This statement illustrates the service relationship that exists - and was customary in ancient times - between God's representative - the spiritual teacher - and his students.
Jesus said this to his disciples after they asked him: "Where do you want us to make preparations for you to eat the Passover?" (Matt. 26:17)
So it was important that these dedicated students arrange somewhere for their Teacher to eat, on the Passover. This statement, followed by Jesus' statement confirms several key points about the relationship between Jesus and his students:
1) His students accepted him as their spiritual teacher - as they called him "teacher" and Jesus addressed himself as "teacher."
This indicates the central role that Jesus played in their lives, and in the lives of others. Jesus was a teacher, and his mission was to teach his students about God. As teacher, Jesus was representing God. He was teaching what God told him to teach:
"When a man believes in me, he does not believe in me only, but in the One who sent me." (John 12:44)
Jesus is clearly stating that God sent him, and he is representing God. Therefore, to believe Jesus' teachings means to believe God's teachings. We find that Jesus referred to his position as being sent by God a number of times.
This should be clear because many ecclesiastical Christians misconstrue Jesus' role and position. Many claim that Jesus was God, and that his role was to die for our sins.
This is a ridiculous assumption. Why would God - the Supreme Being and Controller of everything - have to come to the earth as a man and die in order to forgive our sins? Does God not already possess this power to forgive our sins? And did not Jesus teach us to ask God to forgive us for our sins in his prayer ("Forgive us our sins, for we also forgive everyone who sins against us." (Luke 11:4). So we know God can forgive our sins. He doesn't need to come to the earth and "die for our sins."
Plus, God does not, and did not, die.
2) Jesus' students were subservient to their teacher. The relationship was clear. Jesus gave the instructions and his students obeyed those instructions.
Why is this important? Because this was the ancient method used to train those who were serious about spiritual life. The teacher mentored the student, personally answering questions and taught the student about how to apply the teachings of scripture and previous spiritual teachers in the current society and culture. And then the teacher engaged the student into his own service to God by allowing the student to help him - thereby allowing the student to serve God.
We see this relationship occurring time and again throughout the ancient books of the Old Testament. We saw this relationship between Abraham and Isaac, Isaac and Jacob, Jethro and Moses, Moses and Joshua, Eli and Samuel, Samuel and David, David and Solomon and others. While many of these relationships appear (or are construed) to be between a son and father, this was not always the case - such as Moses and Joshua and Eli and Samuel - as many of these were not related. And beyond that, most of these teachers also had many other students, some of whom continued the tradition by becoming a teacher.
The boy Samuel ministered before the LORD under Eli. (1 Sam 3:11)
This illustrates the relationship between the student and the teacher. The teacher mentors the student, and the student begins to serve God under the tutelage of the teacher - God's representative.
And this relationship was also seen between John the Baptist and Jesus, as John initiated Jesus (though he saw Jesus as superior in his relationship with God); and we see it between Jesus and his students, as he sent his students out to teach others.
But these teachers are not like many of today's teachers, some of whom want us to believe that they are God or Jesus incarnated or that they have some new interpretation of the scriptures; taking advantage of and abusing their students. It is also not the same as attending seminary school, where students learn from elected teachers fulfilling professional "professorial" positions.
Rather, it is a personal, one-on-one mentorship. This is the process of being introduced to God. It is a personal process, not an official, ecclesiastical one.
The ancient teachers of scripture directed the student to worship God, and they humbled themselves before God in the presence of their students. This was the process. Not that the teacher felt superior. The teacher saw himself as God's servant and the servant of others.
And it was this very humble position that endeared the student to the teacher, and made the student respectful of the teacher. And this position also confirmed to the student that the teacher was God's representative - along with their own spiritual vision of the teacher.
Being God's representative means being God's humble servant. It means having been a student of one of God's representatives. It means acting on behalf of God and His representative. It is not a superfluous thing. The person must have themselves taken a teacher, and have become empowered by God after applying those teachings and developing their own personal relationship with God. But it is not as though the student ever leaves the teacher. The bonafide teacher is always a student of his teacher.
The process begins by developing a relationship with the teacher, and serving the teacher. As the teacher brings along the student, and the student applies the teachings of the teacher seriously, God sees this. Because the teachings of the teacher come from God, as the student applies those teachings, the student becomes closer and closer to God. As the student's relationship with God gets closer, they may or may not become empowered by God to also teach.
This process is being illustrated here with Jesus' requests to his students to perform certain tasks, which they did. They did not get paid for these tasks. It was not a job. Jesus did not say, "good students, now you get paid." No, the reward for serving the teacher was their coming closer to God, because they had become part of the teacher's mission to please God.
This link never changes for the bonafide student. Even should the student become empowered to teach, they always see themselves as the servant of their teacher. And because they see their teacher as God's representative and God's servant, their continued service to their teacher maintains the link of love and humble loving service to God. This is called being the servant of the servant.
This was communicated by Joshua, Moses' student:
"But be very careful to keep the commandment and the law that Moses the servant of the LORD gave you: to love the LORD your God, to walk in all His ways, to obey His commands, to hold fast to Him and to serve Him with all your heart and all your soul." (Joshua 22:5)
The bonafide teacher never feels that their teachings are their own teachings. It is not like so many charlatan teachers today who make up their own interpretation of scripture. The bonafide teacher is always feeling that they are merely a student of a bonafide teacher, and passing on the teachings of that bonafide teacher. The bonafide teacher never teaches - as do many of today's ecclesiastical teachers - that they did not need a teacher, but we need them to be our teacher (because they are teaching to us).
Furthermore, teaching that we don't need a teacher is a contradiction in itself.
The bonafide process of teachers and students has been honored for thousands of years among the scriptures. Yes, there are splinter groups who have created their own interpretations and deviated from the teachings of their teacher - like ecclesiastical Christianity has deviated from the teachings of Jesus. But the pure teachings as handed down from teacher to student are still accessible, should we find such a bonafide teacher, empowered by God, who is always the humble student of a bonafide teacher, passing on the same message of Moses, Joshua, Jesus and all the bonafide teachers:
“‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.' This is the first and greatest commandment." (Matt. 22:37-38)
"Why are you bothering this woman? She has done a beautiful thing to me. The poor you will always have with you, but you will not always have me. When she poured this perfume on my body, she did it to prepare me for burial. I tell you the truth, wherever this gospel is preached throughout the world, what she has done will also be told, in memory of her." (Matt. 26:10-13)
This translation makes it appear that the woman being referred to is some foreign woman who approached Jesus. Some have even falsely represented that the woman was a prostitute.
Several verses in John explain otherwise. Not only was she not some strange woman off the street, but she was a student of Jesus, along with her sister and brother, Lazarus:
This Mary, whose brother Lazarus now lay sick, was the same one who poured perfume on the Lord and wiped his feet with her hair. So the sisters sent word to Jesus, "Lord, the one you love is sick." When he heard this, Jesus said, "This sickness will not end in death. No, it is for God's glory so that God's son may be glorified through it." Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. (John 11:2-5)
And later:
And after she had said this, she went back and called her sister Mary aside. "The Teacher is here," she said, "and is asking for you." When Mary heard this, she got up quickly and went to him. (John 11:28-29)
Here we see that both Mary, who is pouring the oil, and Martha, her sister, were students of Jesus, as they both referred to him as "the Teacher."
In between these verses, we see an exchange between Martha and Jesus, illustrating that Jesus was directly teaching her. So they accepted Jesus as their teacher, and he accepted them as his students.
These verses also explain the care that existed between Jesus and his students and Jesus: Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus.
So now we find that Mary has poured scented oil on Jesus, and his other disciples became "indignant" according to the text (Matt. 26:9). They said, "Why this waste?" This perfume could have been sold at a high price and the money given to the poor." (Matt. 26:8-9)
Jesus then chastises these other students, as they did not perceive the importance of rendering loving service to the spiritual teacher.
This is one of the basic elements of achieving spiritual life, practiced from ancient times. We see this practice - of the student learning from, and rendering service to, the spiritual teacher- throughout the books of the Bible. Why is this important?
The bonafide spiritual teacher is God's representative. The bonafide spiritual teacher is not a professional position - or an elected post. Whether it be from deacons, elders, cardinals, or bishops, the bonafide spiritual teacher is not chosen democratically - by people. The bonafide spiritual teacher is chosen and empowered only by God.
But God does not empower a person to represent Him whimsically. There is a process, and that process involves honoring the relationship(s) of those previous teachers who also represented God. In other words, God empowers those who, after being introduced to His service by one of His existing representatives, take those teachings seriously; and then render loving service to His representative.
This is the process of achieving access to God. God is all about relationships. We see this same practice in everyday life: A person who wants to become friends with someone powerful will need to gain access through the person's friend or representative. Should they please the representative, the representative allows access to the powerful person.
Said another way, there is no better way to achieve the trust and confidence of someone we do not know than to be introduced to that person via a mutual friend.
These general rules of relationships are typical here and in the spiritual world because loving relationships originate from the spiritual dimension: Their reflection into the physical plane is muted but still evident.
Put it this way: God set up this method for us to reach him. Why? Because God is all about relationships, and love of God requires a relationship. It is not as if suddenly we can just love God out of the blue. We have to be introduced to God by someone who knows Him. Once we are introduced, if we follow that person's teachings - which show us how we can learn to please God - then God will make Himself more and more known to us. As He wishes: He is in charge, not us.
On this topic, many people demand:
If God exists, why can't I see Him?
Well, what if God doesn't want us to see Him? What if He has purposely hidden Himself from our physical view for a reason?
The fact is, He has hidden Himself from our physical view because deep inside we don't want to see Him.
Why don't we want to see God? Because He is God. God means all-powerful. God means He is in control of everything. God means that He is the center of the universe, and we are not.
But we want to be the center of the universe. Just look around. Aren't we all acting as though we are the center, and everything revolves around us? Yes.
Why is this? Because we want to be God. We want others to love us, and serve us. We want fame. We want glory. We want to be wealthy. We want all of these things because we want God's position.
Therefore, seeing God would threaten the position we want. Hence, we would rather not see Him. We would rather ignore Him. We would rather pretend that He doesn't exist. We would rather doubt and question His existence, as though He's something that can be taken or left. Like it is our decision whether He exists or not.
Then there are those of us who are proud we've decided to be "believers." We think we are the special ones - the chosen ones. We think that we are the privileged ones. We see ourselves as "saved," and we get anything we ask God for. Those of us who are feeling this way see God as our servant - as though He is there to make our lives easier. As though He is there to make sure we get the money, the fame, and the pleasure. Those of us in this mood still wonder why we don't see God. And this is why many who previously and proudly called themselves believers now say they don't believe. We didn't get what we wanted from God. So He must not exist.
In these positions we think we know so much, and see so much that we are equipped to be the judge. Once again, we are putting ourselves as the center of the universe. We are so proud of our so-called knowledge of everything. We cannot even see the back of our heads let alone what exists outside the physical universe. We didn't know there were billions of microorganisms surrounding us until a few centuries ago. What do we know?
The spiritual teacher can teach us. If we humbly accept God's representative.
But how do we know who is God's representative? We can only truly know a person is a bonafide spiritual teacher if God shows us. This requires spiritual vision. Spiritual vision is given by God.
Why would God give someone spiritual vision to see who His representative is? Jesus stated it clearly here:
"No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him" (John 6:44)
This explains clearly that it is God who reveals His representative. Jesus further confirms this relationship with other statements:
"When a man believes in me, he does not believe in me only, but in the One who sent me. When he looks at me, he sees the One who sent me." (John 12:44)
Who is this "One who sent me" that Jesus is referring to? It is God. Jesus is God's representative, and God sent him.
Furthermore, Jesus explains how the teacher-student relationship works:
"I tell you the truth, whoever accepts anyone I send accepts me; and whoever accepts me accepts the One who sent me." (John 13:20)
Jesus is referring to "anyone I send" as his students, who went out and taught others as Jesus instructed them to do. If one accepted the sincere student of Jesus who passed on Jesus' teachings without change, then Jesus clarifies that the person accepted Jesus, and accepted God, because Jesus is God's representative.
This is how the ancient system of teacher-student works. This is why Joshua was a student of Moses before he became a teacher. This is why David was a student of Samuel before he became a teacher. This is why Samuel was a student of Eli before he became a teacher. This is why Solomon was a student of David before he became a teacher. And this is why Jesus was a student of John the Baptist before he became a teacher.
When we put this lineage together - we find another entire dimension to the history of the teachings of Jesus. Jesus constantly quoted those previous teachers like David, Moses and Samuel because he came from their lineage of teachings. By accepting John the Baptist's teachings, Jesus accepted all of the teachers before John. And more importantly, by accepting his teachers' teachings, Jesus accepted the One who sent all of them: the Supreme Being.
But ecclesiastical Christian teachers would like us to believe that Jesus' baptism by John was meaningless. It was only a little miracle, and it didn't mean that Jesus was John's student. They would like us to believe that all of the teachers, such as Abraham, Moses, Eli, Samuel, David, Solomon and all of those in between were all simply "prophets." Their only purpose was to simply predict Jesus' coming.
If this is true, why did these ancient teachers have so many students? Why did they teach the same basic tenets that Jesus taught? Why did God talk to them and tell them to speak on His behalf? Why did Jesus quote them so many times? Even Jesus' first and foremost commandment to love God was given as a quote from Moses' statement from Deut. 6:4. Have ecclesiastical Christian teachers forgotten that Jesus' teachings reflected the ancient spiritual teachers that came before him?
Yes. They want us to believe that Jesus is the only teacher, and the only representative of God who ever existed.
Why, then, are there so many teachers among the various ecclesiastical Christian sects? Why are all these professional priests and preachers teaching? Why are there so many Bible study teachers among the churches? If Jesus is the only teacher, why do they teach?
This is a huge contradiction among so many ecclesiastical Christian teachers. They teach us that we don't need a teacher - we just need Jesus. Let's get this right: They are teaching us that we don't need any teacher but Jesus. Why, then, are they teaching? It is a big contradiction.
Jesus clearly accepted the process of students learning from living teachers, and then those students who have become empowered by God after putting into practice the teacher's teachings, also becoming a teacher. This is why Jesus sent his disciples out to teach, saying:
"I am sending you out like sheep among wolves. Therefore be as shrewd as snakes and as innocent as doves. Be on your guard against men; they will hand you over to the local councils and flog you in their synagogues. On my account you will be brought before governors and kings as witnesses to them and to the Gentiles. But when they arrest you, do not worry about what to say or how to say it. At that time you will be given what to say, for it will not be you speaking, but the Spirit of your Father speaking through you." (Matt. 10:16-20)
Jesus thus instructed his students to go out and teach his message, and allow God to speak through them. This is being empowered by God. This means that he was instructing his students to also take on students.
But many of today's ecclesiastical Christians don't want to follow Jesus' teachings and example. They want us to believe that we can just imagine Jesus being in our heart, be convinced that Jesus died for our sins, and we are saved. We don't have to accept a living teacher. Again, they teach us that we don't need a teacher.
This is the teaching influenced by Paul - who was not a personal student of Jesus. He was employed as a spy for the Romans according to ancient texts of Josephus. Then he fought with James - Jesus' direct disciple - to be the leading teacher of the new Christian movement. James sincerely followed Jesus, and kept the principles taught by Jesus as passed down through the ancient lineage of spiritual teachers. Paul's claim to fame was having a "vision" of Jesus as he was walking alone. This is according to Paul. Why should we believe the same person who was employed by the Romans to spy on James and the rest of Jesus' students in Jerusalem? Oh, but he changed. That's nice.
The only way we should believe Paul is if he taught the same teachings as Jesus did, which were the same teachings of David, Moses, Abraham and the rest of this ancient lineage. No, Paul had to invent a new religion so that it would have mass appeal. And this is why the Romans accepted Paul's interpretations and his "new religion," because it was easy. We just have to accept that Jesus died for our sins and we're saved. We don't have to change from feeling we are the center of the universe. We don't have to learn to serve God, we can just sentimentally surrender to Jesus. Why, then, did Jesus teach:
"Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven." (Matt. 7:21)
This new religion invented by Paul also allowed so many ecclesiastical Christians to exercise their desires to become professional teachers and collect many followers. So they set up a system where teachers are elected and paid professional salaries. It is a system rife with abuse of authority - as we've seen with the many instances of the abuse of innocent children by Roman Catholic teachers. The reason for these abuses of power is because these teachers are being elected like politicians. If you pass the seminary exams and have a nice smile and say "Jesus died for your sins" in a way that pleases church elders, deacons or cardinals, then you, too, can be an elected spiritual teacher. That is their premise.
So in Jesus' (Matt. 26:10-13) statement above, what did he mean by the "memory of her"? For those who have preached Paul's "Jesus died for our sins" teaching, nothing: They accuse Mary of being a prostitute.
But those who truly are passing on Jesus' teachings maintain a loving memory of Mary, and her act of loving service to Jesus. They understand this relationship of love between the devoted student and the loving teacher/representative of God, and they carefully pass this understanding on to the next generation.
