Jesus: Savior? Alien? Divine? Man?
I think we should not be afraid of some more unorthodox views on the origin of Jesus. Sure, he could have been incarnated as a human instantiation of God, miraculously born by a virgin against the laws of nature. But could there be other explanations? Could there be other explanations that still take the essence of scripture into account? I have a couple of musings that I would like to share. They, of course, will sound outlandish. But keep in mind I am making a point: they are no less likely than Jesus formed in the womb without an egg and sperm by a woman directly impregnated by God. Stick with me through these first two paragraphs to get to my point.
I have often thought that we will eventually master time travel. Physicists have already moved objects through a warp of space and time in theoretical models. They have successfully simulated sub-atomic particles travelling through time and have discovered that time travel is possible. What if Jesus, as a baby, were sent back by his parents from the future? His brain "downloaded" with all knowledge of his time for the Jewish life in Palestine at that time. This could be how he sat in the temple at a young age of 12 and held his own with the teachers of the law. The Gospel of Luke says, "After three days they found him in the temple courts, sitting among the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions. Everyone who heard him was amazed at his understanding and his answers." Luke 2:46. But what about the Annunciation to Mary? Clearly he said Mary would conceive a child. What if this exchange were embellished by people who could not understand anything but a baby arriving via the womb of a woman. It didn't fit their worldview. Much as green for an apple doesn't fit the worldview of a child. The angel (whatever you think an angel is) still may have visited Mary, but scripture never says she shared exactly what the angel told her. I think this is likely that this account was an interpretation created by the authors of the New Testament to explain what they could not understand. Authors of scripture in the Jewish tradition often embellished and interpreted oral stories to make a point or to fit into the narrative they were writing. That's why it's not all supposed to be read as a history. Study Jewish writing. And didn't Jesus go about his ministry healing people with a "supernatural" knowledge - knowledge that may be common place in the near future. Isn't that "super natural", outside of the natural? And he had a different perspective on religion. He saw how the Jewish faith had been hijacked and burdened with man-made rules and sacrificial systems that no one could live up to. They were missing the point of having a simple, personal relationship with God, like their forefathers. And he came back to tear down the walls to God the teachers of the Law had built. So could Jesus be a Jewish man from the future? Is it no less likely (in fact it is quite a bit more likely) than materializing out of nothing in Mary's womb.
Could there be another explanation? What if Jesus were sent here as a baby from another, more advanced civilization? Possibly one on the brink of collapse, like Callel in Superman. His home world in peril, he was sent here, the last of his kind. The star in the west that the wise men followed to his birth was actually his one-way ship entering into the atmosphere, burning bright for them to see and follow. From what he did during his lifetime, couldn't we say he had been sent from God? Does it matter where he was sent from?
Of course there is the dogma of the Trinity. That God and Jesus and the Holy Spirit are three in one and Jesus was the word of God that existed before the dawn of time. Didn't all of us exist eternally (or at least since the Big Bang) in our particles? And Jesus is part of God, just as all who believe in him contain God within. But we too are all made up of the particles birthed in the big bang at the beginning of time: the great explosion of every thing that now exists ejected our particles, as they are now, from the Creator. I believe that God was the personality that birthed the universe and us. And every human being is made in the image and likeness of God. Divine. So it is commonplace to call Jesus divine. We could be said to all be divine. Jesus may just have been clear-headed in addition.
Are these musings too outlandish for you? Then how about this one. Jesus was just a man. I believe that he is the greatest man that ever lived. Because I believe that to be in touch with ones self and God, whomever or whatever He is for you, is the point of life. What about all the stories of Jesus's supernatural ability in scripture and in extra-biblical literature? Stories in the Jewish culture, like all cultures of its time, were passed on from one person to another until they were written down by scribes working in schools of their master scribe. The four gospels were not written by eye witnesses. Luke does not actually say he (or they) were eyewitnesses to the events. Do some digging into the language. The Gospels were written by Jewish writers who compiled several sources, the biblical scholars tell us. And they were writing these stories after they were passed on to them by people and other writers who have been waiting for a savior, as all Jewish people had been waiting for the previous 400 years before Jesus. They wanted a savior, and this amazing man came along who was shattering the 1000 year old Jewish sacrificial system and opening up a relationship with God to anyone who would believe. It was a mindset-altering, worldview shattering, simple message of divine love. It was super-natural - above men's natural inclinations.
