INCOGNITO JESUS
Everyone has to decide which Jesus they believe in, or whether they believe in Jesus at all. Even more important, they have to decide whether they will actually follow Jesus which is difficult and dangerous - possibly lethal.
Most people create Jesus in their own image. Jesus likes what they like and hates what they hate.
The history of Christianity is the story of Jesus Incognito - the unknown Jesus that people create in their own image.
I spent my first two years at university preparing to become a Christian minister following in the footsteps of my father. I was raised in the evangelical church, and I felt it was important to do something that made a positive difference.
During those years of study, I developed a gradual awareness that the evangelicals were answering questions that nobody was asking, and I slowly became aware that things were not right in the evangelical movement. I could’t yet put my finger exactly on what was wrong, but it was clear there were many problems that the mainstream church was ignoring and overlooking. Morally incompetent megachurch pastors were falling like dominos, but all was covered up and quickly forgiven.
I aced my studies in new testament Greek hoping that studying religious texts using ancient greek would somehow result in enlightenment and clarify many of the basic questions I had about Jesus and God. Unfortunately, after a year of studying ancient Greek, enlightenment never came.
During those years, I read about the quest for the historical Jesus. Some people believed that Jesus was a myth, and that he never existed. That was a bridge too far, and still is a bridge too far for me.
Jesus definitely existed and walked the dusty roads of the Middle East more than 2000 years ago. There are historical references that confirm his existence, but most of what we know about him was passed down in verbal histories that were not written until many years after his death. Scholars say the Gospel of Mark probably dates from around AD 70, Matthew and Luke around AD 85–90, and John AD 90–110, which puts their composition likely within the lifetimes of various eyewitnesses, including Jesus's own family..
The people who wrote the four gospels each presented Jesus according to their understanding of his place in history. After the writing began, Jesus Incognito suddenly appeared.
In Matthew's Gospel, Jesus is portrayed as the Messiah from the line of David, and God with us (Immanuel), fulfilling Old Testament prophecies and establishing a new covenant with God's people.
In Mark's Gospel, Jesus is portrayed as the Messiah and Son of God (whatever that means), whose ministry involves teaching, healing, and performing miracles, ultimately culminating in his suffering, death, and resurrection, demonstrating God's love and the arrival of the Kingdom of God on Earth.
In Luke's Gospel, Jesus is presented as a compassionate savior, emphasizing God's care for the marginalized, including women, the poor, and the outcast, while also highlighting his role as the Messiah leading his people to freedom. Luke depicts Jesus in his short-lived ministry as deeply compassionate — caring for the poor, the oppressed, and the marginalized of that culture, such as Samaritans, Gentiles, and women. Whereas Matthew traces Jesus' genealogy to Abraham, father of the Jewish people, Luke goes back to Adam, parent of all humanity.
In John's Gospel, Jesus is presented as the divine Son of God, pre-existing before the world and the “Word of God made flesh” who reveals God's glory and truth to humanity, emphasizing his divinity and messianic role. If you want to know what God is like, look at Jesus - God incarnate - God taking the form of human flesh.
These four different ways of looking at Jesus became the foundation of a new religion called Christianity. But make no mistake, Jesus was jewish, he went to the synagogue, and he never claimed that he was starting a new religion. A reformer, yes. A revealer of truth, yes. A new religion, no.
It’s interesting that Jesus never wrote a book, never established a seminary or school, and never gave a lecture on theology. He was a homeless itinerant jew, and if he had written his message down, we would have the unfiltered truth straight from his pen. But he didn’t write things down, and that’s why we have so many different views of who Jesus was. We have Jesus Incognito.
The humble Jesus of the gospels suddenly becomes the theological Jesus of the Apostle Paul.
Paul never met Jesus. Paul was a fanatical jew who traveled around killing christians. When Paul had his vision of Jesus, he became a believer. He never met Jesus, but that didn’t stop him from writing about Jesus.
Paul didn’t write the message of Jesus. Instead, Paul created a message about Jesus.
Instead of reporting and repeating what Jesus said, he wrote theology about Jesus that made sense to a fanatical jew. This became the great divide: the message of Jesus versus the message about Jesus.
The message of Jesus was a way of life. The message about Jesus was an exercise in theology.
The First Council of Nicaea in 325 AD established a unified Christian doctrine, culminating in the creation of the Nicene Creed. They enshrined the teachings of Paul, and his theology became the Christian message. From that time forward, being a Christian became a statement of beliefs rather than a way of life. It was no longer a way of living; it became a way of believing. Years later, during the Inquisition, nobody gave a damn about how you lived. The only thing that mattered was what you believed, and it was a matter of life and death. Wrong beliefs could actually result in a death sentence.
The Christian church never recovered from the Nicene Creed. When I was raised in the evangelical church, I recited the Nicene Creed thousands of times.
The message of Jesus was trampled in the dust, and the message about Jesus became the foundation of the evangelical movement. Following Jesus was no longer important. Believing in the evangelical interpretation of Jesus was all important. Statements of faith proliferated by the thousands, and in less than a hundred years there were more than 45,000 christian denominations - 45,000 different statements of faith - 45,000 different ways of looking at Jesus and God.
Everybody knew what following Jesus meant, and nobody wanted to do it. Following Jesus meant you would probably get killed or arrested.
