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"THE REAL JESUS" Jesus in the Four Gospels is the point of reference for me in my spiritual life and my understanding and experience of God. The first step in reclaiming Jesus for your own spirit and life is to become as familiar with the Four Gospels as you can. Read through the Gospel of Mark in one sitting at least once a week. Begin to memorize the content of the Gospels of Luke and John. Spend some time with these sources every day. Read through each of them at one sitting at least once a month. Memorize John and then Luke. As you absorb the exact content of these sources, your grasp of the Spirit of Jesus will grow and shift and change and develop. Jesus will become a part of you and within you as the chief point of reference in your thinking about everything else. Use a good accurate translation. I still recommend the New American Standard Bible. Always read and study from a Bible with large clear readable type and no additional commentary. PAUL AS A SOURCE The writings of Paul in the New Testament are the earliest reflections about Jesus that we have. Go through the letters of Paul and isolate and assemble Paul's statements about Jesus. These statements and observations are much earlier than the material in the Four Gospels. Learn and meditate upon these passages. I will list them for you later. Begin with Romans, the longest and most important letter by Paul. When I taught courses in Romans at Baptist College, I memorized the entire book of Romans word for word. That was the only way that I found to keep all of what Paul said in proper context within the total message of the letter. Later, I did the same thing with Philippians and other letters. Paul's view of Jesus is clearly stated in Romans and Philippians. Colossians, Ephesians and Galatians also are full of Paul's way of seeing Jesus and applying Jesus to practical living situations. I and II Corinthians are helpful, of course, but these two letters give one side of a lengthy argument and dialogue between Paul and his readers. We do not know much about what his readers had said or written to Paul. We have only Paul's responses. It is like listening to one side of a telephone conversation. Your best use of Paul will be for you to read all of Paul's letters for yourself and select out those passages about Jesus that most clearly speak to you. In the New Testament, Paul's letters are listed in the order of their length, not in order of importance, etc. The Book of Hebrews is helpful, but it is not by Paul or in the style of Paul. The true author of Hebrews is unknown. The letters to Timothy, Titus and Philemon were probably written by Paul and Luke (his fellow prisoner) together after Paul lost all of his sight and was completely dependent on someone else to write for him. All of Paul's letters were written from a group of people to another group of people. Most of the time, the person who did the writing for Paul is named in the letter. Paul's letters to the Thessalonians are brief and are usually considered to be the earliest letters written. These two letters give brief statements about Jesus that Paul later elaborated at great length in later writings. SHARE WITH AT LEAST ONE OTHER PERSON Create a time and place where you can share in your exploration of Jesus and your own inner world with one or more other people in a home study group. A home is a good setting, but any other place that is available will do just as well if home is not a viable option. Let Jesus of Nazareth be the teacher and trust that the Spirit of Jesus has been given to you as promised in John 14 – 16. Keep it simple. Jesus did. THE JESUS WITHIN The objectifying of Jesus as the One out there in ancient history (2000 years ago) in a foreign culture (Roman Empire of the first century) and in the remote inaccessible reaches of spiritual eternity and the presence of God can greatly impair your own personal experience of Jesus who is already with and within you. You do not need me or any other teacher to usurp what you will learn from Jesus directly for yourself. You and I are vastly different in personal history, temperament, personality, interpersonal relationships, and education. You have to discover and learn from the Spirit of Jesus for yourself. Nobody else can do that for you. Your personality and personal history are unique to you. Jesus is person, and so are you. To learn from and grow in Jesus is to take the time to get to know and really trust and follow the One. Jesus is called the "coming one": "He that cometh". Jesus has already come to you in your family life, your religious traditions, some of your formal education, your experience in church and churches. Most profoundly, Jesus has come to you in your inner being simply because you are human and the Spirit of Jesus has been given to the entire human race at Pentecost. So you already have the Spirit. It is your task to learn to listen to what the Spirit of Jesus is already saying to you and to be open to the new world that already surrounds you and is waiting for you. You will not find your truth at the top of a distant mountain, unless going to the top of a distant mountain will help you shed the distractions that are keeping you from seeing your truth that is already within you. God is not playing a game of hide-and-seek with you. God is present in everything and in every person around you and is present with and within you whether you see and experience God or not. You cannot run away from or escape from God, for you are God because of the breath of God that animates and informs your existence. You already have all of the Jesus you will ever have. Now the basic step in knowing and following Jesus is to look within and be ready to be surprised by joy, hope, love, peace and eager anticipation of something better in your life every day. Update added May 31, 2003: Those who do not learn from