September 29, 2009, 9:19 am by dc-agape.

John Chapter 15 – 16:4

In my last post I wrote about being fruitful and the meaning of love and obedience.  In this post I want to write about the greatest love, Jesus’ purpose, and being chosen.  I will have one final post on this chapter writing about hatred, hatred without reason, and killing in the name of YHWH.

This chapter is packed with good examples of what a follower of Jesus is supposed to do to the world, experience in the world, and display to the world.  But this chapter does one other thing…it makes it obvious to the non-believer that Christian ≠ follower of Jesus.  I will discuss each one, and let you decide.

Christians today its claim to not know YHWH’s purpose, but this should not be the case:

John 15:15 I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business.  Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you. 

Jesus again describes one of his most important commands.  That command, we know is the second greatest command, is to love one another.  But in this description of the command to love one another Jesus adds a more stringent component.  “To love one another” means to be willing to sacrifice your life for the one you love.  It is very easy to say you’re willing; it is a completely different thing to actually mean it.   In the United States, and most likely most of Europe, the non-believer never gets to see this type of love.  Since Christianity is majority, or least accepted in these countries, there are few opportunities to lay down once alive for love.  Oddly, what the non-believer has been able to see, are people laying down their lives for equal rights, to save the environment, or to fight tyranny.  This type of love is not limited to Christianity; as a result, the non-believer sees no difference between a Christian and the non-Christian.

Now unless Jesus was only speaking about his Apostles, which seems odd, for even though this speech occurred at the Last Supper, is clear that everything Jesus said was about all his disciples.  So to claim “YHWH works in mysterious ways” or “no one knows YHWH’s plans” is actually saying that these people are not friends but are servants.  This would also indicate that these people, that say these things, are not part of the true vine…they have already been cut off.   If Jesus knows his Father’s business and his friends know Jesus’ business, Christians (who are friends of Jesus) should know YHWH’s business.  The fact that Christians do not know YHWH’s business proves that they are not followers of Jesus.

Once more Jesus brings up the topic of being chosen:

John 15:16 you did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit – fruit that will last.  Then the Father will give you would ever you ask in my name.

Again, one can argue that this statement was only directed at the Twelve.   But that would be taking this out of context, for many other parts of this conversation relate to all disciples.  Even if you were to take this to only apply to those in the room, then there would be no more fruit after they died.  The fruit that lasts are those people who obey (love) Jesus and his teachings.  So once more, it is clear, that Jesus chooses who will be his disciples.  Freewill does not exist, because it is Jesus who controls who will love and obey him. 

To the non-believer, these three topics continue to prove that something is terribly wrong with Christianity today.  If there were any disciples of Jesus left on earth, we (the non-believer) would see these three things very clearly.  What we do not see is the love Jesus describes here in the Gospel of John and elsewhere, that Christians know (as friends) Jesus’ and YHWH’s business, or Christians recognizing that not everyone can be saved.  Christians in the U.S. claim that this is a Christian nation.  But we do not see the form of love that Jesus taught his disciples.  We also do not see Christians who understand and know YHWH’s business, in fact, it is the exact opposite – Christians have no clue what YHWH’s business/plans are.  Finally, the US Christians cannot or will not recognize that it is Jesus who chooses who will follow him.    It is odd to say, and I’m sure most people will disagree, but what Jesus said in this chapter of the Gospel of John is at the heart of being a disciple of Jesus.  Ignoring or rationalizing away the implications of this chapter only weakens the religion.  And a weaken religion does not fulfill the purpose of that religion; it is only a Tradition of Man.

Posted in Love, Gospel of John, Traditions of Men, Freewill, Readings | Print | 2 Comments »

September 28, 2009, 8:15 am by dc-agape.

John Chapter 15 – 16:4

There are so many things that need to be said about this chapter.  Being fruitful, love and obedience, answered prayers, knowing Jesus’ purpose, the greatest love, being chosen, being hatred, hatred without reason, and killing in the name of YHWH.  This chapter is packed with good examples of what a follower of Jesus is supposed to do to the world, experience in the world, and display to the world.  But this chapter does one other thing…it makes it obvious to the non-believer that Christian ≠ follower of Jesus.  I will discuss each one, and let you decide.

Being fruitful is part of being a follower of Jesus.  This does not mean just the bringing of souls to YHWH!  It means living a godly life and having a virtuous character.  This does not mean sometimes being fruitful!  We think of seasonal fruiting plants and believe that bearing fruit can be sporadic, but this is not Jesus’ intent.  The “true vine” never goes dormant; it has the light of YHWH always making it grow.  Even the pruning is to make it have more virtue and more proof of a godly life.  Here is the first proof that non-believers have where Christians ≠ followers of Jesus.  In the modern world both “Christians” and non-believers both live virtuous lives.  I can say this because the word “virtue” is not linked to YHWH or even Christianity!  It is defined as living life in conformity to moral or ethical principles.  And YHWH does not have a strangle hold on ethic…it was perfectly fine to own slaves and to be polygamous in the OT, by Jesus’ time polygamy was out of fashion (unethical) yet slavery was still acceptable (ethical).  100 years ago it was unethical to marry inter-racially, but today we see that as common (and ethical) as treating each human as an equal.  Equality was certainly not ethical until the very most recent times, yet we still have issues with this concept!  So if ethics (virtue) change over the millennia, how exactly are we to tell who is a Christian?  We cannot unless they set themselves apart.  The only way Christians have set themselves apart from non-believers is to make false accusations against science, equality (slavery and equal rights), demanding constitutional amendments dictating their particular morality, and vandalizing of family planning clinics.  Are these truly godly life or virtuous character?  Worse is the cyclical nature of Christian’s virtue.  None become more virtuous with age!  No what the non-believer sees is that with age the skeletons in the closet are exposed, proving that the “spiritual” leaders are bogus.  The biggest sign of this is looking at the children of these leaders.  Billy Graham’s son Franklin Graham is a hatemonger, as was Jerry Falwell son Jonathan, and Pat Robertson (Timothy Brian).  Are these truly “godly”, are the actions of these men virtuous (both the father and the son)?  The biggest skeleton in each of these fathers’ closet is what the son does!  For it is from the parents that the child learns hatred and corruption.  Isn’t it always said that being the preacher’s kid is the worst, they even have a name for it Preacher’s Kid Syndrome?  If a preacher cannot bring their own child up to exemplify Jesus, that is one huge skeleton in the closet.

