hole

 There is a hole, a Grand Canyon of missing words in scripture.  Because of this hole of missing words, we are left with a confusing picture of Jesus, who he was or who he understood himself to be.  On the religious holiday of Passover, the twelve-year-old Jesus walked with his family to the big city and the religious celebration in Jerusalem.  As the family began the return walk home, they became aware that Jesus was nowhere to be found.  Panicked, they returned to Jerusalem to search for him but after searching for a few days, no Jesus.

On the third day they found him, where?  Jesus was and had been hanging out at the church of his time, the Temple in the city.  Luke’s Gospel, Chapter 2, verses 41 to 51, records the events surrounding Jesus at the Temple.   Verse 46 tells us that he was “sitting among the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions”.  We can surmise that Jesus was listening to the religion of his ancestors, the Jews, as they experienced the ups and downs of their historical search for spiritual credibility.

The hole in scripture occurs right at this point, what questions was Jesus asking the teachers of Judaism?  The Bible does not give us a single question nor any possible answers.  Without the questions we have no knowledge of what was in the head and heart of Jesus.  All we know is that “everyone who heard him was amazed at his understanding and his answers (47)”.  Again, amazement tells us nothing.

Bible commentators have long assumed that this was a cumbia meeting of the minds, the religious leadership of the day and Jesus.  Somehow, they must have been on the same team yet there is no reason to make such an assumption.  The verses in question do not tell us if the meeting was mutually supportive or a vailed criticism of the religious method in Jerusalem.     

Why do you sit in this religious gathering spot and expect the people to come to you for spiritual guidance?  Why do you expect believers, who were born into this religion, to travel here to Jerusalem once a year and do homage and pay their dues?  Possibly to Jesus, the obvious answer, this is the way it has always been done, was just not good enough.  We shall never know for sure about the conversation between Jesus and the religious leadership but Jesus showed us how spiritual evangelism eighteen years later should be done.  The Jesus way is well documented in the next chapters of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.  

Jesus did have the spiritual chops to ask just such questions at age twelve.

G. Goslaw

Landers, CA  

          

Spiritual Freedom

 All of us have had tunes buzzing around in our heads for days or months, they just seem to linger.  My head gets tunes with perfect melody’s but when they come out of my mouth, not so much.  I was gifted with at least one gene from my father.  The tune, “Open my Eyes, that I Might See”, has been banging around in my head for months.  Being a committed dunderhead that I am, I finally had to look up the lyrics as given to you in the preceding post.  

The personal faith expressed by Clara H. Scott in 1895 is the same faith that inspired the fire of the Reformation, three hundred years earlier.  As we all know every fire will burn itself out as did the Reformation which quickly cooled as the movement descended into petty partisan religious politics.  As the twentieth century and the spirit of Clara H. Scott broke upon us, a new fire was ignited in America which some have named the Evangelical Movement.  Our country, as did others, experienced revival fires as individual people became seekers of spiritual truth in an atmosphere of freedom but the camp meetings and street evangelism also cooled as the Great Depression and World Wars distracted the faithful.

The power of every establishment to influence the affairs of humankind cannot be understated.  Through the twentieth century spiritual freedom has been progressively replaced by religious orthodoxy. All spiritual fires are extinguished when the people are told what to believe and to think about God, Jesus in particular.  Jesus did not have the DNA of God because he was and is the appointed messenger of God who preached and is calling all of us to the homeland of eternity.

G. Goslaw

Landers, CA            

Number One Song

Open my Eyes, That I May See,  written by Clara H. Scott, 1895

The theology is in the lyrics.

 

Open my eyes that I may see,

glimpses of truth though Thou hast for me.

Place in my hands the wonderful key

that shall unclasp and set me free.

Refrain # 1

Silently now I wait for thee.

Ready my God, Thy will to see,

Open my eyes, illumine me.

Spirit divine!

Open my ears that I may hear, 

voices of truth thou sendest clear.

And while the wave notes fall on my ear,

everything false will disappear.

Refrain #2

Silently now I wait for Thee,

ready my God, Thy will to see.

Open my ears, illumine me.

Spirit divine!

Open my mind, that I may read,

more of Thy love in word and deed,

what shall I fear while yet Thou dost lead?

Only for light from Thee I plead.

Refrain # 3

Silently now, I wait for Thee,

ready my God, thy will to see.

Open my mind, illumine me.

Spirit divine!

Open my mouth, and let me bear,

gladly the warm truth everywhere.

Open my heart, and let me prepare,

love with thy children thus to share.

Refrain # 4

Silently now I wait for Thee,

ready my God Thy will to see.

Open my heart, illumine me.

Spirit divine.

THIS OLD THEOLOGY WILL NEVER BE IMPROVED!

G. Goslaw

Landers, Ca

Evil

 

     "What is best for me is best for thee."

             

     G.Goslaw

     Landers, CA

Silence?

 If one of my kids died from the Fentanyl scourge from across the border that has been made worse by Biden open border policy, I would do something.  I don't know what but it won't be pretty!

G.Goslaw

Landers, CA    

Apologies

 My apologies are extended to President Donald Trump.  Please forgive me for not sending you money in response to your many email requests.  I am a loyal supporter of your leadership and the MAGA code but deftly disappointed in the American voter who supposedly voted the other way in 2020.  These voters asked to be led by politicians who trade what is good for the average American citizen for short term dollars, their system is fundamentally corrupt from top to bottom. There are those whom I never believe and lie repeatedly without remorse and then there are those who lie just some of the time.  Their coyness is obvious to anyone really listening. There’s the rub, most Americans are not really listening or thinking, 79,000,000 are only signing on to a group think because they have been dupped or manipulated.   

