healing has played a major role in the diagnosis and curing of illness.

 

 

According to the New Testament, one of the earliest doctors using faith healing was Jesus Christ, who healed the blind, lepers and the deaf, among many others. Since the life of Christ there have been other faith healers who have invoked the power of God or the Holy Spirit for purposes of healing.

Ancient cultures also often invoked higher powers for healing purposes. The Egyptians practiced pseudo-scientific faith healing procedures, and often invoked the power of different gods for different ailments.

A number of rituals and practices are used in faith healing. These include praying, anointing, blessing, exorcisms, religious readings, the use of amulets and laying hands on the sick person. Specific holy book verses are reportedly better for healing, and certain oils are infused with healing power. Some prayers will be made one-on-one with an ill individual, while other types of faith healing advocate large groups of people praying over an individual. Some faith healers using faith healing in conjunction with Western medicine, but others rely solely on faith healing.

Accounts of mysterious and miraculous faith healing can be found throughout history. After being told he could not be cured, a doctor in 1887 was miraculously healed of heart disease. In 1991, an American woman experienced the powers of faith healing when her prayer invoked God to remove a suspicious lump from her breast. The woman, after visiting a doctor on a Friday afternoon, focused her energies on healing over the weekend. When she went back to the doctor, the lump had disappeared completely. A Canadian woman witnessed the power of faith healing by prayer after she came to God and asked for her sister to be healed. Shortly after her prayer, the woman reported feeling “as if a heavy weight” had been lifted from her. Her sister, who had been for 10 years afflicted with mental illness, was miraculously healed by the power of God, according to the woman.

In the present-day Middle East, faith healing is practiced alongside modern medical procedures for both physical and mental illness. Many healing practices in the Middle East are performed by women, and some women make pilgrimages to the shrines of saints who they can invoke for healing. The use of amulets, small pieces of paper, cloth or other materials, is common in the region. Prayer and chanting is also common.

Scientists who have attempted to study faith healing have produced conflicting results. A 2001 study on persons with rheumatoid arthritis concluded that patients who received in-person prayer showed “significant overall improvement” in their condition. A later study, on the other hand, determined no effect of prayer and criticized the earlier study for misinterpreting data. Although many scientists and theologians believe that practices such as faith healing can not be accurately measured by scientific means, others continue to study the phenomena.

Critics of faith healing argue that it is not a reliable form of treatment. Thousands of people have died after relying on faith healing, including a number of children. In the United States there have been numerous cases of children from faith healing households dying as a result of Measles, bacterial infections, diabetes complications and pneumonia, among other diseases. As a result many parents have been charged of neglect and even homicide and manslaughter after refusing treatment for their children.

Despite the controversy surrounding it, faith healing has been an enduring force and will likely exist for many years. Like the mysteries of other metaphysical phenomena, the mysteries of faith healing will very likely remain forever unsolved.

For more information see:

The Encyclopedia of Science and Religion, Ed. J. Wentzel Vrede van Huyssteen, Vol. 2. (New York: Macmillan Reference USA, 2003)

Encyclopedia of Religion, Ed. Lindsay Jones, Vol. 6. 2nd ed. (Detroit: Macmillan Reference USA, 2005. p3843-3848.)

http://www.unsolved-mysteries.com/metaphysics_psychology/faith_healing.html

 

Are you the first born and only son of God? – How would Jesus answer this question?

Are you the first born and only son of God?

 

Everything in the world of form is created from God’s substance. Without him was not anything made that was made. Therefore, every living soul is a son or daughter of God.

However, there are many devout Christians who feel very strongly that I was someone special, and there is some validity to this belief. I am not thereby saying that I completely agree with this belief, I am merely saying that it is understandable why so many Christians hold on to this belief. Let me explain.

What does it truly mean to be a son or daughter of God? God has given you free will, and God has given you the ability to create. Originally, your soul was created in the image and likeness of God, meaning it had a unique individuality. However, your spiritual parents did not create your individuality as something that was set in stone. You have the free will and the creative potential to build your individuality upon the foundation laid by your spiritual parents. This is indeed what you were meant to do.

Therefore, life can be seen as a process through which your soul is constantly building its sense of identity. In an overall sense, you are meant to keep building your sense of identity until you reach a point where you realize that you are an individualization of God and that you have the full creative powers of God himself/herself. That is why I said: “Ye are Gods.”

However, when a soul falls into a lower state of consciousness and forgets its spiritual origin, the soul begins to build a false sense of identity, a pseudo identity. From God’s viewpoint, that false identity, as a mortal human being, is not real. Yet, as long as your soul accepts that sense of identity, the pseudo identity becomes the only reality that your soul knows. Therefore, that sense of identity becomes the soul’s reality. Because the soul knows nothing else, the soul does not realize that the pseudo identity is unreal and temporary. To the soul, this is the only sense of identity there is.

