The Passion of The Christ has caused a lot of discussions. Some people accuse the film to be anti-Semitic or that it has the potential to incite hatred and violence towards Jews. Other people object mainly to Mel Gibson’s gruesome depiction of Jesus Christ’s last 12 hours on earth in his latest film: The Passion Of The Christ. Though these are of importance, we should not allow Christ’s main message to drown and be set aside in favor of our discussions of religion, politics, film-comparisons, film-critiques and censorship. We should take this opportunity to remember what it was that Jesus Christ died for. Perhaps we can re-think and re-learn the message He may have been trying to tell us two thousand years ago.
I would have preferred this paper to discuss only the main teaching of Christ and how it relates to us today; however I feel that I should address the two most popular discussions regarding the film before I can continue on. Was it anti-Semitic? I don’t believe the film was anti-Semitic. The Jews had to make a decision then and they did it no differently to how we, as a society, conduct our affairs today. In the latter part of this document, I argue that there is no reason for non-Jews to blame the Jews for what had happened. Was the gore and violence of the film appropriate? Yes. I think that the gore and violence of the film was important in illustrating the sacrifice that Jesus had to make, and was willing to take, so that we would understand what he had been trying to tell us all along. The pain and suffering he had endured shows the amount of strength that is required to love - completely and truly.
Regardless of what your religious beliefs are, or whether you have a religion or not, let me first ask you to assume, just for this paper, to forget religion. Forget the notion that Jesus Christ was the Son of God. Forget the notion that he was sent here by a Divine Power. Let us just assume that he was a mortal man, made of flesh and blood, just like you and me. He saw the world differently however. He interpreted information, his experiences and his emotions differently to how most of us process our internal and external environments. As a result, he gained immense wisdom and knowledge beyond the comprehension of most of us. He tried to tell us something. He tried to share with us what he knew.
The main teachings of Jesus Christ revolve around the core idea of LOVE. Love everything. Love everybody. Even your enemies! If they hit you on one cheek, turn the other cheek. Like Buddha’s message: Do NOT do unto others what you would NOT like others do unto you. Be compassionate towards all beings. That was what they taught: LOVE.
He believed that it is the only philosophy that will allow us all to achieve harmony and happiness in our universe and in our lives. No amount of hate should be allowed every day and in every way that we conduct ourselves. No matter what happens, we must not hate or wish malicious thoughts towards anything or anybody.
To spread that message, he spoke about it when he could, where he could. People flocked to the mountains and in the temples where he preached. A lot of his ideas fascinated people. They were new, bizarre and sometimes his ideas went against basic human instincts and the prevailing beliefs that people had at the time. He was a leader, like a shepherd guiding his herd of sheep. He led with utmost integrity.
We have had a lot of leaders in the past, now and we will continue to follow them in the future. They tell us one thing but they do not have the strength and courage it takes to refuse to do another. They contradict themselves and their ideals.
Is it only our leaders, celebrities and other prominent members of our society - whom we read about in the papers - who are at fault? No. Their faults are our faults. How is that? Because we still believe that it is OK to hate or express negative emotions towards others whom we feel have done us wrong or will do us wrong. We, as people, still exhibit little signs of compassion, consideration, thoughtfulness and understanding towards other people and other beings.
We experience negative emotions towards other people when they mock us, when they ridicule us, when they bully us, when they humiliate us, when they deny us justice or fairness, when they torture us, when they kill or threaten to kill our loved ones, or when they deny us anything else that we consider to be our ‘human rights’.
“Of course”, we say. “That’s natural!”
That is exactly my point! Jesus Christ had to endure all that and yet he had gone through his last twelve hours without displaying any signs of anger, hatred, disappointment, greed or fear. In fact, during his crucifixion, he still asked that his enemies be forgiven for they knew not what they were doing. Who among us has the courage, strength and wisdom to be able to accept our predicaments like that?
Jesus Christ has shown us that we must love even our enemies, be wise enough to increase our capacity to understand and show compassion towards all beings…regardless of what happens.
