Monthly Archive for October, 2010

Gospel Reality Not Gospel Truth!

Published on October 31, 2010 in Daily Commentary. 0 Comments

Each person must come to their own opinions and conclusions about many things in life- the BIBLE is one of them. The Bible is sacred to me. The Bible is full of truth. However, the Bible is in no way inerrant, and the “Gospel Truth” is that each of them were written to a specific audience, in a very toxic environment.

One could get crucified by writing the wrong things!

The REALITY of the Gospels and all other New Testament works is that they suffered from two glaring, but needful defects.

1-Flattery of the Romans (want to keep your head?)
2-Vilification of the Jews (Paul as primary cheer leader)

Hopefully this doesn’t take much of a stretch of imagination, just a tweaking of your common sense. If Juan Williams thought that NPR’s censorship (getting fired) was bad, being burned (real fire) at the stake is a whole different approach. One of the reasons that the Book of Revelation is so hard to understand is that it was written in so much metaphor and allegory to keep the Romans from understanding what was being said lest the authorities figure it out and come knocking.

Remember when the Gospels were written!

Paul was a Herodian and he was converting Judaism from an antagonistic Roman enemy into a more amenable Hellenistic brand of Judaism to the soon-be-called Christianity. The Gospels were all written POST 70CE and the lessons of the total destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple were more than noted!

Thus more than being the Gospel Truth, the first four books of the New Testament are the Gospel Reality!

The Dark Decade

Published on October 30, 2010 in Daily Commentary. 0 Comments

Barack Obama has called the ten years before he took over as the LOST DECADE. This is obviously a political slam at the Republicans.

The first so-called DARK DECADE as I remember it is during the birth of Jesus. I am referring to the events that happened during the period from 6 B.C.E. to C.E. 4. This is the time of Herod and his death. You might also recall that this is the decade within which Jesus was born!

Biblical hermeneutics reminds us that the most important principle of “interpretation” is CONTEXT!

So, what was the context of the world and environment that Jesus entered? Very dark as he came into time of a major war and the oppressive environment of the hated HEROD! The war that Jewish scholars call The War of Varus was severe. It is the war that took place in Galilee, Judaea and Idumaea just after the death of Herod which started with the massacre of the 3000 Jewish worshippers in the temple at the Passover of 1 B.C.E.

The brutality was beyond imagination and Israel was looking for a Messiah more than ever!

Josephus stated that this war against the Jews which was directed by the governor of Syria, Quintilius Varus. Judea was governed by a THEOCRACY (Torah law). Today, America is concerned about another THEOCRACY; however, this one is a Muslim one and the law is Sharia! It was into the dark decade that Jesus came and experienced just the opposite of LOVE.

For him to LOVE, have compassion for his enemies, and forgive as we’re told he did would cause many to see him as God. Hey, that would even work in today’s world. Why don’t we give it a try?

Paul Interprets Jesus!

Published on October 29, 2010 in Daily Commentary. 0 Comments

Do you think it not strange that Paul is the founder of Christianity and yet most think that Jesus was?

How is it that the founder of Christianity put words in the mouth of Jesus and created a whole religion around a man that he never knew? How is it that Paul came up with the ideas that he did about God which go entirely against Judaism? For me the answer is simple.

>Jesus was a Jew
>Paul was a Herodian!

Sometimes simplification helps- KISS!

While Paul was a Jew, it was nominally so. Don’t let the little insertion that he studied under Gamaliel take you further than it should. Remember, he was also a persecutor of the followers of Jesus! Paul was also a Roman citizen. Were it not for the fact that he was a Roman citizen, his attempted murder of James (see the commentary the day before today) would have seen him stoned to death by true Jews!

More importantly Paul was a Herodian!

In other words, Paul was of the “in group”, he was a member of the RULING family of Rome and a long-term friend of Rome. And who was Rome’s big enemy? Can you say Jews? Is there any wonder Paul took the life and principles of Jesus in a new direction? Let’s just use Paul’s own words, “Greet those who belong to the household of Aristobulus, greet the Herodian my relative.” (Romans 16:10-11).

