|
Well, just to add my own thoughts. I am certain in myself that Jesus was historically a real person - I find the claims that he was a myth as realistic as someone claiming Augustus was a myth as well. I am open to the idea that Jesus was divine, but I cant be certain. I do believe in God - and I would go along with the fact that all of the major religions do seem to talk about the same God - and I think Jesus preached an ideal of God that I find attractive. My understanding of Jesus was that he he told people Mosiac law was not so important, that no religious authority on earth held the key to the gates of the Kingdom of the Father... but that the Kingdom was with every person, inside them and outside of them, that to know the Kingdom it was not necessary to practive ceremony or obey 1000 year old Jewish social customs, but it was only necessary to do what is good, to not lie to God, to know yourself and open yourself - When you know yourselves you shall be known"...
The fundamentalist Christians who believe homosexuals burn in hell, the fundamentalist Muslims who treat women as third class citizens, the observant Jews who still follow millenia old ceremonies... all of this I think is opposite to what Jesus taught. I think what he really meant was that everyone has a relationship with God internally, that it is not of this world, that the Kingdom is the part of us we do not know... that hell is not a place of Satanic torment, but "hell" is a state of lacking self understanding, of being lost, that the kingdom is open to all who have understanding, from those who do the greatest good to those who do the greatest evil in this world.
__________________
"Do not tell lies, and do not do what you hate,
for all things are plain in the sight of Heaven. For nothing
hidden will not become manifest, and nothing covered will remain
without being uncovered."
The Gospel of Thomas
|