I GREW UP THINKING THAT I WAS A CHRISTIAN. Lately I have been - TopicsExpress

I GREW UP THINKING THAT I WAS A CHRISTIAN. Lately I have been ‘schooled’ in the language to discover I am not and never have been. I have been told that to be a Christian you have to: Accept Jesus as your savior. Those words mean something special to the people that tell me that. I have always thought that meant to accept him as your teacher. And by learning his teachings, you will learn things that will save you from yourself. This is not what that means to Christians, and to be honest, I really have no idea what the phrase means to them. So I do not qualify as a Christian since I see no other meaning to that phrase. Accept Jesus as THE ONE AND ONLY son of god. From best I can grasp, and I don’t speak Greek nor read it, Jesus claimed to be A son of god in the gospel of John (mostly he claimed to be a son of man). The interpreters of the KJV added words to create meaning where they didn’t ‘like’ what it said without the ‘added’ words. They were straight up about it and italicized them so that they could be differentiated. The KJV added or substituted the word THE to make it say what the interpreters of that version WANTED it to say. But according to what I have read from those that understand the Greek language of the day, there is no article in the original manuscripts and that means that it is an ‘understood’ A. This is another defining part of being a Christian that excludes me (along with many of my dear loved ones) from being a Christian. Accept that the Bible is the ‘holy written word of God.’ This means that there is nothing misleading, inaccurate, false, or corrupted in the Bible. It is accurate to a fault. It is perfect. Once again I find myself unable to accept this as fact. I have seen the inconsistencies and it is not possible for me to ignore. This position of mind separates me from the qualifications of being a Christian. Here IS what I have done: I have accepted Jesus as an extraordinary teacher. I have accepted his teachings as so profound that they will be able to direct me in my life so that I will not self destruct from improper priorities. I make effort to follow the teachings of Jesus to the best of my understanding. I structure my life according to his outline and lessons. I have accepted Jesus as a divine person. I have accepted him as the MOST DIVINE person or the most powerfully divine person I am aware of, but I don’t know them all. And I also acknowledge the logical thought that even though he is the most powerfully divine person I know, that there are other very powerfully divine people too. I acknowledge that the bible is a good book that tells the story of a certain group of people that sensed god, then sought him in hopes of living their lives in conjunction and harmony with him. It is full of stories of the amazing interactions. It is full of stories of the amazing failures or ‘stumblings’ of these devout seekers. I am all too aware of how we can learn so much from failure. The stories of those that have succeeded and failed before us teach us so much. Many of these people had special inner ‘experiences’ that drew them into a ‘mystical’ perspective of life. These ‘mystical experiences’ go on today… even from many that I know. The bible has caused much controversy among people that are interested in Jesus. I do NOT worship the bible. To worship the bible would be ‘idolatry.’ The first ‘graven images’ mentioned in the bible were the ‘tablets’ brought down off of the mountain by Moses. The Bible is Christians’ ‘graven image’ if it is worshiped. It is done in ink instead of carved into stone, but it is still a material thing. The ‘worshiped bible’ IS the Tower of Babel. “Up until this point in the Bible, the whole world had one language - one common speech for all people. The people of the earth became skilled in construction and decided to build a city with a tower that would reach to heaven. By building the tower THEY WANTED TO MAKE A NAME FOR THEMSELVES and also prevent their city from being scattered. God came to see their city and the tower they were building. He perceived their intentions, and in His infinite wisdom, He knew this stairway to heaven would only lead the people away from God. He noted the powerful force within their unity of purpose. As a result, God confused their language, causing them to speak different languages so they would not understand each other. By doing this, God thwarted their plans. He also scattered the people of the city all over the face of the earth.” If worshiped, it is man’s attempt to build a tower into the heavens to God. And when it is worshiped we are incapable of ‘understanding’ each other as we discuss it! I do not sell it short, but I do not put it above the more important priorities that Jesus instructed us to hold dear. God is more important than the bible. I am more important than the bible. Everyone person in the world is more important than the bible. I love the bible, but those are the instructions. I struggle with some of the words that the writers of the gospel put into Jesus’ mouth. Sometimes they seem a little ‘skewed.’ It’s like the writer or story teller added to or embellished to emphasize the meaning they interpreted from something Jesus said. Whatever you think about Jesus, the disciples were unquestionably ‘just men.’ They learned a lot of stuff from Jesus, but they were thick headed and ‘just didnt get it’ quite often. As Jesus and the crew headed toward Jerusalem in the final days the disciples got upset because some town had refused them. They asked Jesus if he wanted them to call down ‘hell-fire’ on that town. Jesus REBUKED them! That means THEY JUST DIDNT GET IT! I really don’t even ‘worship’ God. That word is something I don’t see associated with the meaning I understand Jesus taught about god. God cares for us more than anyone can comprehend. I care for him as much as I can, and I strive to care for him more each day. According to Jesus, God is the ‘head of the family’ not some kingly ruler that demands our subservience. There is no one in the bible that I am particularly impressed with except Jesus. I certainly don’t look to Moses, or David, or Solomon, or Noah, or Paul, or Mathew, or Luke, or Mark, or John or etc… to follow. I don’t mean to insult them, but they werent Jesus. And they certainly didnt have the style, flair, understanding or the intensity of the divine quality that was in Jesus. Jesus is dead. No matter what you think of him, he has died. Did he arise and ascended into heaven. That is certainly what the disciples taught us. I certainly think he did that on earth while he was alive. IF he is still around, the only place we can access him is in our ‘hearts.’ There is certainly something extraordinary in our ‘hearts.’ THIS is something I do have personal knowledge about. So with all of this ‘wiggle waggle’ on my part, I AM NOT A CHRISTIAN. What I am is someone who follows the teachings and disciplines of Jesus. I am his student… I am his disciple. Since I can’t by definition be a Christian, a disciple of Jesus is a term I can accept and own. As a disciple of Jesus I have found that I can care about my enemy… even the really bad ones. I can forgive those who ‘step over the line.’ I can forgive myself. I can cherish what has been given to me. I can rejoice in life, I can feel unending peace within, and I can wish for all others to be able to feel that joy. And I can continue to examine my life and responses to it without ‘judgment’ in hopes of purification and a fuller embracing of the divine spirit within me. And to be frank, according to the teachings of Jesus… anyone who offers up judgment on me for this is asking to be judged as well, by the same weight and measure that you judge me. Put your stones back on the ground. Look for that LOG in your own eye that separates You from Divinity. Be a part of what moves this world toward compassion and caring for one another. Stop being a part of what divides us and keeps us at war. Your enemies may kill you for it, but if you are a disciple of Jesus… that is what you signed up for.