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Is
your Christian faith based on the rock of inner understanding or the
shifting sand of man-made assumptions?
"Today,
many people have opened their minds to a higher understanding of
spiritual matters than what is found in traditional doctrines. Many
more people can bear the higher truth, and therefore Jesus has appeared
to give us that truth."
For
many mainstream Christians, the following assumptions are an integral
part of their faith, yet what if these assumptions were out of touch
with the reality of what Jesus taught? Would you want to know?
If so, let us take a look at these assumptions:
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If I met Jesus today – or if I had been alive 2,000 years
ago – I would instantly recognize him as the Living Christ.
-
If I recognized the Living Christ – even if he appeared
in an unexpected form – I would accept him and heed his
word.
-
If Jesus walked into my church today, he would approve of everything
he saw.
-
If Jesus really could speak to us today, he would never say anything
that contradicted or went beyond the doctrines, beliefs and practices
of my church.
Unfortunately, there is
virtually no scriptural support for any of these assumptions. In fact,
if you read the scriptures carefully, you will see that Jesus made
a deliberate effort to contradict all of these assumptions (most Jews
had the exact same assumptions about their religion). Jesus deliberately
sought to shake people out of their rigid and comfortable approach
to religion. Let us compare each assumption to what the scriptures
actually show us.
Assumption No. 1: If I met Jesus today
I would instantly recognize him as the Living Christ.
Hindsight is always 20/20.
Christians have spent 2,000 years building a culture around the person
of Jesus. If you have grown up in this culture, it is natural for
you to assume that you would instantly recognize Jesus. After all,
he always appeared in perfectly clean white robes with a halo around
his head, so how could you fail to see that he was not like other
men?
Yet the scriptures abundantly show that most of the people who met
Jesus in the flesh did not recognize him as the Messiah or as the
Living Christ. Why? Because he looked like any other man. That is
why it was necessary that Judas betray him—the soldiers who
came to arrest him could not tell him apart from his disciples.
Jesus himself made it clear that most people cannot recognize the
Living Christ:
15 He saith unto
them, But whom say ye that I am?
16 And Simon Peter answered and said, Thou art the Christ, the Son
of the living God.
17 And Jesus answered and said unto him, Blessed art thou, Simon
Barjona: for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but
my Father which is in heaven. (Matthew, Chapter 16)
In other words, “flesh
and blood” cannot reveal the Living Christ. What is “flesh
and blood?” Could it be the human mind, the human state of consciousness,
which Paul called the “carnal mind?” (1Corinthians 3:3)
What if most people are in a state
of consciousness where they simply cannot recognize the Living Christ?
But surely, those who are truly religious and who have faithfully
followed the doctrines and beliefs of the “only true”
Christian church” (however you define that church) would instantly
recognize the Living Christ. If so, how come those who had followed
the doctrines and beliefs of the Jewish religion (which they considered
the only true religion) did not recognize the Living Christ? These
were the very people – the scribes, lawyers, Pharisees, Sadducees
and temple priests – who plotted against Jesus and eventually
got him crucified.
What will it take for a human being to recognize the Living Christ?
What if we need to raise our consciousness? What if we need to follow
Paul’s call to:
Let this mind
be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: (Philippians
2:5)
Perhaps only when we allow
the mind of Christ to be in us can we recognize the Living Christ?
Incidentally, one of the main themes on this website is that you need
to put on the mind of Christ. There are numerous teachings and techniques
for how to accomplish this goal.
Assumption
No. 2: If I recognized the Living Christ – even if he appeared
in an unexpected form – I would accept him and heed his word.
We have just seen that
many of the most religious people of his time did not recognize Jesus
as the Messiah. The reason was that Jesus appeared in an unexpected
form. Perhaps the Living Christ always
appears in an unexpected form?
Perhaps this is part of the challenge—will people be willing
to look beyond their preconceived opinions in order to recognize the
Living Christ? Will they be willing to leave behind those opinions
to accept the Living Christ and heed his (or her) words?
Consider how Jesus gathered his disciples. Imagine that you are walking
down the street and an intense-looking man comes up to you and says,
“Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.” (Matthew
4:19). Would you “straightway”
leave everything to follow him?