The Gospel of John returns to the concept of love and obedience being linked.  One cannot love Jesus without obey his teachings.  Not the teachings of Paul, Luther, John Smith, or John Calvin.  One must follow and obey the actually teachings of Jesus to love Jesus.  Yet only 66.6% of the NT does not deal with the teachings of Jesus.  Where is the focus on the important teachings that the followers of Jesus must obey?  Why have they been superseded by the teachings of Paul?  How can one obey and love Jesus when so little of his teachings remain?  Only two documents (the Gospels of Matthew or Mark and John) remain of the closest thing we have to the teaching of Jesus.  Even the Book of Acts is suspect, it was most likely written by a follower of Paul!  What happened to the documents that were written by the actually followers of Jesus?  Why were they not canonized?  What teachings did they invoke that the Orthodox Church found inappropriate?  Jesus had many disciples (more than the twelve) shouldn’t we have more copies of what the individual disciples had to say?  With the overwhelming focus on the teachings of Paul verse the teaching of Jesus, does not the NT come under a cloud of questionability?  Did none of the original disciples make records of their gnosis, their logos from Jesus?  Why did the followers of these men not record the sermons these men taught?  Or did these recording get written, but the Orthodox Church deemed them unacceptable?  Could the Christianity that “won” actually be a false teaching of Jesus?  It certainly is not based on obey Jesus; instead it is based on obeying men…especially Paul.  With so little of the Christian doctrine based directly on Jesus teachings one must wonder.  The Beatitudes are held as models to aspire to, instead of ways to actually live life.  But shouldn’t they be obeyed (not just used as an unreachable goal) if one loves Jesus?  As I have said before, Atheist do not hate YHWH nor Christians because of the hard teachings…no it is because of the hypocrisy in the lives of Christians that Atheist despise.  And the lame excuse of “we are only sinful human” does not cut it.  Being “born of the Spirit” and “guided by the Spirit” and “born of God” and this one specifically:

1^st John 3:9-10 No one who is born of God will continue to sin, because God’s seed remains in him; he cannot go on sinning, because he has been born of God.  This is how we know who the children of God are and who the children of the devil are: Anyone who does not do what is right is not a child of God; nor is anyone who does not love his brother.

This verse puts to death the lame excuse of we continue to sin after “loving Jesus”.  If you follow Jesus you no longer sin!  And if you claim to be a Christian and you continue to sin, you make this verse a lie.  By making this verse a lie, you invalidate the entire Bible…since this is the Word of God.  Loving Jesus means obeying Jesus, it also means living a righteous life without sin.  Otherwise, you make a mockery of the teachings of Jesus and will not be pruned, you will be thrown away to be burned.  Get it right “Christians” is all I can have to say!

Well since I have at least seven more topics from this chapter, this might go on for some time.  By far, the Gospel of John has got to be the most important source of the teachings of Jesus.  The Synoptic Gospels were written to collaborate with each other.  The Gospel of John was written to teach Jesus’ followers how to love and obey Jesus.

Posted in Love, Gospel of John, Personal Responsibility, Readings | Print | 17 Comments »

September 25, 2009, 8:21 am by dc-agape.

John Chapter 14

This chapter stresses two things: love and obedience.  Jesus continually repeats that YHWH and he are inseparable, and indicates that once someone becomes a Christian (disciple of Jesus) they too are inseparable from YHWH and Jesus.  Jesus even promises a Spirit of truth to help his future disciples to follow his commandments.  And he makes one guarantee that has rarely been proven:

John 14:13-14 And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Son may bring glory to the Father.  You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it.

Odd how this guarantee is that any pray (that glorifies the Father) will be answered!  Yet how often do prayers get a “No” as an answer.  It is pretty clear that Jesus had just promised that there would be no answers of “No”.  Yet today, Christians assume that this is a valid response from YHWH.  But this Tradition of Man is not valid and it is not within the teachings or commandments of Jesus!

And what is this chapter’s major theme?  This is that those who love Jesus will obey everything that Jesus taught (not Paul, not James, not Luther, and definitely not the Pope).  And we only have four surviving documents of these teachings, of which the Synoptic Gospels are almost complete duplicates.  I find it very suspicious that we only have 2 documents, as a result, that describe Jesus’ actual words…were there not at least 11 Apostles and untold number of disciples?  Why do we not hear what they have to say about their personal experience with Jesus?  Has not Jesus’ teachings been tampered with (destroyed) by the canonization of only the Synoptic Gospels and John’s Gospel?  The Book of Acts is the only other book that comes close to directly describing the teachings of Jesus.  Why is 66.6% of the NT written by the “Apostle” Paul?  Why is it that the rest of the NT does not quote Jesus?  Yet to love Jesus is to obey Jesus…which means focusing on what Jesus taught!  Why do today’s Christians not focus on what Jesus taught?  This was his last desire to his disciples that they would love and obey his teachings…should not the modern disciples of Jesus also obey this desire?  Would not Christendom be one unified Church if this was the case?  Wouldn’t the non-believer know that YHWH existed if the Church actually loved (and obeyed) Jesus’ teachings? 

