JESUS of NAZARETH—Just who was/is Jesus of Nazareth? Does Anyone know? Paul’s sidekick Mark, who wrote the first gospel gives us absolutely no clue except Jesus’ proclamation that he and the Father were one. Years later Matthew and Luke embellished Marks writings on both ends with remarkable contradiction of each other. John’s acolyte(s) some sixty years after Jesus’ death concocted a tale incorporating the notion that God and Jesus coexisted from all eternity, whilst at the same time implying that nothing else coexisted with them. We know from the writings of Professor Garry Wills in his book What Paul Meant, that Luke was a veritable liar and cannot be trusted. So just where does that leave us poor simpletons who are at the mercy of religion to tell us? From my perspective it leaves us in a deep, deep, dark dudgeon of deceit. And you, understandably, would question why I would say such a heretical thing.
When one traces the origins of the ‘one true religion’ of the time, Judaism, it becomes quite obvious that it was developed from multiple preconceived notions of mythology and astrology. The Zodiac developed by the Egyptians some fourteen thousand years ago, had become the foundation for essentially all religious belief. The Egyptians, Greeks and essentially all cultures had gods galore—each with its specific functions. The sun, moon and stars played the biggest role in the imaginative ideas they developed.
When the Jews came with the idea of a singular God who had created the entire universe, they indeed struck a ‘high note’. Not only did they give their God credit for creating everything, they actually developed a time-frame of sorts for its happening. In addition they surmised that in the beginning, all animal life was peaceful and benevolent—-even snakes could talk. They all co-existed in paradise.
However, observing their current plight at the time forced them to explain what happened—where did paradise go? Well, since woman was the ‘scourge’ creation, it became immediately fashionable to put the blame on her. So they conveniently developed the tale of Eve tempting Adam to break God’s rule, that is to sin—the fun was over—how sad.
To the unwary that story may sound like a suitable, appeasing explanation. However there is one little detail that was overlooked. We seem to forget that snakes could ‘talk’ and guess what—it was the snake who was the first sinner—the snake enticed Eve to sin. Where did the serpent come up with such a dastardly idea as to defy its God? Now isn’t that a startling turn of events—it wasn’t Eve’s fault after all. Who planted the ‘seed’ of defiance in the snakes brain—wouldn’t you like to know—I would.
The rather obvious answer to those ridiculous proposals and questions is nobody—none of it ever happened. The fictional Eve became the obvious scapegoat because women were then, and always have been considered something only slightly better than ‘pond scum’. So no one in his ‘right mind’ would question the fact that a woman caused all the trouble. Furthermore, everyone knew that snakes talked perfect Yiddish—didn’t you?
So you may say, what’s that got to do with Jesus of Nazareth? and I would say everything. When Jesus came along, He puzzled, startled, bewildered, and angered people. Everyone who knew him was aware that he was just a poor carpenters son—how could he be making such statements and proclamations. My answer to that very legitimate question stems from my definition of the essence of God. That definition shows clearly that God’s perfection precludes any possibility of physical miracles. Likewise it negates any possibility of Hell. God is Perfect Love and cannot possibly reject any part of his perfect creation. Likewise God’s perfect nature precludes any possibility of change, a necessity for physical miracles.
Jesus was a simple carpenter’s son, However, I am convinced that he was the most brilliant human to ever live. He was born of natural parents but his genius allowed him to see though the folly of the Jewish religion. The Jew’s God was an Overlord with a mighty whip. He sat on his throne and kept a keen eye on his creation which was separate from him—ever-ready to hurl punishment at violators. Jesus saw a completely different God—a God that permeated everything in existence—a God who could not possible be separated from his creation—nothing could ‘be’ without the inner presence of God.
That insight, of course, told Jesus that his own being and the Spirit of the Father were One. Knowing that the universe was universally evil by virtue of its selfishness told Jesus that atonement was mandatory in order for God to be Perfect Love. That realization sent a shock-wave through Jesus—that meant that since he was the only one with that knowledge, he had to be the scape-goat—he was the messiah—he had to pay the price.
