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July 20th, 2013
10:00 PM ET
Reza Aslan: Why I write about JesusOpinion by Reza Aslan, special to CNN (CNN) - When I was 15 years old, I found Jesus. I spent the summer of my sophomore year at an evangelical youth camp in Northern California, a place of timbered fields and boundless blue skies, where, given enough time and stillness and soft-spoken encouragement, one could not help but hear the voice of God. Amid the man-made lakes and majestic pines my friends and I sang songs, played games and swapped secrets, rollicking in our freedom from the pressures of home and school. In the evenings, we gathered in a fire-lit assembly hall at the center of the camp. It was there that I heard a remarkable story that would change my life forever.
Through his words and miraculous deeds, he challenged the Jews who thought they were the chosen of God, and in return he was nailed to a cross. Though Jesus could have saved himself from that gruesome death, he freely chose to die. Indeed, his death was the point of it all, for his sacrifice freed us all from the burden of our sins. But the story did not end there, because three days later, he rose again, exalted and divine, so that now, all who believe in him and accept him into their hearts will also never die, but have eternal life. For a kid raised in a motley family of lukewarm Muslims and exuberant atheists, this was truly the greatest story ever told. Never before had I felt so intimately the pull of God. In Iran, the place of my birth, I was Muslim in much the way I was Persian. My religion and my ethnicity were mutual and linked. Like most people born into a religious tradition, my faith was as familiar to me as my skin, and just as disregardable. After the Iranian revolution forced my family to flee our home, religion in general, and Islam in particular, became taboo in our household. Islam was shorthand for everything we had lost to the mullahs who now ruled Iran. My mother still prayed when no one was looking, and you could still find a stray Quran or two hidden in a closet or a drawer somewhere. But, for the most part, our lives were scrubbed of all trace of God. That was just fine with me. After all, in the America of the 1980s, being Muslim was like being from Mars. My faith was a bruise, the most obvious symbol of my otherness; it needed to be concealed. Jesus, on the other hand, was America. He was the central figure in America’s national drama. Accepting him into my heart was as close as I could get to feeling truly American. I do not mean to say that mine was a conversion of convenience. On the contrary, I burned with absolute devotion to my newfound faith. I was presented with a Jesus who was less “Lord and Savior” than he was a best friend, someone with whom I could have a deep and personal relationship. As a teenager trying to make sense of an indeterminate world I had only just become aware of, this was an invitation I could not refuse. The moment I returned home from camp, I began eagerly to share the good news of Jesus Christ with my friends and family, my neighbors and classmates, with people I’d just met and with strangers on the street: those who heard it gladly, and those who threw it back in my face. Yet something unexpected happened in my quest to save the souls of the world. The more I probed the Bible to arm myself against the doubts of unbelievers, the more distance I discovered between the Jesus of the Gospels and the Jesus of history – between Jesus the Christ and Jesus of Nazareth. In college, where I began my formal study of the history of religions, that initial discomfort soon ballooned into full-blown doubts. The bedrock of evangelical Christianity, at least as it was taught to me, is the unconditional belief that every word of the Bible is God-breathed and true, literal and inerrant. The sudden realization that this belief is patently and irrefutably false, that the Bible is replete with the most blatant and obvious errors and contradictions — just as one would expect from a document written by hundreds of different hands across thousands of years — left me confused and spiritually unmoored. And so, like many people in my situation, I angrily discarded my faith as if it were a costly forgery I had been duped into buying. I began to rethink the faith and culture of my forefathers, finding in them a deeper, more intimate familiarity than I ever had as a child, the kind that comes from reconnecting with an old friend after many years apart. Meanwhile, I continued my academic work in religious studies, delving back into the Bible not as an unquestioning believer but as an inquisitive scholar. No longer chained to the assumption that the stories I read were literally true, I became aware of a more meaningful truth in the text. Ironically, the more I learned about the life of the historical Jesus, the turbulent world in which he lived, and the brutality