Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!samsung!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!sol.ctr.columbia.edu!lll-winken!sun-barr!rutgers!aramis.rutgers.edu!athos.rutgers.edu!christian From: jag@cello.mc.duke.edu (John Graves) Newsgroups: soc.religion.christian Subject: Re: Jesus was some guy. Message-ID: Date: 18 Oct 90 07:22:33 GMT Sender: hedrick@athos.rutgers.edu Organization: Duke University Medical Center -- Durham, NC Lines: 56 Approved: christian@aramis.rutgers.edu In article mmh@cs.qmw.ac.uk (Matthew Huntbach) writes: >jag@cello.cellbio.duke.edu (John Graves) writes: >>The perversion of the original Gospel began with the Apostle Paul, who >>transformed the human Jesus into the abstraction of a Greek divinity. > >This illustrates precisely the point I made in a message a >while ago. If you believe Jesus was just a good man then you >are not a "Christian" since you are specifically rejecting the >belief that Jesus was/is "The Christ". Perhaps you ought to >call yourselves "Jesusians". Well, actually I have thought about the possibility of calling myself a Jesuit, but since that term is in use already I rejected it. Jususians is very awkward. But in either case after some reflection I decided that if the use of the term Jesus instead of Christ was to imply worship of the man Jesus then I could not use such a term. I do not worship Jesus. I do not believe Jesus was infallible. I do not believe that Jesus was right about the coming end of the world. I certainly do not believe that everything written about Jesus in the Bible is truthful. I find the Gospel of Thomas more compelling than naratives which are trying to convince the reader of a particular point of view such as the fulfillment of prophesy. On the other hand, I do believe that Jesus of Nazareth was the Christ. If any prophet can be claimed by his followers to have been annointed as High Priest by God then Jesus Ben Joseph's followers have that right. His life and his message, though imperfect, were of such breadth and depth religiously that I as a unitarian universalist have no problem calling myself a Christian (a follower of the teachings of the Christ, the annointed High Priest of God). Christ does not mean divine, it means annointed. Redacters and translaters of the Bible have used the term Christ when referring to Jesus and annointed High Priest when referring to others as a means of separation which has no literal basis. If Jesus were alive now in the literal sense or in the human sense, I would very much like to meet him. Instead I have to settle for meeting him through the various accounts, including the Biblical Gospels and epistles (not Paul's) and the various non-canonical Gospels and writings such as those found at Nag Hammurabi including the possibly preSynoptic Gospel of Thomas. More importantly, because I believe that their are and have been many Christs, and that includes the Christs that Jesus describes (all those who are ill, or hungry), and the anointed of the old testament and the more modern religious leaders who preach a love of God, a personal relationship with God, and a translation of the love of God into a loving social action with such force and power that they renew mankind's relationship with God. I personally believe that Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was a Christ. Peace, Love, Respect for Everyone. John Allan Graves *Unitarian Universalism* jag@cellbio.duke.edu An inclusive church where you don't Duke Divinity School check your mind at the door! disavows anything I say! Peace, Love, Respect for Everyone.