Try as some scholars might, Jesus was not a moralist for the sake of being moral. A moralist is a philosopher who specializes in morals and moral problems, or someone who demands exact conformity to rules and forms. He did not develop a doctrine of Heaven and Hell, or the Trinity. Man developed those doctrines and so many more. Man continues to change, adapt and align his/her notion of what the Bible is supposed to mean. Jesus was not interested in being a Democrat or a Republican and he definitely never preached killing people, or going to war as a means to protect the innocent.
If anything, he was about equality, the rights of women, living peacefully and not judging your neighbor, but rather being kind to them and forgiving them as his Heavenly father was forgiving toward you. He never told us to lay up our treasures in gold, barabonds, cash or property. If anything he was about sharing, giving and helping...like the story of the Good Samaritan. You might call him a socialist, but definitely not a capitalist.
His message was clear...the apocalyptic end is near and people need to live morally because that is what the kingdom is going to be like. There is going to be an equality of all people, no oppression, no war and you should start implementing those qualities in the present. Christianity's message today is different. It's mixed with self gain, power, control, influence, gaining knowledge, discrimination, money and politics. Obtaining wealth, justifying war and preventing personal choice and defining ethics based on religious notions feels more in line with todays Christian leaders then with Jesus's simple message.
Jesus was an apocalyptic teacher he literally believed the end was near. If we look at the historical context we know that He was not speaking metaphorically. It was common among the Jews, of that era, to believe that an apocalypse was near. John the Baptist believed the end was coming, so did the writers of the Dead Sea Scrolls, which is filled with all kinds’ apocalyptic thinking. The Apostle Paul literally felt and believed that Jesus was coming back right away; he believed Jesus would be a cosmic judge and the earth would be reformed. This is the historical context.
Most people read the Bible as a devotional book. They don't look at it historically. They don't compare the Gospels side by side when the read them. Just try and make the resurrection story into a chronologically accurate and conforming script for your next church play. I guarantee that you won't be able to if you stick to the literal scriptures. Our perception of Jesus and God is greatly influenced by what others say, what preachers tell us, what pop religion books write, what we see on T.V. and what ideas we want to feel and believe that help us anchor our inner-self and ground our sense of reality in life.
Jesus was wrong about the apocalypse coming and so were his followers. We can go back every decade, up to the 1st century, where this idea started, and find Christians believing that He was returning in their lifetime. It is a pop cultural phenomenon today and you can find predictions every decade which, of course, never come true.
Jesus, if he ever existed, taught us some good ideas about peace, forgiveness and love, but mixed with his message are many distortions from his followers (i.e. women can't hold spiritual authority over a man, etc) including the thrust of his message, which was, get used to living like I say, because the Kingdom is coming very soon. Believers today are more likely to believe in what their culture teaches about Jesus verses what history teaches us about Jesus.
Sincerely,
Bill Jeffreys
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