The following was first posted about 9 months ago:
John 14:6- Jesus said to him,
"I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me."
This essentially says that all other religions on planet earth are currently leading billions of people to hell. And Jesus said it; Loving, lamb holding, children hugging, Jesus. In my opinion, this verse(above) is the most arrogant, intolerant, obnoxious statement that has ever been uttered. Except for one thing; it's true. Now, I've said I believe the statement is true so if you don't believe it's true, you may believe I am arrogant, intolerant and obnoxious. You see how that works? Christians are sometimes known to be arrogant, intolerant, hateful and divisive and the Lord knows we have a long history of not representing Him very well, however, we serve a sometimes intolerant, divisive Messiah:
Luke12:51-54- "Do you think I came to bring peace on earth? No, I tell you, but division. From now on there will be five in one family divided against each other, three against two and two against three. They will be divided, father against son and son against father, mother against daughter and daughter against mother, mother-in-law against daughter-in-law and daughter-in-law against mother-in-law."
Jesus said that too. What is bringing this on is that I heard it again today; I heard someone saying that Jesus was a very good man but not God. Heard this from someone I know pretty well. Actually, I didn't hear the conversation but it was reported to me. What has always amazed me about the "Jesus is a good man" remarks is that you NEVER hear any disparaging remarks against Him personally. You hear bad remarks about Christians but never about Christ. You never hear people say Jesus was a jerk for asking a man that didn't even know him to come follow Him right now even though the man wanted to stay with his terminally ill father. Jesus essentially said, "To hell with your sick father. I am calling you right now." And no one ever calls Him arrogant for starting an argument with virtually every religious person he came across or that He called the greatest citizens, teachers and respected men of His day a bunch of caniving, hypocritical snakes. He did all of these things.
For the three years of His Ministry and particular the last year Jesus time was spent pretty much getting in people's faces and saying, "HEY YOU! I gotta know RIGHT NOW! Are you WITH ME?! Or are you AGAINST ME?! Don't look around. LOOK AT ME !! You've seen the Miracles. You already know I am who I say I am!! It is ALL OR NOTHING! It is ALL about ME! YOU are worthless, USELESS and WEAK without me! WHAT'S IT GONNA' BE MAN?!!"
Jesus was NOT a good man if he was not GOD. Thousands upon thousands have died for Him. His closest friends on earth were brutally persecuted, crucified, whipped and beheaded for Him. He was a rude house guest at times. He told people he was God and the only way to Heaven. He was constantly picking fights with religious people. He told people he came to break up families. His own family thought he was crazy. He told people to come follow Him RIGHT NOW. He was sometimes wild, angry, impatient and sarcastic. But all of this and people want to call Him a "good" man but only a man. BULL MALARKY!! If he was just a man, he was a terrible, horrible man. The worst of all men. But thank you Jesus for being EXACTLY who you say you are. You are God. So:
What's it gonna' be man ?
A C. S. Lewis quote from Mere Christianity to wrap things up:
I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: I’m ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don’t accept his claim to be God. That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic — on the level with the man who says he is poached egg — or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God or else a madman or something worse. You can shut him up for a fool, you can spit at him and kill him as a demon or you can fall at his feet and call him Lord and God, but let us not come with any patronising nonsense about his being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to.
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