"It is time fo an awakening"

As I do from time to time, I'd like to share a question I received at AllExperts along with my response. Your thoughts are requested:

I have been studing the bible and many other authors such as Marcus J Borg, Greg Bradon, Bart D. Ehrman,Phillip Gulley with James Mulholland, I have read the Dead Sea Scrolls, the Nag Hammadi Scrolls, the Bible and many other books on the subjet. My son is born again christian and believes 100% in the bible. It contradicts itself over and over again, for every answer he sends me I find 3 against his, from the same book. He is stunned now because he has nothing left to come back on. I have beat him at his own game, much to his chargrin. I believe man has made God in his image not the othe way around. You can find something in that book to satisfy every belief system that is christian. Due to this book, wrote by man, the scrolls were passed and copied by scribes until the printing press in the 17th century was invented, there has been endless war and fighting over religon, wonderful. Every religon believe they hold the keys to heaven and if you arn't of that belief you go to hell, wonderful. The bible would have us convinced man is evil and sinfull but this same man kept the writings intact for centuries, having different scribes write word for word and not changing one word to satisfy their docterine, that would be a total contradiction. If we would all have a heart like Jesus and not so much Jesus in our heart, we would have peace and love.Politics and religon have been in bed together for centuries, at first if you did't believe what the church said you would be round up, tortured,amd burnt,crucified, stoned to death or some other act of brutality. Religon forgets the comandment though shall not judge,though shall not kill, every religon judges, and the chatholics of course have murdered more Jews then Hittler ever thought of, in the name of God, or Jesus, who is about peace and love. Religons will have to pay for there evil doings in this world, they create havic all over the world every Sunday with there fight between good and evil, God and the devil. If you have devil in your congregation, mind and heart you are not 100% into God, you actually worship that lesser hierarchy. It is time religon gets its justice that it's due, due to the violence that follows them. I see hungry, homeless people and religon turns there back on them and continue to get rich. I meet more hippocrits from religon, I am right you are wrong, if you don't see things my way you will go to hell, who made them judge? Religous Christians should actually reread the comandments and get off their high horse. Follow Jesus' words. Mark was wrote 30 to 50 years after the fact the rest were wrote up to 150 years after the fact, and religon would have you think this is absolut truth, they don't even know who these people were, but they believe word for word. If you put them side by side they contradict each other. It is time fo an awakening.

My Reply:

Hi Caroline,

I don't see a question here.

To respond to every point you make would require more from me than you are probably interested in reading.

In a nutshell, you make statements that are mere opinion, "man has made God in his image not the the way around" (did you ever read the long poem entitled Second Genesis? Very cool!) and others that are debatable in scholarly circles or that you don't seem to fully understand, such as when and why the various books of the New Testament were written. Lets start with there.

The four biblical Gospels -- circa 50, 68, 60 and 85-90 CE respectively -- (and most of the others that were rejected by Irenaeus and his contemporaries) were among the latest New Testament books produced. Paul's letters are typically accepted the earliest, written around 30 years after Jesus' passing. Matthew would have been written about 20 years after his death, Mark around 35, Luke around 30 and John around 50 years after the Master's death which occurred in or around 33 CE according to traditional sources, or 26 CE by other more modern estimations.

The early followers of Jesus (Master Y'shua) were not "Christians." They were Jews and Jewish converts (hence the debates in the Book of Acts about how Gentile conversions to Judaism should take place considering that the Sanhedrin had ruled they should not be accepted unless they disavowed Master Y'shua as their Rebbe). Master Y'shua was a devout Jewish teacher and his early followers were all or all became Jews. His teachings were most similar to what today is known as Karaite Judaism (http://www.karaite-korner.org). This is to say, he rejected the divine origins of Oral Torah (the Talmud etc) which Pharisaical (ie Rabbinic) Judaism was/is based on. He further taught that the Written Torah (and the entire Tanach -- ie the "Old Testament") needed to be understood "by the spirit rather than by the letter of law" because, he taught, "the Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath."