the mistakes of the past are doomed to repeat them. Even more powerful are the irresistible forces of the future. To ignore the clear movements and trends that are setting the stage for the future is to make mistakes that can destroy us and the world in which we live. The terrorism of 9/11/01 really did change the world and indicated a vastly different future than we had imagined before. "Future Shock" is the name given a few years ago by Alvin Toffler to the rapid changes in our culture and society that cause the same kind of shock and difficulties of adjustment as "culture shock" when one goes from home to an unfamiliar alien culture or society. The rapidly developing future before us is so shocking that we dread facing it and avoid the realities of its demands. Traditional religion dwells on and insists upon a highly fanciful and unrealistic view of the future that fits a multitude of contradictory eschatological schemes. Religion
has distracted us from the real future with an imaginary medieval world
view full of angels, demons, heavens, hells, cosmic wars and a hardcore
dichotomy between God and Satan that leaves everybody confused and
dependent on so-called religious experts. The end of the biblical
world has already come, and nobody noticed! AVOID MISINFORMATION A recent e-mail requesting that I add the writer to my update list included this quote: "People who don't read newspapers are better off than those who do because it is better to be uninformed than misinformed." (Thomas Jefferson). People who stay away from churches are better off than those who go to churches for the same reason! The churches, like the Titanic, seem to be riding high and rejoicing in their power and glory, but they are at the mercy of the icebergs and storms of reality and are sinking fast. Why, then, do so many otherwise clear thinking GLBT people struggle to jump on board and go down with the ship into the inevitable oblivion of deep darkness and death? How can your resources be better used than trying to get unrealistic impractical failed religions to accept and affirm you? You don't need to be affirmed by anybody. Your existence speaks for itself. You are not broken and do not need to be fixed by people who are more broken than you will ever be! LESSONS OF THE TSARS OF RUSSIA I hope you watched or will get the video and watch the History Channel presentation of the Tsars of Russia. Absolute monarchs who firmly believed they were appointed by God controlled Russia for 300 years. Industrial and social changes that were creating a brave new world were ignored by the rulers. Finally, the end came as the gathering storm of irresistible forces of the future broke like a tidal wave upon the crumbling foundations of Russian monarchy. 1917 and the Communist revolution changed the world just as much as 9/11 has. To ignore the lessons of the future is just as unrealistic and destructive as ignoring the lessons of the past. The Age of Reason and the legacy of Socrates are still gathering momentum in trying to bring a new level of sanity to civilization. JESUS KNEW The remarkable message of The Gospel of John in chapters 13-17 builds a clear picture of Jesus preparing his followers and therefore you and me to face and deal with the future, whatever it might be. Jesus gave his followers what they needed. He did not give them a book. He gave them his Spirit to be their teacher and to show them "things to come". (John 14:25-27 and 16:12-15) Jesus knew that all of us face a constantly changing world, and no book, set of rules or commandments can prevail and be adequate and relevant in the uncertain threatening future. So Jesus gave us himself through the Spirit to teach us and guide us into understanding and to show us how to handle the unexpected future that is always looming before us like a great dark unknown storm full of lightening, thunder, hail, floods, tornados and destruction as well as offering fresh opportunities for learning and growing and a glorious ever expanding light to illuminate all things. THE CHURCHES DON'T KNOW The churches have yet to learn to use the invention of printing (1495) responsibly. Instead of using printing, the Internet, and modern media to tell the facts and help people learn to think for themselves, the churches have misinformed the world and sought to control the minds and thinking of people. Churches and church institutions and schools do not teach people to think for themselves. Some did at one time, but they have retreated into mind warping systems of repressive control. Churches teach people what they are supposed to think and what they should and should not read and details of who and what to believe. Different churches practice a variety of methods and levels of thought control, but all of them are more interested in "brain washing" their victims than in liberating their minds to enjoy personal freedom in the Spirit and really think for themselves. How can you learn to think for yourself with a healthy, objective, logical, realistic, practical mind if all you are fed is misinformation and self-serving religious opinions and teachings by those who claim to speak for God? THE INEVITABLE REVOLUTION Most people vote for a revolution with their feet. They simply walk away from the ludicrous claims and practices of abusive misinformed religion. GLBT people are leading the way. We have walked away and started our own churches. But is that really the revolutionary new spiritual future that we need and want? Other GLBT people have worked hard to get traditional churches to accept and affirm and love and appreciate and employ us. This has been a really retarded revolution so far. Most churches still welcome and enjoy the support and services of GLBT people only as long as we remain IN THE CLOSET! None of this has so far catapulted us into the realistic future that is beckoning us to higher nobler ground. We are dragging too much