Religion

<body topmargin=0 leftmargin=0 marginheight=0 marginwidth=0> <table cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 border=0><tr> <td valign="top" colspan=2 height=90 BGCOLOR="#006699" TEXT="#080000" background="77afd5a3.jpg"> <div> <FONT SIZE="5" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" ><B>P & W Think Tank </B></FONT><B>    </B><B> |     </B><A HREF="index.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="P W Think Tank "><U><B>home</B></U></A></div> <div> <IMG BORDER="0" SRC="1x1.gif" HEIGHT="14" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" WIDTH="14"><B>   </B><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="1x1.gif" HEIGHT="14" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" WIDTH="14"><B>     </B><A HREF="id333.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Mental Health"><U><B><IMG SRC="7770e0e0.png" border=0 width="14" height="14" ALT="previous" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></B></U></A><B>  </B><A HREF="id34.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Problems Solution"><U><B><IMG SRC="7780e0e0.png" border=0 width="14" height="14" ALT="next" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></B></U></A></div> <div> </div> </td> </tr><tr> <td valign="top" width=210 BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF" TEXT="#080000"> <bR> </td> <td valign="top" height=390 BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF" TEXT="#080000"> <div> <I>Religion</I></div> <div> <IMG SRC="773b4870.jpg" border=0 width="180" height="135" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0">  "When in Rome, do as the Romans do." Who said/wrote that? Why?</div> <bR> <div> Jesus' version of religion is based on the Old Testament Bible and really seems to incorporate ideas from many philosophies from Plato and Socrates in Greece to the Hindu, Buddha and Tao in India and China. Maybe others as well. It is interesting to note that if you actually read the books of other religions, as this writer has, you will find the same fundamental truths in different words. It is not really all that surprising that fundamental truths are found.</div> <div> It is also known that the city of Antioch was very prominent in religious development, including the teachings of Buddhism and Christianity. In fact the non-Christians there were the ones who first called Christians "Christians". Buddhism was described in stone markers in the Middle East, and in Greece as well, before the time of Jesus. It is reasonable that anyone who would seek out truth and philosophy and religion would have come in contact with other theories from older times that were probably available.</div> <div> It is also reasonable that the writer's of a new religion would eliminate direct favorable references to other religions, and the writers would in fact write in a way "…so that you could believe…" (20 John 30,31) to advance their religion in their own texts over the others. Casual derogatory references to unnamed religions are also reasonable in support of one's own belief over others, as one actually finds in the Bible and other sacred texts as well. Whatever the truth, Jesus reportedly said "I am the light and the way."</div> <bR> <div> Plato's cave story is about how we don't know the real world unless we discover the true light of knowledge.  Once we find Enlightenment - by some name - it is hard to relate it to others still trapped in the darkness of their limited understanding, or, as Plato taught, hard for them because they are seeing only the shadows of the real world. Jesus taught a way of seeing more than the shadows.</div> <bR> <div> Plato says in the Cave Story from the "Republic, Chapter VII," to imagine some prisoners are taken into a cave as children and tied and bound with chains so they can only see the wall of the  cave. <IMG SRC="79eb4870.jpg" border=0 width="180" height="135" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"> They can not turn to see at their' sides or around to see behind them. The are kept there for years and years and years.</div> <bR> <div> Their captors build and keep a bond fire raised on a ledge behind the prisoners. The captors parade themselves and animal and thing cutouts back and forth behind the prisoners, but in front of the firelight and the prisoners can see only the shadows on the cave wall.  They can only hear the talking and echo of their captors' and their neighbor prisoners. Their heads' are chained to look <IMG SRC="740b4870.jpg" border=0 width="180" height="135" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"> only toward the shadows on the cave wall and can only hear what sounds comes to their ears.</div> <bR> <div> Now, imagine one of the prisoners gets free. <IMG SRC="744b4870.jpg" border=0 width="180" height="135" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"> He turns around to see his fellow prisoners, the captors, the cutouts and bond fire, then when looking directly into the light of the fire he is temporally blinded.</div> <bR> <div> He, though not yet seeing clearly, is dragged up to the mouth of the cave where he sees what is above. He is awed by the new knowledge of the real world that he now sees, and could not have known otherwise. He looks around at it all and directly into the son - sun<IMG SRC="747b4870.jpg" border=0 width="180" height="135" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0">, and that immediately blinds him again.</div> <bR> <div> He returns to the cave, even though blinded by the light of his new-found  knowledge, to tell the other prisoners of his great discovery of the real world of above the shadowy existence <IMG SRC="761b4870.jpg" border=0 width="180" height="135" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0">.