Do notice right away that the words “way”, “truth” and “life” were not capitalized.  This tells us something as well.  What this tells us is that Jesus is not the “Truth” nor the “Way” nor even the “Life”.  The traditions of men have changed the meanings of Jesus’ words from words that mean something spiritual to words that must be taken literally.  These three words (way, truth, and life) only apply to the disciples of Jesus, not to the world in general.  I know that my “Christian” readers will not grasp the difference, but the un-capitalized word is meaningful only to the followers of Jesus, while the Capitalized words are imperatives (related to all humankind and the universe).  Jesus did not use the word as capitals and they are not imperatives, they are specific to his followers and only his followers.

But what should we make of this Spirit of truth?  Other places it is referred to as the Holy Spirit.  Jesus here teaches the meaning of this concept.  This Spirit will:

John 14:26 But the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you.

This Counselor will only be sent to those who love Jesus, which implies those who obey Jesus.  So this crap about “praying Jesus into your heart” and being saved is only a Tradition of Men.  It does not save your soul!  Only by loving Jesus and obeying his teachings can one be truly a follower of Jesus (a Christian) – Jesus own words.

To the non-believer this begins to make sense out of the chaos that Christianity presents.  It is obvious that only one Church exists (not 45,000).  It is becomes obvious why it is hard to tell the difference between disciples of Jesus and Christians.  It becomes clear that today’s Christian has elected to follow the Traditions of Men instead of the teaching of Jesus (66.6% of the NT being written by Paul).  And, finally, it becomes all too clear why prayers can be answered with “No”, because they are not prays of the faithful!  Christianity is just a religion, being a disciple of Jesus is something completely different.

Posted in Love, Gospel of John, Holy Spirit, Traditions of Men, Readings | Print | 3 Comments »

September 24, 2009, 8:47 am by dc-agape.

John Chapter 13

I am not sure how far I will get in this chapter.  Three major topics are repeated here: service, love, and betrayal.   In hindsight John writing this Gospel sees the importance of love in the message of Jesus.  He shows an example of love and the commandment of love that Jesus gives his disciples.  In the example of love service plays a part.  Since they are interconnected, one cannot have one without the other.  Jesus also shows two predictions (again written in hindsight).  The first is Judas’ betrayal of Jesus to the Jewish leaders.  The second is Peter’s own betrayal of Jesus.  If Jesus knew in the future betrayal of these two men…they had no freewill.  To know something will happen is better than predicting; it indicates that something is planned.

The dialog between Jesus and his disciples (notice that John does not use the word Apostles) and especially Peter shows how important service to others is to being Christian.  But not just any type of service, Jesus made it clear that it should be of the most humble and menial form.  Yet somehow Christians have completely forgotten this most important teaching of Jesus.  They neither serve each other (showing love to those that love them) nor do they serve the non-believer, so that we know that they are disciples of Jesus.  In fact, it is the exact opposite today!  Christians attempt to take the highest position possible…that of governance.  Governance is neither menial nor humble; it is the most important form of work here on earth.  Without governance nations would crumble, bloodshed would be rampant, and humanity would never have crawled up from subsistence living allowing for science, arts, and technology.  But when religion attempts to govern we see things like the Inquisition, the Dark Ages, the subjugation of women, and even intolerance of minorities.  (And before any one might claim that Hitler was an atheist please read mein kampf and his speeches – where the Bible and Christianity are cited over 75 times).

But Jesus teaches love is the most important action that Christians can take.  This form of love has two effects.  As I just mentioned it means doing the most humble and menial of tasks for others (not just other Christians – see Matt 5:46-48) but also this love will be felt by others and will prove a person is truly a follower of Jesus.  Christians today, who demand new laws be written to punish/subjugate minorities (taking rights away from homosexuals), who vocally call for bloodshed of innocents (war against the Middle East), and demand government money be spent on religious symbols – instead of taking care of the poor, are truly showing the non-believer that Christianity has failed to follow the example of Jesus.  In fact, even wasting money on attempting to get science to be watered down with Creation “Science” in the classroom is just another form of this lack of love.  Should not Christian’s time, effort, and money be going to loving their neighbor by helping the poor, the orphan, and the widow?  Instead we (the USA) have the super right wing conservative fiscal party (the Republicans) gathered with the super right wing religious!  The “godless” Democrats are the one actually showing love to the poor!  What complete irony.

Jesus does on other thing in this chapter.  He prophesied the betrayal of two of his disciples.  The concept that Judas was a disciple is rather complicated to explain to those who believe that Judas was the Betrayer, but let me just point to a few verses (Matt 10:12, Matt 26:14, Mark 3:19, Mark 14:10, Mark 14:43, Luke 16:6  – he is named as one of the Apostle).  But more important is that Jesus knows that someone (from his inner ranks) must betray him – Matt 26:24, Mark 14:21, Luke 22:22).  In fact this verse is worth noting:

John 13:27 As soon as Judas took the bread, Satan entered into him.  “What you are about to do, do quickly,” Jesus told him, but no one at the meal understood why Jesus said this to him.

