Paul was a pharisee on steroids I mean he circumcised poor Timothy just to please teachers of the law (ouch) I believe Paul really loved JESUS n was a changed man but ever now n then the old pharisee rose up
Great points. In Matthew 13 Christ mentions that the tares are permittted to grow alongside the wheat but will be separated from the harvest to be burned at the end. The Lord allows us to choose right from wrong, and mortal justice is not his eternal, divine justice.
Then stay away from the churches and all written scripts about Jesus. Many have been weaponized. And open yourself up to all spiritual teachings. There is only one God. It is expressed through many prophets and mystics, in many forms and languages. There is no competition. They all say the same.
Stop spreading the evil, dividing Christian propaganda that the only way to God is through Jesus. The Jews do the same proclaiming they are the "chosen people". So do some Muslims. This creates all the wars in the world. Evil people use prophets and holy scropt to divide people against each other.
It's political propaganda that has nothing to do with spirtuality. They weaponized Jesus' teachings. The true Jesus lovers have to wake up to that and not unwillingly spread this propaganda. There are as many paths to God as people seeking him.
Jesus did not teach any of this. Jesus taught love, kindness, honor, humility, respect, womens and childrens rights, to even love your enemy, opposite of war. Jesus is outside of politics. People may chose to do whatever evil they chose to do, or use the name of who ever they please, it’s their bad choice.
Hence why all early church Christians never fought back and always led humble life.
Even tho Jesus is God, He showed is utmost humility by serving everyone, going into the dessert, eating little, never being luxurious, sometimes not having a place to sleep at.
I think if you focus on actual teachings written in the Gospels and not politics outside of them you’ll see things differently.
I agree - Jesus didn't teach any of this but the scripts and Christian history is tainted with it. And Jesus did not teach that the only way to God is through him. That is impossible. No truye mystic and one-with-god-man would ever say that. It's Christan propaganda. Stop spreading it. It's arrogant and dividing and causes wars and suffering.
No one knows for sure - its all believe and we waste our time arguing about believes. Somehow it turned up in the NT and gave all Christians a the superority boost they needed and the world is in constant religious wars ever since. If you like that and need that...up to you. The undeniable fact, supported by thousands of written texts and statements through all times is that many people found God without Jesus. You can deny that of course but it is a fact. If it makes you happy to live in an illusionary dream world not based on facts, be happy. Enjoy your magical world No point talking about reality with the Christan lot. Not sure why I still try. I am insulted by your ignorance and arrogance, I guess. But thats the end of it now.
The Essenes wrote about Jesus and mentioned that he taught them the scriptures had falsehoods added to them.
"Clementine Homilies II, Chapter XXXVIII: Corruption of the Torah
'For the Scriptures have had joined to them many falsehoods against Elohim on this account. The prophet Moses, by the order of Elohim, delivered the Torah with the explanations to seventy chosen men, in order that they also might instruct such of the people as they chose. After some time, the written Torah had added to it certain falsehoods contrary to the Torah of Elohim,12 who made the heaven and the earth, and all things in them; the evil one having dared to work this for his evil purpose.
'This took place in reason and judgment, that those might be convicted who should dare to listen to the things written against Elohim, and those who, through love towards Him, should not only disbelieve the things spoken against Him, but should not even endure to hear them at all, even if
they should happen to be true, judging it much safer to incur danger with respect to religious faith, than to live with an evil conscience on account of blasphemous words.'"
You may enjoy this video I recently watched about how "Jesus is the Context" https://youtu.be/bhA50Vy6bmg in which he explains that if something is contradictory to what Jesus said then we have to go with Jesus' version.
I agree. Always only use the source. Which is impossible with Jesus, I think. How do you know what Jesus really said? It was passed on orally for decades. Thankfully there are many other mystics where we have a true, unmeddled, original source - like Nisargadatta Maharaj, for example. They can be trusted only.
There are 5000 early Gospels writings with sane Jesus teachings, for example Aristotles there are only 20 found. If we take attitude of not trusting anything written every by witnesses and others then it’s a whole box that opens that makes things very messy, majority of historical figures, especially religious, have way less written about them close to their time or after.
