Richard Aberdeen
Member
- Joined
- Jun 4, 2026
- Messages
- 176
Jesus is presented throughout the New Testament as the friend of sinners and regular average people. And he is also presented as the enemy of orthodox conservative religion, which he seems to have passionately hated. Later both Stephen and Paul in Acts insist that God "does not live in temples made with hands", representing a complete rejection of both the Jewish religion, as well as all of the Greek, Roman and other religions of the New Testament era.
Such unmatched bravery resulted in a whole lot of trouble for both Stephen and Paul. It is more than fair to consider both Islam and Christianity and any other religions with the bad habit of building expensive buildings, rather than using the same money to help the sick and feed, clothe and house the poor, as being anathema, against God Almighty.
Religion invariably places us under laws, rules, regulations and/or vain traditions. Jesus frees us from laws, rules, regulations and vain traditions. What part of we "are not under law, but under grace" do modern Christians fail to understand Romans 6:14?
In the New Testament, we find the most progressive of all teaching, for in Jesus we are all of equal status, standing, authority and importance. This does not mean to imply that God is not of central importance to the message of Jesus but rather, what is commonly understood in the modern age as 'religion' has nothing in common with Jesus.
According to James 1:27: "Pure and undefiled religion before God and the father is this, to visit orphans and widows in their trouble and, to keep oneself unspotted from the world system." This is the only time the word religion appears in the entire Bible and James strongly implies there is no other religion acceptable to God.
When not otherwise referring to the planet (as in "go into all the world") or to humanity ("for God so loved the people"), what is badly translated as "world" and should be translated "world system", refers to the world system of evil, based on the love of wealth and, personified as the ***** of Babylon.
Unlike modern American Christians are taught, the must have toys and trinkets of modern capitalism, as well as modern capitalism itself, are part of the "world system" of evil that the New Testament admonishes us to not be caught up in and/or enamored with. "Do not love the world. . ." is more accurately translated as "do not love the world system, neither the things that are in the world system" I John 2:15.
The New Testament authors use the same root "kosmos" to refer to the planet, the people of the planet and, the world system of evil; Greek "kosmos" means all three of these, depending on context. Both Greek and Hebrew, like most if not all major languages, contain many words with multiple meanings.
Obviously, it matters significantly whether the author's intention is entire earth, as opposed to the people or, to the global system of evil and, to translate all of this as simply "world" in modern bibles is gravely misleading. Throughout human history and long before any concept of capitalism existed, the "kings of the earth" are seen as bowing down to the world system of evil; placing their palaces, opulence, power and wealth ahead of the best interests of common average people.
And quite obviously, this reality abounds all over the earth today, where the rich and powerful live in splendor, while like Jesus prophesied, the poor have long remained among us as a result of human greed. According to modern behavioral scientists, modern psychology is finally coming to terms with the fact that there is a very dark and twisted "personality" lurking deep within all human beings, which the Bible has claimed for thousands of years.
And like Jeremiah long ago says, science agrees that such darkness deep within is deceitful as to our true surface intentions; see Jeremiah 17:9. Calling "sin" something else does not change the reality of our dark and dangerous human condition one iota, nor the horrendous greed, hatred, war and other violence, racism, slavery, murder, rape, theft, lies, mass pollution and corruption that human sin causes The Dark Core of Human Personality.
Unlike many modern people naively assume, there is no clear evidence that humanity is morally progressing forward or, that people in general today are any more moral than the populations of ancient Sumer, Babylon and Egypt. The immoral reality of modern humanity is clearly seen in the rapidly growing unprecedented disparity of wealth on open 21st Century global display, along with the ongoing design and production of ever-worse weapons of mass destruction by scientists who should know better. It seems that no nation on earth is ever satisfied with enough wealth or weapons.
How many modern priests, television evangelists, religious book authors and/or preachers today use all of the money they collect, often from poor widows and other poor but sincere folks, to help the poor, widows and orphans? And how many among them, like James, Peter, Paul, John and the rest of the early followers of Jesus, remain poor themselves? Jesus went after people with a whip who tried to profit from God and, it is highly unlikely he views this modern very bad habit of Christianity with any less vitriol.
According to the Bible, God does not live in temples made with hands Acts 7:48, "heaven and the heaven of heavens cannot contain" God I Kings 8:27 and, in God we live and move and have our being" Acts 17:28. This is hardly a "little man in the sky, as many poorly schooled modern sycophants of atheism falsely pretend. In fact, it appears to agree with modern theories of multiple universes ("heaven of heavens") and, it remains the only ancient concept of God continuing to match the known modern evidence.