The implications from Jesus’ insights were astonishing. Whereas the Jews considered death as the end of everything, Jesus’ realization on the other hand that everything was a mirror image of God meant that everything had an eternal existence just as its creator. After undoubtedly consulting with his cousin, John, he hastily set about attempting to recruit and educate a group to spread that good news (Gospel) to the entire world. Whether or not he was successful in that endeavor, we will never know—so corrupt is the written word we have.
In any event the Jews killed him by hanging him on a tree—-crucifixion which was reserved for traitors. From there we can only guess at what happened. The written word we have was copied from one remaining copy which was a copy of hundreds, maybe thousands of copies—that single copy was made some two hundred years after the original writing. We do know that from that time on dozens of ‘versions’ have appeared over the years. The noted Professor of Bible at North Carolina University, Dr. Bart Ehrman, shows that only %30 of the bible was written by its supposed author. Also as one example, he shows clearly that Jerome, the hermit, who despised women and sex, in the process of translating the bible from Greek to Latin, changed or eliminated any mention of a woman doing or saying anything ‘good’.
It seems clear that Jesus’ basic message was that God is love—his only command was love God with your all and love your neighbor a yourself. My definition of the essence of God (God is a perfect rational being) supports that ideation completely.
Both Jesus and Paul despised religion—they said that love must prevail. But when Constantine gave the ‘Bishops” a mandate to fashion a religion to their liking, they did just that. They fashioned a religion right out of the Jewish play-book—all about power, money and control. We have been shackled with it and its 33,000 variants since. And what has it gotten us—-perpetual turmoil.
So what’s the point?—it makes no difference—God loves us each equally—Jesus died for our iniquity—anything else is fairy tales.
I have written extensively about this subject in my two books Wilderness Cry and Peace in Spirituality—both books published by Covenant Books and available on line and from me if desired. I have attached press releases and short video trailers for each.
906242_Press Release for Wilderness Cry
Press Release for Peace in Spiritiality
The subject of prayer is one near and dear to my heart—as well it may and should be to all. How do you pray and why. Have you ever stopped to consider why you pray the way you do? I would suggest that literally everyone who prays has been preconditioned to pray a certain way and that most of those prayers are of contrition and petition—many, of course, make a swipe at thanksgiving. 
So dualism originated in the mythological thinking of the ancients and it persist today. There may be some non-dualist religions but I not aware of any—not at least in Christianity. I think that likely the Hindus and Buddhists were for the most part nondualists.
What does Christmas mean to you and why? I would vouch to say that for anyone even remotely indoctrinated in ‘Christianity’ of any type, it means a myth. And you, understandably shriek in horror at such blasphemy. And I say, “not so fast”. My intention is not to offend anyone—rather it is to plead to your sense of understanding.
So ,why did we have a universe in the first place? I’m certain Jesus pondered that question incessantly—when he discovered the answer, he was terrified. God, his father, your father, my father, must show and actually be ‘perfect love’. What greater ‘love object’ could the Father have than an entire universe of ‘evil’ which he, himself created. Why, then, was Jesus terrified? Because he realized that since he was the only likeness of God to know and understand that principle, he was the one who had to ‘pay the price’—and gloriously he did. God, in the likeness of Jesus, accepted all of the evil in the universe, in the grandest display of love possible—he gave his own life in atonement.