Why following 2000 years old scripts with unverified content when I can get incredible vivd and enlightening teachings from enlightend people from the last 100 years that were recorded on tape and video and are fully verified? They teach the same truth - there is only one God and one truth. Those unverfied gospels and old religous scripts have been used and abused for 2000 years to rage wars and kill millions of people. Just a few months ago the OT was used to justify the killings of innocent women and children at Gaza.
There are much better clearer modern more relavant verfied teachings out there. The religous monopoly is squahing them for a protect thier monopoly. Just read Nisargadatta Maharaj - I Am That - and you have Gods words right in front of you without any historical garbage and institutional power plays mixed in.
Dear Alexander, I love both the Old and New Testament, together they are the Word of God. So much of The New Testament also quotes and references Old Testament passages. These OT passages point to Jesus, especially through Prophecies that did indeed come to pass. Isaiah 53:7 " He was oppressed and He was afflicted, yet He opened not His mouth, He is brought as a lamb to the slaughter and as sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he openeth not his mouth." And one of my favourites is Isaiah 53:5 " But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon Him: and with His stripes we are healed." Jesus also appears in the OT, for instance, He was the Rock with the Israelites in the wilderness. 1 Corinthians 10:4 "And all did drink the same spiritual drink: for they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them: and that Rock was Christ." And one of my favourites is when Jesus is in the furnace with Shadrach, Messiah and Abednego Dan 3:25 "Look, he answered, I see four men loose, walking in the midst of the fire and they have no hurt; and the form of the fourth is like the Son of God". We are under the New Covenant, the better covenant of Jesus blood, however, that does not mean that we throw away or can no longer preach, learn or teach from the Old Testament. Malachi 3:6 and Hebrews 13:18 declare that God is the same yesterday, today and forever. He is always good, even if His judgement of sin in the Old Testament seems harsh to many. Ananias and Sapphira dropped dead in the New Testament (in Acts) because of their serious sin against Holy Spirit. That passage in Scripture fills me with Godly fear and reminds me that God's judgement of sin is real and serious, but praise Jesus that we can come before Him, cleansed and forgiven because of Jesus precious blood.
Great examples, I believe there is a lot of great wisdom in OT as well and many of God’s teachings no doubt. I’m pointing to specifics when the teachings on the same subject collide, then we must go with Jesus on whatever the issue or the subject is. Jesus is also in Book of Enoch which I believe was also inspired by God’s message to Enoch.
While I love your thoughts here and found myself nodding along, I guess I think Pastors are just like the rest of us (this is probably my protestant upbringing), sinners saved only by God's grace. They mess up, just like the rest of us can/do when they, and we, wrestle with the scriptures. It is interesting that it is easy to fall into calling the whole Bible the Word of God when really it is Jesus who is the Word of God. The distinction is important, and I admit, I forget it, too. Given that I get to speak at my church as part of the Pastor's Roundtable team, I need to be more cognizant of how I use that phrase and be more distinct in how I present my faith and thoughts. I get overly casual and sloppy sometimes and that's on me. I believe God desired mercy, not sacrifice (legalistic sacrifices to satisfy the law) throughout the whole Bible, and Jesus clarifies this for us in the gospels when he speaks and when he comes to fulfill the law for us.
That’s a really huge and great point that you made, indeed we are all human with so many flaws, I appreciate what pastors do who have good intentions in their hearts, it’s a very hard job, one of the toughest and most criticized.
Our only flaw is ignorance, not realizing that we live in a mental illusion. Eveything else stems from that. But it can be fixed if truly desired. That's up to us. The rest is up to God.
The "word of God" is what the prophets heard. I use logical proofs from the bible to clarify that the book itself cannot possibly be the "Word of God" itself.
"Word of God" is a bad metaphor in my opinion. Words belong to the mind, to the human experience. It's abandundaly clear that every God experience is beyong the mind, beyond words. Gods never teaches in words. It's prophets that try the impossible task to describe God and will always fail. It's not wrong - just incredibly inaccurate. God is always a personal relationship. It can't be taught.