</div> <bR> <div> He tries to free those he can, even though his eyes must readjust to seeing the world as shadows. (In other words, he must reckon with his new knowledge in terms of their old knowledge of the world.) The prisoners must re-understand the <IMG SRC="751b4870.jpg" border=0 width="180" height="135" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"> world from his enlightened descriptions.  Some of them deny his experience can exist calling him mad or crazy. Some try to help him <IMG SRC="767b4870.png" border=0 width="180" height="135" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"> understand reality - in what they see is <IMG SRC="75bb4870.jpg" border=0 width="180" height="135" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"> ..., a reality. What they see is what they believe, though they can only see and conceive the shadows on the wall in the cave.</div> <div> Some turn against him. <IMG SRC="76db4870.jpg" border=0 width="180" height="135" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></div> <bR> <div> Some who've given up do not care either way, but some others are set free to see the truth of the world,  <IMG SRC="755b4870.jpg" border=0 width="180" height="135" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"> , both there in the cave and in the above kingdom.</div> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> <div> Jesus <IMG SRC="76fb4870.jpg" border=0 width="180" height="135" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"> said, "I am the light and the way to the Kingdom of God."</div> <bR> <bR> <bR> <div>                             <IMG SRC="753b4870.jpg" border=0 width="180" height="135" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></div> <bR> <bR> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> <B>Two Brief Histories of Jesus of Nazareth</B></div> <div> <B>09-31-2004 - Easter Sunday 04-16-2006</B></div> <div> <B>Joe Ballenger Jr.</B></div> <bR> <div>      Jesus said, "He who wishes to follow me must know himself and bear my yoke." "I am called a son of God, relentless in the search of truth." In modern science there is also the understanding that the truth of facts should change the documentation, rather than the documentation changing the truth of facts. Jesus taught in the above quote that if you are following Him, you need to know and (as the ox bears the yoke to pull the plough for his master) you must bear the yoke of truth, regardless where it leads.</div> <div> There are two major versions of story of the life and physical death of Jesus Christ presented here. Students of theology are aware of these old, old stories, or theories, if you will. Following is my versions of the "Bible Story" and the "Conspiracy Story" of Jesus of Nazarth based on my own Comparative Religion studies and research. The first "belief system" concludes that the Bible is a reasonably accurate version of the teachings of Jesus although there are gaps and questions about the factual history, in the common sense of the words "factual history." In it Jesus died on the cross by crucifixion, rose again in three days to save sinners from their sins so they can have everlasting life. The second "belief system" concludes that Jesus did not die at the crucifixion, and was saved from death with help of conspirators who kept the truth from the masses. In the Conspiracy version he left Israel for India after the crucifixion event, and died a natural death many years later.</div> <div> My conclusion has become that regardless which historical version of Jesus of Nazareth is true in historical facts, no version can lessen the benevolent intentions and teachings of Jesus, regardless any authors' intentions when the pen is in his hand. The differences matter in the strict, micro-views of religion and philosophies of course. The "belief structure" of the fundamentalists and semantic interpretations of the modern Bible's translated-wording differ in many ways, but all reasonable persons will believe what they believe is reasonable. All people will believe what they chose to believe.</div> <div> In extreme applications of theories or belief systems, the logical structures usually unravel as they are pressed to more and more stringent tests. For example, the one of Zeno's paradox's concludes you can never get to where you are going when pressed to the extreme logical tests. Understanding a story of Jesus is no different in practice than understanding any other theory or system of thought, such as Zeno's paradox, or the "Separation of Church and State," from a macro-view's more general application, or a micro-view of an extreme application.</div> <bR> <div> Part I. So it is, it seems to be:..</div> <bR> <div> 20 St. John 30-31 states,  30: "Jesus did and told the disciples many more things than written here." 31: "This was written so you may believe that Jesus is The Son of God, died on the cross, and was resurrected to save you from your sins, so that you may have an ever-lasting life."