The Theology of Jesus—Not Constantine’s Nor The

Theologians Who Created Dogma and Doctrine Throughout Christian History

To be faithful to God and the Bible, we need to bring our best thinking and understanding of the world that includes science. In this paper, I propose a faithful understanding of the Bible stories and lessons with a 21st-century worldview and ways we can walk in the Way of Jesus with love, hope, trust, and contentment. I suggest we in the 21^st century have the same right and moral obligation to use our knowledge of science and God’s inspiration to create new understandings of what it means to be human created in the image of God, as the theologians did as far back as 1900 years ago.

The Case

History shows that 2,000 years ago, there were, at least, three theological traditions in the eastern Mediterranean part of the world: the Greek gods; the Roman gods; and the Israelite god. It is reasonable to assume the people in that part of the world understood the gods to have human characteristics, specifically to do evil things as well as good things. Things like:

1. Zeus,being the Greek ruler of the skies and was known for his animalistic ways with both goddesses and mortal women. He also had complete power over the weather, throwing bolts of lightning when angry that were said to be able to shatter mountains.
2. Ares was the Greek god of war and he personified the passion for destruction and bloodshed. He was considered to be one of the most bloodthirsty gods, and his superpowers were mostly related to warfare.
3. Yahweh could make the earth momentarily stop spinning, carry off Elijah up to heaven in a whirlwind, and enable the Risen Christ to ascend to heaven.

According to what we know about those ancient times, viewing the gods with superpowers was probably universal; and as John Heath wrote, the fictional gods were more ethical and equitable than Yahweh.

Yahweh or Zeus?

Where Western Culture Went Wrong

by John Heath, Santa Clara University, Professor

A central myth in the West is that we have “progressed” from living with Homer’s

fictional gods to worshipping a real deity whose superior essence can be found in the

Bible. Unlike so many comforting and self-congratulatory stories, it is completely wrong.

Still, let’s not quarrel (right now) about the similarities. Even I concede that there are

some serious differences between Hebrew and Greek deities. 

Here’s the rub: In those areas where the Hebrew and Greek deities differ,

the Olympians emerge as the superior mythical concept. There, I said it.

John Heath suggests the fictional gods were more ethical and equitable than Yahweh.

Read full article at: https:/bibleinterp. Arizona.edu/articles/Yahweh-or-zeus-where-western-culture-went-wrong

In addition to the gods the ancients worshipped, they understood the cosmos as a Three-tier Universe.

Christian theologian and professor of New Testament, Rudolf Bultmann wrote that:[1]

The cosmology of the New Testament is essentially in character. The world is viewed as a three storied structure, with the earth in the center, the heaven above, and the underworld beneath. Heaven is the abode of God and of celestial beings — the angels.

The underworld is hell, the place of torment. Even the earth is more than the scene of natural, everyday events, of the trivial round and common task. It is the scene of the supernatural activity of God and his angels on the one hand, and of Satan and his demons on the other. These supernatural forces intervene in the course of nature and in all that men think and will and do. Miracles are by no means rare.

Man is not in control of his own life. Evil spirits may take possession of him. Satan may inspire him with evil thoughts. Alternatively, God may inspire his thought and guide his purposes. He may grant him heavenly visions. He may allow him to hear his word of succor or demand. He may give him the supernatural power of his Spirit.

History does not follow a smooth unbroken course; it is set in motion and controlled by these supernatural powers. This æon is held in bondage by Satan, sin, and death (for “powers” is precisely what they are) and hastens towards its end. That end will come very soon and will take the form of a cosmic catastrophe.

It will be inaugurated by the “woes” of the last time. Then the Judge will come from heaven, the dead will rise, the last judgment will take place, and men will enter into eternal salvation or damnation.

NOTE: Here is a model of how the ancients viewed the universe:                                                                                                           

 

 

Living and teaching in the world of the Three-tier Universe, Jesus naturally used the concepts of the age so people could understand what he was saying. Whether or not Jesus knew the Three-tier Universe was bogus, he used its images to communicate on the same level as the people.  So, God lived in heaven. Unfortunately, most Christians still do say heaven in their prayers and believe in a celestial heaven and hell.