In the same way, Jesus was careful to pass on the love, devotion, and instructions of the ancient teachers and their students before him. He was careful to pass on the essence of their teachings, and not create his own brand of religion. This is why Jesus was careful to quote Moses as he gave his most important instruction:
“‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.' This is the first and greatest commandment." (Matt. 22:37-38)
Several verses in John explain otherwise. Not only was she not some strange woman off the street, but she was a student of Jesus, along with her sister and brother, Lazarus:
This Mary, whose brother Lazarus now lay sick, was the same one who poured perfume on the Lord and wiped his feet with her hair. So the sisters sent word to Jesus, "Lord, the one you love is sick." When he heard this, Jesus said, "This sickness will not end in death. No, it is for God's glory so that God's son may be glorified through it." Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. (John 11:2-5)
And later:
And after she had said this, she went back and called her sister Mary aside. "The Teacher is here," she said, "and is asking for you." When Mary heard this, she got up quickly and went to him. (John 11:28-29)
Here we see that both Mary, who is pouring the oil, and Martha, her sister, were students of Jesus, as they both referred to him as "the Teacher."
In between these verses, we see an exchange between Martha and Jesus, illustrating that Jesus was directly teaching her. So they accepted Jesus as their teacher, and he accepted them as his students.
These verses also explain the care that existed between Jesus and his students and Jesus: Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus.
So now we find that Mary has poured scented oil on Jesus, and his other disciples became "indignant" according to the text (Matt. 26:9). They said, "Why this waste?" This perfume could have been sold at a high price and the money given to the poor." (Matt. 26:8-9)
Jesus then chastises these other students, as they did not perceive the importance of rendering loving service to the spiritual teacher.
This is one of the basic elements of achieving spiritual life, practiced from ancient times. We see this practice - of the student learning from, and rendering service to, the spiritual teacher- throughout the books of the Bible. Why is this important?
The bonafide spiritual teacher is God's representative. The bonafide spiritual teacher is not a professional position - or an elected post. Whether it be from deacons, elders, cardinals, or bishops, the bonafide spiritual teacher is not chosen democratically - by people. The bonafide spiritual teacher is chosen and empowered only by God.
But God does not empower a person to represent Him whimsically. There is a process, and that process involves honoring the relationship(s) of those previous teachers who also represented God. In other words, God empowers those who, after being introduced to His service by one of His existing representatives, take those teachings seriously; and then render loving service to His representative.
This is the process of achieving access to God. God is all about relationships. We see this same practice in everyday life: A person who wants to become friends with someone powerful will need to gain access through the person's friend or representative. Should they please the representative, the representative allows access to the powerful person.
Said another way, there is no better way to achieve the trust and confidence of someone we do not know than to be introduced to that person via a mutual friend.
These general rules of relationships are typical here and in the spiritual world because loving relationships originate from the spiritual dimension: Their reflection into the physical plane is muted but still evident.
Put it this way: God set up this method for us to reach him. Why? Because God is all about relationships, and love of God requires a relationship. It is not as if suddenly we can just love God out of the blue. We have to be introduced to God by someone who knows Him. Once we are introduced, if we follow that person's teachings - which show us how we can learn to please God - then God will make Himself more and more known to us. As He wishes: He is in charge, not us.
On this topic, many people demand:
If God exists, why can't I see Him?
Well, what if God doesn't want us to see Him? What if He has purposely hidden Himself from our physical view for a reason?
The fact is, He has hidden Himself from our physical view because deep inside we don't want to see Him.
Why don't we want to see God? Because He is God. God means all-powerful. God means He is in control of everything. God means that He is the center of the universe, and we are not.
But we want to be the center of the universe. Just look around. Aren't we all acting as though we are the center, and everything revolves around us? Yes.
Why is this? Because we want to be God. We want others to love us, and serve us. We want fame. We want glory. We want to be wealthy. We want all of these things because we want God's position.
Therefore, seeing God would threaten the position we want. Hence, we would rather not see Him. We would rather ignore Him. We would rather pretend that He doesn't exist. We would rather doubt and question His existence, as though He's something that can be taken or left. Like it is our decision whether He exists or not.
Then there are those of us who are proud we've decided to be "believers." We think we are the special ones - the chosen ones. We think that we are the privileged ones. We see ourselves as "saved," and we get anything we ask God for. Those of us who are feeling this way see God as our servant - as though He is there to make our lives easier. As though He is there to make sure we get the money, the fame, and the pleasure. Those of us in this mood still wonder why we don't see God. And this is why many who previously and proudly called themselves believers now say they don't believe. We didn't get what we wanted from God. So He must not exist.
In these positions we think we know so much, and see so much that we are equipped to be the judge. Once again, we are putting ourselves as the center of the universe. We are so proud of our so-called knowledge of everything. We cannot even see the back of our heads let alone what exists outside the physical universe. We didn't know there were billions of microorganisms surrounding us until a few centuries ago. What do we know?
The spiritual teacher can teach us. If we humbly accept God's representative.
But how do we know who is God's representative? We can only truly know a person is a bonafide spiritual teacher if God shows us. This requires spiritual vision. Spiritual vision is given by God.
Why would God give someone spiritual vision to see who His representative is? Jesus stated it clearly here:
"No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him" (John 6:44)
This explains clearly that it is God who reveals His representative. Jesus further confirms this relationship with other statements:
"When a man believes in me, he does not believe in me only, but in the One who sent me. When he looks at me, he sees the One who sent me." (John 12:44)
Who is this "One who sent me" that Jesus is referring to? It is God. Jesus is God's representative, and God sent him.
Furthermore, Jesus explains how the teacher-student relationship works:
"I tell you the truth, whoever accepts anyone I send accepts me; and whoever accepts me accepts the One who sent me." (John 13:20)
Jesus is referring to "anyone I send" as his students, who went out and taught others as Jesus instructed them to do. If one accepted the sincere student of Jesus who passed on Jesus' teachings without change, then Jesus clarifies that the person accepted Jesus, and accepted God, because Jesus is God's representative.
This is how the ancient system of teacher-student works. This is why Joshua was a student of Moses before he became a teacher. This is why David was a student of Samuel before he became a teacher. This is why Samuel was a student of Eli before he became a teacher. This is why Solomon was a student of David before he became a teacher. And this is why Jesus was a student of John the Baptist before he became a teacher.
When we put this lineage together - we find another entire dimension to the history of the teachings of Jesus. Jesus constantly quoted those previous teachers like David, Moses and Samuel because he came from their lineage of teachings. By accepting John the Baptist's teachings, Jesus accepted all of the teachers before John. And more importantly, by accepting his teachers' teachings, Jesus accepted the One who sent all of them: the Supreme Being.
But ecclesiastical Christian teachers would like us to believe that Jesus' baptism by John was meaningless. It was only a little miracle, and it didn't mean that Jesus was John's student. They would like us to believe that all of the teachers, such as Abraham, Moses, Eli, Samuel, David, Solomon and all of those in between were all simply "prophets." Their only purpose was to simply predict Jesus' coming.
If this is true, why did these ancient teachers have so many students? Why did they teach the same basic tenets that Jesus taught? Why did God talk to them and tell them to speak on His behalf? Why did Jesus quote them so many times? Even Jesus' first and foremost commandment to love God was given as a quote from Moses' statement from Deut. 6:4. Have ecclesiastical Christian teachers forgotten that Jesus' teachings reflected the ancient spiritual teachers that came before him?
Yes. They want us to believe that Jesus is the only teacher, and the only representative of God who ever existed.
Why, then, are there so many teachers among the various ecclesiastical Christian sects? Why are all these professional priests and preachers teaching? Why are there so many Bible study teachers among the churches? If Jesus is the only teacher, why do they teach?
This is a huge contradiction among so many ecclesiastical Christian teachers. They teach us that we don't need a teacher - we just need Jesus. Let's get this right: They are teaching us that we don't need any teacher but Jesus. Why, then, are they teaching? It is a big contradiction.
Jesus clearly accepted the process of students learning from living teachers, and then those students who have become empowered by God after putting into practice the teacher's teachings, also becoming a teacher. This is why Jesus sent his disciples out to teach, saying:
"I am sending you out like sheep among wolves. Therefore be as shrewd as snakes and as innocent as doves. Be on your guard against men; they will hand you over to the local councils and flog you in their synagogues. On my account you will be brought before governors and kings as witnesses to them and to the Gentiles. But when they arrest you, do not worry about what to say or how to say it. At that time you will be given what to say, for it will not be you speaking, but the Spirit of your Father speaking through you." (Matt. 10:16-20)
Jesus thus instructed his students to go out and teach his message, and allow God to speak through them. This is being empowered by God. This means that he was instructing his students to also take on students.
But many of today's ecclesiastical Christians don't want to follow Jesus' teachings and example. They want us to believe that we can just imagine Jesus being in our heart, be convinced that Jesus died for our sins, and we are saved. We don't have to accept a living teacher. Again, they teach us that we don't need a teacher.
This is the teaching influenced by Paul - who was not a personal student of Jesus. He was employed as a spy for the Romans according to ancient texts of Josephus. Then he fought with James - Jesus' direct disciple - to be the leading teacher of the new Christian movement. James sincerely followed Jesus, and kept the principles taught by Jesus as passed down through the ancient lineage of spiritual teachers. Paul's claim to fame was having a "vision" of Jesus as he was walking alone. This is according to Paul. Why should we believe the same person who was employed by the Romans to spy on James and the rest of Jesus' students in Jerusalem? Oh, but he changed. That's nice.
The only way we should believe Paul is if he taught the same teachings as Jesus did, which were the same teachings of David, Moses, Abraham and the rest of this ancient lineage. No, Paul had to invent a new religion so that it would have mass appeal. And this is why the Romans accepted Paul's interpretations and his "new religion," because it was easy. We just have to accept that Jesus died for our sins and we're saved. We don't have to change from feeling we are the center of the universe. We don't have to learn to serve God, we can just sentimentally surrender to Jesus. Why, then, did Jesus teach:
"Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven." (Matt. 7:21)
This new religion invented by Paul also allowed so many ecclesiastical Christians to exercise their desires to become professional teachers and collect many followers. So they set up a system where teachers are elected and paid professional salaries. It is a system rife with abuse of authority - as we've seen with the many instances of the abuse of innocent children by Roman Catholic teachers. The reason for these abuses of power is because these teachers are being elected like politicians. If you pass the seminary exams and have a nice smile and say "Jesus died for your sins" in a way that pleases church elders, deacons or cardinals, then you, too, can be an elected spiritual teacher. That is their premise.
So in Jesus' (Matt. 26:10-13) statement above, what did he mean by the "memory of her"? For those who have preached Paul's "Jesus died for our sins" teaching, nothing: They accuse Mary of being a prostitute.
But those who truly are passing on Jesus' teachings maintain a loving memory of Mary, and her act of loving service to Jesus. They understand this relationship of love between the devoted student and the loving teacher/representative of God, and they carefully pass this understanding on to the next generation.
In the same way, Jesus was careful to pass on the love, devotion, and instructions of the ancient teachers and their students before him. He was careful to pass on the essence of their teachings, and not create his own brand of religion. This is why Jesus was careful to quote Moses as he gave his most important instruction:
“‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.' This is the first and greatest commandment." (Matt. 22:37-38)
"As you know, the Passover is two days away - and the son of man will be handed over to be crucified." (Matthew 26:2)
Here Jesus is foretelling the murder of his body to his disciples: When Jesus had finished saying all these things, he said to his disciples,.... (Matt. 26:1)
Why is this important? Is it important that we know that Jesus knew in advance what his future would bear? This may be important to those who need some kind of sign in order to believe that Jesus had power and authority.
But the deeper meaning of why this is important is that Jesus was in full knowledge of the tremendous suffering that he was about to experience, yet he did nothing to avoid it. He did nothing to escape. He not only knew that his body was going to be killed, but he knew how his body would be killed - in the most gruesome and painful manner.
Yet Jesus did not try to escape or avoid being captured. Why? Because he understood that this was part of his service to God. His focus was to do God's will.
Why was this part of Jesus' service to God? Did God want Jesus to suffer? Certainly not. Jesus understood that he was not the physical body, and the spiritual person does not necessarily suffer when the physical body is experiencing pain.
In Jesus' case, Jesus actually experienced the greatest spiritual pleasure even through the suffering of his body - that of serving his beloved, God. The pain of his body was nothing compared to the joy of pleasing the One he loved.
This doesn't mean that those involved in the murder of Jesus are excused. The torture and subsequent murder of God's loving servant and representative is the height of insanity and demoniac behavior. And those who seek to take advantage of this event for their own purposes are also implicated.
To that end, most ecclesiastical Christian teachers say that Jesus had to die in order to sacrifice for our sins. Many even refer to him as a "sacrificial lamb." As if it were ordained that someone has to suffer for our sins, and because God loved us, Jesus suffered for us so we do not have to suffer the consequences of our own actions.
This is a ridiculous notion, for if it is true, we would suddenly have no responsibility for our actions. Jesus' crucifixion did not remove the law of consequences from the physical world. If that were true, then a person could commit a crime and not go to jail as long as the person believed in Jesus. But this is simply not the case. There are consequences to every selfish act.
If this were true, then there would be no need to obey any commandments nor any rules or regulations provided by scripture. All we would have to do is believe in Jesus and we can do whatever we want.
If this were true, why did Jesus teach? Why did he teach his disciples and students to obey Moses' commandments, and why did he teach love of God? Why didn't he just say, "don't worry, I will die for your sins so you can do what you want, as long as you believe in me."
No, he did not say that. He was trying to teach his students, and all of us, to dedicate our lives to God. He was trying to teach us to learn to love God, not just sentimentally, but with our actions and lives. He was trying to get us to change our consciousness from being self-centered to being God-centered. He was trying to teach us to devote our lives to God.
And this was what he practiced as well. Jesus did not have a professional rabbi position. He did not hold a title at the temple. He walked through the countrysides, teaching love of God. This was because he was dedicated to God. He devoted his entire life to God. He was showing us how to love God and give our lives to God.
And therein lies the reason that Jesus allowed his body to be crucified. Jesus accepted being crucified because he had given himself to God, and that's what God wanted.
In the U.S. and in many other countries, it is considered a great act when a person goes to war and dies for their country. It is held in the highest esteem to sacrifice oneself for one's country. Why is this? Because dying for one's country shows that a person loves their country more than they care about their own well-being.
Now consider this in the light of Jesus' sacrifice. Jesus loved God so much that he was willing to allow his body to be tortured and killed in his service to God. This is the ultimate sacrifice of love - to give ones life in their service to God.
Now consider the connection: Why was Jesus killed? Because of his teachings. He was killed because he taught what God wanted him to teach. This is why it was so important that he not escape his execution - because he was standing up for his teachings. By Jesus standing up for his teachings, and allowing his body to be gruesomely murdered, he was not only showing his love for God, but he was showing each of us - for generations to come - how important his teachings were, and what it means to devote ones life to God.
And it is understanding this - understanding the deep love that Jesus had for God to do this - that has the power to change a person. It is understanding this act of devotion - done in love for God - that has the power to save us.
Why does it have the power to save us? Because it can change our consciousness. It can change our consciousness from loving ourselves above all, to trying to re-develop our love for God. And it is loving God that saves us.
And this specifically is why Jesus referred to himself here as not "son of man", as is being mistranslated here, but rather, the "servant of humanity." (See this commentary to understand this translation).
So how did ecclesiastical Christianity so misconstrue Jesus' crucifixion? How could they have perverted this event into something diametrically opposed to Jesus' teachings? (As seeing Jesus' sacrifice as a facility to remove our sins is a selfish, demoniac position.)
The interpretation of Jesus' murder at the hands of the Romans as being some kind of sacrificial lamb was begun by Paul, who was not a disciple or direct student of Jesus. In fact, Paul, according to historical texts, was employed by the Roman government to spy on Jesus' disciples after Jesus' body was murdered by the Romans. The Romans did not want Jesus' movement to expand. They thought that killing Jesus like a criminal would disband the movement. But they were wrong.
Jesus' disciples, led by James, continued to spread Jesus' real teachings from Jerusalem and surrounding areas following Jesus' departure.
Both the Romans and the Jewish high priests did not like this. Paul then infiltrated the group, and began to challenge James. Paul developed his own interpretation that was a departure from Jesus' teachings. James' teachings followed the lineage of the teachings of Jesus, David, Abraham, Moses, Samuel, John the Baptist and so-on. These were the teachings handed down over centuries - to love God and dedicate ones life to God.
Paul, however, developed his own new-fangled form of Christianity, which attracted Gentiles, because all they had to do was "believe" in Jesus, and Jesus' crucifixion would miraculously remove their sins and allow them to go to heaven. They didn't need to change their consciousness, and learn to love God, as Jesus, Moses and David commanded. They just had to believe in Jesus.
Over the next two centuries, the Romans increasingly accepted this new-fangled teaching invented by Paul, and supported the organizational structure that Paul developed, which eventually became the Roman Catholic Church and subsidiaries, with Paul considered its first ecclesiastical "Pope."
This is interesting, because Jesus did not like the ecclesiastical form of organization structure that the Jewish temples had developed, with their professional priests and rabbis. Jesus railed against this hierarchical, professional structure, teaching instead to develop our personal relationship with God. But what did Paul do? He immediately organized the same kind of structure, and the Roman government, under the leadership of several Roman emperors, strengthened and supported this hierarchy that became the Roman Catholic Church. In the meantime, the Romans murdered James and others trying to follow Jesus, and burned other scriptures. And the Romans, under Constantine's Synods of Nicea, carefully selected and interpreted certain books to make up their "Bible" in order to support their version of organized Christianity, all the while conveniently leaving James and other disciples of Jesus who tried to carry on Jesus' real teachings out of the picture.
