We know that an incredible man called Jesus lived about 2000 years ago. Whether he was the son of God or not is the real question. Is the bible real?
We do know that Christianity has been an extremely violent religion. Millions of
people have been murdered and tortured for not believing in Christ, (and for believing
in him, of course). The old testament contains a lot of violence as well, such as
Psalm 1 37:9: Blessed shall he be who takes your little ones [Babylonian babies]
and dashes them against the rock.
The racism, homophobia and violence of some Christians, though, does not represent the love that came from the man, Jesus. So how do we know who Jesus was?
The new testament, (written about Jesus), was written by many people, most of whom hadn’t met Jesus but had heard stories of him passed down through generations by word of mouth. Each writer had their own agenda and their own way of interpreting stories to promote their beliefs. We do know that in those times, people did not have the language like we have to express what they saw in Jesus. The people who met him felt the presence of God, and saw divinity in him. This was because Jesus, the man, had only pure love in his heart and no hatred or prejudice. He befriended lepers, prostitutes and thieves. Social outcasts. Even when he was persecuted and had hatred thrown at him, he simply asked God to forgive his enemies and showed no retaliation. He forgave the people who did him wrong. He preached to others, encouraging them to do the same and have only love in their heart.
The way writers in that time interpreted what they saw as divinity in this man, was to write about Jesus as if he was the actual son of God. They used Jewish religious stories and added Jesus in them as a holy person. Of course the story of the three wise men, the guiding star, the stable etc, we now know are not fact, but common metaphors used in ancient religious stories. We also know that Jesus was not born in Bethlehem, not born on 25th December, was thought of as quite mad by his family, and probably died alone. He probably never proclaimed himself as the son of God, but in fact said we are all the sons of God. Whether you believe he was in fact put here by God to take away our sins, is your choice. Would a God make it that easy for a murderer to be forgiven, just by letting them decide they believe that Jesus is the son of God?
How can we believe that a loving God would say ‘If you are a Christian you can come to heaven, but if you aren’t, you will go to hell’? How can a loving God zap all the Christians up to heaven on the judgement day, and leave everyone else on earth to suffer and die? By that rationale, a Buddhist lady who might have ten times the love in her heart than a Christian, would be left by God to die while the Christian woman saved and taken to heaven! Would the loving Jesus have taught or even believed this?
We know that the sort of miracles the bible describes don’t really happen. People don’t walk on water; one man cannot feed thousands of people with one loaf of bread. These were parables used to explain to people how incredible the man Jesus was.
Some people do take the bible literally, and believe what it says in the old testament,
despite over-
Unfortunately, most wars are caused by religious disputes and conflicting beliefs. We have to decide whether we take the bible literally, and interpret the messages in it in a violent way, or read between the lines of the bible and try to see who the real Jesus was and what he was trying to teach. That
message has been difficult to find because the church has hidden and changed it over the years to suit their own means. They told us that Mary Magdalene was a prostitute, which led to women being second class citizens for thousands of years. We know now that she wasn’t. It has covered up the real message of Jesus and taught us a different one; one that has scared us into behaving in a certain way and living in fear of God and his punishment rather than living in God’s love and forgiveness, which Jesus showed us.
We know that the church has been corrupt in the past, and has many cases of covering up child abuse, paedophilia, and cults. For Christianity to survive into the future, it seems obvious that it must modernise and adapt. We must look at who the real Jesus was and what his message was. Whether you believe that Jesus was God’s son and put here on earth to save humanity from their sins, or just an amazing human being who was selfless and behaved in a divine like way, is up to you. Is the bible real? Please feel free to discuss this in the FORUM.