The End Is Near!!!

Two full centuries before John of Patmos wrote the Book of Revelation, and at least a century before Jesus claimed that in times were approaching, the author(s) of the Charter of a Jewish Sectarian Association wrote a small scroll describing the Last Days.  So as with many of Jesus’ teachings, this was also not new.  Strange have a religion that has been promising the end of the world for more than 2,100 years can still be taken seriously.  The End is obviously not near!

This particular Tractate is about what will happen when the Messiah arrives.   This is by far, the earliest written documents describing the Messiah coming from YHWH.  No Books of the old testament clearly point out anything about the Messiah.  The term “messiah” and “son of god” do not occur in the Old Testament at all.  One must remember that the entire concept of a Messiah was a Tradition of Man and not the fulfillment of Scriptural prophecy.  The question becomes what did the ancient Israelites believe would happen when the Messiah arrived?

This scroll is the earliest evidence of what the people actually believed.  We know from the Gospels that Jesus drew upon the Tradition of Man to reinforce his teachings.  But all we are told in the New Testament is that the Israelites did believe that a Messiah was expected.  One of the interesting things about this Scroll is the timeframe used.  To begin with it is understood that they will have enough time to train up young boys into leaders of society.  It is also obvious that the lifespan is not expected to pass much beyond the age of 30.  The first 10 years of life are to be treated as children.  The next 10 years is considered the appropriate time to train the believers in the proper education of the Yahad.  Within the next five years a man can become a “Pillar of the holy congregation”.   By the age of 30, he can decide legal disputes and command the military (up to 1000 men).    The next age limit is called “advanced in age”.  If one can go in a short 10 years from learning the ropes leading the military, it is obvious that by the age of 40 they did not expect many to be alive.  This important to the concept of whom wrote the New Testament.  But that is another story.

The other interesting part of this section of the Scroll is the role of the Levites and the sons of Aaron.  It is only the sons of Aaron, and specifically the sons of Zadok, who decide which men have the appropriate “portions of intelligence and the perfection of his walk” to perform specific tasks within the community.  The Levites are responsible for leading the entire congregation if into battle against the Gentiles.  It is also the responsibility of the Levites to ensure that the congregation is properly prepared by the act of a three day consecration.

Another very important point that this Scroll introduces is who is appropriate to be among the sanctified congregation.  These people (men) must be wise, understanding, and knowledgeable.  They must also be “blameless in their behavior” and be “men of reputation”.  They are specific characteristics that will disqualify a man from participating in YHWH’s army (salvation).   This disqualification is rather vague but it states:

1QSa 4Q249a-I No man who suffers from a single type of the unclean this that affects humanity shall enter their assembly;

This seems to indicate spiritual uncleanliness.  But the Scroll goes on to also include physical handicaps: crippled, lame, blind, deaf, dumb, or blemish in his flesh.   They certainly believed that physical handicaps were a sign of being smitten by YHWH.

The last paragraph in this Scroll describes not one Messiah but two.  The first Messiah will be a spiritual leader.  The second Messiah will be a military leader.  We know this because of how the congregation will enter the final feast (very similar concept to the Last Supper).  The sons of Aaron will enter first and sit directly in front of the spiritual Messiah.  Then the military Messiah will inter with all the men prepared for war.  Up lastly the heads of the Israelite clans will enter and gather before the spiritual Messiah.

The actual feast is almost identical to the Last Supper.  Bread in one will be set out at the communal table and the High Priest will be the first to partake in the meal.  He will bless the bread and the wine.  At this point the military Messiah will protect of the meal.  It’s been the rest of the community will partake of the bread and wine. 

From the Atheist perspective, it is obvious that the Christian religion certainly had its initiations from groups like the Yahad.  Even though many people believe that the authors of the Dead Sea Scrolls were the Essenes, actually reading these Scrolls indicate that the Yahad worried much larger group than the Essenes.  But there can be no doubt, that Jesus took a much of their beliefs and teachings into his ministry.  Whether this was due to his studying with them or just the popular beliefs of the time, we can probably never know.  Unfortunately, what we do know about the Jewish society at the turn of the millennia is very scarce.  Mostly what scholars (Biblical scholars in particular) use are the writings of men from the late first century and second century AD.   These men include: Josephus (74 – 96 AD), Polycarp (110-140 AD), Marcion (130-140 AD), Valentinus (120-160 AD), Irenaeus (175-185 AD), Clement (182-202 AD), Tertullian (197-220 AD), and Origen (203-250 AD).  Using these as source materials for the first century AD seems ridiculous to the Atheist perspective.  Without the use of printing machines, the information that most of these men used were certainly not very accurate.  We know this for certain in the case of Josephus.  In one of his biggest blunders, he claims that even just five years after the destruction of the Jewish Temple only three Jewish sects existed: the Pharisees, the Sadducees, and the Essenes.  We certainly know today, that he left out the Yahad, the Zealots, and the Sicarii.  Notice also that Marcion and Valentinus were both Gnostic Christians.  The major fathers of the early church are not represented until well over 150 years after Jesus died.  Basing eternity on the writings of men who did not experience the formation of the Christian religion seems ludicrous to the Atheist.  But that is exactly what occurs in both the Jewish and Christian Traditions.

Book of Secrets

« Introduction to the Jewish Sectarian Association |

This Scroll starts by claiming to “speak out freely” about various saying, parables, and riddles. The term “speak out freely” is directed to those who are willing to hold fast to what is taught. These include those who are devious, stiff necked, and even the Gentiles. This sounds so familiar, yet we can be certain that it was written nearly a century for Jesus is teachings. Is this not exactly what Jesus did? So the Judaism had forms of religion that were evolving into Christianity.

 The next paragraph is so what fragmented but has a very interesting interpretation. It would seem to be saying that there’s only one source for the desire of knowledge. It even uses the words “Light” and “Illumination”. This light and illumination is from the “angels from those we praise”. This seems to indicate that light and illumination come only from YHWH. But it is the origin of knowledge that this paragraph is referring to. Interesting, if applied to Christianity, that wisdom and knowledge are equal and both come from YHWH. How I wish Christians would take this to heart. Knowledge is not evil; knowledge is from the one they worship. In that case, there is nothing wrong with learning new things.

 The next paragraph is actually rather simple but in a surprising way. It basically says those that do not learn and from the past will repeat the past. The only way to avoid this cycle is to know “this secret of the way things are.” But what exactly is the secret of the way things are?

 The rest of the scroll is devoted to explaining the secret of the way things are. Unfortunately, it starts with a prophecy that has not occurred. It claims that time will come when all evil has been eliminated from this world. We will know when this occurs because there will be no more sin or folly. It claims, it this prophecy, that the end of sin and folly cannot be averted! I certainly can’t wait for that time… But it’s if since this was written over 2000 years ago, the chances of that happening now are very slim.

 The next paragraph tells how all cultures space and nations are similar. This similarity is in the rejection of evil, the desire for truth, freedom from its oppression, freedom from theft, and possibly some more that have been fragmented away in time. So the author(s) of this Scroll understood that all humans desire the same thing. They also understood that all of these things cannot be stopped. Evil occurs, falsehood is spread, oppression and theft continue to happen. Even the “righteous” have fallen short of fulfilling these eternal desires. And the reason for this is that the “righteous” have not sought the true secret of the way things are.

 Since the wisdom of YHWH is secret, YHWH knows all secrets. Not only does he know them all, but he “stands behind every thought”. The “secret” is that all things are controlled by YHWH. Even the times of our birth, the test of our heart, the limits of our deeds, and the actions of the Gentiles are controlled by YHWH.

So is there more to this secret? From this Scroll the answer seems to be yes.  One must understand that the stars, the day, the night the rivers in the seas, the rains, and even the mounds were created for humankind. The most important thing to keep in mind is that humans have the ability to understand knowledge, insight, and great intelligence. The Scroll claims that we were created to pursue true knowledge and wisdom. But YHWH locked this knowledge and wisdom up away from humankind so that we would have to search for it.

The final paragraph comes from a completely different scroll and does not seem to have much to do with the earlier part of the Scroll. It speaks of YHWH having patience, great anger and splendor. It ends by claiming YHWH to be the leader of Israel, honored by the people who are splendid and blessed when the period of wickedness is over.

 

 

 

 

 

 So to an Atheist reading this Scroll, a few “secrets” are revealed. The first is to learn from the past and not let it be repeated. The second is to learn to go with the flow. It’s everything happens so that humans can survive on this planet. And finally humans should use their ability to understand, their insight, and their ears to learn to knowledge. This Scroll does reveal that even over 2000 years ago humanity had the desire to learn the truth about the world we live in. I just wish that more people, today, had that same desire. Instead, it seems too many people want to remain in the past and not learn from the past.

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Where Did All These Traditions of Men Come From?

October 3, 2009, 11:47 am by dc-agape.

 

John Chapter 17

 Every once in a while a chapter in the Gospel of John is packed with amazing quotes from the teaching of Jesus.  In this particular chapter, even though Jesus is praying to YHWH, he brings up six important concepts that relate to being a true follower of Jesus.  Some of these concepts are: the meeting of eternal life, freewill (again!), prophecy, separation from the world, unity, and YHWH’s love.

The meaning of eternal life is described in Jesus’ opening to YHWH:

John 17:3 Now this is eternal life: that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.

It’s very interesting that to Jesus eternal life has nothing to do with what happens after death.  Eternal life, in Jesus’ description here, is entirely based on knowing spiritual knowledge.  It is true in other parts that Jesus describes an afterlife.  But here Jesus is describing the eternal life and knowledge is the main component of this concept.  This is very different from modern Christian theology on eternal life.  “Praying Jesus into your heart” that is not knowledge of Jesus or YHWH, it is something much more complex.  As a result would cannot “pray Jesus into your heart”, for that is obviously a Tradition of Man.  Any person who preaches this concept is a faults teacher at should not be listened to.  Even more TrueChirstians™ should be extremely vocal about the evils of this false teaching.

Jesus again focuses on freewill.  In this prayer he does not do it once, but numerous times:

John 17:2 For you granted him authority over all people that he might give eternal life to all those you have given him.

John 17:6 I have revealed you to those whom you gave me out of the world.  They were yours; you gave them to me and they have obeyed your word. 

John 17:24 “Father, I want those you have given me to be with me where I am, and two see my glory, the glory you get have given me because you love to be before the creation of the world.

Three different times in this chapter Jesus uses the phrase “those you have given me”.  This is not directed towards the apostles, nor the disciples of Jesus’ time, it is directed towards those who believe in him.  From this chapter, it is quite clear, that YHWH chooses who will believe.  As a result freewill does not exist!  How many times does Jesus have to repeat this concept before Christians understand it?  Freewill is a concept brought about by the Traditions of Men.  To make this very clear, and in the debate, search the New Testament for the word freewill.  Nowhere will you find a signal author mention the word “freewill”. TrueChirstians™ should be extremely vocal about the evils of this false teaching.

For another example of how freewill does not exist we only have to look at Judas Iscariot.  Jesus uses an obscure verse from the Old Testament to claim that Judas was fulfilling prophecy:

John 17:12 While I was with them, I protected them and kept them safe by the name you gave me.  None has been lost except the one doomed to destruction so that scripture would be fulfilled.

For the entire Christian religion is based on the fulfillment of scriptural prophecy.  Without Judas fulfilling this prophecy Christianity would not exist, for Jesus would not have died.  As a result, the false doctrine that Judas betrayed Jesus is in error.  It is a Tradition of Man.  Judas was forced, by prophecy, to act exactly the way he did.  He had no choice, as a result, he had no freewill.

Another important topic that Jesus brings up is being separate from the world.  He prays that the apostles, the disciples, and all believers will be “sanctified by the truth”.  This means that they are protected from the evil in the world.  Here again, Jesus is describing how Christians did not belong to the world.  The world should hate them for their message not their hypocrisy.  The world should hate them for worshiping YHWH, not the Traditions of Men.  The world should hate them for the love they have, not for the bigotry and hatred that they espouse. TrueChirstians™ should be extremely vocal about the evils of this false teaching.

One of my most important understandings of the bible and Jesus’ is teachings is the unity of YHWH, Jesus, the Holy Spirit, and the Church.  It is something we certainly do not see today.  With 46,000 denominations you can certainly say that Christianity is diverse, but you certainly cannot saying that it is in unity.  Again the traditions of men have taught that this disunity is acceptable.  Again, TrueChirstians™ should be extremely vocal about the evils of this false teaching. 

The final thing I find interesting about this prayer is the relationship that slain YHWH’s love and humanity.  YHWH’s love is for Jesus not humanity…only by being one with Jesus does one receive YHWH’s love:

John 17:26 I have made you know the to them, and we’ll continue to make you know in order that their love you have for me maybe in them and that I myself maybe in them.