baggage along with us on the steep upward climb to the top of the mountain. Unless we have the courage to let go of the totalitarian religion of the dismal defeated past and move on in totally new forms and frames of reference, we will never get to the top of the mountain to view the Promised Land beyond. WHY NOT TRUST YOURSELF? Religion tells you to trust something outside yourself and not to trust yourself. Your inner thoughts and desires and feelings are somehow not right for you and should be replaced by the "group think" of the religious establishment. This is beyond hogwash and BS. It is stupid and unrealistic. If you deny who you really are, then who are you? You can always give in and become a very uncomfortable hypocrite and pretend that you believe the absurdities of contemporary religion. There is no integrity in that. Without integrity, you cannot even trust yourself. That is a dismal dead end road that the church wants you to follow. Don't do it! Walk away. THEN WHAT? Once you walk away, you will be tempted to give in to panic and fear that you have been conditioned to feel when you disobey the Great Super Ego of your particular culture. You will be tempted to call your new freedom "a sin" and "running away from God." You are not running away from God! You are escaping from prison. You are learning to enjoy God in an entirely new holistic dimension that really is relevant to you, within you, and encouraging and affirming to you. Enjoy your freedom to be you. Enjoy telling others about it. Enjoy writing down your new spiritual adventures in a daily journal. Look for ways to help others share in the truly good news of accepting and trusting yourself. You will not have any trouble finding the words to say, because you do not have to be taught the "formulas" and "the words." Your words and feelings and your enthusiasm will come naturally to you and bubble up from the depths of your own spiritual being. God is with and within you. You are not alone ever again. There is no longer a wall erected by religion to separate you from God or from other people. You don't have to break down the wall; just walk around it, and there you are: free! If you do make the break and begin your own personal journey into future freedom, write and tell me about it. (These updates are not an attempt to think for you or to give advice about what you should do or believe. They are intended to stimulate and inform you to think for yourself and be free to decide and act on what you really think is best for you.) Rembert Truluck See my most recent study of "THE REAL JESUS". Look at "Alvin Toffler" on your browser and discover his other books in addition to "Future Shock" (1970) and his work as a "futurist" in viewing and interpreting our world from the perspective of where the future is leading us: http://www.skypoint.com/members/mfinley/toffler.htm http://www.pff.org/aspen96/toffler.html "THE HOMOPHOBIC AGENDA" I recently secured a copy of The Homosexual Agenda: Exposing the Principal Threat to Religious Freedom Today by Alan Sears & Craig Osten, published in 2003 by Broadman & Holman Publishers, the fractured publishing arm of the Southern Baptist Convention. This 229-page book is the most recent Southern Baptist attack against GLBT people that builds an elaborate argument of misinformation and distortions in order to attack discredit and destroy homosexual people. This book begins with a misrepresentation of the life and career of John Paulk, the discredited "sexuality expert" employed by Focus on the Family until he was caught cruising in a gay bar in Washington, DC. See my web site material on John Paulk and my review of his work. The entire book is made up of bogus research, fabricated statistics and other "tricks of the trade" of homophobic "scholarship" and polemics. The book claims that the homosexual agenda is primarily aimed at the destruction of religion and the attempt to turn public opinion into hate against anyone who opposes homosexuals. The book is based on fear and inaccurate information that would be ludicrous if it were not being taken seriously by so many millions of Southern Baptist leaders and obedient church sheep! RELIGIOUS FANATICS Broadman Press for many years was the SBC organization that published many of the best works by the various scholars and seminary and college professors in Southern Baptist Institutions until the radical fundamentalists took over the denomination in recent years. The name is built on the name of Dr. John A. Broadus and Dr. Basil Manley, two of the four founders of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Greenville, SC, in 1859, and now dishonors those two great men by using their names in dishonest destructive scholarship and publications. Broadman Press published the 12-volume Broadman Bible Commentary beginning in 1969 written by the best seminary and college professors in the SBC. Almost immediately, the convention attacked the commentary and ordered the first volume to be withdrawn and rewritten from a conservative point of view. Now the entire commentary has been withdrawn from the Baptist Seminaries and other bookstores and is unavailable anywhere for purchase. One definition of "religious fanatics" is religious people who have lost their sense of direction and redoubled their efforts! Southern Baptists certainly now fit that definition. THE FEAR FACTOR Dictators always rule by means of fear. From ancient warlords, popes, emperors, kings and conquerors to Hitler, Stalin and Saddam Hussein, submissive people have been controlled and crushed by fear. Why are informed Southern Baptists afraid to expose and end the regime of ignorance and terror that grips and misuses this once great defender of religious freedom and objective theological education? I was present at the Southern Baptist Convention that voted to reject the first volume of the Broadman Bible Commentary because a small group of