ELEVENTH SESSION
CHRISTOLOGY
'WHAT THEY WON'T TELL YOU AT CHURCH'
ADVANCED DP WEBINAR
REV. DR. D. MICHAEL HENTRICH

Jesus made his foundation of substance; although, he needed more than that. He knew that the church never would have been started if it was up to these people. He knew it. He had to find a real John the Baptist and He did. He went and found Saul. Saul, he was against Christians. He was rounding them up and bringing them in to be killed. He was against Christians 100 percent. And Jesus came to him while he was on the road to Damascus. And a bright light appeared. A voice boomed from Heaven and knocked him off his horse and called him. Jesus called him and said, 'Go to Jerusalem and you'll be told what to do.'

And Paul kind of took off for quite a long time before he went on his crusade. But the one thing about Paul is that he went and spent time with all of his living apostles before he went on his crusade. He's the one person who has that testimony from the living apostles. And he went off, God Bless him. He went off on these crusades. (Shows a map) Look at these red lines all over the map. He went all over the Mediterranean Sea area, the north side there, witnessing, testifying, healing, spreading the Gospel. He built the church of Jesus. If it were'nt for this one man, Paul, we'd have nothing. He did it.

Father needs John the Baptists right now. He needs somebody like Rick Warren. I don't know why somebody like Archbishop Stallings isn't camping in his front yard. We need Rick Warren ... He's got influence all over the world. Father needs somebody with that kind of influence that can spread the Gospel of True Parents. But Dae Mo Nim said to us, 'Yeah, God could do that, but who's going to teach those people. We need teachers. We have no teachers. It seems like we're in the way half the time, most of the time.

(Shows diagram) Here's the trinity. God made Adam and Eve. (They dropped out) God made Jesus and the Holy Spirit to be the new Adam and Eve but they could only be in the spiritual sense only as it turned out. And Jesus had said before he died that there is not going to be one stone left upon another (70 A.D.). If you destroy, if you kill me, if I'm not accepted, if I'm rejected, there won't be one stone left upon another.

And that's what happened. It wasn't what Isaiah had said. In 70 A.D. the Roman Emperor got fed up with the rebellious Jewish people in Israel, this little tiny desert place on the end of the Mediterranean Sea. He got fed up with them and he sent 90 percent of his army into Israel. Ninety percent of the Roman army went into Jerusalem to slaughter those people and destroy them all. Ninety percent of the Roman army. What in the world? This little wasteland over there. 'Why would Rome send ninety percent of its army to destroy little Jerusalem and wipe out those people?' I asked myself.

Father didn't say this, it's my own suspicion, but I just wonder anymore, 'Was there a descendant of Jesus there?' My understanding was that Mary Magdalene was pregnant when she was at the tomb of Jesus. Was there a descendant there that Satan wanted to get rid of? I don't know. But why would the Roman Empire send ninety percent of its army to little ole Israel over there, no man's place, to wipe out this little country? It doesn't make any sense; but, they did it.

And then my wife told me about the 900. This is the end of my presentation. I'll just tell you about the 900 so that you can understand about the heart and character of the Jewish people. The Roman army was there slaughtering everybody; and, there were tunnels under the walls, escape tunnels out of Jerusalem. And many mothers and children escaped out of those tunnels. And they escaped out to some nearby hillside. And there were 900 mothers and children up there on that hillside. And the Romans thought they were done with all their dirty work; but, just before they left somebody noticed all those mothers and children up on the hillside. There were 900 of them.

And when the Romans started going up the hillside to finish their job, the Jewish mothers pulled out their swords and they killed their children. And they killed themselves and each other because they didn't want the Romans to do it. That's the kind of people they are.

Christology is a very important topic. But there's a whole nother side of it that we've never even considered...until now.

As you probably know, the word 'Christ' is the Greek translation of the word 'Messiah'. The Greeks generally speaking ... well, they really fell in love with the Judeo-Christian scriptures and faith. They translated what we have as the Bible, that content basicly into what is called 'The Septuagint'. And that is the source of a lot of our oldest writings. We don't really have any of the original manuscripts to look at. And I frankly don't ... I try not to use the word 'Messiah' when I teach new people, when I lecture because the word 'Messiah' has many different meanings. It's kind of slippery. It means different things to different types of Jewish people. It means something different to Muslims. It means some thing different to Christian people. It means something different to us.

So, I find it more easy success just talking about the new Adam, not the Messiah. When I talk about Jesus or the True Parents' Coming as the new Adam, automatically intuitively the students understand to always ask the question, 'Where's Eve?'. 'If he's the new Adam, where's Eve?' for Jesus for example. So, it's very easy and far less complicated.