If the only way humanity can experience this “loving” relationship is through obeying Jesus’ teachings.  Otherwise, YHWH has no love for his creation.  Clearly, he only loves his son.  The concept of a loving YHWH is mistaken, just look at the Old Testament.  He may have protected the Israelites when they obeyed him, but more often than not be punished them harshly at every minor infraction.  That certainly is not love, it is not even fatherly love.  Now we know, that Yahweh his son not humanity.  Only by being a follower of Jesus will YHWH exhibit this “loving” personality.

To the unbeliever, this chapter is packed with proofs that Christianity has become a Tradition of Man. It is obvious that Christians do not obey (love) Jesus, instead they love the comfort, the security, and the traditions that they experience in the modern churches.  No wonder Christianity seems to be in its death throes.  But to remove the Traditions of Men from the words of Jesus may be impossible.  For even the canonization of the holy bible may be suspect.  When did traditions of men get introduced into the teachings of Christianity.  One thing we know for sure is that the world stopped hating Christians and even began aiding Christianity as early as 320 BC.  I say this because the Roman Empire began to spread Christianity across the node world instead of persecuting the believers of Jesus.  Yet some believers were still persecuted and these were the Gnostic Christians, who just happen to focus on Jesus’ teachings instead of the teachings of Paul

 

Posted in Gospel of John, Contradictions, Personal Responsibility, Traditions of Men, Readings | Edit | 2 Comments »

The Big Picture

October 2, 2009, 10:09 pm by dc-agape.

 

John Chapter 16:5 – 33

 Unlike the previous chapter, this one is solely for the believer, specifically the Apostles and the followers of Jesus during the 30’s AD.  The only thing related to the modern Church is the joy that followed (and should still be present) in the Church.  This joy is based on the presence of the Councilor (Holy Spirit) which would not appear until after Jesus’ death on the cross. 

The concept and the purpose of the Holy Spirit are outlined in this chapter, even though the purpose of the Holy Spirit is only briefly mentioned.  The first purpose of the Spirit is to convict the entire world.  I wonder when this will happen.  It certainly did not happen until after the European nations began the colonization of the Americas or Eastern Asia.  It certainly did not happen during the Crusades!  Supposedly, the Spirit brought the knowledge of humanities sin, Jesus’ righteousness, and the judgment of Satan (the prince of the world).  The concept of Satan is new to the world at this point.  The OT does not refer to Satan or the prince of the world, at any time or any place.  Jesus introduces this concept, even though it was not new to the Romans or the Greeks.   And please do not bring up Isaiah 14:12-15!  This entire passage starting in Isaiah 13:1-14:23 is one single oracle.  It is taken out of context if one uses it to describe Satan.  Read the whole passage not the single short fragment!  And don’t even try the Ezekiel 28:12-19 either.  This passage again has been taken out of context, read the whole passage: Ezekiel 28:1-19.  And make sure you understand the meaning of “son of man”.  In the Book of Ezekiel this term is describing Ezekiel…not Jesus (Ezekiel 2:1).

But an evil spiritual ruler of the world was not new to the Greeks or Romans.  Agra Mainyu is the evil side of Zoroastrianism – Babylonian religion during the period that the Jews were in exile in…Babylonia!  One must remember that in the 6^th century BC Cyrus the Great controlled most of “the known world”.  By the 2nd century BC, Greek and Zoroastrianism had combined into the now fully familiar Greek mythology.

But what was the joy that the Holy Spirit would bring to the followers of Jesus?  It is the relationship that Christians will have directly with YHWH.  Since the Holy Spirit is YHWH and was brought to humans after Jesus’ death, Jesus’ followers could know what Jesus knew and that was a relationship with YHWH.  Through the Holy Spirit and Jesus this relationship with YHWH provided security from the evils of the world.  This also provided direct communication with YHWH:

John 16:23 In that day you will no longer ask me anything.  I tell you the truth, my Father will give you whatever you ask in my name.

Simply put, the joy that the Holy Spirit brought was having a Councilor to provide all the security, knowledge, and relationships that Jesus had.

To the non-believer (sinner) looking at this chapter brings one thing to the forefront.  Neither the concepts of the virgin birth nor the savior nor the devil were new (all were part of Zoroastrianism.  But all three were new to Judaism…and brought to a forefront by Jesus.  No wonder the Jews despised Jesus!  He was corrupting their religion with the religion of their captors during the Babylonian Exile.  This was worse than Hellenization of the Israeli religion!  It also indicates that Jesus was not teaching anything that was new.  He required following the OT and added components of both Greek and Babylonian religions to form a new religion: Christianity.  To be certain, this new religion was better than any of the three old religions…but it is was just that: a new religion.  It is truly amazing when the entire history of the world is combined and compared to specific national histories!  New knowledge, new understandings, and new perspectives are introduced.  One cannot live in isolation and one cannot make assumptions based on that isolation of events, histories, or interpretations.  The whole picture must be seen and accepted, you cannot disregard the pieces that do not fit your personal desires or beliefs.

 

Posted in Gospel of John, Readings | Edit | No Comments »

What a Chapter!

October 1, 2009, 8:37 am by dc-agape.

 

John Chapter 15 – 16:4

 In my last two posts I wrote about being fruitful and the meaning of love and obedience knowing Jesus’ purpose, the greatest love, and being chosen.  In this post I want to write about the about being hated, having hatred, and killing in the name of YHWH.  This chapter is packed with good examples of what a follower of Jesus is supposed to do to the world, experience in the world, and display to the world.  But this chapter does one other thing…it makes it obvious to the non-believer that Christian ≠ follower of Jesus. I will discuss each one, and let you decide.

John 15:19 If you belong to the world, it would love you as its own.  As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world.  That is why the world hates you.

From this verse it is clear that a difference exists between Christians and the world.  This difference is so great, that hatred is the only word that can describe the difference.  The world’s hatred of Christians was quite obvious up until the reign of Constantine (320 AD).  At this point in time the persecution of Christians nearly ended.  They may not have been like, but there were no longer being killed for their faith.  This would pretty much indicate that slowly Christianity and the world are becoming one.  In modern times, most of Europe and all of the Americas are Christianized.  So how is it that the world now loves Christians?  One must also remember that almost all of Africa has also been Christianized.  Only in the Middle East and some parts of Asia are Christians still hated.  Reading John 15:19 again, “if you belong to the world, it would love you as its own.” Guess what?  The world loves Christians!  And from Jesus’ own words that means that Christians belong to the world.  The spiritual implication of this concept is straightforward.  Christianity no longer teaches something contrary to the sinful world.  Does this mean the world is no longer full of sin?  Or does this mean that Christianity is now full of sin?  If Christianity truly taught something that was contrary to the world, this verse (John 15:19) would mean something.  Instead, at least in the United States, two groups of people are hated: Atheists and homosexuals.

To the non-believer it is very odd that those that were hated are now the ones who hate!  Nowhere in Jesus’ teachings did he require hatred.  There is one verse:

Luke 14:26 “If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother, his wife and children, his brothers and sisters – yes, even his own life – he cannot be my disciple.

Two things about this verse should be taken into account.  First it is considered a hyperbole, the feelings the disciples should have forged worldly relationships compare to the relationship with Jesus should be as great as hating one and loving the other.  The other thing that should be considered is that in no way can this verse be linked to hating sin.  In fact, one other verse describes one a disciple will hate:

Matt 6:24 “No one can serve two masters.  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 both God and Money.”

This is as close to teaching hatred as Jesus gets.  But neither of these verses teaches the disciple to hate the non-believer (sinner).  Yet that is exactly what occurs in the modern Church.  Neither Atheists nor homosexuals are openly accepted in any but a few non-traditional Churches.  Very odd for religion based on love, don’t you think?

In fact, Jesus warns about hatred and killing done in the name of YHWH:

John 16:2 They will put you out of the synagogue; in fact, the time is coming when anyone who kills you will think he is offering a service to God.

Matt 24:9-11 “Then you will be handed over to be persecuted and put to death, and you will be hated but all nations because of me.  At that time many will turn away from the faith and will betrayed and hate each other, and many false prophets will appear and deceive many people.

Today, both of these verses can be clearly seen actually happening.  Christians have been known to put people out of their church and to kill in the name of YHWH.  At the same time, many false prophets have risen up and have deceived the masses.  At this point in time, the haters and deceivers cannot be separated from the disciple of Jesus.  The combination of these two verses and the fact that these warnings have occurred leads the non-believer to one conclusion: will the true disciple of Jesus please stand up!  The non-believer can certainly not tell the difference between the hater, the deceiver, and the disciple.

All in all, this chapter in the Gospel of John has been unique for this experiment.  It may be having worked through four different books in the Bible I am beginning to see something that is not visible to most readers of the Word of God.  On the other hand, focusing on the positive teachings of Jesus, instead of the vitriol taught in the Church, may be influencing my perspective.  Many of the positive things that Jesus taught were not new, but the way he combined the different aspects of love, hope, and spirituality was certainly different from the old religions and from the Old Testament.  It is truly a shame that modern Christians have lost the focus on Jesus.  Instead, some focus on Paul’s teachings and others attempt to justify the Old Testament with the teachings of Jesus.  I guess this should not be unexpected, out of the Christian Bible only 10% of the Word of God is directly from Jesus.  And even that in 10%, half of it is mostly repetitive.

 

Posted in Love, Gospel of John, State of Mind, Readings | Edit | 2 Comments »

The Missing Core

September 29, 2009, 9:19 am by dc-agape.

 

John Chapter 15 – 16:4

 In my last post I wrote about being fruitful and the meaning of love and obedience.  In this post I want to write about the greatest love, Jesus’ purpose, and being chosen.  I will have one final post on this chapter writing about hatred, hatred without reason, and killing in the name of YHWH.

This chapter is packed with good examples of what a follower of Jesus is supposed to do to the world, experience in the world, and display to the world.  But this chapter does one other thing…it makes it obvious to the non-believer that Christian ≠ follower of Jesus.  I will discuss each one, and let you decide.

Christians today its claim to not know YHWH’s purpose, but this should not be the case:

John 15:15 I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business.  Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you. 

Jesus again describes one of his most important commands.  That command, we know is the second greatest command, is to love one another.  But in this description of the command to love one another Jesus adds a more stringent component.  “To love one another” means to be willing to sacrifice your life for the one you love.  It is very easy to say you’re willing; it is a completely different thing to actually mean it.   In the United States, and most likely most of Europe, the non-believer never gets to see this type of love.  Since Christianity is majority, or least accepted in these countries, there are few opportunities to lay down once alive for love.  Oddly, what the non-believer has been able to see, are people laying down their lives for equal rights, to save the environment, or to fight tyranny.  This type of love is not limited to Christianity; as a result, the non-believer sees no difference between a Christian and the non-Christian.

Now unless Jesus was only speaking about his Apostles, which seems odd, for even though this speech occurred at the Last Supper, is clear that everything Jesus said was about all his disciples.  So to claim “YHWH works in mysterious ways” or “no one knows YHWH’s plans” is actually saying that these people are not friends but are servants.  This would also indicate that these people, that say these things, are not part of the true vine…they have already been cut off.   If Jesus knows his Father’s business and his friends know Jesus’ business, Christians (who are friends of Jesus) should know YHWH’s business.  The fact that Christians do not know YHWH’s business proves that they are not followers of Jesus.

Once more Jesus brings up the topic of being chosen:

John 15:16 you did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit – fruit that will last.  Then the Father will give you would ever you ask in my name.

Again, one can argue that this statement was only directed at the Twelve.   But that would be taking this out of context, for many other parts of this conversation relate to all disciples.  Even if you were to take this to only apply to those in the room, then there would be no more fruit after they died.  The fruit that lasts are those people who obey (love) Jesus and his teachings.  So once more, it is clear, that Jesus chooses who will be his disciples.  Freewill does not exist, because it is Jesus who controls who will love and obey him. 

To the non-believer, these three topics continue to prove that something is terribly wrong with Christianity today.  If there were any disciples of Jesus left on earth, we (the non-believer) would see these three things very clearly.  What we do not see is the love Jesus describes here in the Gospel of John and elsewhere, that Christians know (as friends) Jesus’ and YHWH’s business, or Christians recognizing that not everyone can be saved.  Christians in the U.S. claim that this is a Christian nation.  But we do not see the form of love that Jesus taught his disciples.  We also do not see Christians who understand and know YHWH’s business, in fact, it is the exact opposite – Christians have no clue what YHWH’s business/plans are.  Finally, the US Christians cannot or will not recognize that it is Jesus who chooses who will follow him.    It is odd to say, and I’m sure most people will disagree, but what Jesus said in this chapter of the Gospel of John is at the heart of being a disciple of Jesus.  Ignoring or rationalizing away the implications of this chapter only weakens the religion.  And a weaken religion does not fulfill the purpose of that religion; it is only a Tradition of Man.

 

Posted in Love, Gospel of John, Traditions of Men, Freewill, Readings | Edit | 1 Comment »

So Simple, Yet So Not Happening

September 28, 2009, 8:15 am by dc-agape.