misinformed preachers was able to convince the messengers that the first volume on Genesis was a threat to truth and to the will of God. I saw most of the famous and respected leaders of the denomination go to the podium and beg that people not to pass this destructive proposal. But the people followed the fear factor, and the deed was done that set into motion the downhill slide of the SBC ever since. HOMOPHOBIA IS FEAR Recently several critics of my web site have written to me to tell me that they were not homophobic because they were not afraid of gay people and did not know of anyone else who was afraid of gay people! I wrote back to give the definition of "homophobia," a word that was invented in 1972 by Dr. George Weinberg in his book on "Society and the Healthy Homosexual." Homophobia is not the fear of gay people but is the fear of homosexuality in others and in one's self. Popular mythology about homosexuals has become religious tradition in our culture. Bringing objective factual information and logic into the public mind is almost impossible. The homophobic mythologies are perpetuated by religion and politics and a massive media attack against GLBT people that is mind boggling both in its ignorance and its effectiveness. FALSE ASSUMPTIONS The underlying false assumption of the "The Homosexual Agenda" is the notion that there is some kind of great homosexual organization that represents all GLBT people and has worked out and promoted an agenda that speaks for all of us! How absurd. We can hardly get together to redecorate the house, have a decent pride parade or sustain a local GLBT center much less a world-wide conspiracy to destroy straight people! THE HOMOPHOBIC AGENDA The agenda of the homophobic organizations and movements today is emerging with greater clarity every day. The first principle of homophobia is the use of fear based on distortions of the facts, the invention of bogus statistics, citing discredited scholars and other "experts," misrepresenting the truth about sexual orientation, and ignoring the position papers and statements supporting homosexual rights by all of the professional medical, psychiatric, psychological, legal and educational associations in the United States. "The Homosexual Agenda" book includes 15 full pages of footnotes and references to give the impression of careful academic research, when in fact; there is no objective reliable research at all in the book. One basic principle of the homophobic agenda is the use of misinformation and bogus statistics to try to convince people that homophobia is sound reasonable thinking. It is not. Religion is the primary tool of the homophobic agenda. The Bible is cited as the absolute rule and requirement for right thinking about everything, and the varieties of scholarly translations and interpretations are completely ignored in favor of preaching and posturing based on highly questionable distortions and fabrications of biblical material. CREDIBILITY The false teachings and lack of academic credibility is never more obvious than in the subtitle of the book "The Homosexual Agenda": "Exposing the Principal Threat to Religious Freedom Today." The book itself expresses the principal threat to religious freedom today! The SBC and the homophobic agenda, not the "homosexual agenda," is the principal threat to religious freedom today. Distortions and lies are always a greater threat to freedom than the truth. HOMOPHOBIA AND THE EX-GAY FRAUD The "ex-gay" industry has become the primary everyday tool of the homophobic agenda. The Southern Baptist Convention and the growing rash of family research and protection organizations promote and even demand that the bogus claims of the "ex-gay" industry be accepted as fact and supported with financial contributions and a daily supply of living victims to be sacrificed to this modern version of the worship of Moloch in biblical times. Whenever anything other than God is made absolute, the result is idolatry. See my material on "Legalism as Idolatry". The homophobic agenda demands blind obedience to ignorance and misinformation that replaces God with human error and the Holy Spirit with misguided human opinions. The real Jesus is replaced with a fake Christ who goes along with homophobia just as obediently as the Pharisees and Hypocrites at the time of Jesus went along with idolatrous legalisms that were destroying the people in the name of God. As always, read Matthew 23 to see again what Jesus had to say about this powerful abusive form of religion. SEEPING POISON The homophobic religious establishment led by the Roman Catholic Church, the Southern Baptist Convention, the Mormons and various "save the family and marriage" sects like Focus on the Family and Family Research Council along with individuals like Jerry Falwell, Pat Robertson and Lou Shelton spew a constant stream of the lies and distortions of the homophobic agenda into every level of American culture. The homophobic virus is infecting everybody within reach. Professional sports, local state and national governments, arts and entertainment, publishing, broadcast news and the educational system all are being infected with the homophobic agenda that contaminates the very air we breathe. GLBT people are not immune. The growing presence of internal and horizontal homophobia within our own community and even in many personal relationships is a seeping poison that quickly becomes a rising flood of homophobic filth. The extent of the anti-GLBT onslaught of the Homophobic Agenda is seen in the fact that Google lists 126,000 web sites related to the "Homosexual Agenda"! Paul saw the devastating results of legalistic judgmental religion that defines itself by who is left out. In Philippians 3:8, Paul used the Greek term "skubala " to describe his former abusive destructive exclusive legalism. Skubala is a rare word, used only in Philippians 3:8 in the New Testament. (KJV