This interpretation of Jesus as the sacrificial lamb of mankind has been carried through the centuries by practically all of the Christian sects that came after the Roman Catholic church. Why? Because for at least a thousand years, the Roman Catholic church and Roman government dominated and controlled the Christian dialog and Christian interpretation. Anyone with another interpretation would be burned at the stake, or otherwise taken out. This enforcement of their interpretation created a mass mindset or group-think that has pervaded through the centuries.
Just consider: If a person wants to graduate from seminary school and be a Christian teacher, they must accept this interpretation because this is what is taught in seminary schools and colleges. Otherwise, they will not be licensed to be a priest or preacher. Without that license, they don't get a congregation and a position at a church. It is as simple as that. This has enforced this interpretation thousands of times over.
Many try to use John 3:16 to support this interpretation. Let's consider this carefully. Here is the verse:
"For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only [some translations say "only begotten"] son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life." (John 3:16)
This verse, however, is woefully mistranslated and misinterpreted. Yes, it is true that God so loved the world. And it is true that He sent Jesus to the world as His representative. But the type of "giving" being referred to here is not as though God sent Jesus as our doormat to suffer for our sins. The type of "giving" (From the Greek word δίδωμι (didōmi)) being discussed here is that God sent Jesus to teach us about Him. There is nothing within the word δίδωμι (didōmi) to construe that it has anything to do with a person being sacrificed.
And Jesus was not God's "one and only" son or "only begotten" son. The Greek word being translated here is μονογενής (monogenēs), which can mean "only one of its kind" according to the lexicon.
But the deeper meaning of μονογενής (monogenēs) is devoted, or loving. In other Greek works, we often find μονογενής used to denote someone who is special, or singled out. This is the case with Jesus. He was special to God. He was devoted to God, and there was an intimate loving relationship existing between Jesus and God. This made Jesus special, and it meant that God's sending Jesus was unique, because Jesus has such an intimate loving relationship with God.
In other words, rather than "only begotten son", the phrase μονογενής υἱός is best translated as "devoted servant" or "loving devoted servant", as υἱός can mean "son" in the physical sense, but "follower" or "dedicated servant" in the spiritual sense.
Furthermore, the Greek phrase, πιστεύων εἰς αὐτὸν, being translated to "believes in him" is mistranslated. The Greek word πιστεύων refers to having "confidence in" or "trust." It is not simply the kind of "belief" relating to knowing a person existed, or knowing a person was great. We are talking about trusting in what Jesus was teaching. And what did Jesus teach?
“‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.' This is the first and greatest commandment." (Matt. 22:37-38)
Following this instruction is what will save us. And Jesus not only taught us this. He showed us as well. By his accepting his murder at the hands of the Romans and Jewish high priests, Jesus showed us what loving God "with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind" means.
Why is this important? Is it important that we know that Jesus knew in advance what his future would bear? This may be important to those who need some kind of sign in order to believe that Jesus had power and authority.
But the deeper meaning of why this is important is that Jesus was in full knowledge of the tremendous suffering that he was about to experience, yet he did nothing to avoid it. He did nothing to escape. He not only knew that his body was going to be killed, but he knew how his body would be killed - in the most gruesome and painful manner.
Yet Jesus did not try to escape or avoid being captured. Why? Because he understood that this was part of his service to God. His focus was to do God's will.
Why was this part of Jesus' service to God? Did God want Jesus to suffer? Certainly not. Jesus understood that he was not the physical body, and the spiritual person does not necessarily suffer when the physical body is experiencing pain.
In Jesus' case, Jesus actually experienced the greatest spiritual pleasure even through the suffering of his body - that of serving his beloved, God. The pain of his body was nothing compared to the joy of pleasing the One he loved.
This doesn't mean that those involved in the murder of Jesus are excused. The torture and subsequent murder of God's loving servant and representative is the height of insanity and demoniac behavior. And those who seek to take advantage of this event for their own purposes are also implicated.
To that end, most ecclesiastical Christian teachers say that Jesus had to die in order to sacrifice for our sins. Many even refer to him as a "sacrificial lamb." As if it were ordained that someone has to suffer for our sins, and because God loved us, Jesus suffered for us so we do not have to suffer the consequences of our own actions.
This is a ridiculous notion, for if it is true, we would suddenly have no responsibility for our actions. Jesus' crucifixion did not remove the law of consequences from the physical world. If that were true, then a person could commit a crime and not go to jail as long as the person believed in Jesus. But this is simply not the case. There are consequences to every selfish act.
If this were true, then there would be no need to obey any commandments nor any rules or regulations provided by scripture. All we would have to do is believe in Jesus and we can do whatever we want.
If this were true, why did Jesus teach? Why did he teach his disciples and students to obey Moses' commandments, and why did he teach love of God? Why didn't he just say, "don't worry, I will die for your sins so you can do what you want, as long as you believe in me."
No, he did not say that. He was trying to teach his students, and all of us, to dedicate our lives to God. He was trying to teach us to learn to love God, not just sentimentally, but with our actions and lives. He was trying to get us to change our consciousness from being self-centered to being God-centered. He was trying to teach us to devote our lives to God.
And this was what he practiced as well. Jesus did not have a professional rabbi position. He did not hold a title at the temple. He walked through the countrysides, teaching love of God. This was because he was dedicated to God. He devoted his entire life to God. He was showing us how to love God and give our lives to God.
And therein lies the reason that Jesus allowed his body to be crucified. Jesus accepted being crucified because he had given himself to God, and that's what God wanted.
In the U.S. and in many other countries, it is considered a great act when a person goes to war and dies for their country. It is held in the highest esteem to sacrifice oneself for one's country. Why is this? Because dying for one's country shows that a person loves their country more than they care about their own well-being.
Now consider this in the light of Jesus' sacrifice. Jesus loved God so much that he was willing to allow his body to be tortured and killed in his service to God. This is the ultimate sacrifice of love - to give ones life in their service to God.
Now consider the connection: Why was Jesus killed? Because of his teachings. He was killed because he taught what God wanted him to teach. This is why it was so important that he not escape his execution - because he was standing up for his teachings. By Jesus standing up for his teachings, and allowing his body to be gruesomely murdered, he was not only showing his love for God, but he was showing each of us - for generations to come - how important his teachings were, and what it means to devote ones life to God.
And it is understanding this - understanding the deep love that Jesus had for God to do this - that has the power to change a person. It is understanding this act of devotion - done in love for God - that has the power to save us.
Why does it have the power to save us? Because it can change our consciousness. It can change our consciousness from loving ourselves above all, to trying to re-develop our love for God. And it is loving God that saves us.
And this specifically is why Jesus referred to himself here as not "son of man", as is being mistranslated here, but rather, the "servant of humanity." (See this commentary to understand this translation).
So how did ecclesiastical Christianity so misconstrue Jesus' crucifixion? How could they have perverted this event into something diametrically opposed to Jesus' teachings? (As seeing Jesus' sacrifice as a facility to remove our sins is a selfish, demoniac position.)
The interpretation of Jesus' murder at the hands of the Romans as being some kind of sacrificial lamb was begun by Paul, who was not a disciple or direct student of Jesus. In fact, Paul, according to historical texts, was employed by the Roman government to spy on Jesus' disciples after Jesus' body was murdered by the Romans. The Romans did not want Jesus' movement to expand. They thought that killing Jesus like a criminal would disband the movement. But they were wrong.
Jesus' disciples, led by James, continued to spread Jesus' real teachings from Jerusalem and surrounding areas following Jesus' departure.
Both the Romans and the Jewish high priests did not like this. Paul then infiltrated the group, and began to challenge James. Paul developed his own interpretation that was a departure from Jesus' teachings. James' teachings followed the lineage of the teachings of Jesus, David, Abraham, Moses, Samuel, John the Baptist and so-on. These were the teachings handed down over centuries - to love God and dedicate ones life to God.
Paul, however, developed his own new-fangled form of Christianity, which attracted Gentiles, because all they had to do was "believe" in Jesus, and Jesus' crucifixion would miraculously remove their sins and allow them to go to heaven. They didn't need to change their consciousness, and learn to love God, as Jesus, Moses and David commanded. They just had to believe in Jesus.
Over the next two centuries, the Romans increasingly accepted this new-fangled teaching invented by Paul, and supported the organizational structure that Paul developed, which eventually became the Roman Catholic Church and subsidiaries, with Paul considered its first ecclesiastical "Pope."
This is interesting, because Jesus did not like the ecclesiastical form of organization structure that the Jewish temples had developed, with their professional priests and rabbis. Jesus railed against this hierarchical, professional structure, teaching instead to develop our personal relationship with God. But what did Paul do? He immediately organized the same kind of structure, and the Roman government, under the leadership of several Roman emperors, strengthened and supported this hierarchy that became the Roman Catholic Church. In the meantime, the Romans murdered James and others trying to follow Jesus, and burned other scriptures. And the Romans, under Constantine's Synods of Nicea, carefully selected and interpreted certain books to make up their "Bible" in order to support their version of organized Christianity, all the while conveniently leaving James and other disciples of Jesus who tried to carry on Jesus' real teachings out of the picture.
This interpretation of Jesus as the sacrificial lamb of mankind has been carried through the centuries by practically all of the Christian sects that came after the Roman Catholic church. Why? Because for at least a thousand years, the Roman Catholic church and Roman government dominated and controlled the Christian dialog and Christian interpretation. Anyone with another interpretation would be burned at the stake, or otherwise taken out. This enforcement of their interpretation created a mass mindset or group-think that has pervaded through the centuries.
Just consider: If a person wants to graduate from seminary school and be a Christian teacher, they must accept this interpretation because this is what is taught in seminary schools and colleges. Otherwise, they will not be licensed to be a priest or preacher. Without that license, they don't get a congregation and a position at a church. It is as simple as that. This has enforced this interpretation thousands of times over.
Many try to use John 3:16 to support this interpretation. Let's consider this carefully. Here is the verse:
"For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only [some translations say "only begotten"] son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life." (John 3:16)
This verse, however, is woefully mistranslated and misinterpreted. Yes, it is true that God so loved the world. And it is true that He sent Jesus to the world as His representative. But the type of "giving" being referred to here is not as though God sent Jesus as our doormat to suffer for our sins. The type of "giving" (From the Greek word δίδωμι (didōmi)) being discussed here is that God sent Jesus to teach us about Him. There is nothing within the word δίδωμι (didōmi) to construe that it has anything to do with a person being sacrificed.
And Jesus was not God's "one and only" son or "only begotten" son. The Greek word being translated here is μονογενής (monogenēs), which can mean "only one of its kind" according to the lexicon.
But the deeper meaning of μονογενής (monogenēs) is devoted, or loving. In other Greek works, we often find μονογενής used to denote someone who is special, or singled out. This is the case with Jesus. He was special to God. He was devoted to God, and there was an intimate loving relationship existing between Jesus and God. This made Jesus special, and it meant that God's sending Jesus was unique, because Jesus has such an intimate loving relationship with God.
In other words, rather than "only begotten son", the phrase μονογενής υἱός is best translated as "devoted servant" or "loving devoted servant", as υἱός can mean "son" in the physical sense, but "follower" or "dedicated servant" in the spiritual sense.
Furthermore, the Greek phrase, πιστεύων εἰς αὐτὸν, being translated to "believes in him" is mistranslated. The Greek word πιστεύων refers to having "confidence in" or "trust." It is not simply the kind of "belief" relating to knowing a person existed, or knowing a person was great. We are talking about trusting in what Jesus was teaching. And what did Jesus teach?
“‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.' This is the first and greatest commandment." (Matt. 22:37-38)
Following this instruction is what will save us. And Jesus not only taught us this. He showed us as well. By his accepting his murder at the hands of the Romans and Jewish high priests, Jesus showed us what loving God "with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind" means.
“When the son of man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit on his throne in heavenly glory. All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left. Then the king will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’ Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’ The King will reply, ‘I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.’ Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me.’ They also will answer, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?’ He will reply, ‘I tell you the truth, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.’ Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life.” (Matt. 25:31-46)
Here Jesus again speaks using allegory as he explains the time of death, and the possible courses that result according to how we lived our lives.
The key to Jesus' statement is the word "comes," which is derived from the Greek word ἔρχομαι (erchomai), which can mean, when used in the physical sense, "to come from one place to another, and used both of persons arriving and of those returning," according to the lexicon. But when used in the context of Jesus's previous statements and analogies - the events immediately following the moment of death, the lexicon describes the word to mean, "to appear, make one's appearance."
This, with the rest of Jesus' statement, indicates that when Jesus appears at the time of death, he is not alone, but rather, is accompanied by angels.
What is "his throne" refer to? If a person were "coming," they would not be sitting on a throne, because thrones are not considered moving vehicles. Rather, Jesus is describing, with allegory, the process of judgement that occurs immediately following death. This is also called "judgement day."
Judgement day is not some single day in the future where everyone whose ever died in the past assembles in front of Jesus. This literal concept of Jesus' parable is simply not practical. If this were what Jesus was discussing, then that would mean that billions of people who have died over the past thousands of years would be waiting somewhere for this event. How long do they have to wait, and where are they waiting? Some Roman Catholic teachers saw this problem centuries ago (after they had wrongly predicted the end of the world for several centuries) and speculated that there must be some sort of waiting room (they called it "purgatory") where everyone would be waiting for judgement day.
Their mistake is that they failed to understand the concept that Jesus was trying to teach. He used several analogies - the ten virgins, the master and the talents, the thief and the house, and the servants who beat others. All of these were symbolic stories that explain how the death of our body will come when we least expect it, and each of us will be judged at the time of death as to the choices we made during our lifetimes.
Jesus goes on to explain how those who helped their brothers and sisters during their lives would be on his right side, while those who did not would be sent away. What is this describing?
It is describing spiritual advancement. Those who advance spiritually do so by following Jesus' instructions to love God and "like unto it," love one another. Love of God is therefore the trait that drives one to love and help others. (And diametrically opposed to the popular claim that we must love ourselves before we can love others. This is merely selfishness being disguised as wisdom.)
Jesus isn't talking about just helping the poor and the sick, or doing healings. If he did, then he would not have said previously:
"Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?' Then I will tell them plainly, 'I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!'" (Matt. 7:21-23)
We can see from this clear instruction by Jesus that the story being told above about helping others is not to be taken literally - as though just being kind to others will result in going to heaven. Jesus is speaking allegorically. Helping someone in need is being used symbolically for serving God by helping others to remember Him. "I was in prison..." for example, is not a literal event. Jesus is not saying that we have to have helped him when he was in prison, or when anyone else was in prison in order to get to go to heaven. Helping someone in prison is symbolic for helping someone who is drowning in the ignorance of the physical world understand that love of God will save them.
We must remember that this discussion is taking place between Jesus and some of his disciples, privately (Matt. 24:3). Jesus is instructing his disciples to teach his message on to others.
Jesus is using symbolism to request that his disciples serve God. This is why Jesus said "but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven" previously. Doing someone else's will means serving them. It means living in a way that pleases them.
The bottom line is that being "righteous" in Jesus' symbolic description means learning to love God and then living ones life in such a way that pleases God. And what pleases God the most? When we help those around us to remember Him and think of Him. This is because God loves us and wants all of us to return to Him. This is why Jesus' most important instructions were:
“‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.' This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments." (Matt. 22:37-40)
The key to Jesus' statement is the word "comes," which is derived from the Greek word ἔρχομαι (erchomai), which can mean, when used in the physical sense, "to come from one place to another, and used both of persons arriving and of those returning," according to the lexicon. But when used in the context of Jesus's previous statements and analogies - the events immediately following the moment of death, the lexicon describes the word to mean, "to appear, make one's appearance."
This, with the rest of Jesus' statement, indicates that when Jesus appears at the time of death, he is not alone, but rather, is accompanied by angels.
What is "his throne" refer to? If a person were "coming," they would not be sitting on a throne, because thrones are not considered moving vehicles. Rather, Jesus is describing, with allegory, the process of judgement that occurs immediately following death. This is also called "judgement day."
Judgement day is not some single day in the future where everyone whose ever died in the past assembles in front of Jesus. This literal concept of Jesus' parable is simply not practical. If this were what Jesus was discussing, then that would mean that billions of people who have died over the past thousands of years would be waiting somewhere for this event. How long do they have to wait, and where are they waiting? Some Roman Catholic teachers saw this problem centuries ago (after they had wrongly predicted the end of the world for several centuries) and speculated that there must be some sort of waiting room (they called it "purgatory") where everyone would be waiting for judgement day.
Their mistake is that they failed to understand the concept that Jesus was trying to teach. He used several analogies - the ten virgins, the master and the talents, the thief and the house, and the servants who beat others. All of these were symbolic stories that explain how the death of our body will come when we least expect it, and each of us will be judged at the time of death as to the choices we made during our lifetimes.
Jesus goes on to explain how those who helped their brothers and sisters during their lives would be on his right side, while those who did not would be sent away. What is this describing?
It is describing spiritual advancement. Those who advance spiritually do so by following Jesus' instructions to love God and "like unto it," love one another. Love of God is therefore the trait that drives one to love and help others. (And diametrically opposed to the popular claim that we must love ourselves before we can love others. This is merely selfishness being disguised as wisdom.)