 

John Chapter 15 – 16:4

 There are so many things that need to be said about this chapter.  Being fruitful, love and obedience, answered prayers, knowing Jesus’ purpose, the greatest love, being chosen, being hatred, hatred without reason, and killing in the name of YHWH.  This chapter is packed with good examples of what a follower of Jesus is supposed to do to the world, experience in the world, and display to the world.  But this chapter does one other thing…it makes it obvious to the non-believer that Christian ≠ follower of Jesus.  I will discuss each one, and let you decide.

Being fruitful is part of being a follower of Jesus.  This does not mean just the bringing of souls to YHWH!  It means living a godly life and having a virtuous character.  This does not mean sometimes being fruitful!  We think of seasonal fruiting plants and believe that bearing fruit can be sporadic, but this is not Jesus’ intent.  The “true vine” never goes dormant; it has the light of YHWH always making it grow.  Even the pruning is to make it have more virtue and more proof of a godly life.  Here is the first proof that non-believers have where Christians ≠ followers of Jesus.  In the modern world both “Christians” and non-believers both live virtuous lives.  I can say this because the word “virtue” is not linked to YHWH or even Christianity!  It is defined as living life in conformity to moral or ethical principles.  And YHWH does not have a strangle hold on ethic…it was perfectly fine to own slaves and to be polygamous in the OT, by Jesus’ time polygamy was out of fashion (unethical) yet slavery was still acceptable (ethical).  100 years ago it was unethical to marry inter-racially, but today we see that as common (and ethical) as treating each human as an equal.  Equality was certainly not ethical until the very most recent times, yet we still have issues with this concept!  So if ethics (virtue) change over the millennia, how exactly are we to tell who is a Christian?  We cannot unless they set themselves apart.  The only way Christians have set themselves apart from non-believers is to make false accusations against science, equality (slavery and equal rights), demanding constitutional amendments dictating their particular morality, and vandalizing of family planning clinics.  Are these truly godly life or virtuous character?  Worse is the cyclical nature of Christian’s virtue.  None become more virtuous with age!  No what the non-believer sees is that with age the skeletons in the closet are exposed, proving that the “spiritual” leaders are bogus.  The biggest sign of this is looking at the children of these leaders.  Billy Graham’s son Franklin Graham is a hatemonger, as was Jerry Falwell son Jonathan, and Pat Robertson (Timothy Brian).  Are these truly “godly”, are the actions of these men virtuous (both the father and the son)?  The biggest skeleton in each of these fathers’ closet is what the son does!  For it is from the parents that the child learns hatred and corruption.  Isn’t it always said that being the preacher’s kid is the worst, they even have a name for it Preacher’s Kid Syndrome?  If a preacher cannot bring their own child up to exemplify Jesus, that is one huge skeleton in the closet.

The Gospel of John returns to the concept of love and obedience being linked.  One cannot love Jesus without obey his teachings.  Not the teachings of Paul, Luther, John Smith, or John Calvin.  One must follow and obey the actually teachings of Jesus to love Jesus.  Yet only 66.6% of the NT does not deal with the teachings of Jesus.  Where is the focus on the important teachings that the followers of Jesus must obey?  Why have they been superseded by the teachings of Paul?  How can one obey and love Jesus when so little of his teachings remain?  Only two documents (the Gospels of Matthew or Mark and John) remain of the closest thing we have to the teaching of Jesus.  Even the Book of Acts is suspect, it was most likely written by a follower of Paul!  What happened to the documents that were written by the actually followers of Jesus?  Why were they not canonized?  What teachings did they invoke that the Orthodox Church found inappropriate?  Jesus had many disciples (more than the twelve) shouldn’t we have more copies of what the individual disciples had to say?  With the overwhelming focus on the teachings of Paul verse the teaching of Jesus, does not the NT come under a cloud of questionability?  Did none of the original disciples make records of their gnosis, their logos from Jesus?  Why did the followers of these men not record the sermons these men taught?  Or did these recording get written, but the Orthodox Church deemed them unacceptable?  Could the Christianity that “won” actually be a false teaching of Jesus?  It certainly is not based on obey Jesus; instead it is based on obeying men…especially Paul.  With so little of the Christian doctrine based directly on Jesus teachings one must wonder.  The Beatitudes are held as models to aspire to, instead of ways to actually live life.  But shouldn’t they be obeyed (not just used as an unreachable goal) if one loves Jesus?  As I have said before, Atheist do not hate YHWH nor Christians because of the hard teachings…no it is because of the hypocrisy in the lives of Christians that Atheist despise.  And the lame excuse of “we are only sinful human” does not cut it.  Being “born of the Spirit” and “guided by the Spirit” and “born of God” and this one specifically:

1^st John 3:9-10 No one who is born of God will continue to sin, because God’s seed remains in him; he cannot go on sinning, because he has been born of God.  This is how we know who the children of God are and who the children of the devil are: Anyone who does not do what is right is not a child of God; nor is anyone who does not love his brother.

This verse puts to death the lame excuse of we continue to sin after “loving Jesus”.  If you follow Jesus you no longer sin!  And if you claim to be a Christian and you continue to sin, you make this verse a lie.  By making this verse a lie, you invalidate the entire Bible…since this is the Word of God.  Loving Jesus means obeying Jesus, it also means living a righteous life without sin.  Otherwise, you make a mockery of the teachings of Jesus and will not be pruned, you will be thrown away to be burned.  Get it right “Christians” is all I can have to say!

Well since I have at least seven more topics from this chapter, this might go on for some time.  By far, the Gospel of John has got to be the most important source of the teachings of Jesus.  The Synoptic Gospels were written to collaborate with each other.  The Gospel of John was written to teach Jesus’ followers how to love and obey Jesus.

 

Posted in Love, Gospel of John, Personal Responsibility, Readings | Edit | 17 Comments »

And Now For Something Completely Different

September 25, 2009, 8:21 am by dc-agape.

 

John Chapter 14

 This chapter stresses two things: love and obedience.  Jesus continually repeats that YHWH and he are inseparable, and indicates that once someone becomes a Christian (disciple of Jesus) they too are inseparable from YHWH and Jesus.  Jesus even promises a Spirit of truth to help his future disciples to follow his commandments.  And he makes one guarantee that has rarely been proven:

John 14:13-14 And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Son may bring glory to the Father.  You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it.

Odd how this guarantee is that any pray (that glorifies the Father) will be answered!  Yet how often do prayers get a “No” as an answer.  It is pretty clear that Jesus had just promised that there would be no answers of “No”.  Yet today, Christians assume that this is a valid response from YHWH.  But this Tradition of Man is not valid and it is not within the teachings or commandments of Jesus!

And what is this chapter’s major theme?  This is that those who love Jesus will obey everything that Jesus taught (not Paul, not James, not Luther, and definitely not the Pope).  And we only have four surviving documents of these teachings, of which the Synoptic Gospels are almost complete duplicates.  I find it very suspicious that we only have 2 documents, as a result, that describe Jesus’ actual words…were there not at least 11 Apostles and untold number of disciples?  Why do we not hear what they have to say about their personal experience with Jesus?  Has not Jesus’ teachings been tampered with (destroyed) by the canonization of only the Synoptic Gospels and John’s Gospel?  The Book of Acts is the only other book that comes close to directly describing the teachings of Jesus.  Why is 66.6% of the NT written by the “Apostle” Paul?  Why is it that the rest of the NT does not quote Jesus?  Yet to love Jesus is to obey Jesus…which means focusing on what Jesus taught!  Why do today’s Christians not focus on what Jesus taught?  This was his last desire to his disciples that they would love and obey his teachings…should not the modern disciples of Jesus also obey this desire?  Would not Christendom be one unified Church if this was the case?  Wouldn’t the non-believer know that YHWH existed if the Church actually loved (and obeyed) Jesus’ teachings? 

Do notice right away that the words “way”, “truth” and “life” were not capitalized.  This tells us something as well.  What this tells us is that Jesus is not the “Truth” nor the “Way” nor even the “Life”.  The traditions of men have changed the meanings of Jesus’ words from words that mean something spiritual to words that must be taken literally.  These three words (way, truth, and life) only apply to the disciples of Jesus, not to the world in general.  I know that my “Christian” readers will not grasp the difference, but the un-capitalized word is meaningful only to the followers of Jesus, while the Capitalized words are imperatives (related to all humankind and the universe).  Jesus did not use the word as capitals and they are not imperatives, they are specific to his followers and only his followers.

But what should we make of this Spirit of truth?  Other places it is referred to as the Holy Spirit.  Jesus here teaches the meaning of this concept.  This Spirit will:

John 14:26 But the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you.

This Counselor will only be sent to those who love Jesus, which implies those who obey Jesus.  So this crap about “praying Jesus into your heart” and being saved is only a Tradition of Men.  It does not save your soul!  Only by loving Jesus and obeying his teachings can one be truly a follower of Jesus (a Christian) – Jesus own words.

To the non-believer this begins to make sense out of the chaos that Christianity presents.  It is obvious that only one Church exists (not 45,000).  It is becomes obvious why it is hard to tell the difference between disciples of Jesus and Christians.  It becomes clear that today’s Christian has elected to follow the Traditions of Men instead of the teaching of Jesus (66.6% of the NT being written by Paul).  And, finally, it becomes all too clear why prayers can be answered with “No”, because they are not prays of the faithful!  Christianity is just a religion, being a disciple of Jesus is something completely different.

 

Posted in Love, Gospel of John, Holy Spirit, Traditions of Men, Readings | Edit | 2 Comments »

The Cruelty: It Burns

September 24, 2009, 8:47 am by dc-agape.

 

John Chapter 13

 I am not sure how far I will get in this chapter.  Three major topics are repeated here: service, love, and betrayal.   In hindsight John writing this Gospel sees the importance of love in the message of Jesus.  He shows an example of love and the commandment of love that Jesus gives his disciples.  In the example of love service plays a part.  Since they are interconnected, one cannot have one without the other.  Jesus also shows two predictions (again written in hindsight).  The first is Judas’ betrayal of Jesus to the Jewish leaders.  The second is Peter’s own betrayal of Jesus.  If Jesus knew in the future betrayal of these two men…they had no freewill.  To know something will happen is better than predicting; it indicates that something is planned.

The dialog between Jesus and his disciples (notice that John does not use the word Apostles) and especially Peter shows how important service to others is to being Christian.  But not just any type of service, Jesus made it clear that it should be of the most humble and menial form.  Yet somehow Christians have completely forgotten this most important teaching of Jesus.  They neither serve each other (showing love to those that love them) nor do they serve the non-believer, so that we know that they are disciples of Jesus.  In fact, it is the exact opposite today!  Christians attempt to take the highest position possible…that of governance.  Governance is neither menial nor humble; it is the most important form of work here on earth.  Without governance nations would crumble, bloodshed would be rampant, and humanity would never have crawled up from subsistence living allowing for science, arts, and technology.  But when religion attempts to govern we see things like the Inquisition, the Dark Ages, the subjugation of women, and even intolerance of minorities.  (And before any one might claim that Hitler was an atheist please read mein kampf and his speeches – where the Bible and Christianity are cited over 75 times).

But Jesus teaches love is the most important action that Christians can take.  This form of love has two effects.  As I just mentioned it means doing the most humble and menial of tasks for others (not just other Christians – see Matt 5:46-48) but also this love will be felt by others and will prove a person is truly a follower of Jesus.  Christians today, who demand new laws be written to punish/subjugate minorities (taking rights away from homosexuals), who vocally call for bloodshed of innocents (war against the Middle East), and demand government money be spent on religious symbols – instead of taking care of the poor, are truly showing the non-believer that Christianity has failed to follow the example of Jesus.  In fact, even wasting money on attempting to get science to be watered down with Creation “Science” in the classroom is just another form of this lack of love.  Should not Christian’s time, effort, and money be going to loving their neighbor by helping the poor, the orphan, and the widow?  Instead we (the USA) have the super right wing conservative fiscal party (the Republicans) gathered with the super right wing religious!  The “godless” Democrats are the one actually showing love to the poor!  What complete irony.

Jesus does on other thing in this chapter.  He prophesied the betrayal of two of his disciples.  The concept that Judas was a disciple is rather complicated to explain to those who believe that Judas was the Betrayer, but let me just point to a few verses (Matt 10:12, Matt 26:14, Mark 3:19, Mark 14:10, Mark 14:43, Luke 16:6  – he is named as one of the Apostle).  But more important is that Jesus knows that someone (from his inner ranks) must betray him – Matt 26:24, Mark 14:21, Luke 22:22).  In fact this verse is worth noting:

John 13:27 As soon as Judas took the bread, Satan entered into him.  “What you are about to do, do quickly,” Jesus told him, but no one at the meal understood why Jesus said this to him.

Jesus knew that Judas not only was going to betray him, but that Judas had to betray him.  There was no freewill in this action.  Remember if Jesus had not been betrayed the crucifixion would never have taken place!  Judas may have done the most important act that any Christian could perform, preparing the events that lead to religion known as Christianity.

