33 #ThingsJesusNeverSaid [#JesusFollowers]

Recently, the hashtag #ThingsJesusNeverSaid trended on Twitter. Its original intent was politically motivated, to "prove" that Jesus took this or that political stand against some of today's Christians.

Of course that ironically spoke volumes about what Jesus REALLY never said, what he actually said, and what his ministry was all about.

Some preachers today don’t spend much time on the actual words and teachings of Jesus, relying instead on later theologians and others who never met or walked with him to come up with their beliefs.

From this, they have developed often complicated doctrines that we are told we MUST accept to be “saved” both here and in the afterlife, and to live eternally with God. But Jesus taught a far simpler Gospel – one of love service to others and love of God, rejecting the empty doctrines of his day.

So in the spirit of Jesus’ teachings, let’s take a look at 33 #ThingsJesusNeverSaid, and as you read them, ask yourself, “Am I hearing these in MY church?” And if you are, WHY are you hearing things that are often DIRECTLY opposed to that what Jesus actually taught?

Feel free to cut/paste these and re-tweet these, and if you think Jesus actually DID say one of these, please post the chapter and verse so we can correct it!

1. "Don't bother going about doing Good Works.” #ThingsJesusNeverSaid

2. "Your pretty words and lengthy confessions alone will save you." #ThingsJesusNeverSaid

3. "God wants you to be RICH, so pursue earthly treasures!" #ThingsJesusNeverSaid

4. "Ignore the hungry, the poor, the ill-housed and ill-clothed." #ThingsJesusNeverSaid

5. “You’re allowed to hate people.” #ThingsJesusNeverSaid

6. "Following me will always be easy." #ThingsJesusNeverSaid

7. “I want you to turn everything I say into a political issue.” #ThingsJesusNeverSaid

8. "God doesn't care how you live your lives." #ThingsJesusNeverSaid

9. "I will build my MegaChurch." #ThingsJesusNeverSaid

10. "Pray loudly in church, so you can be seen by others." #ThingsJesusNeverSaid

11. "A 'Jesus Prayer' will get you into Heaven. Immediately." #ThingsJesusNeverSaid

12. "You won't be judged according to your works." #ThingsJesusNeverSaid

13. "You must have a strong, contemporary music program." #ThingsJesusNeverSaid

14. “If you follow me, you’re guaranteed to never get sick or have health problems.” #ThingsJesusNeverSaid

15. "I'm returning again to rule as a worldwide dictator in about 2,000 years." #ThingsJesusNeverSaid

16. "Rely on Grace and Faith Alone." #ThingsJesusNeverSaid

17. “Surround yourself with people who can help your career and are always positive.” #ThingsJesusNeverSaid

18. “God isn’t allowed to forgive your sins unless he kills me first.” #ThingsJesusNeverSaid

19. “Following me means never being persecuted or treated badly.” #ThingsJesusNeverSaid

20. "Follow me, and you can remain just as you are." #ThingsJesusNeverSaid

21. “Don’t bother obeying my words, they weren’t meant for you in modern times.” #ThingsJesusNeverSaid

22. “If you didn’t have an emotional experience, you didn’t REALLY worship God.” #ThingsJesusNeverSaid

23. “When someone insults you, it’s okay to hit them back!” #ThingsJesusNeverSaid

24. “God loves you based on how much you donate to the church.” #ThingsJesusNeverSaid

25. "A 'canned food drive' once a year should cover all the poor's needs." #ThingsJesusNeverSaid

26. "Sinning is a hereditary condition, causing you to be unable to obey God.” #ThingsJesusNeverSaid

27. “Ignore my teachings, just believe things ABOUT me that will be taught by others.” #ThingsJesusNeverSaid

28. "Repentance is not necessary to please God." #ThingsJesusNeverSaid

29. "The arrogant and prideful will inherit the earth." #ThingsJesusNeverSaid

30. "God is composed of three distinct Persons – and I’m one of them.” #ThingsJesusNeverSaid

31. “Feel free to quote my words to score political points.” #ThingsJesusNeverSaid

32. “The Ten Commandments were for the old days. You don’t have to follow them.” #ThingsJesusNeverSaid

33. "Going to church is not about God, it’s a social event designed for your entertainment." #ThingsJesusNeverSaid

Seeking the Wrong Messiah in Jesus

As Jesus entered Jerusalem on that last week of his life, his disciples were joined by the many who had heard and seen him preach in Galilee and those who heard about his fame far beyond that region. And they rushed to welcome him.