My friend, I am so glad to see that you have been able to get a hold of His ultimate anointed Word of Wisdom and make sure that this was posted on your page today. I will be praying for you because I know this will happen to cause some to lose their minds and come against you for your knowledge of the unadulterated truth. If they were to only exercise their God-given knowledge and read their Bible with a clear understanding of what is happening there would be no confusion or doubt. Because God is not a god of confusion... but the fact that they persist with this nonsense makes me wonder if they have truly surrendered their spirit to the almighty God but I will not be questioning the fact that any of these people are prophets or even anointed because in the Word it says very clearly to “touch not mine anointed and do my prophets no harm “, so I don’t have a Heaven or Hell to put them instead I just let their fruit bear witness...
That’s a beautiful comment, Dana, just amazing. I love that you make a note that God is not god of confusion, I will remember that for sure. I think you really hit the nail on the head when you say that we must fully surrender our spirit. I’ve had so many changes in my mind since I’ve surrendered more than ever.
Why do intellectuals & church leaders keep complicating Christianity??? Everybody wants to debate, contradict & evaluate the Bible! They spend wasted time & energy on this! Why so your sense of narcissism can be satisfied??? Jesus’ teachings are simple & easy to understand...forgiveness, love, compassion & respect. He NEVER advocated death or torture! The 10 Commandments, unless you are a moron, are God’s law & easy to understand. I DON’T need the Pope, the clergies of this world, intellectuals, so called religion experts to tell me how to be a Christian! Sometimes it’s hard bcoz this world has become so corrupted, vile & heinous! But I pray for the bad as well as the good bcoz maybe my prayer will be the one that saves a soul. I’m just sick & tired of all the rhetoric. I even wonder about people who feel the need to talk about & dissect the Bible. Like are you trying to prove something??? Bcoz this I know, you won’t be judged by your words! You’re going to be judged by your actions, what you gave back to this world. And God can see thru the phonies! SMH
Well said, I always think that any who contradict his core teachings and his themes, and his ideals and what he said in the Gospel and what was taught regarding him by the likes of St-Paul & St-Jehanne D'Arc, should not be believed. Whether they be priests, pastors or popes, as these latter people are but men, and men are imperfect. Many of these men are the new pharisees and Jesus would not support them, he would support the common lay-men who believes, prays and teaches his ways and seeks to embody them.
Although I'm agnostic, I've always been very interested in all religious writings. I didn't know this. I guess the proverbial Wisdom of Solomon is false.
"We often will hear pastors praise how wise and great Solomon was. It’s almost shocking.
Solomon had 1000 wives, worshiped demons, according to other old Jewish writing he got a lot of his knowledge from a fallen angel Azazeal, and it is written that he was so greedy that even despite all of his riches he still tricked poor people out of money.
When Jesus is faced with pharisees, he tells them “Greater than Solomon.”"
Alexander, this is a very important point. I believe it's a debate that has raged since Christ's ministry. I feel like the exchange in Mark 7:1-13 captures the heart of what you're saying. Well what I think you're saying.
We just finished as a group reading the Bible in a year. So revealing and not sugar coated. From the perspective of the entire book as a love story to us His bride is quite interesting. I read it before , but never as a group. I encourage it.
Sorry Alexander but I respectfully disagree. The OT is the infallible inerrant (written) Word of God along with the New Testament. The issues you mention can be explained and are not contradictions. They are examples of how the leaders in Jesus day had distorted the OT and Jesus was bringing a proper interpretation back to light. Peter, Paul, John and Jesus himself all quoted and verified the OT.
Indeed, Jesus is the living Word but how would you know that except by the written Word?