Jesus knew that Judas not only was going to betray him, but that Judas had to betray him.  There was no freewill in this action.  Remember if Jesus had not been betrayed the crucifixion would never have taken place!  Judas may have done the most important act that any Christian could perform, preparing the events that lead to religion known as Christianity.

But Jesus did not stop there.  He also prophesied that Peter would deny him three times within the following 12 hours.  Again, freewill is removed from Peter at this point.  For Jesus to know in advance that Peter would deny knowing Jesus can only have occurred if Peter did not have freewill.  In both of these cases, both Judas’ and Peter’s, we are shown that humanity is completely helpless in making freewill choices.  We are forced to take the actions that are required to fulfill YHWH’s plans for each one of us. 

This realization leads to troubling outcomes.  The divided Church would indicate that YHWH plans to send billions to hell.  Not only the ones that “choose” to sin (the non-believer) but also the ones who have been taught by the Traditions of Men that they are saved!  But with this being the case, then YHWH is not a loving supreme being.  He has planned the suffering of untold billions (if not trillion and quadrillions) in hell.  Worse is that it is a hell of his own creation!  So now we have a vicious circle…how can a loving god allow so many to go to a hell he created without allowing them to chose?  But we know that untold millions had no choice, prior to the conquest of the European Christians during the 15^th and 16^th centuries (at least 1400 years after Jesus died) only a small fraction of the world’s population even knew the story of Jesus.  At that time the population of Japan was 1,800,000 people, the population of China was well above 100,000,000 people, the population of India was 35 million people, in North America the population was as much between 8 and 112 million people, and that does not include Australia, South and Central America, Africa, or the Pacific Ocean nations.  To say the least estimates put the total population of the world at the beginning of the 16^th century  435,000,000 people.  It is quite obvious that these people did not have freewill to chose to worship YHWH!  What a loving YHWH, allowing nearly 300,000,000 million people to go to hell because he allowed them to be born in countries that had not heard the Word of God!  And that was only the beginning of 15^th century…hell certainly will be a crowded place with many innocent people sent there without freewill.  We can only hope that the Mormon’s are right and Jesus was sent to the Americas!  Otherwise, YHWH is a cruel and unworthy being to worship.

Posted in Gospel of John, Contradictions, Personal Responsibility, Freewill | Print | 1 Comment »

September 23, 2009, 8:14 am by dc-agape.

John Chapter 12:20 – 50

This section has three interesting concepts that I believe most (if not all) Christians overlook, ignore, or rationalize.  The first one is who Jesus is speaking to about his death.  Unless there has been some heavy editing he is speaking to the Greeks who came up to worship at the Feast.  The second interesting thing about this section is that Jesus promises that the prince of the world would be driven out…now!  Of course, that was over 1,900 years ago and still has not happened.  Finally, we have another proof of how YHWH keeps some (if not most) people from turning to him.  This of course, is where the rationalization occurs.

The opening of this section goes like this:

John 12:20-23 Now there were some Greeks among those who went up to worship at the Feast.   They came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida in Galilee, with a request, “Sir,” they said, “we would like to see Jesus.” Philip went to tell Andrew; Andrew and Philip in turn told Jesus.  Jesus replied, “This hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified.

The word “replied” in this sentence indicates that Jesus was talking to the Greeks.  These Greeks were Jewish and there may have been some actual Israelites in the crowd.  But whenever the Greeks want to talk to Jesus about obviously started this conversation.  I bring this topic up because the NIV it claims that these Greeks were not actual believers.   So what we have here is a Tradition of Man superseding the Word of God.  I will continue to point out where it is obvious to the non-believer that the traditional interpretation of the Bible is not what the Word of God actually says.  For this everything written in this book is truly Word secondary translations and interpretations based on other humans are the basis for Traditions of Men.   

One more place that Christians like to ignore or rationalize is this verse:

John 12:30-31 Jesus said, “This voice was for your benefit, not mine now is the time the judgment of this world; now the prince of this world will be driven out.

Jesus mentions two things in this verse that are supposed to happen “Now!”. One is and the judgment of the world began almost 2000 years ago.  And secondly, that the devil would be true that helped almost 2000 years ago.  Obviously neither of these two things occurred then or is occurring now.  This is just one of the places in the Word of God that Christians must rationalize to make it fit their Traditions of Men.   The other option, is that heavy editing of what Jesus actually said has occurred.  In either case, the validity  of this passage (and possibly the Bible itself) is brought to view.  Basically, either Jesus did not know what he was talking about or men have changed what was said.

Finally we reach another quote used by Jesus that indicates YHWH chooses who will hear his message and who will not.  The passage quoted comes from Isaiah 6:10 and says this:

John 12:40 “He has blinded their eyes and deadened their hearts, so they can neither see with their eyes, nor understand with their hearts, nor turn – and I would heal them.”

Christian rationalization and the traditions of men claim that sin comes first and then YHWH fulfills this verse.  But when you look at Isaiah this is not the case.  The full passage that is quoted is actually this:

Isaiah 6:9-12  He said, “Go until the people this: Be ever hearing, but never understanding; be  ever seeing, but never perceiving, make the heart of this people calloused; make their ears dull and close their eyes.  Otherwise they might see with the eyes, understand what their hearts, and turn and be healed.  Then I said, “For how long, O Lord?” “Until the cities lie ruined and without inhabitant, until the houses are left deserted and the fields ruined and ravaged, until the Lord has sent everyone far away and the land is utterly forsaken.