of the Roman occupation that he defied, the more I was drawn to him. The Jewish peasant and revolutionary who challenged the rule of the most powerful empire the world had ever known became so much more real to me than the detached, unearthly being I had been introduced to in church. Today, I can confidently say that two decades of rigorous academic research into the origins of Christianity has made me a more genuinely committed disciple of Jesus of Nazareth than I ever was of Jesus Christ. I have modeled my life not after the celestial spirit whom many Christians believe sacrificed himself for our sins, but rather after the illiterate, marginal Jew who gave his life fighting an unwinnable battle against the religious and political powers of his day on behalf of the poor and the dispossessed – those his society deemed unworthy of saving. I wrote my newest book, "Zealot: The Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth" in order to spread the good news of the Jesus of history with the same fervor that I once applied to spreading the story of the Christ. Because I am convinced that one can be a devoted follower of Jesus without being a Christian, just as I know that one can be a Christian without being a follower of Jesus. Reza Aslan is a bestselling author and a scholar of religion. This article was adapted from his newest book, "Zealot: The Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth." The views expressed in this column are Aslan's alone. |
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Bad news, folks: now that I'm dead, I can confirm – no god, no afterlife, no heaven, no hell. p.s. Nicole Brown Simpson's ghost is asking if she can have a "Justice for Nicole" weekend, since that was obviously a race-related killing as well.
We tend to look at ourselves as enlightened because we compare ourselves to our even-more-religious ancestors who threw people into rivers to test if they were witches.
But there are beliefs that today we take for granted as true that I am confident our descendents will expose as lies.
One is this most horrible of all lies that we need gods to be good; that good can only come in the form of arbitrary orders from invisible and silent gods (delivered by men of course, because of the problematic aforementioned invisibility and silence). Our descendents will practise more thoughtful moral reasoning than we do and prove that whopper to be the most harmful lie in human history.
Second is the existence of a man-god named Jesus Christ. The vacuum of evidence for Jesus is telling and significant. This guy could (it is claimed) literally walk on water and create food from thin air, and yet absolutely no one wrote about until 2 generations after his pretend "death"? That is inconceivable – not at all plausible. Every major town had scribes back in the first century CE, and yet they are silent about the most extraordinary of events supposedly witnessed by thousands. It is like someone claiming today that back in the 1970s, Superman really did walk the earth (and fly), and the vacuum of newspaper accounts at the time is just a fluke. Jesus is the ultimate urban legend. A lie that caught on.
well said Andrew.
Well said Andrew. Are we related in some way?
True, but for all that, I still would not do away with religion until we have sufficient social structures in place to support morality without fear. There are too many people who will not be good if they don't fear retribution in the afterlife. If they accept that their is no afterlife, they lose their incentive to be good.
Earth, the war zone.
"2Cr 4:4 In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them."
more nonsense from lol.
My question is not with Aslan's overall view, but rather with the snippet where he claims that Jesus was illiterate. That seems like quite an assumption. Perhaps the majority of rural Jews were illiterate at the time, but can we be absolutely sure about Jesus? No matter what you think about him, clearly he had an inquisitive mind and a yearning to grasp spiritual ideas. I guess that small claim alone makes me wonder if this book is worth reading. Are there really any genuine, scholarly discoveries about Jesus within its pages, or is it simply a bunch of assumptions based on the Jewish culture of the day?
Illiterate in the larger sense. A carpenter's family was not even lower-middle class, unless Daddy Joe was part of a royal retinue, and even that would be middle-middle class.
Seeking spirituality does not make one smarter (or dumber, though some would disagree) by its mere fact. Jesus is alleged to have been well versed in both sides of Jewish scripture (there was no real Jewish Canon at that time) – which means he was somehow exposed to it all – at least enough to appeared learned in it – but we have no idea of the HOW, or WHAT – as there is not much story there from the age of +/- 13 to 33yo...so as to how he learned it all – anything is pure conjecture.