translates it "dung" and others translate it rubbish, refuse, etc.) The word means "excrement" either animal or human. It is a very strong word! If Paul were walking in the barnyard, he would say, "Watch out! Don't step in that pile of skubala! (I checked out skubala in Arndt & Gingrich; in Moulton & Milligan and in Kittel and they all supported this understanding of the word. No modern biblical translation correctly renders this word for "B.S." accurately! HOMOPHOBIA DENIES JESUS "Perfect love casts out fear." "The love of God has been poured out in your hearts by the Holy Spirit who has been given to you." You do not need to be afraid anymore. The churches have always ruled their people on the basis of fear. Fear of burning forever in hell, fear of falling into the crushing hands of an angry God, fear of dying unforgiven for your sins, and fear of who you yourself really are all make up parts of the arsenal of fear based control exercised by churches. Recognize the homophobic agenda for what it really is: a blatant denial of Jesus and the mind of God that homophobic people pretend to proclaim and protect. Homophobia is a disease that must be resisted at all cost. Homophobia is the virus that kills far more GLBT people than AIDS or any other human illness. Become informed. Know the facts. Challenge homophobia at its ignorant lying roots. Resist the lies that try to convince you that your sexual orientation is a mistake and that you are some kind of "abomination of God" because ignorant preachers say you are! This is not a new problem. The last book written in the New Testament was probably 2 Peter, which concludes with the following statement in 2 Peter 3:15-18, after reflecting on how the writings of Paul were already being misunderstood and distorted: "Regard the patience of our Lord to be liberation (salvation) just as also our beloved brother Paul, according to the wisdom given him, wrote to you, as in all his letters, speaking in them of these things, in which are some things hard to understand, which the untaught (ignorant) and unstable distort ("twist" "torture" "torment") as they do also the rest of the Scriptures, to their own destruction. You therefore, beloved, knowing this beforehand, be on your guard lest, being carried away by the error of unprincipled people, you fall from your own steadfastness. But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, to Him is the glory, both now and to the day of eternity. Amen." Rembert Truluck "FULL EQUALITY" FULL EQUALITY FOR LGBT PEOPLE Full equality for all Gay, Lesbian, Transgender, Bisexual people is the only acceptable choice! Equality in the workplace, equality in marriage rights and benefits, equality in schools and churches, equality in medical care, equality in political representation and social life, equality in foster care and adoption are the only acceptable choices for LGBT people! We have no reason to compromise our integrity or our demands for equality. The basis for denying equality to GLBT people is misguided, misinformed, unreliable, and based on bogus statistics and founded in erroneous misrepresented religion. Now is the time to demand and get changes whatever it takes for GLBT people to have true equality and acceptance in this nation of freedom and respect for all people. FULL EQUALITY NOW The Democratic and Republican Parties are trying to compromise the rights and the equality of GLBT people to appease certain radical uninformed and misguided religious/political forces in the United States. The deadly fallout of these efforts against God's GLBT children are unacceptable and have to be opposed and fought with whatever political/protest weapons we can develop and use. VOTE FOR EQUALITY Many of the freedoms and benefits of GLBT people are being debated by the Presidential Candidates now. Demand attention from them and expect realistic plans and programs to guarantee equality at every level of life for LGBT citizens of the United States of America. Disrupt the Republican National Convention next week in New York if necessary. Protest the ignorance and lies about GLBT people that lie back of the anti-gay homophobic nonsense that the religious establishment has dumped into the lifeblood of America! CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE Jesus Christ, Martin Luther King, Jr., and Mahatma Gandhi demonstrated the power of civil disobedience and changed their world. We stand at a crossroads that will determine our future for the next four years. We cannot allow destructive forces to practice emotional and physical genocide against homosexuals any longer. We have no choice but to fight back with whatever weapons are at our disposal. Pray, write letters, volunteer for SoulForce, tell people you know in political office that you are gay or lesbian and you expect them to respect you and give you equality in all things in our society. Talk with your pastor, priest or preacher and demand to be heard. Interrupt church services and yell your protest if necessary. Carry signs. Get on radio and television to express your demands for equality. Be creative. Find new disruptive ways to get attention and make your voice heard. GOD IS WITH YOU You can change the world with your collective voices and bodies and lives. Come out and enlist the support of your family and all of your friends. God is with us. We are not fighting for acceptance and equality alone. The Spirit of the Living God as revealed in the life and work of Jesus has been given to us to energize us and give us direction in our mission of change and our battle for equality. Never doubt that you are doing the right thing to go to war for equality. Just remember, nobody is free until everybody is free. God bless you and empower you in whatever you decide to do in this unavoidable struggle for equality and acceptance in 2004. Rembert Truluck Look at my website links to Soulforce and to PFLAG and UFMCC.