</div> <bR> <div> Jesus was born about 0006-00004 BC according to the world wide accepted calendar of 2004. This is based on quotes from the Bible on events like the tax that Joseph and Mary traveled to Bethlehem from Nazareth to pay. Secondly, the time is figured from the report of the eclipse near that time, and the event of a bright star that guided the three wise men to Jesus' birth place in the manger. The story says Joseph and Mary were betrothed, which means engaged in modern language. A "virgin" was then an unwed woman by definition of words at that time, but in modern language "virgin" has transformed to mean a woman who has never had sexual intercourse. Whichever of the definitions you chose for yourself, generally it is taught that Jesus was born of the Virgin Mary. She and Joseph traveled to pay Joseph's taxes in his hometown of Bethlehem. There was no room for them in the Inn, but the owner let them stay in the stable. During the night Mary gave birth to Jesus. Also that night, three men who were sage, came to the stable because they were following the belief of their "facts" that a great person was to come who would save the world from their sins. They found the baby Jesus in a manger, which is a little cradle-like piece of stable furniture that is used to hold hay above the floor for cows, donkeys, etc., to eat from without bending to the floor. The wise men gave Jesus gifts of spices and perfumes to honor Him and to express the importance of the event.</div> <div>      Jesus became educated and skilled in discussing the Old Testament Bible, the Tora, that was accepted in those days by the age twelve. At this point St. John and the rest of them begin to leave out what happened to Jesus. There has been much speculation. Most theories figure he had a normal life of a Jewish child, which would mean that he would have been paired with a girl for marriage. Speculation has it that she must have died or something, and there are various stories about children or the lack of them. Other speculations say that Mary Magdalene was actually his wife. As that theory runs, her part was written in the Bible the way it is "so that you could believe...," according to 20 St. John 31. Which ever you believe historically, St. John and the rest of the writers pick up where Jesus begins to teach His version of religion at about the age of 29 or 30. St. John first writes about himself saying, "I (John) am the voice of one crying in the wilderness, `Make straight the way of the Lord,' as the prophet Isaiah said." Then he wrote about Jesus predicting that Nathaneal would see "the Heavens opened, and Angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of God." Next, St. John writes the story of Jesus changing water into wine at a wedding.</div> <bR> <div> (Jesus and Plato's Cave,12-31-2004 by Joe Ballenger Jr.)</div> <div> Jesus' version of religion is based on the Old Testament Bible and really seems to incorporate ideas from many philosophies from Plato and Socrates in Greece to the Hindu, Buddha and Tao in India. It is interesting to note that if you actually read the books of other religion, as this writer has, you will find the same fundamental truths in different words. It is not really all that surprising that fundamental truths are in most religions.</div> <div> It is also known that the city of Antioch was very prominent in religious development, including the teachings of Buddhism and Christianity. In fact the "non-believers" there were the ones who first called Christians "Christians". Buddhism was described in stone markers in the Middle East, and in Greece as well, before the time of Jesus. It is reasonable that anyone who would seek out truth and philosophy and religion would have come in contact with other theories from older times that were probably available.</div> <div> It is also reasonable that the writer's of a new religion would eliminate direct favorable references to other religions, and the writers would in fact write in a way "…so that you could believe…" (20 John 30,31) to advance their religion in their own texts over the others. Casual derogatory references to unnamed religions are also reasonable in support of one's own belief system over others, as one actually finds in the Bible and other sacred texts as well. Whatever the truth, Jesus said "I am the light and the way."</div> <bR> <div> Plato's cave story is about how we don't know the real world unless we discover the true light of knowledge. Once we find Enlightenment - by some name - it is hard to relate it to others still trapped in the darkness of their limited understanding, or, as Plato taught, hard for them seeing only the shadows of the real world.</div> <div> Plato says in the Cave Story, paraphrased from the "Republic, Book VII," to imagine some prisoners are taken to a cave as children, then tied and bound with chains so they can only see the wall of the cave. They can not turn to see at their' sides or around to see behind themselves. They are kept there for years and years and years. Their captors build and keep a bond fire raised on a ledge behind the prisoners. The captors parade themselves, animal and object cutouts back and forth behind them, but in front of the firelight. They can only hear the talking and echo of their captors' and their neighbor prisoners. Their heads' are chained to look only toward the shadows on the cave wall and can only hear what sounds comes to their ears.</div> <div> Now, imagine one prisoner gets free. He turns around to see the captors, the cutouts and bond fire, then looking directly into the fire's light, is temporally blinded. He, not seeing very clearly, is dragged up to the mouth of the cave and perceives what is above. He is awed by the new knowledge of the real world that he now understands, and could not have known otherwise. He looks around at it all and directly into the sun, and that immediately blinds him again. He returns into the cave, even though blinded by the light of his new knowledge, to tell the other prisoners of his great discovery of the real world of above their shadowy existence.