The scriptures make it abundantly clear that many people heard Jesus
teach, saw him perform miracles and healings, yet they were not willing
to leave their familiar circumstances, beliefs or lifestyle in order
to truly follow the words of the Living Christ. Why? Because
to follow Christ you have to be willing to leave behind everything!
You have to be willing to leave your nets, which could be interpreted
to include your existing religious beliefs. That is why so many of
the most religious people were unwilling to follow Jesus. They were
too attached to the beliefs and practices – the nets –
with which they were familiar.
Is it hard to see that in today’s
world many Christians are also attached to their beliefs, practices
and lifestyle? Is it hard to imagine that if the Living Christ appeared
today and said something that was outside of mainstream doctrines,
then many Christians would reject him and refuse to heed his words?
This leads us to the next assumption.
Assumption No. 3: If Jesus walked
into my church today, he would approve of everything he saw.
If you read the scriptures
with an open mind, it is not hard to see that this could be a very
dangerous assumption. Jesus did not make a habit of agreeing with
the religious authorities of his time. He repeatedly challenged the
scribes, the Pharisees, the Sadducees, the lawyers and even the temple
priests. Is there really any reason
to believe that he would agree with the religious authorities of our
time, even though they call themselves Christians
and claim to be representatives of Christ on Earth?
Let us look at the scriptures. One of the most startling rebukes of
the religious establishment was given in Matthew 5:20:
For I say unto
you, That except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness
of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the
kingdom of heaven.
This is a rather shocking
statement because the scribes and Pharisees considered themselves
as belonging to the people who were guaranteed entry into the kingdom
of Heaven. What basis did they have for this certainty? They believed
they were doing everything right, and they based it on the fact that
they knew every letter of the outer law and that they were following
it—to the letter. They could recite the scriptures, they observed
all the rules, they never committed acts that were defined as sinful
and they participated in all the religious rituals. What
more could be necessary to gain entry into the kingdom?
Well, according to Jesus something more
is indeed necessary. Jesus repeatedly rebuked those
who did their alms in public (Matthew 6:1), who prayed in public (Matthew
6:5) and who in other ways overtly displayed their devotion. What
did Jesus want? Consider Matthew, Chapter 15:
15 Then answered
Peter and said unto him, Declare unto us this parable.
16 And Jesus said, Are ye also yet without understanding?
So Jesus obviously wanted
his followers to have understanding of his teachings, but he did not
want them to simply recite outer scriptures. He
wanted them to truly internalize his teachings and turn it into deep,
inner faith. Why isn’t it enough to follow outer
rules and doctrines; why do you need inner qualities before you can
enter the kingdom? Perhaps it has something to do with where the kingdom
is located. Consider Luke, Chapter 17:
20 And when he
was demanded of the Pharisees, when the kingdom of God should come,
he answered them and said, The kingdom of God cometh not with observation:
21 Neither shall they say, Lo here! or, lo there! for, behold, the
kingdom of God is within you.
How
many of today’s Christian churches have built a culture that
is strikingly similar to the culture of the scribes and Pharisees?
How many Christians seriously believe that they will automatically
be saved, because they belong to the only true Christian church, they
believe its doctrines, they follow its rules and they participate
in its rituals? How many believe they will automatically be saved
by the mere act that they have declared Jesus Christ to be their Lord
and Savior?
Yet what if these people are dancing
around a golden calf of their own making, a human idol that is out
of alignment with the reality of Jesus’ teachings?
According to this idol, the key to entering
the kingdom is to observe all the outer rules, so how could they possibly
miss the kingdom. They can miss it because they continue to look for
it outside themselves.
If the kingdom of God is within us, how could we possibly hope to
enter that kingdom by performing outer acts? Does it not seem logical
that we need to perform inner acts; we need to change our attitude
to life and our approach to religion, we need to gain true understanding
and we need to allow perfect love to cast out our fears (1John 4:18).
We need to stop focusing on the outer aspects of religion and find
an inner approach to religion. We need to:
And said, Verily
I say unto you, Except ye be converted, and become as little children,
ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven (Matthew
18:3).
Let this mind
be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: (Philippians
2:5).