Good points, OT has many great truths and teachings, but like you said, proper interpretation of these things could only be done by Jesus, so that would still go along with the post I believe. For example, if indeed “eye for an eye” wasn’t taught by God, but by leaders of the time, and Jesus corrected that, then that OT teaching could not have been the word of God, correct? Another example I forgot, there is Solomon’s writing which is an almost exact copy of another wiseman way before his time, his name is even mentioned in one of Bible versions. Another thing to consider, many different denominations use different amount of books of OT. Most don’t even recognized book of Enoch, some do. So then we have to ask, which of those are “word of God”, we chose one, why not the other. Are excluded books that are used in Ethiopian Bible but not Protestant are no longer words of God in that denomination? It becomes very complicated in that sense if we look beyond Jesus to be given God’s teachings.
Thank you for adressing my personal elephant in the room, Alexander. I think Jesus was God and God was him when he said: “Father forgive them, they do not know what they are doing.” while being tortured to death by them. Only an enlightened being, which is a permanent unison with God, can have that strengths, clarity and wisdom under such strees. It also shows complete disidentification from the human body called Jesus. I readily believe it also because this is consistent with what other mystics and enlightened people also said. Amongst other things, all of them realized the ignorance we all live in and that they are not the body/person they believed they are but, in fact, god. There is a big difference between what the new testament teaches and what Jesus teaches imo. We simply can't deny the fact that the new testament was written a few generations after Jesus taught and it was written down by humans. So why do you assume that every word in the NT accurately represents his teachings? You rightly talk about contradictions between OT and NT in your article. There are also many contradictions within the NT itself. This only confirms that it was written down by several humans. Not all accurately reflects the true teachings of Jesus imo. How do I know which ones are true? It's easy. The truth about God is universal. It's bigger than culture and even humanity. It transcends all this. That's why the essence of the teachings of all the great prophets match. They use different words but they align in essence and principles like ignorance and the not-body spirit nature of God. All true prophets say that. So if I need to verify some impurities in the NT I simply consult other prophets. If they agree in essence, it's a true teaching of Jesus. If not, probably it was snug in there by humans for other reasons. One of these “false teachings” wrongly attributed to Jesus, or at least taken totaly out of context, is the very problematic statement that “he is the only way into the narrow path” or "the only path to God is through Jesus.”
This is an outright obvious lie, done on purpose by probably Paul, the founder of the church to introduce a hierarchy and exclusivity that is deeply human and anti-spiritual and motivated by power in order to manipulate people to join his war against the Roman empire. With that false statement he weapinized the humanitarian and egalitarian teachings of Jesus. He slyly appealed to the vanity and spiritual ego in Christians….it makes them feel “special”, The Jews and other religions do similar stuff. True mystics don't need to do that. Jesus would never have done that. It doesn't go together with his other teachings at all. And it is not needed at all to love and learn from Jesus. Learning true spirituality is a personal relationship between me and Jesus or any other mystic I trust. It is not a politicial or social thing. It's not a group think. It's not a power play. It's not a competition. It's such a laughably obvious human trait of ignorance. To attribute that to Jesus is an insult, actually.
Popularity and numbers doesn't proof spiritual truth. That something is written and attributed to somebody doesn't mean it happened. The winners versions only are seen in the history books. The Christans won. They defeated the Romans. They weaponized Jesus teachings. So do the woke. If you want to feel more powerful and belong to a powerful group, by all means, join the Christans. They ruled the world for 2000 years. But you won't find God and no heaven either. For that, according to true mystics including Jesus, you need to develop humbleness, not exclusivity, arrogance and ignorance. All true mystics and prophets embrace, celebrate and love all other mystics as true expressions of the one God. Jews, Muslims, and Christans don't. And they fucked up the world ever since….
Paul says women should be quiet n church n not teach Joel says your son's n Daughters shall prophecy
Paul contradicts a lot of people in the bible, lol.
Yup, that’s a whole other project, I’ll consider writing on that too, but probably would upset people haha
Paul was a pharisee on steroids I mean he circumcised poor Timothy just to please teachers of the law (ouch) I believe Paul really loved JESUS n was a changed man but ever now n then the old pharisee rose up
I think that’s a very realistic summary
Ty my friend I admire your work too sir
thank you very much, your support is greatly appreciated, I know I am a very flawed human and I seek God’s mercy
I created YouTube videos on my studies and debunked the trinity and that upset people. Saying Paul was a false apostle was much worse.