IMO, he and his family were itinerant tradesman...moving to where the work took them...which would mean exposure to a wide variety of beliefs among his fellow Jews, as well as the decidedly Buddhist like flavors we see thru-out his teachings. Plus it would have brought him into contact with political and religious dissidents – who typically live on the fringe of society, with the poor, and downtrodden...which is why he is an apocalyptic Preacher/Teacher, as the poor and disadvantaged all seek "renewal" thru anarchy and overthrowing of the status quo. Jesus just leaned towards the peaceful side of such things...
Not knowing how to write has nothing to do with whether he was an intelligent man or had a thirst for spirituality and knowledge.
The fact of the matter is this: Literacy was a privilege afforded to the very wealthy and to those chosen as scribes.
The "illiterate" part is not an insult, but is very likely true.
Considering that the author is a religious scholar, I would think that he has some insight worth reading. Also, I believe the whole point of his book is to take Jesus out of a religious context and look at him as a figure in history, which requires a bit more rigorous scrutiny. The fact is that the majority of the population of the world in that era was illiterate – it would have been far more unusual for Jesus – a tradesman, a carpenter – to have been literate than not. In fact, I would think that were he literate, he could have written his own thoughts, ideas, beliefs and sermons down himself rather than having them retold seventy or so years after his death. Also, having an active and inquisitive mind does not require one to be literate – people have had active and inquisitive minds long before there was written language. So to contemplate dismissing the book out of hand because the Jesus viewed within the context of history may not jibe with Standalone Jesus is one of the biggest reasons why it is difficult to find Christianity believable. We all exist within the time we exist in, and I don't understand why the idea that Jesus did as well seems so threatening to some people.
Thank you for sharing your insights. I'm still not sure the book is worth how ever much B&N and Amazon are charging for it. Aslan also gave a Fresh Air interview earlier this week that, to me, was void of any stirring, original thought.
“Remember very well that no one will descend from heaven. All our opponents who live today shall die and none of them shall ever see Jesus son of Mary coming down from heaven; then their children that are left after them shall also die and none from among them shall ever see Jesus son of Mary coming down from heaven and then their third generation shall also die and they too shall not see the son of Mary coming down. Then God shall cause great consternation in their hearts, yet the son of Mary has not come down. Then in dismay the wise among them shall forsake this belief and three centuries from now shall not have passed when those who await the coming of Jesus son of Mary, whether they be Muslims or Christians, shall relinquish altogether this conception. Then shall prevail only one religion over the whole world and there shall be only one religious Leader. I came only to sow the seed which has been planted by my hand. It shall now grow and flourish and there is none who can hinder its growth “
“It is said by the Eldar that in water there lives yet the echo of the Music of the Ainur more than in any substance that is in this Earth; and many of the Children of Ilúvatar hearken still unsated to the voices of the Sea, and yet know not for what they listen.”
How does quoting from a book lend any credibility to it?
And which of the 31,000 sects of Christianity will be the REAL religion ?
I feel the same way. I am a Hindu but love Jesus very much because i have been exposed to his miracles. I feel i should be able to love Jesus without being Christian.
What miracles?
c'mon man really, there are Christians who believe you will burn in hell.
A perfect mirror opposite to this book is "The Gospel According to Christ" by Sphero, whom I see has already commented here. It excellently explains in clear terms the undisputed deity of Christ, the reliability of the modern Bible, and the difference between modern-day theological opinions to the unadulterated teachings of Jesus without putting a spin on truth.
How do you post such absolute garbage that a book contains "the undisputed deity of Christ, the reliability of the modern Bible". Were you dropped on your head, repeatedly, as a child?
What is the "modern bible" ?
Nice add for your stuff, Mr. Sphero.
Truth to whom Sachel Page?
The vast majority of the world does not find any truth in your make believe world.
Because they have their own make believe book of magic spells.
So many gods, so many delusions......
The divinity of Jebus was different in each of the gospels and in Paul. They all had their own idea, just like the 31,000 sects of this cult today. And now we are believe on this guy gets it right ? We aren't arrogant are we ?
Except the "truth" you hold so fervently to is spin to begin with.