</div> <div> He tries to free those he can, even though his eyes must readjust to seeing the world as shadows. He reasons with his new knowledge in terms of their old knowledge of the world. The prisoners must be able to re-understand the world from his descriptions. Some of them deny his experience can exist calling him mad or crazy. Some try to help him understand reality - in what they see is as reality. What they see is what they believe, though they can only see and conceive the shadows of understanding. Some try to discount his knowledge, and some who've given up do not care either way. Others are set free to see the truth about the world, both there in the cave and in the above kingdom. Jesus said, "I am the light and the way to the Kingdom of God," which could have resulted from his studies of Plato.</div> <bR> <div> Jesus said, "A man can not serve two masters." He clashed with the Rabbis at the money tables for exchanging money for worship in the temple, according to the Bible. He said you must pick either the spiritual or the material life, and the better was to pick the spiritual. He taught that by choosing the spiritual life one could worship easier without being hampered by worldly possessions and those possessions can be easier given to those who need them more. That is the "It is better to give than receive" lesson.  Some of the same lessons in Buddhism explain that same fundamental truth in different words. In Buddhism, a living man's desire for material things causes him to suffer. One suffers from material things because he has the headaches of storing, maintaining, and protecting them, even if those headaches are the only suffering. The spiritual life is the better choice because one is free from that suffering. Because of this it is better give away what one has to the needy, and not desiring or acquiring things that one does not need to suffer about. The order of the Monks arose from that.</div> <div> The "Dao De Jing" of Daoism complements the "Analects" of Confucianism. They are the foundational works of the two religious philosophies. The first chapter of the "Dao De Jing" was written with the same fundamental truth as well. There are many ways to express the same ideas of material and spiritual, and could not many people be given credit for fundamental truths?</div> <bR> <div> "The way that can be spoken of</div> <div> Is not the constant way;</div> <div> The name that can be named</div> <div> Is not the constant name.</div> <bR> <div> Hence always rid yourself of desires in order to observe its secrets;</div> <div> But always allow yourself to have desires in order to observe its manifestations.</div> <bR> <div> These two are the same</div> <div> But diverge in name as they issue forth.</div> <div> Mystery on mystery -</div> <div> The gateway to the manifold secrets."</div> <bR> <div> After Jesus teachings clashed with the Rabbis', it became apparent that Jesus would "upset the apple cart" of the Rabbis' status quo. People were beginning to see Jesus as the "Messiah" predicted in the Old Testament. He would become "the King of the Jews," and the Roman law could be threatened, and religion was being changed by His new ideas. He taught his ideas by parable and simile, often with multiple meanings.</div> <div> Even though he said, "Mine is not a kingdom of this world," during his crucifixion trial, some philosophers may argue that the two mean different aspects of the same place, two facets of the same diamond. He could have also meant that the arguing, strife and trials and tribulations he was going through would not happen in the Kingdom of God - "this world" also meaning the immediate surroundings. The more common interpretation is that the physical world was not the Kingdom of God. The Kingdom of God in a parallel meaning could very well be `the place for life during life and the place for life after life'. Strife would not be in the Kingdom of God in either conclusion. </div> <div> Jesus did miracles in the Bible. They got him in trouble for ignoring customary rituals of the Jewish Sabbath. In 5 St John 8-9 Jesus says to the invalid who has been lame for 38 years, "'Rise, take up thy pallet and walk.' And at once the man was healed, and he took up his pallet and walked. Now the day was the Sabbath…". 5 St. John 18 wrote, "This was why the Jews sought more to kill him, not only because he broke the Sabbath but also called God his father, making himself equal with God." The stage was set and the Rabbis had legal cause to have him tried under law, but only the Romans could order the death penalty. Crucifixion was the common method of execution during that period of world history in that area of the world.</div> <div> 6 St John, as a whole, tells the story of Jesus next talking in simile about his flesh and blood. 6 St. John 54 Jesus says "he who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day." When the disciples question him about the idea of eating his flesh and drinking blood, Jesus clears it up in 6 St John 63-64 that "It is the spirit that gives life, the flesh is of no avail; these words I have spoke to you are spirit and life. But there are some of you that do not believe." The simile of "eating flesh and blood" and "eating ideas of truth" in Jesus' lesson here. Following the reasoning, the simile could give eternal life to the believer of Jesus' truth, rather than Jewish dogma (or modern Christian dogma?), and, then Jesus could cause one to be "raised up" to the enlightened knowledge of the eternally peacefulness of the afterlife "at the last day." One might should remember the prisoners of Plato's Cave Story at this point.</div> <div> In 8 St john 23 Jesus answers the question, "Who are you?" by saying, "You are from below, I am from above; you are of this world, I am not of this world. This also seems to point to an idea of Plato's cave.