Good ones to examine!
Great points. In Matthew 13 Christ mentions that the tares are permittted to grow alongside the wheat but will be separated from the harvest to be burned at the end. The Lord allows us to choose right from wrong, and mortal justice is not his eternal, divine justice.
Yes, what a great example, more of Christ’s wisdom. Whole other level. I love Christ so much.
Then stay away from the churches and all written scripts about Jesus. Many have been weaponized. And open yourself up to all spiritual teachings. There is only one God. It is expressed through many prophets and mystics, in many forms and languages. There is no competition. They all say the same.
Stop spreading the evil, dividing Christian propaganda that the only way to God is through Jesus. The Jews do the same proclaiming they are the "chosen people". So do some Muslims. This creates all the wars in the world. Evil people use prophets and holy scropt to divide people against each other.
It's political propaganda that has nothing to do with spirtuality. They weaponized Jesus' teachings. The true Jesus lovers have to wake up to that and not unwillingly spread this propaganda. There are as many paths to God as people seeking him.
Jesus did not teach any of this. Jesus taught love, kindness, honor, humility, respect, womens and childrens rights, to even love your enemy, opposite of war. Jesus is outside of politics. People may chose to do whatever evil they chose to do, or use the name of who ever they please, it’s their bad choice.
Hence why all early church Christians never fought back and always led humble life.
Even tho Jesus is God, He showed is utmost humility by serving everyone, going into the dessert, eating little, never being luxurious, sometimes not having a place to sleep at.
I think if you focus on actual teachings written in the Gospels and not politics outside of them you’ll see things differently.
I agree - Jesus didn't teach any of this but the scripts and Christian history is tainted with it. And Jesus did not teach that the only way to God is through him. That is impossible. No truye mystic and one-with-god-man would ever say that. It's Christan propaganda. Stop spreading it. It's arrogant and dividing and causes wars and suffering.
He most certainly did.
No one knows for sure - its all believe and we waste our time arguing about believes. Somehow it turned up in the NT and gave all Christians a the superority boost they needed and the world is in constant religious wars ever since. If you like that and need that...up to you. The undeniable fact, supported by thousands of written texts and statements through all times is that many people found God without Jesus. You can deny that of course but it is a fact. If it makes you happy to live in an illusionary dream world not based on facts, be happy. Enjoy your magical world No point talking about reality with the Christan lot. Not sure why I still try. I am insulted by your ignorance and arrogance, I guess. But thats the end of it now.
The Essenes wrote about Jesus and mentioned that he taught them the scriptures had falsehoods added to them.
"Clementine Homilies II, Chapter XXXVIII: Corruption of the Torah
'For the Scriptures have had joined to them many falsehoods against Elohim on this account. The prophet Moses, by the order of Elohim, delivered the Torah with the explanations to seventy chosen men, in order that they also might instruct such of the people as they chose. After some time, the written Torah had added to it certain falsehoods contrary to the Torah of Elohim,12 who made the heaven and the earth, and all things in them; the evil one having dared to work this for his evil purpose.
'This took place in reason and judgment, that those might be convicted who should dare to listen to the things written against Elohim, and those who, through love towards Him, should not only disbelieve the things spoken against Him, but should not even endure to hear them at all, even if
they should happen to be true, judging it much safer to incur danger with respect to religious faith, than to live with an evil conscience on account of blasphemous words.'"
You may enjoy this video I recently watched about how "Jesus is the Context" https://youtu.be/bhA50Vy6bmg in which he explains that if something is contradictory to what Jesus said then we have to go with Jesus' version.
Wow, this is incredible information! I’m saving your comment and will watch the video soon. Blessed to have readers like you.
I agree. Always only use the source. Which is impossible with Jesus, I think. How do you know what Jesus really said? It was passed on orally for decades. Thankfully there are many other mystics where we have a true, unmeddled, original source - like Nisargadatta Maharaj, for example. They can be trusted only.
There are 5000 early Gospels writings with sane Jesus teachings, for example Aristotles there are only 20 found. If we take attitude of not trusting anything written every by witnesses and others then it’s a whole box that opens that makes things very messy, majority of historical figures, especially religious, have way less written about them close to their time or after.
