INTO THE MYSTIC
Several thousand years ago a man known as Jesus lived & was crucified for preaching dangerous ideas. Some believe he conquered death and rose again and ascended bodily into heaven. Hmmm (we'll get back to this).
Whatever the status of his "divinity", it is a fact that his life, and the philosophy he espoused has had a HUGE influence on the development of Western Civilization. There are billions of Christians across the globe, some of whom risk literally everything just by believing as they do. Here in the USA, there are a confusing number of denominations, each of which tweaks the story, alters interpretations, but mainly they're pretty much the same.
The world Jesus was born into was a complicated one, an often violent one, as various tribes and belief systems tried to learn to live side-by-side. The Elders of Judea were not impressed by this young upstart. They feared him. They loathed him. They conspired against him. But the Roman Overlords had no interest in enforcing the laws of a religious sect they despised. So the Elders came up with some trumped up charges and brought him before the magistrate. He was tried and convicted and was whipped nearly to the death, but it wasn't enough. He was ordered to be Crucified.
Now, I'm sure my story thus far will be tweaked if anyone ever reads this. Feel Free
As referenced earlier, Jesus was born into complicated times. And he came with a message that was just TOO SIMPLE; "All You need Is Love". So incredibly basic, the unpeaceful minds wrestling with existence could not wrap their heads around it. They still can't to this day.
I believe that Jesus lived, and that his life, his philosophy, has had a huge, and hugely beneficial influence On the Western World. A God? Or Son Thereof?? To me its irrelevant
But there are too many.........contradictions inherent in Christianity. I have wrestled these concepts and I've pinned them to the mat, but they've pinned me as often.
Jesus said that the ONLY way to paradise was through him. At the time that Jesus lived, there were millions of people around the world who never heard the name. There were even more that lived and died long before Jesus. Am I to believe that the Son of an almighty and ALL MERCIFUL God would consign these pour souls to hell? To some sort of purgatory? No, I cannot accept that.
Is the Christian View of morality universal?
And there we are at problem number two; Am I to believe that in all the universe, with it's billions of planets, stars and solar systems, only earth contains an intelligent(?) life form deserving of being "saved"?
Well, it took me long enough to get here. Turns out that the problem was at my end and that I was blocking you. Who knew? Anyway, let's begin. First of all, and I don't mean to be picky, Jesus walked the earth 2000 years ago. But I suspect you knew that, as opposed to "several thousand."
ReplyDeleteRe the Elders of Judea, that's not completely correct on its own, although one probably could build the case for the term. The Elders who were really unhappy with Jesus were the Pharisees. The Pharisees were Jewish religious people who, at the most Sr level, determined and oversaw the Laws which the people MUST abide by. There were over 600 of these laws, so the Pharisees had their hands full making sure their congregants followed each one to the letter. They also went to extremes in some cases, charging exorbitant prices for sacrificial animals that the people needed to have in order to meet God's laws of sacrifice which the Pharisees enforced. At times like Passover, when sacrifices were a daily, even hourly event, the Pharisees would set up tables within the temple to sell the animals, and people would stand in line, often with their last pennies available to them, waiting to make their purchase.
Along came Jesus. He preached the love of God, and He saw what the Pharisees were up to as they made their enforcement a hardship on all who only wished to obey God. Jesus told them very clearly that when they forced hardship in the name of keeping God's love through obedience to their laws, the Pharisees themselves were in violation of the very laws they enforced because of their lack of love, lack of fairness, and so on. So Jesus preached against what they were doing. The result? Well, the people turned to Jesus' teachings rather than the Pharisees'. Their mistake, of course, was that they wanted Jesus to be the promised Messiah, not as a loving saviour, but as the mighty warrior the people had envisioned would come in power to rescue them from the oppression of the Romans, and of the Pharasaical machine.
That's an important background to the story of Jesus. Jesus came teaching the love of God to a people who were suffering under the boot of their own religion, one that used God's laws for their own benefit through extortion and greed that totally lacked any love as God, in His complete testament had decreed.
That's enough for now. I'm gonna go through your post and provide further clarification if needed. I'll end this "series" with comments on what you call "inconsistencies."