Jesus taught his disciples—not us—to pray to “Our Father Who art in heaven….” The Lord’s Prayer can be translated into contemporary language. Try it yourself. You may be surprised how beautiful it can be.

Increasingly people searching for love, hope, trust, contentment and the meaning of their lives believe religion is not for them, irrelevant in the scientific age. I hope what I offer can produce a new understanding how Christianity, in its current rendition, became so out of date and how we can more faithfully interpret the Bible and faithfully live in the Way of Jesus—living in agape love, hope, trust and contentment.

Introduction: Church or No Church

As the church continues to decline, it is good there are congregations trying to move in progressive directions, but that journey is uphill and fragmentary. Besides the church, maybe another form of community (like 3 or more)would bless seekers, nones, dones and those very discouraged about there current church life. I address that in another document.

It would be marvelous if congregations could evolve with love into what I describe in this document.

Below, I offer insight into Christianity’s original design:

Follow Jesus in The Way.

Invitation –  A Different Understanding of God’s Presence God Within

Yes, there is a better way. It is faithful to the Bible to see it another way. Scripture is more than adequately clear where God is—where God resides. I begin with a common English word.

The New Testament testifies over and over again the concept of “God within”. The English word “enthusiasm” is translated from the Greek, God within enthousiasmos “divine inspiration”; as well as enthousiazein “be inspired or possessed by a god.”

Here are five texts of many:

• Ephesians 3:20 – ²⁰ Now to him who by the power at work within us is able to accomplish abundantly far more than all we can ask or imagine….
• Luke 17:21 – ²¹nor will they say, ‘Look, here it is!’ or ‘There it is!’ For, in fact, the kingdom of God is within you.”
• Luke 24:32 – ³² They said to each other, “Were not our hearts burning within us (other ancient authorities lack within us)while he was talking to us on the road, while he was opening the scriptures to us?”
• John 15:5 “I am the vine, you are the branches. Those who abide in me and I in them bear much fruit, because apart from me you can do nothing.”
• 1 Corinthians 6:19 – “¹⁹ Or do you not know that your body is a temple (or sanctuary) of the Holy Spirit within you, which you have from God, and that you are not your own?”

With “God within,” one way we are created in God’s image is to be born with a conscience. A conscience that is not developed renders a person unable to distinguish right from wrong and make loving and forgiving decisions. Among others, a narcissistic psychopath has a conscience that may be no more developed and sensitive than it was at the person’s birth. Rather than thinking of the traditional image of the “heart,” God residing in our conscience is a concept that can help us understand what it means to be human, created in God’s image.

A key purpose of this short treatise:

God is not in heaven. God is within all people, plus all of nature.

• God is love.
• God resides in the human heart and conscience. Here is one of several quotes from the New Testament that affirms the point: 1 Corinthians 6:19 – “¹⁹ Or do you not know that your body is a temple (or sanctuary) of the Holy Spirit within you, which you have from God, and that you are not your own?”
• Praying to God is as immediate as talking to ourselves.

Conscience – from Wikipedia

Conscience is a cognitive process that elicits emotion and rational associations

based on an individual’s moral philosophy or value system. ….

Religious views of conscience usually see it as linked to a morality inherent in all humans, to a beneficent universe and/or to divinity [DG: God within].… Common secular or scientific views regard the capacity for conscience as probably genetically determined, with its subject probably learned or imprinted as part of a culture [DG:…or imprinted/created as an image of God].

The Second Vatican Council (1962–65) describes: “Deep within his conscience, man discovers a law which he has not laid upon himself but which he must obey. Its voice, ever calling him to love and to do what is good and to avoid evil, tells him inwardly at the right movement: do this, shun that. … His conscience is the human’s most secret core and sanctuary. There he is, alone with God, whose voice echoes in his depths. Knowing good and evil offers humans the opportunity to choose love, compassion, and empathy as the good of God’s will. With the internal divine power (DG: the conscience where God resides), humans can discipline intuition to be responsive to both good and evil for the fullest possible life.