Does this not explain Paul’s comfortable status while imprisoned for two years at Caesarea at the behest of Roman governor, Felix (Acts 24:1-27)?

And what about this Drusilla (Acts 8:9)? She was a loyal follower of Paul as he mentions. They were both relatives of King Agrippa II, born in highly privileged positions. I am not saying that Paul wasn’t a tent-maker, but I am saying that it seems strange that one so well-connected needed such a job?

Myth maybe? Who knows!

This I do know. Paul is not, was not, whom most Christians have elevated him to be. But then, neither was Jesus God, born of a virgin. So, maybe the only thing we really need to rely upon, be, and do……….. is LOVE!

Attempted Murder?

Published on October 28, 2010 in Daily Commentary. 1 Comment

To those who only accept the Bible as the “Gospel truth” what I am about to say will surely be described as heretical, insane, and a whole lot worse.

When someone takes a position that’s not “Biblical”, or even raises a question about something that’s not in the Bible but might put Biblical history in question (as though the Bible is a history book no less!), IT’S NOT ACCEPTABLE. If there’s a VERSE in the Bible that says “A” and there are dozens of secular historians, even religious historians, who say “B”, then they are all wrong.

Only the Bible is right and all other writings are false! If you take that stance, we’ll lovingly disagree.

I said all of the above because one of the GREATLY camouflaged events in history is that of the disagreements between Paul and James. It’s there in almost every book written by James, but since he was the brother of Jesus, one had to tread lightly. The main author of Luke and Acts of the Apostles (Luke), comes the closest to revealing the attempted murder of James (by Paul), but what he leaves out, others explicitly state.

History records that angry Paul threw James down the temple steps breaking his legs.

Say WHAT?

The event is recorded in many works and writers including the “Psuedo-Clementine Recognitions” as well as in the “Anabathmoi Jacobou” (The Ascent of Jacob). Modern day Jewish writer Robert Eisenman details the event from several sources in his book, “James, The Brother of Jesus”.

Luke tip-toes around the event in Acts 23.

Why would there be such a great need for Roman protection from the Jews requiring such a large military escort of 200 soldiers, 70 calvarymen, and 200 spearmen? Reason number one is because of his crime and reason number two is because Paul was a Herodian. I’ll write on that tomorrow.

Until then……….LOVE, don’t HATE!

The Deification Of Jesus

Published on October 27, 2010 in Daily Commentary. 0 Comments

I am a follower of Jesus precisely because he WAS NOT GOD, isn’t God, nor the second person of the trinity.

Therefore it would follow that I am not what would be called a “mainstream Christian- an orthodox Christian”, but a Christian nonetheless. How difficult WORDS are when w try to make them fit our thinking, concepts, and views of life. Life is about LIVING & LOVING. Religion is about LAWS & LEGALISM! I’ve been there (bowing at the altar of denominationalism and religiosity) and done that. It no longer appeals to me and as I read the history of Jesus, it didn’t appeal to him either.

Read Matthew 23 for a bit of confirmation.

Memo to the truth seekers- Jesus was a JEW! The last thing he would have thought was that he was God! Think it not strange that Paul had his life threatened so often because he took Jesus and turned him in to God. And in the Jewish world, in the Diaspora, that was tantamount to being stoned! However, in Paul’s Gentile-Roman-Hellenistic world deifying individuals was a normal, common!

Marilyn Hopkins wrote, “The deification of humans was agreeable to current heathen notions, as the history of the Roman Empire confirms. Therefore, the obvious inference is that the deification of Jesus was an intrusion from Gentile or heretical sources and not fundamental to the integrity of Jesus’ message.”

Jesus didn’t say make me a god, he simply said FOLLOW ME!

When we are loving, merciful, and forgiving, we are FOLLOWING JESUS!

Birth of Christianity

Published on October 26, 2010 in Daily Commentary. 3 Comments

As a fresh convert to Christianity (age 17), I had no clue as to what I was buying in to, I was just responding to my heart- or so I remember.