Sorry for the long quote, but it is important to show that either Jesus twisted the old testament, man has twisted Jesus’ words, or humankind is a play rag doll for YHWH’s pleasure.  In the book of Isaiah the people they have sinned, but it is YHWH who has chosen to punish without reprieve.  In both the gospel of john and in the book of Isaiah it is clear that it is YHWH who controls whether humankind sees, hears, and understands the message.

To the non-believer these three things indicate that the Word of God is questionable at best.  It is becoming clear to me that reading the Word of God does not build faith, instead it shows how Traditions of Men have twisted the bible to say what they wanted to say.  This is taken place either by mistranslation, twisting of the verses, or rationalization.  For whatever reason, the original intent of Jesus’ message has been garbled.  One of the most obvious signs Is That the Kingdom of God is divided.  And we all know what Jesus says about that:

Luke 11:17 Jesus knew their thoughts and said to them: “Any kingdom divided against itself will be ruined, and a house divided against itself will fall. 

Posted in Contradictions, Gospel of John, Traditions of Men, Inerrancy - My Ass, Freewill, Readings | Print | 6 Comments »

September 22, 2009, 8:30 am by dc-agape.

John Chapter 12: 1 – 19

A number of variations occur that are similar but different from the Synoptic Gospels.  We do not know how long Jesus stayed in Ephraim.  We do know that between their incident with Lazarus and begin the chapter 12 Jesus stayed Ephraim.  The Gospel of John records nothing occurring during this period.  Oddly Jesus is just last Bethany and now at the beginning of this chapter he returns to Bethany.  The author John seems to have forgotten that Lazarus and his sisters were rich (john 11: 38 indicates that Lazarus with what was wealthy due to the tomb he was buried in).  John also seems to have special knowledge that even Jesus did not have about Judas Iscariot.  In this section called the Triumphal Entry, two interesting things are recorded.  The first miss of john ignores how Jesus got the donkey.  The second is how Jesus fulfilled a prophecy by planning.  In the first case the synoptic gospels tell us how Jesus told his disciples to steal the donkey.  And the second case it is a self fulfilling prophecy when Jesus chooses to ride the donkey.

I should have noticed this in my last post, but John introduces Mary by what she’s about to do:

John 11: 2 This Mary, whose brother Lazarus now lay sick, was the same one who poured perfume on the Lord and wiped his feet with her hair.

Since John makes it clear that the family of Lazarus is very important to Jesus, we can be certain that the events of the anointing by Mary had not occurred prior to chapter 12.  This plus John’s foreknowledge of Judas’ theft indicates that the human element is difficult to separate from the supposed supernatural origin of this text.  In fact, the concept that Judas was a thief has no physical evidence in the bible.  On the other hand it is quite clear that Jesus had a special relationship with Judas.  I will have to leave the verses indicating Jesus’ relationship with Judas to a special post, the gospels are ripe with the examples.  For John two know that Judas was a thief seems like an addition after the fact.  It would seem more like a human emotion to defame Judas for the acts that he committed which were required for the salvation of the human race.

On the subject of the Triumphal Entry, it is humorous the john would record the story of stealing the donkey without introducing the theft.  The Synoptic Gospels make it quite clear that Jesus told his disciples to take what did not belong to them without payment.  It’s also very clear that the dock you would not be returned.  John, on the other hand, makes it seem like the  possession of the donkey was perfectly legit.  The other part of the Triumphal Entry that seem strange, to the non-believer, is how Jesus self fulfills a prophecy about himself.  When Jesus chose to ride the donkey he chose to fulfill an old prophecy.  As a result, any one attempting to prove themselves the Messiah could also perform this “miracle”.

Reading this section as a non-believer is even worse than reading the last chapter.  At least in the last chapter faith was involved, at the beginning of this chapter has a number of questionable remarks: contradictions, human emotions, defamation, and cover-ups are recorded in numerous places.  A lot of Christian Apologies must be made to explain away these non-supernatural attitudes.  Even with these Apologies, the Word of God looks very human in nature.  Since this Gospel was written after Pentecost, should not the  Holy Spirit have been a better guide?  Or is the guidance of the Holy Spirit not as powerful as the Word of God describes it?

Posted in Gospel of John, Readings | Print | 1 Comment »

September 21, 2009, 8:46 am by dc-agape.

John Chapter 11

 In this chapter Jesus brings Lazarus back from the dead.  This entire story must be taken completely on faith.  This is complicated by the fact that only the Gospel of John records this story.  Neither the Synoptic Gospels nor historical documents, from the Jewish or the Roman Empire, record this story.   It is extremely odd that the Synoptic Gospels do not record the story.  For John claims that Lazarus’ entire family is very significant to Jesus.  In the gospel of John it is recorded that this incident has a very specific meaning, for the synoptic gospels to omit this story is very strange.   In the Synoptic Gospels Lazarus is not even mention when we hear about Martha and Mary space.   Since this story takes place at the end of Jesus’ ministries, all of the Disciples should have remembered the importance of this story.  So even if this story is taken to be accurate, it adds weight to the fact that the Gospel of John is truly independent of the Synoptic Gospels.

The story itself, since it must be taken on faith, cannot be disputed.  That does not mean that parts of the story should not be question.  The significant questions include: why did the synoptic gospels ignore this incident, certain statements attributed to Jesus, and the concept that Caiaphas had actually prophesied.