From God’s viewpoint, a lost soul is still one of his sons or daughters. Yet, if you go inside the box of the soul, inside the soul’s sense of identity, that soul does not see itself as a son or daughter of God. Therefore, in the here and now, the soul is not acting as a son or daughter of God. If a soul does not accept its divine origin, it cannot express its divine potential. If a soul does not accept its potential to be the Christ, then the soul cannot be the Christ in action.

When I appeared on earth 2,000 years ago, only a few people had come to a full realization of their Christhood. Therefore, one might say that I appeared at a time when there was no other son or daughter of God on earth. I had realized the fullness of my sonship, and therefore I was and I acted as a son of God. In other words, when you look at this situation from a specific viewpoint, it is possible to say that Jesus Christ was indeed the only son of God who appeared in that particular place at that particular time. Therefore, I can understand that some Christians have strong feelings for this idea (I am not saying that I share those feelings).

Unfortunately, most people never understood that the statement that I was the only son of God was correct only from a certain viewpoint. The carnal mind has a tendency to create idols. Therefore, people were quick to turn me into an idol and to start believing that the statement that I was the only son of God was universally true.

Let me make it very clear that every living soul is, in reality, a son or daughter of God. If the soul does not identify itself as a son or daughter of God, then that soul cannot express the fullness of its divine potential. Therefore, from an earthly viewpoint, the soul is not a son or daughter of God. The soul has the potential to act as a son or daughter of God, but that potential is not realized. Yet, I want to make it very clear that I am not the only person to appear on earth with a full recognition of his or her divine identity and origin. I am not the only person to appear in the fullness of Christhood.

 

Book review – The Jesus Puzzle

On the cover of Earl Doherty’s book, The Jesus Puzzle: Did Christianity Begin with a mythical Christ?is a blurb from a reader of Doherty’s earlier online version: “You present nothing new here that your master, Satan, has not previously used to deceive the simple.” In reality, neither does this zealous critic present anything new, as this sinister sentiment has been slung since Day One at those who do not blindly believe every priestly huckster who comes along. Such an acrimonious response, in fact, ranks right up there with “Your [sic] gonna burn in hell,” in intelligence and efficacy in refuting scholarly challenges to ludicrous biblical claims.

It is a constant source of amazement to “freethinkers,” rationalists and assorted (other) scholars and scientists that it is considered virtuous to blindly believe in the words of a man or a group of men concerning the matters of “faith” and “religion,” when, if religion were to have any meaning at all, it would be about reality, honesty and integrity. There is little honest or righteous about blindly accepting and then promulgating beliefs one has not thoroughly investigated. Such behavior—and subsequent name-calling and threats when the sale of these sacrosanct shoddy goods falls through—should be considered the realm of the con artist, rather than that of a seeker of truth.

There is nothing reasonable about accepting a story on its face value – particularly if it defies logic and the laws of nature. And from beginning to end the gospel tale does just that. It is a cruel tale that reveals a deranged god. And a tale not even original to Christianity but falsely presented as such. In actuality, the gospel story has been demonstrated repeatedly to be a mishmash of mythical and ritualistic motifs found in older, “Pagan” and “Jewish” (Hebrew/Israelite) cultures. Knowing this fact, many erudite and enlightened individuals have attempted to explain how Christ and Christianity really came about. For their courageous and insightful efforts, they have reaped the consequences of immense vitriol and, all too frequently over the millennia, death.

It is with great relief to the dissenters, then, when another intrepid voice is heard and an inspiring book makes it to print, as it indicates that on the horizon still glows some glimmer of hope that humanity can be freed from erroneous beliefs which have caused endless suffering, atrocity and terror. As someone making the world safer, the dissident should be lauded and defended in his or her endeavors.

In his endeavor at seeking truth – and risking the vituperation of those unwilling or unable to investigate for themselves—Earl Doherty smoothly solves another piece of the Jesus puzzle, which has been under deconstruction for centuries. He throws his well-considered opinions and research into the ring alongside those of thousands of dissidents over the centuries. Fortunately, Doherty’s work provides unique and complementary aspects to a growing body of literature written by those derogatorily called by Christian apologists, “Christ-mythers,” an assembly sneered at and vilified – but not adequately refuted by any means – by believers and vested interests alike.

After years of painstaking research, classicist and humanist Doherty, like his Christ-myth predecessors, concluded that there was no historical Jesus. The same conclusion was reached by his colleague, the Jesus Seminar’s Robert Price, an ex-evangelist who became a mythicist after close examination and the removal of mythical elements from the gospel story, after which little was left of the gospel Jesus that could be considered “historical.”