But Jesus did not stop there.  He also prophesied that Peter would deny him three times within the following 12 hours.  Again, freewill is removed from Peter at this point.  For Jesus to know in advance that Peter would deny knowing Jesus can only have occurred if Peter did not have freewill.  In both of these cases, both Judas’ and Peter’s, we are shown that humanity is completely helpless in making freewill choices.  We are forced to take the actions that are required to fulfill YHWH’s plans for each one of us. 

This realization leads to troubling outcomes.  The divided Church would indicate that YHWH plans to send billions to hell.  Not only the ones that “choose” to sin (the non-believer) but also the ones who have been taught by the Traditions of Men that they are saved!  But with this being the case, then YHWH is not a loving supreme being.  He has planned the suffering of untold billions (if not trillion and quadrillions) in hell.  Worse is that it is a hell of his own creation!  So now we have a vicious circle…how can a loving god allow so many to go to a hell he created without allowing them to chose?  But we know that untold millions had no choice, prior to the conquest of the European Christians during the 15^th and 16^th centuries (at least 1400 years after Jesus died) only a small fraction of the world’s population even knew the story of Jesus.  At that time the population of Japan was 1,800,000 people, the population of China was well above 100,000,000 people, the population of India was 35 million people, in North America the population was as much between 8 and 112 million people, and that does not include Australia, South and Central America, Africa, or the Pacific Ocean nations.  To say the least estimates put the total population of the world at the beginning of the 16^th century  435,000,000 people.  It is quite obvious that these people did not have freewill to chose to worship YHWH!  What a loving YHWH, allowing nearly 300,000,000 million people to go to hell because he allowed them to be born in countries that had not heard the Word of God!  And that was only the beginning of 15^th century…hell certainly will be a crowded place with many innocent people sent there without freewill.  We can only hope that the Mormon’s are right and Jesus was sent to the Americas!  Otherwise, YHWH is a cruel and unworthy being to worship.

 

Posted in Gospel of John, Contradictions, Personal Responsibility, Freewill | Edit | 1 Comment »

Mistranslations, Freewill, and Divided Houses

September 23, 2009, 8:14 am by dc-agape.

 

John Chapter 12:20 – 50

 This section has three interesting concepts that I believe most (if not all) Christians overlook, ignore, or rationalize.  The first one is who Jesus is speaking to about his death.  Unless there has been some heavy editing he is speaking to the Greeks who came up to worship at the Feast.  The second interesting thing about this section is that Jesus promises that the prince of the world would be driven out…now!  Of course, that was over 1,900 years ago and still has not happened.  Finally, we have another proof of how YHWH keeps some (if not most) people from turning to him.  This of course, is where the rationalization occurs.

The opening of this section goes like this:

John 12:20-23 Now there were some Greeks among those who went up to worship at the Feast.   They came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida in Galilee, with a request, “Sir,” they said, “we would like to see Jesus.” Philip went to tell Andrew; Andrew and Philip in turn told Jesus.  Jesus replied, “This hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified.

The word “replied” in this sentence indicates that Jesus was talking to the Greeks.  These Greeks were Jewish and there may have been some actual Israelites in the crowd.  But whenever the Greeks want to talk to Jesus about obviously started this conversation.  I bring this topic up because the NIV it claims that these Greeks were not actual believers.   So what we have here is a Tradition of Man superseding the Word of God.  I will continue to point out where it is obvious to the non-believer that the traditional interpretation of the Bible is not what the Word of God actually says.  For this everything written in this book is truly Word secondary translations and interpretations based on other humans are the basis for Traditions of Men.   

One more place that Christians like to ignore or rationalize is this verse:

John 12:30-31 Jesus said, “This voice was for your benefit, not mine now is the time the judgment of this world; now the prince of this world will be driven out.

Jesus mentions two things in this verse that are supposed to happen “Now!”. One is and the judgment of the world began almost 2000 years ago.  And secondly, that the devil would be true that helped almost 2000 years ago.  Obviously neither of these two things occurred then or is occurring now.  This is just one of the places in the Word of God that Christians must rationalize to make it fit their Traditions of Men.   The other option, is that heavy editing of what Jesus actually said has occurred.  In either case, the validity  of this passage (and possibly the Bible itself) is brought to view.  Basically, either Jesus did not know what he was talking about or men have changed what was said.

Finally we reach another quote used by Jesus that indicates YHWH chooses who will hear his message and who will not.  The passage quoted comes from Isaiah 6:10 and says this:

John 12:40 “He has blinded their eyes and deadened their hearts, so they can neither see with their eyes, nor understand with their hearts, nor turn – and I would heal them.”

Christian rationalization and the traditions of men claim that sin comes first and then YHWH fulfills this verse.  But when you look at Isaiah this is not the case.  The full passage that is quoted is actually this:

Isaiah 6:9-12  He said, “Go until the people this: Be ever hearing, but never understanding; be  ever seeing, but never perceiving, make the heart of this people calloused; make their ears dull and close their eyes.  Otherwise they might see with the eyes, understand what their hearts, and turn and be healed.  Then I said, “For how long, O Lord?” “Until the cities lie ruined and without inhabitant, until the houses are left deserted and the fields ruined and ravaged, until the Lord has sent everyone far away and the land is utterly forsaken.

Sorry for the long quote, but it is important to show that either Jesus twisted the old testament, man has twisted Jesus’ words, or humankind is a play rag doll for YHWH’s pleasure.  In the book of Isaiah the people they have sinned, but it is YHWH who has chosen to punish without reprieve.  In both the gospel of john and in the book of Isaiah it is clear that it is YHWH who controls whether humankind sees, hears, and understands the message.

To the non-believer these three things indicate that the Word of God is questionable at best.  It is becoming clear to me that reading the Word of God does not build faith, instead it shows how Traditions of Men have twisted the bible to say what they wanted to say.  This is taken place either by mistranslation, twisting of the verses, or rationalization.  For whatever reason, the original intent of Jesus’ message has been garbled.  One of the most obvious signs Is That the Kingdom of God is divided.  And we all know what Jesus says about that:

Luke 11:17 Jesus knew their thoughts and said to them: “Any kingdom divided against itself will be ruined, and a house divided against itself will fall. 

 

Posted in Contradictions, Gospel of John, Traditions of Men, Inerrancy – My Ass, Freewill, Readings | Edit | 6 Comments »

The Human Side to the Word of God

September 22, 2009, 8:30 am by dc-agape.

 

John Chapter 12: 1 – 19

 A number of variations occur that are similar but different from the Synoptic Gospels.  We do not know how long Jesus stayed in Ephraim.  We do know that between their incident with Lazarus and begin the chapter 12 Jesus stayed Ephraim.  The Gospel of John records nothing occurring during this period.  Oddly Jesus is just last Bethany and now at the beginning of this chapter he returns to Bethany.  The author John seems to have forgotten that Lazarus and his sisters were rich (john 11: 38 indicates that Lazarus with what was wealthy due to the tomb he was buried in).  John also seems to have special knowledge that even Jesus did not have about Judas Iscariot.  In this section called the Triumphal Entry, two interesting things are recorded.  The first miss of john ignores how Jesus got the donkey.  The second is how Jesus fulfilled a prophecy by planning.  In the first case the synoptic gospels tell us how Jesus told his disciples to steal the donkey.  And the second case it is a self fulfilling prophecy when Jesus chooses to ride the donkey.

I should have noticed this in my last post, but John introduces Mary by what she’s about to do:

John 11: 2 This Mary, whose brother Lazarus now lay sick, was the same one who poured perfume on the Lord and wiped his feet with her hair.

Since John makes it clear that the family of Lazarus is very important to Jesus, we can be certain that the events of the anointing by Mary had not occurred prior to chapter 12.  This plus John’s foreknowledge of Judas’ theft indicates that the human element is difficult to separate from the supposed supernatural origin of this text.  In fact, the concept that Judas was a thief has no physical evidence in the bible.  On the other hand it is quite clear that Jesus had a special relationship with Judas.  I will have to leave the verses indicating Jesus’ relationship with Judas to a special post, the gospels are ripe with the examples.  For John two know that Judas was a thief seems like an addition after the fact.  It would seem more like a human emotion to defame Judas for the acts that he committed which were required for the salvation of the human race.

On the subject of the Triumphal Entry, it is humorous the john would record the story of stealing the donkey without introducing the theft.  The Synoptic Gospels make it quite clear that Jesus told his disciples to take what did not belong to them without payment.  It’s also very clear that the dock you would not be returned.  John, on the other hand, makes it seem like the  possession of the donkey was perfectly legit.  The other part of the Triumphal Entry that seem strange, to the non-believer, is how Jesus self fulfills a prophecy about himself.  When Jesus chose to ride the donkey he chose to fulfill an old prophecy.  As a result, any one attempting to prove themselves the Messiah could also perform this “miracle”.

Reading this section as a non-believer is even worse than reading the last chapter.  At least in the last chapter faith was involved, at the beginning of this chapter has a number of questionable remarks: contradictions, human emotions, defamation, and cover-ups are recorded in numerous places.  A lot of Christian Apologies must be made to explain away these non-supernatural attitudes.  Even with these Apologies, the Word of God looks very human in nature.  Since this Gospel was written after Pentecost, should not the  Holy Spirit have been a better guide?  Or is the guidance of the Holy Spirit not as powerful as the Word of God describes it?

 

Posted in Gospel of John, Readings | Edit | 1 Comment »

An Unsatisfactory Episode

September 21, 2009, 8:46 am by dc-agape.

 

John Chapter 11

  In this chapter Jesus brings Lazarus back from the dead.  This entire story must be taken completely on faith.  This is complicated by the fact that only the Gospel of John records this story.  Neither the Synoptic Gospels nor historical documents, from the Jewish or the Roman Empire, record this story.   It is extremely odd that the Synoptic Gospels do not record the story.  For John claims that Lazarus’ entire family is very significant to Jesus.  In the gospel of John it is recorded that this incident has a very specific meaning, for the synoptic gospels to omit this story is very strange.   In the Synoptic Gospels Lazarus is not even mention when we hear about Martha and Mary space.   Since this story takes place at the end of Jesus’ ministries, all of the Disciples should have remembered the importance of this story.  So even if this story is taken to be accurate, it adds weight to the fact that the Gospel of John is truly independent of the Synoptic Gospels.

The story itself, since it must be taken on faith, cannot be disputed.  That does not mean that parts of the story should not be question.  The significant questions include: why did the synoptic gospels ignore this incident, certain statements attributed to Jesus, and the concept that Caiaphas had actually prophesied.

I have already mentioned that it is odd that the Synoptic Gospels do not record this incident.  I’ve also mentioned there are two reasons why this is odd: the importance of Lazarus’ family to Jesus and the importance of the story to glorify YHWH.  Since many men were claiming to be the Messiah at this time, both the Romans and the Jewish nation would not have recorded this story.  One of the reasons that they would not have recorded this story would have been that it was hearsay, but another reason is that the source was questionable.  Even if this incident was spread amongst the Jewish leaders of the time, most of them would believe that this story was fictional because it would incite rebellion against a powerful force, the Roman Empire.   The Romans, on the other hand, would have ignored this story because they had heard it before.  Many of the roman mythology include returning from the dead.  But the Synoptic Gospels do not have these rationalizations.  Why did the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke ignore this story?  If this story had occurred, the authors of these Gospels would have been present.  We can be certain that all of Jesus is disciples followed him because of this verse:

John 11:7 Then he said to his disciples,”Let us go back to Judea”.

It is quite clear that no one stayed behind.  This can be qualified by this verse:

John 11: 16 Then Thomas (called capital Didymus) said to the rest of the disciples, “let us also go, that we may die with him.”

So basically, the Synoptic Gospels ignored this story.  The Gospel of john claims that this incident was very important.  Yet it was obviously not important enough to the authors of the Synoptic Gospels.  Does this not seem strange?  Jesus only raised a dead person one other time, at that time the Synoptic Gospels did record the incident, yet the Gospel of john did not record that incident.  To the non-believer these variations indicate that the Gospels are less than truthful.  To claim that each of these Gospels was an eyewitness account would require some similarity in this incident.  Since all witnessed it, but did not record it, a question of authenticity is introduced.

Two statements by Jesus are questionable.  The first one, is here:

John 11: 4  When he heard this, Jesus said, “This sickness will not end in death.  No, it is for God’s glory and so that God’s Son may be glorified through it.”

By the time Jesus said this Jesus knew that Lazarus’ was dead.  In fact, this one incident only added to the supposed glorification of Jesus.  Oddly the sickness did and in Lazarus’ death, whether or not Lazarus was raised from the dead.  The sickness did end when he died.  So both sentences in this verse are meaningless.  The first one is wrong, the second one is superfluous.  The second statement from Jesus that is questionable is here:

John 11:9 Jesus answered, “Are there not twelve hours of daylight?  A man who walks but they will not stumble, for he sees by this world’s light.”

