Jesus Christ - pyromaniac?

Like many of you, one of my earliest fears was that Jesus was a pyromaniac who was going to burn my house down with my cat inside. No? Just me? That's Not unusual because I've been different most of my life.

The Bible has a lot of weird and controversial passages that no one has been able to agree to for the past 2000 years. Believers and atheists are able to tell the same basic version of the story that everyone agrees to. Adam & Eve. Noah. Joseph. Women's hair and the angels. The Resurrection and miracles. 

Each of us decides to believe what our understanding, interests and personal experiences have been. 

If God is "god" and all of this matters, shouldn't he have been a little more clear, literal or forceful so that there wouldn't be all of the conflict and confusion that continues to this day? That's a fair question. 

The following thought experiment reflects the 42 years of my own faith, the near loss of that faith, and the search for a non-ridiculous way to still believe in today's Western culture. 

I warn you in advance - I've had a difficult relationship with organized religion for my entire life for reasons I'll probably share later. This message, this experiment....is aimed at two particular groups of people. 

1. The "backslider", those who have walked away from the faith or are about to give up under the continual onslaught of messages that imply "Belief is for the simple minded." That isn't remotely true. 

2. The intellectually curious atheist/agnostic - who is open to considering things might not be what they appear at first glance. 

If you are happy with your walk with Jesus, you have a prepared PowerPoint testimony prepared for those "just in case moments"; if you are content attending band performances of the latest Christian praise songs like "Jesus Is My Boyfriend" or "How I Feel About God" - this isn't going to be the place for you. 

You've been warned. 

So...here is the starting thought exercise. 

Have you ever smelled fish breath? 

When you get too close to someone who had some really fishy fish for lunch? 

Now, imagine that is Jesus. 

You're in the shadow of the Temple in Jerusalem 2000 years ago listening to this guy you can't quite figure out, and you've heard he's done a couple of neat tricks. Maybe you'll see one today. 

He's talking then gets this weird look on his face with his eyes fixed on someone at the back of the crowd. You turn around to see who it is. 

It's the temple leaders and high priest. You didn't tithe last week. You try to slink into the crowd. 

Suddenly, you hear Jesus raising his voice to say "Destroy this temple and I'll raise it up again in 3 days." 

You laugh. Out loud.

'Yeah, he's built like the carpenter I heard, 

but that temple was built by thousands of men for 46 years. 

He's nuts!'

That's your mindset, ok? 

Then WHAM! Someone comes up to you and says your eternal salvation Jeopardy and Alex Trebek asks you one question: Could Jesus raise the temple in three days?

You and everyone else in the crowd would answer No. 

You all would be wrong and going to hell because what he said was true, but in a way they didn't understand. 

New story. 

You're standing with your dead-then-alive-again leader. Something big is about to happen. It's in the air and you can feel it. You've spent 3 years with the man, almost every day. You've seen incredible things and he just promised the Holy Spirit and a new kingdom of heaven.

But you also know the messiah is supposed to liberate Israel - a great military leader to kick the Romans out of the Holy Land so she can take her rightful place as the spiritual and geographical center of the world. And he's getting ready to leave for a long time. 

So you finally blurt out 'Lord, are you going to kick the Romans out and create the earthly kingdom?'

Jesus rolls his eyes at you. A hint of amusement on his face. And floats away into the clouds. 

New story. 

You've watched the guy you've grown up with, played and worked with, and followed - die horribly and in shame. 

You're trying to process your grief and confusion. This was not supposed to happen. The religious brownshirts are searching Jerusalem for followers of Christ. 

You're in a locked room with the others trying to figure out what is going on. Peter & John have listened to my grieving mom and a bunch of other women who were already hysterical at best. They're seeing things. They insist it's true. But I'm his brother in a different way. 

I've not heard a peep from him. Neither has James. 

They've got no proof. You're getting angry now, and decide to show off. 

You use your deep voice and say:

'You bring him here and I'll poke my fingers through his wrists and wave at you. I'll stick my hand up inside his chest and work him like a puppet to tell you all that you're nuts!'

Wow. That worked fast! 

Everyone's faces suddenly in froze in confusion, maybe fear? 

You think "I'm finally earning my wings & respect around here."

"Thomas!"

Your knees give out before you can even turn around. You know that voice well and was you were sure it would never be heard again. 

His rough hand touches your shoulder and helps you up. You don't believe what you're seeing. And suddenly regret and shame about what you just said. 

"Want to wave at everyone through my nail holes now or later? 

And while I don't mind you looking at the spear hole, let's skip the puppetry."

Knees gone again. Head down low. 

There went the wings and self respect you were proud of a minute ago. 

You blurt out "My Lord and my God!"

Jesus says "You should have known better. You still only believe because you now see me. Wait until you someday see the people far into the future who will still believe, but never see me. They will be heroes of the Fathers story."

End story

Three biblical examples showing one common element:

The people who spoke the language, who shared the culture, who were subjugated by the Romans, who participated in religious life....

They were so close to him they could smell his breath. They knew his grandma. They were at his dad's funeral. 

Still had no clue what Jesus was talking about. None. 

But each one of them were confident in their knowledge. They were sincerely wrong. 

Why is this important?

What hope do we have claiming to know ANYTHING for sure about Jesus, God, the devil... 

in a digital, global, democratic country reading translations 2000 years and 3+ languages ago? 

And everybody wants to be right. 

Some also want to prove you wrong for their ego stroke of the day. 

"Science says the Bible is impossible. 

Archeology, history, geology, astronomy.... 

common sense says everything I've heard and believed can't be true." 

You are told that over and over every day by media 

reinforcing that every day in imperceptible ways. 

You may have been brought up in the faith and are ready (or have) thrown in the towel. 

Or maybe you're just feeling beat up. 

Or perhaps you are a genuine searcher of truth as well. 

You might be in a church that runs an average of 40 on a good Sunday while singing "When We Few Get To Heaven". This won't appeal to you. It's not written for you. It's written for the ones you can't see.

I'm not a role model.

I'm not saying I know anything.

Quite the opposite. 

I'm aiming at "not being wrong" by following scientists, philosophers, theologians, historians and others. I'm trying to synthesize them into a realistic way to make a logically true story. 

So I decided to do the actual thought experiment. 

How Could The Bible Be Literally True?

Could a rational explanation be constructed, taking into account all of the understandings that we have today?

What would it take and what would it look like?

The point of this exercise is that if a no name like me can come up with something that actually removes key objections to Christ - just imagine how many other possibilities to each step that exist in ways we don't know or understand. 

A truth is still true, regardless of whether you understand it or not. 

And the wisdom of men is the foolishness of God. 

And broad road to destruction vs narrow path to truth in righteousness. 

I always head in the opposite direction of the crowd for precisely that reason.

It can demonstrate, if not "prove", that faith is not useless and that now is exactly the wrong time to give up. 

That is the point of these posts - to give you new tools to consider the most important question in life that more people are asking today than ever before. 

Does all of this matter?

Do I matter? 

I'm going to write and tell you why it's rational to believe that you do, because it does, because he is. 

I hope you'll follow along.