Surely they had heard of his teachings and his works, and believed him to be the Messiah. And so he was. Today, we understand his Messiahship clearly when he said he was sent by God, Whom he called The Father, to rescue us from our sins and call us to repent and turn back to God.

He proclaimed God’s Kingdom, and said it was both within us and among the people in the form of himself. And he called disciples to follow him in creating this Kingdom and spreading it throughout first Judea and then the earth.

But that wasn't what many had in mind that day as they welcomed him and proclaimed him “King.” They sought a military leader, someone who would lead a military revolt and overthrow the Romans, re-establishing a literal kingdom of Israel, and bringing justice by the sword, not by words of peace.

And within days, almost all of them would be going home disappointed – saddened that THIS Messiah would not be leading a military revolt. They had somehow drastically misread the clear words of Jesus, and their failure to listen would have grave consequences for them and their nation.

Jesus was always very clear about his mission. He was clear that this Kingdom was to be brought into this earthly reality by our deeds and actions by following God’s Moral Commandments, and that we would all be judged by those deeds to be deemed worthy to enter in to Eternal Life.

His kingdom was “not of this world” and that which belonged to Caesar should be given to Caesar. Every opportunity he was given to sow sedition against Rome, he instead spoke of peace and individual repentance from individual sinful behavior. That’s not the preaching of a revolutionary, conquering Messiah.

Perhaps that’s why the Gospels portray even the Roman Prefect Pontius Pilate – who was otherwise known by historians as a brutal, ruthless ruler – as finding no sedition in him at all. Jesus is said to have answered Pilate, “My kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world, my servants would have been fighting, so I would not be delivered over to the Jewish leaders. But my kingdom is not from the world.” This was a huge disappointment to those who sought a military revolt.

His entry into Jerusalem on a donkey, rather than on the massive white horse of a general, was also subtle hint about his true mission.

The key to understanding Jesus’ true mission (one of inaugurating a Heavenly Kingdom, not a military revolt) is that the religious leaders of the day hated him. They saw his teachings as a threat, and made numerous accusations against him, all of them false.

They accused him of trying to end God’s Law (but he said he was upholding every line of it) and of trying to destroy the Sabbath observance (but he said he was upholding the true spirit of the Sabbath) and even trying to make himself equal with God (something he denied over and over again.)

And the day after his triumphal entry, he did something else that was unexpected: he entered the Temple, and there he loudly condemned those who were using it as a money-making venture, rather than a place of pure worship.

Today, Christendom – those who supposedly revere him and his teachings – continue to misunderstand him. They, like his contemporaries, believe him to be a conquering king who’s going to come back and smite all of his enemies – secular “Romans” – in a bloodbath.

Many arrogantly call themselves “children of the King” and believe that entitles them to riches in this earth, while Jesus taught we should never trust in riches, but instead store up riches in heaven by doing Good Works in this life (which today’s Christendom also condemns.)

Most are quick to worship and admire him, and make his death and return to God into a magical charm that absolves them of the hard work of living in Righteousness as Jesus commanded us to do, rather than obeying his words and honoring his teachings.

And many make God’s house into a money-making venture, rather than a pure house of worship.

So as we greet Jesus as he enters Jerusalem, let’s renounce those misunderstandings and look back to Jesus and his actual teachings. Let’s stop looking for a conquering General who will make our lives easier by simply killing our enemies and giving us all of Rome’s riches so we can live easily and in physical comfort in this life.

Let’s instead remember that we are greeting God’s chosen Prophet – the one who brings us a Good and Beneficial Message (“Gospel”) that tells us if we turn from our sins, we may live with God eternally, and live the Righteous life God wants us to live here on earth.

