Was Jesus Crazy?

The New American Bible says at Mark 3:21: When his relatives heard of this they set out to seize him, for they said, "He is out of his mind." So, what was it that made Mary and Jesus' brothers and sisters think that he was crazy. The answer to this question lies in a recollection of who Jesus was and what he believed. First, we have to remember that Jesus was a Nasorean. Matthew 2:23. The Nasoreans had been around for at least 100 years by the time Jesus was born and had a definite point of view. One of the points of view held by the Nasoreans as set forth in the Community Rule is the idea that there would be three pillars which would rule the Nasorean community. Jesus believed that the Priestly Pillar would be John the Baptist, the Kingly Pillar was be Himself, and the Prophetic Pillar would be his brother, Jacob (James the Just). 

Jesus had been raised his entire life to believe in the three pillars and he believed strongly in the importance of each member of the triumvirate. Matthew has the story out of proper chronology. The proper chronology was Jesus was baptized by John, John was arrested, and Jesus went into the wilderness to be tested. See Matthew 4. Why did Jesus go into the wilderness? The paradigm that Jesus believed had been shattered. John was gone and Jesus did not understand how he could be a King without a High Priest. He went into the desert to die. He was overwhelmed. His world was completely mixed up. It is reasonable to believe that Mary and Jesus' brothers and sisters believed as he did. They were committed to the idea of the three pillars. 

While in the desert, like Elijah in his faith crisis, Jesus was visited by the Archangel Gavriel. He spoke to Jesus and said: "Jesus do you remember the prophecies concerning Melchizedek." Jesus said that he did. For the record, let us review those prophecies: 

    Melchizedek will return as the Messiah who will declare a day of favor from the Lord, announcing good news, salvation from the Enemy, comforting the mourning, and freeing the captives. 11Q 13 in the Dead Sea Scrolls, called the Coming of Melchizedek. Again:

     The heavens and the earth will listen to His Messiah, and none therein will stray from the commandments of the Holy Ones. ... Over the Evyon (the Poor)  His spirit will hover and will renew the faithful with his power. ... He will liberate the captives, restore sight to the blind, straighten the bent. ... For he will heal the wounded, and revive the dead and bring news to the Evyon (the Poor). 4Q521 from the Dead Sea Scrolls. 

So Jesus believed that when Melchizedek returned he would do all these things. Now another name for the Nasoreans was the Poor or Evyoni. The Archangel then said to Jesus, you are Melchizedek returned, you are the Priest-King of Jerusalem. You are the Messiah that was to come again. Restore the ancient sacrifices and the ancient ways. 

Jesus returned from the Wilderness filled with new ideas about who he was and what he was to do. Those ideas were radically different than the ideas he had been raised with. Those ideas would seem like madness to his relatives and to the Nasoreans. Those ideas would split the Nasorean Movement into those who supported Jesus and saw John as the precursor and those who thought Jesus was Satanic and John was the Messiah. The split continues even today between the Christians and the Mandaeans. 

Jesus went to Capernaum, not home to Nazareth. He began to preach as the Archangel had reminded him. He began to cast out demons and heal the sick. His mother and brothers and sisters came to see what he was doing. It all sounded wrong, different. They at first rejected him and even the Pharisees claimed he was possessed by Baalzebul. But Jesus was not crazy. He was the most sane of men. And from that time on, he was Melchizedek returned aiming to return to Jerusalem. 

Jesus set out on a different mission than the one prescribed for the Davidic Messiah. Those who wrote later were not steeped in the literature of the Nasoreans, so they made up a Messiah that resembled the Messiah of  David, but they failed to realize that Jesus was a different Messiah entirely. The last act of that Messiah was to  change the Mosaic Sacrifice forever, to end the bloody sacrifice of animals and to restore the Melchizedekan sacrifice of bread and wine. In the Clementine letters we are told specifically that the early church understood that the Eucharist was the replacement for the bloody sacrifice and the Eucharist is a sacrifice of bread and wine. Jesus was the Messiah of Melchizedek and he did all that that Messiah was to do. He was the Christ, an Elohim that descended from Heaven, and returned to Heaven as the Eternal High Priest, just like Melchizedek had been. 

Saved From What?