Why following 2000 years old scripts with unverified content when I can get incredible vivd and enlightening teachings from enlightend people from the last 100 years that were recorded on tape and video and are fully verified? They teach the same truth - there is only one God and one truth. Those unverfied gospels and old religous scripts have been used and abused for 2000 years to rage wars and kill millions of people. Just a few months ago the OT was used to justify the killings of innocent women and children at Gaza.
There are much better clearer modern more relavant verfied teachings out there. The religous monopoly is squahing them for a protect thier monopoly. Just read Nisargadatta Maharaj - I Am That - and you have Gods words right in front of you without any historical garbage and institutional power plays mixed in.
I like to call it The Hebrew Bible, Jewish Scriptures, or Torah.
Dear Alexander, I love both the Old and New Testament, together they are the Word of God. So much of The New Testament also quotes and references Old Testament passages. These OT passages point to Jesus, especially through Prophecies that did indeed come to pass. Isaiah 53:7 " He was oppressed and He was afflicted, yet He opened not His mouth, He is brought as a lamb to the slaughter and as sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he openeth not his mouth." And one of my favourites is Isaiah 53:5 " But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon Him: and with His stripes we are healed." Jesus also appears in the OT, for instance, He was the Rock with the Israelites in the wilderness. 1 Corinthians 10:4 "And all did drink the same spiritual drink: for they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them: and that Rock was Christ." And one of my favourites is when Jesus is in the furnace with Shadrach, Messiah and Abednego Dan 3:25 "Look, he answered, I see four men loose, walking in the midst of the fire and they have no hurt; and the form of the fourth is like the Son of God". We are under the New Covenant, the better covenant of Jesus blood, however, that does not mean that we throw away or can no longer preach, learn or teach from the Old Testament. Malachi 3:6 and Hebrews 13:18 declare that God is the same yesterday, today and forever. He is always good, even if His judgement of sin in the Old Testament seems harsh to many. Ananias and Sapphira dropped dead in the New Testament (in Acts) because of their serious sin against Holy Spirit. That passage in Scripture fills me with Godly fear and reminds me that God's judgement of sin is real and serious, but praise Jesus that we can come before Him, cleansed and forgiven because of Jesus precious blood.
Great examples, I believe there is a lot of great wisdom in OT as well and many of God’s teachings no doubt. I’m pointing to specifics when the teachings on the same subject collide, then we must go with Jesus on whatever the issue or the subject is. Jesus is also in Book of Enoch which I believe was also inspired by God’s message to Enoch.
While I love your thoughts here and found myself nodding along, I guess I think Pastors are just like the rest of us (this is probably my protestant upbringing), sinners saved only by God's grace. They mess up, just like the rest of us can/do when they, and we, wrestle with the scriptures. It is interesting that it is easy to fall into calling the whole Bible the Word of God when really it is Jesus who is the Word of God. The distinction is important, and I admit, I forget it, too. Given that I get to speak at my church as part of the Pastor's Roundtable team, I need to be more cognizant of how I use that phrase and be more distinct in how I present my faith and thoughts. I get overly casual and sloppy sometimes and that's on me. I believe God desired mercy, not sacrifice (legalistic sacrifices to satisfy the law) throughout the whole Bible, and Jesus clarifies this for us in the gospels when he speaks and when he comes to fulfill the law for us.
That’s a really huge and great point that you made, indeed we are all human with so many flaws, I appreciate what pastors do who have good intentions in their hearts, it’s a very hard job, one of the toughest and most criticized.
Our only flaw is ignorance, not realizing that we live in a mental illusion. Eveything else stems from that. But it can be fixed if truly desired. That's up to us. The rest is up to God.
Though I disagree with you on some points (which means you may disagree with my writings on some points), you may be interested in my article "The Bible Claims to NOT be the 'Word of God'" https://leavesofthetree.substack.com/p/the-bible-claims-to-not-be-the-word
The "word of God" is what the prophets heard. I use logical proofs from the bible to clarify that the book itself cannot possibly be the "Word of God" itself.