One of the many questions that I had early on was why the Bible was about TWO RELIGIONS? I had no clue as to who Marcion was back then, but I now imagine he was laboring under some of the same questions when he saw two gods: the god of the Old Testament and the god of the New Testament. I was to later come to agree with my superiors that Christianity was founded at Pentecost (33CE or thereabouts?).

I now no longer see that to be the case.

James the Just took the baton that Jesus handed him and advanced Torah directed, Essene mission, Ebionite cultured, and Jesus Jewish brand of Christianity. Of course it was really Judaism with a more revolutionary social bent to it. Then along came Paul who had a totally different view of what Christianity should look like. The Pauline camp of the West took on the James, Peter, and John camp of the East.

So when was Christianity born? My answer is somewhere around 66-70CE. And, here is a description of that birth by Tim Wallace-Murphy.

“The holy city was a smoking charnel house, the temple destroyed, the streets, alleyways, and underground passages choked with putrefying corpses, and the city limits marked by a ring of unfortunates crucified after their failed attempts to escape. Thousands of survivors were paraded in chains through the streets of Rome behind the triumphal procession of the conquerors bearing the treasures of the temple, commemorating the triumph of Rome and the humiliation of the Jews. The parade finished with the ritual execution of the leaders.”

Thus, James, John, Peter, and the apostles of Jesus LOST!

Paul and his brand of Christianity, more closely aligned with Rome was to never be challenged. Yes, it would take another 311 years (Council of Constantinople) and a lot of changes to the “new and evolving Christianity”, but that which Jesus and his apostles had envisioned was dead!

History witnesses to the act that after the fall of Jerusalem and Masada, a new form of Christianity would arise.

I would submit that it’s past time for yet another “form of Christianity” to ARISE! Let’s call it the “Follow me Jesus” form, the unconditional love and intimacy with Abba Father brand!

Single Or Married?

Published on October 25, 2010 in Daily Commentary. 0 Comments

The sayings go like this.

>I’ve been rich and I have been poor: I prefer rich.
>I’ve been single and I have been married: I prefer marriage.

The Catholic tradition of celibate priests has had more than a handful of problems. For some priests (like Richard Rohr) it has worked, and for the others that you read about in lawsuits, it hasn’t. However, there is that BIGGIE for Christianity- the celibacy of Jesus. What has crept into the general religious psyche, unknowingly I think, is that for Jesus to BE whom the church has said that he is, he’d have to be SINGLE!
What messes our egos pull us in to and none to our benefit either.

Christians and Catholics were in an uproar over Dan Browns, The Da Vinci Code in that the novel and movie provoked a popular interest in speculation concerning the Holy Grail legend and Magdalene’s role in the history of Christianity. God forbid that Jesus was married!

And why is that such a big deal, or does it go back to the Jesus really wasn’t human paradigm- he was God?

How about a look at some facts, history, realities along this area?

1-Jesus was a Jew and marriage wasn’t a matter of choice!
2-There’s no mention in the entire Bible that Jesus was NOT married!
3-Jesus was a rabbi and they were commanded to be married!
4-The John story of the Wedding Feast has all the nuances of it being Jesus’ wedding.
5-The John 11 story where Mary waited in the house while Martha greeted Jesus has all the subtleties of the role of a wife.
6-The Luke 10 story of Mary sitting at the feet of Jesus was Jewish custom.

I’m not trying to PROVE that Jesus married Mary Magdalene contrary to much religious attempts to PROVE that he wasn’t married. However, Catholic theologian, Margaret Starbird (The Woman With The Alabaster Jar), and thousands (yes thousands) of others who have made in-depth studies of secular as well as religious history, have come to that conclusion that Jesus and Mary were indeed married.

Was Jesus’s two and a half year old son James taken to King Abgar for safekeeping by his twin, Judas Thomas Didymous for safe keeping? Was pregnant Mary Magdalene given refuge in Egypt where she gave birth to Sarah and then later moved to Rennes-le-Chateau in southern France. Not just a few historians say that’s the case. It’s interesting, but as unprovable as it is provable.

