Jesus Christ part 1

JESUS CHRIST ( part one )
Every scholar who has critically investigated Gospel story of the life of Jesus Christ admits now that, whether the narrative contains factual history or not, a mass of myth has surrounded it. Here, however, we are concerned with the record as it stands.

It is probable that Jesus at first expected that God would intervene on his behalf and that he could be acclaimed as the Messiah. When he saw more and more clearly that a revolt against the Roman power was hopeless he declared that the Kingdom of God is not of this world. At this stage of his mission he prepared for his martyrdom. But till the last act of the drama he was persuaded that he was under God’s care and protection, and shortly before the end he announced that his second advent was near at hand.

He spoke “with authority,” a claim which no other teacher could make in the same sense, he raised the dead, he was Lord of the Sabbath, and through him alone could man live forever. Despite all this “authority,” at his death, which was the culmination of his mission to save mankind, he “began to be sorrowful and very heavy,” prayed that his cup of bitterness “might pass from him,” and at the very last exclaimed, “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” Was this a matter of a God forsaking himself?

Many “liberal” Protestants today deny that the strong language used by Jesus about the future life was meant to be taken literally. Let them settle that themselves. What matters is the tragic fact that for almost two thousand years his language convinced Christians that an eternal hell is a real place, and that its penalties are incurred as the result of “Unbelief.” No other “spiritual” authority has done so much to drench our world in blood, enough to keep even the US Navy afloat.

Most of the sayings of Jesus regarding violence or non-resistance were intended to apply chiefly to personal, not to global relationship. He said virtually nothing of international conflicts. What he did say showed placid acceptance of the war syndrome:


“And ye shall hear of wars and rumors of wars: see that
ye be not troubled: for all these things must come to
pass, but the end is not yet. For nation shall rise
against nation, and kingdom against kingdom.” Matt. 2:6-

“But when ye shall hear of wars and commotions, be
not terrified: for these things must first come to pass;
but the end is not by and by. Then said he unto them,
Nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against
kingdom.” Luke 21: 9-10

These verses have a more direct bearing on war as we now know it than any of his other sayings. They show his belief in the inevitability of war. Apparently, despite his power to perform miracles, he did not feel himself competent to counteract militarism. He offered no program for arbitration of international or border disputes, no ideas to substitute death and destruction between nations, no policy for world peace or path towards global sanity. Mankind continues to live in a welter of organized hatreds and threats of mutual extermination.

Many a good man is a failure from a worldly point of view, but failure is not what one would wish to emulate. Jesus sought to save the world. Surely no one looking at the world today can say that he succeeded. His plan of salvation was a failure; it did not work out as Jesus intended. An ideal teacher is needed now almost as much as two thousand years ago. If the world is gradually improving, as seems probable, it is in spite of the miracles of the past, not because of them.

Indeed, Jesus failed to provide the conditions so much needed by man to enable him to shape his course through the good life inspired by love and guided by knowledge. No one knows how to live correctly, how best to meet each situation, what action is suited to the occasion. Jesus did not tell us what to do. His sayings are interpreted in many different ways. He failed to predict the needs of the future of mankind.

Moreover, Jesus did not explain the healthy relations between husband and wife, nor between employer and employee, nor how to educate children, nor how to preserve health, nor how to earn a living, nor how to prevent internecine hatred, poverty, and suffering. Jesus gave little practical information, and his spiritual advice was not clearly enough expressed to enable man to apply it to modern conditions. Jesus neglected to instruct how to live under common human decency. His knowledge of the world was less than the average mediocre politician of today in the government of Christian countries like the Philippines.