Going back to the question that initiated this thread. "Was Jesus just a nice inconsequential Jewish boy",? I don't think so, indeed he was the most significant person in human history, like him or despise him

When we go into the past to find a truth, means we are trying to solve a problem in the present and searching for Jesus is one of those reasons. There are truths that are hidden there and there is truth in those words a man spoke who we call Jesus. When one goes into the past, he will need a guide, for to attempt it alone, it can be a perilous journey as two is company and aids in that trek. As those words it is said that he spoke ring true as his words were shared by he and his father, farther away.

When it was said, he said "I Am" the way, he took too much upon himself being his father was out of sight and out of mind for so many. That would make a spectacle of himself, wouldn't it? What "wise" man would do this?

Now if he did hide in plain sight and whispered his truth, it would have been a different story.

In another thread we are discussing the "dark night of the soul" and what that means exactly. Without reiterating all that is mentioned there, I too, as all of us, have a soul that is darkened as we hope to find the light of truth..........someday. As I emerged from my dark night, I thought of all I had been taught about Jesus and the fate of that man, as it was told. Such as anyone who is searching for the truth and find it, the same fate might befall them. That is what makes anyone afraid to tell the truth for
many, it will be "out of sight" and out of their mind and feel alien to it as we all try to rid ourselves of that which is alien to us. It is the root cause of fear itself.

Here is the conundrum: Who wants to follow in those footsteps and be nailed to that cross. For so many who have tried have become martyrs. That's enough to scare anybody from speaking their truth and we keep it to ourselves and do not share with others and become lonely and afraid, for fear of our own death, if we do. Only with the aid of an ally will we be able to find comfort in that truth as we are constantly seeking someone to share that truth with in our "telling" ways as we attempt to overpower those who appear weaker than us making a spec-tackle of ourselves as others in searching that very same past have found another truth that more fits them and they "argue/ague" about it and "gr....apple" about it as we try to find the true nature of that apple tree and the true fruit it bears.

William

Hi William the great theologian and writer had this to say about Jesus and I agree with him

A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic - on a level with the man who says he is a poached egg - or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God; or else a madman or something worse. You can shut Him up for a fool, you can spit at Him and kill him as a demon; or you can fall at His feet and call Him Lord and God. But let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about His being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to.--C.S. Lewis

Yes, and I agree and why he would "NOT HAVE DIED". If you don't mind, let me give you a "for instance...": Have you ever seen of experienced the scenario of a leader who says "for he who denies me, or thinks differently. step forward; as most cower and push the most naive or innocence, to answer that demand?

What if that man we call Jesus was just such a man either on his own of by the coaxing of others to have such a role? Like, "You go first! Not me, you go first! No, let's let, Mikey do it. he hates everything, (as in all the food he is forced to eat) as they leave it up to the baby of the bunch who knows no better:

YouTube - Life cereal: Mikey likes it!

Mikey, didn't say a word, did he, but by observation alone you could tell it was good for you.

By the way, that was one of the most popular commercials of all time and it was promoting LIFE. Fancy that.

William

So you believe that the commercial would have bombed if it were for Partial Birth Cheerios?

---------- Post added 10-07-2009 at 02:51 PM ----------

It is not his significance per se -- it is the significance of the tradition that is based on him.

No one knows if Abraham or Moses actually lived in real life, but you'd also have to count them as the most significant people in human history. If they lived, their reality might have been much more mundane than the stories about them. Moses as a living human might have been just a nice Israelite boy -- but Moses as a traditional figure is foundational.

You're absolutely right. Sometimes regardless what the person actually did, it's the figure they become, for whatever reason, that makes 'them' notable. And I say them with '' because I question whether it's the person we're even recognizing. It seems to me that the traditional figure praised or acknowledged, often times, transcends the person with which the figure was based. They become standalone ficticious heroes-of-sorts.

So, it really doesn't matter if Jesus, the person, was just a nice Jewish boy and St. Paul really was the one more involved with the spreading of Christianity. Jesus, the figure, received the credit, and Jesus, the figure, is the foundational leader of the tradition.

I wouldn't have eaten them. I heard they leave a very sour taste in your mouth, that ends up forcing others who have to go on a guilt trip. I'll take their word for it if you don't mind. How's that?

William

I thought Partial Birth Cheerios you put in your mouth, begin to swallow, but then spit them out at the last minute. I've heard that First Trimester Corn Flakes can't feel pain and don't have a soul.

Yea, I know some would..think that. Huh? But from what I have heard, I think most are confused as to who truly does feel the pain. It's hard to say for it's difficult to remember as it's been so long since I have been there. I think it sad though, so many never really got to taste the life, Mikey liked. Don't you?

William