Jesus isn't talking about just helping the poor and the sick, or doing healings. If he did, then he would not have said previously:
"Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?' Then I will tell them plainly, 'I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!'" (Matt. 7:21-23)
We can see from this clear instruction by Jesus that the story being told above about helping others is not to be taken literally - as though just being kind to others will result in going to heaven. Jesus is speaking allegorically. Helping someone in need is being used symbolically for serving God by helping others to remember Him. "I was in prison..." for example, is not a literal event. Jesus is not saying that we have to have helped him when he was in prison, or when anyone else was in prison in order to get to go to heaven. Helping someone in prison is symbolic for helping someone who is drowning in the ignorance of the physical world understand that love of God will save them.
We must remember that this discussion is taking place between Jesus and some of his disciples, privately (Matt. 24:3). Jesus is instructing his disciples to teach his message on to others.
Jesus is using symbolism to request that his disciples serve God. This is why Jesus said "but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven" previously. Doing someone else's will means serving them. It means living in a way that pleases them.
The bottom line is that being "righteous" in Jesus' symbolic description means learning to love God and then living ones life in such a way that pleases God. And what pleases God the most? When we help those around us to remember Him and think of Him. This is because God loves us and wants all of us to return to Him. This is why Jesus' most important instructions were:
“‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.' This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments." (Matt. 22:37-40)
"Again, it will be like a man going on a journey, who called his servants and entrusted his property to them. To one he gave five talents of money, to another two talents, and to another one talent, each according to his ability. Then he went on his journey. The man who had received the five talents went at once and put his money to work and gained five more. So also, the one with the two talents gained two more. But the man who had received the one talent went off, dug a hole in the ground and hid his master's money. After a long time the master of those servants returned and settled accounts with them. The man who had received the five talents brought the other five. 'Master,' he said, 'you entrusted me with five talents. See, I have gained five more.' His master replied, 'Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master's happiness!' The man with the two talents also came. 'Master,' he said, 'you entrusted me with two talents; see, I have gained two more.' His master replied, 'Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master's happiness!' Then the man who had received the one talent came. 'Master,' he said, 'I knew that you are a hard man, harvesting where you have not sown and gathering where you have not scattered seed. So I was afraid and went out and hid your talent in the ground. See, here is what belongs to you.' His master replied, 'You wicked, lazy servant! So you knew that I harvest where I have not sown and gather where I have not scattered seed? Well then, you should have put my money on deposit with the bankers, so that when I returned I would have received it back with interest. 'Take the talent from him and give it to the one who has the ten talents. For everyone who has will be given more, and he will have an abundance. Whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken from him. And throw that worthless servant outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.'” (Matt. 25:14-30)
Many ecclesiastical Christian teachers have interpreted this parable by Jesus to be discussing the accumulation of material things, money, skills or other physical items. This is simply not true.
The first sentence indicates that Jesus is using yet another analogy to describe the same issue he has been discussing in previous verses, and with other analogies.
That is, that at some point in time - at a moment we are likely least expecting it - our body will die. Will we be prepared for that moment?
Here is the breakdown of the meaning of this parable:
The "talents" given by the master symbolize our unique relationship with God - expressed by our service to God. The more "talents" the servant was given, the greater the ability to express their service. Thus, the "talent" in Jesus' parable relates to the level of service to God a person can render, as well as the level of their loving relationship with God.
Money in general is symbolic. While the "talents" being described by Jesus are denominations of money, Jesus uses the talent in his parable because a talent was considered quite valuable. One talent during those times was worth more than a thousand dollars in our money today.
Each of us is given the opportunity to re-develop our personal relationship with God at some point during our lives. Those who do not utilize and develop this relationship are being compared to the servant who buried his talent in the ground. This is interesting, as those who refuse to develop their relationship with God are in fact, burying that opportunity so not only will they not use it, but neither can anyone else.
The servant who used his talents to gain more talents symbolizes a person who utilizes the word of God that is given to him by God's representative to not only develop a closer relationship of loving service to God, but also to help God bring others back to Him.
Notice here that in Jesus' story, there is no difference in the response the master gives to the servant relative to the amount of talents they earned back. The master is pleased regardless of how much. This symbolizes the fact that God is not petty. Any progress towards increasing our affection and love for Him is appreciated and rewarded, and any sincere service rendered for Him is appreciated without regard to the amount or volume.
The Supreme Being simply wants our love. He is the most beautiful and gracious person. He is our lovable best friend, our constant companion, and the one person we can always rely upon. To remember this through our lives, and to build upon this fact will bring us closer and closer to Him. This is the meaning of Jesus' statement: "For everyone who has will be given more, and he will have an abundance."
Those of us who ignore this message, and refuse to accept Jesus' teachings and God's call to bring us back to Him, are unfortunately destined to continue suffering in this physical world. Should we "bury" the jewels of knowledge given to us by Jesus, we are faced with continued loneliness and physical suffering as we try to enjoy the physical world within innumerable physical bodies - including those of rats, insects, wolves, snakes and so on. Living within these types of physical bodies are being described as "there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth" because these physical bodies are born of fear, pain and suffering.
Jesus wants us to re-develop our loving relationship with God so we can return to our home in the spiritual realm. This is where we belong, and this is why he instructed us:
“‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.' This is the first and greatest commandment.” (Matt. 22:37-40)
The first sentence indicates that Jesus is using yet another analogy to describe the same issue he has been discussing in previous verses, and with other analogies.
That is, that at some point in time - at a moment we are likely least expecting it - our body will die. Will we be prepared for that moment?
Here is the breakdown of the meaning of this parable:
The "talents" given by the master symbolize our unique relationship with God - expressed by our service to God. The more "talents" the servant was given, the greater the ability to express their service. Thus, the "talent" in Jesus' parable relates to the level of service to God a person can render, as well as the level of their loving relationship with God.
Money in general is symbolic. While the "talents" being described by Jesus are denominations of money, Jesus uses the talent in his parable because a talent was considered quite valuable. One talent during those times was worth more than a thousand dollars in our money today.
Each of us is given the opportunity to re-develop our personal relationship with God at some point during our lives. Those who do not utilize and develop this relationship are being compared to the servant who buried his talent in the ground. This is interesting, as those who refuse to develop their relationship with God are in fact, burying that opportunity so not only will they not use it, but neither can anyone else.
The servant who used his talents to gain more talents symbolizes a person who utilizes the word of God that is given to him by God's representative to not only develop a closer relationship of loving service to God, but also to help God bring others back to Him.
Notice here that in Jesus' story, there is no difference in the response the master gives to the servant relative to the amount of talents they earned back. The master is pleased regardless of how much. This symbolizes the fact that God is not petty. Any progress towards increasing our affection and love for Him is appreciated and rewarded, and any sincere service rendered for Him is appreciated without regard to the amount or volume.
The Supreme Being simply wants our love. He is the most beautiful and gracious person. He is our lovable best friend, our constant companion, and the one person we can always rely upon. To remember this through our lives, and to build upon this fact will bring us closer and closer to Him. This is the meaning of Jesus' statement: "For everyone who has will be given more, and he will have an abundance."
Those of us who ignore this message, and refuse to accept Jesus' teachings and God's call to bring us back to Him, are unfortunately destined to continue suffering in this physical world. Should we "bury" the jewels of knowledge given to us by Jesus, we are faced with continued loneliness and physical suffering as we try to enjoy the physical world within innumerable physical bodies - including those of rats, insects, wolves, snakes and so on. Living within these types of physical bodies are being described as "there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth" because these physical bodies are born of fear, pain and suffering.
Jesus wants us to re-develop our loving relationship with God so we can return to our home in the spiritual realm. This is where we belong, and this is why he instructed us:
“‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.' This is the first and greatest commandment.” (Matt. 22:37-40)
“At that time the kingdom of heaven will be like ten virgins who took their lamps and went out to meet the bridegroom. Five of them were foolish and five were wise. The foolish ones took their lamps but did not take any oil with them. The wise, however, took oil in jars along with their lamps. The bridegroom was a long time in coming, and they all became drowsy and fell asleep. At midnight the cry rang out: ‘Here’s the bridegroom! Come out to meet him!’ Then all the virgins woke up and trimmed their lamps. The foolish ones said to the wise, ‘Give us some of your oil; our lamps are going out.’ ‘No,’ they replied, ‘there may not be enough for both us and you. Instead, go to those who sell oil and buy some for yourselves.’ But while they were on their way to buy the oil, the bridegroom arrived. The virgins who were ready went in with him to the wedding banquet. And the door was shut. Later the others also came. ‘Sir! Sir!’ they said. ‘Open the door for us!’ But he replied, ‘I tell you the truth, I don’t know you.’ Therefore keep watch, because you do not know the day or the hour.” (Matt. 25:1-13)
This parable spoken by Jesus is yet another analogy that explains the importance for our preparation for the moment of death. "At that time" refers to death, just as "the day or the hour."
Many ecclesiastical Christian interpreters have taught that Jesus is referring to some time in the future where the world will end, and he'll come galloping through the sky to save those who have followed him.
This nonsensical tale has many holes, however. Remember that Jesus is discussing this privately with a few of his close disciples. Now if we consider that the world has yet to end, some two thousand years later, how are these disciples supposed to remain prepared, having died two thousand years before?
Some ecclesiastical Christian teachers have tried to cover this inconsistency by creating a fictitious "purgatory" state, where everyone who has died before the world ends supposedly waits. How are they waiting? And what are these billions of people doing while they wait? Just standing around, like its a cocktail party or something?
Some ecclesiastical Christians have supposed that people will be waiting in their graves for this end of the world scenario. In what form will they be waiting? Their bodies have thoroughly decomposed. For most, even their bones are now part of the surrounding soil.
In fact, many of Jesus' disciples that he was speaking to here, as did many Jews during the Jewish-Roman wars that Jesus foretold, were burned in fires, as the Romans burnt down Jerusalem and many other villages throughout the region. These burnt bodies decomposed even more quickly. Their remains are thus part of today's dirt of that region - just as all soil is made up of decomposed organisms.
Rather, Jesus is discussing the moment of death: That moment when each of us - the nonphysical being that temporarily occupies the physical body - leaves the body.
It is not hard to predict that everyone will die. Every person will experience the moment of death within a few decades at least. Some of us will experience the moment of death within a few years, some even a few months, weeks or even days. Are we prepared for that moment?
A significant amount of evidence from scripture indicates - and clinical death experiences confirm - that just following the moment of death, we will be judged on the results of our physical lifetimes. Our lives will be reviewed, including every event that hurt someone and every event that helped someone.
As such, the moment of death has been called "Judgement Day" and the day we "Meet our Maker".
More importantly, our spiritual progress will be reviewed. Did we use our lives to re-develop our relationship with God? Or did we squander our lives away chasing after money, fame, the opposite sex and other accomplishments that all vanish upon the moment of death?
In Jesus' parable, those who used their lives to re-develop their relationship with God are being compared to the five maidens who were prepared. Those five had enough oil to keep their lamps lit. They were prepared for the bridesgroom.
The other maidens are like those of us who have wasted our physical lives chasing the temporary physical goodies of the physical world. These maidens were not prepared, and thus had to run off to find oil, and missed that moment when the bridesgroom came.
This analogical story - parable - of the ten virgins and the bridesgroom has clear symbolism. The virgins represent each of us. We are each spiritual beings who were created by God to care for Him and exchange a relationship of loving service with Him. However, He also gave us the freedom to love Him or not. Love without freedom isn't really love, after all.
The bridesgroom represents the Supreme Lord, God, who gathers up those who have used their physical lives to re-develop their loving relationship with Him. God wants all of us back, but only those who are ready to re-enter our natural position of being His loving servants are let back.
This is because God only wants us back if we want to return to Him. He never forces Himself upon us. If we want to continue our selfish existence trying to enjoy ourselves and ignore Him, then we simply are not prepared to return to God. Those of us on this path remain in the physical world by taking on another physical body.
The lamps of the story symbolize the condition of our spiritual self. Those spiritual beings that have re-developed their loving relationship with God give off light for themselves and others to see with.
The oil for the lamps symbolizes our relationship with God. No oil signifies no relationship, or a relationship of disdain, doubt or simply a state of ignoring the Supreme Being. Those of us who try hard to ignore God and His various lessons and signals throughout life have no oil, and thus they give off no real light.
Jesus was very clear about this message. He didn't teach love of God just to entertain himself or be trendy. Many ecclesiastical Christians' focus on Jesus as though his mission was to die for our sins. This couldn't be further from the truth. Why did Jesus teach, then? Why did Jesus tell his disciples to also go out and teach to others, then? Those of us who embellish upon this teaching that Jesus died for our sins simply do not want to do the hard work of preparing ourselves for the moment of death. We want an easy way out. We want to continue being focused upon ourselves and the goodies of the physical world all week, and then spend an hour in church on Sunday making sure that Jesus' death cleared out all our sins. Jesus himself clarified that this would not work:
"Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?' Then I will tell them plainly, 'I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!'" (Matt. 7:21-23)
Notice Jesus refers to "that day" in this statement, just as he does in the statement above. Again, Jesus is talking about that moment in time when we must face God or His angels, at the moment after the death of this physical body.
Doing the "will of my Father who is in heaven" is part of having a loving relationship with God. It is not as if we simply do what God wants so that we get something in return. It is not a business transaction. It is love. Doing what pleases another is part of a loving relationship. If we love someone, we don't do what pleases them so we get something in return. We do what pleases them because we love them and care for them.
So we must re-develop our loving relationship with God. This was Jesus' most important teaching, and the teaching that if we follow will indeed save us:
“‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.' This is the first and greatest commandment.” (Matt. 22:37-40)
Many ecclesiastical Christian interpreters have taught that Jesus is referring to some time in the future where the world will end, and he'll come galloping through the sky to save those who have followed him.
This nonsensical tale has many holes, however. Remember that Jesus is discussing this privately with a few of his close disciples. Now if we consider that the world has yet to end, some two thousand years later, how are these disciples supposed to remain prepared, having died two thousand years before?
Some ecclesiastical Christian teachers have tried to cover this inconsistency by creating a fictitious "purgatory" state, where everyone who has died before the world ends supposedly waits. How are they waiting? And what are these billions of people doing while they wait? Just standing around, like its a cocktail party or something?
Some ecclesiastical Christians have supposed that people will be waiting in their graves for this end of the world scenario. In what form will they be waiting? Their bodies have thoroughly decomposed. For most, even their bones are now part of the surrounding soil.
In fact, many of Jesus' disciples that he was speaking to here, as did many Jews during the Jewish-Roman wars that Jesus foretold, were burned in fires, as the Romans burnt down Jerusalem and many other villages throughout the region. These burnt bodies decomposed even more quickly. Their remains are thus part of today's dirt of that region - just as all soil is made up of decomposed organisms.
Rather, Jesus is discussing the moment of death: That moment when each of us - the nonphysical being that temporarily occupies the physical body - leaves the body.
It is not hard to predict that everyone will die. Every person will experience the moment of death within a few decades at least. Some of us will experience the moment of death within a few years, some even a few months, weeks or even days. Are we prepared for that moment?
A significant amount of evidence from scripture indicates - and clinical death experiences confirm - that just following the moment of death, we will be judged on the results of our physical lifetimes. Our lives will be reviewed, including every event that hurt someone and every event that helped someone.
As such, the moment of death has been called "Judgement Day" and the day we "Meet our Maker".
More importantly, our spiritual progress will be reviewed. Did we use our lives to re-develop our relationship with God? Or did we squander our lives away chasing after money, fame, the opposite sex and other accomplishments that all vanish upon the moment of death?
In Jesus' parable, those who used their lives to re-develop their relationship with God are being compared to the five maidens who were prepared. Those five had enough oil to keep their lamps lit. They were prepared for the bridesgroom.
The other maidens are like those of us who have wasted our physical lives chasing the temporary physical goodies of the physical world. These maidens were not prepared, and thus had to run off to find oil, and missed that moment when the bridesgroom came.
This analogical story - parable - of the ten virgins and the bridesgroom has clear symbolism. The virgins represent each of us. We are each spiritual beings who were created by God to care for Him and exchange a relationship of loving service with Him. However, He also gave us the freedom to love Him or not. Love without freedom isn't really love, after all.
The bridesgroom represents the Supreme Lord, God, who gathers up those who have used their physical lives to re-develop their loving relationship with Him. God wants all of us back, but only those who are ready to re-enter our natural position of being His loving servants are let back.
This is because God only wants us back if we want to return to Him. He never forces Himself upon us. If we want to continue our selfish existence trying to enjoy ourselves and ignore Him, then we simply are not prepared to return to God. Those of us on this path remain in the physical world by taking on another physical body.
The lamps of the story symbolize the condition of our spiritual self. Those spiritual beings that have re-developed their loving relationship with God give off light for themselves and others to see with.
The oil for the lamps symbolizes our relationship with God. No oil signifies no relationship, or a relationship of disdain, doubt or simply a state of ignoring the Supreme Being. Those of us who try hard to ignore God and His various lessons and signals throughout life have no oil, and thus they give off no real light.