The evangelicals had no interest in following Jesus.
Feeding the hungry - no way.
Giving the thirsty something to drink - not our job.
Clothing the naked - tell them to get a job.
Healing the sick - take away their medicaid and medicare.
Fighting against oppression - not so much
Setting prisoners free - time to buy a gun.
Welcoming the strangers - deport them.
Slavery - no problem.
Racism - no problem.
Fascism - no problem.
Speaking the truth to power - optional.
Loving everyone without exceptions - optional.
Persecuting the gays and the trans - no problem.
That’s where we are today.
Millions of evangelicals believe in Jesus, but following Jesus is not part of program.
The evangelicals believe in Jesus, and when you “Accept him as your Savior and Lord”, you magically get a ticket to heaven. Jesus forgives your mistakes because you are a member of the evangelical club. You don’t even have to follow Jesus. All you need to do is sign on to their statement of faith. Nothing could be easier and more self-serving. Everyone who doesn’t join the evangelical club will be damned to hell for eternal conscious torment.
The reason Jesus is Incognito is because so few people actually follow Jesus and do what Jesus did.
Evangelicals have never seen anyone follow Jesus in their cruise ship megachurches. Their pastors are religious executives who shepherd the flock into evangelical group think as they sing endless choruses and enjoy religious entertainment.
Evangelicals would not recognize Jesus if he was walking down the street, because Jesus would be going hand in hand with the homeless, the naked, the oppressed, the strangers, the hungry, the thirsty, the sick, the blacks, the browns, the gays, the trans and the straights. Jesus would be connecting with everyone that the evangelicals can't stand, with everyone they fear and hate.
If Jesus was walking down the street today, the evangelicals would assault him with their statement of faith, and if he didn’t agree with their ideology and join their evangelical club, they would call him a heretic. And if he was supporting the gays and the trans, he might even be killed in the crossfire.
The evangelicals don’t even remotely follow Jesus. They don’t know who Jesus is because they have created their Jesus in their own image.
Jesus Incognito still walks the dusty paths of planet Earth. He walks with the homeless, the sick, the hungry, the thirsty, the naked, the stranger and the oppressed.
Incognito Jesus doesn’t do theology.
Incognito Jesus does love.
Love is Jesus out of the evangelical box.
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Positive Christian Doctor
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Real Power: Maxingout On God's Love
God is love and works by love. The power and presence of God in my life is love. Every time I see love, I see God's hand at work. Every time I feel love, I experience God's presence and power. When my mind is full of thoughts consistent with God's love, my thoughts are healthy, and my mind is exactly the way God means for it to be. When my heart is full of emotions consistent with God's love, my emotions are healthy, and they are exactly the way God means for them to be. There is no limit to how good my life can become when I open my heart and mind to the power of His love. God loves and accepts me the way I am, but He loves me to much to let me stay that way. He loves me from the top of my head to the tip of my toes, and it does not get any better than that. For the rest of my life I will max out on God's love. Real Power: Maxing Out on God's Love is now available in ebook format at Amazon, iTunes, Kobo and Barnes and Noble.
Frank Sinatra said: “Religion is a deeply personal thing in which man and God go it alone together, without the witch doctor in the middle.” I had never heard of religious professionals described in that manner, but I understand where he’s coming from, and what he’s talking about.The witch doctor in the middle is supposed to tell us what to believe and how to think about God. It took at least twenty years to figure out that the witch doctors in the middle didn’t know anything more about God than anyone else on the planet. They knew about creeds, confessions of faith, doctrines, and hundreds of ways of looking at God. They were trained to answer questions that nobody was asking. Religion was an argument that they were trained to win. What they did not learn in seminary was that the world does not want to be saved. The world wants to be loved, and love is how you save it.
Religion tries to put God in a box, and it always fails. You can’t put an infinite God into a finite box. It’s impossible. God won’t fit. God is Love, and Love is God out of the box. Love is the most powerful force in the universe, and it’s the power and presence of God in the world. Love is why we are here. It’s the core of our relationship with God and our relationship with other people. Love is the foundation of the spiritual universe. It’s the core, the center, that connects God with is creation. Humanity suffers from spiritual amnesia. They forget about the core, about the love and even abandon it, and for thousands of years, they have been trying to force God into bizarre theological boxes. God does not fit into theological boxes. God will never be constrained, limited, restricted, jammed into and caged in a box. God is too big for that. God’s love has no limits. God loves everyone - no exceptions.
TAKING THE HANDCUFFS OFF THE HOMELESS GOD
The Bible tells the story of Jesus visiting his home town of Nazareth. When the people in Nazareth looked at Jesus, they saw the son of a carpenter. They knew his mother as well as his brothers and sisters, and they couldn't bring themselves to believe that Jesus was special. His words suprised them when he taught in the synagogue, and they wondered how and where he got the power to heal. When it was all said and done, the visit to Nazareth was summed up with the following sad words, "He did not do many mighty works there because of their unbelief."
You need to look at yourself thought God's eyes of love to understand what it means to be one of his children. No matter what your age, you need to learn the facts of love.
The most important fact is that God is love. The more you know about God’s love, the better you understand what God is like.
Life is a double exposure, and your job is to ignore your shadows and to leave the big picture to God. No matter what happens or how bad it gets, your job is to trust God to turn it into something good.