What about the atonement and the forgiveness of sins. Didn't Jesus save us from the original sin - the desire to know good from evil? He did this every day in his teachings. He turned men's minds from the drunkenness of religion back to a right relationship with God. He restored personal relationship with God that is not concerned with judging other peoples' hearts toward God. It was a relationship that was not burdened with rules and regulations, and who is right and who is wrong. It was a simple command to "love the Lord your God with all your heart and soul and mind." Did he have to be divine for this? Wasn't his blood spilled bringing the message of this salvation to misguided men and woman? So he sacrificed himself for the greatest cause, to let men know God. It's so simple. Why do we complicate it? And what about his forgiving sins of the people he met? What about the woman caught in adultery? When he says "You are forgiven. Go and sin no more." I think we should read this, "God doesn't hold you accountable and neither do I. Go and have a right relationship with God." Wasn't he saying to all of us, "wake up and stop following man's religion and get right with your God." Stop setting up humanity and what it has made (religion) as your own idol. That is what saves us from sin. I don't believe the atonement was some event that happened in Jesus's life and so we are all set free. I think atonement happens every day as we follow the teachings of Jesus and come into line with a right relationship with our Creator God.
But what about Paul who wrote so much of the New Testament in his letters to the churches he founded? What about his views on Jesus? Paul had an experience of God that changed him, much like God birthed in Jesus this ability to shatter worldviews. He believed Jesus spoke to him in a life changing event. I believe Jesus speaks to me too, but not from a throne next to a white bearded man in heaven. Paul went from Persecuting Christians to spreading Jesus's message throughout the known world because he had an experience of God. But after that, he was creating theology that would guide the church for 2000 years. Man creates theology. Not God. I think God is real - there are volumes of peoples' that paint a consistent picture of the Abrahamic God. And I believe Jesus was a man sent by God to blow apart the oppressive system of belief that had grown up in religion and cut people off from Him. But that makes me not a Christian - by definition. I am fine with that. Or does it? Regardless, I have spent too long reading and talking to other Christians that hold this Christian worldview. I have had more than 20 years of church attendance, reading scripture and Christian literature, and attending seminary. Many of these Christians have a relationship with God. I think the Christian religion is a great way to discover God. But the oppressive side of Christianity that proclaims people like Donald Trump Christian and do more to separate people from God through right wing political oppression and the bible-thumping of some Christians, is just EXACTLY like the Jewish sacrificial system that Jesus came to destroy. Jesus came to break people out of their worldview so they could have a simple relationship with God. Let's honor Jesus's efforts. Let's honor his legacy. Let's honor him. I think its time we started looking for another great man who does the same. We should look in our lives for someone who will blow apart the misguided side of the Christian region. God. Living, breathing scripture, or Joe down the street. You could call it the second coming of Jesus. I think It is time to put the oppressive side of Christianity that believes it has a corner on the "only true God" to rest. No more Bible-thumping. No more laws created to force a nation to abide by Christian beliefs. Just God and us and Love. That is honoring the legacy of Jesus, be he a man, a time traveler, or divine.
I have often thought that we will eventually master time travel. Physicists have already moved objects through a warp of space and time in theoretical models. They have successfully simulated sub-atomic particles travelling through time and have discovered that time travel is possible. What if Jesus, as a baby, were sent back by his parents from the future? His brain "downloaded" with all knowledge of his time for the Jewish life in Palestine at that time. This could be how he sat in the temple at a young age of 12 and held his own with the teachers of the law. The Gospel of Luke says, "After three days they found him in the temple courts, sitting among the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions. Everyone who heard him was amazed at his understanding and his answers." Luke 2:46. But what about the Annunciation to Mary? Clearly he said Mary would conceive a child. What if this exchange were embellished by people who could not understand anything but a baby arriving via the womb of a woman. It didn't fit their worldview. Much as green for an apple doesn't fit the worldview of a child. The angel (whatever you think an angel is) still may have visited Mary, but scripture never says she shared exactly what the angel told her. I think this is likely that this account was an interpretation created by the authors of the New Testament to explain what they could not understand. Authors of scripture in the Jewish tradition often embellished and interpreted oral stories to make a point or to fit into the narrative they were writing. That's why it's not all supposed to be read as a history. Study Jewish writing. And didn't Jesus go about his ministry healing people with a "supernatural" knowledge - knowledge that may be common place in the near future. Isn't that "super natural", outside of the natural? And he had a different perspective on religion. He saw how the Jewish faith had been hijacked and burdened with man-made rules and sacrificial systems that no one could live up to. They were missing the point of having a simple, personal relationship with God, like their forefathers. And he came back to tear down the walls to God the teachers of the Law had built. So could Jesus be a Jewish man from the future? Is it no less likely (in fact it is quite a bit more likely) than materializing out of nothing in Mary's womb.
