Jesus Under Fire
"but this is what was spoken by the prophet Joel: 'And in the last days it shall be, God declares, that I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams; yea, and on my menservants and my maidservants in those days I will pour out my Spirit; and they shall prophesy. And I will show wonders in the heaven above and signs on the earth beneath, blood, and fire, and vapor of smoke; the sun shall be turned into darkness and the moon into blood, before the day of the Lord comes, the great and manifest day. And it shall be that whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.' " Acts 2:17-21 RSV
If we are indeed in the last days as many believe, then the world will witness an outpouring of the Holy Spirit. What a stumbling block that outpouring would be to Satan! For how can he effectively counteract the discerning truth of that Spirit? Yet, it appears that he is trying his best.
The Da Vinci Code purports that Jesus and Mary Magdalene were married - in total disagreement with historical Christian doctrine. Is it possible that Jesus was married? Actually, I would be surprised if Jesus, a practicing Jew, had remained single. All Jewish Rabbis are required to marry by Hebrew law. It appears that Joseph and Mary raised their son according to Jewish law evidenced by their presenting Jesus at the Temple when he was twelve years old. So it would follow that Jesus would have married according to that law as well.
So where did the idea of celibacy originate? Actually, this perversion of faith came many centuries after Jesus' death. In the early Christian church many of the church leaders were married. Peter's wife is mentioned in the Gospels. The perversion started sometime in the second century when the Council of Elvira, Spain decreed that any priest sleeping with his wife the night before he celebrated Mass would be 'defrocked'. Many other prohibitive decrees followed until in the fifth century, Pope Gregory issued an edict that all sexual desire was sinful, thereby ensuring the superiority of the clergy - who by this time were not allowed to marry - over their parishioners.
The Scriptures are clear on marriage and sexual relations. In fact, one of God's first commands to Adam and Eve was to "go forth and multiply". So I ask the reader, who would benefit most from a commandment that mankind's most devout followers of Christ could not reproduce?
This week another attack has come to plague Christians. The Gospel of Judas has been found, carbon dated and translated by scientists. Those same scientists have been quoted in the media on their translation of this new-found manuscript, and according to their translation, Judas was directed by Jesus to betray him. But, I ask you, dear reader, was this a command given by Jesus to Judas, or a prophecy (fore-knowledge) of what Judas was about to do?
In the war for souls, the enemy will attack on many fronts, but the truth will come through the discernment of the Spirit by prayer and fasting. "And when Jesus saw that a crowd came running together, he rebuked the unclean spirit, saying to it, "You dumb and deaf spirit, I command you, come out of him, and never enter him again." And after crying out and convulsing him terribly, it came out, and the boy was like a corpse; so that most of them said, "He is dead." But Jesus took him by the hand and lifted him up, and he arose. And when he had entered the house, his disciples asked him privately, "Why could we not cast it out?" And he said to them, "This kind cannot be driven out by anything but prayer." Mark 9: 28-29 RSV
posted by Hepzibah The Watchman | 9:07 AM
8 Comments:
I'm a random visitor on your site, a follower of Jesus from Finland. I got the impression that you are a christian too and that's why I think it's very strainge that you think that Jesus would have been married. That would mean that Browns` indications about Jesus having children would also most certain be a fact. But Jesus wasn't just an ordinary rabbi -he came to earth with one purpose only: to save the mankind. He didn't came here to build a family or to live a normal, human life. And if we believe the scripture about Jesus being without sin, then it would be just bizarr to think that there would be offspring to Jesus on this earth that would be more godly than other people! To think that Jesus lived in celibacy for his whole life don't automatically point out that living in celibacy would be a more godly or "pure" lifestyle for us (even if it was of necessity for Jesus)- God certainly gave the marriage as a gift to humankind for this life on earth.
Blessings!
Re: the gospel of Judas...that was written several hundreds of years after Christ's death, as opposed to the 4 gospels, written withing the lifetimes of the authors who had known Jesus personally and intimately.