</div> <div> 9 St John 13-14  "They brought to the Pharisees the man who had formally been blind. Now it was a Sabbath day when Jesus made the clay and opened his eyes." Jesus had mixed spit and clay and put on the man's eyes, then told him to wash in the water at the pool of Sent. 9 St John 17 "So they again said to the blind man, `What do you say about him that has opened you eyes?' He said, `He is a prophet." The Jews cast the blind man out of their church. In 8 St John 34 To the blind man "Jesus said, `For judgment I came into this world, that those that do not see may see, and that those who see may become blind."</div> <div> 10 St John 11 Jesus answers the Pharisees who heard him talking to the blind man "I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. He who is a hireling and not a shepherd, whose own sheep are not, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and flees; and the wolf snatches them and scatters them." In 10 St John 18 Jesus says of his own life "No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have the power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again; this charge I have received from My Father."</div> <div> 10 St John 33-34 "The Jews answered him, `We stone you for no good work but for blasphemy; and because you, being a man, make yourself God.'" "Jesus answered them, `Is it not written in your law, `I said, you are gods?'", referring to the fact that it is written in different places in the Bible that God calls men gods.</div> <div> 11 St John 43 Jesus said into the tomb of Lazarus, "…Lazarus, come out." "The dead man came out, his hands and feet bound with bandages, and his face wrapped with a cloth. Jesus said to them, `Unbind him and let him go.'"  12 St John 14 "So the chief priests planned to put Lazarus also to death because, on account of him, many of the Jews were going away and believing in Jesus."</div> <div> 17 St John 1Jesus "lifted up his eyes to heaven and said "Father the hour has come; glorify thy Son so the Son may glorify thee." Continuing through 17 St John 8 and more, "…for I have given them the words that thou gaveth me and they have received them and know in truth that I came from thee; and they believed that thou have sent me."</div> <div> 18 St John 3 "So Judas, procuring a band of soldiers from the high priest and the Pharisees, went there (to the garden) with lanterns and torches and weapons."</div> <div> 18 St John 4-5 At the garden, "Jesus, knowing all that was to befall him, came forward and said to them, `Whom do you seek?' They answered him, `Jesus of Nazareth.' `Jesus answered them, `I am he.'"</div> <div>      18 St John 28 "Then they led Jesus from the house of Caiaphas to the peaetorium. It was early." Verse 29 "So Pilate went out to them and said, `What accusation do you bring against this man?" Verse 33 "Pilate entered the peaetorium again and called Jesus, and said to him, `Are you the King of the Jews?' Verse 34 Jesus answered, "Do you say this of your own accord, or did others say it to you?" 35 Pilate said, "…what have you done?" "Jesus answered, `My kingdom is not of this world…'" 37 Jesus says, "Everyone who is of the truth hears my voice." Verse 38 "Pilate said to him, `What is truth?'"</div> <div>      18 St John 37 Pilate `went out to the Jews again, and told them, `I find no crime in him.'"</div> <div> 18 St John 39 Pilate asks the priests, do I "...release for you (for the Passover law) the King of the Jews?" 40 "They cried out again, `Not this man, but Baaraabbas!" </div> <div>      19 St John 4 Pilate said, "…I find no crime in him." In 19 St John 7 "The Jews answer him, `We have a law, and by that law he ought to die, because he has made himself the Son of God.'" 19 St John 12 "Upon this Pilate sought to release him, but the Jews cried out, `if you release this man you are not Caesar's friend; anyone who makes himself king sets himself against Caesar."  13 "When Pilate heard that…he brought Jesus out…and said to the Jews, `Here is your King.' "They cried out…'crucify him!'" 16 "He handed him over to them to be crucified."</div> <div>      19 St John 25 "So the soldiers did this."</div> <div>      19 St John 31 "Since it was the day of Preparation (for Passover), in order to prevent the bodies from remaining on the cross on the Sabbath…the Jews asked Pilate that their legs might be broken and that they might be taken away."  33 "…but when they came to Jesus they saw that he was already dead, they did not break his legs." 34 "But one of the soldiers pierced his skin, and at once there came out blood and water."  35 "He who saw it has borne witness ---his testimony is true, and he knows that he tell the truth ----that you also may believe." (20 John 31 says "…but these are written so that you may believe… .", and the extremes gone to emphasize the "truth" makes some wonder if it was not written by literary license rather than by fact.</div> <div>      19 St John 38 Joseph of Arimathea, who was a disciple of Jesus, but secretly, for fear of the Jews, asked Pilate that he might take away the body of Jesus, and Pilate gave him leave."  39 "Nicodemus…came bringing a mixture of myrth and aloes, about a hundred pounds weight."  40 "They took the body of Jesus and bound it in linen clothes with the spice…" 19 St John 41 "Now in the place where he had been crucified there was a garden, and in the garden a new tomb where no one had been laid. 42 So because of the day of Preparation, the tomb being close at hand, they laid him there."</div> <div>      20 St John 1 "On the first day of the week Mary Magdaline came and saw that the stone had been taken away from the tomb. 2 "So she ran and went to Simon, Peter and the other disciple Jesus loved, and said to them, `They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid him."