I was at rehearsal for our handbell choir at church yesterday evening, so did not catch Andrea Widburg´s excellent essay telling us that During the Super Bowl, leftists crusaded to recreate Christ in a cultural Marxist mode at the American Thinker. I have said before that it is impossible to be a Christian, in the Biblical understanding of Christ, and at the same time to be a socialist. Marxism is socialism, and in truth, Marx would have agreed. He called religion, any religion, the opiate of the masses. Leftists have sidled up to Muslims, but eventually they intend to kill them off too. After all, for leftists, they believe themselves to be their own highest power.
Widburg is a Jew, but living in this society, it is pretty difficult not to be exposed to some Christian thinking, and she rightly identifies the actual Jesus of the Bible. Jesus claims, and I believe he is, to be the God of Abraham, Issac, and Jacob. He is the God who created the world, the Alpha and Omega. He is before the world began and is after it ends. It was He that gave Moses the 10 Commandments, inscribed in stone tablets by His finger on Mount Sinai. He has not changed. He is the one who dispatches those who come into His presence without purifying themselves, but invites Moses and the 70 elders of Israel into his presence and does not kill them. As Jesus says, His Spirit blows where it will, calls who He will, forgives who He wills.
Now, Jesus is referred to as the Son of God, and Christians believe that God is a trinity. It is a mystery, and in truth you should not try to overthink it. Just accept that Father, Son and Holy Spirit are one being, at once separate and equal. Just go with it.
When the Devil speaks, it is always a lie wrapped in a distorted truth that makes it hard to see the Truth and discern the lie. In this case, the notion that "He gets us" is true, but not in the way you might think. Yes, He gets us because He created us. He knows us better than we know ourselves. In the Psalms it says that he knew each of us before the world began. Eventually, He came to live among us, suffer the same temptations and afflictions we do, but unlike us, He was sinless. Thus He was able to die as the Pascal Lamb to take our sins onto himself and reconcile us to Him. But washing the deciples feet was to show that He is a servant to the people who believe in Him. At the same time it was pretty clear that our response to Him ought to be repentance, thanksgiving, and following his commands.
Gentle readers can read Widburg's essay, and they should. But if you aren't a Christian, and you want to find out who Jesus was, may I suggest that you start by reading Paul's Epistle to the Romans, as a good explanation of basic Christianity. It was written within about 30 years after Jesus's crucifixion. Then read all four Gospels, not as historical fact, though you will find many facts, but as statements of faith. If you want more, and you should, begin reading the Torah, the books of Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy. Those books will tell you who the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob is. Then start going to a liturgical church, preferable a Missouri Synod Lutheran church, and start asking questions. Oh, yeah, don't believe anything the popular culture or the MSM tells you about Christ. As Paul says, read for yourself and test everything you hear, including this post.
Gentle readers should also read Raymond Ibrahim's article at the same source entitled 'Stop Hating, Wash Feet' in which he makes the point that Christians are supposed to fight for Christ. Granted that Christ gave the instruction to turn the other cheek. But that was in specific circumstances where someone was being insulting, or otherwise being condecsending, but not life threatening. But He did not intend for you to be beaten to death. He also instructed his deciples to carry a weapon. Being a Christian is not for the faint hearted, the weak, or the stupid.
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