"WILL THE REAL JESUS PLEASE STAND UP" MY EARLIEST MEMORY My earliest memory of Jesus in church was a shadowy yellow stained glass picture of Jesus in a dark hall in the Southside Baptist Church in Spartanburg, SC, that I attended with my parents when I was less than six years old. I had to walk through that dimly lit hall every Sunday morning on the way to my Sunday School room. The picture was lighted from the back, because it was the picture that had been placed in the wall behind the baptistery in the main auditorium. I am sure that nobody intended the picture to scare little children. But it scared me! My first impression of Jesus was to be afraid of him. THE REAL JESUS Who is the "real" Jesus? For 2,000 years the images and meanings of Jesus have changed and developed constantly as cultures, languages, artists, architects, churches, doctrines, denominations, opponents, friends and just about everybody who knows that there is a "Jesus" have twisted and distorted the image of Jesus to fit their ignorance, their lust for power and their temporary secular need to raise money, to spend money, to go to war, to destroy unwanted minorities, to build empires, to destroy empires and to manage and control society and individuals in the name of a god. Now in the twenty-first century, we have inherited this whirlwind of distortions and misinformation that so blur the image of Jesus that nobody knows the "real Jesus"! Where can you find the "real Jesus"? Bibles, books, creeds, dogma, doctrines, churches, preachers, warring religions, family traditions, the proliferation of legalistic fundamentalists, rigid orthodoxies, the pomp and circumstance of spiritual warfare, wealthy television evangelists, and a plethora of television and movie presentations of Jesus in our lifetime cannot really cut through the 2,000 years of distortions and lies that have so mangled the image of the real Jesus that nobody knows for certain who the real Jesus is! THE FACE OF JESUS IN ART I have a 2001 video of "THE FACE OF JESUS IN ART", narrated by Mel Gibson, Stacy Keach, Ricardo Montalban, Bill Moyers, Patricia Neal, and others. It is a fantastic collection of a multitude of paintings that represent various views of Jesus. (See link below.) When I first viewed this video, I was struck by the great variety of ways individual artists viewed the face of Jesus. I realized then that no representation of Jesus in art or religious architecture and ritual could be accurate, because all of these secondary sources about Jesus were radically different from each other. So the question remains, where can you find the "real" Jesus who fits your personality and your life? "STAND UP, STAND UP FOR JESUS" The familiar old hymn helps us to sing of our devotion to Jesus as we "Stand up, Stand up for Jesus, ye soldiers of the cross…" Yet today, the greatest need and challenge that we face as GLBT people who are oppressed and denied by the churches is for the "real Jesus" to stand up for us! You cannot stand up for Jesus if you have only a vague distorted vision of Jesus. You also have trouble standing up for or following Jesus if your mental image of Jesus has been distorted and misinformed by legalism, abusive churches, and religious wars and greed. My forthcoming book is my attempt to address these problems and suggest some practical, logical, objective, reasonable ways to let go and move on in a faith that fits you and a vision of health, hope and life that make sense to you in today's world. (Take a look at my website material on "Jesus Bible Studies" in the link below. These are my earliest explorations into this issue. The final book will build on and develop beyond these initial studies.) THE HIDDEN JESUS The problem of finding the real Jesus is not new. A recent book by Donald Spoto, "The Hidden Jesus: A New Life" (See details below), is one of the latest attempts (1998) to take a fresh look at the "real Jesus." The "Quest for the Historical Jesus" that was kicked off by famous missionary doctor and scholar Albert Schweitzer led to new directions in modern theological education led by Karl Barth (and his son, Marcus, whom I met and heard lecture at Union Seminary in Richmond), Emil Brunner, Rudolf Bultmann, and the host of students who followed up on these teachers to begin a "new quest for the historical Jesus" that now has produced the remarkable "JESUS SEMINAR" led by Robert W. Funk and hundreds of modern biblical scholars. (See references below) When I was a graduate student at the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, I had the privilege of hearing and meeting two of the famous scholars who continued the work of Bultmann: Professor Oscar Cullman and Professor Ernst Kasemann, both of whom have written important books exploring the "real" Jesus. This historical development and present explorations and research have been based largely on the historical critical study of the Bible. The problem for the average person is that very few people can devote a large part of their lives to learning Greek, Hebrew, Theology, Church History, Archaeology and the "thousands natural shocks" that biblical scholarship is heir to! I have been through all of that in my college and seminary education and in research for