Posted by Illuminati on 5/6/2005, 9:23 am, in reply to "Re: Validity of the Bible" 1. Jesus believed the Hebrew scriptures were inspired of God and quoted them as authoratative. He considered Himself the fulfilment of the prophecies in the Hebrew scriptures. Jesus didn't seem to accept the position of the extreme fundamentalists who claim the holy books are God's own words. For instance He frequently attributed the words in the Torah to Moses. 2. Jesus considered Himself the Messiah, the Christ, the Son of Man, the Son of God. The title Son of Man appears to have come from Daniel 7:13 and was a direct assertion of His Messianic mission just as the other titles conveyed His special relationship to God. 3. Jesus was the Jewish Messiah and limited His work largely to the Jews. This was in fulfilment of the prophecies regarding the nation of Israel who were chosen by God for a special spiritual mission. At no time did Jesus indicate the Jews had been rejected or that another people were to take their place. From the beginning the Jewish scriptures taught they were supposed to be a blessing to others not to use their calling to serve self. As the Jewish Messiah Jesus was the Savior of all the world. 4. Jesus differed from main stream Judiasm in His attitude towards the Oral Torah which was later written down in the Talmud. Jesus refused to place any doctrinal authority in what He called the "traditions of men" but relied on the written Hebrew scriptures and upon His own authority as the Messiah. 5. Jesus believed as the Messiah He was greater than any of the preceeding prophets including Moses. Yet He clearly taught the prophets were teachers of truth and used them as doctrinal authorities. Although Jesus had additional light to share with man, He didn't negate what had already gone before. 6. Jesus believed it was the mission of the Messiah to die before He would be glorified. He taught the disciples about His death and resurrection before they occurred, but the disciples didn't understand since this didn't fit in with their own beliefs concerning the Messiah. 7. The kingdom of God which Jesus taught was primarily a spiritual kingdom. Although God has given the Israelites the land of Israel for a homeland, their world leadership is a spiritual leadership not a matter of physical force. As a spiritual force the Jewish people even today seem to be unable to escape their leadership role. Almost every social movement in Western Civilization whether good or bad seems to have a strong Jewish input except probably the Nazis. 8. Jesus' death provides for our complete forgiveness and acceptance with God. There are many atonement theories which indicate more about the spiritual state of the authors than about the logic behind the vicarious atonement. The sanctuary servide clearly taught the transfer of sins onto the sacrificial victim, however only once in John 1:29&36 do we find Jesus compared to the sacrificial lamb in the Gospels. Jesus' main emphasis was that those who believed in Him would find complete forgiveness and salvation, not the mechanism by which He was able to give people forgiveness. Just as with the Father, Jesus had the power to forgive sins and He exercised that power at will. 9. Although Jesus performed many miracles, the only one which proved Jesus was the Christ, the Messiah, just as He claimed was His death, burial and resurrection. This is a sign which no other religious leader before or after has been able to replicate. Jesus tomb is empty, He lives! 10. Jesus taught that all morality is based on love. God's unconditional love for us leads us to love Him in return and this is then extended to others. To honor God and show our love to God we must love our neighbor as ourself. This is the foundation of all morality. There are more things we can glean from the Gospels but this should suffice for now. This post is becoming long and it is time for me to quit.
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If one begins to look at where the eyewitnesses agreed about Jesus rather than concentrating on points in which they differ, you find there is much we can know about Jesus.
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