Christian Churches and Christians seem to spend an enormous amount of time in attacking and criticizing each other's attempts at Christian Worship. In addition, non-Christians, specifically Muslims and Jews, present even harsher criticisms of Christianity because of a perception that Christians apparently Worship more than One God! (Even many Christians seem to be confused by this, Worshipping Jesus as the Son of God and then the Father as though an entirely different entity!) The following presentation of Christianity is intended to be totally and perfectly accurate at presenting all Christian beliefs, while also addressing such problems among men's understandings. It is presented as a possible improvement toward a better and more complete, and actually simpler, understanding of the many subjects addressed by Christian Theology.
There has always been a somewhat self-centered view of why Jesus came to enter human society, that it was absolutely and entirely for a single purpose, for our benefit. In this regard, there is a general assumption that the human Jesus "intentionally concealed" His real Identity from the humans around Him, that He was always actually fully aware of Who He was. The Bible texts seem to make that very unlikely. This presentation suggests that the One Lord of the Universe had previously experienced so many, many disappointments by (Old Testament) Jews regarding His Commandments and His expectations, that the Lord actually had a Personal motivation to join human society! In the same way that some historical kings have donned beggar's clothing to be able to mingle with their own peasants, without having everyone behave in unusual ways, it seems clear that the Lord had great reason to want to "Personally experience a truly human lifetime, from Birth to Death", in order to better understand why people never seemed to appreciate what He did for them! With this added perspective, many parts of the Bible, and Christianity, become far clearer.
For the record, scholars know that the average human lifetime in Jesus' era was around 35 years, and it actually only increased to 37 years by 1800 AD and to 41 years by 1900 AD. It seems NOT a coincidence that Jesus spent around 33 or 34 years as a human, including experiencing both birth and death! He DID therefore experience an ENTIRE human lifetime!
This is presented here with invitation for constructive criticism and comment.
Isa. 45:5 I [am] the LORD, and [there is] none else, [there is] no God
besides me: I girded thee, though thou hast not known me:
Isa. 45:22 Look to me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth: for
I [am] God, and [there is] none else.
1Cor. 8:4 Therefore as concerning the eating of those things that are
offered in sacrifice to idols, we know that an idol [is] nothing
in the world, and that [there is] no other God but one.
Deut. 6:4 Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God [is] one LORD:
John 1:1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and
the Word was God.
Gen. 1:1 In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.
Psa. 89:11 The heavens [are] thine, the earth also [is] thine: [as for]
the world and all it containeth, thou hast founded them. {the
fulness: or, all it containeth}
Col. 1:16 For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and
that are upon earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones, or
dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created
by him, and for him:
17 And he is before all things, and by him all things consist.
Two interesting points might be made here.
Christians ASSUME that Genesis 1:26 refers to a PHYSICAL resemblance of humans with God, but there is no actual evidence that it actually implies that! Actually, think about it! Unless God Lives somewhere where He would have to eat food, He might not need a MOUTH at all! And even if He Lived somewhere where there was air which He had to breathe (which seems highly unlikely for an All-Powerful Being), exactly WHO would He ever talk to regarding needing a mouth? So God is not likely to need or therefore have either a nose or a mouth.
And what would He need with legs, since it seems unlikely that an All-Powerful Being would never need to walk anywhere? Or arms, as He would likely have far better ways of moving objects than having to pick them up and carry them? So, whatever physical appearance God might have, many of OUR characteristics seem totally unnecessary! Humanity has certainly Anthropomorphized God into Someone who resembles US! And THAT was certainly done based on the poor translation of Genesis 1:26.