teaching and writing ever since. Yet this is not a path that guarantees that people will discover the "real Jesus" for themselves! The greatest of the scholars and authors of many books on and about Jesus disagree with each other just about as much as the various church denominations disagree with each other while claiming that each one is right and everybody else is wrong! A MORE EXCELLENT WAY Is there a "more excellent way" to go about your personal quest for the real Jesus in your own life? I think there is, and that will be the theme and substance of my forthcoming book. "The Word was made flesh" and "The Sprit was given to everyone." These two affirmations form the heart of the Gospels and the Acts of the Apostles. The church throughout the ages has focused on the divinity of Jesus and not on his humanity. The emphasis of traditional religion has also been on spiritual gifts to the chosen few, the clergy and religious, rather than on the average person who can be like the "little child" and be lifted up by Jesus and become a testimony to the love and mission of God. Traditional religion has built walls and developed a great set of doctrines, rituals and architectures of "distance" and "separation" between God and the people. This is a blatant rejection and denial of the picture of Jesus in the Gospels, whose most famous invitation was, "Come unto me!" THE HUMAN JESUS AS YOUR PATTERN Jesus focused on his humanity and his identification with all people, not on his divinity. Jesus refused to "play god" when he was tempted in the wilderness and would not turn stones into bread. The temptation to "play god" always comes from Satan (the adversary). At his Baptism, Jesus identified with the crowd of sinners coming to be baptized and not with the prophet John who was doing the baptizing. When the voice from heaven said to Jesus, "You are my beloved son, in whom I am well pleased," the message was clearly intended for the multitude with whom Jesus had identified by his baptism as well as for Jesus, otherwise the multitude would not have heard it. Jesus always identified with the outcasts, the unclean, and the rejected people of his time. You can follow the human Jesus by simply doing what he said: "I give you a new commandment that you love one another just as I have loved you." The linking of the coming of the Spirit of God upon Jesus at his baptism and the coming of the Spirit of God on all the nations at Pentecost in Acts is a clear demonstration of the purpose of God in Jesus to link with the average person and not with the religious professionals. I cannot walk on water or turn water to wine, but I can follow Jesus in accepting and lifting up rejected and despised people! I can love and forgive people who hurt me! I can treat all people with equal respect and encouragement! I can follow the human Jesus, and that's enough. THE SPIRIT HAS BEEN GIVEN The presence of people from every nation and the multiple languages at Pentecost make it clear that the Spirit of Jesus has been given to the entire human race and not just to those who know the formulas and can recite the creeds! You are already created in the image of God. The presence of God within you is in the very air you breathe. You are alive because the breath of God is within you. To find God, look within. Jesus has given you the Spirit. To find the Jesus that fits your life, look within. Nobody else can tell you who you are or who God is for you. People who try to do that, whether preachers, teachers, priests or denominations, are merely distractions and not in any way the voice of God for you! JESUS WITHIN The primary call of Jesus to you as an individual is to "let go and move on!" That means letting go of anything that keeps you from being your true self as YOU see yourself. It means letting go of any religious pressures and abusive church teachings and demands that demean you and make you hate and reject yourself. It means sharing the good news of your own personal freedom to be yourself with as many other people as you can. God is with you and within you, and don't ever forget it! A PERSONAL NOTE: Thank you very much for financial contributions that you have sent to help me keep my website and e-mail ministry on the Internet! I still need your help in whatever way you can offer it. You can mail contributions directly to me or to Chi Rho Press as indicated in previous updates. Chi Rho Press contributions are tax free:
Or you can send a check by mail to Chi Rho Press at Order my book from Chi Rho Press: Use my book to start your own small group home study for dialogue and spiritual recovery from religious abuse. INVITE ME to lead a conference, revival or workshop for your church or association, group or community. Call me at 510-220-8743 or send me e-mail so we can discuss a time and a plan. Thank you for anything that you do to get the truth out to more of our people and to the rest of the world. Dr. Rembert Truluck Someone recently sent this website to me. Click on "THE FACE OF JESUS IN ART:" http://www.hollywoodjesus.com/jesus_in_art.htm The video is available from http://www.Kultur.com: See my website material on "JESUS BIBLE STUDIES":