 

In dissecting the Christ myth, Doherty focuses on demonstrating the lack of historicity found in the earliest of canonical Christian texts, the epistles. Like so many others, he wonders why “Paul,” considered by numerous Christians to be the “greatest apostle” and the truest establisher of Christian doctrine, makes nary a mention of Jesus’s purported life, deeds and sayings.

In fact, Doherty does an excellent job outlining that the Christ of the epistles is non-historical and transcendental, and that Paul and the other epistle writers had no awareness of the gospel tale and its “historical Jesus.” Says he:

“If we had to rely on the letters of the earliest Christians, such as Paul and those who wrote most of the other New Testament epistles, we would be hard pressed to find anything resembling the details of the Gospel story. If we did not read Gospel associations into what Paul and the others say about their Christ Jesus, we could not even tell that this figure, the object of their worship, was a man who had recently lived in Palestine and had been executed by the Roman authorities with the help of a hostile Jewish establishment.” (2)

After 50 pages of relentless demonstration of this fact, one must throw up one’s hands in surrender: Paul, the “truest apostle” of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ whose teachings are often placed above those of Christ himself, had never heard of the “historical” Jesus of Nazareth portrayed in the gospels. In establishing this fact, Doherty includes a witty (fictional) “conversation between Paul and some new converts” that shows how absurd is the apologist claim that Paul’s silence regarding the sayings, deeds and life of Jesus is because the apostle had “no interest in them.”

But Paul and the other canonical epistle writers are not alone in their ignorance of the “historical Jesus.” As Doherty further remarks:

“In all the Christian writers of the first century, in all the devotion they display about Christ and the new faith, not one of them expresses a desire to see the birthplace of Jesus, to visit Nazareth his home town. No one talks about having been to the sites of his preaching, the upper room where he held his Last Supper, the hill on which he was crucified, or the tomb where he was buried and rose from the dead. Not only is there no evidence that anyone showed an interest in visiting such places, they go completely unmentioned. The words Bethlehem, Nazareth and Galilee never appear in the epistles, and the word Jerusalem is never used in connection with Jesus.” (73)

There is simply no reflection in the earliest Christian texts of any “life of Christ” as a human being, divine or otherwise. To the rational mind, this fact would serve as real proof that Jesus Christ is a fictional character imposed upon history, in reality representing the disincarnate Savior of the ancient, pre-Christian salvation cults. Indeed, the epistle writers and other early Christian authorities speak almost exclusively of a phantom or gnostic Christ of the same type of dying and rising savior gods found in the Pagan mysteries for centuries, if not millennia, prior to the Christian era.

Doherty recognizes that, prior to the advent of Christianity, many of the same religious concepts were found within these salvation cults located ubiquitously around the “known world.” The salvation cults were indeed the wellspring of Christianity, which represents the conglomeration of most of the cults, religions, sects, mystery schools and secret societies within the Roman Empire and beyond. In fact, Christianity turned

 

inside out the salvation cult mysteries, which constituted a “mythos and ritual” passed down orally for centuries, as well as added to, changed, and “improved upon” as new “doctors of the faith” rose up through the ranks of the mystery schools and secret societies. In reality, Christianity represents a divulgence of these secrets, explaining the persecution of early Christians as initiates who broke their blood oath not to reveal them. Indeed, these schools and societies were infiltrated by those who felt no duty to such an oath, and who then pretended that these ages-old mysteries were a “divine revelation” to them.

Concerning the religious environment of the world at the time, Doherty says:

“Christianity and other Jewish apocalyptic sects, more mainstream Jewish proselytizing activities, various pagan salvation cults, all had their apostles trampling the byways of the empire, offering brands of redemption and future exaltation for the individual believer. By the middle decades of the first century, the world …was a ‘seething mass of sects and salvation cults,’ operating amid a broader milieu of ethical and philosophical schools only a little less emotionally conducted.” (34)

In addition, Doherty states:

“A rich panoply of Son/Christ/Savior expression was rampant across the eastern half of the Roman empire by the late first century. Considering that Christian writers even in the early second century show no familiarity with the Gospel story, it seems ill-advised to trace all these ideas to an historical Jesus of Nazareth who died obscurely in Jerusalem and whose career on earth is not even preserved by those who allegedly turned him into the Son of God.” (138)

Doherty also shows the precedents for the “Son” and “Logos” (“Word”) within Jewish tradition and literature, exposing a seamless transition between those concepts and the Christ of the epistles. Building on centuries of bible scholarship, Doherty outlines numerous gospel elements and passages that have their origins in Old Testament scripture:

” …virtually every detail of the Gospel passion story can be shown to have a parallel in scriptures, and …even the intermediate and large-scale structures of the account are scripturally determined.” (244)

After establishing that the earliest Christian view of Jesus was of a mystical, non-historical Son of God, Doherty moves on to the purported extrabiblical and non-Christian evidence of Christ’s historicity. Regarding the works of various historians of the era, he says:

“If among these we begin our quest for non-Christian witness to Jesus, the pickings are extremely slim. The first century philosopher Seneca (died 65 CE), the greatest Roman writer on ethics in his day, has nothing to say about Jesus or Christianity—even though Christians after Constantine made Seneca a secret convert to the faith and invented correspondence between him and Paul. A little later, the Stoic philosopher Epictetus (c55-c135) espoused a ‘brotherhood of man’ doctrine, aiming his message at the poor and humble masses (he was a former slave himself). But he had apparently not heard of his Jewish precursor. The historian Arrian preserved some of Epictetus’ lectures but records no mention of Jesus.” (200)

And on goes the list of first and second century historians who are silent on the subject of Jesus and Christianity.

Chief among the slim pickings are the pitifully few “references” held up by apologists, such as the widely trumpeted passages from Pliny, Suetonius and Tacitus, all of which have been demonstrated by many scholars, including Doherty, to have basically no value in establishing a historical Jesus.

Considering that, repeatedly over the centuries, the notorious passage in the writings of the Jewish historian Josephus, the “Testimonium Flavianum,” basically has been proved to be a “rank forgery,” it is a pity that Doherty needs to spend so much effort debunking it once again, but he does it well and thoroughly. Likewise he does away with the other “evidence” found in Josephus, i.e., the passage about James, the “brother of the Lord, called Christ.”

Regarding the Testimonium Flavianum, or “TF,” the constant regurgitation by Christian apologists of this spurious passage, as essentially the only non-biblical “evidence” of the existence of the great wonderworker Jesus Christ, shows how desperate is their plight. In actuality, it takes little time for the trained and critical eye to know that the Testimonium Flavianum is a Christian interpolation, i.e., a forgery.

In dissecting the Josephus passage, Doherty writes:

” …the startling fact is that during the first two centuries when such a passage is claimed to have existed in all manuscripts of the Antiquities of the Jews, not a single Christian commentator refers to it in any surviving work.” (208)

The logical conclusion for this absence of reference to the TF in the abundant writings of the Christian fathers of the second and third centuries is that the TF was not originally in Josephus but was likely forged in the fourth century by Church historian Eusebius, who is the first to mention it. The apologist claim that the TF must be authentic because there are no extant copies of Josephus without it, is simplistic and specious. In the first place, up to the 16^th century there evidently was at least one copy of the Antiquities that did not contain the TF, in the possession of one Vossius. Secondly, the lack of extant copies without the TF can be explained easily by the endless destruction of texts by Church authorities over hundreds of years.

On pp. 220-221 of The Jesus Puzzle, Doherty springs a sublime trap. First he leads the reader through a discussion regarding a purported “lost reference” in Josephus, as alleged by Church fathers Origen and Eusebius, supposedly reflecting that the historian “believed that the calamity of the Jewish War (66-70) and the fall of Jerusalem was visited upon the Jews by God because of their murder of James the Just.” Next, Doherty states:

“Origen brings up the ‘lost reference’ to criticize Josephus for not saying that it was because of the death of Jesus, rather than of James, that God visited upon the Jews the destruction of Jerusalem. But more than half a century earlier, the Christian Hegesippus had said the same thing. As preserved in Eusebius, Hegesippus witnesses to a Christian view of his time (mid-second century) that it was indeed the death of James the Just which had prompted God’s punishment of the Jews.”

“But,” Doherty continues, “there is a very telling corollary to this. Why did those earlier Christians notimpute the calamity to God’s punishment for the death of Jesus, since to the later Origen – as well as to us – this seemed obvious?

“The explanation is simple. The need to interpret the destruction of Jerusalem would likely have developed early, even before Hegesippus. At such a time, an historical Jesus and historical crucifixion had not yet been invented, or at least would not have been widely disseminated beyond a few early Gospel communities.”

Proceeding to the second century Christian apologists, Doherty also reveals that the majority of them writing before the year 180, such as Theophilus, Athenagoras and Tatian, do not speak of a historical Jesus. These three writers, for example, refer to a disincarnate, non-historical “Son of God” or “Logos.” Says Doherty:

“…Theophilus never mentions Christ, or Jesus, at all. He makes no reference to a founder-teacher; instead, Christians have their doctrines and knowledge of God through the Holy Spirit….

“…the names Jesus and Christ never appear in Athenagoras….

“In [Apology to the Greeks], Tatian uses neither ‘Jesus’ nor ‘Christ,’ nor even the name ‘Christian.’ …

“In fact, the apologists as a group profess a faith which is nothing so much as a Logos religion. It is in essence Platonism carried to its fullest religious implications and wedded with Jewish theology and ethics.” (278-81)

Although Doherty is hesitant to date the gospels to this late a period, Charles Waite in History of the Christian Religion to the Year Two Thousand makes an essentially incontestable case that the four canonical gospels were composed between 170 and 180, which would explain why none of these writers refers to them prior to 180.