Master Y'shua's followers did not worship him as a god nor were they familiar with the notion of the "Holy Trinity." They honored the Sabbath, unlike later Christians who embraced the holy day of the Roman Sun God Sol Invictus. They worshiped the God of Israel and accepted the principles espoused by Master Y'shua in much the same way that Rabbinic Jews today accept the interpretations of Maimonides.

These followers therefore didn't "need" a New Testament per se because they had the same Torah (and Tanach) as their spiritual predecessors. However as the first followers began to age, die or be martyred, as various unfounded legions and stories began to circulate, as claims that Prophet Y'shua had actually been the Moshiach and that he had not really died but merely gone into hiding and would soon emerge and establish the Kingdom of God on Earth (the central role and function of the Messiah) and especially after the Jews (including those who followed the teachings of Master Y'shua) were expelled from Eretz Israel (in 70 CE), it became needful to chronicle Master Y'shua's teachings and, later, his basic life story (ie the Gospels). This resulted, as you know from the Nag Hammadi Library, in many contradictory works and teachings.

The early followers of the Way were as diverse in their views as the Hindus of the Sanatana Dharma. Each branch claiming to hold the true teachings of the Master.

As the followers of the Nazarene Way of Master Y'shua went out into the Roman world and beyond some merged the Master's teachings with diverse Gnostic realizations, others with various forms of Roman Paganism, others maintained their Nazarene beliefs well after Rome created the New Universal Religion (see below) and many such Arians died at the hands of the official Church in, as you say, direct violation of Scripture. This needs to be understood though.

One of the proclamations made by the Roman Pontiff (and one of the central issues that later gave rise to Christian Protestantism od the Reformation) was that the Bible was not enough, that those who would receive God's grace must also accept the authority of the Roman hierarchy and that ecclesiastical authority sanctioned the elimination of so-called heretics (such as those who remained true to the Master's teachings).

Faced with these persecutions a huge percentage of the Jewish followers returned to Rabbinical Judaism as did many of the Noahide (Gentile) converts.

Then came Constantine, Irenaeus, the counsel of Nicea and so on. This is too long a topic to address here in depth, but I do so elsewhere if you are interested: http://www.allfaith.com/Religions/Noahide/way4.html.

Again in brief, Constantine's mother was a convert to the teachings of Master Y'shua in some form unknown to us today and Constantine, seeking to unite his empire in all ways, chose these teachings to underlay the foundation of the Universal Church of Rome (ie "the Roman Catholic Church").

Part of this unification process required the establishment of official dogmas, beliefs and hierarchies. Constantine was for his entire life a devout worshiper of Sol Invictus (he converted to Christianity on his death bed) and so many of Sol's aspects were overlaid onto the newly developed personality to be known as "Jesus" (hence I distinguish between Master Y'shua and Lord Jesus). For instance as the Sun King is born on the night of the Winter Solstice Jesus was born on that day and we got Christmas. As Goddess Eostar and her fertile bunnies brought fertility to the earth, Christians embraced Easter on her feast day. etc. etc.

As Nicea determined official Church dogma, as Irenaeus determined which writings to include in the official biblical Christian (Catholic) Cannon (and more importantly which to ban from circulation), and as the various Roman customs and traditions were blended, the result was what we today know as Christianity in its myriad forms.

You mentioned the Doctrine of Original Sin, we got this interpretation and dogma from the Roman Catholic Saint Augustine.

Now, this history of the Church, debated of course by most Christians but solid according to known history, does NOT negate that religions worth or authenticity in any way. The Christian Church, as you say, is responsible for a LOT of evil and harm to the world, especially to Jews (and Pagans). However it has also benefited the world in countless ways as well.

We must carefully distinguish between "organized religion" and church hierarchies and the faith of individual believers. From out of the structures of the organized religions have emerged countless individuals, like Gandhi, like Dr. Martin Luther king Jr., like Saint Francis, like Julian of Norwich, like Caitanya Mahaprabhu, like Padre Pio, like Mother Theresa of Avila and Mother Theresa of Calcutta, and on and on and on who have been real blessings and inspirations to their peoples and to humanity at large.

