Is Mise.

The esteemed preacher here, thinks the possibility Christ is simply a parable, could not be ruled out.

He has made it a plank, if you like, of his argument, bible stories are parables.

So if Christ and his many exploits can be seen simply as parables, then what is the truth?

Pray tell!

Dan

Dear Banjo,
I am more of a systematic theologian than a biblical scholar so I am a bit dim about the milieu of first century Palestine. It seems that Jesus was an observant Jew with a good knowledge of the OT. The writers of the NT also had a good knowledge of the OT by the way they used it to understand the phenomenon of Jesus. However, all of the NT is in Greek! Why not Latin, or Aramaic or Hebrew? Greek was the common language of the time and was more expressive than Hebrew or Aramaic. That does not, of course, apply to Latin.

You are right about the late development of socialism. Jesus was more about justice in an oppressive time. His source was the OT.

In my understanding, Marx got his idea of the perfect society from the NT and the idea of the Kingdom of God. However, it was a kingdom that was readily distorted by its leaders.

You are also right in saying that Jesus did not foment a revolution against the Roman oppressors. He was not one of the zealots. He also told Pilate in the gospel of John that his kingdom was not of this world. This is not a reference to an unearthly heaven but to a reality that was and was not a thing of human making. This is what I attempted to do in this essay, to indicate that our sense of the kingdom is often in error and that the parable of the kingdom is always more outrageous than we can imagine.
Peter

Diver Dan,
Anyone who says that Jesus did not exist must explain how the entire New Testament came to be. So many writers, so many points of view. How could it possibly exist if its central character is fictitious?

Sells.

Nice to see you shaking hands with all, even the commoners, at the church door.
I'll address the issue with you shortly.
I'm fitting a new boat motor today, and sad to say, it has a priority over Jesus ATM.

Dan

Given that every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord it matters little how you define his ideology. Smart people will surrender to Him and receive forgiveness while the proud will be destroyed. Call that whatever you like however the created trying to tell the Creator what's best is super stupid.

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Dear Sells,

.

You wrote :

« Jesus was more about justice in an oppressive time. His source was the OT »

That could well be, Sells – as the need for justice could also well be just as great today as it was in the “oppressive” time of Jesus. Justice has made considerable progress over the past 2,000 years, but, alas, injustice has too.

Which brings me to the dichotomy between socialism and capitalism which you mention in your article. While these two forms of social organisation are considered antagonistic by those endowed with a simplistic Manichean point of view, in my humble opinion, they are not necessarily mutually exclusive. I consider that they can be complementary, and quite often are.

All life forms interact with each other to a certain degree. They are interdependent. They cooperate with each other and share information and resources in a natural form of social organisation to the benefit of all – driven, no doubt, by the survival instinct endowed on them by nature.

Is that not what we human beings might call a form of socialism, perhaps, natural justice ?

Also, many life forms store resources to see them through difficult times.

Is that not what we might call a form of capitalism ?

Others migrate to more favourable regions as their environment changes, whether it be due to the seasons, natural disasters, or whatever.

As you say, a sense of justice and the OT may well have inspired Jesus. I, personally, am more inclined to think that that is what inspired those who wrote about Jesus so many years after he actually lived, if, indeed, he did live – and I am inclined to think that he may well have – but whether he corresponded to his biblical description or not is another matter.

I prefer to think that he was not only a carpenter and a preacher, but also a very talented philosopher who meditated deeply and wisely on the human condition as a fully fledged member of nature's animal kingdom, and drew his inspiration from that.

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