Doherty also unearths a “smoking gun” in the Christian apologist Minucius Felix’s Octavius, likely written in the middle of the second century. In addressing the untoward charges against Christians, such as the killing of babies and worship of the priest’s genitals, Minucius fervently denies that the Christians worship “a criminal and his cross.” Felix also ridicules the Pagan ideas of a god becoming incarnate and of a god begetting a son. Says he:

“Men who have died cannot become gods, because a god cannot die; nor can men who are born (become gods)…h. Why, I pray, are gods not born today, if such have ever been born?” (289)

Regarding Minucius’s reaction to the charge of worshipping a “crucified criminal,” Doherty remarks:

 

“Those who will allow historical documents to say what they seem to be saying will recognize that Minucius Felixis a true ‘smoking gun’ pointing to a Christian denial of the historical Jesus.

“To the dispassionate eye, Minucius Felix is one Christian who will have nothing to do with those, in other circles of his religion, who profess worship of a Jesus who was crucified in Judea under the governorship of Pontius Pilate, rumors of which have reached pagan ears and elicited much scorn and condemnation.” (290)

In establishing his thesis, Doherty also explains the need for making Jesus a historical character: In the early Christian communities, in which there was a “riotous diversity” of doctrine, there were too many pipelines to the spiritual Jesus. Thus, it became necessary to create one divine person to say all the things that the “prophets” and brotherhood members were espousing, the same role played by Yahweh in the Old Testament.

An excellent effort that will certainly have an impact on mainstream scholarship, The Jesus Puzzleprovides a scientific and convincing analysis of Christianity’s formative centuries, essentially proving that Jesus Christ started out as an allegorical and mythical entity, carnalized and historicized during the second century. Doherty’s unique approach to the subject is also highly accessible, such that it, along with the efforts of others, will likewise affect the populace at large. As he says:

“But there is no going back. Fundamentalism, still thriving in North America and parts of the third world, will no doubt keep the Gospel Son of God alive for a time, but once the dissolution of the Christian record as a reliable and historical set of documents makes its way fully into public consciousness, it is hard to see how Christianity as a vital force in society will be able to continue.” (295)

For those who wish to delve deeply into the Jesus puzzle and Christ conspiracy, Doherty’s book is satisfying and compelling. It is also refreshing to consider that the debate is increasingly in the open, the hysteria and violent knee-jerk reactions lessened. Works such as The Jesus Puzzle hopefully will encourage other daring souls to exclaim that the Emperor is not only naked but also rather unpleasant to behold. In this safer atmosphere, the human species can continue to evolve, progress and mature, moving beyond a significantly damaging bump in the road on a long, strange trip through the cosmos.

Reviewed by Acharya S/D.M. Murdock

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SOURCE

 

Jesus’ Plan of Salvation

 

 

 

Jesus’ Plan of Salvation

Christianity has taken the side of everything weak, base, ill-constituted.
It has made an ideal out of opposition to the preservative instincts of strong life.

F. Nietzsche

 

On of the remarkable aspects about Christianity is how much Jesus has been idealized beyond recognition with the biblical Jesus. Arguably, he is the most overrated personality in human history.

 

Christians, who think of Jesus as a kind loving person, are interpreting him according to their preconception. On examination, I couldn’t find anything likeable about him. He couldn’t find anything that makes life worth living, so he hated it. Maybe, it would be more accurate to say he hated himself. It is remindful of the saying about misery liking company. He hated what he could not change to his way of thinking. So he saw evil everywhere.

 

²⁹“This generation is an evil generation; it seeks a sign, but no sign shall be given to it except the sign of Jonah. (Matt. 12:39, Luke 11:29)

 

¹⁹“Why do you call me good? No one is good but God alone. (Matt. 19:16; Mark 10:18; Luke 18:19)

 

⁷The world cannot hate you, but it hates me because I testify of it that its works are evil. (John 7:7)

 

Jesus obsession for power came at the expense of others. That is he took self righteous pleasure in inflicting pain on others and watching them suffer. Occasionally he was personally violent when he couldn’t get his way. His sense of power came by making false promises of immortality combined with an insistence on a depraved form of personal sacrifice. In a nutshell, Jesus held a pious view, that by believing in him, he can give you everlasting life. In exchange, you must not think for yourself. You must obey. You must not question what he tells you. You must not defend yourself. Do not show your temper. Do not have fun.

 

Suppose a stranger came up to you and made those demands. Would you pay him any attention? Not likely. This is what Jews faced in his day and what Christians face in this day. All Christians have to go on is four anonymously written Gospels, transcribed from hearsay information, at an uncertain time, of a person whose existence can’t be corroborated, who makes outrageous demands. Surely, this is the greatest hoax on earth, and the greatest testament to human incredulousness. Give the Jews their due.