Really good point, will be reading!
"Word of God" is a bad metaphor in my opinion. Words belong to the mind, to the human experience. It's abandundaly clear that every God experience is beyong the mind, beyond words. Gods never teaches in words. It's prophets that try the impossible task to describe God and will always fail. It's not wrong - just incredibly inaccurate. God is always a personal relationship. It can't be taught.
My friend, I am so glad to see that you have been able to get a hold of His ultimate anointed Word of Wisdom and make sure that this was posted on your page today. I will be praying for you because I know this will happen to cause some to lose their minds and come against you for your knowledge of the unadulterated truth. If they were to only exercise their God-given knowledge and read their Bible with a clear understanding of what is happening there would be no confusion or doubt. Because God is not a god of confusion... but the fact that they persist with this nonsense makes me wonder if they have truly surrendered their spirit to the almighty God but I will not be questioning the fact that any of these people are prophets or even anointed because in the Word it says very clearly to “touch not mine anointed and do my prophets no harm “, so I don’t have a Heaven or Hell to put them instead I just let their fruit bear witness...
That’s a beautiful comment, Dana, just amazing. I love that you make a note that God is not god of confusion, I will remember that for sure. I think you really hit the nail on the head when you say that we must fully surrender our spirit. I’ve had so many changes in my mind since I’ve surrendered more than ever.
Why do intellectuals & church leaders keep complicating Christianity??? Everybody wants to debate, contradict & evaluate the Bible! They spend wasted time & energy on this! Why so your sense of narcissism can be satisfied??? Jesus’ teachings are simple & easy to understand...forgiveness, love, compassion & respect. He NEVER advocated death or torture! The 10 Commandments, unless you are a moron, are God’s law & easy to understand. I DON’T need the Pope, the clergies of this world, intellectuals, so called religion experts to tell me how to be a Christian! Sometimes it’s hard bcoz this world has become so corrupted, vile & heinous! But I pray for the bad as well as the good bcoz maybe my prayer will be the one that saves a soul. I’m just sick & tired of all the rhetoric. I even wonder about people who feel the need to talk about & dissect the Bible. Like are you trying to prove something??? Bcoz this I know, you won’t be judged by your words! You’re going to be judged by your actions, what you gave back to this world. And God can see thru the phonies! SMH
Great comment, you nailed it. You understand the heart of the issue in my opinion. Thank you.
Totally agree.
So glad!
Well said, I always think that any who contradict his core teachings and his themes, and his ideals and what he said in the Gospel and what was taught regarding him by the likes of St-Paul & St-Jehanne D'Arc, should not be believed. Whether they be priests, pastors or popes, as these latter people are but men, and men are imperfect. Many of these men are the new pharisees and Jesus would not support them, he would support the common lay-men who believes, prays and teaches his ways and seeks to embody them.
Well said my friend!
Excellent article 🤗
Thank you!
Although I'm agnostic, I've always been very interested in all religious writings. I didn't know this. I guess the proverbial Wisdom of Solomon is false.
"We often will hear pastors praise how wise and great Solomon was. It’s almost shocking.
Solomon had 1000 wives, worshiped demons, according to other old Jewish writing he got a lot of his knowledge from a fallen angel Azazeal, and it is written that he was so greedy that even despite all of his riches he still tricked poor people out of money.
When Jesus is faced with pharisees, he tells them “Greater than Solomon.”"
Alexander, this is a very important point. I believe it's a debate that has raged since Christ's ministry. I feel like the exchange in Mark 7:1-13 captures the heart of what you're saying. Well what I think you're saying.
This part is a powerful teaching, can write whole post just about that specifically. How the human heart is. The “commandments of men”, yes.
We just finished as a group reading the Bible in a year. So revealing and not sugar coated. From the perspective of the entire book as a love story to us His bride is quite interesting. I read it before , but never as a group. I encourage it.
That is really interesting!