You can follow Jesus' teachings without belonging to a church, but you can't do it without adhering to Christian principles – even though many people who call themselves "Christians" don't.
The Beast is getting hungry. Get out of the churches!! They are fully leavened.
True. And many people can be christians in a sense and not in another. It is not the same to be a bible thumper than to lead by example, living with Jesus as the model for living life and caring for others. The second, to me, is what Jesus wanted all along, to love each other.
so called "Christian principles" are nothing more than humanistic principles with special god sauce.
Well thats a nice story...but this man Jesus, that Azlan speaks of...this rebel...simply didnt exist. Jesus was not a political dissident, he was not out there rebelling against the Romans. There's no real evidence of such activities. Its all based on a brief encounter with Pilate and like the story of the Divine Jesus, mostly made up...a real stretching of the imagination, which results in mythology, and nothing factual.
Its fine if someone wants to find some small piece of these MYTHS to comfort them...but to then write a whole new myth is simply specious and on par with the stuff he/others is running from in the first place...
doesn't it all depend on one's interpretation? Hence the book. No living person knows any FACTS for sure since we weren't there. You just have different opinion. That's all swell, but don't talk like YOU know the FACTS.
You do not have to believe in the stories of Jesus' miracles, however, he did exist. There is proof not only in the Bible, but other texts not related to the Bible from that time.
What proof in the bible? it's a book. That's not proof. What other texts?
There are historical letters from Pontius Pilate; (unrelated to the Bible) Jewish text of Jospephus; (unrelated to the Bible) Roman text.
Also, the Quaran mentions him as a prophet.
Again, you do not have to believe the stories of divinity, but he was indeed a person.
You forget that texts written about a person don't have to mean they existed. Was Robin Hood real? How about Sherlock Holmes? Early Christians were spreading fantastic tales about their "savior" and some extra-biblical writers made comments about them. It still doesn't mean the object of those legends was an actual person. It either case it's a moot point. The existence of a man isn't extraordinary. Claims of divinity are and that isn't and cannot be justified by any textual account. A story in a book isn't proof of the supernatural.
Lisa – I am aware of those sources and all they really say is that Christians existed and they say "X". None of them speak to the existence of Jesus first hand, only as "this is what the people of this new religion are saying".
Personally, I believe he probably existed, but these references are poor evidence for that argument.
No sorry. None of the books in the Bible or outside it are contemporary. All of them date to long after Jesus died so there is no way to know if an actual man existed or not.
You are of course referring to the New Testament, right?
Well of course I'm only talking about NT. The OT says nothing whatsoever about Jesus. In fact most of the OT is ignored completely by Christians except where it contains something they can spin to support their ridiculous claims.
So, you're stating that all this guys research into what Jesus really was in nothing more than a bunch of crap? LOL!
Jesus from Nazareth was Christ, the Son of God.
It is complete idiocy to appreciate the historical Jesus, and to deny Christ at the same time. Christ and the historical Jesus are the same person, therefore we call him Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ had got a human nature and a divine nature, he was man and God at the same time. His human nature was created in Mary's womb, but his divine nature was eternal (Jesus existed before he came into the womb of Mary, and, of course, before he was born into this world). Thus, one can say that the eternal Christ incarnated when he came into the womb of his mother Mary who was a virgin. First, this human being was simply called Jesus, but when he revealed his heavenly glory by miracles he was called Jesus Christ.
Jesus was King of Israel indeed because he was a descendant of the Jewish King David. It is only that the royality of Jesus' family was no longer acknowledged by Israel at Jesus' time. Jesus was a man of virtue, he was a real king. He committed no sin, and cured people, and gave them the soul's health. And if the Jews (Jewish leaders) had not turned apostate from the ancient faith of Jahwe they had elected him King of Israel. Yet, the Jewish leaders were not concerned about their people Israel but only greedy for honor, power and riches. They used religion as a smokescreen for their malice. They were obsessed by the devil who gave them thoughts like: "let us do evil things in order to harvest good things". They uesed the law of the Torah as a cub in order to beat the ordinary Jews themselves breaking it. The Jewish leaders were angry with the ordinary Jews, insulted them and condemned them. The did not tell Israel of a Redeemer, and when the Redeemer became visible in the person of Jesus, they said he would be obsessed by the devil.
