Einde van de verhalenreeks of doorgaan met wat? 14


In
the four gospels
we find the personality and teachings of Yeshu
but very little of the dogmas of
the 'christian'
church!

It is
in the epistles, a series of writings by the immediate followers of Yeshu, that the broad lines of christian belief
are laid
down?

Chief
among the makers
of christian doctrine was Sha'ul/Paulus.
He had never seen Yeshu nor heard him preach.
Paul's name was originally Shaul, and he was conspicuous at first as
an active persecutor of the little band of disciples
after the
crucifixion.

Then
he was suddenly
converted to christianity, and changed his name
to Paul!?

HE was
a man of great intellectual vigour
and deeply and passionately interested in the religious movements of the time.

He was
well versed in Judaism and in the Mithraism and Alexandrian
religion of
the day.

He carried over
many of their ideas and terms of expression into christianity .............

He did
very little to enlarge er develop the original teaching of Yeshu,
the teaching of the kingdom
of heaven.

But HE
taught that Yeshu was not only the promised Messiah,
the promised leader of the Jews,
but also that his death was a sacrifice,
like the deaths of the ancient sacrificial victims of the primordial civilisations, for the redemption
of mankind.

WHEN
religions flourish side by side
they tend to pick up each other's ceremonial and other outward peculiarities .............

Buddhism,
for example,
in China has now almost the same sort of temples and priests and uses as Taoism, which follows in the teachings
of Lao Tse.

YET
the original
teachings of Buddhism and Taoism
were almost flatly
opposed!




And
it reflects no doubt
or discredit upon the essentials of christian teachings
that it took over not merely such formal things as the shaven priest,
the votive offering, the altars, candles, chanting and
images of the Alexandrian and Mithraic faiths,
but adopted even their devotional phrases and
their theological
ideas?

ALL
these religions
were flourishing side by side with many less
prominent cults and
sects .............

EACH
was seeking adherents, and there must have been
a constant going and coming of converts between them just like nowadays
when people can change almost from one day to the next from this group,
church, sect, party and so on
to the
'next' ........

Sometimes
one or other
would be in favour with the government or as easily
become an 'enemy of the state' accused
of
'terrorism'?

But
christianity was regarded
with more suspicion than its rivals because,
like the Jews, its adherents would not perform acts
of worship to the
God-Caesar ...

THIS made IT a seditious religion,
quite apart from the revolutionary spirit of the teachings of Yeshu
himself?
Paul familiarised
his disciples with the idea
that Yeshu, like Osiris, was a god who died to rise again and give men immortality?!

And presently
the spreading christian community
was greatly torn by very complicated theological disputes and mixtures
about the relationship of this God Jesus to
G*D the "Father"
of Mankind!?

The Arians taught
that Yeshu was divine,
but distinct from and inferior to
the Father.

The Sabellians
taught that Yeshu
was merely an aspect of the Father,
and that God was Jesus and the Father at the same time,
just as a man may be a father and an artist or artificer at the same time;
and the Trinitarians taught a more subtle doctrine that God was both ONE &
three: Father, Son & Holy Spirit .............

For a time it seemed that Arianism would prevail over it 'rivals',
and then after disputes, much violence and wars,
the Trinitarian 'formula' became the 'accepted' formula of all Christendom?
IT may be found in its completest expression
in the Athanasian Creed?

WE here in myDi offer
no serious comment on these controversies
here!

THEY do not sway history
as the personal teaching of Yeshu sways history?

The personal teaching of Yeshu does seem to mark a new phase
in the moral and spiritual life of our race!

ITS insistence upon the universal Fatherhood of G*D
and the implicit brotherhood of all men,
its insistence upon the sacredness
of every human personality
as a living temple of G*D,
was to have the profoundest effect
upon all the subsequent social and political life
of mankind!?

WITH Christianity,
with the spreading teachings of Yeshu,
a new respect appears in the world for man AS man ...
It may be true, as hostile critics of Christianity have urged,
that Paul preached obedience to slaves,
but it is equally true that the whole spirit of the teachings of Yeshu
preserved in the gospels was against the subjugation of man by man?!

And still more distincly was Christianity opposed to such outrages
upon human dignity as the gladitorial combats
in the arena!

Throughout the first two centuries after Christ as the Jewish Messiah now was usually called, the Christian religion spread throughout the Roman Empire,
weaving together an ever-growing multitude of converts
into a new community of ideas and will!?

The attitude of the emperors varied between hostility and toleration.

There were attempts to suppress this NEW faith
in both the second and third centuries;
and finally in 303 and the following years
a great persecution under the Emperor Diocletian.

The already quite considerable accumulations of Church properties were seized, all bibles and religious writings were confiscated
and destroyed,
Christians were put out of protection of the law
and many executed!

The destructions of the books are particularly notable?
IT shows how the power of the written word
in holding together the 'NEW' faith
was appreciated by the
authorities?

THESE "book religions," Judaism & Christianity,
were religions that educated!
THEIR continued existence depended
very largely on people being able to read and understand
their doctrinal ideas ...

The older religions had made no such appeal
to the personal myDi-intelligence?
In the ages of barbaric myDi-confusions that were now at hand
in western Europe
it was the Christian chuch that was mainly instrumental
preserving the traditions of
myDi-learning?

The myDi-persecution of Diocletian failed completely
to suppress the growing Christian
myDi-communities ...

In many provinces it was ineffective
because the bulk of the population and many of the officials were christians .............

In 317 an edict of toleration was issued
by the associated Emperor Galerius, and in 324 Constantine the Great, a friend and on his deathbed a baptised convert to christianity,
became sole ruler of the Roman world.

He abandoned all divine pretensions and put christian symbols on the shields and banners of his troops.
In a few years christianity was securely established as the official religion of the empire: competing religions disappeared or were absorbed with
extraordinaru celerity and in 390 Theodosius the Great
caused the great statue of Jupiter Serapis at Alexandria to be destroyed - from the outset of the fifth century onward
the only priests or temples in the Roman Empire were 'Christian' priests & temples ...

And THAT's why our myDi-world
is still 'dominated' by all kinds of 'christian' myDi-words, myDi-ideas, myDi-feelings & myDi-thoughts which we now would carefully & correctly call 'humanistic'/'humanitarian' or suchlike?

The only thing still lacking is 'christian action', 'worldwide understanding' &
bringing about the 'kingdom of heaven' Yeshu was talking about or,
is it already here to stay 'growing since then' & don't we usually see it
YET?

verliefdvrolijkknipoogerg vrolijkcool!verdrietignahnahbah!gaap!verwardgemeenliefdesverdrietgemeenverwardgaap!bah!nahnahverdrietigcool!erg vrolijkknipoogvrolijkverliefd
engel
09 jul 2004 - bewerkt op 12 jan 2008 - meld ongepast verhaal
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