These words were penned 10 years ago. I never got around to blogging them because blogging was out of fashion at the time, in favor of micro-blogging platforms such as Twitter (R.I.P.) and due to other distractions in life. But it illustrates a step on my thought journey. Dated March 26, 2014.
I am an agnostic Jesus-follower. That is, science and reason tell me that Yahweh, even if he existed, was a murderous tyrant, and so if Christians teach that Jesus was the son of Yahweh, or that Jesus believed he was doing the will of Yahweh, or that Yahweh raised Jesus from the dead, that these claims must be false.
However, inasmuch as we can verify that Jesus was an anti-establishment revolutionary who preached social justice, healed the sick, condemned the rich, and promoted the Golden Rule like Buddha and Isocrates before him, then this is a man who inspires me.
So many today, especially in conservative Reformed circles, tend to emphasize “cristus victor” over the real Jesus. That is, Christ glorified, the King of heaven, who will come back to judge the quick and the dead. As such they value the theological teachings of the new Testament—which were written decades after his death, rather than the actual words of Christ, which were supposedly passed from Cephas and James the brother of Jesus straight to Paul and recorded by Q and Mark within their lifetimes (debatable, and probably false)—before Christological developments of later years.
Christ enthroned condemns the world and inspires wars. The actual human Jesus was a man of compassion.
The heavenly Jesus inspires the GOP to promote an American theocracy and stir up Israeli wars in Palestine in order to hasten the return of Christ. The living Jesus said “the kingdom is among you”.
“It is more blessed to give than to receive.”
“Turn the other cheek.”
As Bart Ehrman says, “There is no way to be certain that these sayings actually go back to the historical Jesus.” But for consistency, a believer ought to lift up Jesus’ own teachings over the later theological developments. It is amazing that my thoughts about wars in Palestine are still as apt today, and it’s just getting worse. If we can’t persuade Christians to reject religion, we need to at least persuade them to take the teachings of Jesus seriously.