Jesus was being very silly to claim that there are twelve hours of daylight.  This only occurs twice in a calendar year: the Vernal equinox and Autumnal equinox.  Why bother including how many hours of daylight in this comment?  This is another question that Jesus asks that does not represent either a spiritual or physical fact.  For the Son of the almighty YHWH, this seems very strange.  In fact, this seeming generalization only indicates that the author of this Gospel did not know that the number of lighted hours in the day changes continually.

Finally, the supposed prophecy of Caiaphas is very questionable.  It is obvious from reading this section that Caiaphas was not attempting to prophesy, he was attempting to save his power and possibly his nation.  There was no supernatural agent involved.  The prophecy also was not fulfilled.  Within 40 years of this supposed prophecy the nation of Israel was destroyed.  In actuality what Caiaphas said had no spiritual nature to it.  As with most prophecy hindsight is 20/20.  We can now claim that Caiaphas was prophesied only because we can fit the results to the statement.  This is called self-fulfilling prophecy.  As a result this section does not mean what the Traditions of Men claim it to indicate.  This is just one more incident that strengthens a story of mythology.

As a non-believer, this entire chapter does nothing to prove the glorification of Jesus or the prophecies of YHWH.   In fact, the stories from this chapter only weaken any proof of supernatural incident.  Too many questions are brought up, none are answered.  As I started this post, this entire chapter must be taken on faith.  Since the non-believer has no faith this chapter does not glorify YHWH or Jesus.  The only thing this chapter does is satisfy the believer’s desire to believe.

 

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Introduction to the Jewish Sectarian Association

October 16, 2009, 9:51 am by dc-agape.

 

This post I want to introduce the shorter Scrolls that have survived that deal with the life and beliefs of the Jewish Sectarian Association.  This group is not the Sadducees, Pharisees, nor Essences that you might be familiar with.  They have similarities to these three better known Jewish “denominations” of the 1^st century BC, but they are less political (similar to the Essences) yet more fundamental (like the Sadducees) and more importantly the Yahad (unity – the writers name for themselves) are similar to the Zealots and the Sicarii (they were prepared for a Messiah that would come and destroy the Romans (and all Gentiles).   Since these Scrolls do not lead well to placing the Yahad into one category I will take the position that they were independent of all the other Jewish groups present from the 2^nd century BC until the fall of Jerusalem in 70 AD.  

There are number of shorter Scrolls that I want to cover over the next couple of weeks.  The first one is called The Book of Secrets.  This will be followed by The Charter for Israel in the Last Days.    To describe the Yahad’s tendency towards being a Masonic or even Sicarii group I want to cover the Scroll titled the War of the Messiah.  I also want to cover this Scroll titled A Vision of the New Jerusalem.   Following that will be the Scroll titled The Coming of the Melchizedek.   The three last short posts will be prefaced with a guide entitled “A Reader’s Guide to the Qumran on Calendar Texts”.  These three short Scrolls are entitled Calendar of the Heavenly Signs, Synchronistic Calendars, and Priestly Services as the Seasons Change.  In total this series of short Scrolls will take about 10 days to cover.

The Book of Secrets

 This Scroll is only four pages long.  It is rather fragmented.  This Scroll is of the same form of “Wisdom books” like the Books of Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and Job.  As the title implies there is a secret hidden in this Scroll.  That secret is that wisdom only comes from YHWH.

The Charter for Israel in the Last Days

 This Scroll is also only four pages long.  Is not nearly as fragmented and seems to be in rather good shape.  This Scroll is about what will happen when the Messiah comes to redeem Israel.  It is very Christian like, and shows that at least some Jews had specific believes about the results of the “begetting” of the “son of God”.

The War of the Messiah

 This Scroll is two pages long and when discovered created quite a controversy.  As more research was placed on the meaning of this document, the Yahad were determined to believe that the Messiah would be victorious and bring Israel to become a leading nation in the world.

A Vision of the New Jerusalem

 This Scroll is five pages long but many parts are missing.  The quality that stands out the most in this text is a similarity between the New Jerusalem of the Yahad and the New Jerusalem described in the Book of Revelation.

The Coming of the Melchizedek

 This Scroll is barely a page long and is somewhat fragmented.  The author ff this Scroll intended it to be a true interpretation of the jubilee year, which occurred every 49 years.  When I get deeper into the scroll I will explain how the jubilee year and Melchizedek are related.

A Reader’s Guide to the Qumran on Calendar Texts

 This guide is to attempt to explain the difference between a lunar year and a solar year.  During this period of time (2^nd century BC to 1^st century AD) some nations, and even groups within the nations, were using one or the other of these methods of marking time.  To understand the next three Scrolls the full understanding of this difference is helpful.

Calendar of the Heavenly Signs

 This Scroll is written in a way that is rather confusing to the fact that it is actually an almanac.  But since such documents had not been created at this time the format is rather odd.  What it does do is described how the solar year and the lunar year are related.

Synchronistic Calendars

 This Scroll is so fragmented that it can only be described as being as being four pages long.  What it does do is synchronize the rotation of the priestly family between the solar year and the lunar year.

Priestly Services as the Seasons Change

 This Scroll is a single paragraph.  What it does do in that short paragraph is explain the other three month-long seasons relates to both the solar year and the lunar year.

In conclusion, some of these Scrolls will seem extremely boring.  Fortunately, they are also very short.  Together these Scrolls actually give great insight into the Jewish histories of the 2^nd and 1^st centuries BC.  When I finished these shorter Scrolls undo plan on moving on to a couple of the longer ones.  These would include Charter of a Jewish Sectarian Association, the Book of Jubilees, Secret of the Way Things Are, and the Temple Scroll.  I’ll just have to seeing if I actually make it to all of these before deciding to move on to the Nag Hammadi Library.

 

Posted in Genesis Material, Dead Sea Scroll, Introduction | Edit | 2 Comments »

John’s Final Words

October 14, 2009, 9:59 am by dc-agape.

 

John Chapter 21

 This post will be the final post from the Gospel of John.  John does not write about the ascension of Jesus.  I will say more about this in the next paragraph.  He also writes a prophecy of Jesus that took place in his own lifetime…and just happens to have taken place before he wrote this Gospel.  That will be one of the major topics of this post.  The third most interesting thing that occurs in this Gospel is the number and locations of Jesus’ appearances after his crucifixion.  John, the only Apostle to be an eyewitness to everything that happened to Jesus, only records three visits. 

John ends his Gospel having left out the ascension of Jesus.  As far as John is concerned, this event, if it happened, was not import enough to record.  The other possibility is a John was not present at the ascension.  But it seems difficult to believe, since our only sources come from two men: John Mark (a follower of Peter while in Rome) and Luke (a follower of Paul).  In both these reports the ascension of Jesus is recorded as having happened in the presence of all the believers.  So what is John not include this very important Christian concept?  Why is it not important?  Of all the miracles, attributed to Jesus, is not the ascension of Jesus by far the most important?  It almost seems as if, the apostles themselves, either did not experience witnessing this, or but nothing about it!  It is only the followers of the original disciples that record this event.  Even the Gospel of Matthew does not record the event.  Relying on secondhand (or third hand) records seems very dangerous to the non-believer.  Stories always get manipulated, distorted, or exaggerated with extended retelling.  This seems to be the same case.

In the Gospel of John the prophecy and the death of Peter is record.  Unless, the death of Peter is a later addition, the date of writing this gospel can be insured to have occurred after Peter’s death in 67 AD.  As a result, recording a prophecy after the prophecy has occurred weakens the power of the prophecy.  Adding that this book was recorded some 35 to 40 years after the prophecy, the memory of the specific words Jesus used should be taken into account.  To make matters worse, our records of how and when Peter died are sketchy at best.  The truly are Traditions of Men and not sanctified holy script.

John ends his gospel with an interesting twist:

John 21:25 Jesus did many of the things as well.  If every one  of them were written down, I suppose that even the whole world would not have room for the books that would be written.

This most certainly is an exaggeration.  Recording the events of a ministry that lasted less than four years would not create that many books.  But we are told:

John 21:24 This is the disciple who testifies to these things and who wrote them down.  We know that his testimony is true.

This is a very odd addition to a personally written document.  Basically he is saying, since I wrote these down they must be true.  To  the non-believer, this is arrogant, this does not prove the trustworthiness of the document, and adds nothing to validate the testimony given in this Gospel.

To the non-believer these issues are not solved by faith.  They only add more confusion, lack of unity in the Gospels, and create more questions that cannot be answered.  If these Gospels were inspired by an all-powerful Holy Spirit it would seem that these problems would not have occurred.  If these Gospels were inspired by the loving YHWH, who wants everyone to believe, these problems would not occur.  Instead, we have different stories (not different perspectives), Tall Tales, differing accounts, disorganized chronology, and difficulty tracing Jesus’ actual route used in his ministries.  I do hope that I get the chance to make a full scale map showing an organized chronological description of Jesus’ ministries.  Unfortunately, it will be very difficult since only the Gospel of John describes the additional trips to Jerusalem.

This is my last post from the New Testament for the time being.  My next posts will be from the Dead Sea Scrolls.  I have still not decided which order I will present the scrolls that I want to focus on.  But They Will Include: the Book of Secrets, Charter of a Jewish Sectarian Association, Charter for Israel in the Last Days, the Book of Jubilees, Work with the citation of Jubilees, the Secret of the Way Things Are, and the Temple Scroll.  This may seem like a large number of documents to cover before I start back into the Nag Hammadi Library.  But no actuality, many of these scrolls are either very short or very fragmented.  The total number of pages covered in the seven scrolls is actually only 105 pages.  Many of the pages are introduction to the scrolls.  Since the meaning of the scrolls are not as complex as the gospels, and that print type is much larger than in the New Testament, the pages should not take that long.  In actuality, only the Charter of a Jewish Sectarian Association, the Book of Jubilees, Secret of the Way Things Are, and the Temple Scroll have any length to them at all. 

 

Posted in Contradictions, Gospel of John, Dead Sea Scroll, Traditions of Men, Tall Tales, Readings | Edit | No Comments »

Which Gospel is an Eyewitness?

October 12, 2009, 9:06 am by dc-agape.

 

John Chapter 19

 This post will describe some of the issues with John’s account verse the Synoptic Gospels and the Traditions of Men.  My last posts covered some issues with the prophecies about Jesus; death, events that occurred before the Sanhedrin and before Pilate.  This post will be an introduction to the problems in the records of the four Gospels about Jesus’ death and burial.

I will start in the Gospel of John, for obvious reasons:

John 19:35 The man who saw it has given testimony, and his testimony is true.  He knows that you tells the truth, and testifies so that you may also believe.

So we have one man’s testimony that proves these events occurred.  As of I pointed out before the Gospel of Luke is at least a third hand record of the events (the disciples → Paul → Luke).  I’ve also pointed out that the Gospel of Mark and the second hand (Peter → John Mark).  The Gospel of Matthew is a little more complex but there is no record of Matthew being at the events described in chapter 19 of the Gospel of John.  In fact, Matthew would seem to have been one the deserted Jesus at the rest:

Matthew 26:56 but this has all taken place that writings of the prophets might be fulfilled.” Then all the disciples deserted him and fled.

Even looking at all four gospels we see that only the number of people witnessed the crucifixion.  In the Gospel of Matthew it was only Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James Joses, and mother of Zebedee’s sons.  In the Gospel of Mark it is the same Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James and Joses, but this time the only other name mentioned is a woman named Solome (possibly the wife of Zebedee).  In the Gospel of Luke no actual names are mentioned:

Luke 23:49 But all those who knew him, including the women who had followed him from Galilee, stood at a distance, watching these events.

If we want to be generous we can claim that all the apostles for their based on this verse.  But is that true?  No other gospel records it this way; in fact, the others mention names and do not make it apparent that anyone else witnessed the death of Jesus.  In the Gospel of John the only people mentioned are Jesus’ mother, her sister Clopas, Mary Magdalene, and we assumed the Apostle John.  From reading these four gospels, we have no idea who was actually witness to the crucifixion!  The only one we can be certain of is Mary Magdalene.  Yet we have no record of these events from Mary Magdalene’s perspective.  Worse, is that we have only one Gospel that could be held up as a true eyewitness, the Gospel of John.  As a result, in actuality we do not have two eyewitness accounts of the events occurring during the crucifixion.

So what about the burial of Jesus?  That one seems to be more accurate.  Starting with the Gospel of John we see that .Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus were responsible for the burial of Jesus’ body. They even brought 75 pounds of spices to prepare the body for burial.  In the Gospel of Matthew again it is Joseph of Arimathea, but Nicodemus seems to not be present.  Instead, Mary Magdalene and another Mary were present.  In the Gospel of Mark, it is even more confusing.  Again, Joseph of Arimathea was involved, Nicodemus is again missing, Mary Magdalene is prominent, and this time we understand that the other Mary was the mother of Joses.  For some reason, even though in the Gospel of John, Joseph had already prepared the body, both of the Marys and Solome came after the Sabbath to repeat the preparations for burial.  In the Gospel of Luke, we are told that only “the women who had come with Jesus from Galilee” followed Joseph of Arimathea to the tomb.  Again, they left to prepare spices and perfumes for the burial of the body.  Wouldn’t be pretty obvious to anyone following Joseph and Nicodemus carrying both a dead body and 75 pounds of spices that the body of Jesus had been prepared for burial?  Would not the odor of 75 pounds of myrrh and aloes be obvious to the women?  Why in the Synoptic Gospels would there be this tremendous difference from the only eyewitness account.