 

If Jesus was truly a God, then the word of God should be paramount to what others say about him. If such a God came as a man to rescue believers from the sin of Adam, it is reasonable expect him to say so. But when this so called God states some other reasons for his mission, we have a serious contradiction.

 

The picture that emerges is that the Gospels do not come close to conforming to the Christian plan of salvation. There is not a word from Jesus about the sin of Adam. There is not a word that he came to die to lay a foundation for the Christian plan of salvation. As the Seven Deadly Sins and The Ten Commandments show, he wasn’t even innocent. As The Ten Commandments also shows, he even denied he was God. In Jesus’ Second Coming, he couldn’t even imagine that the world would be left standing in the twenty first century.

 

So where did the Christian doctrine of salvation come from? Paul’s epistles are a subject for another time, but suffice to say that he shows no knowledge of Jesus’ teachings. The foundation of Christianity rests on Paul’s deceits; Jesus is just a figurehead. The reasons will become apparent.

 

There is another lie that overrides any plan of salvation; and that is the nature of death. It is the most scientifically certifiable fact that death is final; even the sun will die some day. That people believe in an afterlife is something we could expect in Bible days. Why Christians can’t accept the finality of death is a task for psychologists to figure out.

 

Belief in an afterlife causes more problems than it solves. It brings about a worry about one’s fate upon death, whereas the finality of death brings assurance of everlasting peace. When we know death is final, it motivates us to make the best out of life. To spend one’s life preparing for death is depressing and counter productive.

 

Prerequisites

 

Belief

 

Disassociate yourself from reality. Don’t think; believe. Submerge your sense of integrity; it is not to be trusted. Belief is necessary so your mind does not contain competitive thoughts. Eternal life is the bait that hides the hook. The graveyards are full of people who thought they would have eternal life if they believed in Jesus.

 

¹⁵that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.”
¹⁶For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. (John 3:15-16)

²⁴“Truly, truly, I say to you, he who hears my word and believes him who sent me, has eternal life; he does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life.” (John 5:24)

²⁵Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live,
²⁶and whoever lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?” (John 11:25-26)

 

 

Defenseless

 

Jesus demands that you turn yourself into a human punching bag. Don’t judge. Forgive. Appease. Acquiesce. Do not trust your urge to defend. The more you are abused, the better God will take care of you in heaven. It almost means to give up your will to survive.

 

Forgive the trespasses of others, and God will forgive yours.

 

¹⁴For if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father also will forgive you;
¹⁵but if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses. (Matt. 6:14-15)

Do not judge others, otherwise they will judge you. This is useless; people will judge you anyway. Or in other words, don’t think; trust God to do your thinking for you.

¹“Judge not, that you be not judged.
²For with the judgment you pronounce you will be judged, and the measure you give will be the measure you get.” (Matt. 7:1-2)

If someone strikes you on the right cheek, show him the other cheek. Cooperate with your aggressor. Give him more than he asks.

³⁸“You have heard that it was said, ‘An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.’
³⁹But I say to you, Do not resist one who is evil. But if any one strikes you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also;
⁴⁰and if any one would sue you and take your coat, let him have your cloak as well;
⁴¹and if any one forces you to go one mile, go with him two miles. (Matt. 5:38-41)

Love your enemies and pray for your persecutors. Pray for what? Dear God, please send my persecutors to heaven. Or, Dear God, kill the bastards!

⁴⁴But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, (Matt. 5:44)

Make friends with your accuser, otherwise you may wind up in prison. You won’t get out unless you pay for what you did. What he means is that he is your accuser. Isn’t that Satan’s job?

²⁵Make friends quickly with your accuser, while you are going with him to court, lest your accuser hand you over to the judge, and the judge to the guard, and you be put in prison;
²⁶truly, I say to you, you will never get out till you have paid the last penny. (Matt. 5:25-26)

 

Dependence

 

Money gives you too much independence. Don’t work. Give up your worldly possessions and follow Jesus. Considering how far, human civilization has advanced since the time of Jesus, this dictum has been almost universally ignored. The few who haven’t are called saints.

 

You cannot possess money if you are to serve God.

 

²⁴“No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon.
²⁵“Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you shall eat or what you shall drink, nor about your body, what you shall put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? (Matt. 6:24-25)

Give up everything and follow Jesus.

³⁴And he called to him the multitude with his disciples, and said to them, “If any man would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.
³⁵For whoever would save his life will lose it; and whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel’s will save it.
³⁶For what does it profit a man, to gain the whole world and forfeit his life? (Mark 8:34-36)

Don’t worry about worldly goods. God will take care of you because he knows your needs. Yeh, sure! (The human race wouldn’t survive a year.)