There is nothing that I am aware of within the writings of other historians from that period to substantiate the claims of the gospel, unlike the historical evidences and observations that support the 4 gospels.
There are many, many ancient writings around that are non-accurate. This is just one of many, however, the fact that there is so much press at the same time as the advent of the DaVinci Code release, reminds us to be praying for our fellow man.
Annie:
I thank you for visiting my blog site and leaving the comment that you did. As Christians, we must always be in pursuit of the truth, in order that we may love God with ALL OF OUR MINDS, too. I have found that you can get more truth by independently reading what "ordinary" people like you and me have to say than you can from church, providing that you ALWAYS read the Bible for yourself and know what is - and is not - in it. For example, have you heard that, after he retired from football and had more time to devote to Scripture, Reggie White - the late football player who was also a minister for God - himself felt "betrayed" by the Church that he had served all of his life?
Having said that, I enjoy reading your blog, too, and I look forward to more. I find what you have to say about the possibility (probability?) that Jesus was married to be very interesting to say the least. And I was absolutely NOT surprised to learn that celibacy was a man-made invention, and is in no way Biblical.
I hope that you do not mind if I link to your blog from time to time. Keep up the good work, and may God bless you always!
Dear Anonymous - Thank you for commenting on my blog. You are correct in assuming I profess to be a Christian as Jesus is my Lord and Savior. You are also correct that Jesus' mission here on earth was not procreation in the earthly realm, but procreation in the spiritual realm; that is, his mission was to ransom souls from the clutches of Satan.
There is no concrete validation that Jesus was or was not married, but I never believed that his martial status would make an impact on his mission or my faith. It is irrelevant to the big picture.
Perhaps a scripture to help with this issue is I Corinthians 9:5 where Paul speaks - "Do we not have the right to be accompanied by a wife as the other apostles and the brothers of the Lord and Cephas?"
You see, even Paul recognized that he had the right to a wife while serving the Lord - though his personal choice was to stay single.
Dear Kaymac - Thank you for your comments. You are correct with your thoughts. Incorpating the Gospel of Judas into our faith would indeed be foolhardy. There is no evidence of who wrote this piece - nor why.
When I first heard about this gospel, I pictured our world after the devastation of John's Revelation. Perhaps someone at that time will discover the written works of Gene Roddenberry and Isaac Asimov and believe these are the works of historical fact instead of fiction.
Dear Thomas E
Thank you for visiting and commenting on my blog. I would be honored to have you link my blog to yours.
I believe the Bible is the Word of God - but it is not his only word to us, especially now. I believe that God still imparts wisdom and revelation to his people today, and though we should approach this information with spiritual discernment, still we can learn more about him through others.
Just as the hand can learn something new from the foot - we are all different parts of the same body continually learning from each other through his Spirit.
Rev 22:1 "For I testify unto every man that heareth the words of the prophecy of this book, If any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book
Rev 22:19 And if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life, and out of the holy city, and [from] the things which are written in this book.
Rev 22:20 He which testifieth these things saith, Surely I come quickly. Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus.
Rev 22:21 The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ [be] with you all. Amen.
Hi Annie! I think we should be very careful with the word of God. We cannot add or take away anything from it! The word of God doesn't change because God is always the same! I think "especially now a days" that is IMPORTANT to understand!
Just wanted to respond to Mari here. The book of Revelation almost was not even included in the Bible as we know it today; there were many people who wanted to exclude it from the Bible. While I agree that we cannot add to or take away from Scripture, the fact of the matter is that those two verses that you mentioned, Mari, pertain only to the book of Revelation, and not the entire Bible itself. You can look at my own blog if you want to, but all the warning was referring to in Revelation was that if anyone added to or took away from that book (Revelation), then (s)he would not be kept safe from the tribulation, as Jesus promised that His followers would.
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