I agree with MorningSong. The gospels do not have Jesus asking anyone to accept his "lord-ship" or "obey him".

That's a total misrepresentation of Christianity.

Like MorningSong suggests, if it were merely about obedience that could have been done without Jesus. We could have simply chosen to obey God in the first place. No need for Jesus at all in that case.

So your understanding of Christianity is necessarily flawed Cowboy.

It simply cannot be as you claim. You are missing the point to Jesus in this religion.

If it was all about accepting "Lord-ship" and "obedience" as you claim, that could have all been done through the original God of Abraham.

So you're clearly missing the whole point of Jesus in this religious paradigm.

Exactly.

Even Jesus is said to have taught this, "Heaven is at hand".

It's not some imagined place above the sky.

No Cowboy, your ultimate picture of Christianity is grossly flawed just as MorningSong suggests.

You don't understand the concept of GRACE at all.

You keep talking about OBEDIENCE and a need to OBEY in order to EARN your way to this Salvation.

But like both Jeanniebean and MorningSong both point out, it' NOT about obedience. You can never be in harmony with the will of God via your feeble mortal attempt to try to simply 'obey' commandments.

You must allow the SPIRIT of God to come into your heart and you will then be in harmony with the WILL of God with no need to "obey" anything other than your own true desire, because at that point in time your desires will be God's desires. No 'obedience' required.

As long as you continue to believe that you must be "obedient" to some external godhead you will forever be deceived.

From my perspective you are a perfect example of how Christianity only serves to confuses the issue. Some Christians, like MorningSong "get it". Others, like you, get lost in the dogma in the hopes of appeasing God through the obedience of commandments and directives.

This is why I strongly recommend Easter Mysticism. It gets far more to the heart of the matter and won't mislead you into these false ideas that you can earn salvation via obeying dogma.

But this is where you are dead wrong Cowboy. Even I can see that. But then again I used to be a Christian like MorningSong so I can clearly see these things.

You are totally WRONG that Jesus offers "eternal life".

That's simply wrong. Eternal life had been offered by God the Father all along. That offer did not come from Jesus. That's your gross misunderstand.

Jesus is not offering "eternal life". Jesus is offering GRACE Cowboy.

Until you understand that, you don't even have a clue what Christianity is all about.

You have much to learn from MorningSong.

I can fully understand your frustration and your deep concern over this MorningSong.

I've listened to your explanations, and although I confess to still retain unresolvable issues with many of these biblical stories, I do indeed see where your picture of Jesus and God is totally righteous, loving, and indeed justifiable.

The picture that Cowboy presents is actually far easier to "shoot down".

He makes it all too easy. He's been a blessing in disguise for someone like me who enjoys pointing out the absurdities in the Hebrew picture of God. To accept Cowboy's picture of Christianity a person would indeed need to view God as being a totally heartless cold-blooded entity who couldn't care less whether any particular human soul is saved or not. And that does not inspire a faith-based desire in anyone. On the contrary the only people who would believe in Cowboyianity would be people who were convinced that they have no other choice.

Your view, MorningSong, of a truly divine and loving creator who has infinitely greater wisdom than Cowboy, is without a doubt, a far more righteous picture of a creator who lovingly offer grace to those that he sees fit draw in.

If someone were to ask me who best represents Christianity on these forums I'd definitely be directing them to you MorningSong.

But you don't spread the word of God. Even if the Bible were the word of God, you aren't spreading it in a way that is productive to anyone, including yourself.

All you do is make the Bible and Jesus look bad.

You even have other Christians in a state of anguish with your butchering of the Bible, Jesus, and Christianity in general.