I have already mentioned that it is odd that the Synoptic Gospels do not record this incident.  I’ve also mentioned there are two reasons why this is odd: the importance of Lazarus’ family to Jesus and the importance of the story to glorify YHWH.  Since many men were claiming to be the Messiah at this time, both the Romans and the Jewish nation would not have recorded this story.  One of the reasons that they would not have recorded this story would have been that it was hearsay, but another reason is that the source was questionable.  Even if this incident was spread amongst the Jewish leaders of the time, most of them would believe that this story was fictional because it would incite rebellion against a powerful force, the Roman Empire.   The Romans, on the other hand, would have ignored this story because they had heard it before.  Many of the roman mythology include returning from the dead.  But the Synoptic Gospels do not have these rationalizations.  Why did the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke ignore this story?  If this story had occurred, the authors of these Gospels would have been present.  We can be certain that all of Jesus is disciples followed him because of this verse:

John 11:7 Then he said to his disciples,”Let us go back to Judea”.

It is quite clear that no one stayed behind.  This can be qualified by this verse:

John 11: 16 Then Thomas (called capital Didymus) said to the rest of the disciples, “let us also go, that we may die with him.”

So basically, the Synoptic Gospels ignored this story.  The Gospel of john claims that this incident was very important.  Yet it was obviously not important enough to the authors of the Synoptic Gospels.  Does this not seem strange?  Jesus only raised a dead person one other time, at that time the Synoptic Gospels did record the incident, yet the Gospel of john did not record that incident.  To the non-believer these variations indicate that the Gospels are less than truthful.  To claim that each of these Gospels was an eyewitness account would require some similarity in this incident.  Since all witnessed it, but did not record it, a question of authenticity is introduced.

Two statements by Jesus are questionable.  The first one, is here:

John 11: 4  When he heard this, Jesus said, “This sickness will not end in death.  No, it is for God’s glory and so that God’s Son may be glorified through it.”

By the time Jesus said this Jesus knew that Lazarus’ was dead.  In fact, this one incident only added to the supposed glorification of Jesus.  Oddly the sickness did and in Lazarus’ death, whether or not Lazarus was raised from the dead.  The sickness did end when he died.  So both sentences in this verse are meaningless.  The first one is wrong, the second one is superfluous.  The second statement from Jesus that is questionable is here:

John 11:9 Jesus answered, “Are there not twelve hours of daylight?  A man who walks but they will not stumble, for he sees by this world’s light.”

Jesus was being very silly to claim that there are twelve hours of daylight.  This only occurs twice in a calendar year: the Vernal equinox and Autumnal equinox.  Why bother including how many hours of daylight in this comment?  This is another question that Jesus asks that does not represent either a spiritual or physical fact.  For the Son of the almighty YHWH, this seems very strange.  In fact, this seeming generalization only indicates that the author of this Gospel did not know that the number of lighted hours in the day changes continually.

Finally, the supposed prophecy of Caiaphas is very questionable.  It is obvious from reading this section that Caiaphas was not attempting to prophesy, he was attempting to save his power and possibly his nation.  There was no supernatural agent involved.  The prophecy also was not fulfilled.  Within 40 years of this supposed prophecy the nation of Israel was destroyed.  In actuality what Caiaphas said had no spiritual nature to it.  As with most prophecy hindsight is 20/20.  We can now claim that Caiaphas was prophesied only because we can fit the results to the statement.  This is called self-fulfilling prophecy.  As a result this section does not mean what the Traditions of Men claim it to indicate.  This is just one more incident that strengthens a story of mythology.

As a non-believer, this entire chapter does nothing to prove the glorification of Jesus or the prophecies of YHWH.   In fact, the stories from this chapter only weaken any proof of supernatural incident.  Too many questions are brought up, none are answered.  As I started this post, this entire chapter must be taken on faith.  Since the non-believer has no faith this chapter does not glorify YHWH or Jesus.  The only thing this chapter does is satisfy the believer’s desire to believe.

Posted in Gospel of John, Traditions of Men, Readings | Print | 2 Comments »

September 19, 2009, 9:29 am by dc-agape.

A while back I ask some tough questions to one of my Christian commenters.  During these questions, posts, and comments one question was raised that should be addressed in a final post in this series.  If something as basic as the speed of light has changed in recent history (last 1,000,000,000 years) how does this change effect science?

First of all, let us look at the concept that the universe is very old.  Estimates are that the universe is 13,700,000,000 years old.  Even if variations have occurred in this period of time we are talking about only 10/137% (7.2%) of the age of the universe.  But of course, the concept that determines the age of the universe is based on a constant speed of light.  Getting into the nitty-gritty of the calculations for the age of the universe is quite cumbersome.  For this reason Wikipedia is most helpful.  Age of the Universe is one topic, within this topic is the Lambda-CDM concordance model, within this model are the parameters of the Hubble constant, Baryon Density, total matter density, optical depth to reionization, scalar fluctuation amplitude, and the scalar spectral index.  Only the Hubble constant itself is calculated from the speed of light.  The baryon density has been calculated to a highly accurate value.  The optical depth of reionization is also been constrained to a very small variation.  The total matter density of the universe is actually related to the baryon density by the SZ (Sunyaev-Zel’dovich) effect measurement.  The scalar fluctuation amplitude is actually measured directly from the Cosmic Background Radiation.  And finally the scalar spectral index is measured from WMAP and is becoming more accurate each year.

