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HOT...There are TWO, not one, very different from each other, New Testament Christs.
 

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 Each of the four canonical gospels present to us, not one but TWO very opposite type Christs.  One Christ is the historic person, Jesus.  The other "Christ" is mostly Paul's innovation.  Most churchmen do not know they are converted to the wrong Christ!    The "Christ" Paul made up was largely a reverting to ancient Paganism's dying-rising god.  Which was already universal for thousands of years.  Every city or tribe had it's own names for the gods, but always the various cults were much the same.  And a principal feature of any of them, invariably, would be the dying-rising god who would die for them. then sit at the right hand of a higher diety and forgive sin or moderate punishments.  In each of the four New Testament gospels, the correct Jesus is always the same one, the historical Jesus of Nazareth.  But each of the four gospels has it's own, different, version of Paul's "Christ",--still recognizably, a version of Paul's "Christ, but intentionally unlike the "Christs" of the others.  All these fictional "Christs" radiate out from the center, which is the true Jesus.   Each gospel also served a political purpose.  Which was: To make a selected Roman city to be dominant over other contenders.  If you know how, the two Christs can still be separated, and we can have a new, fresh look at the real Jesus.  The best key is to look at the separate writers and see what each one was up to--what he valued and was trying to accomplish.  See how and why they differ so, and strongly contradict each other: Continue here:    Mark's gospel (the earliest if we don't count the material called Q, more later about Q) presents us with an authoritative divine-figure.  Mark's "Christ" commands, and things happen. Whereas the real Jesus performed no miracles, in contrast Mark's "Christ" is supposed to be validated by much miracle on command.  This "Christ" of Mark's creation, has no childhood and is not King until the crucifixion, at which time Mark cannot avoid it, that Jesus is crucified as King.  It is our contention here that Mark writes from Alexandria (not Rome) and writes in the Greek language, primarily to Greeks of the Roman empire.  Mark doesn't need for his "Christ" to be King because Greeks had never needed a King of Jerusalem.  And Mark's political purpose is to provide the one and only written gospel of all the world (there were no others at that time) and to thus promote Alexandria to be the number one Christian city.

    But, the Jerusalem church, while it lasted, thought IT was the proper number one Christian city.  And Mark's hypothetical divine-figure "Christ" wasn't at all what they of Jerusalem needed with their problems with Jews and the Moses of the Jews.  Jerusalem much needed a NEW-Moses to out-Moses the Moses of the Jews.  So, in the gospel called Matthew, they make one, a better Moses.  But this "Christ" is also mostly a made over version of Paul's earlier "Christ" already becoming dominant throughout the empire.  This time, in Matthew, there is a childhood because all Jerusalem already well knew Jesus had been King and a proper King has to be born into the correct linage.  Matthew's gospel has much purposeful contradiction of Mark, throughout. Matthew uses material taken from Q to make Jesus give a Sermon On The Mount with rules or law, much the same as the first Moses had dispensed law from a mountain top.  And has a similar political purpose: to keep the Jerusalem church as the dominant Christian center of the Roman Empire.

    The next earliest gospel, Luke, was composed by Luke, Paul's cousin, in an endeavor to get Paul's jailor Theophilus, to release Paul from jail.  The Jerusalem church was in economic trouble.  And Paul had collected an enormous sum of relief money from his outlying churches, to be delivered to the Jerusalem Church (which church profoundly mistrusted Paul's gospel).  But, while in Jerusalem, Paul committed a death-penalty offense in the temple for which crime he was arrested.  And apparently never had delivered the money to the Jerusalem church, which didn't think enough of Paul or his money to visit him in nearby Caesarea jail.  The jailor, Theophilus (translation of the name = friend of God) possibly also has his eye on the money and won't release Paul until Paul bribes Theophilus with the money.---The Jew, Paul, give up money? Never, Never, Never! It is unthinkable!--- So cousin Luke intervenes with a treatise (now called the gospel of Luke + Acts) intended to show (1) Jesus was no threat to the Roman Empire, so neither is Paul.  And (2) warn superstious Theophilus: don't dare meddle with what Luke says is a chosen agent of God=Paul, meaning: Let Paul (and the money) go!  Luke, writing from Caesarea, doesn't borrow from nearby Jerusalem's New-Moses gospel, which gospel he most certainly must have very well known.  But then, Paul and Jerusalem had NEVER gotten along!  Now see some differences:  Mark's gospel has a divine figure "Christ" already modeling after Paul's innovation.  Matthew's gospel has a NEW-Moses, which also is a Pauline type "Christ".  Luke's different "Christ", still Pauline type, is NOT a New-Moses, instead, only a great prophet.  Because the great Jew, Paul is not about to surrender his Old Testament!  His "Christ" is not only not greater than Moses but instead needs support from the first Moses.  Paul didn't even like the real New Testament Jesus!  Paul's real purpose (through Luke) is not to tell about the real Jesus at all: but instead to get himself sprung from jail complete with the MONEY, MONEY, MONEY!  The gospel of Luke does indeed give us much very valuable material not available elsewhere. And also provides material borrowed from Q.  BUT, read Luke with a great deal of "salt" applied in places, distinguishing the real Jesus from Luke and Paul's creation.  Paul himself never used the gospel of Luke in his preaching!