You have poor MorningSong in a state of total despair with your butchering of the words of Jesus.

~~~~

Oh by the way. You have once again confessed that you are indeed PREACHING:




Spread the "Word of God" all day and all night on these forums "if needed".

If needed for what? I thought you were here to "merely discuss religion". But you've just confessed that you mission is to "spread the word of God", that's not discussing Cowboy, that's PREACHING.

So you have finally confessed that you are indeed using these forums as a pulpit to preach a specific religion to the exclusion of all others. (blatantly against the forum rules)

Also what is it that you need? You say; Spread the word of God all day and all night on these forums "if needed".

If needed for what?

To convert every non-believer of the Bible into a believer who actually accepts your hateful interpretations of things?

Even the Catholic Pope wouldn't qualify for that.

MorningSong disagrees with your views on what the Bible and Jesus have to say. She's totally hurt and distraught over your butchering of the words of Jesus.

Not only would you need to convert non-Christians to Christianity, but you'd also need to convert all the Christians who disagree with your hateful interpretations, from believing in their views of Christianity to accepting your own personal Cowboyianity.

You're not doing anyone a favor except potentially that Satan fellow himself.

You're certainly not serving Jesus. All you do for Jesus is make him out to be a cold-blooded egotistical person who simply demands that people obey him lest he cast them into everlasting punishment in the form of spiritual death.

That's your picture of Jesus.

It's a totally threatening picture that is extremely far removed from the actual LOVE that Jesus himself was attempting to teach people.

Jesus wasn't about ultimatums Cowboy. Jesus was about LOVE.

But no one could ever figure that out from your twisted preaching.

This is what MorningSong is trying to get through to you. Jesus isn't about threatening people with ultimatums demanding that they must EARN their salvation through obedience.

If that were true there would have been no need for Jesus. You could have EARNED your own salvation without any need for Jesus at all.

MorningSong has to be right. If Jesus is offering people salvation it's via the GRACE of LOVE. Not via threats and ultimatums that people must become obedient to EARN their way to the Father through Jesus.

That would be totally redundant.

If you could EARN your way to the Father through obedience, then there would be no need for Jesus at all.

You take the core essence of Christianity and totally smash it smithereens, and then demand that everyone accept your hateful interpretations lest YOU JUDGE THEM to be rejecting Jesus and ultimately God.

You have taken ownership of Jesus. He sits on your lap as a marionette doll with his tongue being twisted entirely by YOU.

Everyone else is WRONG, including devout Christians like MorningSong, and the Catholic Pope.



Only Cowboy has the TRUE WORD OF GOD in his hands. Everyone else is simply wrong. Too bad for them. Jesus does't care. According to Cowboy it's not about LOVE and GRACE, it's all about OBEDIENCE!

You must EARN your way to God through OBEDIENCE!

Truly.

The very idea that someone could be commanded to love others and also to love a God lest they be condemned to eternal damnation is indeed the most absurd idea ever created by mankind.

That would amount to nothing more than using hate tactics as a motivation to try to demand that some become a loving person. A total oxymoron to be sure.

If it makes you feel any better MorningSong, I doubt that too many people actually view Cowboy as a representative of Christianity.

I never have.

Also for whatever it's worth, your explanations for questions I have concerning the Bible make far more sense than anything Cowboy has ever offered.

I can actually see how Christianity can indeed make sense from your perspective.

Not to imply that I think it makes any sense. But your solutions to the contradictions and problems have always made far more sense than anything that Cowboy as ever offered.

Can you not see?

All you've done here is give your own personal apologetic interpretations. This is NOT what's actually written in the Bible.

What's actually written in the Bible is,...

"I and the Father are One"

In fact, in this very story the Jews then picked up stones to stone Jesus for blaspheme.

What did Jesus do? Did Jesus give YOUR apologetic excuse that he simply meant that he has the same agenda as the father?

No, he did not. On the contrary, Jesus pointed to a verse in the Torah,....

Is it not written in your law, "I said, Ye are gods?"?

Instead of proclaiming YOUR apologetic excuse, Jesus proclaims that he wasn't claiming to be "God" anymore than any other moral man could claim to be "God".

I have personally held this very fact up to be evidence that Jesus was indeed a pantheistic-minded Jew which supports my theory that he probably was educated in Mahayana Buddhism and attempting to teaching things from that perspective.

~~~~~

You always try to claim that everything is so 'simple and clear'. But it's nowhere near as cut-and-dried as you'd like to pretend.

There are endless interpretations that can be taken from these stories.

~~~~~

Moreover, you totally ignored the one where Jesus says, "Before Abraham was, I AM".

~~~~~

They wanted to stone him for blaspheme then too but he ran and hid.

At least if you believe these stories.

Personally I don't believe these stories verbatim. They make no sense as verbatim stories. Therefore at best they are most likely superstitious rumors. If Jesus had ever said anything like this he was probably attempting to convey a pantheistic view of life again. I doubt very much that the entire conversation unfolded the way these scripture claim (assuming that such things were ever said in any context).