But the more correct English translation of those four Ancient Hebrew words indicates that we resemble God. But when those words are carefully examined, the actual meaning is slightly different. Instead, it seems far more logical that Genesis 1:26 refers to the fact that God installed a SOUL in Adam, an addition that DID cause humans to resemble God in a special way and to be unique among His Creatures. (A Soul happens to be something that modern science cannot detect or study, and so therefore cannot have any opinion about, positive or negative.) This interpretation then permits the possibility of CREATURES that happened to pre-date Adam but physically resembled him, except for not having a Soul. This would then explain the existence of the beings that Cain went to live with, and the beings that eventually caused the need for the Flood. This also permits an understanding where man IS physically related to animals, sharing DNA and blood and much more, but where mankind is absolutely unique as per Genesis 1:26, in having Souls.
(A common Protestant belief, Original Sin)
Adam and Eve soon violated the terms of this Covenant.
This violation is referred to as Original Sin.
The Lord applied Judgment to Adam and Eve for that violation, and convicted
them and the Punishment was principally a sentence that would apply
to them and all of their descendants (us) regarding no longer being
able to live forever or to be Saved or reach Heaven, except by His
choosing such in individual cases by His Divine Grace. No human could
possibly ever merit Salvation or Heaven on his or her own merits, due
to Original Sin.
Abraham was the first individual to clearly demonstrate a deep Devotion to the One True Lord, by his willingness to sacrifice his own son because of the request of the Lord.
The earliest Covenant actually recorded in the Old Testament occurs in Genesis 15:12-21, in which the Lord pledges himself unconditionally to grant the land of Palestine to Abraham's descendants. This was because of Abraham's demonstration of his Devotion to the Lord, and descendants of Abraham were forever to be favored by the Lord. Descendants of Abraham were known as Semites, because all were descendants of Noah's son Shem. (Most) descendants of Abraham's son Isaac became known as Israelites (because Isaac's son Jacob became known as Israel), and some of them later became known as Jews (due to his grandson Judah). (Some) descendants of Abraham's son Ismail (by Abraham's second wife, Sarah's handmaiden Hagar) began calling themselves Muslims around 2,000 years later. All are direct descendants of Abraham.
Around 700 years after Abraham, the favored people of the Lord were generally behaving very badly, and the Lord decided to provide Moses (around 1275 BC) with stone tablets with Ten Commandments on them which He wanted people to follow. Also, He provided Moses with the words of the First Five Books of the Bible, also known as the Pentateuch.
Exodus 24:7 relates that Moses took "the book of the covenant, and read it in the hearing of the people; and they said, 'All that the Lord has spoken we will do, and we will be obedient.'" Contemporary scholars believe that "the book of the covenant" includes the section in Exodus from 20:23 through 23:33.
Almost immediately, people still behaved badly, including Moses' brother Aaron, and Moses became frustrated and upset and he broke the tablets. The Lord then provided Moses with a second set of them.
After all, The Old Testament of the Bible describes many examples of where people, Jews, often broke the Covenants and Commandments of the Lord.
Even with the Commandments and the Covenants, and many incidents where the Lord acted to help his favored people, many of those people seemed to continue to ignore His Commandments and His desires. No matter how Considerate the Lord was with people, they invariably seemed to act to disappoint Him.
It must have appeared to the Lord that we humans were beyond any help! No matter what He had done for us, we invariably ignored and wasted the potential benefits.
This decision involved several complications, which He had to account for. He could certainly not leave the Universe unattended for an entire human lifetime, so He applied His unlimited powers to enable Him to "be in two places at the same time". Therefore, He was able to remain in Heaven, watching out over the entire Universe, while simultaneously experiencing a human lifetime. Christians distinguish these Two as the Father and the Son, although Both were actually simply the One True Lord.
He realized that He would never be able to actually have human experiences if anyone realized that he had His Divine powers and abilities. Therefore, He chose to give His human existence a sort of "amnesia" regarding His actual capabilities. In Philippians 2:7, the Lord is spoken of as having "emptied Himself" (RSV) (Greek word kenoo, Strongs word 2758) and taken human form. Note that this also implies that He already Existed (called Pre-Existence of Christ) and that He had simply chosen to adopt the appearance of a human. John 1:14 also referred to the same as the Word becoming flesh. Regarding that Pre-Existence, of having already been Alive before even the birth of Mary, John 3 and 6 and 8 include many Verses where Jesus said precisely that, that He had come down from Heaven. Also, the Nicene Creed also includes the exact same statement, again making clear that Jesus already Existed in Heaven well before the Birth Narrative or even before Mary had been born.
