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Tag Archives: Messiah Truth
Is This Stone the Clue to Why Jesus Was Killed?
Is This Stone the Clue to Why Jesus Was Killed?
Here is the latest in a flurry of rather silly articles extolling the supposed archaeological significance of the First Century synagogue at Magdala; which just happens to be located wholly within the confines of a privately-owned Christian tourist resort (hint, hint).
Conspiracies occur. In my past work as a legal secretary, I had direct contact with secret campaigns to promote certain large corporations and political movements. These included “news” articles and ghostwritten op-ed pieces planted in various major news outlets.
Some years ago, there was a tremendous scare over avian flu, which was portrayed as threatening a real plague over North America. I came to conclude that the whole thing was a PR ploy to ennoble public impressions of the pharmaceuticals industry.
The present article sets forth a fanciful notion of what the Sanhedrin may have been thinking during Jesus’ trial.
As to many New Testament stories, my position in the past has been, “This specific thing may not have happened, but something like it probably did.” There are so many problems with and discrepancies among the Gospel accounts of Jesus’ trial, however, that as a Christian I now doubt he was ever tried by the Sanhedrin at all.
By the time of his arrest, Jesus had become such an irritant to the Jewish leaders that the New Testament easily portrays them as having wanted him dead. A conspiracy of the chief priests and Pharisees (John 11:57) to that end would have been singular, as these two parties were otherwise bitter enemies. The Sanhedrin, however, was without power at the time to condemn anyone to death, for blasphemy or any other reason; so the New Testament portrays “the Jews” as having taken Jesus to Pilate to portray him as an insurrectionist, on which basis Pilate might well put him to death.
My own current belief is that Judas may never have betrayed Jesus into the hands of “the Jews” at all; he may instead have betrayed him directly to Pilate, who I believe had his own, wholly personal, reasons to want Jesus dead.
Related: The Son of the Blessed
Originally posted 2015-12-14.
Bible contradictions #08: Is God love and light?
1 John 1:5:
This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that God is light and in him there is no darkness at all.
1 John 4:8:
Whoever does not love does not know God, for God is love.
The author of John appears not to have been aware of Isaiah 45:5-7:
Continue reading Bible contradictions #08: Is God love and light?
Bible contradictions #05: Jesus’ genealogies
The New Testament provides two genealogies of Jesus, one in Matthew and one in Luke. Matthew’s genealogy begins with Abraham and moves forward in time: “A was the father of B, B the father of C,” and so on. Luke’s genealogy begins with Jesus and moves backwards in time all the way to Adam: “C the son of B, the son of A.”
Let’s compare only the portions from Abraham forward.
Continue reading Bible contradictions #05: Jesus’ genealogies
Isaiah 53: The puzzle
Is it about Messiah, or Jesus, or neither one?
Did Biblical changes occur?
There is a widespread belief among Jews, that Chrstian translators routinely falsify their translations of the Hebrew Bible to create “proof texts” that indicate the Hebrew Bible predicts or substantiates Christianity.
At Messiah Truth, where I am known as “Proteus,” I recently made some remarks on that question; that the participant Ezekah wound up quoting, and questioning himself. I have chosen to respond here.
Please comment!
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Dogmatism vs. pragmatism
A post from a thread at Messiah Truth where we were discussing “Embracing what is.”
This morning as I waited outside for library to open, that remark about what they give us in chapel was still on my mind.
This is a tangent, and a stretch of the forum rules, so if this post isn’t released, I’ll understand.
“The Five Old Guys” present to us two, sometimes three times a month: the third Monday, fourth Wednesday, and fifth Wednesday, if there is one. Some months ago, for the Scripture lesson, Bro. Wayne gave us a highly redacted version of Matthew 25:31ff. I don’t believe this text comes from J., but it’s still one of the focal passages of the GT.
Does God retaliate?
My God does not dole out rewards and punishments.
The limits of competence
A post of 2006-11-04 at Messiah Truth. In the larger discussion from which this is taken, I was asserting that clairvoyance isn’t necessarily all it’s cracked up to be. The borderline between what one knows and what one doesn’t know is invisible to anyone.
The limits of competence: The Edgar Cayce story …
… provides many parallels to current questions about information that purportedly comes from “Beyond” and the ways people respond to same.
Edgar Cayce was born in 1877 in Hopkinsville, Kentucky. He lived for substantial periods of time in Selma, Alabama; Dayton, Ohio; and Virginia Beach, Virginia. He worked as a farmer and photographer. From birth, he displayed considerable clairvoyance aside from the singular mechanism to be described below. Thomas Cayce, his father’s father, is said to have had similar skills, but I know no details. No one else in the family had similar skills or interests, except for Edgar’s mother, who is said to have at times seen the discarnates who were the child Edgar’s playmates.
Encounters with clairvoyance
Originally posted in July 2005 at Messiah Truth; originally posted here 2015-03-04:
Religiosity can express any of various impulses, including these:
(1) Desire to placate the gods.
(2) Desire magically to assure desired outcomes. This is the essence of the Baal cult. Robert Jenson says it is also the essence of all religions except Christianity (:lol ).
(3) Desire to understand, and live in harmony with, the truth.
My earliest childhood memories are of a sense that there is more to the world than we perceive with our five senses, and of a desire to understand and correctly relate to that larger world. I have my moments or months of what some call doubt, of agnosticism or atheism, but in the end this thing always comes back. I feel it in my flesh and bones. This is ONE foundation of my religiosity.
The Homeless Blogger 