Sorry Alexander but I respectfully disagree. The OT is the infallible inerrant (written) Word of God along with the New Testament. The issues you mention can be explained and are not contradictions. They are examples of how the leaders in Jesus day had distorted the OT and Jesus was bringing a proper interpretation back to light. Peter, Paul, John and Jesus himself all quoted and verified the OT.
Indeed, Jesus is the living Word but how would you know that except by the written Word?
Good points, OT has many great truths and teachings, but like you said, proper interpretation of these things could only be done by Jesus, so that would still go along with the post I believe. For example, if indeed “eye for an eye” wasn’t taught by God, but by leaders of the time, and Jesus corrected that, then that OT teaching could not have been the word of God, correct? Another example I forgot, there is Solomon’s writing which is an almost exact copy of another wiseman way before his time, his name is even mentioned in one of Bible versions. Another thing to consider, many different denominations use different amount of books of OT. Most don’t even recognized book of Enoch, some do. So then we have to ask, which of those are “word of God”, we chose one, why not the other. Are excluded books that are used in Ethiopian Bible but not Protestant are no longer words of God in that denomination? It becomes very complicated in that sense if we look beyond Jesus to be given God’s teachings.
Thank you for adressing my personal elephant in the room, Alexander. I think Jesus was God and God was him when he said: “Father forgive them, they do not know what they are doing.” while being tortured to death by them. Only an enlightened being, which is a permanent unison with God, can have that strengths, clarity and wisdom under such strees. It also shows complete disidentification from the human body called Jesus. I readily believe it also because this is consistent with what other mystics and enlightened people also said. Amongst other things, all of them realized the ignorance we all live in and that they are not the body/person they believed they are but, in fact, god. There is a big difference between what the new testament teaches and what Jesus teaches imo. We simply can't deny the fact that the new testament was written a few generations after Jesus taught and it was written down by humans. So why do you assume that every word in the NT accurately represents his teachings? You rightly talk about contradictions between OT and NT in your article. There are also many contradictions within the NT itself. This only confirms that it was written down by several humans. Not all accurately reflects the true teachings of Jesus imo. How do I know which ones are true? It's easy. The truth about God is universal. It's bigger than culture and even humanity. It transcends all this. That's why the essence of the teachings of all the great prophets match. They use different words but they align in essence and principles like ignorance and the not-body spirit nature of God. All true prophets say that. So if I need to verify some impurities in the NT I simply consult other prophets. If they agree in essence, it's a true teaching of Jesus. If not, probably it was snug in there by humans for other reasons. One of these “false teachings” wrongly attributed to Jesus, or at least taken totaly out of context, is the very problematic statement that “he is the only way into the narrow path” or "the only path to God is through Jesus.”
This is an outright obvious lie, done on purpose by probably Paul, the founder of the church to introduce a hierarchy and exclusivity that is deeply human and anti-spiritual and motivated by power in order to manipulate people to join his war against the Roman empire. With that false statement he weapinized the humanitarian and egalitarian teachings of Jesus. He slyly appealed to the vanity and spiritual ego in Christians….it makes them feel “special”, The Jews and other religions do similar stuff. True mystics don't need to do that. Jesus would never have done that. It doesn't go together with his other teachings at all. And it is not needed at all to love and learn from Jesus. Learning true spirituality is a personal relationship between me and Jesus or any other mystic I trust. It is not a politicial or social thing. It's not a group think. It's not a power play. It's not a competition. It's such a laughably obvious human trait of ignorance. To attribute that to Jesus is an insult, actually.
Popularity and numbers doesn't proof spiritual truth. That something is written and attributed to somebody doesn't mean it happened. The winners versions only are seen in the history books. The Christans won. They defeated the Romans. They weaponized Jesus teachings. So do the woke. If you want to feel more powerful and belong to a powerful group, by all means, join the Christans. They ruled the world for 2000 years. But you won't find God and no heaven either. For that, according to true mystics including Jesus, you need to develop humbleness, not exclusivity, arrogance and ignorance. All true mystics and prophets embrace, celebrate and love all other mystics as true expressions of the one God. Jews, Muslims, and Christans don't. And they fucked up the world ever since….