However, in any case, this is extremely problematic for anyone who is attempting to hold that Jesus was wasn't claiming to be the great "I AM". In fact, it's often these kinds of verses that they point to in an attempt to establish that he had indeed attempted to proclaim such things.

~~~~~

Actually if we accept your assertion that Jesus never claimed to be anything other than the "Son of God", then his special divinity would become highly questionable because after all if we take a closer look at the actual verse that Jesus pointed to in the Torah and read the WHOLE VERSE it actually states:

"I have said, Ye are gods; and all of you are children of the most High"

All are children of God. Therefore to claim to be the "Son of God" is not impressive. Any mortal man can make this claim and the Bible supports this view.

In fact, this was Jesus very own defense and explanation for why he had referred to himself as the Son of God or even to be "One with God". Since it also says, "Ye are gods".

So there is absolutely no merit for your claims.

If there were no 'contradictions' as you claim, then Jesus was NOT claiming to be any more special than any other mortal man could claim.

On the other hand, if you claim that Jesus was making claims to having some special divine status, then you've got major contradictions.

It's a lose/lose situation for you.

Trust me Cowboy I've been there!

There is no way that these stories can be made to work.

This was also the very same conclusion that the great Isaac Newton came to.

It's hopeless to try to support these stories via arguments that the make some sort of sense and do not contain contradictions.

They are riddle with contradictions and irresolvable paradoxes. And they most certainly aren't "clear" about anything.

That's precisely why I don't believe in Christianity MorningSong.

It's religion that I reject. Not a God.

I KNOW that I have a WILLING heart.

I'm more than WILLING to embrace the love of a truly all-wise, righteous, and divine creator.

I have been more than WILLING my entire life.

Therefore what does Christianity even have to do with it?

It's only the Christians who act like I don't have a WILLING heart because I am UNWILLING to accept their dogma as the "Word of God".

Accepting and supporting the Christian Bible has absolutely nothing at all to do with having a WILLING heart if by a WILLING heart all you mean is to be open to the divine LOVE of a genuinely all-wise, all-righteous, divine creator.

No problem there.

I'm more than open to that MorningSong, and I have been all my life.

You're being ridiculous again. You just posted scriptures from these highly contradicting stories as if they are supposed to have some sort of meaning to someone.

Why should anyone believe this John fellow?

It is utterly disgusting to think that you would judge someone to be "condemning themselves" simply because they don't believe these utterly convoluted and untrustworthy fables.

That's is my WHOLE POINT Cowboy.

You shove these verses in people's faces proclaiming:

"Here! Either believe this is the Word of God! Or you are condemning yourself!"

You are doing precisely what I'm talking about.

Exactly!

And this totally flies in the face of Jesus' previous claims, "I and the Father are ONE", and "Before Abraham was, I AM".

So all you are doing here is verifying that these stories are indeed totally riddled with huge contradictions.

No, the Bible CLEARLY has Jesus proclaiming that He and the Father are ONE.

The Bible also CLEARLY has Jesus proclaiming that "Before Abraham was, I AM".

All you done (so typically) is post a few contradictory verses to these verses, and proclaimed that the verses you chose CLEARLY show that the Bible supports your views.



There is no "clarity" in these fables Cowboy. They are a collection of contradictions through and through.

You pick and choose verses that support your views and totally sweep any other contradicting verses under the carpet.

And then you claim that the verses you have chosen "CLEARLY SHOW" what the Bible has to say.



It's ridiculous Cowboy.

And this is precisely why the Jews and Muslims don't accept the New Testament. And why the Protestants reject Catholicism, and why Protestants themselves have created countless different denominations.

These fables are riddled with contradictions and verses that conflict with each other, and there is NOTHING CLEAR about it at all.

That is the Christian fallacy.

There is no clarity to be had from these stories. They are a huge collection of blatant contradictions.

You're turning Christianity into Greek Mythology. This is precisely what the Christians strive to avoid.

You are proclaiming that Jesus is a totally separate "God" from Yahweh in the same sense that Apollo was a totally separate "God" from Zeus.

Apollo was the Son of Zeus. But unlike Jesus Apollo was born of a Goddess named Leto. So Apollo was a full-fledged pure-bred God.

If you are claiming that Jesus was merely the Son of Yahweh in this same way, then not only would that make Jesus a separate deity, but it would also make him a demigod because he was born of a mortal woman.

He wouldn't even have the divine status of Apollo.

The Christians have historically refused this idea. This is why they have created the Holy Trinity in an effort to proclaim that the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are all ONE.

They are quite passionate about this and demand that Christianity is a monotheistic religion.

What you are suggesting is that they are wrong and that Christianity is actually polytheistic and that Jesus is indeed a separate deity from God Almighty.

You're basically proclaiming that Jesus is nothing more than a demigod version of Apollo.

And whatever happened with "Before Abraham was, I AM"?

You'll find yourself in extremely heated debates with other Chrisitans if you try to proclaim that Jesus was anything other than the great primordial "I AM".

They'll be accusing you of blaspheme and heresy.

The word of God?

That's the whole problem right there MorningSong, the continued holding up of these ancient fables as the "Word of God".

It ultimately leads to extreme religious prejudice where the Christians are in total denial of what they don't care to believe from the bible (such as the FACT that Genesis 3:16 has this "God" clearly stated that man is to RULE OVER woman).

They deny these kinds of things, yet simultaneously try to hold up things such as John 3:16 as being the absolute TRUTH.

Moreover, they support the idea of this God basically condemning people to either spiritual death or eternal suffering in a hell fire, for mere not going along with the Christian claims that these fables are the "Word of God"

What? You don't believe that Jesus was the Son of God?

God will condemn you to hell for that brother!

That's heresy! That's blaspheme! That's the greatest SIN that any man could ever commit! You have a CHOICE! You can either join the forces of GOD, or you can chose to side with Satan!

Now what are YOU going to do?

You are faced with a CHOICE!

And if you make the WRONG CHOICE you will be branded as someone who hates God and serves the demon Satan!

And God will be justified in casting you into the pits of HELL!

Because it was YOUR CHOICE to REJECT GOD!!!!

