What Does Christianity Require?

Personally I do not believe that Jesus ever was or is God, I'm right with the Moslems in saying that there is only one God and not three. It is a grevious error to think our great teacher of forgivness was anything other than a human being. If Jesus was himself a divinity then it is only natural that he would be able to overcome the world; we can never be like him, we could never accomplish what he did. Obviously he walked into the crucifiction knowing full well what might happen to him, but he believed it was neccessary for some reason. It was even neccessary for one of his own disciples to betray him. But there is evidence that he suffered from a severe case of anxiety in the Garden of Gethsemane[sp?] when he was seen to shed blood from every pore of his body. Jesus even described himself as the, "Son of Man" in addition to the, "Son of God." I believe that it is perfectly in accord with the principles of Christianity that we are all Sons and Daughters of God, so it is not particularly remarkable or significant that Jesus may have refered to himself as such. Whatever the precise conditions of his conception may have been; even if it was an immaculate conception, every male child has one biological father. For a male child to be born there MUST be a biological father; we simply do not know who it was, or how insemination occured. Heaven may very well have intervened within the womb of Mary, but we don't know exactly what was done.

It was the labor of Jesus's life to bring Forgiveness to the world, and particularly to teach forgiveness. And Jesus appeared among the people who were most in need to learn forgiveness, the Jewish people.

So what exactly is required for a person to believe in, in order to be considered a Christian. Must we beleive that Jesus was and is God? Must we believe in the immaculate conception? Perhaps it is enough to believe that by his example, Jesus saved the whole world of humanity from Sin? And he really is our saviour; he is everybody's saviour, even the people who never heard of him or believed in him. Because upon the cross, with his dieing breath he uttered a prayer to our Heavenly Father. "The people do not understand what it is they are doing," he proclaimed. And to this day, two-thousand and some odd years later that prayer has been heard. And he's perfectly correct; the people do lack understanding, its as true today as it ever was back then.

The Christian community has long expected a great villan to arise to power in the world. An Anti-Christ, but I think this person may not be exactly what they are expecting. The world has been promised a day of Judgement, therefore there must be a Judge of all the Nations. If one man fulfills the mission of Judgement with his life; if a man comes into the world to teach Judgement, then in a sense he would be the anti-thesis of Jesus. Jesus fulfilled the role of the ideal First-Born Son, it is an archetype in human society of particular importance to the Jewish traditions. Now history will require one man to appear and fulfill the role of the ideal Patriarch, which is another great archetype from human society.

I still believe that there is one and only one true and most high God. To the best of my own personal knowledge this God is not Angry with us, he might not even be dissappointed with us. It may not be possible for God himself to judge us, it may be required for one of us to come forward and do the job. And it is a job, it is something that we all do each and every moment of the day. Judgement is a part of human nature, to exercise it only comes naturally to us. Judgement is a basic and common human talent in the same sense that flight is a natural talent to all bird life. And perhaps it is even possible for one person to excell in judgement in the same sense that the popular fictional character, Johnathan Livingston Seagull excelled at flight.

Even though Jesus was never recognized as the expected Messiah by his own people; or at least not all of them, in a sense he did deliver them from the Roman power over the world. The rise and spread of Christianity reached Rome, and in some respects was instrumental in its downfall. Jesus has been described as the, "Prince of Peace," and this has always been one of my favorite titles for him. He was a human being like us, and a true king with the power of Heaven behind him. He was titled, "King of the Jews," and I believe thats a true title. But he was not the King of Kings, who I believe is yet to come. The true General of the Armies of Heaven, the man who will make a pillar of flame fall from heaven and strike the Earth in the presence of men.

One King to Rule It

According to the Biblical New Testament book of Revelation, one King will appear in the world and rule it with an iron rod. The world has produced a few great kings in our past history, but never before has one man ruled all the people and every nation. And the timing for our world to produce this King couldn't be much better than it is right now.