To put it more plainly, none of the men following Jesus were involved in the burial.  In all four cases, each of the Gospels, secondhand information is the best that we have.  Not a single record of Joseph of Arimathea, Nicodemus, or Mary Magdalene was canonized by the Roman Church in 312AD.  Yet these are the only three people who actually knew where Jesus’ body was buried.  We cannot be certain, from the four Gospels, that anyone else knew the location of Jesus body.  The four “eyewitness” reports differ so drastically, and are suspect of being actual reports, that only the Gospel of John can be taken seriously.  To the non-believer, these “differing” perspectives do not add legitimacy to the story; on the contrary, they make the story more unbelievable.  Now that the Gospel of Mary Magdalene has been discovered in the Nag Hammadi Library it would be nice to have a fuller picture of what actually occurred during the crucifixion and burial of Jesus.  I truly look forward to reading more of the gospels written by the disciples of Jesus recorded in the Nag Hammadi libraries.  Even though these gospels were not accepted by the Orthodox Roman Church, they are important in understanding the original followers of Jesus. 

 

 

Posted in Gospel of John, Contradictions, Readings | Edit | No Comments »

Who Actually Witnessed the Trial?

October 9, 2009, 5:38 pm by dc-agape.

 

John Chapter 19

 This post will describe some of the issues with John’s account verse the Synoptic Gospels and the Traditions of Men.  My last post covered some issues with the events before the Sanhedrin.  In this post I want to introduce some questions about the events before Pilate and Herod.  I will have to leave the events of Jesus’ death and burial till the next post. 

Since only four Gospels have been canonized since 320 AD, we have four “eye-witnesses” to the events leading up to Jesus’ crucifixion. But as it turns out some issues do crop up with this Traditional view of events.  Some “eye-witness” accounts add things that the other “reports” leave out, others suggest unforgettable events that are eliminated from all the other reports.  In the events with Pilate and Herod just such things occur.

In the Gospel of John (the only eyewitness to the “trial”) there is not a single mention of Herod!  Without the non-eyewitness accounts of the trial we would not believe today that Herod was involved or that he was even in Jerusalem at the time of Jesus’ death.  In fact, only the Gospel of Luke (recorded by a follower of Paul) was Herod even mentioned at all.  Neither the Gospels of Matthew (another “actual” witness) or Mark (the most likely first gospel recorded) describe Herod’s involvement in the trial of Jesus.  Why would John, Mark, and Matthew leave out such an event?  Herod was the second most important person in the Roman occupation of Israel…leaving him out would be like leaving out the Ambassador to Iraq when describing the formation of the Iraqi constitution!  More importantly, why would Paul (through Luke) add something that Matthew, Mark, and John left out?  To believe that Paul was at the trial would again attempt to make the lifespan of the occupied Israeli longer than the average lifespan of a Roman Citizen (40 years).  For Paul to have died in ~60 AD he would have had to be less than 15 years old or have been much older than the average person when he died.  Since we are told that the Sanhedrin was made up of elders and chief priest, a young Paul would not have been in attendance.  So the Gospel of Luke is actually third-hand knowledge at best, not the most authoritative source! So actually for the events of the trial we have only one actual source…the Gospel of John.  The other three Gospels are merely Traditions of Men recorded as Authority.

So what does this mean for Christians?  It is actually very simple:

John 19:36 Jesus said, “My kingdom is not of this world.  If it were, my servants would fight to prevent my arrest by the Jews.  But my kingdom is from another place.”

The Kingdom of God (Jesus) is not of this world…Christian have no say in the governance of the world’s nations!  There cannot be a Christian Nation here on this planet, for Jesus himself, told Pilate that his kingdom did not exist on Earth.

There are two other troubling issues with the Gospel account of Jesus’ trial.  That would be of the “custom” to release a prisoner on the Passover holiday.  Two problems exist with this “custom”: first, no record of such a custom exists in Roman or Jewish histories of the time, and second, Barabbas (a known rebel) would not have had the option of parole!  Why is it that neither the Roman nor the Jewish histories tell us about this custom?  Were all the records from both nations destroyed or tampered with?  There aren’t any!  Not a single one records this custom.  The historical accuracy of the Gospels is questionable at best, but when they cannot be verified by outside sources, it certainly begins to look a lot like a mythology.  The concept that a known traitor to Rome would be released by a Roman overseer of Israel seems unlikely.  The Roman Empire looked very unfavorably on political enemies.  In fact, crucifixion was the choice way to eliminate the slaves, pirates, and the enemies of the State.  As a result of this information, Jesus would not have been crucified; he was not an enemy of the State as Pilate decreed.  But Barabbas would not have been freed, either, for he was an enemy of the State!

To the non-believer the accuracy of these Gospels is highly unlikely.  With John being the only source of information about these events, the missing verification, and the contradictory evidence John does provide, it was highly unlikely to have taken place the way it is recorded in the Gospels.  When you add the unlikely lifespan of these “authors” to the mix the tales become even bigger – they become Tall Tales from a superstitious group of religious hopefuls.  The only person who knew the truth about this part of Jesus’ life and recorded these events – died as an old man in Ephesus.  But even the events of the crucifixion are to be questioned.  I will do exactly that in the next post.

 

Posted in Important Questions, Contradictions, Traditions of Men, Gospel of Mark, Readings | Edit | No Comments »

Eyewitness and Real Life

October 8, 2009, 8:14 am by dc-agape.

 

John Chapter 19

 This post will describe some of the issues with John’s account verse the Synoptic Gospels and the Traditions of Men.  Since only four Gospels have been canonized since 320 AD, we have four “eye-witnesses” to the events leading up to Jesus’ crucifixion. But as it turns out some issues do crop up with this Traditional view of events.  Events before the Sanhedrin, Pilate, Herod, his death, and burial are a jumble of different “points-of-view”.  Some add things that the other “reports” leave out, others suggest unforgettable events that are eliminated from all the other reports. 

Let’s start with the Sanhedrin. The Synoptic Gospels tell us that Peter followed Jesus into the Sanhedrin.  Only the Gospel of John tells us that John was the one who got Peter in!  The Synoptic Gospels forget that John was even there.  If the Gospel of John did not exist, we would believe that Peter (by himself) just strolled right on in behind Jesus…but this is not what happened.  Why would all three of the Synoptic Gospels leave out such a detail?  We are told in the Gospel of John that Peter need special permission to enter!  We know that only Peter (and John) followed Jesus to the Sanhedrin:

Matt 26:56 But this has all taken place that the writings of the prophets might be fulfilled.  Then all the disciples deserted him and fled.

So from the beginning of the Sanhedrin trial the Synoptic Gospels of Matthew and Luke are just hearsay.  At least the Gospel of Mark is recorded by a close friend of Peter, while the Gospel of John is as close as we can get to a first-person eyewitness account (recorded 20 -50 years after the events).  That would certainly explain why John is suspiciously left out of the Synoptic Gospel.  The Synoptic Gospels were not written by men who were actually at the scene of the events.

On the topic of recording these Gospels, one must remember the life expectancy of citizens of the Roman Empire was less than 40 years and may have been as low as 25 years!  Even for John (or Peter to transcribe to John Mark) to have written this Gospel the date of the 50 is pushing the limits of sanitary conditions.  For John (or Peter) to still be alive in the 50’s he would have had to be between 15 – 18 years of age when he began to follow Jesus.  For John to have written his Gospel in the 80’s and to have died 68 years after the crucifixion John would have lived twice as long (possibly up to 4 times as long) as the average citizen of Roman and he was not even a Citizen!  A modern example of this is not someone living to be 120 years old, no it would be living to the age of between 140 – 280 years of age. 

Well it doesn’t look like I will reach the other questions about these events in this post.  But just bringing these two perspectives up I think initial the reason that most non-believers have difficulty believing the written word of the only source material we have about the life and times of Jesus.  It certainly leads to a suspicion of the trial, crucifixion, and resurrection of Jesus. Now of course the True Believer, will say that there was nothing wrong with a 15 year old following Jesus, and becoming the most important man in the early Church (Peter or John).  But claiming that these men lived into their 60’s is pushing the limits of credibility.  And as to my first point, about eyewitnesses, the True Believer would only say that they were told how the events occurred by Peter and John.  But if that were the case, why record hearsay as authoritative documentation?  Should not the Gospels explain that only two of the Apostles actually witness the events leading up to the crucifixion (and the crucifixion itself)? 

 

Posted in Gospel of John, Contradictions, Traditions of Men, Inerrancy – My Ass, Readings | Edit | 2 Comments »

Prophecies & Freewill

October 7, 2009, 9:05 am by dc-agape.

 

John Chapter 19

I am going to split this chapter into two separate posts.  One will be about the “prophecies” that where fulfilled in Jesus’ death.  The second post will describe some of the issues with John’s account verse the Synoptic Gospels and the Traditions of Men.  Four prophecies were fulfilled in the Gospel of John.  Yet once again, for prophecy to be accurate…freewill must be suspended.  Or Scripture must be taken out of context to make it fit the circumstances. Let us see which is more likely.

The first prophecy is this one:

John 18:24 “Let’s not tear it,” they said to one another.  “Let’s decide by lot who will get it.”  This happened that the scriptures might be fulfilled which said, “They divided my garments among them and cast lots for my clothing.” So this is what the soldiers did.

This passage is supposed to come from the Book of Psalms 22:18.  Surprisingly this is exactly what that verse says.  But if one reads the entire Psalm one sees that this was not about Jesus.  Take a look at this beginning:

Psalms 22:2 Oh my God, I cry out by day, but you do not answer, but night, and am not silent.

Psalms 22: 20-21 Deliver my life from the sword, the precious life from the power of the dogs.  Rescue me from the mouth of the lions; save me from the horns of the wild oxen.

Only by taking this Psalms out of context can one apply specific verses of this Psalms to the death of Jesus.  Verses 20-21 specifically indicate that King David was concerned about evil men, while dogs, lions, and wild oxen.  Obviously, Jesus was not exposed to dogs, lions, or oxen.  So grabbing one verse in claiming that it is prophecy is only taking that verse out of context.  But even if we give the benefit of the doubt to this being a prophecy a bigger problem occurs.  This particular prophecy relates to how the soldiers treat Jesus’ clothing.  Is there obeying prophecy they have no freewill.  They did not get to choice to fulfill this prophecy.  As a result, YHWH at any time can suspend freewill.  Hence, we can never tell if we are acting under freewill or under YHWH suspension of freewill.

Another possible prophecy fulfilled in this chapter is this one:

John 18:28 later, knowing that all was now complete, and so that the scripture would be fulfilled, Jesus said, “I’m thirsty.”

This supposed prophecy comes from Psalms 69:21 which says:

Psalms 69:21 they put gall inlet food and gave the vinegar for my first.

But let’s take a look at the following verse is in this Psalms:

Psalms 69:22-25 Let the table set before them become a snare; may become a retribution and a trap.  Many there eyes the darkened so they cannot see, and their backs be bent forever.  Pour out your wrath on them; let your fierce anger over take them.  May their place the deserted, that there be no one to dwell in their tents.

Is this the loving Jesus?  This is a direct combination to the “prophecy” verse.  Should we believe that in the last moments of Jesus’ life he became as vindictive as the most vile human nature can provide?  Or should we realize that this verse was taken out of context.  Again, the other possibility is that the guards had no freewill.  They had to obey the prophecy.  Once again this would indicate that YHWH can and does suspend freewill arbitrarily.  Hence, we can never tell if we are acting under freewill or under YHWH suspension of that freewill.

The third prophecy is found in this verse in John:

John 19:34 instead, one of the soldiers pierced Jesus’ side with a spear, bring a sudden flow of blood and water.

Zechariah 12:10 And I will pour out on the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and supplication.  They will look on me, the one they have pierced, and they will mourn for him as one mourns for an only child, and grief bitterly for him as one grieves for firstborn son.

Again, this “prophecy” has been taken out of context.  This verse talks about the people who have pierced Jesus as the ones who mourn.  No indication that the Romans mourned Jesus’ death.  They certainly did not mourn with the bitterness of the loss of a firstborn son.  Again, if we give the benefit of the doubt to this being a fulfill prophecy we end up with freewill being arbitrarily denied.  Hence, we can never tell if we are acting under freewill or under YHWH suspension of that freewill.

The final supposed prophecy is here:

John 19: 36 these things happen so the scriptures would be fulfilled: (delete that “not one of his bones will be broken,”

This prophecy comes from the book of Exodus 12:46:

Exodus 12:46 “It must be eaten in one house; take none of the meat outside of the house.  Do not break any of the bones.  The whole community of Israel must celebrate it.