Jesus was very clear about this message. He didn't teach love of God just to entertain himself or be trendy. Many ecclesiastical Christians' focus on Jesus as though his mission was to die for our sins. This couldn't be further from the truth. Why did Jesus teach, then? Why did Jesus tell his disciples to also go out and teach to others, then? Those of us who embellish upon this teaching that Jesus died for our sins simply do not want to do the hard work of preparing ourselves for the moment of death. We want an easy way out. We want to continue being focused upon ourselves and the goodies of the physical world all week, and then spend an hour in church on Sunday making sure that Jesus' death cleared out all our sins. Jesus himself clarified that this would not work:
"Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?' Then I will tell them plainly, 'I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!'" (Matt. 7:21-23)
Notice Jesus refers to "that day" in this statement, just as he does in the statement above. Again, Jesus is talking about that moment in time when we must face God or His angels, at the moment after the death of this physical body.
Doing the "will of my Father who is in heaven" is part of having a loving relationship with God. It is not as if we simply do what God wants so that we get something in return. It is not a business transaction. It is love. Doing what pleases another is part of a loving relationship. If we love someone, we don't do what pleases them so we get something in return. We do what pleases them because we love them and care for them.
So we must re-develop our loving relationship with God. This was Jesus' most important teaching, and the teaching that if we follow will indeed save us:
“‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.' This is the first and greatest commandment.” (Matt. 22:37-40)
"Who then is the faithful and wise servant, whom the master has put in charge of the servants in his household to give them their food at the proper time? It will be good for that servant whose master finds him doing so when he returns. I tell you the truth, he will put him in charge of all his possessions. But suppose that servant is wicked and says to himself, 'My master is staying away a long time,' and he then begins to beat his fellow servants and to eat and drink with drunkards. The master of that servant will come on a day when he does not expect him and at an hour he is not aware of. He will cut him to pieces and assign him a place with the hypocrites, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth." (Matt. 24:45-51)
This is yet another parable (after the parable of the owner of the house in Matt. 24:43-44) that confirms that Jesus was not discussing some 'end of the world' scenario as he described the coming Jewish-Roman wars. He was instructing his disciples how to be prepared for the time of death.
The time of death in this parable is the "hour he is not aware of." The death of our body comes as a surprise to each of us. No one knows the time of death, even Jesus, as he confirmed with this statement earlier in this discussion:
"No one knows about that day or hour, not even the angels in heaven, nor the son, but only the Father." (Matt. 24:36)
Now if Jesus was predicting the end of the world, why wouldn't he know when it would happen?
The reality is that Jesus is talking about an inevitable event that he knows will occur for each person: The moment of death. Every body dies. Every one of us must leave our temporary physical bodies at some point. But only God knows the precise moment ahead of time.
But now Jesus goes further in this parable, in comparing the fates of "a faithful and wise servant" and the servant who is "wicked" and "begins to beat his fellow servants."
Why is Jesus comparing these two types of servants?
Because we are all servants. Each of us, whether we choose to serve God or serve our senses, family and/or country, are servants. This is our natural position: God is master and we are His servants - yet He gave us the freedom to serve Him or not.
Thus, this parable is an apt analogy because the person who chooses to serve God ends up with the result where we begin to re-establish our loving relationship with God. This is represented in this story by the master putting the responsible servant in charge of his possessions.
It is not as if Jesus was teaching that we should serve God so He will put us in charge of others and all of God's stuff. We must look deeper. A master who puts his servant in charge of his possessions does this because he is trusting the servant. This requires a relationship.
Many of those who claim to be religious do not recognize one basic fact: God is a person. Religion, in fact, comes from the Latin word ligare, which means “that which binds.” In order to "bind" oneself to God, we must establish a relationship with Him - a bond. We might consider "binding" to be possible to an impersonal God, but how can a person bond with a vague force or light? Bonding with someone requires there to be someone to bond with. This means we must establish a relationship with God in order to begin bonding with Him - and become religious.
This means that those who see God as an impersonal force are not really religious: They are simply executing rituals in return for some reward. Typically these are based upon wanting to be saved and not go to hell.
But who is it who has the power to save us then? A vague impersonal force who becomes a man and gets crucified? This is ridiculous. God does not need to become crucified to save us.
God is a person, and He can save whomever he wants at any time. But it is us who choose whether we become saved or not. We are the ones who are choosing whether we want to re-establish our loving relationship with God. God loves us unconditionally, and wants us to come home to Him. We are the ones who are choosing to stay away.
In Jesus' analogy, the wise servant simply makes a choice to be obedient to his master. After some time of doing what pleases the master, the master begins to trust the servant. Here again, the servant is making the choice to do what pleases the master.
And the wicked servant also makes a choice. He chooses to ignore the wishes of his master and beats the other servants, and gets drunk. In the same way, each of us can choose to ignore God, and go about trying to find pleasure in the physical world - often at the expense of others. Worse are those who go about knowingly hurting others.
So where is this place that Jesus compares to "a place with the hypocrites, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth"? Is this hell? Most interpreters agree that Jesus is describing hell.
But where is hell? Is hell some dungeon deep beneath the earth's surface where people are chained up and beaten by a horned red devil - causing them to weep and gnash their teeth? Why haven't we found this mythical place then?
The word "gnashing" comes from the Greek word βρυγμός (brygmos) which means, according to the lexicon, "used to denote extreme anguish and utter despair."
And this also fits with the word "weeping," as those who are in extreme anguish and utter despair often also weep.
Where do people weep and have extreme anguish and utter despair? We can see this all around us. We can turn on the news on any day of the week and see people weeping and in extreme anguish and utter despair.
Right here, in the physical world, we find weeping and utter despair. While it may not hit each of us at the same time and in the same way, each of us will have some measure of weeping and utter despair at some point in our lives. For those in the West, there is much less. But among those in the Middle East, Africa, Asia and specifically among third world countries, we find rampant weeping, utter despair and extreme anguish.
Hell is the physical world in general, but more specifically, particular situations of suffering within the physical world.
Why does Jesus and other teachers teach that hell is a place we can go after death then? This is because Jesus and others from his lineage all taught transmigration: If we do not return to the spiritual world at the death of this body, we assume another physical body. Jesus and his disciples confirmed this when they asked him why a man had been born blind. They asked:
His disciples asked him, "Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?" (John 9:2)
This very question assumes that both Jesus and his disciples accepted that a person could sin prior to being born. In order to sin, the person must have a physical body. So this confirms - despite many whitewash attempts by Biblical translators over the centuries - that Jesus indeed accepted that a person could occupy another body after the death of this one.
And therein lies the answer to where hell is. How we live during the lifetime of this body determines where we go at the time of death - as Jesus indicates in this parable. Should a person hurt others and live selfishly, we will take on another body - one which precisely experiences the results of our activities of our current lifetime.
This of course solves the oft-asked question that many people ask: If God exists, why is there so much suffering?
There is so much suffering because some of us choose to hurt others and cause pain. We cause the suffering. The physical world is simply a place of consequence - meant to teach us and help us rehabilitate from our disease of selfishness. Those who cause pain to others simply receive that same pain in kind. Those born in a situation of suffering caused similar suffering in their previous lifetime(s).
But those who use their lives to re-develop their loving relationship with God - they have a different fate at the time of death. They leave this hellish physical world and return to God. This is why Jesus instructed:
“‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.' This is the first and greatest commandment.” (Matt. 22:37-40)
The time of death in this parable is the "hour he is not aware of." The death of our body comes as a surprise to each of us. No one knows the time of death, even Jesus, as he confirmed with this statement earlier in this discussion:
"No one knows about that day or hour, not even the angels in heaven, nor the son, but only the Father." (Matt. 24:36)
Now if Jesus was predicting the end of the world, why wouldn't he know when it would happen?
The reality is that Jesus is talking about an inevitable event that he knows will occur for each person: The moment of death. Every body dies. Every one of us must leave our temporary physical bodies at some point. But only God knows the precise moment ahead of time.
But now Jesus goes further in this parable, in comparing the fates of "a faithful and wise servant" and the servant who is "wicked" and "begins to beat his fellow servants."
Why is Jesus comparing these two types of servants?
Because we are all servants. Each of us, whether we choose to serve God or serve our senses, family and/or country, are servants. This is our natural position: God is master and we are His servants - yet He gave us the freedom to serve Him or not.
Thus, this parable is an apt analogy because the person who chooses to serve God ends up with the result where we begin to re-establish our loving relationship with God. This is represented in this story by the master putting the responsible servant in charge of his possessions.
It is not as if Jesus was teaching that we should serve God so He will put us in charge of others and all of God's stuff. We must look deeper. A master who puts his servant in charge of his possessions does this because he is trusting the servant. This requires a relationship.
Many of those who claim to be religious do not recognize one basic fact: God is a person. Religion, in fact, comes from the Latin word ligare, which means “that which binds.” In order to "bind" oneself to God, we must establish a relationship with Him - a bond. We might consider "binding" to be possible to an impersonal God, but how can a person bond with a vague force or light? Bonding with someone requires there to be someone to bond with. This means we must establish a relationship with God in order to begin bonding with Him - and become religious.
This means that those who see God as an impersonal force are not really religious: They are simply executing rituals in return for some reward. Typically these are based upon wanting to be saved and not go to hell.
But who is it who has the power to save us then? A vague impersonal force who becomes a man and gets crucified? This is ridiculous. God does not need to become crucified to save us.
God is a person, and He can save whomever he wants at any time. But it is us who choose whether we become saved or not. We are the ones who are choosing whether we want to re-establish our loving relationship with God. God loves us unconditionally, and wants us to come home to Him. We are the ones who are choosing to stay away.
In Jesus' analogy, the wise servant simply makes a choice to be obedient to his master. After some time of doing what pleases the master, the master begins to trust the servant. Here again, the servant is making the choice to do what pleases the master.
And the wicked servant also makes a choice. He chooses to ignore the wishes of his master and beats the other servants, and gets drunk. In the same way, each of us can choose to ignore God, and go about trying to find pleasure in the physical world - often at the expense of others. Worse are those who go about knowingly hurting others.
So where is this place that Jesus compares to "a place with the hypocrites, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth"? Is this hell? Most interpreters agree that Jesus is describing hell.
But where is hell? Is hell some dungeon deep beneath the earth's surface where people are chained up and beaten by a horned red devil - causing them to weep and gnash their teeth? Why haven't we found this mythical place then?
The word "gnashing" comes from the Greek word βρυγμός (brygmos) which means, according to the lexicon, "used to denote extreme anguish and utter despair."
And this also fits with the word "weeping," as those who are in extreme anguish and utter despair often also weep.
Where do people weep and have extreme anguish and utter despair? We can see this all around us. We can turn on the news on any day of the week and see people weeping and in extreme anguish and utter despair.
Right here, in the physical world, we find weeping and utter despair. While it may not hit each of us at the same time and in the same way, each of us will have some measure of weeping and utter despair at some point in our lives. For those in the West, there is much less. But among those in the Middle East, Africa, Asia and specifically among third world countries, we find rampant weeping, utter despair and extreme anguish.
Hell is the physical world in general, but more specifically, particular situations of suffering within the physical world.
Why does Jesus and other teachers teach that hell is a place we can go after death then? This is because Jesus and others from his lineage all taught transmigration: If we do not return to the spiritual world at the death of this body, we assume another physical body. Jesus and his disciples confirmed this when they asked him why a man had been born blind. They asked:
His disciples asked him, "Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?" (John 9:2)
This very question assumes that both Jesus and his disciples accepted that a person could sin prior to being born. In order to sin, the person must have a physical body. So this confirms - despite many whitewash attempts by Biblical translators over the centuries - that Jesus indeed accepted that a person could occupy another body after the death of this one.
And therein lies the answer to where hell is. How we live during the lifetime of this body determines where we go at the time of death - as Jesus indicates in this parable. Should a person hurt others and live selfishly, we will take on another body - one which precisely experiences the results of our activities of our current lifetime.
This of course solves the oft-asked question that many people ask: If God exists, why is there so much suffering?
There is so much suffering because some of us choose to hurt others and cause pain. We cause the suffering. The physical world is simply a place of consequence - meant to teach us and help us rehabilitate from our disease of selfishness. Those who cause pain to others simply receive that same pain in kind. Those born in a situation of suffering caused similar suffering in their previous lifetime(s).
But those who use their lives to re-develop their loving relationship with God - they have a different fate at the time of death. They leave this hellish physical world and return to God. This is why Jesus instructed:
“‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.' This is the first and greatest commandment.” (Matt. 22:37-40)
"But understand this: If the owner of the house had known at what time of night the thief was coming, he would have kept watch and would not have let his house be broken into. So you also must be ready, because the son of man will come at an hour when you do not expect him." (Matt. 24:43-44)
This short parable or analogy spoken by Jesus is powerful, yet it is widely misunderstood.
Many ecclesiastical Christian teachers have interpreted this to mean that the world will end and Jesus will come riding through the sky to save those who joined the church and kill off everyone else. This is fiction.
Some churches go to the extent that they keep a list of "the saved."
There are several holes in this fictitious tale of the world ending, invented initially to scare people into attending the early church, and eventually being utilized over the centuries by those wishing to gain or keep followers:
- If the world was going to end then why did Jesus say, after describing his appearance and the death of millions of people: "I tell you the truth, this generation will certainly not pass away until all these things have happened." (Matt. 24:34)
- If the world was going to end then why did Jesus say: "Two men will be in the field; one will be taken and the other left." (Matt. 24:40) Where would the one who is "left" go if the world was ending?
- And what happens to those who followed Jesus but died before this supposed end of the world scenario? They'd have to wait around somewhere - some for thousands of years - for Jesus to come riding through the sky at the end of the world? Where would they wait, and wouldn't their bodies have long decomposed by them?
Moreover, some ecclesiastical Christians have been predicting this end of the world scenario for the past 1,700 years in an attempt to scare people into joining their organizations and their respective interpretations. Just consider some of the more famous yet incorrect predictions made through the centuries:
Hilary of Pointiers: 365 AD (the date predicted as the second coming and end of time)
Saint Martin of Tours: 375 to 400 AD
Sextus Julius Africanus: 500 AD
Gerard of Poehlde: 1147 AD
John of Toledo: 1179 AD
Joachim of Fiore: 1205 AD
Pope Innocent III: 1284 AD
Melchior Hoffman: 1533 AD
Benjamin Keach (Baptist): 1689 AD
William Whitson: 1736 AD
Ann Lee (The Shakers): 1792 AD
Charles Wesley (Methodist): 1794 AD
Margaret McDonald: 1830 AD
Joseph Smith (Mormon): 1832 and 1891 AD
William Miller (Millerites): 1843 and 1844 AD
Ellen White (Seven Day Adventists): 1850, 1856 and "early 1900s" AD
Mother Shipton: 1881 AD
Watchtower Bible and Tract Society (Jehovah's Witnesses): 1914, 1915, 1918, 1920, 1925, 1941, 1975, 1994 and others more recent.
Now what kind of credibility does this create? Should we continue to believe these prophesies by those who want to scare us into believing?
The reality is that Jesus was talking about the mass slaughter of millions of Jews and early Christians at the hands of the Romans - in the Jewish-Roman wars, which began at about 60 A.D. with the burning of Jerusalem and the sacking of the Jerusalem temple. This was a horrible holocaust, in which the Jewish and early Christian people were decimated by the millions. What few were spared were either enslaved by the Romans or ran off into the desert to eek out an existence hidden in caves. And even many of these remote camps - including Qumran - were eventually ransacked by the Romans.
The Jewish-Roman wars lasted nearly a century. It is one of the longest wars ever recorded, and more people were slaughtered than in previous Middle Eastern history - or since, in a single war.
So Jesus, in this private conversation with his disciples, was trying to prepare them for their coming death, made inevitable by the brutal war to come.
The actual meaning of Jesus' parable above is actually quite simple. "The owner of the house" symbolizes the living spirit - the person - who resides in the physical body. The "house" symbolizes the physical body. The "thief" represents death, which can come at any time.
If the person within the body is prepared for the death of their body, then they will be prepared for it by directing their focus upon God. If they are focused upon God as death approaches, then they will be prepared for Jesus "appearance" (ἔρχομαι is better translated to "appear" in this context, rather than "come") at the time of death. They will, in other words, be much more likely be the "taken" as opposed to the "left" (Matt. 24:40).
"Taken", in Matt. 24:40 means being taken back to the spiritual world. Being "left" means to continue our hellish existence within the physical world - away from God.
So "the son of man will come" refers to the appearance of Jesus at the time of death of each of his students. As their spiritual teacher, Jesus pledged that those who obeyed his teachings and directed their lives towards loving God would be led back to the spiritual world. This is the 'second coming' that Jesus referred to.
This has been confirmed by clinical death research, in which those who have been dedicated followers of Jesus found themselves facing Jesus after they left their bodies.
The spiritual world is driven by relationships. When God sends His representative to retrieve those who desire to return to Him, His representative not only teaches. He also illustrates with his life how to love God and serve God. Those who follow establish a relationship with God and His representative. This relationship causes God's representative to escort those followers at the time of death back to the spiritual realm.
Jesus is being very clear about this, but those without spiritual vision have tried to bend and twist these statements to boost their own interpretation - in an attempt to gain followers.
Even the translation of the Greek phrase υἱὸς τοῦ ἀνθρώπου has been twisted. This has been incorrectly translated to "son of man," but what is a "son of man"? Isn't every male a son of a man? It is simply an empty phrase when mistranslated.
Rather, the Greek word υἱός (huios) has two possible meanings - it can mean offspring in the physical sense, but it can also mean, as taken from the Greek lexicon, "used to describe one who depends on another or is his follower." Furthermore, the Greek word ἀνθρώπου (anthrōpos) means "generically, to include all human individuals" in the Greek Lexicon. This means ἀνθρώπου refers to 'humankind,' 'mankind' or 'humanity.'
