Introduction

The purpose of this book is to direct the mind of the reader into seeing exactly what is written in the Gospels about Jesus’ words and ministry compared to interpretations of his work. Even this work is an interpretation, and my hope is that whether you agree or disagree with its content, you will have been inspired to think for yourself and look a little deeper.

Many Christians perceive the Bible as absolutely infallible and are vaguely, if at all, aware that the Old Testament of the Bible is the Jewish Holy Book, a collection of books written by a number of writers of different viewpoints spanning thousands of years of time. Those same believers are also not aware that Jesus was not the founder of the religion called Christianity, nor that the Gospel writers’ accounts of what Jesus actually taught were quite different from that taught by Paul of Tarsus and other thinkers and mystics of that time period. The New Testament of the Bible was not written nor endorsed by Jesus. He was crucified at least forty years before the first book of the New Testament was written.

Only two of the books, Matthew and John, were biographical accounts of his ministry that were written by men who actually traveled with him and knew him personally. Most of the books that make up the collection called the New Testament were written by men who never met, observed or witnessed the direct teachings of Jesus when he was on the earth 2,000 years ago.

If the Gospel story writers told the truth about what Jesus taught, then we would have to admit that Paul of Tarsus, the founder of Christianity, interpreted Jesus’ message in relation to his own Jewish framework of reference. Paul added a great deal to Jesus’ message as he went from place to place to instruct seekers of truth and encourage them to band together.  Paul placed heavy emphasis on fear and on obedience to his own dogma.

Jesus had encouraged his students to separate from control of the church dogma and church leaders and to seek guidance from God as individuals. Jesus placed heavy emphasis on having the courage to seek guidance through inquiring of the Holy Spirit and quiet listening. Instead of dogma, he offered examples of righteous thinking and righteous behaviors, and he showed how to discern righteous behavior through reasoning.

People had been awaiting and praying for a teacher of righteousness so they could know exactly what God required of them. Before Jesus’ time, Moses had given the Israelites a long list of do’s and don’ts, and Paul did the same after Jesus.   But Jesus said that his mission was to teach the kingdom of God, and he described the kingdom of God or kingdom of heaven as something that starts small, grows larger and becomes the most precious thing to a person.  Surely that would be a sense of the Presence of God that is realized in meditation and expands with repeated communion with the Holy Spirit within. 

Although he said his mission was but to teach of the Kingdom of God, Jesus consolidated the cumbersome laws of Moses into two directives.  One defined the ideal attitude toward people and the other defined the ideal attitude toward God. They were:

1.   Love God with all your heart, soul, and mind.

2.   Love your neighbor as yourself.

Jesus did not say that the second was equal to the first, but that it was similar.

When offering guidance for social behavior in response to his followers’ relentless questioning on the subject of social righteousness, Jesus dismissed them all with one comment that we can paraphrase as: Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. This is the only law of righteousness.  Even with that, Jesus suggested no threat of punishment by God if this law were to be ignored. He did point out social and psychological cause and effect potentials.

Neither did Jesus suggest a threat of punishment by God if the directive to seek the Kingdom of God were ignored. He merely stated that the effect of it would be a delay of discovering the Kingdom of God within you—therefore, to be blind to God’s will for you and to remain in a position of having to learn of God through hearsay instead of directly from your Holy Spirit within. He even dared to define God as “a Spirit” and to speak of God as a conscious being with a plan and with specific qualities.

The message given by Jesus was clearly an appeal to his listeners to assert their God-given freedom to communicate with God directly through the Holy Spirit within. “Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.”