The Jewish leaders were breaking the law, and condemned the ordinary Jews. Jesus kept the law, he even fulfilled it through divine love which is more than keeping, and he loved the ordinary Jews despite their sins. Hence, Jesus was the exact opposite of a Jewish leader. The Jewish leaders were let by the devil, Jesus was let by the Holy Spirit. This is the reason why they hated Jesus.
Jesus told the truth by saying: I am the Saviour, and you need me in order to get delivered from your sins. Jesus confirmed the law of the Thorah but said that one is not pious through simply possessing the law, being circu-msized, and a descendant of father Abraham but through fulfilling the law. We fulfill the law when we love God and our neighbour. Yet, this love we don't possess by birth (by birth we a selfish, breakers of the law). This love is a divne gift which we gain through faith in Jesus Christ who is the love.
This is the great mystery of faith: When we believe in Jesus Christ, we get a new divine nature beside our selfish nature which we have by birth.. The spiritual exersice we can fascilitate the new nature more and more, and thus we will come through at Judgement Day because we were really people who loved God and their felllow human beings.
May Israel realize his Redeemer today. They are God's Chosen People.
http://confessingchurch.wordpress.com
Whew! Long winded, but its all still myth. Nothing but a made-up story – in the tradition of the panegyric.
And some final words from Thomas Jefferson,
"And the day will come,
when the mystical generation of Jesus,
by the Supreme Being as His Father,
in the womb of a virgin,
will be classed with the fable of the generation of Minerva”
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
So if he was Man and God at the same time...how did he suffer? Did he turn his humaness/Godness on and off so he could "feel" like you or me? How does a God fast? Suffer thirst?
We know this God is prone to anger so that explains his temple-table-turning fit...but was he more human under the scourge or do you think he flitted in and out of his God nature when he needed a break from the pain?
How can a hybrid Being be something You, me or anyone can ever relate to in any real way? How?
I think it is imaginable that a higher being reduces himself to a lower being.
So while Jesus walked the earth there was no god in heaven? Think about the logical ramifications of your theory.
Do you find it interesting Rainer that Jesus was not considered by his own church the son of God until long after his death? This supports the notion of the article – deification was simply s a 'marketing' decision made to prop up the appeal of the new religion.
No, you can not follow Jesus but not be a Christian, this is just another trick of Satan!
Oh no, not Satan!!!
Mommy I am so scared.
Ha ha funny. I am assuming you are trying to be witty...
Religion poisons everything. Good Ol' Hitchens was SO on the money with that.
Jesus I love. It is his sometimes wacky followers that drive me nuts. I get so frustrated by Christians who will say one thing and do the opposite. If you are going to call yourself a Christian please act like one all of the time. That includes at home, at work, at school, when you are driving, playing sports, or any other endeavor. Treat all of the people as Christ commanded including the poor, the widowed, the orphans, the foreigners, the rich, and what not. Don't just give lip service as politicians do, but actually live it out. Otherwise, if you are lukewarm, God will spew you out.
God will spew you out??? What the hell does that mean?
If you don't know, then you cannot make comments about Christians andd Christianity.
It refers to the passage in Revelations about Christs acceptance of his adherents. .
I'll ask again what does it mean? How does this divine whatever "spew"? Does god have a physical mouth? Does god put physical people in his physical mouth, but he puts them down his physical throat too far, so god's gag reflex is triggered?
What nonsense!
There were hundreds of books of revelation. Why is yours so special ?
C'mon, Bippy – you have to admit that a puking god is kinda cool!
mom of 4: Jesus clearly said "I and the Father are one".