Philippians 4:8 Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things.
9 Those things, which ye have both learned, and received, and heard, and seen in me, do: and the God of peace shall be with you.

This is the purpose of true religion. Or as Micah puts it in the Tanach:

Michah 5:6 'Wherewith shall I come before HaShem, and bow myself before G-d on high? Shall I come before Him with burnt-offerings, with calves of a year old?
7 Will HaShem be pleased with thousands of rams, with ten thousands of rivers of oil? Shall I give my first-born for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?'
8 It hath been told thee, O man, what is good, and what HaShem doth require of thee: only to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy G-d.

Again, this is the goal of true religion. The obvious fact that some people abuse religion and religious truth is a shame that saddens the heart of all who love God and seek His Will, but it changes nothing. Of such abusers of religion and humanity Master Y'shua says through the hand of John the Beloved:

Rev. 3:15 I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would thou wert cold or hot.
16 So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth.
17 Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked:
18 I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich; and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear; and anoint thine eyes with eyesalve, that thou mayest see.
19 As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten: be zealous therefore, and repent.

Such abuses do not reflect the goals and potentials of religion and religious faith. In the Gospels Master Y'shua refers to such people as whited sepulchres: which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men's bones, and of all uncleanness! Rather such abusers are called to repentance!

The answer to all such religious questions is found in this wisdom recorded in the Srimad Bhagavad Gita:

18:66: Abandoning all types of religious and moral duties take refuge in Me alone. I will liberate you from all inauspiciousness; do not grieve. (translation mine: http://www.allfaith.com/Religions/Hinduism/gita18.html)

There is nothing more important in life than one's relationship with God and one's spirituality. However simply believing what others teach merely because it is tradition is not enough. As the Buddha exhorts us:

"Believe nothing, o monks,
merely because you have been told it ...
or because it is traditional,
or because you yourselves have imagined it.

Do not believe what your teacher tells you
merely out of respect for the teacher.

But whatsoever, after due examination and analysis,
you find to be conducive to the good,
the benefit, the welfare of all beings -
that doctrine believe and cling to,
and take it as your guide."

And as Master Y'shua taught us:

Luke 11:9 And I say unto you, Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you.
10 For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened.
11 If a son shall ask bread of any of you that is a father, will he give him a stone? or if he ask a fish, will he for a fish give him a serpent?
12 Or if he shall ask an egg, will he offer him a scorpion?
13 If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children: how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him?

Its about personal spirituality not "religion." So what if some 2000-4000 year old texts sometimes contradict themselves? I'd be shocked if they didn't! That doesn't matter. Even from a traditional Christian perspective, the Bible has never "saved" anyone! Jesus does. The Bible merely points the way to salvation and spiritual development.

But by setting out to destroy a weaker person's faith we commit a great evil against them!

If we convince the first grader that reading doesn't matter because he/she is too slow at it and after all, Tom, Dick and Harry are not real people anyway, or that calculus is so much more important than basic arithmetic that there is no need to understand it, what good have we done the child? Instead we have seriously harmed the child! Rather than negate a person's Quest for Truth we do much better to encourage the person to go ever deeper, to learn more.

Someone may tell me that, "The Bible is God's infallible Word!" I say, "Great! Let's study it! How did we come to get such an amazing book? What does it teach? What does it say in the non-translated (Hebrew, Greek or Aramaic) texts of our interests? What culture did it arise in? Why does it say thus and such? Let's go deeper and deeper and deeper!"

Or again, "Jesus is God's sacrifice for our sins!"
I reply, "Let's praise God for such a kindness! What does this mean anyway? How do sacrifices work? How could his death attone for my sins? Let's dig into this and understand it more fully!"

You see? Seek and we will find.
Destroy faith and we will spiritually wither on the vine.

Hope this helps,
Feel free to write back anytime,
~John of AllFaith