Perhaps most of us don't really think through very carefully what the word "God" even begins to imply. "Eternal Creator" satisfies origins and rationally explains both our own existence and that of the larger universal reality. Atheism on the other hand, doesn't rationally explain anything at all, is not based on any evidence and thus, is scientifically irrational and utterly worthless; offering no solution or hope for us wayward "human beings".
In Search of the Real Jesus
Such unmatched bravery resulted in a whole lot of trouble for both Stephen and Paul. It is more than fair to consider both Islam and Christianity and any other religions with the bad habit of building expensive buildings, rather than using the same money to help the sick and feed, clothe and house the poor, as being anathema, against God Almighty.
Religion invariably places us under laws, rules, regulations and/or vain traditions. Jesus frees us from laws, rules, regulations and vain traditions. What part of we "are not under law, but under grace" do modern Christians fail to understand Romans 6:14?
In the New Testament, we find the most progressive of all teaching, for in Jesus we are all of equal status, standing, authority and importance. This does not mean to imply that God is not of central importance to the message of Jesus but rather, what is commonly understood in the modern age as 'religion' has nothing in common with Jesus.
According to James 1:27: "Pure and undefiled religion before God and the father is this, to visit orphans and widows in their trouble and, to keep oneself unspotted from the world system." This is the only time the word religion appears in the entire Bible and James strongly implies there is no other religion acceptable to God.
When not otherwise referring to the planet (as in "go into all the world") or to humanity ("for God so loved the people"), what is badly translated as "world" and should be translated "world system", refers to the world system of evil, based on the love of wealth and, personified as the ***** of Babylon.
Unlike modern American Christians are taught, the must have toys and trinkets of modern capitalism, as well as modern capitalism itself, are part of the "world system" of evil that the New Testament admonishes us to not be caught up in and/or enamored with. "Do not love the world. . ." is more accurately translated as "do not love the world system, neither the things that are in the world system" I John 2:15.
The New Testament authors use the same root "kosmos" to refer to the planet, the people of the planet and, the world system of evil; Greek "kosmos" means all three of these, depending on context. Both Greek and Hebrew, like most if not all major languages, contain many words with multiple meanings.
Obviously, it matters significantly whether the author's intention is entire earth, as opposed to the people or, to the global system of evil and, to translate all of this as simply "world" in modern bibles is gravely misleading. Throughout human history and long before any concept of capitalism existed, the "kings of the earth" are seen as bowing down to the world system of evil; placing their palaces, opulence, power and wealth ahead of the best interests of common average people.
And quite obviously, this reality abounds all over the earth today, where the rich and powerful live in splendor, while like Jesus prophesied, the poor have long remained among us as a result of human greed. According to modern behavioral scientists, modern psychology is finally coming to terms with the fact that there is a very dark and twisted "personality" lurking deep within all human beings, which the Bible has claimed for thousands of years.
And like Jeremiah long ago says, science agrees that such darkness deep within is deceitful as to our true surface intentions; see Jeremiah 17:9. Calling "sin" something else does not change the reality of our dark and dangerous human condition one iota, nor the horrendous greed, hatred, war and other violence, racism, slavery, murder, rape, theft, lies, mass pollution and corruption that human sin causes The Dark Core of Human Personality.
Unlike many modern people naively assume, there is no clear evidence that humanity is morally progressing forward or, that people in general today are any more moral than the populations of ancient Sumer, Babylon and Egypt. The immoral reality of modern humanity is clearly seen in the rapidly growing unprecedented disparity of wealth on open 21st Century global display, along with the ongoing design and production of ever-worse weapons of mass destruction by scientists who should know better. It seems that no nation on earth is ever satisfied with enough wealth or weapons.
How many modern priests, television evangelists, religious book authors and/or preachers today use all of the money they collect, often from poor widows and other poor but sincere folks, to help the poor, widows and orphans? And how many among them, like James, Peter, Paul, John and the rest of the early followers of Jesus, remain poor themselves? Jesus went after people with a whip who tried to profit from God and, it is highly unlikely he views this modern very bad habit of Christianity with any less vitriol.
According to the Bible, God does not live in temples made with hands Acts 7:48, "heaven and the heaven of heavens cannot contain" God I Kings 8:27 and, in God we live and move and have our being" Acts 17:28. This is hardly a "little man in the sky, as many poorly schooled modern sycophants of atheism falsely pretend. In fact, it appears to agree with modern theories of multiple universes ("heaven of heavens") and, it remains the only ancient concept of God continuing to match the known modern evidence.
Perhaps most of us don't really think through very carefully what the word "God" even begins to imply. "Eternal Creator" satisfies origins and rationally explains both our own existence and that of the larger universal reality. Atheism on the other hand, doesn't rationally explain anything at all, is not based on any evidence and thus, is scientifically irrational and utterly worthless; offering no solution or hope for us wayward "human beings".
In Search of the Real Jesus
