It most certainly is nearly that time of year again; when the Christian Church dusts the cobwebs off its story and peddles it once again to the unsuspecting masses. I must say that I do find the whole “epic” just a tad ironic. First of all, let me just mention that I have no doubt in my mind at all that Jesus Christ actually existed; and I have no doubts at all that he was a truly incredible soul. However, the story that organised religion wants us to believe just does not stack up.
We have to understand that Christ was not a Christian; Christianity is the man-made religion founded by unscrupulous religious leaders in an effort to control the naive and the gullible through fear. Christ was strictly non-religious, however, if you really had to pigeon-hole him, you would have to say that he was a Buddhist. He studied the teachings of Buddha in the monasteries of the Himalayas and he also hung out with the Essenes and the Nazarenes, who were religious sects that practised a form of Buddhism. Christ was attracted to these people because their religion was non-violent. It was common practise in those times for live animals to be sacrificed in the temples, and Jesus was against this (and made his feelings known in no uncertain terms). Christ was the original hippie activist and was considered to be a subversive by the religious leaders of the time.
It’s worth noting that it is because of his association with the Nazarenes that Christ is often incorrectly referred to as, “Jesus of Nazareth”. Historically, Nazareth was nothing more than a tiny hamlet that Jesus may or may not have passed through at some time or other. So, why do I find the whole Christmas story a tad ironic? It’s because the church peddles their messiah as being, “the one and only begotten Son of God”. According to Christians, God is an all-powerful entity that is separate from us mere mortals, and Jesus is his son. This theory completely contradicts the Buddhist teachings, amongst other belief systems, that Christ followed. Buddhists do not believe in a deity as such, rather in a Creative Force, or infinite consciousness that permeates the whole creation. Christ’s message was simple. He said that we are all the same as him, we are all Gods and that we will find the Kingdom of Heaven within ourselves; it is not a place we can go to.
So the Christian messiah is marketed by the church as something that he would never have considered himself to be. I also can’t help thinking (cynically perhaps) that the reason the church marketed their messiah as a meat eating wine drinker, which he wasn’t, was simply so that they could justify their own gluttonous desires.
Merry Christmas!
Author - Richard F Holmes 
A thought provoking view. I pray that this does not get you into tricky situations with the powers that be. Have a great time in Cyprus.
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Thanks brother I intend to have a great time. 🙂
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Dear Richard,
To me, the most difficult thing to understand about Christianity is the sin or Original Sin issue – that Christ bore our sins on the Cross. Then why are we still sinning? Is there a deeper, different meaning to that? The other issue is, “No one comes to the Father except through me.” This makes Christianity so exclusive. But we know this cannot be but how do we explain it convincingly? Perhaps Christ never said that or what he said was modified. I don’t know but sometimes i wish i knew. To me, these are the two matters that make Christians genuinely feel that they have to save others because they themselves have total belief in them.
Thank you, Richard.
Regards,
Jeanie
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Hi Jeanie and thanks for taking the time to comment. I can answer both of your queries, but at the moment I’m preparing for a trip. If you can wait until I come back I will be happy to have a go. It won’t be for at least 2 weeks if that’s ok?
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Hi, dear Richard, I can definitely wait. I’ve already waited years to receive an acceptable explanation so two or three weeks is nothing at all! Wishing you a great time in Cyprus!
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Hi Jeanie
Hope all is well with you? I will first endeavour to answer your second point.
No one really knows what Christ actually said because the Bible was written years after the events, and also it was written by people (writers) who were told what to write. In addition, the Bible has been altered a significant amount of times throughout the ages by unscrupulous religious leaders (most notably by King Constantine in AD 325), who deleted things they didn’t want the masses to know and replaced them with their own version of events. Things have also been lost in translation. However, having said that, the statement apparently made by Christ that, “No one comes to the Father except through me.” is actually highly symbolic and should not be taken literally in the way that Christians obviously do.
Christ apparently spoke a lot in parables because he was a Self-realised soul; he was in the world but not a part of the world. When he spoke he did not speak from the perspective of the false-self (ego), he spoke from the perspective of the One (soul). So when he used the words “I” and “me”, he was not referring to the body of a man, but rather to The Christ Consciousness (soul) that is within all of us. So, the statement, “No one comes to the Father except through me.”, was Christ’s way of saying that we will only become enlightened by realising the Christ-Self that resides within all of us. He also apparently said, “The Kingdom of Heaven is within you”, which would tie-in nicely with the previous statement. I hope this helps. Look out for my forthcoming video entitled, “Would You Adam and Eve It”, in which I will tackle your first query. God bless!
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Dear Richard,
Your answer above to my second query makes complete sense to me. After so many years of asking around and searching for an acceptable answer, i finally got my answer from you. I’m most thankful and grateful to you for this. My mistake was i took that statement too literally and hence my mind was totally blind to the symbolic part of it. I now feel very happy and even liberated with this revelation! Thank you so much, dear Richard, for your deep wisdom. I now await your answer to my first query. But i can wait. Do take your time.
Thank you again and warm regards,
Jeanie
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Glad I was able to help you Jeanie and thanks for your feedback! 🙂
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Hi Jeanie. If you check out my latest blog post, “It’s Nearly That Time Of Year Again – Part Four”, it will hopefully answer your other question!
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