When a Jew says that he is seeking salvation he means that he wants to be free from his sins under the Torah and be brought into peace with the Holy One of Israel. However, Jesus was a Nazorean and the Nazoreans, also known as the Essenes, believed that a Messiah would soon come to the world and He would bring warfare and mass destruction. Jesus promised his disciples that he must die and rise from the dead. He promised them that He would come again on the clouds and with him would come a huge army of angels. Salvation for him meant that those who followed the Torah and believed in Him would be saved during the coming war and destruction. Membership in the Church was therefore an insurance policy that when all the coming war and destruction overcame the world, you would be saved. However, Jesus promised that he would come again to fulfill these prophecies before the last apostle died. 

By 95 CE, the last of the Apostles, Jude Thaddeus, called Thomas, was the only one of the Apostles still living and the events had not occurred. Instead the land of Israel had been devastated by the Roman armies and no angels had appeared to protect the people and save them. The Church leaders who had removed themselves from Jerusalem after the death of James decided that they must have misunderstood what Jesus was saying. As a result, the Gospel of John was written and in it salvation was redefined. 

In John's Gospel, one will be saved from hell by belief in the Name of Jesus. The book centers not so much upon what Jesus did but rather on who he was and also on how He performed the signs that He performed. Jesus was going to send the Holy Spirit as a comforter to protect believers until the time came for Jesus to return.  The book of John did believe in the imminent return of Jesus, but it decided that there would be no signs that would give us a clue as to when that time would be. 

In 2 Peter, the author, writing the last of the canonical letters, argues that Jesus is not slow. After all, for G-d a day is a thousand years and a thousand years is a day. People were losing faith in this religion of Jesus because not only did the religion, now co-opted by Pauline heresy, not have a strong moral and ethical basis, but in addition the prophecies of Jesus had appeared to be false in that they had not come to pass in the time he had said they would. 

The Revelation of St. John was written by a disciple of a disciple of John according to Eusebius in his Ecclesia  Historia. Eusebius doubted that it was an inspired book but rather argued that it was a false prophecy and should not be admitted into the then incomplete canon of Scripture. However, in order to keep further erosion of the Church, the pagan Emperor Constantine the Great conspired and tricked the Council of Nicaea into accepting the book into the Canon instead of Enoch, a book which was considered sacred by the Nasoreans and by Jesus and his family as is demonstrated by the Letter of Jude. It was necessary to have Revelation in order to give Christians an imaginary something to be saved from even though Jesus did not mean salvation from an afterlife hell but rather salvation from a current everyday real hell on Earth. 

So what do we do with Christianity? First of all, we return to the Gospel of Matthew and to the Torah which Jesus left us with a command to do much better than the Pharisees. See Matthew 5:19-21. Second, we require Gentiles to be circumcised and to keep the Sabbath and kosher laws. Isaiah 56:1-7. Third, we start saying the Eucharist around a pot luck meal on Friday just after sundown. Fourth, we abolish Paul and everything tainted by him and restore the ancient books of the Nazorean faith. Then and only then will Gentiles and Jews be saved from hell and the destruction when Messiah Jesus returns. 

A Modern Parable: The Crumbling Basilica of the Nativity

Jesus made a habit of teaching in parables. In the modern age, the church that claims Him as its Lord has a story to tell that is very much a parable on what is left behind in His Name.

Some 1650 years ago, St. Helena, the mother of the Emperor Constantine the Great made a pilgrimage to the Holy Land. She started a trend that continues to this very day at the rate of over 3,000,000 people per year. Those who come to the Holy Land come to see many things but the most popular places are the places that Jesus walked and performed his miracles. Two of the most beloved places are the Church of the Holy Sepulchre and the Basilica of the Nativity. Because of their importance, several denominations claim the right to be present at these churches. In the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, the Roman Catholics, the Greek Orthodox, the Armenians, and the Coptics claim equal authority and at the Basilica of the Nativity, the Roman Catholics, the Greek Orthodox, and the Armenians claim equal rights. 

These competing claims have created a tradition which says that the denomination which makes a repair has ownership rights to that which is repaired. This tradition has been a major obstacle to maintenance at both churches. The Basilica of the Nativity was built in the fourth century and torn down and rebuilt in the sixth century by the Emperor Justinian. For 1500 years, the Basilica, once adorned with mosaics and artwork, has been neglected due to this tradition. Since 1461, it has been noted that the roof is in disrepair, that the beams are rotting away, that the roof leaks and is destroying the mosaics and artwork, and that the competing parties cannot agree to repair any of the problems. 