The "JESUS SEMINAR" Donald Spoto: "The Hidden Jesus": "FREEDOM TO FLY AWAY" ESCAPE FROM ABUSIVE RELIGION "Jonathan Livingston Seagull" was a wonderful fantasy several years ago that invited you to fly away into the freedom of the sky with a little bird who learned to be free and soar beyond where any bird had gone before. It was a lot of fun. You can still get the slim book about Jonathan Livingston Seagull and read and enjoy it for yourself. (See link below.) Jonathan Livingston Seagull managed to escape from the boundaries and limitations that ordinarily keep all birds bound to the earth and prevents their real escape and freedom. You and I are bound by culture, society, religion, churches, the Bible, tradition, and a thousand natural and unnatural shocks that flesh is heir to. How do we escape and "fly away?" REAL FREEDOM IN JESUS What does freedom in Jesus and the "Christian" hope and promise of liberation, forgiveness and rescue really mean? As I asked in my recent update: "Will the Real Jesus Please Stand Up!" The historical churches, theological education, Sunday School, modern translations of "The Holy Bible," television religion, millions of religious books and denominational propaganda and study literature, and your own personal religious brain-washing by your parents, teachers and others has failed you! Is there a way to fly away from the weight and distress of religion that pulls you into the ground rather than setting you free to fly away into the heavens? I think that there is a better way. Look within yourself. You are not a mistake. You are not a terrible mess. You are created in the image of God and you reflect the mind of God in your innermost self. The Spirit of Jesus has been given to you in your birth as a human being. You do not need to be "saved" by some ignorant misinformed self-serving, manipulative evangelist whose grasp of the Bible is distorted and wrong headed without any logic, objectivity, realism or practical application to the real world. TO LOOK WITHIN IS TO LOOK UP "Heaven" is not out there somewhere or up there somewhere, but the real heaven in which God dwells is already within you. You cannot run away from yourself. To run away from yourself is to run away from your real God within. The "Hound of Heaven" from whom you cannot escape is already within you and is part of who and what you are as a fully functioning thinking individual made in the image of God. You can never be free from God. But you can be set free from abusive destructive religion. That is exactly what the real Jesus offers to you with the persistent invitation: "Follow Me." That invitation by Jesus is not an offer for you to become an angel or a spiritual being but for you to become the fully human person you were created to be. To become truly human as Jesus was is the ultimate goal of loving your neighbor as yourself and accepting and affirming others who are different from you. Jesus forgave his enemies. So can you. Jesus loved and associated with outcasts and rejects of life, so can you. Jesus brought out the best in people who hated themselves. So can you. THE WORD WAS MADE FLESH, NOT WORDS Jesus is the human that God intends you to be, not the god that you cannot hope to become in your wildest imagination. Jesus resisted "playing god" when he asked John the Baptist to baptize him like all of the other outcasts and sinners in the baptism line. Jesus refused to "play god" when he was tempted to change stones into bread to satisfy his hunger. Jesus celebrated his humanity throughout his life and identified with you and me and not with the spiritual powers and authorities. Jesus showed you how to be a real man, a real woman, a real human whatever your sexual orientation might be. Jesus is the pattern for being the real you. You are not exactly like any other person on earth. You are the unique you. You were made and formed as a work of God because you matter and you have a place to fill in this world that nobody else can possibly fill. You are one of a kind. You are not a copy or a duplicate of anything or anybody else. You are the only you that will ever exist. Treasure your self. Recognize the value that you have. Nobody else can ever be the person that God has created you to be. You are not Adam or Eve or Steve; you are the individual that God created you to be and you are not like any other human in the history of the world. What you can do is unique to you. Be your real self. Celebrate your own uniqueness. Nobody else has what you have. How wonderful! You are beautifully and wonderfully made. Be the human self that God created you to be. In that act, you follow Jesus and are truly "Christian." CELEBRATE AND ENJOY Celebrate and enjoy who you are. Look within your own heart and mind. What you will find there is your own personal truth that can give you a sense of direction and strength for living that is positive and healthy. Rembert Truluck There are thousands of references to "Jonathan Livingston
Seagull" online. This is one of the many: PERSONAL NEWS: My son Russell and his wife Peggy have brought a wonderful baby girl into the world. Ashley Lynn Truluck was born on August 7, 2004, weighing 7 pounds 13 ounces. Russell, Peggy and Ashley live in Raleigh, NC. Here is the most recent picture of Ashley. |
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