~~~~~~

I mean, seriously MorningSong, that's the only place this religion can lead when it comes to "non-believers". They must be condemned by this God, and that condemnation must be "righteous".

If the Christians fail to hold this up as being absolutely necessary, then the whole ideal that every MUST confess Jesus to be LORD and must accept him as their LORD and Savior goes down the tubes.

Christianity would be a completely meaningless religion if it was deemed OK to not believe in Jesus and not acknowledge that he is LORD (which also implies that the entire Christian Biblical Cannon must also be acknowledged as the "Word of God")

After all, what sense would it make for someone to confess that Jesus is LORD yet deny that he was "The Christ" and all that goes with that?

This is what I mean about Jesus just being the tip of the iceberg.

Jesus is being used as the bait to suck people into this religion.

Reject Jesus and you're a heathen who is choosing to reject God and support Satan.

Accept Jesus and you had damn well better be prepared to SUPPORT all of the Christian doctrine from Genesis to Revelations. To question that is seen as nothing short of questioning that Jesus was the sacrificial lamb of this very GOD!

There is no way in Christianity to "Accept Jesus" as your LORD and savior without also supporting the horrors that you are supposedly being "saved" from.

~~~~~

IMHO, this religion has taken all that's good and righteous and has tossed it all out the window in favor of creating a religion that cannot be denied without serious social repercussions from "The Christians"

It's really nothing more than a Political System that has been created in the name of a God who will hate you if you fail to support it.

There is no way to politely reject this political-religious institution and be repected.

How could anyone possibly be "respected" when they are ultimately being charged with rejecting their creator in favor of siding with a demonic Satan?

And this is all being done in the name of Jesus!

Fact it MorningSong. You can't possibly know if these ancient fables have anything to do with any God. You may wish to have FAITH that this is the case, but you don't know it and can't know it. All you are doing is preaching what you personally believe to be true. Not unlike Cowboy.

I will Grant you that you style is a whole hell of a lot better. But in the end, you're basically supporting the same cannon of stories, and you too are apparently in denial of what these stories actually have to say.

Genesis 3:16 is crystal clear God has condemned Woman to be ruled over by her Husband. And Eve represents all women in this religion. It has to be that way in order to make the concept of "original sin" meaningful.

Adam represents All men, and Eve represents ALL women. Thus all men are to be the RULERS over their wives.

Why do you think this is being held up in the Muslim countries?

This is precisely where they get this crap from.

There are Christians who are actively working for "Women's Rights" and rebelling against these ancient archaic beliefs of male chauvinism and superiority. Yet how ironic is that?

The Bible has the Christian God actually supporting male superiority and has commanded that husbands shall rule over their wives. Yes many modern day Christians totally reject that idea.

They see it as being fundamentally "unrighteous".

And apparently you are in denial of it as well.

So how do you explain the irony that Christian are so passionate about supporting John 3:16, but are in such gross denial of Genesis 3:16?

I reject them BOTH as being nothing more than man-made superstitious rumors.

The biblical cannon is a Pandora's box of contradicting parables and stories.

A God who cursed a serpent to crawl on his belly and eat dust for the rest of the days of his life?



You seriously have to believe this in order to support this cannon of stories ya know!

I agree, this is the kind of talk that I would expect from a false prophet. Someone who was just trying to pull the wool over the crowd's eyes. He was caught for his false prophecy, and as they are crucifying him for it, he acts like as if he's close enough to God that he can actually suggest to God how to judge people.

That would be precisely what I would expect an overly-arrogant false prophet to do.

Not to suggest that Jesus was an overly-arrogant false prophet. I personally don't believe he ever said any such things. However, I do believe that the people who wrote the New Testament wrote these things. And so they would be the false prophets who are shoving these words in a dead Jesus' mouth.

I simply don't believe that the New Testament is worthy of being taken literally and verbatim. Therefore I have no reason to justify many of the things that they claim Jesus might have said. I simply dismiss them as being fabricated lies in the first place.

It's only the people who are attempting to hold the whole cannon up as the infallible word of God who need to justify ever jot and tittle.

Come to think of it, maybe I should hook up with a Christian woman who actually BELIEVES in the Bible!

Any Christian women out there who believe Genesis 3:16?

Send me an email. Or better yet, "Come on over!"

I've got tons of work that needs to be done around here. Floors need scrubbed, walls need washed. Dirty dishes from last week need to be washed.

I'm a fair and righteous ruler like God. I would never do anything worse than make you crawl on you belly and eat dirt. I promise!

I won't even threaten you with hell fire. But I do expect you to keep the woodstove well-stoked with logs.

In fact, you can even chop them up whilst I practice my saxophone.