Now, back to the ‘horror story’. From a sound and irrefutable, scientific and philosophical standpoint, physical miracles are an absolute impossibility. Therefore the following pertains: (1) Jesus was/is real: (2)he was born of natural parents: (3) of necessity, he was a super-genius to see and recognize the nature of God and his creation: (4) once he concluded that he must die so the Father could be/exhibit his perfect love, he wanted desperately to tell the world the good news (gospel). So he set about his public ministry, working on the periphery attempting to educate twelve illiterates—it seems very doubtful to me that he succeeded: (5) in spite of his working and preaching in relative obscurity, his heretical teachings reached the ears of the Jewish authorities—he knew his days were numbered:(6) he went straight to the source—he made an onslaught on the temple—he turned over the moneychangers tables and called the some pretty nasty names while doing it: He then ate his last meal with his apostles, and while eating, he made one final desperate attempt to pierce their thick, prejudiced skulls—he told the that he and the Father are one just as they and the Father are one—he told them that the bread and wine they consumed were one with the Father, as was all of creation—it seems that most if not all of the didn’t understand–we have no certain way of knowing. Much of what was written was written by biased, superstitious people. Furthermore those writings have been altered extensively by other biased and superstitious people. (7) I believe without doubt that the ‘Jesus” story is basically true—its parameters are false.
SOCIALISM: how often in the history of the USA have we heard that term—in fact we are hearing and seeing it openly advocated by political candidates on a moment to moment basis. Essentially all of the ‘isms’ carry then same base brand—taking from the ‘haves’ and giving to the ‘have nots’. This is a political ploy as old as the hills. It appeals to many for two basic reasons. Number one, many ‘less fortunate’ folks are eager to get free stuff. Number two, many of those same people are envious of their more fortunate neighbors and selfishly desire to see them reduced to financial ruin—the foolish idea that it betters one’s situation to see his neighbor fail–envy at it’s best.
CONTRADICTION: the word itself mean a saying or statement that seems contrary to the reality or truth of another statement. Contradictions are a ‘dime a dozen’ in our everyday lives—may are readily resolved and many go totally unresolved. I want to address what seems to me do be a direct contradiction between Christian prayer and a direct quote from Luke’s Gospel.
If we are ever to have peace on this earth, each of us must come out of our ‘badger like’ cocoons, humbly accept that the Spirit of God is in us all, and indeed in all of creation. Not one of us is worthy of God’s Kingdom—it is by his singular acceptance that he has made us, and every grain of sand in the universe worthy. With that understanding, we could finally have peace—not until.
referring to—it was a common practice.
I am convinced that Jesus was the most brilliant human to ever live. In spite of being illiterate, He recognized many important clues about God. He saw that everything in this universe was evil by virtue of its selfishness. Without any scientific knowledge at all, to say nothing of ‘particle physics’, Jesus reasoned that the spirit of God was in everything. Yet everything was made perfect, and maintained perfect by a Perfect God.
PERFECT (5)-as stated before, God created all of the tiny energy particles which he has allowed to develop into a %100 evil universe by virtue of its selfishness. And you may ask in amazement and/or wonderment how or if that can possibly be. Selfishness, you may recall, is anything directed at self. Since we all have been imbued with the notion that selfishness is equilibrated with sin, we may easily overlook the fact that every living thing has many needs directed at self in order to survive. What society and or religion has dubbed sin equilibrates to extreme degrees of selfishness. Therein lies the eternal trap of judging your neighbor—“he doesn’t need that big house”; “just look at that $1000 dress she’s wearing. She thinks she is big stuff”.—and so on. Just where is the line between absolute basic needs and extreme selfishness. I submit to you that it is a matter of personal interpretation which in itself is a consequence of personality development. Just as no two gross physical entities are identical, neither are any two personalities—similar, yes; identical, no. All physical entities are built of the same identical quanta of energy. Similarly, all personalities are built out of each and every experience our being encounters. They begin with our basic genetic make-up and end at death. In between they are undergoing the gradual evolutionary process of change just as is the entire universe. Therefore, it is philosophically impossible for any two individuals to make the identical interpretation of any occurrence—similar, yes; identical, no. God knows that—he made it to be that way for a very specific reason—Love.
WILDERNESS CRY by Hilary L Hunt MD 