The book of Revelation seems to be making us some terrible predictions, seems like a lot of bad things have to happen if we follow the story. But the story ends with an amazing victory for all the people in the world, the promise of a resurection and to immortal life. Personally I don't know of any other place in the Christian Bible that promises anything like a resurection. I have no personal knowledge that the promise of a resurection was ever a part of any other major world religion. But if you believe that Jesus raised the dead and himself was raised up from the condition of death, then I suppose its only natural to expect a general resurection. For it was said that Jesus by his sacrifice broke the chains of death that bind us. We don't really know what kind of person this John, the author of the book, really was. He may simply have been prone to wishful thinking, its entirely possible that he suffered from a medical condition that made him more prone to entertaining fantasies. It happens in the modern day that such people do live, and suffer bouts of insanity, and can be diagnosed and treated with psychiatric medications. But no matter how the story originated, it has become a popular and well known story. Perhaps the expectations of the masses have some influence upon the fabric of reality?

But why should a King appear right now? Well Israel has become a soverign state again. Truth be told, Jesus never lived up to the Jewish expectations of a messianic figure. Consider that King David earned his place by liberating Israel from having to fight a terrible war, with a single sling-shot stone. Many of Jesus's supporters no doubt believed that he would liberate Israel from the oppression and occupation of the Roman Empire. But to be perfectly reasonable, an armed revolt against the power of Rome would have been unwinnable at that time. But in addition to the fact that Jesus did not call the Jewish people to armed revolt, he was also a rebel against the authority of the Jewish Establishment. By supporting John's Babtism, Jesus was saying that you didn't even need to go to the temple to be cleansed of your sins. Thats what the power of the temple was all about, making the people pure before God. But Jesus said, no no no you don't have to go there and make a burnt offering, all you need to do is take a bath. You can go down to the river or the sea and take that bath, anybody could afford to take a bath, you don't need to own livestock in order to do it! And not only will the bath cleanse you of your sins, one bath is good enough for life! This could be dissasterous for the authority of the temple priests.

Now the one thing that true believers desire above all else, of the Jewish people in Israel and around the world, is to see the temple rebuilt in Jerusalem. And it must be rebuilt in the exact same spot on temple mount because traditionally it was on that very spot that Adam was first formed from the clay. That spot where God formed Adam is the one place on all the Earth where man can be closest to God. Not only that, but the temple ordinances must be reinstituted in order for the Jewish people to ever have a hope of obtaining a condition of purity. In fact, many Christian believers would love to see the temple rebuilt as well. But one small problem, the Moslem shrine is currently in that spot. Now to the people of Islam, it should be noted that this Dome over the Rock is considered to be 3rd most holy site. But to the Jewish people the site is 1st most holy. If one man comes along now and makes it possible for the temple to be rebuilt, without threatening a terrible war with the people of Islam, then that man would most certainly be considered the true messiah.

Again why now, what is so important about this moment in time? Well according to the Jewish calander the 7th Millenium will commence in about 200 years from now. This is the 7th Millenium since Adam was born and the world was formed. As many of you may be aware the 7's are most holy in the traditions of Judaism, the 7th is the Sabbath and a day of rest. Traditionally all work must be completed prior to the Sabbath, and no labor can be performed on that day. And in the same sense the Sabbath Millenium must be a time to advance spiritual pursuits rather than worldly concerns, all of our worldly concerns should be taken care of. In addition to this timing, it has also been seen that a red hefer was born in Israel. The significance of the red hefer is that such cattle must be used in the burnt offerings for the forgivness of the sins. There has not been a red hefer born in Israel for a very long time, in fact an American fellow was offering to import the animals to Israel. But before it could be done, suddenly a red hefer was born naturally; only just recently this has happened.

Now I would like to remark that even the Moslems will agree that Jesus was a messenger, and what are the contents of his message. Among the messages of Jesus we find two promises that interest me in particular with respect to the need for a King. One, Jesus said that all the land of this Earth would be promised to the meek. Two, Jesus said that one man by the power of faith would be able to move mountains. Many people have assumed that he did not mean literal mountains; but this is also the man who turns water into wine and walks on water. I assume that Jesus might have believed that literal mountains could be moved. And of all mountains that need to be moved, the temple mount in Jerusalem is a prime candidate.

If one man could safely move the temple mount; the the people of Islam will say, "Behold, the mountain comes to Mohamed!" And so the Moslem people will not be angered. And the high place of the Jewish people will be laid low, but the way will be made clear for the rebuilding of the temple. If it is possible for one man to get power over the modern world; and rule every nation with an iron rod, then it will be neccessary for that man to have the power of Heaven at his call. In order for the current world leaders to submit to one man's authority, it will require a very persuasive argument. Just about the only kind of argument that has any influence in the World today is the power to destroy.