Don't worry, I'll play spiritual songs praising Jesus for providing me with my slave woman helpmate who's sole desire shall be to serve me just as I serve Jesus who sits at the right hand of God in heaven who's word we must all obey as I rule over thee.

You say, "signifying that woman would be man's equal.."

But it doesn't actually state that in the story, so this would be someone's personal interpretation of what this supposedly "signifies".

Others could, and have, suggested that since woman was made from a part of man, this "signifies" that the women is actually the property of the man. She is made from HIS rib, and thus it's clear that his was meant by God to show that she is his PROPERTY.

That's certainly a valid way to interpret these same things. That's the problem with these stories, when they don't actually spell things out, you can imagine them to "signify" all sorts of things.

Moreover, it really wouldn't matter what God had intended when he created Eve, it's crystal clear by the following that she must serve her husbands desires, and not the other way around:

Genesis 3:16 Unto the woman he said, I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception; in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children; and thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee.


It's stated crystal clear here in Gen 3:16 that the man shall rule over the woman.

So even if their had been equality between them before the fall from grace, there sure as hell isn't any equality after the fall from grace.

That is on pretty solid ground by Genesis 3:16.

Isn't that funny?

The Christian's favorite verse is John 3:16 "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life."

But they sure don't like Genesis 3:16 "Unto the woman he said, I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception; in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children; and thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee."

Is that a numerical freak accident? Chapter 3 verse 16. One is a favorite, and the other they'd rather sweep under the carpet, or makes all sorts of alternative interpretations for it.

I with you that this is indeed the position taken by the authors of the Bible. Clearly I don't accept their position.

A God can only forgive "sins" committed against the God himself.

In the meantime, only men can forgive the trespasses made against them. In fact, if a man trespasses against another man the only person who can forgive them is the person they trespassed against. Not God. God has no say in the matter.

If you have done someone wrong, the person to seek forgiveness from is the person you have wronged. Do not seek forgiveness from. God cannot forgive you for your trespasses against other men. Only those that you trespass against can forgive you your 'sins' against them.

Jesus was able to forgive sins made against "God" because he knew that all are God and that all that is required to be forgiven by God is to forgive yourself for the "sins" you have committed against yourself. You are the only person who can provide that forgiveness. And Jesus knew that, so all he was doing was giving people permission to forgive themselves.

Jesus was a very wise sage. I do accept that.

But there is no egotistical Zeus in the sky who can forgive anyone. There is no egotistical Zeus in heaven who holds grudges against people that need to be forgiven. That is the fallacy of this overall religion.

There are only two sources of forgiveness that a person must be concerned with. Forgiveness of those you trespass against, and forgiveness of your own trespasses for 'sins' you have committed against yourself.




Again, I totally understand that this is indeed what the author of the New Testament would love for us to believe. They tried really hard to make a case for this. However, they failed to convince me.

I can see exactly what they were doing. They were rooting through the Torah in an attempt to make a case that Jesus was the "Son of God" and they looked for potential prophecies, then simply claimed that Jesus had actually said all these things when he was crucified, thus fulfilling "prophecy".

The Jews didn't buy into this trickery, and neither do I.

I personally think it's all-too-obvious what these authors were attempting to do.

Moreover, if these are the kind of prophecies being "Full-filled" that everyone refers to (and they often are), then they are totally unimpressive. Not only were the authors of the New Testament fully aware of these prophecies, but they actually POINT right to them and say, "Hey look! This was full-filled when Jesus said this, "blah blah blah" and this prophecy was full-filled when Jesus said that, "blah blah blah".

The only problem is that it is these very same authors who are writing down the "blah blah blah" that they claim Jesus said!

How can we call that prophecy?

We have no clue if Jesus actually said any of those things.

For all we know he might not have said anything at all when he was being crucified. According to many scholars and people in the medical sciences, you wouldn't be talking very much if you were nailed to a pole with nothing holding you to the pole but spikes in your wrists and feet.

In short, MorningSong, I really see no reason to believe the authors of the New Testament.

I personally don't TRUST them.

People did nasty things in the name of religion back then. I mean, just think about it. The very crucifixion of Jesus was supposedly inspired by religion. The Pharisees had incited a mob to help them have Jesus crucified on a pole basically on charges of blaspheme.

People were doing horrific things in those days in the name of religion.

Why should we think that the authors of the New Testament were any less devious and nasty than all the other religious jerks who lived back in those days?

