Robert J. Karris, at the conclusion of his commentary on ACTS OF THE APOSTLES Chapter 10:1 to 11:18, writes”God saves Hindus and Buddhists who do not believe in Jesus. If this is true, why be a Christian?”
My Protestant Commentary on the same passage has a lot more to say but backs off from the fullness of Karris’ comment.
To my mind this is because The Protestant Church, having at its birth having proclaimed The Pope Anti-Christ can not allow itself to see so a vast a statement of the love of God.
The Roman Catholic Church, of course, can embrace the idea.
Karris’s question, “If this is true, why be a Christian?” is THE question. My feeling is that it is a question each of us has to ask for them self.
I have answered it for myself. A question such as that demands knowledge of as much of the facts and issues we can gather. I don’t have at hand everything I would like to have. I do have more than enough.
Ian Wilson is one of the most prolific writers on THE SHROUD OF TURIN with several books to his credit. I re-read Wilson’s book, MURDER AT GOLGOTHA, yesterday. Having just gotten the boot from the Facebook page of Canada’s largest Protestant Church for affirming what that church now denies and having often heard and read that The Apostles did not see Jesus as God I found myself siting electric when I read the following (incorrectly identified in Wilson’s book as John 24: 27-28. There is no John 24): John 20:26-28 New International Version (NIV)
26 A week later his disciples were in the house again, and Thomas was with them. Though the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you!” 27 Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here; see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it into my side. Stop doubting and believe.” 28 Thomas said to him, “My Lord and my God!”
( https: //www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=John+20%3A+26-28&version=NIV )
Whatever doubts Thomas had they were erased completely. He refers to the Risen Jesus as “My Lord and my God.”
Nor is he the only one.
Many writers write what they want to say without thoroughly thinking through the ideas they are dealing with.
No where does this happen more than with Jesus.
In JESUS THE EVIDENCE Wilson informs us that the historical Jesus, being from Galilee, dropped his “aitches.” That was what a Galilean accent was. To borrow from writer Thomas Cahill, Galilee was “bumfuck Israel.”
Imagine hearing THE SERMON FROM THE MOUNT not from the mouth of a skilled actor, orator or from a church pulpit but rather on a hill with breezes softly blowing from the mouth of a country carpenter who dropped his “aitches.”
Aitches or no aitches we are told this man had a presence that commanded attention from thousands who listened intently while he spoke.
Charles Brabazon, in his poem, THE FACE ON THE TURIN SHROUD, describes beautifully what it is to confront the man on the shroud.
Frederic Zugibe, in his book THE CRUCIFIXION OF JESUS, provides the most comprehensive study of The Shroud from a forensic examiner, a man used to performing autopsies. In it I learned that the idea that Jesus sweat blood in the garden of Gethsemane prior to his arrest is not metaphor but a real condition brought on by intense stress ( http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2810702/ ).
Too often it is said that people turn to the idea of God because they haven’t got what it takes to live in this world.
What this statement ignores is that the men and women who followed The Nazarene, as Jesus was called then, did so knowing that they placed their lives at risk. And not just at risk but at risk of the absolute worst punishment conjured up by that creature that calls itself Humanity. Nothing humane about it.
We have no idea today what a stumbling block it was and still is to say not only that God became Flesh in the person of Jesus of Nazareth but also that God did so knowing that this man Jesus would be called to be tested as has no man before or since.
Small wonder he sweat blood in anticipation of the gauntlet he had to walk.
Wilson’s MURDER AT GOLGOTHA literally poured out of him after seeing the Mel Gibson movie, THE PASSION OF THE CHRIST. Prior to reading this book I did not know that Gibson based his movie not on THE GOSPELS and THE NEW TESTAMENT writers but, rather, on the visions of Sister Anne Emmerich (http://www.beliefnet.com/Faiths/Christianity/2004/02/Another-Scriptwriter-For-Mel-Gibsons-Passion.aspx). This certainly accounts for the hysterical nature of the Gibson film, one too many are content to accept.
Ian Wilson, luckily for us, is among those who do not accept the Gibson version.
In MURDER AT GOLGOTHA he writes at depth about how Gibson got it wrong.
This is important. Too many forget that Jesus came not to judge or to damn but to save. Of course, there is the joke, “Jesus Saves. Moses invests.”
Those whom Jesus has touched deeply invest their lives, however, in an idea that we know from the start is not a welcome one.
“I don’t deserve to be crucified right side up. Please crucify me up side down,” we are told Peter said when his moment came. Paul, being a Roman Citizen, could not be crucified. He was beheaded.