The problem has become so acute that the Palestinian Liberation Organization, a mostly Muslim group, has decided that the 2,000,000 visitors yearly to the Basilica are in grave danger. This danger threatens the very economy in the West Bank. The Muslims cannot afford to wait for the Christians to deal with their problems anymore. So, despite the poverty and needs of the people of the West Bank, the PLO has decided that the roof must be repaired at the cost of $10,000,000 to $15,000,000. This is money that is meant for the starving poor, but in order to guarantee that there will be some tourist dollars, the PLO must spend the money to save the roof of a Christian church.  What a disgrace. 

The parable is that Jesus prayed in the Gospel of John that Christians would all be in agreement even as He and His Father were in agreement. At the first, it seemed as if his prayer was being answered, but just as this shiny new church built 1500 years ago has become decrepit and dangerous so also has the Christian faith become decrepit and dangerous. Various branches of the faith -- Catholic, Orthodox, Armenian, Coptic, and Protestant -- have ignored the words of Jesus and allowed their petty differences to keep them from what is important. Jesus told them that on the day of Judgment they would be judged by how they feed the poor, visited the sick and prisoner, and showed forth love to each other. But in our modern day, we are left with Muslims, despised due to terrorists, to fix the Holy Sites of the Christianity. The Church where Jesus was born has joined the homeless and the wealth that has come to those who claim his name is spent on warfare rather than peace. 

Perhaps, today is a good day to change all of this. For just one penny per Christian person, $20,000,000 can be raised to fix the Basilica of the Nativity and make it safe for the faithful. The seamless garment conceived by Jesus and represented by the clothes he wore to his execution may begin to be repaired by a joint act of all Christians to repair his birthplace. We should be shamed that we spend more money in America keeping up the shrines to Lincoln, Washington, Grant, Kennedy, and Martin Luther King than what it would take to repair the birthplace of Jesus the Christ. 

Merry Christmas

The Argument for the Cicumcision of Gentiles

The Book of Acts written by Luke, the secretary of Paul, alleges that the Council of Jerusalem authorized the Gentiles to join the Church without the requirement of circumcision. I want to consider whether this alleged act of the Council is in fact the Will of G-d.

Abram was a Gentile. When he was 99 years old, El the Almighty appeared to him and made a covenant with him promising to make him the Father of Nations and to give him the Land of Canaan. In return, El required that all the males of Abram's house must be circumcised, including the slaves of the house. So, G-d El specifically required that those who would attach themselves to Abraham must be circumcised whether they be Jews or Gentiles. Genesis 17:9-14. Now the Jews understood that this covenant required them to circumcise their sons and the Arabs likewise understood that they must circumcise their sons. So, how do we reconcile the claim that the Holy Spirit, the representative of El, would allow for Gentiles to follow El or Yeshua without being circumcised.

The Prophecies of Isaiah as included in the book by his name are heavily quoted as proof-texts to prove that Jesus was the promised Messiah. One passage in the Prophet Isaiah is Chapter 56:1-8 in which the Prophet prophesies that the Gentiles would become believers. A reflection on that Chapter would be useful in this current discussion.

One possible translation of the Isaiah 56:1-7 is: "Thus says YHVH: Observe what is right, do what is just; for My Jesus is about to come, my Justice, about to be revealed. Happy is the man who does this, the Son of Man who holds to it; who keeps the Sabbath free from profanation, and his hand from any evildoing. Let not the foreigner say, when he would join himself to YHVH, 'YHVH will surely exclude me from his people'; nor let the eunuch say, 'See I am a dry tree.' For thus says YHVH: To the eunuchs who observe my Sabbaths and choose what pleases me and hold fast to MY Covenant, I will give, in my house and within my walls, a monument and a Name better than Sons and Daughters; an eternal, imperishable Name will I give them. And the foreigners who join themselves to YHVH ministering to him, loving the Name of YHVH, and becoming his servants -- all who keep the Sabbath free from profanation and hold to My Covenant, them I will bring to MY HOLY MOUNTAIN and make joyful in MY HOUSE OF PRAYER; their holocausts and sacrifices will be acceptable on my altar, for MY HOUSE shall be called A HOUSE OF PRAYER for all peoples."

The Prophet specifically says that during the time of the coming of His Jesus a pouring out of the Spirit will allow the Gentiles to be joined to YHVH provided they do certain things: First, keep the Sabbath free from profanation; second, hold fast to His Covenant; third, love the Name of YHVH and  become YHVH's servants; fourth, offer sacrifices. Now, we know that one must keep a Sabbath rest on the Sabbath day, Saturday. We know that we are to love YHVH with all our heart, mind and soul. But what does YHVH mean when he says "hold fast to MY COVENANT". The Gentiles did not have a covenant with YHVH to keep the Torah. But they did have a covenant to be circumcised, see Genesis above. Thus, the Covenant which the  foreigner, the eunuch and all the Gentiles must keep is circumcision.