From a 21st-century viewpoint, the conscience better qualifies as “…the primary spiritual member’ of the body”. Having more respect for and identification with your conscience will help you better understand what it means to be created in God’s image.

“In our hearts” continues to be a positive expression of inward feeling and understanding. There is a mutually supportive relationship between conscience and our common favor of heart. A hymn I love using “heart” in the lyrics is “In Remembrance of Me.”[2] The closing words:

 
In remembrance of me always love
In remembrance of me don’t look above
But in your heart, in your heart
Look in your heart for God
In remembrance of me search for truth

This is an example where conscience is not as emotionally “heart felt” as heart where God resides. Maybe we can merge the images:

Heart is God in terms of love. Conscience is God in terms of how we live.

Richard Rohr writes (Feb 27, 2022 – cac.org): “Searching for and rediscovering the True Self is the … essential task that will gradually open us to receiving love from and giving love to God, others, and ourselves. We are created in the image of God from the very beginning (Genesis 1:26–27; Ephesians 1:3–4).

You (and every other created thing) begin with your unique divine DNA, an inner destiny as it were, an absolute core that knows the truth about you. This true believer is tucked away in the cellar of your being, an imago Dei that begs to be allowed, to be fulfilled, and to show itself. “You were chosen in Christ before the world was made—to stand before God in love—marked out beforehand as fully adopted sons and daughters” (see Ephesians 1:4–5). This is your True Self. Historically, it was often called ‘the soul’.’’

 

 

If God resides within us, how can we better understand how this relates to prayer?

Praying in Self-Talk: Wouldn’t praying to God within us be like talking to ourselves?

There is that, for sure. This new understanding of God within may help bring talking to yourself to a divine level of human life at its fullest.

What can be included is our prayerful self-talk with God residing in our conscience, is an inner feeling or voice from God, viewed as acting as a guide to the rightness or wrongness of one’s thinking and behavior. Through prayer we discipline our intuition (the ability to understand something immediately, without the need for conscious reasoning) to be more responsive to God’s will.

In I Thessalonians 5:17, the Apostle Paul instructs us to “pray without ceasing.” To pray without ceasing is to have an attitude of God-consciousness and God-surrender that we carry with us all the time. Every waking moment is to be lived in an awareness that God is within us and that the Lord God is actively involved and engaged in us, our prayerful self-talk, in our thoughts and actions. This attitude resides in the conscience…. Prayerful self-talk is the key to more fully understanding the claim that we humans are created in God’s image. In contemporary terms, we humans have within us that reality—a holy nature, where God resides.

Conceptually speaking, we pray to God within[3] and not God in heaven.

Prayerful self-talk is a valuable and efficacious act.

Good for spiritual discipline:

• the way we are in communication with God
• more prayer = closer to God
• more prayer = conscience better tuned to God’s will
• more prayer = intuition enhanced and disciplined to more quickly and accurately discern God’s will
• Contemplative prayer = Prayer of Silence: Prayerful self-talk is a key to a vibrant and healthy spiritual life, yet not the only key.
• Some Christians find the practice of “prayer in silence” to be a deeper spiritual experience. Stop talking and listen with the heart and conscience. With a developed discipline, this can lead to better understanding ourselves and God within.

Christ Prays in Us and through Us⁴.

Here is a paragraph in a column by Richard Rohr, a Franciscan Roman Catholic priest, as well as an American author and spiritual writer. PBS (Public Broadcasting System) has called him “one of the most popular spirituality authors and speakers in the world.”