</div> <div>      20 St John 11 "But Mary stood weeping outside the tomb…" 14 "..she turned around and saw Jesus standing, but she did not know it was Jesus."  18 "Jesus said to her, `Mary!' She turned and said to him, in Hebrew, `Rabboni!'"</div> <div>      20 St John 19 "On the evening of that day, the first day of the week…Jesus came and stood among them and said, `Peace be with you.'" 22 And when he said this, he breathed on them and said to them, `Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any they are forgiven, if you retain the sins of any they are retained. Thomas was not among them…" 26  "Five days later, they were in the house and Thomas was with them. 27 "Then he said to Thomas, `Put your finger here and see my hands; and put out your hand, and place it in my side; do not be faithless, but believing.'"</div> <div>      20 St John 30 "Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not written here…" 31 "but these are written so that you may believe…"</div> <div>      21 St John 1 After this Jesus revealed himself again at the Sea of Tiberias…" 12 "Jesus said, `Come have some breakfast."  13 "Jesus came and took the bread and gave it to them, and so with the fish." 15 "Jesus said to Simon Peter…Feed my lambs." 16 "Feed my sheep." 18 "Tend my sheep." 19 "Follow me."</div> <div> St John ends in 21 St John 25 "But there are many other things that Jesus did, were every one to be written, I suppose the world could not contain the books that would be written."</div> <bR> <div> Part II. So, as it is; it seems to be…</div> <bR> <div> "According to the Ahmadi Muslims, Jesus survived the crucifixion, migrated to Kashmir, and lived a long life there under the name of Yuza Asif. They believe a particular tomb in Kashmir is the tomb of Jesus." (<FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#0000FF" FACE="Arial" ><A HREF="http:///en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jesus" TARGET="_top" TITLE="http:///en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jesus"><U><U>http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jesus</U></U></A></FONT>) (See also //www.tombofjesus.com <FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#0000FF" FACE="Arial" ><A HREF="http:" TARGET="_top" TITLE="http:"><U><U>http://www.tombofjesus.com</U></U></A></FONT>) The following history is based on believing the evidence of a "Conspiracy Theory of Jesus."</div> <div> Ahmadi's are generally frowned upon by more traditional of the Muslim sects. The sect was brought into the light in the world about 1889 by Miza Ghulam Ahmad when he in writing said he was a reviver and rejuvenator of Islam. He went as far as to say that he was another Prophet of God, which is contrary to Mohammed's writing. Mohammed wrote that he himself would be the very last prophet before the Messiah and Mahdi returned at the end of the world. Ahmad tried to explain that he was not a regular Prophet like Jesus and Mohammed had been, because he did not bring new teachings. He was just a reviver and rejuvenator of what they had prophesized. That did Ahmad in, at least in the short run of 115 years religious time. On January 9, 2004, Bangladesh banned his books, and considered them kifir's, or untrue Muslim writing and beliefs. (see "Ahmaddiya" in wikipedia.com) What ever the truth, the story sheds light on what Jesus `might' have done between his 12<FONT SIZE="1" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" >th</FONT> year and 28<FONT SIZE="1" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" >th</FONT> or so year, and in this theory - after he escaped the cross and the Jews.</div> <div>  Issa, as is also the spelling of Jesus of Israel at the end of his life in Kishmir, was born in the year of 6 or 4 BC, roughly 0, by the calendar of the world in 2004. It is believed in truth that his birth as described in the Bible text is somewhat correct, but perhaps part myth, but there are no known old documents to the contrary of the Bible. By some documents of the Tibetan Buddhists, at the age of twelve, Jesus snuck from his father's house (Joseph and Mary's) at night and traveled with some merchants away from Israel. He traveled to India studying and teaching the Holy Scriptures of the Old Testament Bible. He studied Hinduism in India and Buddhism in Tibet according to Nicholas Notovitch who was the first outsider, of a number of others, to see and translate the Tibetan documents. Notovitch was actually a Russian of the latter of the 1800s. According to those documents, at some point in India, Jesus left the area of Sindh and North Sindh for Juggernaut, in the province of Orsis. He wound up studying under the Hindu Brahma's. He was taken in and studied the Buddhist philosophy of suffering for six years in Tibet. He is believed to be one of the great Buddhas, and perhaps the deity Krishna speaking in the ancient Hindu and Buddhist text, the "Bhagava-Gita," although that was before his time. Jesus rebelled against caste systems, and he left in trouble from both groups by rebelling for the rights of the common man as well as higher priests to access the teachings of and about God. At the age of 28 he headed back to Israel to teach the truth of God's Holy Scriptures, and the Coming of the Kingdom of God.</div> <div> His belief and expertise in the Old Testament teachings digested and absorbed the Hindu and Buddhist teachings, and probably other teachings such as Taoism, Confucianism and others, and it made him powerful in explaining the way to and the Enlightenment in the true Supreme Being, God. He found a large following in and around Israel because his truth was clear and more just that the religion practiced at that time. The people were ready for a change. He thought God's spirit, or spark, was in all things and all men, and all men were in God and that God was capable of coming to an understanding inside himself of himself. These are Gnostic and Aeyaran beliefs.