Monday, July 2, 2018

Origin of Roman Catholic Church – 76

Continued from previous post –

The question we must deal with is what could possibly motivate Jesus to live his entire life as a lie? Or did he really lived as that? He taught that God was opposed to lying and hypocrisy, so he would not have been doing it to please his Father. He certainly did not lie for his followers’ benefit, since all but one was martyred rather than renouncing his Lordship. John the Baptist was his predecessor who was similarly chastised by Jew Priesthood for the same reason. Jew priesthood was haunted by the presumption of their own making that these two are their competitor in the business of religion. Even though, the situation was not that. Neither John the Baptist nor Jesus were interested in establishing any new religion but they only wanted to enlighten common masses of that region, they were working for all people and not only for Jews. Mostly they were working for Areamian people who were living in the same region. Therefore, we are left with only two other reasonable explanations, each of which is problematic.
Many people have lied for personal gain. In fact, the motivation of most lies is some perceived benefit to oneself. What could Jesus have hoped to gain from lying about his identity? Power would be the most obvious answer. If people believed he was God, he would have tremendous power. (That is why many ancient leaders, such as the Caesars, claimed divine origin.)
The rub with this explanation is that Jesus shunned all attempts to move him in the direction of seated power, instead chastising those who abused such power and lived their lives pursuing it. He also chose to reach out to the outcasts (prostitutes and lepers), those without power, creating a network of people whose influence was less than zero. In a way that could only be described as bizarre, all that Jesus did and said moved diametrically in the other direction from power.
It would seem that if power was Jesus’ motivation, he would have avoided the cross at all costs. Yet, on several occasions, he told his disciples that the cross was his destiny and mission. How would dying on a Roman cross bring one power?
Death, of course, brings all things into proper focus. And while many martyrs have died for a cause they believed in, few have been willing to die for a known lie. Certainly all hopes for Jesus’ own personal gain would have ended on the cross.
Yet, to his last breath, he would not relinquish his claim of being the unique Son of God.

Continues in the next post –

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