End of an Age

Jesus' death, or sacrifice, if you prefer, was neither new in his time nor unheard of today.

Jesus in the Synagogue at Nazareth dst-corp.com

(PASO ROBLES, Calif.) - "Unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit."(John: 12; 24).

Here is the rationale by which the Christian Coterie justified that the one essential to their cause should die. That man was Jesus of Nazareth from Galilee.

Isaiah prophesied his coming when he referred to him as "the one I have stirred up in the north," and by promising his presence would be felt “in little more than a year.”

Jesus was the instrument of investiture by which the philosophy of the Christian Coterie would be perpetuated. Those who formed the core of the movement, remained passively in the background, and referred to themselves as “Angels, God, the Lord, or Spirit, anything that guided the Christian Movement.

Jesus' death, or sacrifice, if you prefer, was neither new in his time nor unheard of today. Religious fanaticism has always produced its martyrs. Had Jesus not been singled out for the role, another eventually would have stepped forward.

Witness the fanatic Moslems in Beirut, Lebanon; and suicide bombers in Iraq, as well as Palestinians in Israel who today are willing to die for a cause and a promise of a reward in paradise.

The Middle East has always been a hotbed of religious fanaticism, where most come to their faith as children and accept their givens in silence, then bow their heads to habit and accept as true what logic would cause them to admit is unbelievable.

Logical argument against commitment usually is resisted by visceral knee jerk reactions that bypass the brain through which ideas normally are filtered. Radicals are products of brain washing [aka imprinting] who will sacrifice themselves for a cause to prove a point.

Kamikaze pilots of WW II crashed their planes and themselves into American warships for a cause that was lost.

Young men of Ireland dedicated to the cause of the Irish Republican Army starved to death hoping that their sacrifice would inspire others to join the cause for which they gave themselves as seed, but proved only that it takes about sixty days for Christians, et al., to die of inanition.

In Vietnam protesting Buddhist monks assumed the lotus position, were doused with gasoline, and were immolated before television cameras for the world to see and wonder at their faith. Should such acts of faith be considered less noteworthy than the Passion of Christ?

In a variation of the theme, Romans at the height of their empire, when they felt they had reached the pinnacle of their earthly achievement, often with the encouragement of family, were known to commit suicide hoping to be remembered as a winner.

Death enhances the mystique, and they wanted to take advantage of it.

The Olmecs of the New World played a game in which it was nearly impossible to make a score. A player who did earned the right to be deified by being decapitated and his head used as a model for a large stone effigy to insure that the player and his feat would not soon be forgotten.

Some monuments were removed from Cuatzacoalcos, land of the Olmecs in Mexico, and now are at the University of Jalapa.

Jesus' memorable sacrifice was due less to himself than to those who promoted him. Crucifixion was a common practice in his day, the standard punishment for thieves two of whom were crucified at the same time as Jesus. The first of the Gospels was written sixty years later.

Except for it and the others that followed over a period of several more generations, Jesus’ life would have had no more meaning than of others who chose to die, most of whom are forgotten. And it needs to be remembered that the story of Christianity would have been entirely different had it not been that in 312 A.D., Emperor Constantine made Christianity his religion of State.

Opportunity favors those who are prepared, and Christians were ready when opportunity knocked.

Scholars generally agree that Mark, not Matthew, was the first of the Gospels to be written, followed by Matthew and Luke respectively, and the last by John. Mark is the most efficient of the Gospels and, because it was written earlier than the others, probably closer to the truth. Matthew introduces the virgin birth concept, and Luke the Christmas story.

Both are examples of wondrous half-truths that make the Gospels appear to be more than they really are. Since the delivery of Jesus was from the body politic, his birth could not have been virgin, except in a rhetorical sense, since the “Lord” was not his natural father, and the arrival of Jesus “in about a year,” [per Isaiah], makes Mathew’s Christmas scenario unreliable. Luke expanded Matthew's theme, and elaborated on it to add emotion to an impossible occurrence.

In a metaphorical leap of faith The Church used its allegorical-imagination symbolically to propagate belief in and to give deeper spiritual meaning to a scene unjustified by logic.