The Realized Return, Part 2: Let Us Wait Not One More Day

Jesus predicted the destruction of Jerusalem in AD 70, saying, “Then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world until this time, no, nor ever shall be." (Matt. 24:21.) The writer Josephus, who wrote the definitive account of the Jewish rebellion against Rome, said that "the calamities of all nations from the beginning of the world were exceeded by those which befell his countrymen on this occasion." (Wars of the Jews, 1:1)

But is all this also signaling the Second Coming, of which he speaks? If we believe his words, it must. All scripture referring to the “End Times” refer to the mass persecution of Christians under Nero and the Jewish Revolt against Rome (AD 64-70) which culminated in the destruction of the Temple.

If Jesus was predicting his return in the 21^st Century, or later, then he clearly was a liar and a false prophet, since he promised to return within the lives of the his hearers’ generation – a generation to Jews always meaning 40 years.

Jesus said about these events, “concerning that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father only.” (Matt. 24:36) But he did know that “THIS GENERATION will NOT PASS AWAY until all these things take place.” (Matt. 24:34) And, “there are some standing here who will not taste death until they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom” (Matt. 16.28)

Now, was Jesus joking with and teasing those standing there in front of him? Or did he mean to imply that some people standing there with him around the year AD 33 would still be waiting for his return in the year AD 2020? Clearly not. But no less than the popular Christian writer C.S. Lewis said Jesus was “wrong” about his “this generation” prediction, saying of Jesus, “He clearly knew no more about the end of the world than anyone else,” and called it the “most embarrassing verse in the Bible.”

But Jesus was not wrong. In fact, Jerusalem (though not “the world,” which Jesus never said would be destroyed) was devastated a mere 37 years after his crucifixion, and destroyed in the same horrific manner as he predicted, when he predicted it would happen.

“For as the lightning comes out of the east and shines even to the west, so also will be the coming of the Son of Man.” (Matt. 24:27) Roman armies actually entered Jerusalem from the East in AD 70, and judgment indeed came upon it. And the Age of the Second Temple ended.

(And those who appeal to the Book of Revelation in an attempt to show a future return of Jesus are out of luck. The book, believed by many scholars to have been written BEFORE the Jewish Wars began, clearly alludes to the Roman emperor Nero (d. 64 the “666” is a numerological allusion to his name) and repeatedly said of the book’s prophesies, “The time is NEAR.” The angel dictating to the author of the book said, “Do not seal up the words of the prophecy of this book, for the time is near.” Contrast these instructions with those of Daniel 12:4. In Daniel the time was far off, and it was to be sealed. But in Revelations, it’s said to be near.)

Many, many more examples can be offered to prove the point of Jesus’ accurate prediction of the end of an Age in AD 70, and again, this was clearly known to pastors and wise Bible students just a century ago. So, what does this all mean for those still waiting for Jesus’ prophesies to be fulfilled?

Many continue to wait for a terrifying military Messiah to come and kill all of God’s enemies and instantly set up a Kingdom by force of arms. As we’ve discussed before, that is not the Messiah Jesus said he was, and people have been upset about this ever since he first entered Jerusalem. It’s simply not the way Jesus himself said that God’s Spiritual Kingdom would be inaugurated on the Earth.

A Jesus who arrived once, during his ministry, and predicted God’s judgment of Israel – in a manner no less powerful than was predicted by Jeremiah and the other prophets of old had done – is an inconvenient Jesus for many in Modern Christendom, who have created elaborate fantasies about the “End Times,” a modern “Beast” (who has a different name in each passing generation) and a Jesus who will come and slaughter everyone who doesn’t believe in him. But that’s simply a fantasy that we must abandon.

Jesus has come! He is the True Prophet of God, and has left us a Good and Beneficial Message (the Gospel) by which we may be saved and live our lives in accordance with God’s will. And he has left us a perfect template in his holy, human life and death that we may know it can be accomplished by all humanity. Thanks be to God, that we need not wait ONE MORE DAY to do Good Works in His holy name and bring in God’s Kingdom!

The Realized Return of Jesus: What really happened in AD 70?