And since the Greek word τοῦ means "of", the phrase means that Jesus is putting himself at the service of humankind, or better, humanity. In other words, instead of "son of man," υἱὸς τοῦ ἀνθρώπου should be translated more accurately to "servant of humanity."
"Servant of humanity." is a statement of humility, yet it is an exalted statement of love, compassion and caring. This is confirmed by Jesus' statement:
"The greatest among you will be your servant. For whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted." (Matt. 23:11-12)
Jesus taught this with words and example. The bottom line is that Jesus continued to serve his students not only by teaching them, but by then escorting them back to the spiritual world at the end of their lifetimes - as long as they were prepared.
And what did Jesus teach his students - and all of us - to become prepared?
“ ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.' This is the first and greatest commandment.” (Matt. 22:37-38)
Many ecclesiastical Christian teachers have interpreted this to mean that the world will end and Jesus will come riding through the sky to save those who joined the church and kill off everyone else. This is fiction.
Some churches go to the extent that they keep a list of "the saved."
There are several holes in this fictitious tale of the world ending, invented initially to scare people into attending the early church, and eventually being utilized over the centuries by those wishing to gain or keep followers:
- If the world was going to end then why did Jesus say, after describing his appearance and the death of millions of people: "I tell you the truth, this generation will certainly not pass away until all these things have happened." (Matt. 24:34)
- If the world was going to end then why did Jesus say: "Two men will be in the field; one will be taken and the other left." (Matt. 24:40) Where would the one who is "left" go if the world was ending?
- And what happens to those who followed Jesus but died before this supposed end of the world scenario? They'd have to wait around somewhere - some for thousands of years - for Jesus to come riding through the sky at the end of the world? Where would they wait, and wouldn't their bodies have long decomposed by them?
Moreover, some ecclesiastical Christians have been predicting this end of the world scenario for the past 1,700 years in an attempt to scare people into joining their organizations and their respective interpretations. Just consider some of the more famous yet incorrect predictions made through the centuries:
Hilary of Pointiers: 365 AD (the date predicted as the second coming and end of time)
Saint Martin of Tours: 375 to 400 AD
Sextus Julius Africanus: 500 AD
Gerard of Poehlde: 1147 AD
John of Toledo: 1179 AD
Joachim of Fiore: 1205 AD
Pope Innocent III: 1284 AD
Melchior Hoffman: 1533 AD
Benjamin Keach (Baptist): 1689 AD
William Whitson: 1736 AD
Ann Lee (The Shakers): 1792 AD
Charles Wesley (Methodist): 1794 AD
Margaret McDonald: 1830 AD
Joseph Smith (Mormon): 1832 and 1891 AD
William Miller (Millerites): 1843 and 1844 AD
Ellen White (Seven Day Adventists): 1850, 1856 and "early 1900s" AD
Mother Shipton: 1881 AD
Watchtower Bible and Tract Society (Jehovah's Witnesses): 1914, 1915, 1918, 1920, 1925, 1941, 1975, 1994 and others more recent.
Now what kind of credibility does this create? Should we continue to believe these prophesies by those who want to scare us into believing?
The reality is that Jesus was talking about the mass slaughter of millions of Jews and early Christians at the hands of the Romans - in the Jewish-Roman wars, which began at about 60 A.D. with the burning of Jerusalem and the sacking of the Jerusalem temple. This was a horrible holocaust, in which the Jewish and early Christian people were decimated by the millions. What few were spared were either enslaved by the Romans or ran off into the desert to eek out an existence hidden in caves. And even many of these remote camps - including Qumran - were eventually ransacked by the Romans.
The Jewish-Roman wars lasted nearly a century. It is one of the longest wars ever recorded, and more people were slaughtered than in previous Middle Eastern history - or since, in a single war.
So Jesus, in this private conversation with his disciples, was trying to prepare them for their coming death, made inevitable by the brutal war to come.
The actual meaning of Jesus' parable above is actually quite simple. "The owner of the house" symbolizes the living spirit - the person - who resides in the physical body. The "house" symbolizes the physical body. The "thief" represents death, which can come at any time.
If the person within the body is prepared for the death of their body, then they will be prepared for it by directing their focus upon God. If they are focused upon God as death approaches, then they will be prepared for Jesus "appearance" (ἔρχομαι is better translated to "appear" in this context, rather than "come") at the time of death. They will, in other words, be much more likely be the "taken" as opposed to the "left" (Matt. 24:40).
"Taken", in Matt. 24:40 means being taken back to the spiritual world. Being "left" means to continue our hellish existence within the physical world - away from God.
So "the son of man will come" refers to the appearance of Jesus at the time of death of each of his students. As their spiritual teacher, Jesus pledged that those who obeyed his teachings and directed their lives towards loving God would be led back to the spiritual world. This is the 'second coming' that Jesus referred to.
This has been confirmed by clinical death research, in which those who have been dedicated followers of Jesus found themselves facing Jesus after they left their bodies.
The spiritual world is driven by relationships. When God sends His representative to retrieve those who desire to return to Him, His representative not only teaches. He also illustrates with his life how to love God and serve God. Those who follow establish a relationship with God and His representative. This relationship causes God's representative to escort those followers at the time of death back to the spiritual realm.
Jesus is being very clear about this, but those without spiritual vision have tried to bend and twist these statements to boost their own interpretation - in an attempt to gain followers.
Even the translation of the Greek phrase υἱὸς τοῦ ἀνθρώπου has been twisted. This has been incorrectly translated to "son of man," but what is a "son of man"? Isn't every male a son of a man? It is simply an empty phrase when mistranslated.
Rather, the Greek word υἱός (huios) has two possible meanings - it can mean offspring in the physical sense, but it can also mean, as taken from the Greek lexicon, "used to describe one who depends on another or is his follower." Furthermore, the Greek word ἀνθρώπου (anthrōpos) means "generically, to include all human individuals" in the Greek Lexicon. This means ἀνθρώπου refers to 'humankind,' 'mankind' or 'humanity.'
And since the Greek word τοῦ means "of", the phrase means that Jesus is putting himself at the service of humankind, or better, humanity. In other words, instead of "son of man," υἱὸς τοῦ ἀνθρώπου should be translated more accurately to "servant of humanity."
"Servant of humanity." is a statement of humility, yet it is an exalted statement of love, compassion and caring. This is confirmed by Jesus' statement:
"The greatest among you will be your servant. For whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted." (Matt. 23:11-12)
Jesus taught this with words and example. The bottom line is that Jesus continued to serve his students not only by teaching them, but by then escorting them back to the spiritual world at the end of their lifetimes - as long as they were prepared.
And what did Jesus teach his students - and all of us - to become prepared?
“ ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.' This is the first and greatest commandment.” (Matt. 22:37-38)
"As it was in the days of Noah, so it will be at the coming of the son of man. For in the days before the flood, people were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, up to the day Noah entered the ark; and they knew nothing about what would happen until the flood came and took them all away. That is how it will be at the coming of the son of man. Two men will be in the field; one will be taken and the other left. Two women will be grinding with a hand mill; one will be taken and the other left. Therefore keep watch, because you do not know on what day your Lord will come." (Matt. 24:38-43)
These statements by Jesus have been construed incorrectly by ecclesiastical Christian teachers and their organizations to describe a fictional end of time scenario.
Jesus is continuing his private (Matt. 24:3) discussion with some of his disciples. As we've shown in the previous verses, he is describing two events simultaneously: 1) The Jewish-Roman wars to come in the next few decades (starting 60 AD) and a time when most of his disciples would be slaughtered along with millions of Jews; and 2) The moment of death, and Jesus' appearance to those who followed him - to escort them back to the spiritual realm.
The end of time scenario makes no sense whatsoever with Jesus' discussion. Why would one person be taken and the other not taken if it were the end of time? Some ecclesiastical Christians have tried to fictionalize that Christians will "inherit the earth" while others will be taken away.
As if 'inheriting the earth' is some kind of reward? What might this be? The earth is a temporary place of residence. It is not our home. Here, we reside in temporary bodies that will die and decompose. So what would we "inherit" here? A bunch of rotting carcasses of those who died in the cataclysm? Or are the ecclesiastical Christians saying that the bodies are "taken" away, leaving the earth nice and clean?
Many of these ecclesiastical Christians like to picture this "inheriting the earth" with their promotional literature. They draw pictures of people sitting around on lawn chairs sipping lemonade. This is their picture of "inheriting the earth."
And where is God in such a scenario? God is out of the picture. They don't picture God because they don't want God. They just want to rule the earth without God.
This is precisely our disease: We are here in this physical world, inhabiting temporary physical bodies because we wanted to ignore God. We wanted to be in charge, because we couldn't accept God being in charge. We wanted to get away from God, and play God.
So this is what many ecclesiastical Christians have accomplished in their doctrines. A place where they can be in charge without God getting in the way.
This is not what Jesus taught. Jesus didn't teach that we should "inherit the earth." Jesus wanted us to return to the spiritual world and return to our natural position as God's loving servants:
"Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven." (Matt. 7:21)
"For whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother." (Matt. 12:50)
So if ecclesiastical Christians want to inherit the earth then they can have it. They can have the suffering of the body. They can have the death, disease and old age found here. And those who want to really follow Jesus' teachings can return to God in the kingdom of heaven and inherit eternal life.
With this misinterpretation debunked, we can now interpret clearly what Jesus was discussing above.
Jesus is comparing the mass slaughter of millions of Jews in the first century to the days of the flood of Noah because in both instances, people died unprepared. In both cases, many died without having progressed in spiritual life. Jesus tells of the days before the flood, when people were "eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage."
And what is so wrong with "eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage"? There is nothing wrong with these activities. However, Jesus is talking about not being prepared for death. He is talking about the people being oblivious to the fact that their bodies will be killed at any minute.
Now what does he mean by "one will be taken and the other left", then? By Jesus' description of the massacre and the historical events, we know both men in the field and both women at the hand mill will be killed by the Romans in the coming years: Very few survived the slaughter. So it is not as if one will vanish and the other will still be working away as if nothing happened.
The "one will be taken" is the person who has utilized their lives to re-develop their love for God. They will be taken back to the spiritual realm at the time of death.
The one who will be "left" is the person who will remain in the physical realm. They will not have prepared for the time of death. They will return to the physical world by taking on another physical body.
It is rather ironic that the ecclesiastical Christians have preferred being "left" rather than "taken". They want to remain in the physical realm, away from God. How could they describe themselves as Christians?
The phrase "the coming of the son of man" has been misinterpreted by these same people who want to stay here, away from God. They imagine that Christ will come galloping through the sky, whisking away all the baddies, and leaving the rest of the good folk to 'inherit the earth.'
Rather, Jesus is describing that he, the servant of humanity (υἱοῦ τοῦ ἀνθρώπου - see this verse for explanation of translation), will return to escort each person who followed his teachings back to the spiritual realm. "Coming" is being translated from the Greek παρουσία (parousia), which means to to be present or appear according to the lexicon.
"The coming" interpretation was developed by the politically-motivated Nicene council put together by the Roman emperor Constantine. The objective was to organize the Christian world by fear - so they misused statements by Jesus describing events that already took place (Romans massacring the Jewish people in the first century) to fictionalize an event that would keep people lined up and coming into church - the Roman Catholic church. (isn't it convenient that the Fourth century Roman Catholic church adopted an interpretation that essentially erased the Romans' holocaust of millions of Jews and Christians in the decades after Jesus' murder?)
Rather, the spiritual teacher is our guide in life and our escort in death. When he is physically present before us, he teaches us the tools to prepare for returning to our natural relationship with the Supreme Being: as God's loving servant. These are his teachings. The bonafide spiritual teacher does not make up his own teachings. He passes on the teachings of the previous bonafide teachers - which are ultimately coming from the Supreme Person. And this of course, was why Jesus constantly quoted the teachings of the "prophets" of the Old Testament such as David, Moses and Samuel.
And for this reason, other teachers from the Old Testament were also described as servants of humanity - such as Job and David. They too were sent by God to retrieve those who are ready to return to Him, just as Jesus admitted about himself:
"As long as it is day, we must do the work of Him who sent me." (John 9:4)
The "work" Jesus is describing is teaching - bringing us back to God.
The second phase of the task of retrieval is escorting our return. By following Jesus' teachings, we find that we are not only introduced to God: But should we become ready to return by following those teachings, we are then escorted back to the spiritual realm by Jesus. Jesus describes this as παρουσία - he will be there for us.
As such, Jesus also uses soliloquy in describing the time of death as "what day your Lord will come." This sort of soliloquy is actually still in use today, as many describe dying as "meeting your Maker".
And it is true: At the time of death, we all, in one way or another, "meet our Maker," as we are faced with one of God's angels or representatives who show us the results of our lives and the spiritual progress we've made - if any - in this lifetime. This is also referred to as "Judgement Day."
This clarifies Jesus statement: "Therefore keep watch, because you do not know on what day your Lord will come." Jesus is telling them to stay diligent, because they do not know what day their bodies will die.
But by also describing his appearance to them on their moment of death, Jesus is explaining that should we follow his teachings, he will be there to guide us through the process and escort us back to the spiritual realm.
And this has been confirmed in many clinical death histories, as some people - those who tried to follow Jesus' teachings - describe leaving their body and going to a place to be in the presence of Jesus. They describe him telling them they aren't ready yet, whereupon they return to their revived physical bodies.
The spiritual world is all about relationships. There are so many relationships going on there. The central of which is our natural relationship of loving and caring for the Supreme Person. All other relationships in the spiritual world revolve around our relationship with God. This is why Jesus said (above) that by doing God's will, we will return to the spiritual world. 'Doing God's will' means serving Him. It means doing what pleases God. This comes from love, and why love for God was Jesus' primary teaching:
“‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.' This is the first and greatest commandment.” (Matt. 22:37-40)
Jesus is continuing his private (Matt. 24:3) discussion with some of his disciples. As we've shown in the previous verses, he is describing two events simultaneously: 1) The Jewish-Roman wars to come in the next few decades (starting 60 AD) and a time when most of his disciples would be slaughtered along with millions of Jews; and 2) The moment of death, and Jesus' appearance to those who followed him - to escort them back to the spiritual realm.
The end of time scenario makes no sense whatsoever with Jesus' discussion. Why would one person be taken and the other not taken if it were the end of time? Some ecclesiastical Christians have tried to fictionalize that Christians will "inherit the earth" while others will be taken away.
As if 'inheriting the earth' is some kind of reward? What might this be? The earth is a temporary place of residence. It is not our home. Here, we reside in temporary bodies that will die and decompose. So what would we "inherit" here? A bunch of rotting carcasses of those who died in the cataclysm? Or are the ecclesiastical Christians saying that the bodies are "taken" away, leaving the earth nice and clean?
Many of these ecclesiastical Christians like to picture this "inheriting the earth" with their promotional literature. They draw pictures of people sitting around on lawn chairs sipping lemonade. This is their picture of "inheriting the earth."
And where is God in such a scenario? God is out of the picture. They don't picture God because they don't want God. They just want to rule the earth without God.
This is precisely our disease: We are here in this physical world, inhabiting temporary physical bodies because we wanted to ignore God. We wanted to be in charge, because we couldn't accept God being in charge. We wanted to get away from God, and play God.
So this is what many ecclesiastical Christians have accomplished in their doctrines. A place where they can be in charge without God getting in the way.
This is not what Jesus taught. Jesus didn't teach that we should "inherit the earth." Jesus wanted us to return to the spiritual world and return to our natural position as God's loving servants:
"Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven." (Matt. 7:21)
"For whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother." (Matt. 12:50)
So if ecclesiastical Christians want to inherit the earth then they can have it. They can have the suffering of the body. They can have the death, disease and old age found here. And those who want to really follow Jesus' teachings can return to God in the kingdom of heaven and inherit eternal life.
With this misinterpretation debunked, we can now interpret clearly what Jesus was discussing above.
Jesus is comparing the mass slaughter of millions of Jews in the first century to the days of the flood of Noah because in both instances, people died unprepared. In both cases, many died without having progressed in spiritual life. Jesus tells of the days before the flood, when people were "eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage."
And what is so wrong with "eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage"? There is nothing wrong with these activities. However, Jesus is talking about not being prepared for death. He is talking about the people being oblivious to the fact that their bodies will be killed at any minute.
Now what does he mean by "one will be taken and the other left", then? By Jesus' description of the massacre and the historical events, we know both men in the field and both women at the hand mill will be killed by the Romans in the coming years: Very few survived the slaughter. So it is not as if one will vanish and the other will still be working away as if nothing happened.
The "one will be taken" is the person who has utilized their lives to re-develop their love for God. They will be taken back to the spiritual realm at the time of death.
The one who will be "left" is the person who will remain in the physical realm. They will not have prepared for the time of death. They will return to the physical world by taking on another physical body.
It is rather ironic that the ecclesiastical Christians have preferred being "left" rather than "taken". They want to remain in the physical realm, away from God. How could they describe themselves as Christians?
The phrase "the coming of the son of man" has been misinterpreted by these same people who want to stay here, away from God. They imagine that Christ will come galloping through the sky, whisking away all the baddies, and leaving the rest of the good folk to 'inherit the earth.'