The Jews at the time had to make a decision: to kill Jesus or not. What would have been the right thing for them to do? They did not know. If you were a common person in the streets of Jerusalem at that time and you were asked what you would like to happen to Jesus, what would you have said? For a lot of people, the information they had of Jesus Christ was very sketchy. He was whispered to be The Messiah. He had many controversial ideas but he seemed very wise and he had helped ease the misery of a lot of people. At the same time, Jesus was also accused of being a liar, a madman, a witch and a blasphemer. He had made Lazarus come back to life, walked on water and he had turned water into wine. Would you have believed those miracles? If they were not true, why would people have made them up? If they were true then definitely, Jesus was no ordinary man. And if he had powers like that, what else was he capable of doing? What if he was the Devil in disguise? Maybe it was right that he be killed while his threat could still be subdued. There were so many people chanting for his death. Surely their reasoning would not have been baseless.
It was not an easy decision for any person or any group of people to make. Even Pontius Pilate who was in a position to have all the information in the land to make a decision, was torn what to do with Jesus. Pilate was like the President of the United States, with all the advisers, intelligence agencies and reporters at his disposal. Yet, he did not know what he was supposed to do.
The decision came to pass to crucify Jesus. The High Priests were threatened of him. Pontius Pilate weighed his decision and allowed the people to make the choice for him. Those who were most vocal and more aggressive in their belief that Jesus Christ ought to die, got their way that day. There may have been people who probably felt strongly against it but they were not willing or able to do anything to stop it. Others were not there probably because they allowed themselves to be in a position where they knew too little information to have an opinion at a time when it was crucial that they did. Sadly, many may not just have cared.
Think of all current issues we face. There are some of us who choose FOR or AGAINST a motion. Others do not choose, however, by not choosing, they have also made a choice. As one global voice, we are all divided in our opinions towards most of these issues. And only with hindsight, can we truly assess the impact of the choices we have made. It is the same dilemma that the Jews faced then.
Should we look outside ourselves to see whom we can blame for the killing of Jesus? No. The Jews killed Jesus, a fellow Jew, but how different are we when we kill or hurt our own? How different are we when we allow others to suffer because it was not our problem or because we did not yet know enough about the problem?
Added with our inability to be wiser than we are to accept and feel compassion towards all beings, it was our ‘human nature’ to hate and inflict pain and suffering on others that crucified Jesus Christ. That ‘human nature’ still remains unchanged even after two thousand years. What Jerusalem was then is what the world is now. And it will be that way forever…until we change.
Marquez Comelab is the author of the book: The Part-Time Currency Trader. It is a guide for working men and women interested in trading currencies in the forex market. It explains everything you need to know to create your own trading methodology; touching on the basics and preparation before expanding onto the topics of market analysis, tools, trading systems, risk management strategies, discipline and psychology. See: http://marquezcomelab.com. His other articles can also be found at http://thefreedomtochoose.com; along with other helpful trading, business, investing and self-improvement articles.
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Everyone holds a world and life view which is predicated on some presuppositions underlying his system of thought. Of course, the question is where will the logical conclusion of the system take us? This is a critical question because a sound, consistent system will take us somewhere. I list myself among those who suggest that Christianity is the only known system that provides man with an acceptable conclusion.
All humans act daily with trust in certain presuppositions and assumptions. As to the value of the goals and the aims which he is following, he does not act upon proof, but upon belief. For example, if a person sits in a chair, he has acted in faith or belief (used here interchangeably). He was given no prior proof that the chair would not collapse once weight was imposed upon it. Thus, his sitting was not an act of certainty but belief; though if challenged to do so, he could provide reasons for his belief - viz., the past reliability of the chair.
Christianity does not claim that the existence of God can be conclusively proven; and we cannot claim in good conscience, that our world view can be established by pure logic or pure reasoning. What we do claim is that we who are Christians believe what we do, and seek to live it out on the basis of a known, chosen and well reasoned perspective.
Understand clearly, the Christian faith is not a humanistic leap in the dark. It is not fideism which reduces all reason to faith, and it is not rationalism which reduces faith to logic. Rather, it can be thought of as the middle position between fideism and rationalism. In Christianity, there IS a leap of faith. But that faith does not “leap” toward just anything. Otherwise, astrology, the occults, Christianity and such would all have equal claims. A sensible system will only “lean” toward a footing that appears to be fairly secure. Now, here is where reasoning enters the scenario.
Though we cannot establish the Christian faith by reasoning; reasoning can help to point toward the most feasible and plausible of the alternatives.