“Although most Sunday church services don’t foster it, the essential religious experience is that we are being “known through” more than knowing anything by ourselves. An authentic encounter with God will feel like true knowing, not just in our heads but in our hearts [DG: i.e., conscience] and bodies as well. I call this way of knowing contemplation, nondualist thinking, or even “third-eye” seeing. It is quite unlike the intellectual “knowing” most of us have been taught to rely on. This kind of prayer and “seeing,” takes away our anxiety about figuring it all out fully for ourselves or needing to be right about our formulations. At this point, God becomes more a verb than a noun, more a process than a conclusion, more an experience than a dogma, more a personal relationship than an idea. There is Someone dancing with us, and we are not afraid of making mistakes.”         – Feb 7, 2021 – cac.org

Prayerful self-talk lives naturally in our conscience. Our conscience feeds our intuition. It can be nurtured and disciplined to empower us to live with agape love, compassion, empathy, righteousness, godliness, faithfulness, endurance and gentleness — those elements that reflect God’s image in the wholeness of Christ Jesus.

Prayerful self-talk aids our cognition of the 24/7 presence of the divine love (God). It is our holy nature to have a personal relationship with and the ability to objectively recognize the divine and the sacred, which lead us to pursue wholeness, as well as peace with justice—Amos 5:24: “but let justice roll on like a river, righteousness like a never-failing stream!”

As Richard Rohr’s CAC faculty member Cynthia Bourgeault explores how developing this kind of “Christ-consciousness” is the key to understanding Jesus’s teaching on the “Kingdom of Heaven.”⁴

“How do we put on the mind of Christ? How do we see through his eyes? How do we feel through his heart? How do we learn to respond to the world with that same wholeness and healing love? That’s what Christian orthodoxy really is all about. It’s not about right belief; it’s about right practice.

Jesus uses one particular phrase repeatedly: “the Kingdom of Heaven.” You can easily confirm this yourself by a quick browse through the gospels; the words jump out at you from everywhere. . . . “So what do we take it to be? . . . [Jesus] says, “The Kingdom of Heaven is within you” (that is, here) and “at hand” (that is, now). It’s not later, but lighter—some more subtle quality or dimension of experience accessible to you right in the moment. You don’t die into it; you awaken [DG: are transformed] into it. . . .

The Kingdom of Heaven is really a metaphor for a state of consciousness; it is not a place you go to, but a place you come from. It is a whole new way of looking at the world, a transformed awareness that literally turns this world into a different place. . . The hallmark of this awareness is that it sees no separation—not between God and humans, not between humans and other humans. And these are indeed Jesus’s two core teachings, underlying everything he says and does. . . .

When Jesus talks about this Oneness . . . . what he has more in mind is a complete, mutual indwelling: I am in God, God is in you, you are in God, we are in each other. His most beautiful symbol for this is in the teaching in John 15 where he says, “I am the vine; you are the branches. Abide in me as I in you” [see John 15:4–5]. A few verses later, he says, “As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you. Abide in my love” [John 15:9]. . . . There is no separation between humans and God because of this mutual interabiding which expresses the indivisible reality of divine love.”

That means Christ Jesus invites us to share his divinity

In God’s love and our love of God and neighbor, we can trust and be contented “all will be well.”

“What!? How about when terrible things happen, like a loved one being killed in an auto accident?”

There is much to be explained here, but this is only an introduction to a life of love, hope, trust and contentment. Looking in the healthy direction, I suggest three things—the first is a reminder:

• Rain falls on the just and the unjust. Matthew 5:44-45: “But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be children of your (Lord God); for God makes the sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the righteous and on the unrighteous.”

We need to be reminded rain falls on everyone. Even when it rains on us, we can find contentment in our lives. I often use MLK as an example. Even when he was preaching in Memphis and recognizing the likelihood of his being assassinated, as always, he exhibited contentment and trust in doing God’s will.

• To better understand this trust in God, I take the liberty to add onto 23d Psalm (my addition in underlined italics):

“Even though I walk through the darkest valley, I fear no evil; for you are with me, even when I know around the next bend, I may walk into the hands of a mugger who will leave me for dead.”

That’s life! All will be well!! God calls me to live in trust that releases me from fear and envelops me in contentment.

3. Living in contentment means we need NOT fear Hell. After all, Hell does not exist; however, we may live in a hell we create in our lives.

Evil is a part of creation. Natural elements can cause a landslide killing numerous people. Natural elements can cause a human to kill another person out of anger. The difference is the human has the divine gift of overcoming the ego centric natural elements we call evil; therefore, succumbing to an evil act is an ego-centric, selfish act, all part of natural creation.