</div> <div> He rebelled against the notion of a hierarchy between the common man and God, and that money had become intermediate to the truth of God. This was similar to how he was troubled in India and ran afoul of the status quo there. He attacked the moneychangers at the Jewish temple in response to their wickedness of exchanging money for worship. He said man could not serve two masters, material life and spiritual life. He taught the only true and ethical thing was to abandon the material life. He taught that, very much like the Buddhist and other philosophies, you should "give everything away and follow the truth." Without material things to covet, guard, repair, and worry about, you could be happy.</div> <div> He did not teach Buddhism or Hinduism or other religions though he absorbed and re-worded some of their teachings, he taught of a Supreme Being, the one true God, the Heavenly Father, which is foreign to most of the other religious teachings, but accepted within the Hinduism. God was capable of coming to an understanding inside himself. He also taught that kindness begat kindness, and to turn the other cheek. Turning the cheek is similar to the Buddhism "treat hate with non-hate," and the Tao "Treat action with non-action." He did teach that, "I am the way and the light," meaning he was "a teacher of the way to God and enlightenment of the Kingdom of God." In Modern English the "Kingdom of God" would be the physicist's "universe." </div> <div> He taught the way to pray as "Our Father, who art in heaven…" Jesus did not seem to mean us to pray to him, Jesus, as has been construed in most Christian religions. The Apostles' Creed was written around 200 AD, possibly, to straighten out the flock so they would pray to Jesus, "The" Son of God, where before in Biblical writing, people were sometimes called "a" son of God.</div> <div> The idea of the God Jesus was enforced even by violence, as during the bloody, inhumane, and very un-Jesus-like Spanish Inquisition and Crusades of the Roman Catholic Church. This forced a split, starting around 200 AD, from Gnosticism beliefs, which to this writer seems in some ways to agree more with Jesus teachings than the traditional Christian beliefs in 2004.</div> <div> He clearly became a danger to the religious, financial and governmental status quo of Israel and Judaism of the years around 32-33BC. The whole thing came to a head when Jewish priests rebelled against him by going to Pontius Pilot who was head of the Roman law at the time, and the only one who could order crucifixion. The account of Pilot's part here is summarized from other writers through the centuries since that time. Admittedly, some of it is circumstantial evidence. It seems that, even from the Bible, Pilot agreed under duress to try the case and give a sentence of the death penalty. The story goes that his wife had a dream that Pilot should not kill Jesus, and informed Pilot with warnings. Pilot took his wife under advisement it seems, and also decided the priests were really only jealous of Jesus who might, so to say, upset their apple cart. Perhaps Jesus did not deserve to die.</div> <div> It is documented that not everyone died from being crucified. When the priests would rest only with Jesus crucified, it seems that Pilot may have purposely decided to order the crucifixion on Friday afternoon to give Jesus a chance to survive. Pilot said, "Do what ye will," and washed his hands of Jesus in the public court. He didn't say he would do else either way anything else. The Jewish law would not allow crucifixions on Sabbaths, and the new Sabbath day would start at sun down Friday by Jewish law. Christ was put on the cross for a short period of 3 or 6 hours this way. The actual time is a point of argument.</div> <div> He was taken down from the cross that Friday evening anyway, and his limb bones were not broken as was normally done, probably again by Pilot's secret intervention. Who else could intervene in the Roman law and get away with it?</div> <div> Spearing crucified bodies was a normal action. The guards usually stabbed crucified bodies to see if they flinched or were in fact dead, but it was not impossible to survive those usually shallow wounds, especially if the stabber is secretly trying to save the fellow. 19 John 34 reads, "But one of the soldiers pierced his skin, and at once there came out blood and water."  19 John 35, "He who saw it has borne witness ---his testimony is true, and he knows that he tell the truth ----that you also may believe." 20 John 31 says "…but these are written so that you may believe… ."  "So, go figure," this writer requests of you.</div> <div> Surly as some documents say, Jesus swooned under the stress and pain of the whole ordeal of the scourge and crucifixion, and was passed off as dead with this help at the cross. This fulfilled Pilot's wish and appeared to fulfill the Jewish priests' wish, but the truth was hid from the population, priests and disciples, for the security of its' success. Further, it seems that the men that received Jesus' not-dead body from Calvary, Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus, hid him away to nurture him back to health, again with Pilot's help. The story also talks of spices brought to anoint the body, which is not the normal procedure for over 3000 years of Jewish law of handling corpses, according to some sources. Rather, they say, it is a method of medicine, so again, go figure.</div> <div> When the tomb was visited on Sunday morning, of course, it was empty. This created, and fulfills, the resurrection story of the Bible to that point<B>.