Therefore, since He had intentionally given Himself that sort of amnesia, even though He actually always could have performed any Miracles He might have wished, He was not actually aware that He had that ability. In fact, the Bible specifically indicates this in many places. For example, in John 5:19 Then answered Jesus and said to them, Verily, verily, I say to you, The Son can do nothing by himself. As a result of this apparent attitude by Jesus, whenever He found the need for a Miracle, He always "asked His Heavenly Father" to perform that Miracle, without realizing that He didn't actually need to do that and also not realizing that He was essentially "talking to Himself" in such requests.
He also realized that, in order to experience a total human lifetime, He needed to not have His Divine "indestructibility" and "invulnerability to injury and pain and suffering". As a result, His human existence was in every possible sense, "truly human". However, His actual being was still that of the One True Lord of the Universe, so at all moments it could also be said that He was "truly Divine".
These decisions therefore enabled the One True God of the Universe to be able to first join human society without needing to attract undue attention by a Miracle, through a relatively normal appearing Birth. Then, He was able to experience an entire fully human lifetime, for His own elucidation regarding why people had constantly ignored and violated what He had asked and required of them. At the same time, by spending a lifetime in intimate contact with people, He would have a chance to provide many Lessons in a far more Personal way than He had ever been able to do before.
For the record, at that time in human history, the average human lifetime was around 34 or 35 years, and we believe that Jesus was around 33 years old when He was Crucified. That permitted the Lord to experience virtually all aspects of a human lifetime. And more specifically, NOT the lifetime of a person in a wealthy or powerful family, but instead the lifetime of someone with very little material possessions, where the Lord could truly Learn how hard human existence sometimes is.
There is another reason why He needed to give His human existence a type of amnesia. Imagine any small child who could seem to "perform Miracles". It seems clear that the Child Jesus would have performed Miracles to cure serious ailments of local people, had He realized that He could actually have done that. Such a child would very quickly become known, and very shortly after any such demonstration of a Miracle, such a child would forever and constantly be followed around by hundreds of people, each wanting Miracles for themselves. Such a situation might not affect His ability to provide Lessons for people, but it would entirely eliminate any chance that He might have of experiencing a "normal human lifetime". Therefore, for His own purposes, it was critically important that His human existence have no knowledge of His actually identity as the One True Lord of the Universe, or of His ability to ever do any Miracles Himself.
This situation explains the many Scriptures in the New Testament where Jesus "asked the Father" for Guidance or for Miracles, because He actually didn't realize that He could have done all those things Himself! It also explains how the Lord could have proceeded through an entire childhood without performing any Miracles to either entertain His friends or to aid people in serious need. He just didn't know that He could! That was NECESSARY to avoid drawing undue attention to Himself.
Keeping in mind that the One True Lord Existed before Creation, and that therefore essentially all modern Theologians accept that Jesus Pre-Existed Mary (as the One True Lord), this Pre-Existent Lord then had one major issue to resolve regarding how He might join human society. He certainly could have simply performed a Miracle and "appeared". However, then, people would have either witnessed such a Miracle or been puzzled enough to always wonder how and where He came from. Therefore, He decided to enter human society in a rather standard way, by "being Born". This decision had the bonus for the Lord in then also being able to experience what life as a baby and as a child were like, things that He might not have been able to experience had He joined human society in any other way as an adult.
Such insights that He obtained as a baby and as a child figure to have aided His Compassion toward all babies and children ever after.