An article in the Sunday, Sept. 8, 2013 USA Today reports that sales of books and novels dealing with prophesy have increased in recent weeks, “since tension in Syria and Egypt escalated.”

In fact, there’s been a decades-long - indeed, centuries-long - craze of seeking “hidden” words and prophesies not only in the Hebrew Scriptures, but in the words of Jesus, starting in earnest in 1844, when the Millerites predicted Jesus Christ would “return” to fetch all the Christians, and physically make war on and obliterate all who opposed him, then set up a 1,000 year reign as King from Jerusalem. This has continued up to our own time, most recently by a fundamentalist minister who made the same claims, and had incorrectly forecast the date several times before.

But has all this been a colossal waste of time – time in which we could have been focusing on building God’s Kingdom on earth, as Jesus himself called us to do, so many centuries ago?

Beginning in April, in the year 70, about 40 years after the Crucifixion of Christ, Jerusalem came under siege from the forces of Roman General Titus, who was the son of Emperor Vespasian. The Second Temple, located in Jerusalem – known as Herod’s Temple – was burnt on August 10, the exact same day and month on which it had been burnt by the king of Babylon, centuries before.

It was the low point of a seven-year war on the Jewish people by Rome, to be ended three years later on the mount of Massada, where thousands of Jewish fighters and civilians committed suicide rather than be taken alive by Romans, who had slaughtered tens of thousands during the Siege of Jerusalem.

Who could have seen this cataclysmic tragedy coming? The answer is Jesus, the Prophet of God. He saw it coming and warned about its coming – exactly a generation before.

Once widely accepted as a fact throughout the Christian world, but now completely missing from the pulpits of Christendom’s churches, the prediction of the fall of Jerusalem and destruction of the Temple by Jesus is one of the most important parts of Jesus’ prophetic ministry, because it proves his warnings and predictions were true and that he was the Prophet of God. But further, it was in fact the “Second Coming” for which millions of hapless Christians even today are waiting.

Jesus clearly preached about the approaching fate of Jerusalem.

When Jesus spoke, echoing the words of the earlier Hebrew prophets, saying, “Truly, I say to you, all these things will come upon this generation. O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing!’” (Mat 23:36-37) he was clearly passing down God’s judgment upon Jerusalem, and speaking of those who kill the prophets. (And note: This judgment was on THAT generation of Jewish people, NOT to all generations of future Jews, and that’s clear by the context.)

And did he see himself as one of these Prophets? Yes, and that was the point. He said, “I must go on my way today and tomorrow and the day following, for it cannot be that a prophet should perish away from Jerusalem.” (Luke 13:33).”

And listen to what he said about Jerusalem and its fate:

“And when he drew near and saw the city, he wept over it, saying, ‘Would that you, even you, had known on this day the things that make for peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes. For the days will come upon you, when your enemies will set up a barricade around you and surround you and hem you in on every side and tear you down to the ground, you and your children within you. And they will not leave one stone upon another in you, because you did not know the time of your visitation.” (Luke 19:41-44)

This is a clear and vivid portrayal of the destruction of Jerusalem, right down to the “barricade” siege and the Temple being torn to the ground, as it was in AD 70. “As for these things that you see,” he said, “the days will come when there will not be left here one stone upon another that will not be thrown down.” (Luke 21:6)

And he spoke of “wars and rumors of wars” and “nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, and there will be famines and earthquakes in various places.” (Matt. 24:6-7) Instead of a future event thousands of years away, this prophesy definitely occurred during the War of AD 67-70.

“Therefore when you see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place (whoever reads, let him understand).” (Matt 24:15-16) This was fulfilled when Roman soldiers stood inside of the Holy of Holies of the Temple in Jerusalem in AD 70, and stole the relics there, returning them to Rome.

If we believe Jesus, and know that he spoke the truth, we cannot believe that when he said, “THIS GENERATION will NOT PASS AWAY until all these things take place,” (Matt. 24:34) that he was lying, or that he meant that his current “generation” would last for over 2,000 years.

So, did Jesus actually “Return” and did God pass judgment on THAT Generation living in Judea in AD 70? More next week.