So, in our study of Christology the book has us point our attention to a couple of topics: TRINITY & REBIRTH

CHAPTER 7 - CHRISTOLOGY
ISSUES OF CHRISTOLOGY
GOD
JESUS AND HOLY SPIRIT - are the TRINITY (Parents)
FALLEN PEOPLE - need REBIRTH

Here's a typical painting. There are so many paintings like this and what it brings out here for us is that Jesus is so glorified, our concept of him. I mean, (I find that) Christian people don't really love Jesus. They love their concept of Jesus; and, if they met the real Jesus they might not even like him. But here's a painting of Jesus, baby Jesus, doesn't even have a diaper yet; but, he's admonishing this Zoroastrian priest, one of the three wise men who came giving him his gifts. He's already giving him a sermon. You know, he's already got a full head of hair and he's scolding this priest who is repenting right in front of Jesus right there. Ya know, really something else ... okay ...

But St. Paul pointed out, as I said the other day, (and this is another version of that passage):

Hebrews 2:10
"
For it was fitting that He (God), for Whom and by Whom all things exist, in bringing many sons to glory, should make the pioneer of their salvation (which is Jesus) perfect through suffering." (perfect through suffering) He made him perfect through suffering. Jesus grew to be the perfect Adam through suffering and through his life course, growing the three stages of growth just like anybody else. He wasn't born that way (matured). He was born sinless and pure. So we understand that.

So, the topic that we are given, the controversy that we are given in the Principle Book in this chapter of Christology is 'Was Jesus man or was Jesus God?'

MAN vs GOD?

Well, you know, I grew up in that world of Christianity. And I'm very familiar with how people think; and frankly, that's not really the controversy among most of the Christian people I ever met. I mean, if you ask them, 'Is Jesus man or is Jesus God?' they'll say, 'Yes, he's man and he's God.' They don't know how ... I mean this all came about in the Third Counsel of Nicea. The church fathers, after Jesus passed away, they gathered all the scrolls and writings they could find. And they had a big meeting. It was their third big convention. And they were arguing about this exact point. Was Jesus a man or was Jesus God? And they could not decide. They fought and couldn't decide. It was a stalemate. It was a draw. So, on that basis, they agreed to disagree. And they gathered the writings and scrolls that seem to support that view ... then here's what they decided: that Jesus is man and Jesus is God. How that is, they don't know. To this day they can't explain it. He's man and God. Don't ask us how. And they gathered the writings and scrolls that supported that AND BURNED AND LOCKED UP THE REST OF IT. And that's what we have today as our Bible.

So, you can see that it wasn't really so objective. There was a lot of filtering going on there. So, you can't really ... You have to keep that in mind when you're analyzing the Bible. And instead of talking about that particular topic tonight (Man vs. God), I want to talk about one that's close to it, related, but I think more to the point. And that is:

ARE GOD AND JESUS 'DISTINCT ENTITIES'?

Another words, is Jesus God, The Creator? Is he the same Being? Did God the Creator come down on the earth and walk around in sandals. That's what I'm saying. Is God, Jesus and The Holy Spirit the same Being or are they distinct beings?

Now, many Christians will say, 'Of course, Jesus is God walking around.' That's what they've been told. That's the real controversy. And some Christian people don't believe in the trinity. The word 'trinity' doesn't appear in the Bible at all. The concept is kind of cooked up with Biblical passages; but, the concept is not even there really. So, some Christians don't go for it.

Here in the Book of Mark, which is considered to be one of the most reliable of the four Gospels, Mark 15:34

"My God, my God, (which is what Jesus said on the cross) Why have You forsaken me?" talking to God. So, he didn't say, 'Why am I forsaking myself?' He said, "Why are You forsaking me?" It seems like there's a distinction there. That's what I see.

And Matthew 26:39 (In the Garden of Gethsemane Jesus said in his prayer to God)

"My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me (He's talking to Somebody): nevertheless, NOT AS I WILL, BUT AS YOU WILL." (using the terms 'I' and 'You'.) So, it seems pretty clear there in Matthew that God and Jesus are distinct.

And somebody asked Jesus, "When are you coming back again, Jesus?" And he answered:
Mark 13:32
"...But of that day or that hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father." 'I don't even know,' he said, 'but God knows, the Father knows, but I don't know." Wow, I mean, you know ...

