The Jesus Of The Gospels Tuesday, September 4, 2012

The Jesus of the Gospels The Jesus of the Gospels is hardly the character that Christians like to present, eg. he used violence - John 2:l5 (and apparently encouraged it; before his arrest he told his disciples to buy a sword; this was used immediately afterwards - Luke 23:36,49-50; if he was the omniscient Son of God, he would have known this was to happen).

• His purpose was to break up families - Matthew l0:34-35, Luke 12:51-53. He taught the gospel was not available for certain races - Matthew l0:5-8, l5:24.

• He was ignorant of the Scriptures he quoted - Mark 2:26 (In fact the priest was Ahimelech, not Abiathar - see l Samuel 21:l,6).

• He was cruel to animals - Matthew 8:l-4 ('the offering' Jesus commanded was a bird being sacrificed - Leviticus l4:2-5), 8:28-34.

• He treated his mother with contempt - John 2:4, He suffered fits of temper, not justified by the situation - Matt 21:l8-l9, 23:l3-33 (In the John 7 outburst, in John 7:37, the Greek is 'to screech like a raven').

• He was hypocritical - Matthew 5:22 (Compare his action in Matthew 23:l7), Matthew 6:l4 (Compare Matthew l0:l4-l5), Matthew 7:l (Compare John 5:30, 8:26).

• He lacked sympathy for other people's suffering - Matthew 8:21-22. He rejected his own family - Matthew 12:46-50, Mark 3:32-35. He had contempt for other religions and their adherents - Matthew 12:30, 23:2-33, John 8:44,55.

• He deliberately taught in a way so people would not understand him (and therefore be saved from going to eternal hellfire)- Mark 4:9-l2. He encouraged people to desert their families - Matthew l9:29, Mark l0:29.

• He taught people to hate* their families - Luke l4:26 (*The Greek here means 'active ill-will' or 'persecuting spirit'). He taught that suffering was to show God's glory - John 9:l-3.

• He ignored a woman pleading for his help: only after she asked him three times did he condescend to help - Matthew l5:22-28 (Here he alludes to Gentiles as "dogs").

• He taught that ill-health and human suffering was the result of sin, or for the purpose of glorifying God - Mark 2:5,ll,l2, John 5:8-l4.

And furthermore, he clearly seemed to have thought that his second coming/the end of the world, ie. the final judgement (etc, etc) was only a short time away, eg. he told the high priest that he would see his return - Mark l4:61-62, he told three disciples that they would see his return - Matt l6:28, he told the disciples he would return before they had preached throughout Palestine - Matt l0:23.

Furthermore, when Jesus told his disciples about the end of the world (Mark l3:3-27), he told them that the generation living at that time (ca. 30 AD) would still be alive when "all these things", (ie. the Second Coming, the Final Judgement, the end of the world, etc, etc) took place (Mark l3:30). Despite saying all this, only seconds later he then told the disciples that no one - including himself - knew when the end would come (l3:32).

Also, he foretold that he would be buried for 3 days and 3 nights in Matthew 12:40 - but Friday evening (Mark l5:42-46) to before Sunday daybreak (John 20:l-2) is not 3 days and 3 nights. Mark 15:42 states he was buried after sundown on the Friday, ie. the sabbath (this is Saturday in Jewish reckoning - something quite impossible to have happened anyway).

The Gospels repeately say how Jesus' death etc 'fulfilled' the Old Test scriptures (eg. Luke 24:27), but nowhere in the Old Test does it say the messiah is to be killed, buried and resurrected after 3 days.

With regard to the end of the world etc, Jesus stated that there would be an "abominating sacrilege" (Matthew 24:l5, Mark l3:l4) which would cause a tribulation (Matt 24:l6-28, Mark l3:l5-23) and IMMEDIATELY after this (Matthew 24:29), he would return to usher in the Final Judgement (Matthew 24:29-31).

Now Luke has in the parallel passage, the "abominating sacrilege" as the Fall of Jerusalem (Luke 21:20; as can be seen by Luke 21:21-23, the author of Luke does equate "the abominating sacrilege" with Jerusalem's destruction). However, Jerusalem's destruction (particularly as described in Luke) occurred in 70 AD - isn't Jesus' return (which was supposed to occur "Immediately" afterwards), somewhat overdue ?

And its on a clown like this that Christians base all their hope - and expect others to do likewise!

[Source: HolySmoke.Org]