I love it when people say this is all merely a metaphor. No one goes knowingly to their death for the sake of a metaphor as we know the Apostles did https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apostle_(Christian) .
The failure of many to grasp even a glimpse of the fullness of Peter’s Vision is brought out here: http://www.all-creatures.org/discuss/svtacts10.1-11.18-flh.html . In their travels to spread the ideas they had been given THE APOSTLES would be be invited into many homes that an orthodox Jew bound to THE LAW simply could not enter. As well, they would be presented with the full hospitality of those homes which means that foods would be presented to them. There is nothing more offensive than to refuse the hospitality of one’s host by saying the food you have been given to eat is unclean.
Would that those who grasp this idea as an excuse to eat pork and other foods THE LAW considers unclean would only embrace the bigger idea.
Those who do grasp the fullness are with Paul:
Romans 7:19King James Version (KJV)
19 For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do.
https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Romans+7%3A19&version=KJV
We know we do not deserve the gift we have been given. We offer that gift knowing that many will say, “My lips have never touched anything common or unclean.”
Too bad for them.
Some say that I can not be in the Faith because I show films and give talks that no God fearing person would show or give.
Maybe God fearing people won’t. God loving people will.
For with the Nazarene nothing is common or unclean.
For more on THE SHROUD OF TURIN go here: https://www.shroud.com
To see an authorized life size replica come to The Cineforum. Bring some wine. Pick up a beer from THE BEER STORE across the street. There is no fee. Jesus gave his life for the world. I can give you a few moments of my time to allow you to meditate fully on the price we are all called to pay. Jesus led the way. We pick up our cross and follow.
As for those who say THE SHROUD OF TURIN is a fake. Let them say it. Barbara Frale has access to information most do not. She has filled in the gap.
We are what we are becoming. What are we becoming” Meister Eckhart wrote, “We have the seed of God in us. Hazel seeds grow hazel trees. Pear seeds grow pear trees. God seeds grow….”
John writes, “To those who receive him he gives the power to become the begotten children of God and our birth is not by flesh, blood nor the will nor power of man but by God.”
The slaves, the lowest of the low, understood what today many who call themselves saved do not.
The slaves understood that in Christ they were equal not only to their masters but also to God.
Christianity at its best is pure blasphemy. It is daring to see ourself as equal to our Father.
That takes balls.
In India a “spiritual leader” led over 400 men to castrate themselves on the promise they would meet God http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/spiritual-leader-allegedly-manipulated-400-men-into-removing-testicles-to-be-closer-to-god-10078095.html .
Too many who think themselves on a spiritual path castrate themselves.
Why would God want to meet a bunch of men with no balls? Why would God want to meet with a bunch of men so silly they let themselves be castrated for a promise?
Last night I was in Gethsemane’s Garden.
This morning I am ready for anything.
Hope you are, too. Can a fool be corrected? This fool was.
How are we to approach God? As a child approaches their father for he is father of all. “Abba.” “Daddy.”
Many say only Jesus could do what he did. Jesus said, “What I have done you can do and more.” Let us see what, God’s grace, we can do. We are the begotten Children of God whether we accept it or not.–Reg Hartt, 4/20/2016.
While you are here watching MURDER IN THE CATHEDRAL you cam meditate upon THE SHROUD OF TURIN. How anyone can look at this and choose not to see what is written on it is something I do not understand. One day I will.
This book deals authoritatively with all aspects of what THE SHROUD OF TURIN is, is not, and bears witness to.
http://www.amazon.com/Jesus-The-Evidence-Ian-Wilson/dp/0895262398
Crime Scene Golgotha approaches Jesus’s Crucifixion from the perspective of a crime scene investigator: What do we know is fact? What can be historically documented? What can we deduce may have happened?
Taking the popular CSI television dramas as inspiration, Crime Scene Golgotha is a direct reaction to Mel Gibson’s much talked about movie The Passion of the Christ. Ian Wilson systematically outlines what is known for sure about Jesus’s trial and crucifixion, as well as where art and the movies have gone astray. His investigatory methods include eyewitness testimony (that of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John), archeology, medical and forensic findings, and history, which systematically describe the most famous murder in history.
A very good commentary on THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES.
Barbara Frale’s THE KNIGHTS TEMPLAR AND THE SHROUD OF TURIN. Barbara Frale, the historian and researcher at the secret Vatican archive said she has found the words “Jesus Nazarene” on the Shroud Of Turin, proving it was the linen cloth which was wrapped around Christ’s body.