The Greek word used here, translated as "one", is εν: εγω και ο πατηρ εν εσμεν A bit further on Jesus prays that all believers should be one in the same way Jesus is one with the Father: ινα παντες εν ωσιν καθως
It seems pretty thin to say that Jesus is claiming to be God here in John 10.
Correct. "I and the father are one" – next line could have easily been "and so are you".
I would rather follow the examples of Clark Kent/Superman than most delusional fundamental Christians. I have more respect for "lukewarm" Christians that honestly question their faith than the robotic scripture nuts.
Clark Kent acts more humble and sincere than all the money hungry Rabbis, Pastors, and Priests combined.
Hi mark, I'm guessing you are about ten years old. Glad you could join us. Just please don't go jumping off of any tall buildings until you are Saved, Born of the Spirit of God, reborn, Born again, etc. Some day you will know what those words mean and you realize that Clark was the made up one.
Rainer Braendlein, don't obfuscate the primary prenuptials with rasberries. Often, the pertinent cat presents fabled necessities in the parking chamfer. Realize your net precedent. Triangulate! Save the best for the alligators. Ever the bastille notches the orchestra but Wendy is not green and horses will capitulate. Filter out the log from the turnstile and cry prevalently.
So there brown stare. Feed your inner walnut and resolve. Subject your lemon to the ingenious door in the presence of snow and animals. Aisle 7 is for the monetary cheese whiz. Faced with the kitchen, you may wish to prolong the sailboat in the cliff. Otherwise, rabbits may descend on your left nostril. Think about how you can stripe the sea.
Regale the storm to those who (6) would thump the parrot with the armband. Corner the market on vestiges of the apparent closure but seek not the evidential circumstance. Therein you can find indignant mountains of pigs and apples. Descend eloquently as you debate the ceiling of your warning fulcrum. Vacate the corncob profusely and and don’t dote on the pancreas.
Next up, control your wood. Have at the cat with your watch on the fore. Aft! Smarties (12)! Rome wasn’t kevetched in an autumn nightie. (42) See yourself for the turntable on the escalator. Really peruse the garage spider definitely again again with brown. Now we have an apparent congestion, so be it here. Just a moment is not a pod of beef for the ink well nor can it be (4) said that Karen was there in the millpond.
Garbage out just like the candle in the kitty so. Go, go, go until the vacuum meets the upward vacation. Sell the yellow. Then trim the bus before the ten cheese please Louise. Segregate from the koan and stew the ship vigorously.
And remember, never pass up an opportunity to watch an elephant paint Mozart.
Hey, an End Religion quote.
Austin, is that me?
Ahhhh. Now I finally understand the universe. Thank you Jill for your enlightening scripture. How have I escaped this knowledge for so long?
This is one of the more convoluted theology articles about cherry picking your belief system from CNN's doubt mongering blog. The bit the author has correct is that it doesn't resemble Christianity. Please file this in the unbelief blog.
Yup. Only your version of belief is true belief.
This person actually believes this. Therefore it IS belief.
Your version is not the ONLY correct version.
Are you really THAT arrogant ?
What's wrong with that?? I honestly don't get it. Isn't that much better than swallowing the whole thing just because Bible says so?? We are supposed to be intelligent beings, and intelligent beings are supposed to question and THINK. Many religious leaders are afraid of being questioned, so they discourage people from thinking; they are taught to just accept and believe what's been said, even when things don't make sense. so foolish.
It was a dark and stormy night when the two brothers were reminiscing about mean ol' dad. Remember using the car??
1)Son #1, "Dad, I wanna use the car."
Dad, "Sure it's a nice and sunny summer day. Perfect for a drive"
2)Son #2, "Dad, I wanna use the car!"
Dad, "Are you nutzo?? There's a half inch of ice covering everything. Hell, NO!"
Son#2, "Dad is so contradictory and I hate him."
Son#1), "Yeah he seemed to throw his weight around, alright"
yes quite an understandable nature.
