Dec 5 2014

Notes On Jesus Christ

Parallels:

  • Jesus emphasized on “inner life” – being “internally pure”. This is where he differs from other Jewish prophets. Whereas Moses taught us to follow ten commandments in our deeds, Jesus instructed us to follow them in our heart.
  • Challenged orthodox religious views of his time.
  • Jesus was a miracle worker.
  • Emphasis on Faith. Confidence. Matthew 17:20 : He replied, “Because you have so little faith. Truly I tell you, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you.”
  • Jesus had to face the devil – after baptizing and before he started his work (It was a learning experience for him).
  • Started ministerial work around age 26 – 30.
  • Jesus died on a Friday.
  • Largest number of followers.
  • Jesus said:

“All power is given unto me in Heaven and Earth” (Matthew 28:18)

Excerpts from John 10:

11 “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.
7 Therefore Jesus said again, “Very truly I tell you, I am the gate for the sheep. 8 All who have come before me … the sheep have not listened to them.2 The one who enters by the gate is the shepherd of the sheep.
[Interpretation: Jesus referring to the beginning and end of time]:
3 The gatekeeper opens the gate for him, and the sheep listen to his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out.4 When he has brought out all his own, he goes on ahead of them, and his sheep follow him because they know his voice.
No one expected that Jesus, in His “Second Coming”, would be born as the “Greatest Genius of All Time”. 


But: 

  • Knowledge is a virtue of God. Knowledge is required – to create a world or rule over a world.  
  • What made Adam superior to Angels was His knowledge.
  • And:

A woman speaking from in-between-life state:

“Our task is to become God-like through knowledge. We know so little.”

From: Many Lives, Many Masters: The True Story of a Prominent Psychiatrist, His Young Patient, and the Past-Life Therapy That Changed Both Their Lives by Brian L. Weiss, MD (Amazon) (p. 46)


 

Second Coming of Christ

Mark 13: 8, 19, 26 -27:

8 Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be earthquakes in various places, and famines …19 because those will be days of distress unequaled from the beginning, when God created the world, until now—and never to be equaled again.

26 “At that time people will see the Son of Man coming in clouds with great power and glory. 27 And he will send his angels and gather his elect from the four winds, from the ends of the earth to the ends of the heavens.

 

Matthew 25 : 31 – 43:

31 “When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit on his glorious throne. 32 All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats ..

34 “Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. 35 For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, .. 37 “Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you? …. 40 “The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’

41 “Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. 42 For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink.’

Resurrection of Jesus

“If the resurrection (of Jesus) never happened, Christianity as a religion would never have existed.”

Religions other than Christianity do not believe (or doubt) resurrection of Jesus after Crucifixion.
Jesus was supposed to fulfill a set of promises to be considered “the Messiah” (Jewish Bible) – some of which Jesus didn’t fulfill in his (first) lifetime.
If the resurrection never happen, even his Apostles (closest companions) would have doubted the claim that Jesus was the true Messiah. (The apostles were clearly doubtful after Jesus was crucified.)

And if the Apostles didn’t believe Jesus to be the true Messiah, then Christianity as a religion would never have existed.
It’s the Apostles who preached Jesus’s saying (Gospels of Bible) and established the Church (in spite of being persecuted). Without Apostles, you can’t think of Christianity and without resurrection – you can’t think of Apostle’s belief in Jesus Christ.
It’s only after His “resurrection after death” – that the Apostles truly believed that Jesus was the promised Messiah and started to preach Jesus’s teachings – The Gospels.




References

Significance of Resurrection: 

“Jesus is more than a Man” and

“Jesus is always with us”

We have logically derived that, the Resurrection of Jesus really took place.

What follows from this event? What is the significance of Resurrection of Jesus?

When Jesus was born into this World in Bethlehem, he was born as a “Man”.

When Jesus was crucified, He laid down His life as a “Man”.

But when Jesus came back (resurrection), it wasn’t His body; rather it was His “Spirit”.

No other Prophet or Saint returned and lived on Earth “as a Spirit”.

Let us suppose that God makes all the plans of what happens on Earth.

What does God want us to understand from Jesus’s resurrection and coming back to Earth “as a Spirit”?

God wants us to understand that, Jesus was more than a “Man”; that,

Jesus is always with us.

This makes the task of understanding the verses of “Book of Revelation” [1] easier. 

Jesus Christ – “The Commander of all the Rulers on Earth” (Book of Revelation)

 

What Do The “Parables of Jesus” Signify: Jesus wanted to change people by heart

Jesus explained his teachings through parables.
Why?
 
If one instructs people to do certain things and abstain from others, people might not listen – unless by force.
A King can make sure people do what he wishes by force.
But Jesus always emphasized on inner purity – Jesus wanted to change people’s behavior by changing their Heart.
Whereas Moses taught us to to follow “The Ten Commandments” in our deeds, Jesus taught us to follow them in our hearts – not just to abstain from sins, but not even think of sins.
 
To make sure people listen to what one says and change their hearts, one has to appeal to their emotions.
People intently listen to stories.
And that’s what Jesus did.
 
This pattern of “teaching through stories” – appears in History. We all know of Aesop’s fables and the morals those stories contained.

Jesus wanted to appeal to and change people by heart.

[Updated: 03.06.15, Friday]

A Comparative Study Of Eschatology Of Major World Religions

Islam

  • Eschatology figures: Jesus, Imam Mahdi and Dajjal.
  • Allah’s Apostle said, “The Hour will not be established until the son of Maryam (Jesus) descends amongst you as a just ruler …. Wealth will be in abundance so that nobody will accept it.” [1]
  • When the Mahdi appears, Allah will cause such power of vision and hearing to be manifested in believers that the Mahdi will call to the whole world from where he is, with no postman involved, and they will hear and even see him. [2]

[The remarkable aspect: this was said some 1400 years ago in a place where houses were surrounded by deserts all around. Compare the place and time with our modern day society full of advanced Information & Communication Technologies.]

  • The Messenger of Allah say: “The Mahdi is of my lineage and family”. [2]  
 
 

Christianity

  • Eschatology figures: Jesus (Second coming).

 

 

Buddhism, Tibetan Buddhism

  • Eschatology figure:

Maitreya: A “Buddha” of the world. “World Teacher” [4].

  • One mention of the prophecy of Maitreya is in the Sanskrit text, the Maitreyavyākaraṇa (The Prophecy of Maitreya). It implies that he is a teacher of meditative trance sadhana and states that gods, men and other beings:

“will lose their doubts, and the torrents of their cravings will be cut off: free from all misery they will manage to cross the ocean of becoming; and, as a result of Maitreya’s teachings, they will lead a holy life. No longer will they regard anything as their own, they will have no possession, no gold or silver, no home, no relatives! But they will lead the holy life of oneness under Maitreya’s guidance. They will have torn the net of the passions, they will manage to enter into trances, and theirs will be an abundance of joy and happiness, for they will lead a holy life under Maitreya’s guidance.” (Trans. in Conze 1959:241) [4]

 
 

Hinduism

    • Eschatology figure: Kalki (meaning ‘Eternity,’ ‘White Horse,’ or ‘Destroyer of Filth’). 
    • “Kalki” will usher in Satya Yuga.

“At the end of Kali Yuga, when there exist no topics on the subject of God, even at the residences of so-called saints and respectable gentlemen, and when the power of government is transferred to the hands of ministers elected from the evil men, and when nothing is known of the techniques of sacrifice, even by word, at that time the Lord will appear as the supreme chastiser.”

– Bhagavata Purana, 2.7.38 [5]

References

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