</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>(</B>The most important result, if this is in fact true, is that God answered Jesus' prayers: he was delivered from crucifixion to rise again in three days, but just not quite like the population, priests, disciples, or writers and preachers of the Bible were to lead us to believe years later.)</div> <bR> <div> Considering Jesus was reported to say from the cross, "God, why have thou forsaken me?" I suspect Jesus himself was in wonder, relief and of even stronger spiritual conviction upon waking up alive. That truly verified a just and true God to him (and us), just as he had been teaching. Mary saw him, John wrote, "but did not know it was Jesus." Again, go figure. Was he resurrected or was it a literary trick?</div> <div> After some days in several visits, Jesus in body, but only somewhat healed, visited with his disciples and friends and ate fish as was later written in the Bible, completing the resurrection story as generally known.</div> <div> When considering the New Testament Bible as an account of Jesus, one must consider what Jesus would have told them after the crucifixion, one must also remember most writers did not know the truth. Many wrote honestly, and some possibly dishonestly, what they did know, how they understood the conundrum, and what it meant to the developing Christian religion. As 20 John 30-31 says, "there were many things Jesus did with the disciples that were not written…" "…but these were written so that you may believe…"</div> <div> Jesus says, according to documents written later in India, that the Bible was a mixture of fact and fiction. (Reasoning here, IF this account is closer to the truth about what happened at the cross, the true resurrection had to be kept secret from those men in Israel right then, right there, or Jesus would have been hunted down and killed.)</div> <div> Not being able to stay in Israel, Jesus made his way back to India, where he taught his version of the justice and truth of God to the people there, and was widely accepted in Asia, according to a Chinese document about religions shortly called "The Glass Mirror." Jesus ended up in Kashmir, India, ministering to the Jewish descendents living there, calling themselves "Followers of Issa," although they considered themselves Muslims. Issa is their language's word for Jesus. In truth they, along with the other people he taught along the way, were the true receivers of his religion. Jesus died a natural death at the age of 120 and he was buried in the Roza Bal by the Disciple Thomas, as near as can be figured from the documents and artifacts that still exist in 2004. The people of the area openly acknowledge Jesus, son of Mary, from Israel, and assume the world will eventually know the truth. The religion expresses a system of enlightenment from Baptism to the Kingdom of God in three steps, rather than salvation in an after life. To the "non-believers" throughout the world, one of the Keepers of the Tomb in Kashmir said it best over 100 years ago, "Let them think what they will. We know the truth."</div> <bR> <div> Visit sus.com <FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#0000FF" FACE="Arial" ><A HREF="http://www.tombofje" TARGET="_top" TITLE="http://www.tombofje"><U><U>www.tombofjesus.com</U></U></A></FONT> for much information. It is the primary starting place to the documents used to develop this essay on this conspiracy-theory history of Jesus. Another important web site is <FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#0000FF" FACE="Arial" ><A HREF="http://www.reluctant-messenger.com" TARGET="_top" TITLE="http://www.reluctant-messenger.com"><U><U>www.reluctant-messenger.com</U></U></A></FONT> .</div> <bR> <div> The Last Recorded Lesson of Jesus</div> <div> 09-14-2004 Joe Ballenger Jr.</div> <bR> <div>      The last recorded lesson of Jesus that I have found reported would be in his answer to a question of King Shaliahan. The lesson explains specific human behaviors to use to come to understanding and happiness, what God is, who Jesus was, and namely that "evil will be destroyed" in man's thought and body with the knowledge that God is unified and indivisible in man and nature. Jesus, in the original conversation translated into English, spoke to the King in language of God and evil that the King knew, but the lesson is the same. Those terms have mostly been replaced or accented with current English herein by this writer. The quotes in the following paragraph are from the original English translation I worked with. The short document, only a page or so, says the King found Jesus in the mountains.</div> <bR> <div> The King could tell that Jesus was a Holy Man, but he did not knowing who he was. The King in course of the conversation asked, "What is your religion?" Jesus said unto the King: "The religion I brought to the non-believers" taught them to clean their thoughts ("essence") "and" their "body" of "impurities," and after "seeking refuge in the prayers" they could come to "pray to the Eternal." "Through justice, truth, meditation and unity of spirit, man will find his way" to the Kingdom of God. "God, as firm as the sun, will finally unite the spirits of all" (will unite everything) "in himself." "Thus, O King, evil will be destroyed." And the memory "if Isa, the giver of happiness, will remain forever in the heart. And I was called Isa-Masih."</div> <bR> <div> <B>In a sentence, Jesus taught that God would finally unite everything in himself with no evil by cleaning his thoughts and body of impurities with justice, truth, meditation and unity of spirit.</B></div> <bR> <bR> <bR> </td> </tr></table></body>