In my early personal experience, being raised in a religious tradition which claimed the existence of God, I often searched for “real” proofs other than philosophical arguments and unconvincing sermons. After a few years of skepticism, while I remained unconvinced that conclusive proofs of God were possible, I did find that many of the arguments and sermons effectively pointed toward the plausibility of the basic elements of the Christian faith. These arguments showed the probability of God’s existence was far greater than the possibility of His non-existence.
We Christians do not affirm that we “believe there is a God.” Rather, we affirm “I believe in God.” Believing that someone or something exists is quite different from believing in that something or someone. Believing IN suggests complete trust and confidence in a person. When Christians assert belief in God, we are declaring that ultimately our faith is built not on a distinctly proven set of facts, but upon a person, upon God, whom we have learned to know and trust. As Hans Kung so adequately described:
Like basic trust, belief in God is a matter not only of human reason, but of the whole, concrete, living man: with mind and body, reason and instinct, in his quite definite historical situation, in his dependence on traditions, authorities, habits of thought, scales of values, with his personal interest and his social involvement. …therefore super-rational; as there is no logically stringent proof that reality is real, neither is there such a proof of God. The proof of God is no more logically stringent than is love. The relationship to God is one of trust; not however irrational: there is a reflection on the reality of God emerging from human experience and calling for man’s free decision. Belief in God can be justified in face of a rational critique. It is rooted in the experience of the uncertainty of reality, which raises ultimate questions about the condition of its possibility; thus not blind decision, devoid of reality, but one that is substantiated, related to reality and therefore rationally justified in concrete existence. It’s relevance to both existential needs and social conditions become apparent from the reality of the world and of man. [On Being Christian, 1976].
Christians then, believe IN and trust IN God.
Christianity provides for consistent living. The presuppositions underlying Christianity are revealed in the Bible. Man cannot perceive the world correctly outside of Biblical truths. The Biblical world view meets all the tests of a valid system. It is coherent, unified, constructive, consistent, and to a great extent verifiable. Everything in the Christian life corresponds to the Biblical world view. We can live out consistently what we believe.
For non-believers, there is no answer to those gnawing questions of human life. Questions such as: Why am I here? What is my purpose? Why was I born? The non-believer has no answer. All things including man are meaningless. There is no logical conclusion to the non-believers system of thought.
The logical conclusion of the Christian system is immediate as well as ultimate meaning, purpose, and significance for all things and all people. It gives hope, love, morals, happiness, and life to all through the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
You are welcome to visit AMEN Ministries: Your Soul’s Service Station for reviewing spiritual services being offered, obtain spiritual refreshing and soul edification, browse our newly expanded Stop & Shop Specialty Store or review our recommended books you may want to add to your personal library.
Blessings to all!
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“It is a spiritual law that the desire to do necessarily implies
the ability to do.”
You have all read of “Aladdin’s Lamp,” which accomplished such
wonderful things. This, of course, is only a fairy story, but it
illustrates the fact that man has within him the power, if he is
able to use it, to gratify his every wish.
If you are unable to satisfy your deepest longings it is time you
learned how to use your God-given powers. You will soon be
conscious that you have latent powers within capable when once
developed of revealing to you priceless knowledge and unlimited
possibilities of success.
Man should have plenty of everything and not merely substance to
live on as so many have. All natural desires can be realized. It
would be wrong for the Infinite to create wants that could not be
supplied. Man’s very soul is in his power to think, and it,
therefore, is the essence of all created things. Every instinct
of man leads to thought, and in every thought there is great
possibility because true thought development, when allied to
those mysterious powers which perhaps transcend it, has been the
cause of all the world’s true progress.
In the silence we become conscious of “that something” which
transcends thought and which uses thought as a medium for
expression. Many have glimpses of “that something,” but few ever
reach the state where the mind is steady enough to fathom these
depths. Silent, concentrated thought is more potent than spoken
words, for speech distracts from the focusing power of the mind
by drawing more and more attention to the without.
Man must learn more and more to depend on himself; to seek more
for the Infinite within. It is from this source alone that he
ever gains the power to solve his practical difficulties. No one
should give up when there is always the resources of Infinity.
The cause of failure is that men search in the wrong direction
for success, because they are not conscious of their real powers
that when used are capable of guiding them.
The Infinite within is foreign to those persons who go through
life without developing their spiritual powers. But the Infinite
helps only he who helps himself. There is no such thing as a
Special “Providence.” Man will not receive help from the Infinite
except to the extent that he believes and hopes and prays for
help from this great source.