The Gospel of John, the last to be written, draws less on the material of his predecessors than on concepts used in the fiction of the Hermetic Tradition to support his Gospel. The Gospels are not the utterances of God, but of writers that presume to speak for God, and who reflect the doctrine of their leaders.

There are writers today who continue to perform in this capacity, the Rev. Montague Summers who wrote the Introductions to the Malleus Maleficarum comes immediately to mind, and Protestant Evangelists were/are no less remarkable in the conduct of their sermons, many of whom rely on the myth of their givens, and/or the credulity of their audiences to justify their performances. Jimmy and Tammy Baker, Oral Roberts, Jimmy Swaggert, Rod Parsley, as well as Jim Haggard and other deceivers from Colorado, come immediately to mind.

Jesus was anointed to perform a particular function, to die as Christ. His initial anointing was by the Spirit at the core of Christian Philosophy. His actual anointing came later when he reconfirmed his willingness to die for the cause. Jesus was the vehicle by which the Coterie planned to assume authority and finally legitimize its claim to leadership of its Christian creation.

If Jesus performed according to plan, even unto death, then they would call him Christ, the symbol of their movement. They would acknowledge him as the Messiah who Isaiah prophesied, but first he must be tested to prove his fealty to the cause beginning with his baptism.

“And when Jesus was baptized, he went immediately from the water, and

Behold, the heavens were opened and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove, and alighting on him; and lo, a voice from heaven saying, This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased."

The voice was that of leaders of the movement who came forward to express their satisfaction with the conduct of their apostle and to put him to another, more stringent test.

Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.

For forty days he remained in the cultural milieu from which he was drawn, and now was returned to test his attachment to, and need for its comforts. When he convinced the Coterie of his determination to persist in the commandment, "You shall worship the Lord your God, and Him only shall you serve," Jesus and his Mentors came together again to prepare for the next step.

Jesus was to begin his ministry knowing the end to which it would lead. It was arranged for Jesus to acquire disciples in whom his authority would be vested before he died:

“Yea, Father, for such was thy gracious will. All things have been delivered to me

by my Father; and no one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and any one to whom the Son chooses to reveal him [as he did to his disciples - Mathew: 13; 10, 11].”

“He who sows the good seed is the real Son of man; the field is the world, and the good seed means the sons of the kingdom; the weeds are the sons of the evil one [anyone not of the Church]. Just as the weeds are gathered and burned with fire, so will it be at the close of the age. The Son of man will send his angels [The Holy See] and they will gather out of the kingdom all causes of sin and evildoers and throw them into the furnace of fire.” [Matthew: 13; 37-42].

Once the Church was able to enforce its will, symbolism was converted into political reality and became a literal part of Christian doctrine. Constantine and Christianity produced the Holy Roman Empire and assumed as a single unit, the Divine Right to rule.

Constantine was its head who kept things on an even keel while he lived. After his death, the Holy See of Rome began to exercise an awful authority over those within the City of God. Eventually the Church became the more powerful of the parts with authority over the religious and secular conduct of the Empire that led to religious tyranny and human suffering exceeding the imagination.

It marked The close of an age, but it was not the Second Coming of Christ that will occur, according to Christian belief, when Christianity has the power to dominate all religions of the world. It is a concept born of the belief that Christianity’s-God is the One God of All Nations, and may have played a part in the decision to invade Iraq.

President Bush as an [imprinted] born-again Christian refused to admit Jesus would lead him astray. He converted to the faith on his own [not a consequence of his upbringing] and used his office for the advancement of his faith, and to spread “Freedom” throughout the world. He and his advisers seem veritably to be disciples of Isaiah whose Book may well be a source for dangerous Evangelical behavior and conviction.

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Kenneth G. Ramey was a 79-year old "writer without a Website" who is generating excellent, provocative articles on the subject of religion and world affairs. We are pleased that Ken's "lone wolf" presence as a writer in the world has been replaced by a spot on our team of writers at Salem-News.com. Raised in Minnesota and California during the dark years of the Great American Depression, Ken is well suited to talk about the powerful forces in the world that give all of us hope and tragedy and everything in between. You can write to Ken at: darken1@sbcglobal.net