³¹Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’
³²For the Gentiles seek all these things; and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all.
³³But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things shall be yours as well.
³⁴“Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Let the day’s own trouble be sufficient for the day. (Matt. 6:31-34)

Don’t work. God will provide. Become a priest.

²⁷Do not labor for the food which perishes, but for the food which endures to eternal life, which the Son of man will give to you; for on him has God the Father set his seal.” (John 6:27)

 

Desolation

 

Jesus likes it when you cut yourself from outside influences. To Christians who think they will see their loved ones in the next life. Jesus says it ain’t going to happen. He doesn’t like family ties.

 

Whoever leaves their family will inherit eternal life.

 

²⁹And every one who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or lands, for my name’s sake, will receive a hundredfold, and inherit eternal life.
³⁰But many that are first will be last, and the last first. (Matt. 19:29-30)

He came to break families apart. Whoever loves his parents more than him is not worthy of him.

³⁵For I have come to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law;
³⁶and a man’s foes will be those of his own household.
³⁷He who loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; and he who loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me; (Matt. 10:35-37; Luke 12:51-53)

The world hates you. It’s you and Jesus against the world.

¹⁸“If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you.
¹⁹If you were of the world, the world would love its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you (John 15:18-19)

You can’t trust anybody. Trust Jesus and he will give you peace.

³³I have said this to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.” (John 16:33)

 

Feelings

 

Don’t trust your feelings. It is better to cut them off and trust Jesus. Do not trust your conscience; give deference to Jesus.

Displays of anger and insults make one subject to being sent to hell on judgment day.

 

²¹“You have heard that it was said to the men of old, ‘You shall not kill; and whoever kills shall be liable to judgment.’
²²But I say to you that every one who is angry with his brother shall be liable to judgment; whoever insults his brother shall be liable to the council, and whoever says, ‘You fool!’ shall be liable to the hell of fire. (Matt. 5:21-22)

It is better to cut off your offending body parts than to go to heaven. If he doesn’t mean it literally, he means to deny yourself from what is referred to as the “pleasures of the flesh.”

²⁹“If your right eye causes you to sin, pluck it out and throw it away; it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body be thrown into hell.
³⁰And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away; it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body go into hell.” (Matt. 5:29-30)

Desire for material things deafens you to God’s word.

¹⁹but the cares of the world, and the delight in riches, and the desire for other things, enter in and choke the word, and it proves unfruitful. (Mark 4:19)

 

Ignorance

 

Jesus describes the type of people who would be susceptible to his drivel. They have to be ignorant, stupid, child like and void of unsanctioned prejudice. Jesus does not flatter his prey.

 

He spoke in parables so he could not be understood by those he didn’t want to save.

 

¹³This is why I speak to them in parables, because seeing they do not see, and hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand. (Matt. 13:13)

God doesn’t want the wise and understanding.

²⁵At that time Jesus declared, “I thank thee, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that thou hast hidden these things from the wise and understanding and revealed them to babes; (Matt. 11:25)

You must be like a child to be the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.

³and said, “Truly, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.
⁴Whoever humbles himself like this child, he is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. (Matt. 18:3-4)

 

Obedience

 

Your first duty is to keep the big boss happy. Otherwise you are against him. The big boss puts himself before you. Every screw up he makes, he blames on human disobedience.

 

²⁴“No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon. (Matt. 6:24)

²¹“Not every one who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. (Matt. 7:21)

³⁰He who is not with me is against me, and he who does not gather with me scatters. (Matt. 12:30)

⁴⁰For this is the will of my Father, that every one who sees the Son and believes in him should have eternal life; and I will raise him up at the last day.” (John 6:40

⁵¹Truly, truly, I say to you, if any one keeps my word, he will never see death.” (John 8:51)

 

Temptation

 

If it is fun, it must be something tempting. The more pleasurable it is, the more tempting it is. Jesus is not happy when you are having a good time.

 

Looking at a woman with lust defines adultery. Adultery will land you in hell. This demand is absurd. If taken seriously, it would virtually abolish human procreation. He is advocating self-castration.

 

²⁷“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’
²⁸But I say to you that every one who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart.
²⁹If your right eye causes you to sin, pluck it out and throw it away; it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body be thrown into hell.
³⁰And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away; it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body go into hell (Matt. 5:27-30)

Believers think that only Satan tempts; but here, Jesus is asking God not to lead him into temptation.

¹³And lead us not into temptation, But deliver us from evil. (Matt. 6:13; Luke 11:14))

Woe to whoever gives into temptation. It is better to cut off your body parts than to land in fiery hell.