So actually the speed of light is rather immaterial to the outcome of these calculations.  It is actually the cosmic background radiation that is critical to the calculation of the age of the universe.  I have used Wikipedia as much as possible in this post due to the fact that it is written in layman’s terms.  The whole process is still very complex and relies on numerous measurements, each with errors and some with approximations.  But in general, when numerous methods converge on the same results/predictions, we are not using the Argument from Authority (as Christians use YHWH), but instead scientist are using completely different methods that can then be used together to determine the validly of the model.  If, for example the results of these different measurements did not relate to other measurements – such as the distance of the furthest supernovas – then one of the two models would be wrong.  Instead, both models agree! 

But this is how science works.  We do not take just one measurement, we do not use just one method, and we continually look for new information that either supports or eliminates old (outdated) methods.  Religion does not do this.  Religion claims to be based on documents written by man between 2000 – 3000 years ago.  Religion also claims that the source of these documents does not change.  Yet there is no way to test this hypothesis!  Worse, the documents used have been edited, mistranslated, lost, and subject to political strife during these last few millennium – making them highly suspect.  To make matters worse, there are competing religions that instead of making one religion stronger (more valid), they each contradict each other.  In scientific terms this would indicate that the religious model was incomplete or even completely wrong. 

Teaching of Creationism in the classrooms of science would be a very terrible travesty to the USA.  The fundamentals of science are based on repetitive measurements, agreement amongst measurements, and the critical skills to recognize the errors involved.  It is true that all science stands on the shoulders of previous methodology and as a result of previous work of humans with great knowledge.  But without this, we would not have computers, we would not have electrical lights, and we would not have automobiles.  We would also not have landed on the Moon, nearly eradicated polio, or built skyscrapers that religious fanatics could destroy with the airplanes that science built.  If you do not want to trust science because of its changing nature or because of its use of assumptions and approximations or because it is based on the shoulders of giants, which parts of science do you want to trust and which do you want to throw out?  Science will continue to improve, science will continue to delve into the understandings of the universe – as small as my own PhD thesis on the Memory Effect of amylose tris(3,5-methylphenyl carbamate) or if it is the Grand Unification Theory – because humanity has curiosity and the only way to alleviate that curiosity is to search for answers. 

Relying on old books that have been tampered with by man seems to be a poor substitute for the curiosity drive.  In fact, it seems to put limits on what is appropriate which questions to seek answers to.  Relying on contradictory messages from “prophets” of all religions opens up the question of which “prophets” were right and which “prophets” have been wrong.  And the “proof is in the pudding” does not work.  All the messages from the “prophets” have been turned into personal political gain, whether it is Jewish, Islamic, Christian, Hindu or Buddhist, at some point in history.  Don’t get me wrong, science has also been used for the personal empowerment of individuals…but those actions have quickly been exposed and appropriate Earthly punishments have been applied.  Further, waiting for YHWH to punish evil in the afterlife is a lame excuse for allowing evil to flourish here on Earth.  Since no prove of the afterlife exists, this attitude only attempts to continue the status quo.  Evil continues to occur, starvation continues to happen, slow and painful deaths by disease continue to happen, and personal power is continued to be held by those with their own agendas without checks and balances.

Posted in Important Questions, State of Mind | Print | 2 Comments »

September 15, 2009, 8:02 am by dc-agape.

I have received a Christian response to the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq:

I don’t believe that YHWH’s will is as simple as does he endorse the war or not. I am not His messenger on which wars He feels are just nor which he sees as unjust. If He reveals this to me then I will let you know.

Notice that Christians believe that a just war can exist…even though it is contrary to the teachings of Jesus.  One of my non-Christian commenters pointed me to the Catholic Catechism on this topic.  It would seem that Christians (not YHWH or Jesus) have changed the rules.

Sorry to point this out to those have been taught a Tradition of Man…but nowhere in Jesus’ teachings does he say that under these conditions is it OK to kill.  In fact, he his quite clear on his (and we hope YHWH’s) opinion on the subject.

Mark 7:20-23 He went on: “What comes out of a man is what makes him ‘unclean’.  For form within, out of men’s hearts, comes evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance, and folly.  All these evils come from inside and make a man ‘unclean.’”

You see to Jesus murder makes one unclean.  Even the thought of murder is enough.  Yet that is the basis of war…you cannot have a war without murder.  Usually wars also include greed, deceit, arrogance, and folly.  The War in Iraq has certainly included all of these things that make a human ‘unclean’.  So how can there ever be a “just war”?  By Christian standards even the American Revolution and the Civil War could not have been “just wars”. 

How can an Atheist say this?  Simple the act of war includes (and requires) anger!    War also includes greed, theft, deceit, and envy.  The Revolution was about taxes and freedom.  Is not the concern over taxation not a form of greed?  Did not Jesus actually say this?

Mark 12:17-18 Then Jesus said unto them, “Give to Caesar what is Caesar’s and to God what is God’s.”  And the people were amazed at him.

And what was the freedom that the Revolutionist wanted?  They wanted freedom from oppressive religion.  Anytime religion gets into politics an oppressive religion is created.  Look at England during the Revolutionary War, look at Sharia Law, and remember how Iraq was controlled by the Baath party.  Under these conditions hatred and deceit are common which both make humans ‘unclean’.

And was not the same passage about taxation to an oppressive government?  Jesus also said that murder and anger were on equal footing:

Mark 5:21-22 “You have heard that it was said to the people long ago, ‘Do not murder’, and anyone who murders will be subject to judgment.  But I tell you that anyone who is angry with his brother will be subject to judgment.