Come to think of it though, why would a man so full of UNCONDITIONAL LOVE…..NOT be married?

Liar, Betrayer, & False Prophet?

Published on October 24, 2010 in Daily Commentary. 0 Comments

Now who in the world could this person be? Those are pretty strong words indeed.

What sincere and dedicated Christian could attribute those words to the very one person to whom goes most of the credit for writing the New Testament. Yep, I’m talking about Paul, the apostle, or at least Paul goes to great pains to show that he was indeed the “most chief apostle”?

Paul begs the question I Corinthians 9:1, “Am I not an apostle“? In I Corinthians 15:9, Paul asks, “Don’t I deserve to be called an apostle“? Me thinks he asks too much, and why?

Is Paul the one to whom the Dead Sea Scrolls speak of as the LIAR? Isn’t Paul the one to whom James, John, and Peter accused of lying to them about what he had been preaching to the Gentiles: also accusing him of betraying the teachings of Moses and forsaking the Torah. Did not the Roman invasion, the murder of James, and the fall of Jerusalem enshrine Paul as the Father of Christianity? Otherwise, Paul would have been a footnote in history.

Sometimes history has to tweaked a bit- for obvious (and not so obvious) reasons.

Paul’s attempted murder of James (he only received two broken legs from being thrown down the temple steps by Paul) nearly cost him his own life

Don’t let the later redactions, the cow-towing to Rome, and the soft peddling of the disagreements between Paul and the First Christian Church of Jerusalem be so easily swept under the rug. Had it not also been because of Paul’s Roman citizenship, he would have been stoned to death by Jesus’ brother and the “three pillars of Jerusalem”!

That Paul took the teachings of Jesus in a new direction isn’t all bad, but let’s be honest about what the TRUTH is because without it (John 8:32) we’ll never be FREE!

Peter Wasn’t Papa Pope!

Published on October 23, 2010 in Daily Commentary. 0 Comments

I can still remember my early questions of my first pastor. The question was how the Catholics (I was a Baptist) decided who got to have the final say, who got to be Pope. If my memory serves me correctly, the answer was something along the lines of “black smoke up the chimney” sort of answer when I was asking about the history- how it got started.

He then took me to Matthew 16:15-18 (KJV or course).

“Jesus saith unto them, But whom say ye that I am? Simon Peter answered and said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. And Jesus answered and said unto him, Blessed art thou, Simon Barjona: for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven. And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.”

That’s it? Upon this rock I will build my church, meaning Peter?

Excuse me while we look at the historical record!

1-Jesus handed the BATON to his brother JAMES “the righteous”, not Peter!
2-Is there any question as to why the Catholic Church marginalizes James (the Lesser)and has Jesus with no brothers?
3-Most historians doubt that Peter ever set foot in Rome.
4-There was no “Pope” in the first couple hundred years, just Bishops and nowhere is there a record of Peter being such.
5-Is there any wonder why the Catholic hierarchy kicked the Gospel of Thomas out the back door? Maybe the Nag Hammdi find in 1945 tells us why as we find Jesus quoted as saying to Thomas, “Wherever you are, you are to go to James the righteous for whose sake heaven and earth came into being.”
6-In Pseudo Clementine Recognitions we find James being the leader, not Peter.
7-Christian historian Epiphanius wrote, “James with the first to whom the Lord entrusted his throne on earth.
8-Then of course me might use the BIBLE as a proof text, “James is the first Bishop of Jerusalem (Acts 12:15) and three chapters later James is making the decisive decisions between Paul and Peter, etc.

But of course what really matters is LOVE! But then if you want to be FREE (John 8:32), maybe we should be following the TRUTH. Think maybe?

Free To Be

Published on October 22, 2010 in Sermon Podcasts. 0 Comments

“Just when you learn how to play basketball like a real pro, your body leaves you”, Hakeem Olajuwon. It seems that works in life as well. Just when you figure out how to
live life, life doesn’t have much tenure left on it.

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