⁷“Woe to the world for temptations to sin! For it is necessary that temptations come, but woe to the man by whom the temptation comes!
⁸And if your hand or your foot causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away; it is better for you to enter life maimed or lame than with two hands or two feet to be thrown into the eternal fire.
⁹And if your eye causes you to sin, pluck it out and throw it away; it is better for you to enter life with one eye than with two eyes to be thrown into the hell of fire. (Matt. 18:7-9)

The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak. God made pleasure desirable; now he disparages it.

⁴¹Watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation; the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.” (Matt. 26:41; Mark 14:38; Luke 22:40, 22:46)

 

Who gets in

 

After you strip yourself of everything that makes you human, Jesus says the odds of getting in are almost impossible anyway. Conversely, all others belong to Satan, which proves Satan is more powerful than God.

 

²⁸Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. (Matt. 11:28)

³⁴Jesus answered them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, every one who commits sin is a slave to sin.
³⁵The slave does not continue in the house for ever; the son continues for ever.
³⁶So if the Son makes you free, you will be free indeed. (John 8:34-35)

 

Difficulty

 

The gate is narrow; the way is hard to find for all but a few.

 

¹³“Enter by the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the way is easy, that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many.
¹⁴For the gate is narrow and the way is hard, that leads to life, and those who find it are few. (Matt. 7:13-14)

Beware of false prophets who lead the elect astray. Who are they? One can never know.

²²False Christs and false prophets will arise and show signs and wonders, to lead astray, if possible, the elect. (Mark 13:22)

Only the elect will get to heaven. Who are they? One can never know.

²⁷And then he will send out the angels, and gather his elect from the four winds, from the ends of the earth to the ends of heaven. (Mark 13:27)

It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to get to the kingdom of God. By world standards, Americans are rich.

²⁴Jesus looking at him said, “How hard it is for those who have riches to enter the kingdom of God!
²⁵For it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.” (Luke 18:24-25)

You can’t come to Jesus unless it is approved by the Father. And who is the Father? It is Jesus. Go figure!

⁴⁴No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him; and I will raise him up at the last day. (John 6:44)

⁶⁵And he said, “This is why I told you that no one can come to me unless it is granted him by the Father.” (John 6:65)

 

Jews

 

Jesus came to save Jews; there were no Christians at that time. This leaves an impassible conundrum. Jews don’t believe in him and Christians aren’t Jews.

 

⁵These twelve Jesus sent out, charging them, “Go nowhere among the Gentiles, and enter no town of the Samaritans,
⁶but go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. (Matt. 10:5-6)

²⁴He answered, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.” (Matt. 15:24)

²⁸Jesus said to them, “Truly, I say to you, in the new world, when the Son of man shall sit on his glorious throne, you who have followed me will also sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel. (Matt. 19:28)

 

Final thought

 

Take Jesus seriously and you will wish you were dead. That is the true meaning of salvation.

 

HOT CROSS BUNS – Easter bunny originates from ancient Anglo-Saxon carnival.

 

Easter bunny originates from ancient Anglo-Saxon carnival

 

The ancient Anglo-Saxons celebrated the return of spring with a carnival commemorating their goddess of offspring and of springtime, Eostre. The word carnival possibly originated from the Latin ‘carne vale’ meaning “flesh, farewell” or “meat, farewell.” The offerings were rabbits and coloured eggs, bidding an end to winter.

 

As it happened, the pagan festival of Eostre occurred at the same time of year as the Christian observance of the Resurrection of Christ and it didn’t take the Christian missionaries long to convert the Anglo-Saxons when they encountered them in the 2nd century. The offering of rabbits and eggs eventually (in the 8th century, it is thought) became the Easter bunny and Easter eggs.

 

Prior to 325 AD, Easter was variously celebrated on different days of the week, including Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. In that year, the Council of Nicaea was convened by emperor Constantine. It issued the Easter Rule which states that Easter shall be celebrated on the first Sunday that occurs after the first full moon on or after the vernal equinox. The “full moon” in the rule is the ecclesiastical full moon, which is defined as the 14th day of a tabular lunation, where day 1 corresponds to the ecclesiastical New Moon. It does not always occur on the same date as the astronomical full moon. The ecclesiastical “vernal equinox” is always on 21st March. Therefore, Easter must be celebrated on the first Sunday after 21st March.

 

Christians commemorate the Friday before Easter as Good Friday, the day that Jesus was crucified. Easter Sunday is celebrated as the day Jesus rose again.

 

HOT CROSS BUNS

 

The word bun is derived from the Saxon word “boun” (pronounced ‘bo-han’) which means “sacred ox.” At the ancient Celtic feast of Eostre, an ox was sacrificed with the ox’s horns becoming a symbol for the feast. They were carved into the ritual bread, thus “hot cross buns.” Initially, the cross on the buns represented the moon, the heavenly body associated with the goddess Eostre, and its four quarters. Today, the cross on hot cross buns represents the cross of Christ.

 

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