Some will try to argue that Jesus never required that Gentiles keep the covenant of circumcision and I would agree that he never directly said that. But, he did allude to the requirement to be circumcised. At Mark 11:15-17, Mark records the cleansing in the Temple. This alleged cleansing was not in the Temple proper, but was rather in the Court of Gentiles. Jesus says: " Is it not written: My house shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples." Jesus is therefore quoting from Isaiah 56:1-7 where it is promised that the Court of Gentiles would be called a HOUSE OF PRAYER FOR ALL PEOPLES. Isaiah specifically mentions that all of this will occur on Mt. Zion, the Holy Mountain, and that it will occur in the Court of Gentiles and it promises that the sacrifices of the Gentiles will be more acceptable than those of the Jews because of their Love of the Name of YHVH. Now the Name of YHVH is the Archangel of the Presence. See Exodus 23:21. And the Archangel of the Presence is Jesus. So we see that Jesus is the one upon who the Name of YHVH rests and that he is therefore the personification of the Name. Jesus had all of this in mind when he was cleansing the Temple.

This is one more proof that the lies of Paul and his cohorts must be denied. We know as a fact that James taught that all must be circumcised in order to become members of the House of Jesus and Abraham. Paul lies when he says that circumcision of Gentiles is not required.

In order for Gentiles to be accepted into the Nasorean faith, they must be mikvahed (baptised) in the name of Abraham and Yeshua (Jesus), they must be circumcised, they must keep the Sabbath, and they must offer the sacrifices of the Church.

State of Missouri vs. the Roman Catholic Church

The Constitution forbids Congress or the States or the Local Governments from inhibiting the free exercise of religion. Passing a law which makes the Church an arm of the State is unconstitutional. Making a Pastor decide between obeying a law and helping a person in his care is wrong and illegal. The State of Missouri and the County Prosecutor of Jackson County, Missouri wanted Bishop Finn and the Catholic Church to tell them that Father Shawn Ratigan had downloaded pictures of a little girl who was naked. The Church and Bishop Finn did that, but they did not do it until they had tried to act as a loving Pastor toward Fr. Ratigan. Bishop Finn acted correctly and the State is wrong to criticize.

Consider that in 325 A.D., Constantine the Great made the Church an arm of the State and down that slippery slope we saw freedom of religion vanish. Consider that the Catholic Church strongly opposes the lawful treatment of illegals in this country. Consider that if the Bishop can be held accountable for not turning Father Ratigan over until he had exhausted his Pastoral duties to him then he can be held guilty for not turning in the illegals in his congregations. Consider those things he does which the Church approves but the State does not. Do we really want to go down the slippery slope of allowing the State to decide what the Church should do? I for one dislike Bishop Finn but I for one support him in this crisis. If religious people do not stand up now, they will eventually see the State dictating what they can believe and do. What is the difference between Fascist Germany and Communist Russia if we start interfering with the lawful work of the Church?

Now here is what I propose. The Pope should place Jackson County, Missouri under interdict. He should refuse to allow Masses to be said, people to be buried, children to be baptized, people to be confirmed and stop his Priests and Nuns from performing any act until the People of Jackson County recall the County Prosecutor and the Judge who is hearing this case. He should order Catholics to refuse to recognize the government of Jackson County, Missouri until it restores freedom of religion. He should excommunicate those catholics who were members of that illegal Grand Jury. He should withdraw his Papal Legate and should appeal to the International Court to arrest the criminal Prosecutor who is orchestrating this outrage. The Pope should make it clear the separation of Church and State is a two way street. If the State wants to be involved in the Church, the Church can get involved in the State and shut it down.















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Monarchy vs. Democracy

Every Jewish prayer begins: "Baruch atah Adonai Elohenu melech ha olam ..." This means Blessed are you O Lord, our G-d, King of the World. James, Paul, and Peter aspire to be slaves of G-d and Yeshua ha Meshiach. e.g. James 1:1. Somewhere along the way Americans and Europeans came to believe that Heaven is a democracy and entrance was guaranteed for those who believed in Heaven. Where did that come from?

