Note: In early 2024 I learned his mom and dad in Nazareth named and called him "Yeshua", and "Jesus" is a consequence of translations from Aramaic/Hebrew to Greek, to Latin, to old English, then to Protestant English. "Christ" supports Paul, and some people believe Paul without civic objection. This discovery is wonderful and to be shared.
[Please recall I ponder reliability to Genesis 1:26, NIV, “in our image so they may rule . . . earth”. May coming-from-the-God implies can and leaves the person with choice to pursue order or not. This is not equivalent to free-will, which is presented without assessment of consequences: there may be chaos (no rule). I do not know the-ineluctable-truth, and therefore seek it.
I perceive that John 1:1 asserts that Jesus is God. Further, Matthew 5:48 asserts that a human-being can pursue perfection that mimics Jesus’ perfection. It is their unique perfection no other human can pursue. Also, Matthew 25:41-45, expresses that citizens who do not treat fellow-citizens as unique images of Jesus, accept neither Genesis 1:26-28 nor its mystery-source.
Happy is the person who joins with fellow-citizens to pursue& promote the-civic-Jesus: reliability to Jesus' commands.]
13 If a prophet, or one who foretells by dreams, appears among you and announces to you a sign or wonder, 2 and if the sign or wonder spoken of takes place, and the prophet says, “Let us follow other gods” (gods you have not known) “and let us worship them,” 3 you must not listen to the words of that prophet or dreamer. The Lord your God is testing you to find out whether you love him with all your heart and with all your soul. 4 It is the Lord your God you must follow, and him you must revere. Keep his commands and obey him; serve him and hold fast to him. 5 That prophet or dreamer must be put to death for inciting rebellion against the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt and redeemed you from the land of slavery. That prophet or dreamer tried to turn you from the way the Lord your God commanded you to follow. You must purge the evil from among you. [How foolish! The author could but does not accept that whatever constrains human choices (no one knows the source) does not respond favorably to institutionally constructed labels.]
6 If your very own brother, or your son or
daughter, or the wife you love, or your closest friend secretly
entices you, saying, “Let us go and worship other gods” (gods that
neither you nor your ancestors have known, 7 gods
of the peoples around you, whether near or far, from one end of the land to the
other), 8 do not yield to them or listen to
them. Show them no pity. Do not spare them or shield them. 9 You must certainly put them to
death. Your hand must be the first in putting them to death, and then
the hands of all the people. 10 Stone them
to death, because they tried to turn you away from the Lord your God, who brought you out
of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. 11 Then all
Israel will hear and be afraid, and no one among you will do such an evil
thing again. [I speculate
that gospels plagiarize Deuteronomy 13, e.g., John 15:18-23, Mathew 10:34-39
and others. Churches rather than Jesus condone hate, even murder. The habit of
substituting “God” for Jesus is individual choice to cling to evil rather than
practice the-good. People know better, because Genesis 1:26 is made plain to
them by the laws of physics& progeny yet they avoid, change, or resist its claim,
“Let us
make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule”. It’s a
matter of potential human-integrity and the individual power to choose the-good
or not.]
12 If you hear it said about one of the towns
the Lord your God is
giving you to live in 13 that
troublemakers have arisen among you and have led the people of their town
astray, saying, “Let us go and worship other gods” (gods you have not known), 14 then
you must inquire, probe and investigate it thoroughly. And if it is true
and it has been proved that this detestable thing has been done among you, 15 you
must certainly put to the sword all who live in that town. You must destroy it
completely, both its people and its livestock. 16 You
are to gather all the plunder of the town into the middle of the public square
and completely burn the town and all its plunder as a whole burnt offering
to the Lord your
God. That town is to remain a ruin forever, never to be rebuilt, 17 and
none of the condemned things are to be found in your hands. Then the Lord will turn from his fierce
anger, will show you mercy, and will have compassion on you. He
will increase your numbers, as he promised on oath to your ancestors— 18 because
you obey the Lord your
God by keeping all his commands that I am giving you today and doing what is
right in his eyes. [R.
E. Lee, believing each his local ministers, Thomas Aquinas, and Aristotle, set
out to destroy the USA, because of slave-emancipation-evil, according to
Lee-God. Luke, I think erroneously, imposes evil in reporting Jesus’ teachings.
See Luke 14:25-33.]
[If the church has bad
past performance, it implies not that it is evil but that it has opportunity to reform. I do not know the-ineluctable-truth.]
Addendum, from today’s
UBC sermon (June 4, 2023):
Matthew 28: 18 Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority
in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 Therefore go and make disciples of all
nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of
the Holy Spirit, 20 and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded
you. And surely I am
with you always, to the very end of the age.” (Does that imply from the beginning?)
Compare Genesis 1:26-28: 26 Then God
said, “Let us make
mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over
the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all
the wild animals, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.”
27 So God created mankind in his own image,
in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.
28 God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful
and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the
fish in the sea and the birds in the sky and over every living creature that
moves on the ground.”
Genesis’ God-mystery gives authority on earth to humankind, who
may choose to rule life on earth. Since they may, they can.
Jesus claims authority “in heaven and on earth” and orders “obey
everything I have commanded you”.
I think people who cling to the God-mystery miss life’s chance to
comprehend& obey the most reliable entity I experience: Jesus “to ourselves
and our Posterity”, quoting the preamble to the US constitution.