Has there ever been a war that was not initiated by anger or at least perpetuated by anger?  The North (Yankees) claimed that the Civil War was about slavery…but where in the Bible does YHWH or Jesus say that slavery was wrong?  No, in fact, the Civil War was about something completely different. Anger and greed prompted this particular war.  Economics were the final blow that forced South Carolina to secede from the Union.  I will not get into the details but one must read “The Impending Crisis: 1848 – 1861” by David M Potter to understand the motivations of both the Southern Rebels and the Northern Yankees.  To say the least slavery and even states rights were a minor part of the beginning of that war.   The anger and hatred created by this war exists to this day!

Finally, I want to end with this verse:

Matt 10:28 Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul.  Rather, be afraid of the One who can destroy both soul and body in Hell.

Is not Jesus directly telling his followers that worrying about this human body and what the “enemy” attempts to do to it is immaterial?  So the defense of life and property is complete unjustified for war by Christian standards, at least those who follow Jesus and not the Traditions of Men.

Personal opinion:  The world today would be a much different place without the Revolutionary War or the Civil War.  From a humanistic perspective the Revolutionary War was justified by the fact that democracy was formed from the final actions.  But do the means always justify the ends?  Oddly enough most of the English colonies now have the same freedoms that the Revolutionary War provided the USA with.  Was the War required?

As concerning the Civil War:  how much damage was created, and still not corrected due to the evasion of the South by the aggressors from the North?  Would three nations in North America be much different than just two?  Would not slavery ended anyway?  Neither cotton nor tobacco are now the major crops of the South.  Would the South have been able to survive economically by itself? 

There was nothing Christian about either war.  Each of these two major wars were not initiated by a just YHWH.  The reasons for both wars were purely “unclean” in Jesus’ and YHWH’s definition.  So even though the outcomes were positive, supernatural instigation was not involved in the creation of these wars.  To claim divine intervention for these wars would be to say that YHWH created evil to create good.  Is that not contradictory in and of itself?

Posted in Important Questions, State of Mind | Print | 4 Comments »

September 12, 2009, 7:09 am by dc-agape.

A while back I ask some tough questions to one of my Christian commenters.  I had a reason for each of the questions.  You see, Christians worship a supreme being that is known for compassion, justice, and love.  In this post I wanted to hopefully finish the answer to teaching Creationism in the Classroom.  The purpose of the questions was to determine if our commenter was True to the Christ-like qualities expected from Christians.

I then asked if he believed that Creationism should be taught in the science classroom.  I requested his response to the recent trial in Dover, PA, USA.  It is true that as an Ethical Humanist (materialist) and a scientist I do have two biases.  One I have described many times…I do not see any proof of an existence of supernatural beings.  But being a scientist reinforces this bias by requiring data that supports any hypothesis, requires critical analysis of all data, and also requires that overlapping schools of thought (methods of gathering data) support each other.  As a scientist I believe that the skills of critical analysis are crucial to the solving of problems; either in the home, work, politics, environmental or international.

You see Creationism focuses mistakenly on evolution and biology as its target.  But at the same time Young Earth Creationists (most creationists) must also deny much if not all of Chemistry, Physics, Geology, and Astronomy.  These people believe that Charles Darwin and his theory of evolution is the cornerstone of all modern sciences.  They also believe that if they can topple this one theory then all the other sciences will fall as well.  But this is a very large mistake on their part.

Geology

Two people of geological significance need to be introduced.  Mary Anning has been called “the greatest fossilist the world has ever known.  She began to get this name in 1809-1811 at the age of about 10!  She is the girl that discovered many fossils of ichthyosaurus and one plesiosaurus.  It was well known long before Charles Darwin, that dead animals were trapped in stone formations.  But since those discoveries are too close to “evolution” one more person needs to be introduced: William Smith.  William “Strata” Smith proved that the earth had not always looked like it does today or in his own time (1799).  He is known as the “father of English geology” because of his documentation of the stratification of rock formation beginning in the area of Bath, England and ending with an entire geological map of England.

What must be understood is that Charles Darwin’s Theory of Evolution is not the origin of modern scientific thinking.  Well before Darwin’s work was even started, the scientific community was well aware that something was wrong with the creation story taught to all scientists as the “Truth”.  Both the discovery of fossils (rock formations that look identical to animal bones) and uplifted breaks in the strata of the earth were known prior to the beginning of Evolution. 

If Creationists want to discredit Darwin’s work they must start at an earlier period of time than 1859.  Geology was well established as indicating that the Earth was not 5,800 years old (now days – 150 years later – 5,950 years old). 

Astronomy

We all know about Nicholas Copernicus (1473 – 1543), Galilei Galileo (1564 – 1642), and Johannes Kepler (1571 – 1630).  These three men changed the world!  Prior to Copernicus’s time the Church taught that the Earth was the center of the universe.  But by the time Kepler died things were rapidly changing; the Earth was no longer the center of the universe.  One of man’s greatest ego trips – homocentricity – was nearly completely smashed by these three men.  Astronomy has been, ever since, slowly chipping away at the human ego.  We now know that suns exist that cannot be seen by the naked eye.  But even the Andromeda Galaxy is visible to the naked eye – an astonishing 2,300,000 light-years away.  That means that the light from this galaxy has been traveling for 2.3 million years to reach earth!  There goes the hypothesis of a 6,000 year old universe.

If Creationist want to make any headway into modern science they will have to make hypothesizes, test, and prove that the equipment used by astronomy are completely wrong about the size of the universe.  All I can say is go for it!  While you are at it, try and disprove the existence of well over 370 exo-planets discovered.  But the techniques used to prove distant stars and exo-planets are all linked to physics.  I will have to leave that to one additional post.

Posted in Important Questions, State of Mind | Print | 10 Comments »