Acts 2:44 clearly says that the primitive Church was a commune run on the communist principle of each according to his need. It was interesting that all the early church were loafers and spent their time praying and waiting for the Jesus to return.

The claims of religious people that G-d supports democracy are false. Hell is a democracy. It is chaotic and fraught with difficulties. The orderly Kingdom of Heaven is an autocratic theocracy with G-d as King and Yeshua as Prime Minister and Regent. The Lord knows your every thought and always has. The thought police are in full control. The fact that they gently at first try to correct us and keep us on the Path doing what G-d Wills is followed by more drastic acts when we refuse.

The claims that G-d supports capitalism, a system built upon greed and focused more on greed in America by the so-called American Dream, are also false. G-d supports work. He supports sharing. He supports everyone contributing. He supports inventions to make life easier, but he supports giving them away rather than accumulating large amounts of wealth in return for their creation.

The best system of government is one with a divinely appointed Judge who is both Prophet and Arbiter. This government has no bureaucracy and the decisions of the Judge are enforced by G-d and the People who accept that this person is the one appointed by G-d. This system would be sort of an Ayatollah Khomeini without the support of the State of Iran or the Pope without the structure of the Church.

When the Meshiach comes, according to Jewish, Christian, and Muslim theologians, He will Rule and Reign. He will come with an army. He will enforce his Will for 1,000 years. Most, the vast majority, who have never learned to accept the Hand of G-d on their heads, will chafe under His Rule. When the Rule ends, as Revelation reports, the Devil will have easy pickings and most people will follow him and his promises of democracy and freedom. Those people will die forever.

What is a religious person to do. First, vote for the person who is godly. (This should give you much pause and difficulty.) Second, ask whether our acts contribute to the reign of G-d or to the reign of Satan. Third, live in accordance with the Golden Rule mediated by the 613 Mitzvoth of the Torah. Fourth, challenge every claim.

If every one followed these rules, the world would change and the Meshiach would never come because Heaven would descend to earth now. This world will never happen. It did not happen for the idealistic communist or the Adam Smith capitalist or the devout Christian. It cannot happen until Meshiach comes.

Haters and Scripture

I went to the Council Grove Christian Church, a fundamentalist independent church which functions under the governance of a local board, and found a congregation that thrives on hate. I was almost taken in. I went for two weeks and my treatment was open and welcoming. This week a small video was shown that showed the nation of Qatar. The Pastor decried the wealth of the Qatari and the fact that they invited persons from other Asian nations to work for their people. He stated that the people were crying out for G-d and that they needed Jesus. I noticed that in the evening they would have a supposed expert on Communism that would tell you why it was still a threat and next week someone would talk about Mormonism. Such falsehoods here expressed made me wonder whether their smiling faces were all the way to trick the Rabbi into coming their direction.

Jesus never once spoke against any other religious faith. He spoke about Jews and how Jews should act, not believe. Some churches thrive on instilling fear in their people and then like a parasite they feed off of that fear and stroke it and teach it. It is much easier to teach hate and fear than it is to teach the duty to love ones neighbor. In Jesus day, the Mormons of the day were called Samaritans (still are) and the Jews hated them, not because they did not keep the Torah, but because they were not following the authorities in Jerusalem. Mormons have many laudable qualities, openness being excepted as they have none. They are getting back what they give, but lest someone throw a stone at my house, which I believe is built on rock and out of stone, I will defend the right of a person to follow their teachings. I am not afraid of a defeated "ism" or an "ism" like capitalism which has no protection against greed. I have no fear of Mormonism, Islam, Buddhism, etc. My faith is right for me and the existence of contrary views does not challenge me.

I went to the web site of this Council Grove Christian Church and found that they believe that the bible is inerrant. For those of you that still feel that the bible does not have any errors, I recommend Bart Ehrman's new book Forged.  This book will show you why the Bible is not free from errors. In fact he argues strongly that forgeries made it into the new testament. Based upon his criteria, the book of Deuteronomy is a forgery and was not sanctioned by Moses. However, I have told you before, the only portion of the scripture which was written from on high were the 613 mitzvot or commandments. All the rest of scripture is written by man and must be read within the context of its writing so that you can discern what comes from G-d and what does not.

Council Grove is not the desert or the wilderness in a physical since, but Council Grove, Kansas is intellectually the desert and yet there are those who seek to water in this desert. Mrs. McClintock asked me to lead a group which would talk about the hot issues of the day: political, scientific, and religious. There are those who hunger for truth here.

So long from the desert.