Resolution

 

 

 I will not believe that anything that is plainly in the Torah is untrue. And the Torah is super super clear front and center about whether anyone other than G-d is also G-d. "You shall have no other gods besides Me." Deuteronomy 6:4, the Shema, the holiest prayer in Judaism makes that abundantly clear: "Hear O Israel: The Lord alone is God." YHWH alone is G-d. No Trinity. No co-gods. YHWH only.

I also find it hard to believe that Jesus was just a dude with an opinion. Too much rings true. And yet on several points Jesus appears to contradict Mosaic morality. The Torah says, "eye for eye." Jesus says, "turn the other cheek" and "love your enemies." The Torah says "sweep out the evil from among you." In other words, using force, kill those who do evil. Jesus says not to resist an evil person.

“You have heard that it was said,
‘An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.’
But I say to you, Do not resist the one who is evil.
But if anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn
to him the other also. And if anyone would
sue you and take your tunic,
let him have your cloak as well.
And if anyone forces you to go one mile,
go with him two miles. Give to the one who begs
from you, and do not refuse the one who would
borrow from you.

You have heard that it was said,
‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’
But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for
those who persecute you." ~ Matthew 5:38-44

Aside from the begging and borrowing part, that would appear to be 100% a contradiction of Mosaic morality. Thieves should be arrested, those who abuse the courts should be punished. People who commit assault should be punished. Sweep out the evil from among you, by force.

How is it even remotely possible that these two things can be reconciled? On the surface they absolutely can't. The clear commandments of G-d in the Torah don't just go away. Until the end of this planet, they remain in force. And they do. Christians who believe that the Law no longer applies to them are just plain wrong. Jesus himself said in Matthew that no part of it will pass away until the end of this world. Good is still good. Evil is still evil. Always will be, until evil and death themselves are buried.

I found the resolution in John 3:17:

"For God did not send his Son
into the world to condemn the world,
but to save the world through him."

It goes on to say that the world has already been judged and found guilty! The WORLD HAS BEEN CONDEMNED. You don't interrupt someone headed to the gallows to inform them that they have been found guilty of another crime. They are already heading to the gallows, and their punishment is sure. They are already headed to destruction, as the majority of people are. Jesus' parable of the wide and narrow roads says basically the same thing. The world stands condemned because, as John 3:19 states, the people loved evil. They loved darkness. Humanity as a whole made their decision and off they go to the ash heap. March, march, march. Right now, the only thing that matters is not condemning the already condemned, but saving anyone who can be saved. As such, the last thing you want to do to a soul that might be saved is tempt them to use physical power, even against evil people. Because who is the evil? EVERYBODY. They are all going to get theirs inevitably, unless they can be saved by G-d.

There were two wars for the Earth: one was a physical war and humans were the soldiers. Hence, "sweep out the evil from among you (by force.)" John says that Satan is the ruler of this world which he is, but the Torah says nothing about it. That is because in the beginning, the first war was still being fought. Satan had not won the physical earthly material war yet, his ownership of this planet was still being contested. Well, the Hebrews failed, lost their way, and that first war was lost. When G-d gave dominion over the Earth to Man, he is not a false giver. He gave it, he's not going back on it. Man in turn gave the world to Satan. So by Jesus' time, the war for the Earth had already been lost and the Earth and Satan stand condemned. There is no such thing as two death sentences, you already have the one.

But G-d was not going to leave it there either. Yes humanity as a whole has made its decision. But some individuals can still be redeemed and that, and not judgment, is the whole mission of Jesus on Earth. Judgment would be redundant. As Psalm 49 states, humanity willingly marches sheeplike to Sheol (destruction) with Death as their shepherd.

Now to understand the next part, we have to refer back to Abraham. Abraham so loved G-d and was so obedient to Him that he was willing to sacrifice what he loved most on the Earth. His own son. We have to imagine that this tore the living crap out of him, but he was ready to do it. G-d had an angel stop him.

What was G-d's answer to the otherwise irrevocable verdict on Planet Earth? Well, G-d has a Son. The Son is not G-d, Jesus makes plain that he can only do what he sees his Father doing and he takes his orders from G-d. He is not himself G-d, but he is united to G-d and he is the pre-existent Son. This is where all the Trinity nonsense gets confused. We here on earth have an inviolable wall of flesh between ourselves and every other human person, we can not truly be inside them nor can they be inside us. In fact we never truly know them, neither as they know themselves nor certainly as G-d knows them. The old saying that we all die alone is true, no one can normally share your death nor can anyone ever truly live inside you or you in them.

Well those rules do not apply in heaven. G-d is IN Jesus and Jesus is IN Him, just as Jesus is in believers and believers are in him. This does not make Jesus and G-d identical, they are still their own persons, and only G-d is G-d as even Jesus says.So Jesus could say that if you have seen him, you have seen the Father because the Father is in his heart and he is in the Father. But still the commandment against idolatry is not violated: only G-d is G-d. Jesus is the Son. Were he not the Son, he could not do what comes next.

Like Abraham was willing to sacrifice his son for G-d, G-d sacrifices his Son for the world, or that part of it that He has selected out of it. Realize that from birth, Satan owns you. You are his slave. But apparently he cannot prevent that slave from being bought back out of slavery under the right conditions. Satan may temporarily be in charge here on Earth, but G-d is still G-d. In the words of the Godfather, He made Satan a deal he could not refuse. I will let you take my Son as a sacrifice, AFTER he goes forth on Earth to deliver his message. In return, everyone chosen by G-d to be redeemed by the Son and who believes that message gets their freedom. Actually Satan probably thought this was a pretty sweet deal. Most people are going to stay with him anyway on the freeway to perdition, and he gets to torture the very Son of G-d. The holy Son of G-d gets delivered into his hands to execute in the worst way possible, by way of the lovely compassionate Roman Frikkin Empire. There is no way Satan could resist.

We, and I do too, sometimes think of G-d as someone who cannot hurt. He does not know suffering like we do. And okay, He is Almighty G-d, it's different... but what this was to Him I cannot imagine. For a human, losing a child is the worst pain imaginable, and this was no human child. This was the holy Son. But He loved us too, loves us, and this was the only way. This opened the door to us becoming Children of G-d too, through His Son. And as he died for us, we die for him too. We go through the crucifixion of burning off the dark nature we inherited, suffering in this world, dying to this worldly life, sometimes in some cases literally dying for him as many have through history.

In summary, while because of the caveat about idolatry many Christians might not consider me a Christian (and I could say much about how Christianity has become twisted over the centuries,) I consider myself a follower of Jesus now. My conflict about the apparent incompatibility of Mosaic and Jesus morality, and with my knowing the absoluteness of the first commandment (you will have no other gods besides Me,) and my conflict with the Jesusolatry that Christianity has become guilty of... all that has been resolved now. His flesh is really food and his blood is really drink.