    Mark, writing from Alexandria, first, just before the 66-70 Rome vs. Jersualem war, and again revising just after Jerusalem's 70 A.D. total destruction, has a POLITICAL purpose: to make the Alexandria Church to be the number one Christian center in the Roman Empire.  His gospel was supposed to be the one and only written gospel.  Matthew's gospel, written later, might have continued to champion destroyed Jerusalem by being promoted from near-by Caesarea: another political purpose. Luke and Paul were associated with Antioch, another contender to become the number one Christian city--still another political goal!  Likewise the gospel of John, somehow became associated with wealthy Ephasis also wanting to be the number one authoritative Christian center.  And John's gospel subtly repudiates all the other gospels.  All four gospels had a political purpose.

John's gospel excells the others in having a "Christ" which is more than Moses-like. Now we have the divinity aspect exaggerated to becoming the WORD itself or himself. However it is a curious WORD which doesn't seem able to automatically get recognition or acceptance! The Keys To The Kingdom Church identifies the writer to be the tax collector Zachaeus, not apostle John. This WORD flatly repudiates the Moses and BOOK of the Jews by saying, Jews have never heard God's voice nor seen his shape. Note the contrast with Luke's "Christ" which is a lesser-Moses.

    The BIG trouble is, ALL four canonical gospels were ALREADY over-writing earlier traces of the real Jesus, which traces still remain and can be separated, and instead of the real Jesus were substituting Paul's phoney "Christ".

    Nearly all Churchmen are unknowingly converted to the wrong Christ!  Our purpose here, is to introduce you to the real Jesus!  And attempt to apply the real good-news to our present-day U.S. ECONOMIC emergency!

    By noting there was material common to Matthew and Luke, scholars discovered a previously unknown separate document.  Which document is actually the earliest gospel!  Earlier than Mark. This document is called Q.  It is the Q document that preserved for us the Sermon-On-The-Mount.  In Q, we have our earliest look at the real Jesus.  In the earliest level of Q, Jesus performs no miracles; is against miracle-working; there are no apostles; he has no apocalyptic fortellings.  He has poignant sayings that endure forever.

Jesus was no peasant country bumkin as some recent writers have tried to make him to be. He was borne to be King, and other writers badly misrepresent the real Jesus when they do not keep this fact in the forefrount at all times. It was because he was King that he was Messiah! Mary's brother was Joseph of Arimathaea, one of the wealthiest men of the Roman Empire. My guess is that it was Joseph of Arimathaea who sunmmoned the three wise men from the East when it was apparent a new King was about to be borne. And that the wise men preceeded the holy family to Egypt, having told them the place to which they should go. We can be certain Joseph of Arimathaea provided the very best king's education possible for Jesus, and the most likely tutors were the three wise men. At age 11 Jesus was already confounding the learned men of the Temple.

But Joseph of Aramathaea owned tin mines in Britain and took Jesus with him on a visit to Britain. Apparently soon after the exit from Egypt. Later, Jesus returned on his own and built with his own hands a house which endured until the fire of the 1100's. Augustine, in one of his letters, mentions the house. It is not known that Jesus studied with the Druids but his house was adjacent to the largest of Druid universities. Then, at about age 14, Jesus was in India studying with the Jains. He must have been already splendidly educated because he everywhere was immediately very well received among the educated. My guess is, he did not want to return to Palestine until Joseph, Mary's husband, had died. It would have been improper for Jesus to attempt to become King before that. But that was the signal that it was time to return to Palestine and begin work. After the crucifixion, he could have returned from Kashmir at any time had he wanted to. But after A.D.70, Jerusalem was destroyed and there was not any kingdom left to return to! He had warned them Jews would bring it on themselves, and it happened. Had he been King in place, destruction of Jerusalem wouldn't have happened!

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If you have comments, queries, or suggestions, please E-mail me at jbpatter@aug.com

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