The crucifixion occurred outside so the beginning of the verse has already been compromised.  The last sentence of the verse has also been compromised, the whole community did not celebrate this event.  So once again a “prophecy” has been taken out of context.  Again, if we give the benefit of the doubt to this being a fulfill prophecy we end Up with freewill being arbitrarily denied.  Hence, we can never tell if we are acting under freewill or under YHWH suspension of that freewill.   

To the non-believer, these so called “prophecies” are very suspicious.  There without doubt taken out of context, and as a result, are questionable at best.  Worst though, is the concept that they are true prophecy.  If they really are prophecy, and numerous people during the crucifixion of Jesus had their freewill removed.  Even if this removal was only temporary, this indicates that YHWH can do so at any time, for any reason, and we (puny humans) are completely helpless in these cases.   The whole argument of freewill becomes a mute topic with this understanding.    If humans can be manipulated as play toys to a supreme being at any arbitrary moment freewill does not exist.  The concept of prophecy only strengthens this concept.  For prophecy indicates that the future has already been recorded.  Prophecy also indicates that the outcome of our choices have already been recorded.  Hence, it may feel like we have freewill, but in the end we are just actors on a stage as indicated by Shakespeare:

Jaques:

All the world’s a stage,
And all the men and women merely players;
They have their exits and their entrances,
And one man in his time plays many parts,
His acts being seven ages.

As You Like It Act 2, scene 7, 139–143

 

Posted in Gospel of John, Contradictions, Freewill, Readings | Edit | 1 Comment »

Try a Poll!

October 6, 2009, 5:25 pm by dc-agape.

 

Thanks to the Chaplain at The Apostate’s Chapel I have found a poll that I can try here at dc-agape.  Tell me what you think!
What do you think of this blog? Love it!
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More Traditions of Men

October 5, 2009, 7:05 pm by dc-agape.

 

John Chapter 18

This is the chapter where Jesus is “betrayed”, Peter denies knowing Jesus, and Barabbas (an Israeli freedom fighter/terrorist) was set free.  Obviously, some of these things are questionable at best.  All three are veiled in Christian mysticism.  Of course, to the common believer all three of these events are completely logical, completely under YHWH control, and completely without question having occurred.  But is this true?

Let’s start with a “betrayal”.  Was it truly betrayal?  Jesus was certainly prepared for it.  Does that mean that there was a supernatural power behind the events?  Or does Occam’s razor come into play?  For Jesus to know what was going to happen the easiest and simplest explanation was that Judas and Jesus had easily planned this.  The olive garden (”because Jesus had often met there with his disciples”) was actually not used very often.  Using all four Gospels, Jesus was rarely in Jerusalem.  Only the Gospel of John does Jesus into Jerusalem more than once.  His last stay only lasted six day (John 12:1).  And not once did the disciples go to the Mount of Olives during this period of time.  So the verse that says:

John 18:2 Now Judas, who betrayed him, knew the place, because Jesus had also met there with his disciples.

Nowhere in the Gospels does it describe Jesus using the Mount of Olives as a common location for Jesus’ teachings.  Adding to that six days does not single out a single location, unmentioned in the gospels, as a place where Judas could be certain that Jesus would be.  The only way Judas could know this was if Jesus had told him to meet him there.  Jesus certainly had everything under control, because he planned it that way.  No supernatural control was needed.  The other option is that Judas had no freewill.

More interestingly, is the case of Peter fulfilling Jesus’ prophecy of his denial.  For Jesus to get that right down to the exact moment:

John 18:27 Again he denied it, and at that moment a rooster began to grow.

This would imply that Jesus certainly knew to the finest detail what Peter would do (the rooster crowing as Peter denied knowing Jesus).  If we take this passage literally, then as I’ve said before, Peter did not have freewill.  This would mean that YHWH can and does remove freewill arbitrarily.  As a result, we pour humans can never tell whether we’re acting under our own freewill or being forced by a supreme being.  Anything that I do, saying, or believe is subjects to the arbitrary decision of YHWH to interfere.  Saying that YHWH can but doesn’t, does not solve the fact that at any arbitrary moment YHWH to interfere at his whim.

The story of Barabbas adds another interesting twist to this chapter.  No other document, Roman or Israeli, mentions the name Barabbas.  To make matters worse, no documents, Roman or Israeli, even mentions that Pilate ever offered the Jews the opportunity to release a prisoner at the Passover.  Both of these cases make the story of the release of Barabbas questionable.  Was even more detrimental to this story is what the Gospels claim about Barabbas.  If he truly was an instigator and a murderer, he was certainly a Zionist.  Pilate, as the highest ranking Roman in Jerusalem, would never free such a man.  When you add all these historical perspectives, this passage (recorded in all four Gospels) begins to look very pale to say the least.  The other option is that Pilate had no freewill.

To the non-believer, this chapter implies three things: a different relationship between Jesus and Judas that the Traditions of Men have implied, the lack of freewill that the Traditions of Men imply, and the questionability of the legitimacy of the Gospels.  Again, I will last a simple question: why are there so many Traditions of Men included into the Word of God?  These incidences of questionable interpretation put a cloud of doubt over the entire Bible.

 

Posted in Gospel of John, Traditions of Men, Freewill, Readings | Edit | 7 Comments »

Introduce Yourself

October 4, 2009, 8:19 am by dc-agape.

 

Image via Wikipedia

Today make a special anniversary for dc-agape.com, and for more than one reason.  The biggest reason to celebrate is that today is the anniversary of my start to this experiment.  I have actually posted 371 posts within that year.  I had hoped to get 9 posts per week, but being a grad student in the field of Chemistry has minimized the time I can allot for posting.  Adding to that is that my advisor wants me to finish in 3.5 years (most students take 4-5 years), publishing my first article, preparing a second article, finishing my matriculation into the PhD program, and just the normal day-to-day hassles.  I am happy to say that I was able to at least average a post a day! 

I have also reached the point where (even if it is robots and spammers) I have averaged over 50 hits per day on my RSS page.  I know that I only have 2-3 regular commenters, but there are a number of guest who continue to return without making a single comment.  I hope that I can change that and bring in more viewpoints and discussion.  I know that with more commenters I will have to enforce the policy of being tolerant, something that many people have difficulty with.  I certainly do not want to blacklist anyone!  But if new voices are not humble (Christians) or too arrogant (Atheist and Christian alike), I will be forced to intervene. 

This year alone, I have reached the point where 40 of my posts have reached the surprising level of 277 hits (that is averaging one hit per day – for the entire year…with many not written until very recently).  I was not sure if I would be a minor blog that had no subscriptions or if people would take not of my slightly different approach to the issue of communication between Atheist and Theist.  The dc-agape.com still is rather small, but it is obviously growing, should I ask for more?  That was, of course, one of the initial questions that the experiment was to address.  The data is still coming in for that part of the experiment.  Another aspect of the experiment was whether I could keep up the blogging (my own interest) with all the other competing demands for my time.  This seems to not be a problem.  With the addition of the Nag Hammadi Library, the Holy Qur’an, and the Dead Sea Scrolls, I will not end up getting bored, and will have an unlimited selection of source material for my posts.

One more additional interesting thing about this blog is the post that has had the top hits. That would be freewill-punishment-salvation. I knew that posting on the Biblical concept of freewill would spark interest, but it is interesting which of the many posts actually reached the highest number of hits.At this point, it is averaging over 13 hits per day, since I wrote it at the beginning of March, 2009.  What is most odd about this post is that it comes from the Dead Sea Scrolls!  To be exact it is from my reading of the Damascus Document.  And yet not a single comment has been made, neither spammer, nor hate, or nor agreement.  Does this mean that the tracking software that I am using is faulty?

As far as registrations to this website go…it is not a paltry number.  I have 315 users who have actually hit the registration button.  Now even if some of these are robots, that would indicate that some of you out there are actually interested in this project.  The question is how many?

Now comes the request to my elusive and quiet visitors.  I may be sorely embarrassed by the response to this request, but the time has come to make it anyway!  If you have subscribed to my RSS feeder, or even if this blog is something that you visit on that rare occasion, would you be so kind as to speak up?  If you would let me know even the barest details…which side you lean toward (between Theism and Atheism), what brought you to this blog, and what you would like to see changed (I am thinking of changing my host – 1&1 hosting is good for beginners, but it is limiting to what I can do on my own blog site).  If you want to add your contact information, blog site, etc go right ahead.

 

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Posted in Comment Policies, State of Mind, Introduction | Edit | 2 Comments »

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Update on Hell (Fiery)

I have included an update on my research of the topic Hell (Fiery).  This is a better explanation of the story of Lazarus and the rich man.  It was nagging at me as I went through Biblical Topic of hell, but only today did I finally realize, as I finished the Topic, what was different about this story and the rest of the Word of God.

The Kingdom of God

Mark Chapter 4:1-34

The parables that Jesus uses in these verses are his attempt to describe the Kingdom of God.  He uses four parables in this attempt to explain the Kingdom.  When read with the “god bias” these verses sound so good.  How it is our fault to not believe, how YHWH tries to grow a garden from our souls.  But there is an underlying message that you can only see if you suspend the “god bias”.

It is starts in verse 3 and continues to verse 8.  It is a little long so check it out here.  This is the greatly honored “Parable of the Sower”.  Jesus uses it to describe four types of people: those who do not accept, those who burn out, those that are overwhelmed by the world, and those that are saved.  But there is one verse that needs to be look at much closer than Jesus did:

Mark 4:4 As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path, and the birds came and ate it up.

What farmer would scatter their seed randomly?  Only a fool would take the risk of losing seed to the birds, to rocky soil, and to a thorn patch.  But this is exactly how YHWH spreads his “Kingdom”.  He allows some to be taken by Satan.  He allows some to burn out.  He allows some to be overtaken by the world.  And it is worse than that…he foolishly spreads the seed in a way that we do not have a choice.  We do not choose to be the seed on the path…that is where he places us.  So this parable is one more example of predestination.

Another verse in this parable that requires more examination is:

Mark 4:11-12 He told them, “This secret of the kingdom of God has been given to you.  But to those on the outside everything is said in parables so that, “’they may be ever seeing but never perceiving, and ever hearing but never understanding: otherwise they might turn and be forgiven!’”

Even Jesus butchers the bible.  The actual translation is:

Isaiah 6:9-10 He said, “go and tell this people: ‘Be ever hearing, but never understanding; be ever seeing, but never perceiving.’ Make the heart of this people calloused; make their ears dull and close their eyes.  Otherwise they might see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their hearts, and turn and be healed.”

The prophet Isaiah was told to turn the people’s eyes, ears, and hearts so they would be callous and not be saved.  YHWH commanded this prophet to insure that the Israelites would not be healed!  And Jesus twists this verse to make it seem like we have a chose.  When you combine these two verses, correctly translated to English, you see three possibilities.  One, is that YHWH does make people’s hearts calloused.  Or, another, is that Jesus did not even know the verses of the Torah correctly.  The final possibility is that Jesus purposely twisting the verse he knew to some purpose.  These last two possibilities leave you wondering about Jesus’ divinity.  The first possibility leaves you wondering about a “loving” YHWH.

The parable of “the lamp on a stand” has some interesting ideas as well.  It truly applies to “the Truth”. 

Mark 4:22 For whatever is hidden is meant to be disclosed, and whatever is concealed is meant to be brought out into the open.

Isn’t this just the way it should be.  In a social species we can’t keep lies, the higher the lie the more likely it will destroy our society.  Religion and governmental lies are the worst.  And just as Jesus says we must uncover all the hidden and concealed information.

He also gives good advice here:

Mark 4:24-25 “Consider carefully what you hear,” he continued, “With the measure you use, it will be measured to you – and even more. Whoever has will be given more; whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken from him.”

This clearly translates into two ideas: “Don’t trust everything you hear, no matter who tells you it” and “Use it or lose it”!  Both of these ideas need to be used by us every day.  But the TrueChristians™ needs to think about this even more.  They trust what they hear without using logic and trust without using discriminating what is true and what is fantasy.

The other two parables are similar in vain.  Part of it is the random scattering of the saved in with the rest of us.  Another is how once he has chosen a person they will grow to be a tall tree.  John Mark finishes by telling how Jesus would not tell the people the meaning of the parables, but would let the disciples in on the hidden secret.  This just happens to be direct violation of Mark 4:22 (see above).

So what we see here is how the kingdom of God is filled with people that YHWH chooses. That Jesus knows some profound concepts of living in society.  And finally, that Jesus himself does not follow his own teachings!  Jesus kept secrets from the masses, right after telling the masses that the hidden was meant to be disclosed and the concealed brought out in the open!
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Atheism: Hope

Atheism means different things to each person.  For those who have only heard, second hand, Atheism can be a “very scary” word.  For those of us who live the Atheist life and walk the Atheist path it is a wonderful thing.  Even though Atheism is “the lack of belief in a god” (or gods or even all supernatural beings), many forms of the word are thrown around.  As the link above mentions, many thought patterns lead to the Atheist life.  I will be starting a series of posts on the positive aspects of Atheism.  Some of these aspects are: hope, joy, freedom (from religious guilt, from narrow mindedness, from dogmatic structure), awe, and love.  To many my last sentence will make no sense, which is because of religious indoctrination!  One more thing Atheists are free from.