Of course there is the dogma of the Trinity. That God and Jesus and the Holy Spirit are three in one and Jesus was the word of God that existed before the dawn of time. Didn't all of us exist eternally (or at least since the Big Bang) in our particles? And Jesus is part of God, just as all who believe in him contain God within. But we too are all made up of the particles birthed in the big bang at the beginning of time: the great explosion of every thing that now exists ejected our particles, as they are now, from the Creator. I believe that God was the personality that birthed the universe and us. And every human being is made in the image and likeness of God. Divine. So it is commonplace to call Jesus divine. We could be said to all be divine. Jesus may just have been clear-headed in addition.
Are these musings too outlandish for you? Then how about this one. Jesus was just a man. I believe that he is the greatest man that ever lived. Because I believe that to be in touch with ones self and God, whomever or whatever He is for you, is the point of life. What about all the stories of Jesus's supernatural ability in scripture and in extra-biblical literature? Stories in the Jewish culture, like all cultures of its time, were passed on from one person to another until they were written down by scribes working in schools of their master scribe. The four gospels were not written by eye witnesses. Luke does not actually say he (or they) were eyewitnesses to the events. Do some digging into the language. The Gospels were written by Jewish writers who compiled several sources, the biblical scholars tell us. And they were writing these stories after they were passed on to them by people and other writers who have been waiting for a savior, as all Jewish people had been waiting for the previous 400 years before Jesus. They wanted a savior, and this amazing man came along who was shattering the 1000 year old Jewish sacrificial system and opening up a relationship with God to anyone who would believe. It was a mindset-altering, worldview shattering, simple message of divine love. It was super-natural - above men's natural inclinations.
What about the atonement and the forgiveness of sins. Didn't Jesus save us from the original sin - the desire to know good from evil? He did this every day in his teachings. He turned men's minds from the drunkenness of religion back to a right relationship with God. He restored personal relationship with God that is not concerned with judging other peoples' hearts toward God. It was a relationship that was not burdened with rules and regulations, and who is right and who is wrong. It was a simple command to "love the Lord your God with all your heart and soul and mind." Did he have to be divine for this? Wasn't his blood spilled bringing the message of this salvation to misguided men and woman? So he sacrificed himself for the greatest cause, to let men know God. It's so simple. Why do we complicate it? And what about his forgiving sins of the people he met? What about the woman caught in adultery? When he says "You are forgiven. Go and sin no more." I think we should read this, "God doesn't hold you accountable and neither do I. Go and have a right relationship with God." Wasn't he saying to all of us, "wake up and stop following man's religion and get right with your God." Stop setting up humanity and what it has made (religion) as your own idol. That is what saves us from sin. I don't believe the atonement was some event that happened in Jesus's life and so we are all set free. I think atonement happens every day as we follow the teachings of Jesus and come into line with a right relationship with our Creator God.
But what about Paul who wrote so much of the New Testament in his letters to the churches he founded? What about his views on Jesus? Paul had an experience of God that changed him, much like God birthed in Jesus this ability to shatter worldviews. He believed Jesus spoke to him in a life changing event. I believe Jesus speaks to me too, but not from a throne next to a white bearded man in heaven. Paul went from Persecuting Christians to spreading Jesus's message throughout the known world because he had an experience of God. But after that, he was creating theology that would guide the church for 2000 years. Man creates theology. Not God. I think God is real - there are volumes of peoples' that paint a consistent picture of the Abrahamic God. And I believe Jesus was a man sent by God to blow apart the oppressive system of belief that had grown up in religion and cut people off from Him. But that makes me not a Christian - by definition. I am fine with that. Or does it? Regardless, I have spent too long reading and talking to other Christians that hold this Christian worldview. I have had more than 20 years of church attendance, reading scripture and Christian literature, and attending seminary. Many of these Christians have a relationship with God. I think the Christian religion is a great way to discover God. But the oppressive side of Christianity that proclaims people like Donald Trump Christian and do more to separate people from God through right wing political oppression and the bible-thumping of some Christians, is just EXACTLY like the Jewish sacrificial system that Jesus came to destroy. Jesus came to break people out of their worldview so they could have a simple relationship with God. Let's honor Jesus's efforts. Let's honor his legacy. Let's honor him. I think its time we started looking for another great man who does the same. We should look in our lives for someone who will blow apart the misguided side of the Christian region. God. Living, breathing scripture, or Joe down the street. You could call it the second coming of Jesus. I think It is time to put the oppressive side of Christianity that believes it has a corner on the "only true God" to rest. No more Bible-thumping. No more laws created to force a nation to abide by Christian beliefs. Just God and us and Love. That is honoring the legacy of Jesus, be he a man, a time traveler, or divine.
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