It is complete idiocy to appreciate the historical Jesus, and to deny Christ at the same time. Christ and the historical Jesus are the same person, therefore we call him Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ had got a human nature and a divine nature, he was man and God at the same time. His human nature was created in Mary's womb, but his divine nature was eternal (Jesus existed before he came into the womb of Mary, and, of course, before he was born into this world). Thus, one can say that the eternal Christ incarnated when he came into the womb of his mother Mary who was a virgin. First, this human being was simply called Jesus, but when he revealed his heavenly glory by miracles he was called Jesus Christ.
Jesus was King of Israel indeed because he was a descendant of the Jewish King David. It is only that the royality of Jesus' family was no longer acknowledged by Israel at Jesus' time. Jesus was a man of virtue, he was a real king. He committed no sin, and cured people, and gave them the soul's health. And if the Jews (Jewish leaders) had not turned apostate from the ancient faith of Jahwe they had elected him King of Israel. Yet, the Jewish leaders were not concerned about their people Israel but only greedy for honor, power and riches. They used religion as a smokescreen for their malice. They were obsessed by the devil who gave them thoughts like: "let us do evil things in order to harvest good things". They uesed the law of the Torah as a cub in order to beat the ordinary Jews themselves breaking it. The Jewish leaders were angry with the ordinary Jews, insulted them and condemned them. The did not tell Israel of a Redeemer, and when the Redeemer became visible in the person of Jesus, they said he would be obsessed by the devil.
The Jewish leaders were breaking the law, and condemned the ordinary Jews. Jesus kept the law, he even fulfilled it through divine love which is more than keeping, and he loved the ordinary Jews despite their sins. Hence, Jesus was the exact opposite of a Jewish leader. The Jewish leaders were let by the devil, Jesus was let by the Holy Spirit. This is the reason why they hated Jesus.
Jesus told the truth by saying: I am the Saviour, and you need me in order to get delivered from your sins. Jesus confirmed the law of the Thorah but said that one is not pious through simply possessing the law, being circu-msized, and a descendant of father Abraham but through fulfilling the law. We fulfill the law when we love God and our neighbour. Yet, this love we don't possess by birth (by birth we a selfish, breakers of the law). This love is a divne gift which we gain through faith in Jesus Christ who is the love.
This is the great mystery of faith: When we believe in Jesus Christ, we get a new divine nature beside our selfish nature which we have by birth.. The spiritual exersice we can fascilitate the new nature more and more, and thus we will come through at Judgement Day because we were really people who loved God and their felllow human beings.
May Israel realize his Redeemer today. They are God's Chosen People.
http://confessingchurch.wordpress.com
Forget Rousseau!
July 21, 2013 at 10:41 am | Report abuse | Reply
Tom, Tom, the Other One
Rainer, if anyone were to come upon this God-man idea you are describing without knowing of it and believing that it is true, do you imagine it would seem like anything but lunacy? I don't think anyone can arrive at the notion by reason, or by hearing someone proclaim it. How did you come to believe it? Suppose Jesus is not the Christ. He is dead and long gone. Would you, in the same way you did come to believe he is the Christ, still have reached the conclusion that he is the Christ? I think so.
July 21, 2013 at 10:46 am | Report abuse | Reply
Rainer Braendlein
The best proof for the truth of Christianity is the existence of the Christian Church. 2000 years ago the mankind was in a horrible state of darkness. The people of the Roman Empire were adherents of the Greek religion, that meant their Gods were Jupiter (Zeus), Hermes (Mercury), etc.. Yet, this Gods were evil and unjust. When a Roman citizen harmed his neighbour he could justify that through saying: Our God Zeus had done the same. In this dark age was born a child called Jesus. Yet during Jesus' lifetime many Jews become better people, and after his death the whole Roman Emire experienced a change. People changed from hate and murder to love and righteousness. These people were called the Christian Church.
Never in history people overcame their wickedness through any method. At first, at the time when Christ came a significant portion of the mankind was transformed completely from hate and murder to love and rightesousness.
Conclusion: When 2000 years ago the mankind experienced a great change, then there must have been a great power which caused this change. And what is more reasonable than to assume that it was the power of Jesus Christ.