Rather, Jesus is describing that he, the servant of humanity (υἱοῦ τοῦ ἀνθρώπου - see this verse for explanation of translation), will return to escort each person who followed his teachings back to the spiritual realm. "Coming" is being translated from the Greek παρουσία (parousia), which means to to be present or appear according to the lexicon.
"The coming" interpretation was developed by the politically-motivated Nicene council put together by the Roman emperor Constantine. The objective was to organize the Christian world by fear - so they misused statements by Jesus describing events that already took place (Romans massacring the Jewish people in the first century) to fictionalize an event that would keep people lined up and coming into church - the Roman Catholic church. (isn't it convenient that the Fourth century Roman Catholic church adopted an interpretation that essentially erased the Romans' holocaust of millions of Jews and Christians in the decades after Jesus' murder?)
Rather, the spiritual teacher is our guide in life and our escort in death. When he is physically present before us, he teaches us the tools to prepare for returning to our natural relationship with the Supreme Being: as God's loving servant. These are his teachings. The bonafide spiritual teacher does not make up his own teachings. He passes on the teachings of the previous bonafide teachers - which are ultimately coming from the Supreme Person. And this of course, was why Jesus constantly quoted the teachings of the "prophets" of the Old Testament such as David, Moses and Samuel.
And for this reason, other teachers from the Old Testament were also described as servants of humanity - such as Job and David. They too were sent by God to retrieve those who are ready to return to Him, just as Jesus admitted about himself:
"As long as it is day, we must do the work of Him who sent me." (John 9:4)
The "work" Jesus is describing is teaching - bringing us back to God.
The second phase of the task of retrieval is escorting our return. By following Jesus' teachings, we find that we are not only introduced to God: But should we become ready to return by following those teachings, we are then escorted back to the spiritual realm by Jesus. Jesus describes this as παρουσία - he will be there for us.
As such, Jesus also uses soliloquy in describing the time of death as "what day your Lord will come." This sort of soliloquy is actually still in use today, as many describe dying as "meeting your Maker".
And it is true: At the time of death, we all, in one way or another, "meet our Maker," as we are faced with one of God's angels or representatives who show us the results of our lives and the spiritual progress we've made - if any - in this lifetime. This is also referred to as "Judgement Day."
This clarifies Jesus statement: "Therefore keep watch, because you do not know on what day your Lord will come." Jesus is telling them to stay diligent, because they do not know what day their bodies will die.
But by also describing his appearance to them on their moment of death, Jesus is explaining that should we follow his teachings, he will be there to guide us through the process and escort us back to the spiritual realm.
And this has been confirmed in many clinical death histories, as some people - those who tried to follow Jesus' teachings - describe leaving their body and going to a place to be in the presence of Jesus. They describe him telling them they aren't ready yet, whereupon they return to their revived physical bodies.
The spiritual world is all about relationships. There are so many relationships going on there. The central of which is our natural relationship of loving and caring for the Supreme Person. All other relationships in the spiritual world revolve around our relationship with God. This is why Jesus said (above) that by doing God's will, we will return to the spiritual world. 'Doing God's will' means serving Him. It means doing what pleases God. This comes from love, and why love for God was Jesus' primary teaching:
“‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.' This is the first and greatest commandment.” (Matt. 22:37-40)
"Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away. No one knows about that day or hour, not even the angels in heaven, nor the son, but only the Father." (Matt. 24:35-36)
This statement by Jesus is mysterious for those who have concocted that Jesus is discussing some day in the future when the world will end.
If Jesus is predicting the end of the world in the future, why is he saying that "No one knows about that day or hour, not even the angels in heaven, nor the son, but only the Father."? Isn't that a contradiction to be foretelling of a cataclysmic event and the end of the world, yet not know when it will happen?
So what is "that day and hour" that Jesus is referring to here then?
The particular "day and hour" Jesus is discussing with his disciples "privately" (Matt. 24:3) is their moment of death.
While the particular day and hour of each his disciples' deaths might be uncertain to everyone but God, Jesus is also foretelling - in the verses surrounding this one - that they will likely die along with the millions of other Jews that died at the hands of the Romans in a brutal war that began about 30 years after this discussion. This is indicated with statements such as, "let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains" (Matt. 24:16) and "I tell you the truth, this generation will certainly not pass away until all these things have happened." (Matt. 24:34).
The Jewish-Roman wars began around 60 AD and lasted through the end of the first century. The Romans brutalized the Jews - they burnt down most of their cities and villages, including their temples and libraries. Millions of Jews - including most of Jesus' followers - were massacred. Jesus was warning them of this event.
Each of those disciples he is talking with will leave their bodies at a particular time. This is "that day and hour" that Jesus is referring to here. Each person's moment of death is only known by God. No one else - not even Jesus or the angels, as he admits here - knows when this event will happen for any of us.
At the moment of death, we lose everything. We lose all the money we've made and saved. We lose all the houses, cars, and whatever other material possessions we've accumulated. We also lose all of our relationships. We are no longer the husband or wife of someone else. We are no longer the father or mother of someone. We also lose our reputation and any fame we might possess. Our entire identity is stripped away. All vanishes with a blink of the eye and the stop of a heartbeat.
It is for this reason that Jesus states that "Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away." The "heaven" that Jesus is referring to here, from the Greek οὐρανός (ouranos), is the sky above us. It is not referring to the spiritual world. What Jesus is saying is that at the moment of death, the physical world will vanish as we separate from the physical body.
We need the physical body to access the environment of the physical world. The physical world is like a virtual landscape we see in a computer program or a video game - these are often called the game's "environment." Just consider accessing the environment of a particular video game. We need a computer loaded with a particular program to access this environment. We also need a computer monitor, a keyboard and some other gear (mouse, joystick, whatever) to access the computer game's tools. Without the computer, the program, the monitor, keyboard and gear, we could not access the video game's virtual environment.
It is the same with the physical world. The environment of the physical world is accessible by someone with a physical body. This also means that once the body dies, the environment of physical world suddenly fades away.
Of course, there is a short period of time after death where a person may still observe the physical world - as evidenced by clinical death studies. But this is while we are in our temporary subtle physical body - which fades away shortly as well. (However, for some people - those who have committed suicide or have spent a considerable amount of their lives in drunkenness or drug-abuse - they may spend more time in their subtle physical body. In these cases, the period they should have been living out with awareness in the physical body was shortened, so they must make up that time in their residual subtle body. This is actually quite an awful experience because in this ghostly body, we are stuck observing the physical world, but unable - except in some rare cases - to manipulate it. (It would be like watching a video game but not being able to access any controls.) It is a state filled with emptiness and frustration, as we see those we knew, but cannot contact them.)
The physical world can also be accessed by angels and God at any time. Because God is the ultimate "Programmer" of the physical world, He has free rein. He also often sends angels from the spiritual world to help particular individuals or groups. This is His prerogative, as the Owner of this virtual landscape, the physical world.
Notice that Jesus states that, "Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away." What does he mean by this?
Jesus' words are his instructions. His teachings. Remember that he is speaking with his disciples here. They have been listening to him teach. He has been teaching them so many things - many more things than have been recorded in the four texts of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. This is not only evidenced by the Dead Sea Scrolls. It is also evidenced by the so many topics that are alluded to in conversation but not fully discussed.
So Jesus spent his time teaching his students and disciples, and they tried to learn and apply his teachings. This is the process. The spiritual teacher teaches and the students learn. Then once the students have learned, they too can teach. This process was shown by Jesus by example. He took a teacher in the form of John the Baptist. Then he taught those same things to his students, and then instructed them to also go out and teach.
Teaching about spiritual life is a personal process of learning directly from one who loves God and has themselves learned from an enlightened teacher, and then passing those teachings on without change. It is not a professional process where one is elected to their post as priest, bishop, pope, preacher or reverend by a group and paid a salary to teach. It is a personal process of being introduced to God by one of God's loving servants and then in turn introducing others to God.
As for Jesus referring himself here as "son," this is a mistranslation. The Greek word translated to "son" is υἱός (huios). This could indicate a relationship of offspring in the physical sense, but within the context of Jesus' relationship with God, it is more appropriately interpreted, as taken from the Greek lexicon, "used to describe one who depends on another or is his follower." This can be more precisely translated to “dependent child and loving servant,” or simply, "loving servant." Jesus was describing himself as God's loving servant - not some high and mighty "exclusive son" of God. Rather, Jesus wanted everyone to be one of God's loving servants. This is why he said:
“Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called sons [loving servants] of God.” (Matthew 5:9)
So by saying, "Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away," Jesus is telling his students to take away his teachings. Even though their bodies will pass away, they can take his teachings with them. And what was Jesus' most important teaching?
“‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.' This is the first and greatest commandment.” (Matt. 22:37-40)
If Jesus is predicting the end of the world in the future, why is he saying that "No one knows about that day or hour, not even the angels in heaven, nor the son, but only the Father."? Isn't that a contradiction to be foretelling of a cataclysmic event and the end of the world, yet not know when it will happen?
So what is "that day and hour" that Jesus is referring to here then?
The particular "day and hour" Jesus is discussing with his disciples "privately" (Matt. 24:3) is their moment of death.
While the particular day and hour of each his disciples' deaths might be uncertain to everyone but God, Jesus is also foretelling - in the verses surrounding this one - that they will likely die along with the millions of other Jews that died at the hands of the Romans in a brutal war that began about 30 years after this discussion. This is indicated with statements such as, "let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains" (Matt. 24:16) and "I tell you the truth, this generation will certainly not pass away until all these things have happened." (Matt. 24:34).
The Jewish-Roman wars began around 60 AD and lasted through the end of the first century. The Romans brutalized the Jews - they burnt down most of their cities and villages, including their temples and libraries. Millions of Jews - including most of Jesus' followers - were massacred. Jesus was warning them of this event.
Each of those disciples he is talking with will leave their bodies at a particular time. This is "that day and hour" that Jesus is referring to here. Each person's moment of death is only known by God. No one else - not even Jesus or the angels, as he admits here - knows when this event will happen for any of us.
At the moment of death, we lose everything. We lose all the money we've made and saved. We lose all the houses, cars, and whatever other material possessions we've accumulated. We also lose all of our relationships. We are no longer the husband or wife of someone else. We are no longer the father or mother of someone. We also lose our reputation and any fame we might possess. Our entire identity is stripped away. All vanishes with a blink of the eye and the stop of a heartbeat.
It is for this reason that Jesus states that "Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away." The "heaven" that Jesus is referring to here, from the Greek οὐρανός (ouranos), is the sky above us. It is not referring to the spiritual world. What Jesus is saying is that at the moment of death, the physical world will vanish as we separate from the physical body.
We need the physical body to access the environment of the physical world. The physical world is like a virtual landscape we see in a computer program or a video game - these are often called the game's "environment." Just consider accessing the environment of a particular video game. We need a computer loaded with a particular program to access this environment. We also need a computer monitor, a keyboard and some other gear (mouse, joystick, whatever) to access the computer game's tools. Without the computer, the program, the monitor, keyboard and gear, we could not access the video game's virtual environment.
It is the same with the physical world. The environment of the physical world is accessible by someone with a physical body. This also means that once the body dies, the environment of physical world suddenly fades away.
Of course, there is a short period of time after death where a person may still observe the physical world - as evidenced by clinical death studies. But this is while we are in our temporary subtle physical body - which fades away shortly as well. (However, for some people - those who have committed suicide or have spent a considerable amount of their lives in drunkenness or drug-abuse - they may spend more time in their subtle physical body. In these cases, the period they should have been living out with awareness in the physical body was shortened, so they must make up that time in their residual subtle body. This is actually quite an awful experience because in this ghostly body, we are stuck observing the physical world, but unable - except in some rare cases - to manipulate it. (It would be like watching a video game but not being able to access any controls.) It is a state filled with emptiness and frustration, as we see those we knew, but cannot contact them.)
The physical world can also be accessed by angels and God at any time. Because God is the ultimate "Programmer" of the physical world, He has free rein. He also often sends angels from the spiritual world to help particular individuals or groups. This is His prerogative, as the Owner of this virtual landscape, the physical world.
Notice that Jesus states that, "Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away." What does he mean by this?
Jesus' words are his instructions. His teachings. Remember that he is speaking with his disciples here. They have been listening to him teach. He has been teaching them so many things - many more things than have been recorded in the four texts of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. This is not only evidenced by the Dead Sea Scrolls. It is also evidenced by the so many topics that are alluded to in conversation but not fully discussed.
So Jesus spent his time teaching his students and disciples, and they tried to learn and apply his teachings. This is the process. The spiritual teacher teaches and the students learn. Then once the students have learned, they too can teach. This process was shown by Jesus by example. He took a teacher in the form of John the Baptist. Then he taught those same things to his students, and then instructed them to also go out and teach.
Teaching about spiritual life is a personal process of learning directly from one who loves God and has themselves learned from an enlightened teacher, and then passing those teachings on without change. It is not a professional process where one is elected to their post as priest, bishop, pope, preacher or reverend by a group and paid a salary to teach. It is a personal process of being introduced to God by one of God's loving servants and then in turn introducing others to God.
As for Jesus referring himself here as "son," this is a mistranslation. The Greek word translated to "son" is υἱός (huios). This could indicate a relationship of offspring in the physical sense, but within the context of Jesus' relationship with God, it is more appropriately interpreted, as taken from the Greek lexicon, "used to describe one who depends on another or is his follower." This can be more precisely translated to “dependent child and loving servant,” or simply, "loving servant." Jesus was describing himself as God's loving servant - not some high and mighty "exclusive son" of God. Rather, Jesus wanted everyone to be one of God's loving servants. This is why he said:
“Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called sons [loving servants] of God.” (Matthew 5:9)
So by saying, "Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away," Jesus is telling his students to take away his teachings. Even though their bodies will pass away, they can take his teachings with them. And what was Jesus' most important teaching?
“‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.' This is the first and greatest commandment.” (Matt. 22:37-40)
For then there will be great distress, unequaled from the beginning of the world until now—and never to be equaled again. If those days had not been cut short, no one would survive, but for the sake of the elect those days will be shortened. At that time if anyone says to you, ‘Look, here is the Christ!’ or, ‘There he is!’ do not believe it. For false Christs and false prophets will appear and perform great signs and miracles to deceive even the elect—if that were possible. See, I have told you ahead of time. So if anyone tells you, ‘There he is, out in the desert,’ do not go out; or, ‘Here he is, in the inner rooms,’ do not believe it. For as lightning that comes from the east is visible even in the west, so will be the coming of the son of man. Wherever there is a carcass, there the vultures will gather. “Immediately after the distress of those days ‘the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light; the stars will fall from the sky, and the heavenly bodies will be shaken.’ At that time the sign of the son of man will appear in the sky, and all the nations of the earth will mourn. They will see the son of man coming on the clouds of the sky, with power and great glory. And He [God] will send His angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather His elect from the four winds, from one end of the heavens to the other. Now learn this lesson from the fig tree: As soon as its twigs get tender and its leaves come out, you know that summer is near. Even so, when you see all these things, you know that it is near, right at the door. I tell you the truth, this generation will certainly not pass away until all these things have happened." (Matt. 24:21-34)
This part of Jesus’ private discussion with his disciples has been manipulated through misinterpretation in an attempt to scare people that the end of the world is at hand. This was started by Roman scribes selected by the Nicene Council and overseen by the Emperor Constantine. Constantine’s goal was to control Europe and the Middle East, and one of his means was to control Christianity. Not only was this strategy a success, but the interpretation of this statement - cemented by 1700 years of Roman Catholic domination of Jesus' message - has produced an ongoing error being passed on from one generation to another by ecclesiastical Christian sects and their professional teachers.
Rather than correctly understanding that Jesus’ warning was about the pending Jewish-Roman wars (lasting from 60 AD to about 140 AD), during which the Romans massacred the Jews (and Christians), burnt down most of their cities and villages, and scattered the remaining Jews among desert hideaways, this misinterpretation has led to an endless parade of doomsday prophets, continuously predicting the end of the world and the "second coming" in error.
Two centuries after their massacre of the Jews, when the “Bible” was assembled by the Roman government-controlled Nicene council, and translated to their native Latin from texts carefully chosen while hundreds of other texts were burned, the Romans attempted to bury the evidence of this first century holocaust. In fact, the only way historians learned of the wars and any details was the late discovery of the writings of one Jewish scholar, Josephus.
Yet if we read Jesus’ statement carefully, we can see clearly by the last sentence that Jesus was foretelling events that would transpire during the next few decades:
“I tell you the truth, this generation will certainly not pass away until all these things have happened."
“This generation” clearly indicates an event to take place during the lives of those who were living at the time Jesus spoke this. Jesus spoke this around the year 32 AD, and many of his disciples were in their 20s or 30s at the time. The Jewish-Roman wars began in about 60 AD, but this also followed a period of Roman brutality against the Jews. So Jesus’ disciples would have ranged in age from about 45 to 60 years old during the height of the massacre – precisely matching his prediction of “this generation will certainly not pass away...”
So were these years as bad as Jesus is describing here? The historian Josephus described the events that unfolded with words such as “savagery,” “butchery,” “torture,” “reign of terror,” “sham courts,” and “faked trials.” It was a brutal period, that began with the revolt of the Jews against the Romans due to intolerable conditions, and ended with the murder of millions of Jews. Christians were but a faction of the Jews, and Jesus was trying to warn his disciples of the coming years.