This is symbolized by Eve and Adam eating fruit from the Tree of Knowledge. They come to know, as God knows, what good and evil are. As God knows good, humans know good and how to do good in love, compassion and seeking justice for the victimized. As a common expression, it is, “Choose life!”

From “The Saving Power of the Cross” by Richard Rohr, April 2, 2021         cac.org:

“Jesus dies ‘for’ us not in the sense of ‘a substitute for us’ but ‘in solidarity with’ the suffering of all humanity since the beginning of time! The first is merely a heavenly transaction of sorts; the second is a transformation of our very soul and the trajectory of history.

Jesus did not die for our sins, nor was he the vehicle of human redemption.

Since God doesn’t “make no junk,” humans were made in God’s image, which God called good and need no redemption. The Christian doctrine of redemption rested upon the assumption that humanity is required to be liberated from bondage of original sin.[4] The doctrine of redemption, “God’s self-sacrifice” to redeem humanity, required Jesus to be a part of the Godhead…fully divine as well as fully human.

Jesus died because of human sin, including that of the Roman Empire. He faithfully refused to betray God and his followers by running away from the cross and go into hiding.

Without the need for redemption, there is no need for Jesus to be thought of as completely human and, at the same time, completely divine, as if a part of God has to pay the price for human sin. Therefore, under historical Christology, there is no need for the Doctrine of the Trinity based on the price Jesus paid in what is called Redemption. 

Is the Trinity totally outmoded?

Not according to Franciscan priest Richard Rohr. He affirms the Christ invites humans to share his divinity, to be part of the Trinity ourselves, not a different substance from which humans are made, i.e., Genesis 1:26: “Then God said, ‘Let Us make man in Our image, after Our likeness, to rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, and over all the earth itself and every creature that crawls upon it.”⁵ Jesus was the anointed one (‘Messiah’ is the Hebrew word meaning ‘the anointed One’) to introduce the Kingdom of God.

Here is a note by Rohr on the Trinity that brings better understanding:

Jesus is the model and metaphor for all of creation being drawn into this infinite flow of love. Thus, he says, “Follow me!” and “I shall return to take you with me, so that where I am, you may be also” (John 14:3). The concrete, historical body of Jesus represents the universal Body of Christ that “God has loved before the foundation of the world” (John 17:24). …. The Jesus story, in other words, is the universe story. He never doubts his union with God, and he hands on union with God to us through this fully participatory universe.

….This was how real “participation” was for many in the early church. It changed people and offered them their deepest identity and form (“trans-formation”). We had thought our form was merely human, but Jesus came to show us that our actual form is human-divine, just as he is. He was not much interested in proclaiming himself the exclusive son of God. Instead, he went out of his way to communicate an inclusive sonship and daughterhood to the crowds. Paul uses words like “adopted” (Galatians 4:5) and “co-heirs with Christ” (Romans 8:17) to make the same point.[5]

Jesus represents the best of the holy and faithful living within the will of God. In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus said nothing about what we are to believe, but what we are to do.

The church emphasized what we are to believe and comparatively little on what we are to do.[6]

A Bible reference: Luke 10:25-37

²⁵ An expert in the law stood up to test Jesus.^[j] “Teacher,” he said, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?” ²⁶ He said to him, “What is written in the law? What do you read there?” ²⁷ He answered, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind and your neighbor as yourself.” ²⁸ And he said to him, “You have given the right answer; do this, and you will live.”

• In Amos 5:24, we read: “But let justice roll on like a river, righteousness like a never-failing stream!” If we do NOT go and do likewise, are we attesting a river by itself can bring righteousness?

In church, when we pray for justice, exactly who or what is it that brings

justice and righteousness like a never-failing stream?

