Traditions of Men vs. the Teachings of Jesus

August 18, 2009, 7:40 am by dc-agape.

John Chapter 3:1 - 21

Ah, we have come to one of Christians (Protestant and Evangelical) favorite passages.  A leader of the Jewish people came to Jesus at night.  While Jesus meets and teaches this leader two topics come up that have shaped the entirety of modern (P and E) Christian Tradition.  In fact, without this passage these two factions of Christianity would have to rely on the entire Bible, instead of this half chapter of John.  I will attempt to explain this in more detail in this post.

The Protestants have latched onto John 3:16.  Yet many of them have forgotten (or ignored) the very next verse:

John 3:17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world; but to save the world through him.

Yet today’s modern Christian is so vehemently condemning those that do not believe to hell that they have ignored that Jesus’ teachings are what will save the world (not just humans).  And it is exactly that what the problem is.  Christians have assumed that Jesus was sent only to save humans, as the next verses do explain.  But the only way for Jesus to save the world is to teach humans how to be better to each other and to the planet itself (which is the meat of his teachings).   The fact is that Jesus’ teachings are amazingly accurate about the way humans must treat each other and if they follow his full teachings the world (earth) would be saved.  Instead, we have people condemning each other, fighting wars against those who do not believe (their interpretations), and great amounts of suffering in the world…because P Christians have latched onto one single verse and ignored the rest of this passage.  I do not know if I can be any clearer about this concept.  Jesus’ teachings (with or without the “god-bias”) is what the world needs.  Yet those entrusted with following these teachings have assumed that they are better than the rest of the world.  This has lead to great mischief in the world and much suffering, due to the “believe or die” attitude that goes along with “I am right and you are wrong” (black or white) logic that most Christians have used throughout history.  True the Catholics started these attitude millennia ago with the Crusades and the Inquisition, but all of modern Christendom has continued to think in the same pattern.  And this lack of understanding the full teachings of Jesus has lead to great evil in the world.  It does not matter is Jesus was sent by YHWH or not, what matters is that Jesus’ followers live by what he taught.  If they did, we would not have the trouble in the Middle East, we would not have so many “false teachings” that a higher % of convicts claim to be Christians than any another religion, and we would not be on the verge of destroying the planet (so that human life cannot be sustained).  In fact, many Christians have ignored the rest of Jesus’ teachings and have opted for Pauline Christianity which is a much more harsh religion than Jesus’.

And then we have the Evangelical Christians latch onto this verse:

John 3:3 In reply Jesus declared, “I tell you the truth, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again.”

This group of Christians uses this verse to claim they are “special”.  Instead of patience and love, they are arrogant and condemning because of this “special” position.  It is this arrogance and the act of condemnation that alienates them from the non-believer and the other Christians.  Thus their attitude nullifies their ability to have “all men will know you are my disciples” (John 13:35).  We non-believers do not know that Christians are Jesus’ disciples directly because Christians do not love one another!  I will have start back my Biblical topics posts this weekend, and I believe that “love” will be the next topic.

It is this tendency to latch onto only a small portion of Jesus’ teachings that rile the New Atheists.  It is this tendency to latch only small portion of Jesus’ teachings that the radical Muslims detest (even though they do the same thing).  Love does “conquer all”.  Love does “tame the beast within”.  Love is what Jesus taught, yet Christians have lost!  All because these exact same Christians have lost sight of Jesus’ teachings and replaced it with the Traditions of Men.  No wonder the Bible warns about Traditions of Men so often!

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