He therefore chose Mary to participate in His being Born. He needed a somewhat unique situation, of a girl/woman who was still "pure", a virgin, but who was able to be associated with a man (Joseph) such that she would not be seen as being a prostitute who had an illegitimate child out of wedlock. In this view, Joseph had absolutely nothing to do with this except regarding credibility among the local people, and of demonstrating a true Devotion to the Lord to agree to this peculiar situation. And even Mary may have therefore been less of an active participant than of being a sort of tool for God to accomplish something He had chosen to do, of having a conventional Birth to join human society. We are here noting that Joseph and Mary never seem to have participated in Jesus' religious development, and indeed they were surprised at His interests and abilities at the Temple at age 12 (Luke 2). By the time of Jesus' Public Ministry, Mary was a very old woman (certainly nearing 50, when the average human lifetime was around 35), and the Bible gives no indication that she participated in any of Jesus' decisions or activities then, either. This is not to say that Mary was not extremely important and worthy of great admiration and respect. Just the fact that the Lord chose Mary uniquely says an enormous amount about her quality!
Continuing these thoughts regarding the perspective of Jesus, Who truly was the One True Lord of the Universe, but did not realize it, many Scriptures in the New Testament make much more sense. When Jesus was in stress and need of Guidance, or when Jesus felt that a Miracle was needed for some good cause, it really is logical that Jesus would have "asked the Father" for such things. Obviously, had He realized Who He was, none of that would have been necessary! Jesus clearly realized that He was "unusual" and clearly somehow closely associated with the One True Lord, and His personal conclusion was that He was the Son of the Lord. After all, His unusual Birth seemed to indicate that He was the son of Mary and also the Son of the Lord. It is hard to see how Jesus could have come to any other conclusion than that He was the Son of the Lord. No one on Earth, including Jesus Himself, could have possibly imagined that He was actually the One True Lord of the entire Universe!
Therefore, Jesus came to the habit of considering Himself, and of referring to Himself, as the Son of the Lord. Later Christians were extremely confused by such references, assuming that Jesus KNEW all such things, and that if He said it, it must be an indisputable fact. Therefore many early Christian heresies developed regarding trying to figure out how the First Commandment (there is but One True Lord) could be compatible with Jesus' references to the Father. There appeared to be really obvious contradictions if there was to be any claim that Jesus was actually Lord. The comments above provide a clear explanation for how all that could have happened. They also clear up many other heresies that developed in the Church over the centuries. Was Jesus "fully human"? Clearly He was, without the slightest doubt, by His prior choice of Kenosis, emptying Himself of all knowledge of His actual Nature and capabilities. Was Jesus "fully Divine"? Clearly He was, without the slightest doubt, because at all times, He was always truly the One True Lord of the Universe (even if He didn't realize it at the time). How many Gods are there? Without any doubt, One True Lord! Because of Jesus' effects of Kenosis, He did not realize that and even He referred to the Father as though He was a distinct Person. Had Jesus not been under the effects of Kenosis, He certainly would never have made such (actually slightly incorrect) statements, which means there would never have been any later heresies regarding whether Jesus was merely an "adopted human, totally mortal" or "always totally Divine, and therefore incapable of experiencing pain and suffering". In fact, all of the reasons that the later Trinity concept was developed hundreds of years later never would have even existed! Everyone would have clearly realized that Jesus truly WAS the One True Lord of the Universe! However, such a concept as that would definitely be hard for any fellow humans to swallow, or probably even for Jesus to actually believe. After all, if a Being was truly the One True Lord of the Universe, how could He be desperately hungry, feel the pain of scourging, feel suffering, and experience all the other shortcomings of human existence? No one would have accepted that!
All of the rest of Christianity remains as it always has been understood. The commonly known portion of the Lord's spending time with humans is that He was then able to initiate the Covenant of Grace bestowed on men in their sinful condition with the promise that, in spite of their inability to keep any of the commandments of the Lord. Out of sheer Grace He forgives their sin and accepts them as his children through the merits of the Lord Jesus Christ, on the single condition of Faith.