• “We are not to simply bandage the wounds of the victim beneath the wheels of injustice, we are to drive a spoke into the wheel of injustice itself.” – Dietrich Bonhoeffer, a German theologian who acted in faith and was hanged by the Nazis in 1945 for cooperating with the plot to kill Hitler.
• “When I give food to the poor, they call me a saint. When I ask why they are poor, they call me a communist.” – Hélder Pessoa Câmara, (1909–1999) was a Brazilian Catholic
• Our divinity mirrors that of Jesus. I believe I am being transformed into a new creature by the transformative power of love of Jesus. I know of no other Way. We seek peace with justice. We take action to bring righteousness.

Transformation is one’s salvation

Salvation, as we have known it, was not a part of the Jesus message, but his message was the Kingdom of God (Kingdom of Heaven) is now (e.g., “The kingdom is like a treasure hidden….”-Matt. 13:44a) and through Jesus we can be transformed into new creatures able to faithfully live and resist the temptation of being conformed to the world.

As Father Richard Rohr writes in his closing of “Living in Heaven Now,”[7]

We don’t go to heaven; we learn how to live in heaven now. And no one lives in heaven alone. Either we learn how to live in communion with other people and with all that God has created, or, quite simply, we’re not ready for heaven. If we want to live an isolated life, trying to prove that we’re better than everybody else or believing we’re worse than everybody else, we are already in hell. We have been invited—even now, even today, even this moment—to live consciously in the communion of saints, in the Presence, in the Body, in the Life of the eternal and eternally Risen Christ. This must be an almost perfect way to describe salvation itself.

The same message comes from Amos: “Seek the Living Presence and you shall live. . . . Seek [God] who made the Pleiades and Orion and turns the deep darkness into morning and makes the day darken into night. . . . Seek good and not evil, that you may live. . . . Hate the evil and love the good and establish justice in the gate (Amos 5:6, 8, 14, 15).

There is no afterlife. The Kingdom now is the fullness of life to which the Christ calls us.

 

There is no heaven or hell, except what we may experience in this life. It would be presumptuous to suggest there is no other kind of afterlife. If there is any kind of afterlife, I trust it is a blessing for human beings.

Jesus is the source of transformation and contentment, not redemption and salvation.

Again, Fr Richard Rohr lifts the message: “Jesus died not a substitute for us, but in solidarity with us: the suffering of all humanity since the beginning of time! The first is merely a heavenly transaction of sorts; the second is a transformation of our very soul and the trajectory of history…. Now, by Jesus going into, and occupying that space [of the victim], deliberately, without any attraction to it, he is not only proving that we needn’t be afraid of death, but we needn’t be afraid of shame, disgrace, or of the fact that we have treated others to shame and disgrace.”        April 2, 2021 cac.org

Being a gross misinterpretation of Scripture, the concept of salvation, as used by Evangelicals, is deceiving and distracting. I suggest it is a common everyday experience to hear around the USA:

“Are you saved?” I suggest the implication is this: “Being saved” as the number one reason for many people being a Christian This is a selfish goal—very much not Christlike.

This becomes more pronounced when we consider the number one scriptural reason to be a Christian: to find life in loving God and neighbor by following Jesus in everything we think, say, and more importantly, what we do.

Transformation through the Christ is not the only way to experience the holy and the sacred. Other religions have their own approach, e.g., Islam, Judaism, Buddhism, et al. I believe the Spirit of the Universal Christ abides in all loving religions. God bless interfaith understandings and fellowship.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Clergy of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) & Walking in THE WAY of The Christ in Progressive Christianity among all denominations

 

 

 

 

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[1] The Mythological Element in the Message of the New Testament and the Problem of its Re-interpretation Part I – Religion Online (religion-online.org)

[2] Words: Ragan Courtney; Music: Buryl Red; copyright: 1972 Broadman Press

[3] Within the human conscience AND within everything that is including Mother Nature and the whole universe.

[4] Alister E. McGrath, Christian Theology: An Introduction, Blackwell Pub., 1994, p. 84.

[5] 1-10-22  Jesus in the Trinity      cac.org

[6] Thanks to Robin Meyers for this expression from his 2012 book, The Underground Church: Reclaiming the Subversive Way of Jesus, SPCK, p. 20.

[7] Daily Meditation, March 12, 2021 – cac.org