Nothing can change for the better until a large sloth of American voters start listening, thinking for themselves and questioning the motives of all those who consider themselves fit to lead.  This will not happen solely by sending money to the Donald Trump political action fund.  There may be a time for that but it will not happen until the voters of America are hit over the head hard enough to wake up.  We are being assaulted every day for over eight months by a tyrannical big government groupthink that destroys rather than builds.  Only the mislead voters can say when enough, is enough? 

I have little confidence that these lesser American voters, even as they are being bludgeoned to death, will ever admit that they were wrong or dupped! 

G. Goslaw

Landers, 

Kids

 Kids (under 40) will and are destroying America.  They are either poorly educated so as to be fixed on taking from others instead of being a producer or they are highly educated and looking to big government to fund their expectations (lifestyle).  The old way will be gone soon or it has already left the station!

G.Goslaw

Landers, CA

Another Way

The God appointed mission on earth of Jesus was to be an evangelist preacher for the grandness of eternity.  As humans we are all fragile and faulted but we can choose to live our lives with faith in the eternity that awaits our demise.  When we so choose, we can live confidently, doing what’s best for others instead of just for self.  This is opposed to the me and mine of religion, all religions.  This eternal message of Jesus was made more believable as miracles seemed to follow his walk-through Palestine.  In the words of Jesus, faith can move mountains.

G. Goslaw 

Landers, CA

    

 

   

 

Confusion

 The Greek word “christos “, is the word used to translate the Hebrew word “mashiach” in the original Hebrew text of the Old Testament. The word “mashiach” consistently meant God anointed.  However, the word also came to be broadly understood as the ‘messiah” during the O.T. prophecy period of about 500 years before the birth of Jesus. According to this popular theology, this expected “messiah”, would be God appointed and sent on a mission to rescue the abused Hebrew people.  The messiah would restore the Kingdom of Israel as the preeminent world beater among men.  Their God of justice, the Hebrew God, would finally set things right.

When Jesus appeared on the scene both words, Christos and Messiah were familiar labels for that expected God event that was celebrated with palm branches in Jerusalem as Jesus rode into town on a donkey.  For a few short moments, Jesus was thought to be that God appointed savior of the Hebrew people.  The moments lasted three days.  When Jesus did not gather an insurrection or claim the title of the messiah of the Jews, the people and the religious hierarchy, for different reasons, turned on him.  Both the people and the Jewish leaders then conspired to eliminate this supposed messianic pretender.  Did Jesus get his mission wrong or did the people get the mission of Jesus wrong?

Mathew, Mark and Luke each paint slightly differing recollections about the identity or title of Jesus, recollections that are frankly, confusing.  One point of confusion is that “Jesus never openly claims to be the Messiah (J.Y. Campbell, M.A., D.D, Article “Christ”, A Theological Word Book of the Bible, edited by Alan Richardson, 1950. P.45)”.  Jesus asks his new disciples who they thought he was, various opinions are expressed but Jesus never acknowledges the correct answer.  His only response is to instructs them to say nothing (Mk8:29, Luke 9:20).  The Gospel of St. Matthews (16.13-20) records a similar questioning of his disciples, after repeating the standard opinions, John the Baptist, Elijah or Jerimiah, Peter blurts out, “You are the Christ (Messiah), the son of the living God (16:16, NIV)”.  In the next verse Jesus blesses Peter for this opinion saying it could only have come from God. The following verses seem to give Peter scriptural authority to lead the church that is not even a church at this point.  The words of Jesus seem contrived for latter events, did he say them?

The confusion continues.  Dr. Campbell states in his article on the Christ, “It is difficult to understand how Mark and Luke could omit this part of the story (Matthew’s account) if they knew it, or how they could have failed to know it if Jesus really did reply in this way.  But as they stand, Jesus’ words to Peter indicate that he himself had not yet given any indication even to his most intimate disciples that he was in fact the Christ. (p.45)”

The confusion continues. The only other time that Jesus had an opportunity to state his mission by identifying himself as the Jewish Messiah was after his arrest as he is questioned by the religious leaders.  Mark 14:61 “Again the high priest asked him (Jesus), ‘Are you the Christ (Messiah), the Son of the Blessed One?”  62. “‘I am’ Jesus said.”  This response of Jesus is clear in Mark but what is it that he is confessing, being the Messiah who would restore Israel to its former greatness or to being the new religious icon of the Blessed One.  In any event, both Matthew and Luke tell us that Jesus remained silent instead of confessing as Mark records.  Needless to say, the recorders of the synoptic gospels seem to be somewhat confused.

The confusion continues in the Gospel of St. John.  The fourth gospel is a top-down religious document that assumes from the get go the other worldly, inclusive mission of Jesus to all people. The gospel is thought to be the last of his writing and he lived into his Nineties. This new inclusive mission for Jesus required a new definition of Messiah.  John the Baptist says, “Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world.” V. 29   Also, John the Baptist testifies to seeing the Spirit come down from heaven as a dove and remain on him who will baptize with the Holy Spirit.  In verse 34 John again labels Jesus, “I have seen and I testify that this is the Son of God”.   Andrew, one of the first disciples, spends a day with Jesus at the direction of John the Baptist and then goes and tells his brother Simon Peter, “We have found the Messiah. (That is, the Christ)” v. 41

So which Jesus is in scripture, the savior of the few Jews or Jesus the savior of the many and a religious founder, icon? Jesus did not claim the religious messiahship of the Jewish people neither did he claim to begin a new religion called Christianity.  The biblical record is at the least very confused, whom should we believe, Matthew, Mark, Luke or John, these biblical writers were there, listening to Jesus yet all accounts are fractured having radically different accounts of the words of Jesus.  Why the confusion?

G. Goslaw

Landers, CA