Jesus also mentions “false Christs” and “here is the Christ!” What does this mean? The word “Christ” is being translated from the Greek word Χριστός (Christos), meaning “messiah” or “anointed one.” The word is a synonym for the Hebrew word, מָשִׁיחַ, which also means "messiah" or “anointed one.” The origin comes from the description of God’s priests, who were His chosen representatives. This is seen among numerous verses of the Old Testament. Here are but a few:
[God said to Moses] "Anoint Aaron and his sons and consecrate them so they may serve Me as priests." (Exodus 30:30)
Those were the names of Aaron's sons, the anointed priests, who were ordained to serve as priests. (Num 3:3)
When they arrived, Samuel saw Eliab and thought, "Surely the LORD's anointed stands here before the LORD." (1 Samuel 16:6)
In every instance above, the word "messiah" could be inserted instead of "anointed." So the word “messiah” or “anointed one” is a role, not an individual person. We might compare it with the word “Lieutenant.” An individual who is a Lieutenant might be called “Lieutenant,” but there have been many Lieutenants in the army. In the case of "messiah," it is describing the role of being God's representative.
Thus, Jesus is describing a period where there will be many who will claim the position of being God’s representative when they are not. The example of this, as described by Josephus, was John of Gischala, Ananus, Paul (a Roman spy who challenged Jesus' disciple James' teachings that were consistent with Jesus'), some of the Zealots and others who tried to become spiritual leaders during this period of crisis. Jesus is trying to warn his disciples against these leaders, so they would stay the course, and continue to follow Jesus’ instructions.
Then Jesus says: “Immediately after the distress of those days ‘the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light; the stars will fall from the sky, and the heavenly bodies will be shaken.’” What does this mean?
This is a quote from Isaiah, who was speaking for God as he predicted the fall of Babylon (An oracle concerning Babylon that Isaiah son of Amoz saw: (Isaiah 13:1)):
The stars of heaven and their constellations will not show their light. The rising sun will be darkened and the moon will not give its light. (Isaiah 13:10)
So what are Jesus and Isaiah talking about here? They are each describing separate events – Jesus is describing the fall of Jerusalem and the Jewish massacre at the hands of the Romans and Isaiah is describing the fall of Babylon. But then they both bring this concept of the darkening of the sun and the weakening of the stars.
Both events resulted in great fires, as cities were being burned. The burning creates great smoke, which darkens the sun and stars. We can see this in the fires of the Western United States. The sun becomes dark and the stars are not visible for many days during and after large fires.
Both events also resulted in mass deaths. During the fall of Babylon and the massacre of the Jews and the fall of Jerusalem, many people died - much of the population in fact. At the time of death, as the eyes are closing, the sun is darkened and the stars disappear, as the spiritual person leaves the physical body.
This brings the next topic of Jesus’ discussion into view. While many have interpreted Jesus’ words to be describing some cataclysmic world-wide event thousands of years later, followed by Jesus riding over the clouds on horseback (really?) what is actually being described is quite different.
Jesus is describing massive deaths, followed by events that unfold for each person at the moment of death.
Jesus is describing that he will there for each of his disciples and students - who followed and even spread his teachings – at their time of death. He will be there to escort them back to the spiritual dimension.
Yes, Jesus uses some allegory and symbolism to describe these events, primarily because the technology of what happens at the time of death is quite foreign to the mind, and the best way to describe what happens is to use allegory. For example, Jesus compares lightning that comes from the east is visible even in the west to his appearance after their death. This is an analogy.
We can see the gross mistranslation of Jesus' statements here when we consider the source of what is being translated into “the coming.” The Greek word is παρουσία (parousia), which is primarily used to describe someone’s “presence.” While it can describe an “arrival,” this is within the context of “appearance,” or “advent” according to the lexicon. Thus, Jesus is saying that he will be “present,” or will "appear" to them.
This is confirmed by the next sentence, which includes the phrase, “the son of man will appear in the sky.” Again, παρουσία is being used, but after this, we find the word οὐρανός (ouranos) used. This word is not as simple as “sky.” The word can mean “the universe,” “the world,” “the aerial heavens or sky, the region where the clouds and the tempests gather, and where thunder and lightning are produced,” “the sidereal or starry heavens,” “the region above the sidereal heavens, the seat of order of things eternal and consummately perfect where God dwells and other heavenly beings.”
So to interpret this word as “sky” is quite simplistic. Jesus was talking about a deeper context here. Usually, people do not appear or become present in the “sky.” Rather, an “appearance” or "presence" that takes place in οὐρανός is referring to a deeper realm.
And what is that deeper realm? It is the realm where the spiritual being can dwell after she leaves the body after death. This space has been illustrated through scientific research during clinical death cases. There have been hundreds of thousands – actually millions – of documented clinical death cases now, followed by the person being revived, and describing floating up above their body and looking down upon the body, and then being able to travel very quickly to other locations and observe family members and other events. Researchers have tested thousands of these episodes, and verified that the person indeed did see actual events – all the while their body lay lifeless in a hospital bed.
Many also describe moving to another space where they were met up by others. Some describe seeing Jesus, while others describe seeing angels. In most of these cases, these individuals or groups were there to escort the person to their next destination. In many cases, their life was judged. In the case of many clinical death experiences, however, they were also told something to the effect of “it is not your time yet” just before they landed back into their body as it was revived.
Now Jesus is describing a period of time where millions of Jewish people - including some if not all of his disciples - would be slaughtered by the Romans. Directly following each spiritual person being forced out of the body at death, their life within their body is judged, and they will be escorted to their next destination. (The reason why death has also been described as "Judgement Day.")
Jesus is describing the fact that upon the death of those who followed his teachings and re-developed their loving relationship with God, Jesus and other angels of God (the “He” in “He will send His angels” is God.) would appear to them to escort them back to the spiritual world. This is the event being discussed, and the actual event that has been described as Jesus' "second coming."
Jesus confirms this with his parable about the fig tree. He describes that when the twigs become tender, one can know summer is nearing. This is an analogy for death. When this sort of mass war breaks out, one can know that their death is near.
This is confirmed with his next statement, saying that “Even so [in the same way], when you see all these things, you know that it is near, right at the door.” What is the “it” being described here? The Greek word εἰμί (eimi) is being translated to "it" here. This relates to something existing or being present. What is it? Many translators have taken this to mean there must be a person present, so they have translated this to mean “He is near.”
Within this context, we can see that “right at the door,” confirms that the "it" Jesus is discussing is death. When the moment of death is near, most people – as does Jesus – use the analogy of there being a doorway, because of the drastic change from being alive to leaving the body – or as many say, “passing away.” In reality, at the time of death, the spiritual being suddenly slips from being within the body, to being outside of the body. Thus it is certainly accurate to use the word "doorway" while discussing this event - death.
One point to add here is that while the translators have managed to translate these words as though Jesus were God, Jesus describes himself in a more humble manner. As discussed previously, the correct translation of Jesus’ self-description is not "son of man." Rather it is "servant of humanity".
The bottom line is that in this discussion - taking place privately between Jesus and his disciples - Jesus was forewarning them of events that would unfold during their lifetimes. He was telling them that they do not need to follow anyone else, but simply follow his teachings. He was also telling them that they would likely be killed during the massacres by the Romans, but that they should not worry, because he and God’s angels will be there for them (and all of "His elect") at the time of death to escort them back to the spiritual dimension.
This was Jesus’ life. He was not sent by God down to the earth to threaten people and make them afraid by predicting the end of the world was coming. He came to the earth to teach us to love and serve God. Why? Because he wanted us to re-develop our loving relationship with God. Why? Because God wants us back. God wants us to come home. This is also why God sent Abraham, Moses, Joshua, Noah, Jacob, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Job, David, Samual, Solomon and others who all brought the same message: love and serve God. And this is why Jesus' most important and powerful lesson was:
“‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.' This is the first and greatest commandment." (Matt. 22:37-38)
Rather than correctly understanding that Jesus’ warning was about the pending Jewish-Roman wars (lasting from 60 AD to about 140 AD), during which the Romans massacred the Jews (and Christians), burnt down most of their cities and villages, and scattered the remaining Jews among desert hideaways, this misinterpretation has led to an endless parade of doomsday prophets, continuously predicting the end of the world and the "second coming" in error.
Two centuries after their massacre of the Jews, when the “Bible” was assembled by the Roman government-controlled Nicene council, and translated to their native Latin from texts carefully chosen while hundreds of other texts were burned, the Romans attempted to bury the evidence of this first century holocaust. In fact, the only way historians learned of the wars and any details was the late discovery of the writings of one Jewish scholar, Josephus.
Yet if we read Jesus’ statement carefully, we can see clearly by the last sentence that Jesus was foretelling events that would transpire during the next few decades:
“I tell you the truth, this generation will certainly not pass away until all these things have happened."
“This generation” clearly indicates an event to take place during the lives of those who were living at the time Jesus spoke this. Jesus spoke this around the year 32 AD, and many of his disciples were in their 20s or 30s at the time. The Jewish-Roman wars began in about 60 AD, but this also followed a period of Roman brutality against the Jews. So Jesus’ disciples would have ranged in age from about 45 to 60 years old during the height of the massacre – precisely matching his prediction of “this generation will certainly not pass away...”
So were these years as bad as Jesus is describing here? The historian Josephus described the events that unfolded with words such as “savagery,” “butchery,” “torture,” “reign of terror,” “sham courts,” and “faked trials.” It was a brutal period, that began with the revolt of the Jews against the Romans due to intolerable conditions, and ended with the murder of millions of Jews. Christians were but a faction of the Jews, and Jesus was trying to warn his disciples of the coming years.
Jesus also mentions “false Christs” and “here is the Christ!” What does this mean? The word “Christ” is being translated from the Greek word Χριστός (Christos), meaning “messiah” or “anointed one.” The word is a synonym for the Hebrew word, מָשִׁיחַ, which also means "messiah" or “anointed one.” The origin comes from the description of God’s priests, who were His chosen representatives. This is seen among numerous verses of the Old Testament. Here are but a few:
[God said to Moses] "Anoint Aaron and his sons and consecrate them so they may serve Me as priests." (Exodus 30:30)
Those were the names of Aaron's sons, the anointed priests, who were ordained to serve as priests. (Num 3:3)
When they arrived, Samuel saw Eliab and thought, "Surely the LORD's anointed stands here before the LORD." (1 Samuel 16:6)
In every instance above, the word "messiah" could be inserted instead of "anointed." So the word “messiah” or “anointed one” is a role, not an individual person. We might compare it with the word “Lieutenant.” An individual who is a Lieutenant might be called “Lieutenant,” but there have been many Lieutenants in the army. In the case of "messiah," it is describing the role of being God's representative.
Thus, Jesus is describing a period where there will be many who will claim the position of being God’s representative when they are not. The example of this, as described by Josephus, was John of Gischala, Ananus, Paul (a Roman spy who challenged Jesus' disciple James' teachings that were consistent with Jesus'), some of the Zealots and others who tried to become spiritual leaders during this period of crisis. Jesus is trying to warn his disciples against these leaders, so they would stay the course, and continue to follow Jesus’ instructions.
Then Jesus says: “Immediately after the distress of those days ‘the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light; the stars will fall from the sky, and the heavenly bodies will be shaken.’” What does this mean?
This is a quote from Isaiah, who was speaking for God as he predicted the fall of Babylon (An oracle concerning Babylon that Isaiah son of Amoz saw: (Isaiah 13:1)):
The stars of heaven and their constellations will not show their light. The rising sun will be darkened and the moon will not give its light. (Isaiah 13:10)
So what are Jesus and Isaiah talking about here? They are each describing separate events – Jesus is describing the fall of Jerusalem and the Jewish massacre at the hands of the Romans and Isaiah is describing the fall of Babylon. But then they both bring this concept of the darkening of the sun and the weakening of the stars.
Both events resulted in great fires, as cities were being burned. The burning creates great smoke, which darkens the sun and stars. We can see this in the fires of the Western United States. The sun becomes dark and the stars are not visible for many days during and after large fires.
Both events also resulted in mass deaths. During the fall of Babylon and the massacre of the Jews and the fall of Jerusalem, many people died - much of the population in fact. At the time of death, as the eyes are closing, the sun is darkened and the stars disappear, as the spiritual person leaves the physical body.
This brings the next topic of Jesus’ discussion into view. While many have interpreted Jesus’ words to be describing some cataclysmic world-wide event thousands of years later, followed by Jesus riding over the clouds on horseback (really?) what is actually being described is quite different.
Jesus is describing massive deaths, followed by events that unfold for each person at the moment of death.
Jesus is describing that he will there for each of his disciples and students - who followed and even spread his teachings – at their time of death. He will be there to escort them back to the spiritual dimension.
Yes, Jesus uses some allegory and symbolism to describe these events, primarily because the technology of what happens at the time of death is quite foreign to the mind, and the best way to describe what happens is to use allegory. For example, Jesus compares lightning that comes from the east is visible even in the west to his appearance after their death. This is an analogy.
We can see the gross mistranslation of Jesus' statements here when we consider the source of what is being translated into “the coming.” The Greek word is παρουσία (parousia), which is primarily used to describe someone’s “presence.” While it can describe an “arrival,” this is within the context of “appearance,” or “advent” according to the lexicon. Thus, Jesus is saying that he will be “present,” or will "appear" to them.
This is confirmed by the next sentence, which includes the phrase, “the son of man will appear in the sky.” Again, παρουσία is being used, but after this, we find the word οὐρανός (ouranos) used. This word is not as simple as “sky.” The word can mean “the universe,” “the world,” “the aerial heavens or sky, the region where the clouds and the tempests gather, and where thunder and lightning are produced,” “the sidereal or starry heavens,” “the region above the sidereal heavens, the seat of order of things eternal and consummately perfect where God dwells and other heavenly beings.”
So to interpret this word as “sky” is quite simplistic. Jesus was talking about a deeper context here. Usually, people do not appear or become present in the “sky.” Rather, an “appearance” or "presence" that takes place in οὐρανός is referring to a deeper realm.
And what is that deeper realm? It is the realm where the spiritual being can dwell after she leaves the body after death. This space has been illustrated through scientific research during clinical death cases. There have been hundreds of thousands – actually millions – of documented clinical death cases now, followed by the person being revived, and describing floating up above their body and looking down upon the body, and then being able to travel very quickly to other locations and observe family members and other events. Researchers have tested thousands of these episodes, and verified that the person indeed did see actual events – all the while their body lay lifeless in a hospital bed.
Many also describe moving to another space where they were met up by others. Some describe seeing Jesus, while others describe seeing angels. In most of these cases, these individuals or groups were there to escort the person to their next destination. In many cases, their life was judged. In the case of many clinical death experiences, however, they were also told something to the effect of “it is not your time yet” just before they landed back into their body as it was revived.
Now Jesus is describing a period of time where millions of Jewish people - including some if not all of his disciples - would be slaughtered by the Romans. Directly following each spiritual person being forced out of the body at death, their life within their body is judged, and they will be escorted to their next destination. (The reason why death has also been described as "Judgement Day.")
Jesus is describing the fact that upon the death of those who followed his teachings and re-developed their loving relationship with God, Jesus and other angels of God (the “He” in “He will send His angels” is God.) would appear to them to escort them back to the spiritual world. This is the event being discussed, and the actual event that has been described as Jesus' "second coming."
Jesus confirms this with his parable about the fig tree. He describes that when the twigs become tender, one can know summer is nearing. This is an analogy for death. When this sort of mass war breaks out, one can know that their death is near.
This is confirmed with his next statement, saying that “Even so [in the same way], when you see all these things, you know that it is near, right at the door.” What is the “it” being described here? The Greek word εἰμί (eimi) is being translated to "it" here. This relates to something existing or being present. What is it? Many translators have taken this to mean there must be a person present, so they have translated this to mean “He is near.”
Within this context, we can see that “right at the door,” confirms that the "it" Jesus is discussing is death. When the moment of death is near, most people – as does Jesus – use the analogy of there being a doorway, because of the drastic change from being alive to leaving the body – or as many say, “passing away.” In reality, at the time of death, the spiritual being suddenly slips from being within the body, to being outside of the body. Thus it is certainly accurate to use the word "doorway" while discussing this event - death.
One point to add here is that while the translators have managed to translate these words as though Jesus were God, Jesus describes himself in a more humble manner. As discussed previously, the correct translation of Jesus’ self-description is not "son of man." Rather it is "servant of humanity".
The bottom line is that in this discussion - taking place privately between Jesus and his disciples - Jesus was forewarning them of events that would unfold during their lifetimes. He was telling them that they do not need to follow anyone else, but simply follow his teachings. He was also telling them that they would likely be killed during the massacres by the Romans, but that they should not worry, because he and God’s angels will be there for them (and all of "His elect") at the time of death to escort them back to the spiritual dimension.
This was Jesus’ life. He was not sent by God down to the earth to threaten people and make them afraid by predicting the end of the world was coming. He came to the earth to teach us to love and serve God. Why? Because he wanted us to re-develop our loving relationship with God. Why? Because God wants us back. God wants us to come home. This is also why God sent Abraham, Moses, Joshua, Noah, Jacob, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Job, David, Samual, Solomon and others who all brought the same message: love and serve God. And this is why Jesus' most important and powerful lesson was:
“‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.' This is the first and greatest commandment." (Matt. 22:37-38)
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