In this post I want to explore the aspect of Hope.  Most TrueChristians™ do not believe that an Atheist can have much hope.  They could not be further from the truth.  We have many hopes: in the future, in individual selves, in humanity, in science, and in numbers (I explain that in a little bit).  We do not all have the same hopes, but ask an Atheist what type of hope they have and you will find that it is part of their personal outlook on life.

We have hope in the future, even if is only for equality.  To a Christian this may seem silly, only because being the majority (in the US) gives them the right to believe that everyone is being treated fairly.  Trina Hoaks at Friendly Atheist gives a good example of the hope that Atheist have of having equality.  To verify this, ask a gay or lesbian if they have equality!  You can even ask an African-American, many Mexican-Americans, or even anyone with Asian descent, the concept of equality is only felt by the majority.  Here in the US that would be the Caucasian Christian (male). 

Our hope for the future has multiple facets to it.  We hope for better education for our future generations.  One post from a number of years ago ends with a fierce example of this hope.  The court room battles over education are a sign of our hopes: PA, TX, and Kansas.  Equal access to education for the masses is extremely important, but we must recognize that people have different skills.  There is a difference between education and training.  I personally hope that one day we will personalize education for each individual.  Mass education leaves something to be desired.  The weaker “book” students get “left behind” while the stronger “book” students get bored.

Another form of hope that we have is in peace here on Earth.  Since Atheist know that we only have one life (all of us), almost all of us believe that human life is worth saving.  I will not use the word sacred, because that is too weak a word for what most Atheists believe about the value of all human life.  We hope that everyone will live a fruitful, happy, contented life with many joys and few sorrows.  To achieve this goal, Atheists understand that reason must be the driving force for society.  The religious divisiveness must end and the wars that religion has started must end.  But for this to happen we must have better education (see above).

Many of us Atheist do place our hope in science, and for good reason.  Yes, atrocities have been carried out due to science (sometimes in the name of science).  But look around you, even the plants that you see have been affected by science…fertilizers (hopefully you are not surrounded by nuclear waste or fall-out).  The cars, the phones, the window in front of you…all science.  The medicine you and your family took for any number of illnesses…all science.  Using the past as a predictor of the future, science will only make our lives more enjoyable, more full-filling, and more worthwhile.  Yes, we run the risk of annihilation with science.  To eliminate this risk we must have removed the risk of religious wars and better education for the masses. 
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Creationist virus?

I have activated a virus when I looked for the Scopes Trial in PA.  Here is what any search now displays:

Search Results

1.     Wikipedia 

This site may harm your computer.
A free encyclopedia with millions of articles contributed collaboratively using Wiki software, in dozens of languages.

www.wikipedia.org/ – Similar pages 

2.     Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This site may harm your computer.
Dec 30, 2008 … Reference desk — Serving as virtual librarians, Wikipedia volunteers tackle your questions on a wide range of subjects. …
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page – Similar pages

3.     Wikipedia – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This site may harm your computer.
Wikipedia’s 12 million articles (2.7 million in English) have been written collaboratively by volunteers around the world, and almost all of its articles …
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia – Similar pages
More results from en.wikipedia.org »

Isn’t this the funniest thing you have ever seen.  I take it someone did not like my blog site.  I wonder who the coward was!  The few people who have commented have been very cordial.  And I have both enjoyed responding and have been as cordial as well.I am not surprised that a coward would use such an attempt to stop something that is so antithetic to their own point of view.  But I certainly expected to get flaming comments before this happened!  But there is no doubt that the search for the PA scopes trial is what activated this “problem”. 

As all of you know, I source my data from web searches.  I use Google substansially while preparing a post.I find this very humourous and will look forward to see if anyone will take responsibility.  Since that is lacking in the Christian religion, I doubt that anyone will admit to it.  And I am sure that someone feels that their religion gives them the right to do this!
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A House Divided

Luke 2:23 – 3:35

This section of the gospel has a wealth of information, but I think I can boil it down rather quickly.  The first section of this section is “Who is Lord of the Sabbath”.  Jesus talks a little about what are appropriate actions of the Sabbath.  The next section is about how popular Jesus has become.  It’s a good thing he didn’t need Secret Service Agents back then, I guess YHWH really did have a reason to protect him.  The third section is one that I will focus on the most.  It is about a “house divided”.  Jesus applied it to Satan, but it can be aptly applied to Christianity today.  The final section covers how Jesus treats his own mother (the Virgin Mary) as an equal to everyone listening that day.

In my last post I mentioned that the phrase “Son of Man” in Aramaic means us…humanity.  So with that in mind, Jesus is saying that not only he, but all of us, is “Lord of the Sabbath”.  He even says as much:

Luke 2:27 Then he said to them, “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.  So the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath.”

Reading the “Son of Man” as Jesus meant it has profound meaning to most of what is written in the four Gospels.  When Jesus throws out demons and when he calls himself the “Son of Man”, he is not referring to his divinity.  He is claiming that all humanity can do the same things he did.

In the next section in Chapter 3 the crowds follow Jesus from the village of Capernaum to the “lake” (Sea of Galilee?).  Remember the size of Capernaum…basically Jesus walks about 3 city blocks to the “lake”. He is still overwhelmed by the crowd and must retreat to a boat near the shore.  The main reason he has to do this is the pressure to heal the sick and throw out demons.  I guess at some point even the Most Holy gets tired of helping people.  The odd thing about this “throwing out of demons” is this:

Mark 3:11-12 Whenever the evil spirits saw him, they fell down before him and cried out, “You are the Son of God.” But he gave them strict orders not to tell who he was.

If crying out “You are the Son of God” is not telling everyone in the crowd at the “lake” who was Jesus, what is?  It also shows that Jesus did not have control over demons…they told everyone who Jesus was…“the Son of God”.  I am having some trouble, as well, with the switch from Sea of Galilee to the “lake”.  It seems odd to me, and makes me wonder if some things have not been garbled over the millennia.  Luke does call it the Lake of Gennesaret (Luke 5:1).  So is this a problem of the people at the time of Jesus (mostly Israelites) not having a standard naming of places they have possessed for thousands of years, or is this confusion over where the event took place, or is it just that only certain audiences called the Sea of Galilee by this name.  This last case would imply that each of the Gospels was truly meant for different people.

My favorite part of this section is where Jesus describes a “house divided”. 

Luke 3:24-25 If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand.  If a house is divided against itself, that house cannot stand.

Here he is referring to the power of Satan, because the Pharisees think that he is possessed by Beelzebub.  So here we have an ancient religion that is “God inspired” that believes not just in YHWH, Jesus, Satan, but also in the Prince of demons (a separate entity from Satan).  But Jesus counters them with the concept that if he were “of Satan” how and why would he throw out other members of his team.  Unfortunately, that is exactly what many Christian sects do this very day!  The Kingdom of God on earth is divided against itself, and Jesus declares that in this condition the Kingdom of God will not stand!  It is estimated that there are over 28,700 denominations as of right now and by 2025 it will have grown to 55,000.  This is a house/kingdom divided.  Your own “Lord and Savor” has warned you about this condition, yet nothing is being done to bring the Kingdom of God back to Jesus’ original plan.  Christianity will fail directly because of the fact that you ignore what your source of Salvation tells you!

I almost forgot the interesting part of this section:

Luke 3:28-29 I tell you the truth, all the sins and blasphemies of men will be forgiven them.  But whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will never be forgiven; he is guilty of an eternal sin.”

So go ahead and cure YHWH and Jesus, that’s just fine with the creator.  But don’t you dare say a single bad thing about the Holy Spirit.  I guess the Trinity is not quite what we expect.  Since the Holy Spirit is supposed to guide us here on earth, and we know how well that’s working out, Jesus wants to protect the weakest link from our verbal abuse.  Is it not odd how we can blasphemy the great creator and our salvation, but not the guiding force of the Trinity?  So don’t forget to take the Blasphemy Challenge!

The final section is about how Jesus treats his own mother, the Virgin Mary.  We also get to a glimpse into his family life before the ministry.  He had brothers and a mother that:

Luke 3:21 When his family heard about this, they went to take charge of him, for they said, “He is out of his mind.”

This was not just his “brothers” this included his Virgin Mother:

Luke 3:32 A crowd was sitting around him, and they told him, “Your mother and brothers are outside looking for you.”

The Catholic venerated “Virgin Mother” who was certainly not a virgin after Jesus, believed he was “out of his mind”.  Yet somehow she has become second to Jesus in their faith!  A funny thought just occurred to me: where is Joseph, Jesus’ adopted father after YHWH deserts him.  But Jesus’ response is even more telling about Mary’s part in the story:

Luke 3:33-35 Who are my mother and my brothers?” he asks.  Then he looked at those seated in the circle around him and said, “Here are my mother and brothers! Whoever does God’s will is my brother and sister and mother.”

He basically lays it on the line…Mary and his biological brothers are NOT his spiritual family.  It would even seem from these verses that the Biblical family was not even doing the will of YHWH!  Do you not believe that Jesus would invite his own family in and introduce them to his new friends?  Instead he completely ignores his “virgin mother” and the rest of his family.  Now this is Biblical Family Values!
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Jesus and the Outcasts

Mark 2:1-22

Three stories occur in this section of the Gospel of John Mark.  One is about healing a paralytic.  The second is about Jesus calling Levi.  This also includes Jesus eating with the “sinners”.  The third story in this section is about Jesus and his disciples doing things differently.  One thing that should be noted is the relationship between Capernaum, Simon, and the Sea of Galilee.  Capernaum was a fishing village on the coast of the fresh water Sea of Galilee where Simon lived. Entering and exiting the village to go to the Sea of Galilee was like walking to the pier at the US city of Evanston, IL.  Notice that the village is tiny and that entering, leaving, and going to be “Sea” is like walking across a couple of city blocks. 

The first story is about Jesus healing a paralytic.  The actual disease this man had is unknown.  The more important thing to notice is the determination of the 4 men carrying the paralytic.  They destroy Simon’s house to get the man to Jesus.  To say the least, Jesus is impressed.  But in healing the paralytic man, Jesus starts a debate with the righteous and religious people of his time (kinda like our own TrueChristianTM).  Oddly this debates ends up being over if forgiving sin is easier than healing a man.  Well we now know which is easier…forgiving a man.  Only under very special cases can a paralytic person be healed, and it costs a lot of money.  Notice in that link the price tag…$300,000 US.  So, it is definitely easier to forgive a “sinner”.  I know a lot of people in the world today that wish Jesus could heal a paralytic (or even an amputee). 

Another part of the story about how Jesus heals the paralytic man is the announcement that he makes during the debate:

Mark 2:10-11 But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins…” He said to the paralytic, “I tell you, get up, take your mat and go home.”

In the process of healing this man, Jesus tells everyone in Capernaum that he is the Son of Man.  But when we look at the Jewish (Hebrew) meaning of this phrase, it means that Jesus has just told us that all mankind has the power to forgive and hence to heal.  Jesus was actually NOT proclaiming his deityship!

The second story is about Levi the tax collector and how Jesus deals with “the most despised people of the Israelites”.  In Jesus’ time these people were worse than the Romans, the adulterer, the prostitute, or the homosexual.  But since they were protected by the Romans the Israelites could not hurt them.  Guess what Jesus does within the first days of his ministry?  First, he calls one of these traitors to be his disciple (later an Apostle).  Second, he (and all his disciples) go and have lunch with Levi’s “sinful” friends.  What has happened to Jesus’ disciples today?  Why do they do the exact opposite from Jesus?  Why do they act like the Pharisees?  From a de-converted gay Atheist, this is one of the biggest set of questions I want answers to!  The best interpretation of this change in the “Christian” attitude towards sinners is that there are no christians on the planet.  Or at least their god does not exist, and they are just “playing” the righteous card.

The third story is about why Jesus’ disciples are different than the other religious sects of the day.  This is actually one of the most disappointing answers that Jesus gives to his audience.  He tells them that it is because they are in celebration with Jesus still being alive.  Jesus certainly does not have freewill, he knows that he must die…to save mankind.  But he is so egotistical, that he claims that his disciples are being blessed by his divine presence.  Even though he has just declared that he is not divine in the verse I quoted earlier.  It would have been much more appropriate for the “Son of God” to tell the Pharisees that his disciples did not follow the old traditions!  I would have loved for Jesus to tell the Pharisees that a distinctly new and radical perspective on religion was being showcased.  But no, Jesus just continues with the arrogance stance of YHWH.
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Dear Christians: A Gay Athiest Personal Experiment