July 21, 2013 at 11:02 am | Report abuse | Reply
Nobody reads your posts, you delusional nut.
Thank you for expressing my thoughts. I dont have time to read an article within an article. What I started reading sounded like an egocentric bark of someone who can't accept that , maybe, these guy has valid point.
There is no worse ignorant than the one that has a closed mind.
Wait... he writes a competent, logical response and your retort is name-calling? Who's delusional?
Matt, why do you act surprised when sinners sin?
Rainer: Just exactly how is it "complete idiocy to appreciate the historical Jesus, and to deny Christ at the same time." Those are two entirely separate claims: That Jesus existed as a human being, and that Jesus was somehow "divine" or a son of god.
What proof do you have that this person called Jesus – as-suming he actually existed – was divine? And please – don't quote the bible as your proof. That's just silly.
There are historical docu-ments outside the Bible which confirm that Jesus Christ was a miracle worker. Never in history one could make the blind men seeing, the lame men going, etc.. Jesus was God's Son indeed.
Then post one Rainer.
There are also historical doc'ments that show Vespasian was a miracle worker.
Miracle workers were a dime a dozen. So dying and rising gods, and sons of gods.
I have the proof of many supernatural experiences. I am not lying to you. wake up please and listen to what i am telling you.
I have no agenda other than trying to help you see that He is the Lord.
Austin, the mushrooms you eat with your salad are not from the store...
Austin
One more time since you clearly still do not understand. You have proof of nothing supernatural. You have belief. The two words mean different things.
Nothing that exists is supernatural. There can be no such thing as supernatural since if something exists, it naturally exists. the only things that are supernatural is what is in the imagination, like your version, your imaginary vision of what your god is.
I do every time I see this name.
Rainer Braendlein, don't obfuscate the primary prenuptials with rasberries. Often, the pertinent cat presents fabled necessities in the parking chamfer. Realize your net precedent. Triangulate! Save the best for the alligators. Ever the bastille notches the orchestra but Wendy is not green and horses will capitulate. Filter out the log from the turnstile and cry prevalently.
So there brown stare. Feed your inner walnut and resolve. Subject your lemon to the ingenious door in the presence of snow and animals. Aisle 7 is for the monetary cheese whiz. Faced with the kitchen, you may wish to prolong the sailboat in the cliff. Otherwise, rabbits may descend on your left nostril. Think about how you can stripe the sea.
Regale the storm to those who (6) would thump the parrot with the armband. Corner the market on vestiges of the apparent closure but seek not the evidential circumstance. Therein you can find indignant mountains of pigs and apples. Descend eloquently as you debate the ceiling of your warning fulcrum. Vacate the corncob profusely and and don’t dote on the pancreas.
Next up, control your wood. Have at the cat with your watch on the fore. Aft! Smarties (12)! Rome wasn’t kevetched in an autumn nightie. (42) See yourself for the turntable on the escalator. Really peruse the garage spider definitely again again with brown. Now we have an apparent congestion, so be it here. Just a moment is not a pod of beef for the ink well nor can it be (4) said that Karen was there in the millpond.
Garbage out just like the candle in the kitty so. Go, go, go until the vacuum meets the upward vacation. Sell the yellow. Then trim the bus before the ten cheese please Louise. Segregate from the koan and stew the ship vigorously.
And remember, never pass up an opportunity to watch an elephant paint Mozart.
Ha Rainer got jilled again. A sticky, messy experience, for sure.
Rainman,
Too long, too boring......
Yet again.
you extreme religious freak. Amazing we can spot one like you without even reading the post LOL
And some final words from Thomas Jefferson, :
"And the day will come,
when the mystical generation of Jesus,
by the Supreme Being as His Father,
in the womb of a virgin,
will be classed with the fable of the generation of Minerva”
Can that day be sooner then later?
your request has a 0% chance. and God is the reason. I have proof.
Yes it is true, no one reads them.
This makes the fifth or sixth time that I haven't read this post.