Concentrate on What You Want and Get It. The weakling is
controlled by conditions. The strong man controls conditions. You
can be either the conqueror or the conquered. By the law of
Psychic - Concentration you can achieve your heart’s desire.
This law is so
powerful that that which at first seems impossible becomes
attainable.
By this law what you at first see as a dream becomes a reality.
Remember that the first step in Psychic - Concentration is to
form a Mental
Image of what you wish to accomplish. This image becomes a
thought-seed that attracts thoughts of a similar nature. Around
this thought, when it is once planted in the imagination or
creative region of the mind, you group or build associated
thoughts which continue to grow as long as your desire is keen
enough to compel close Psychic - Concentration.
Form the habit of thinking of something you wish to accomplish
for five minutes each day. Shut every other thought out of
consciousness. Be confident that you will succeed; make up your
mind that all obstacles that are in your way will be overcome and
you can rise above any environment.
You do this by utilizing the natural laws of the thought world
which are all powerful.
A great aid in the development of Psychic - Concentration is to
write out
your thoughts on that which lies nearest your heart and to
continue, little by little, to add to it until you have as nearly
as possible exhausted the subject.
You will find that each day as you focus your forces on this
thought at the center of the stream of consciousness, new plans,
ideas and methods will flash into your mind. There is a law of
attraction that will help you accomplish your purpose. An
advertiser, for instance, gets to thinking along a certain line.
He has formed his own ideas, but he wants to know what others
think. He starts out to seek ideas and he soon finds plenty of
books, plans, designs, etc., on the subject, although when he
started he was not aware of their existence.
The same thing is true in all lines. We can attract those things
that will help us. Very often we seem to receive help in a
miraculous way. It may be slow in coming, but once the silent
unseen forces are put into operation, they will bring results so
long as we do our part. They are ever present and ready to aid
those who care to use them. By forming a strong mental image of
your desire, you plant the thought-seed which begins working in
your interest and, in time, that desire, if in harmony with your
higher nature, will materialize.
It may seem that it would be unnecessary to caution you to
concentrate only upon achievement that will be good for you and
work no harm to another, but there are many who forget others and
their rights, in their anxiety to achieve success. All good
things are possible for you to have, but only as you bring your
forces into harmony with that law that requires that we mete out
justice to fellow travelers as we journey along life’s road. So
first think over the thing wanted and if it would be good for you
to have; say, “I want to do this; I am going to work to secure
it. The way will be open for me.”
If you fully grasp mentally the thought of success and hold it in
mind each day, you gradually make a pattern or mold which in time
will materialize. But by all means keep free from doubt and fear,
the destructive forces. Never allow these to become associated
with your thoughts.
At last you will create the desired conditions and receive help
in many unlooked-for ways that will lift you out of the undesired
environment. Life will then seem very different to you, for you
will have found happiness through awakening within yourself the
power to become the master of circumstances instead of their
slave.
To the beginner in this line of thought some of the things stated
in this book may sound strange, even absurd, but, instead of
condemning them, give them a trial. You will find they will work
out.
The inventor has to work out his idea mentally before he produces
it materially. The architect first sees the mental picture of the
house he is to plan and from this works out the one we see. Every
object, every enterprise, must first be mentally created.
I know a man that started in business with thirteen cents and not
a dollar’s worth of credit. In ten years he has built up a large
and profitable business. He attributes his success to two
things–belief that he would succeed and hard work. There were
times when it did not look like he could weather the storm. He
was being pressed by his creditors who considered him bankrupt.
They would have taken fifty cents on the dollar for his notes and
considered themselves lucky. But by keeping up a bold front he
got an extension of time when needed. When absolutely necessary
for him to raise a certain sum at a certain time he always did
it. When he had heavy bills to meet he would make up his mind
that certain people that owed him would pay by a certain date and
they always did. Sometimes he would not receive their check until
the last mail of the day of the extension, and I have known him
to send out a check with the prospect of receiving a check from
one of his customers the following day. He would have no reason
other than his belief in the power of affecting the mind of
another by Psychic - Concentration of thought for expecting that
check, but
rarely has he been disappointed.
Just put forth the necessary concentrated effort and you will be
wonderfully helped from sources unknown to you.
Remember the mystical words of Jesus, the Master: “Whatsoever
thing ye desire when ye pray, pray as if ye had already received
and ye shall have.”
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