~~~~~

Where does Jesus ever tell anyone that they should worship the Torah as the "Word of God"? Even the Gospels don't have him making any such claim. On the contrary he taught totally opposite moral values and renounced the scribes and Pharisees as being hypocrites. When he did refer to the Torah he referred to as "Your Law" when speaking to the Scribes and Pharisees, not as "God's Word".

As far as I can see, this man named Jesus was actually renouncing the Torah as the hypocritical laws written by scribes and pharisees. He wasn't supporting it as the "Word of God".

Where do the Gospels have Jesus prophesying the coming of Saul/Paul to finish his ministry and complete teaching that he never completed?

He doesn't. He never even remotely suggests any such thing.

Where in the Gospels does Jesus tell anyone to write these things down or to create a collection of documents that must be accepted as his verbatim words?

He doesn't. He never even remotely suggests any such thing.

Where does it say ANYWHERE in the entire biblical cannon that such a cannon will someday come to pass and must be accepted as the verbatim "Word of God".

No such claims even remotely exist.

In short, there is no support for even holding the biblical cannon up as the "Word of God".

No support for that idealism even exists at all.

That very notion was also nothing other than the creation of men.


I have no problems with Jesus, and especially with the moral teachings that have been associated with him.

But I have very serious problems with holding Jesus up as an idol image of God to support a notion that some entire cannon of stories represent the infallible "Word of God".

That very idea right there has absolutely nothing at all to do with Jesus.

I personally like Jesus far better as a Jewish Mahayana Buddhist Bodhisattva.

It's the holding up of Jesus as an idol image of God to support the entire Christian Cannon as the "Word of God" that I reject.

And as I'm sure you are all too aware of, I reject that notion with GREAT PASSION.

I have no problems with Jesus.

But I have humongous problems with Christianity.