In the New Covenant, the Covenant of Grace, man is placed in right relationship to God through Christ (Heb. 7:22; 8:6-13; 2Cor. 3:6-18).
Had anyone at the time thought that the actual Lord of the Universe was walking around dusty roads in the desert for 33 years, there would have been endless concerns regarding "who was watching the Universe" and there would certainly have been universal agreement that such a possibility could not be. Unless a person could accept and comprehend that God had the ability of being in two places at the same time, a difficult concept, it seems unimaginable that many or any people would accept that explanation. Therefore, for extremely practical reasons, it was important that Jesus be seen as Son of God and not God Himself, even though that was actually the case.
The discussion above shows that there is no actual distinction between these two positions; that references to Both are actually referring to the very same One True God. Therefore, the central reason for why the Catholic and Orthodox Churches have fought each other for over a thousand years is actually not even an actual fact. They might be able to come into full Communion regarding Christianity!
The development of the Trinity concept may have temporarily provided an explanation for the issue at hand, but it is necessarily incredibly complex and intricate, and few people through history, including Clergy and Theologians, claim to have fully comprehended all of its implications.
The presentation described above really eliminates the need for the complexity of the Trinity concept. The Being who spent 33 years walking the Earth was actually and totally the One True God of the Universe. But that fact was intentionally not noticeable to anyone who met Him, who perceived Him as a wondrous human!
First, some "homework"! Imagine that you are given an assignment, to write an essay of a few pages. I give you a list of 14 various sports: Baseball, football, soccer, tennis, golf, basketball, rugby, cricket, field hockey, ice hockey, archery, gymnastics, track and field, and wrestling. You are to write a brief essay indicating the "history" of sports (no computer or encyclopedia or reference books allowed!) The specific point is that you will have to put those 14 sports in some sort of order, a sequence over time. Which one do you think was first? You have 14 choices to pick from. Then, which was second? You have 13 left to pick from, so you already have 182 different possible storylines for just the first two!
It turns out that you have a total of 14!, what is called 14-factorial possible sequences to choose from. That happens to be over 87,000,000,000 possible sequences. So you have quite a chore ahead of you, and you must realize that, without the added help of a computer or an encyclopedia, the chance that you get the sequence exactly right is not likely to be much better than one in 80 billion!
Yes, you might be able to make educated guesses about some. And you may even have read books or seen programs that informed you of when some of those sports were developed. I would personally guess that ice hockey was probably not in ancient times, because I am not sure they had ways of smoothing ice enough or maybe even making ice skates. So I would probably put that one in the lower half of my list. But do you see the problem?
How good a guesser would you have to be to get the sequence EXACTLY correct? You should see here that you would have to be impossibly good at guessing! There is NO chance that you could even come close to getting the sequence right. To even get one or two in the exact correct place in the sequence would be quite an accomplishment. (Try it!)
What does this have to do with Christianity or the Bible?
Roughly 3,300 years ago, the text of Genesis 1 was composed (first orally presented by Moses around 1275 BC). It was first actually written down around 3,100 years ago (after actual written languages were invented). That short Chapter mentions what I see to be 14 distinct events. They are presented in a specific order, with Light being the first, and mankind being the fourteenth. The appearance of fishes and trees and animals and land are all briefly mentioned, but they are mentioned in a specific SEQUENCE. The paragraphs above are to suggest that NO ancient human being could have come remotely close to being able to get those 14 events in the actual correct sequence. He also would have had over 80,000,000,000 possible sequences to select from. To even get just the first one right, Light, would have already been a one-in-fourteen chance. On top of that, that particular choice seems a really peculiar one! If an ancient human had composed a "fake" Genesis, would he really have claimed that Light came first? Would such a choice help his credibility regarding anyone actually believing his story? It seems unlikely.
Plants before any animals. Fishes before any land animals. Everything before mankind (where man would therefore not be able to witness any of it). Quite a few amazing choices, IF the story was made up by some ancient human!
