The early followers of Jesus, in the days prior to the emerging-Orthodox crack-down which proclaimed all other views other than their own to be heresy (burning books, criminalizing ideas, and killing people in the process), did not know the story of Jesus as we now know it today in the gospels of the modern Bible.
They did not see Jesus as "the Christ" or the messiah, they did not see his death as some tragic, divine, saving event... they did NOT believe he had been bodily raised from the dead, nor did they worship in his name at all -- nor think he was divine.
All of these things, every last one of them... were pressed upon the population by emerging Orthodoxy years and years after the apparent death of Jesus. Myth became tradition and tradition became "history" (I'd like to put huge, huge air-quotes around the word "history" here) in the hands of conservative man-made religion and enforced by penalty of death.
The predominant view of Jesus prior to the years surrounding the Council of Nicea? Was that Jesus was a man, just a man (all be it a special man), who was closer to a teacher or even a philospher than a savior of anything. And he definitely... most definitely ... was not God. This was a view that developed many years later by Jesus groups, almost cults, that would demand to identify him in a synonymous nature with God. These followings developed later on and mostly in northern Syria and Asia Minor, where they coupled tales of Jesus with Hellenistic myths and mystery religions (that talked about a divine being brought to Earth).
For goodness sake, read a book! Not just any book ... read a book that scares you, because you're afraid that I'm right. Well there's no need to be afraid. Modern-day religion needs to embrace some type of backbone and truly, earnestly analyze itself, and soon! There is no reason to be so afraid of these kinds of things, because God is real and Christianity can be awesome... But man-made religion has blinded us to all sorts of truths and it lessens your very life to a sort of puppet-based mindless existence that God never meant for you to live within.
It's frustrating watching people pray to Jesus as if he's going todo anything for them. God must be VERY patient with us for us to replace Him so casually with a man. My point is... God is God. God is the path to God.. The whole "Jesus is the Only Way" mumbo-jumbo gives me a bit of a chuckle because any man can point to God and say 'There he is'" -- and Jesus was certainly a man. Perhaps not "just any man," but a man none the less. One of many men who have come telling things of God over the centuries. One of many men who are worth listening to.
Is he my way of looking at God? Yep, he just happens to be. But, to say Jesus Christ is the "only" way to God.. to pray to him as though he was some cosmic deity in his own right that almost replaces the One and Only God ... or to even elevate him to the identical status of to One and Only God... for me? This becomes truthfully a bit absurd on so many levels. And frankly, the early followers of Jesus would have agreed with me.
It's the modern followers of Jesus who don't.
People are often "dismayed" at the amount of division and denomination within current-day Christianity. They often long for the so-called old and better days of togetherness and unity; however, what they fail to realize is that the early followers of Jesus (which would later become Christianity, a word only to be popular many years later however) were more divided in thought than people are today in how they saw Jesus Christ, God, religion and spirituality, and all the major topics and ideas contained in those subjects. It was the reign and heavy-hand of conservative religion and tyrannical-like religious leaders that squashed out the alternate and differing viewpoints almost for good, and created what we know now in modern Christianity.
Almost... but luckily, not quite. It's nice to know that some people are still willing to seek out what is different, and raise up their voices in what they believe, even if it's different.
They did not see Jesus as "the Christ" or the messiah, they did not see his death as some tragic, divine, saving event... they did NOT believe he had been bodily raised from the dead, nor did they worship in his name at all -- nor think he was divine.
All of these things, every last one of them... were pressed upon the population by emerging Orthodoxy years and years after the apparent death of Jesus. Myth became tradition and tradition became "history" (I'd like to put huge, huge air-quotes around the word "history" here) in the hands of conservative man-made religion and enforced by penalty of death.
The predominant view of Jesus prior to the years surrounding the Council of Nicea? Was that Jesus was a man, just a man (all be it a special man), who was closer to a teacher or even a philospher than a savior of anything. And he definitely... most definitely ... was not God. This was a view that developed many years later by Jesus groups, almost cults, that would demand to identify him in a synonymous nature with God. These followings developed later on and mostly in northern Syria and Asia Minor, where they coupled tales of Jesus with Hellenistic myths and mystery religions (that talked about a divine being brought to Earth).
For goodness sake, read a book! Not just any book ... read a book that scares you, because you're afraid that I'm right. Well there's no need to be afraid. Modern-day religion needs to embrace some type of backbone and truly, earnestly analyze itself, and soon! There is no reason to be so afraid of these kinds of things, because God is real and Christianity can be awesome... But man-made religion has blinded us to all sorts of truths and it lessens your very life to a sort of puppet-based mindless existence that God never meant for you to live within.
It's frustrating watching people pray to Jesus as if he's going todo anything for them. God must be VERY patient with us for us to replace Him so casually with a man. My point is... God is God. God is the path to God.. The whole "Jesus is the Only Way" mumbo-jumbo gives me a bit of a chuckle because any man can point to God and say 'There he is'" -- and Jesus was certainly a man. Perhaps not "just any man," but a man none the less. One of many men who have come telling things of God over the centuries. One of many men who are worth listening to.
Is he my way of looking at God? Yep, he just happens to be. But, to say Jesus Christ is the "only" way to God.. to pray to him as though he was some cosmic deity in his own right that almost replaces the One and Only God ... or to even elevate him to the identical status of to One and Only God... for me? This becomes truthfully a bit absurd on so many levels. And frankly, the early followers of Jesus would have agreed with me.
It's the modern followers of Jesus who don't.
People are often "dismayed" at the amount of division and denomination within current-day Christianity. They often long for the so-called old and better days of togetherness and unity; however, what they fail to realize is that the early followers of Jesus (which would later become Christianity, a word only to be popular many years later however) were more divided in thought than people are today in how they saw Jesus Christ, God, religion and spirituality, and all the major topics and ideas contained in those subjects. It was the reign and heavy-hand of conservative religion and tyrannical-like religious leaders that squashed out the alternate and differing viewpoints almost for good, and created what we know now in modern Christianity.
Almost... but luckily, not quite. It's nice to know that some people are still willing to seek out what is different, and raise up their voices in what they believe, even if it's different.