In other words, perhaps
the real, inner message that Jesus came to bring is that the true
way to enter the kingdom of God – the inner kingdom –
is to raise our state of consciousness by putting on the wedding garment.
Unless we put on this wedding garment – which might be the mind
of Christ – we shall be bound hand and foot (by our own false
beliefs) and cast into outer darkness (Matthew 22:13). This darkness
exists in our own minds in the form of a false
sense of righteousness that causes us to focus on
outer things instead of truly internalizing the mind of Christ.
So if you carefully read the scriptures
and look at how often Jesus challenged the religious establishment,
are you still sure he would approve of everything that is going on
in your church? Or are you open to the idea that over
the past 2,000 years Christianity might have deviated from the true,
inner message of Jesus? Are you perhaps open to the idea that mainstream
Christianity has replaced Jesus' inner message with an outer message,
a man-made doctrine and culture that is beautiful on the outside but
might be full of dead men’s bones and therefore be unsuited
as a vehicle for getting you to the kingdom?
Assumption No. 4: If Jesus really
could speak to us today, he would never say anything that contradicted
or went beyond the doctrines, beliefs and practices of my church.
If this assumption was
true, then why did Jesus systematically challenge the doctrines, beliefs
and practices of the Jewish religion? Was it only because that religion
was not Christian, and therefore Christianity can never fall into
the same trap of becoming rigid and focused on outer rituals? Or was
Jesus actually challenging a universal problem that can be seen in
most religions, namely that religions tend to gradually become more
rigid and stifled? Was jesus challenging
the Jewish religion precisely because it had replaced the inner path
to a higher state of consciousness with rigid adherence of outer doctrines
and rituals?
Could it be that all religions have a tendency to become rigid, and
then they begin to advocate blind faith and a blind adherence to outer
rituals? Is that why Jesus said:
12 Then came
his disciples, and said unto him, Knowest thou that the Pharisees
were offended, after they heard this saying?
13 But he answered and said, Every plant, which my heavenly Father
hath not planted, shall be rooted up.
14 Let them alone: they be blind leaders of the blind. And if the
blind lead the blind, both shall fall into the ditch (Matthew,
Chapter 15).
Is
it possible that Jesus challenged the religious authorities because
they had set themselves up as the only link between man and God?
The Jewish culture was based on the belief that the only road to salvation
was through the outer religion and the priests who controlled that
religion. Do you see parallels to what
some Christian churches claim today and what many Christians believe?
Jesus did and said many things to challenge this culture of blindly
following the leaders of an outer religion. For example, he healed
a man on the sabbath (Matthew 12:10) and allowed his disciples to
pluck corn on the sabbath (Matthew 12:1). Yet his most powerful challenge
to the religious establishment was the seemingly simple statement
that the kingdom of God is within us. This statement challenged the
very foundation of the power of the outer religion. It states simply
that we don’t need an outer church and an outer church hierarchy
to reach God. Why not? How could you
need something outside yourself to get to the kingdom of God when
the kingdom of God is within you?
So is it realistic to believe that if the real, living Jesus Christ
were to speak to us today, his every word would conform to the doctrines
and beliefs of mainstream Christian churches?
Or is it more likely that
he would challenge those churches for having set themselves up as
the only link between man and God and the only road to salvation?
Would he not challenge any church for taking away “the key of
knowledge” as the lawyers had done (Luke 11:52)?
If you are open to any of these ideas, then study this website and
allow the real, living Jesus Christ
to tell you what you need to know in this age—even
if it contradicts or goes beyond the doctrines you have been brought
up to believe represent the only truth. Truly, only that which is
based on the mind of Christ can be truth, yet it is a Living Truth
that is never static or rigid. The reason being that as we expand
our understanding, Jesus can give us a deeper truth than he could
give us 2,000 years ago. Don't believe this? Just listen to Jesus'
own words:
I have yet many
things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now. (John
16:12)
Today,
many people have opened their minds to a higher understanding of spiritual
matters than what is found in traditional doctrines. Many more people
can bear the higher truth, and therefore Jesus has appeared to give
us that truth. So allow Jesus to give you the Living Word and the
Living Truth that he wants all people to have in this age. Receive
his cup of truth and understanding—and drink ye all of it!
Copyright
© 2009 by Kim Michaels |