It turns out that ONLY during the most recent hundred years, science has advanced to the point of being able to determine when those various events occurred. And, amazingly, it has been discovered that countless stars existed far before the Earth ever formed! Even the Sun started generating light before the Earth was fully formed! Just within the last 100 years, science has discovered that light really was first!
And, of the events mentioned in Genesis 1, in the past 50 years, science has discovered that the very last of them was definitely humans. In fact, the findings of modern science in the past hundred years has established a sequence of those 14 events that is exactly the same as what Genesis 1 presented 3,300 years ago! Wow! (There is one very minor discrepancy, the appearance of birds is one step different in the two sequences, and otherwise they are absolutely identical!)
So, either an ancient human composed Genesis 1 by beating astronomical odds of many billions to one, or he had Help in composing it! Only God could have provided such help! Even as recently as 150 years ago, no human could have determined that sequence of events! I was educated as a Nuclear Physicist, a scientist, and this sort of statistical evidence is considered to be overwhelming PROOF in a scientific perspective! No ancient human COULD have composed Genesis 1, with even remotely the correct historical sequence; therefore it really represents absolute proof that God both Exists and that He provided the data for that ancient source! There really is no other option available, because the odds are just too ridiculously high against!
Actually, the fact that modern science has managed to determine the times of those events to CONFIRM the sequence of Genesis 1 also seems to suggest that Christian belief and modern science are not only compatible, but they even confirm each other!
Now, this does NOT prove that the rest of the Bible was Inspired by God, true. But the fact that Genesis 1 definitely was, seems to be impressive evidence that He cared enough about mankind to provide accurate information there. I personally am willing to extrapolate this to assume that the rest of the Bible was also Inspired by God. It is obviously an individual choice for each person about that. Christianity is based on Faith, of a Trust in things that are unknowable, and I have no problem with that, especially with this evidence that God must certainly have provided the information for Genesis 1.
I note something else. It appears that God was EXTREMELY careful in presenting truly accurate data regarding the sequence of when those events occurred, even though that information has never been very important to us. Doesn't it seem likely that He would have been even MORE careful to make sure that each of the many Lessons in the Bible were presented exactly as He wanted them to be? For the Christians who feel that they are free to pick and choose what parts of the Bible to accept and which parts they could ignore, this seems to me to suggest that we really need to consider it ALL to be quite valid and accurate and true!
We talk about When Jesus Returns. We actually mean, when the Lord Returns. Isn't that the same as "When the Lord has pervaded the world's people?"
OK. During just the most recent 100 years or so, scientists have discovered that our human bodies are made up of billions and trillions of INDIVIDUAL cells. We now know the same is true of all other animals and plants (except for the tiniest microscopic ones.)
What if THAT INSIGHT in science is actually intended by the Lord to help us better understand what is to come? Specifically, what if "the Holy Spirit" might actually mean THE TOTALITY of billions of PORTIONS of the Holy Spirit in each of us?
The implications and consequences of this are huge and complex. But the point here is that MAYBE we have already had the OPPORTUNITY for "the Holy Spirit to be made Whole" if we BELIEVERS IN THE LORD were simply to all respect each other and honor each other? That AT ANY TIME OF OUR CHOOSING, we might DECIDE to all "become One True Church" and therefore CREATE the TOTALITY of the Holy Spirit here on Earth. Given that the Holy Spirit EQUALS Jesus EQUALS the One True Lord of the Universe, doesn't that describe pretty clearly where Jesus Returns?
But Christians seem to insist on arguing over who is "more correctly Christian" and so the majority of Christians seem to love to rip into all approaches to Christianity other than the one they specifically follow. So, is humanity likely to ever be capable of the level of mutual respect and mutual honor that would seem necessary? Not that I have seen!
But it still seems an interesting concept to think about, as it puts the Holy Spirit into a wonderful new perspective!
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C Johnson, Pastor,
A Christ Walk Church