And there was another time when somebody brought a sick boy, somebody brought Jesus to a sick boy to heal them. And Jesus said to the father, "How long has he been sick?" Well, that's kind of a funny statement to say if he is God, The Creator, right? He would know; but, he didn't know.

Anyway, there's a lot of evidence in the Bible besides these three sample passages to indicate that Jesus and God are not the same entity. They are distinctly different from each other.

And here we have spiritual rebirth through Jesus and the Holy Spirit. Well, yeah, you know we understand that. We can explain it better than other people. And Jesus is the masculine expression of God and the Holy Spirit is the feminine expression of God.

And they stand as spiritual parents, the spiritual True Father and the spiritual True Mother for the spiritual children who are Christians born again through Their parentship. Yeah but, if you're talking to a person who knows the Bible, they might challenge you and say, 'Well, the Holy Spirit is always called He in the Bible.' That's true.

However, they can't argue with you when you point out that the nature of the Holy Spirit is the comforter, the protector, the nurturer. It's the very feminine nature, character, personality of the Holy Spirit. Nobody will argue with that. So, we are justified to say that the Holy Spirit is Feminine. And any divine being in the Bible is 'he.' So, there you go. You can stand on that and you can argue it. You make a good point.

Then someone asked Jesus, 'How can you enter the kingdom of heaven?' Jesus said, 'You must be born again by water and the Spirit. No one can enter the kingdom of heaven unless he is born anew, right? through water and the Spirit. Well, the interpretation given to that by everybody I know is that the water means Baptism. But, I don't understand that ... Why in the world would Jesus be referring to Baptism. Baptism would not be important for Jesus. He's bringing something important way beyond that. Baptism.

I mean, talk to me ladies. How are we born of water and the Spirit? How is a baby born of water? I mean, the guys know too but the women know personally, right? You have this fetus, this child in your womb and he's in a bag/sack of water, right, of water and it breaks. So, you know Jesus must be talking about how we must be born physically and we must be born spiritually. That's what Father's talking about, right? We have a womb for our body in the mother's womb. That's for our physical body and the second womb is our physical life which is the womb for our spirit that goes to the spirit world. That is exactly the same teaching as our True Parents.

But, you're ... Why in the world would we take it to mean Baptism? It doesn't really have anything to do with that. Why would you even talk about it? But that's ... You've got to stand back and look at these things.

SPIRITUAL REBIRTH
THROUGH JESUS AND THE HOLY SPIRIT

GOD

Spiritual True Father Jesus AND
Spiritual True Mother Holy Spirit

BIRTHS NEW SELVES / SPIRITUAL REBIRTH

Jesus said that no one can enter the Kingdom of God unless he is born anew through water and the Holy Spirit (John 3:5) WATER AND SPIRIT

Being feminine, the Holy Spirit consoles and moves the hearts of people. Romans 5:5

TRINITY

So, we explain trinity like this:
(And my experience is that Christian people really like it because they can't explain trinity. We have the good explanation.)
God expresses masculine nature in Adam and feminine nature in Eve. And they stood to be the parents of mankind; but, they messed up. So then God replaced Adam with 'the new Adam' according to St. Paul in 1 Corinthians 15:45. So Jesus is the new Adam who replaced the first Adam, but only spiritually. And the Holy Spirit replaces Eve, the feminine aspect of God. And they stand as the spiritual parents of the Christian children of God, as we said a minute ago. And that works fine.

And then Jesus, because he was killed and couldn't give physical salvation, now here are the True Parents. We have True Father standing in the role of Adam, but spiritually and physically. And True Mother, for the first time, standing in the role of Eve in the flesh, incarnated. And together standing as the new Adam and Eve, giving physical and spiritual rebirth to humanity as such. I've had almost no opposition to this from Christian people.

HOW GREAT IS JESUS?

So, my point is (I don't want to spend a lot of time here on Christology, I'm going to get to my part on this which is different but) YES, JESUS IS SO GREAT! How great Jesus really is!
He had the answers to all of man's suffering.
He had the keys to the Kingdom (and Queendom).
He knew the root of our problems. He had all the solutions.
He could free us from original sin and begin the Kingdom of Heaven.
He was sinless and perfected as an individual.
I mean, how great? What more do you want? You know... I mean, most people don't understand it that way; but, that's who he was.
But the problem is that his followers clearly didn't understand who Jesus was. They really didn't. And because of that, the people who came after Jesus, the theologians and the thinkers, made Jesus into God. They made him into superman; because, they didn't understand how great he really was.

You know, sometimes when I'm confronted by a Christian person who wants to argue with me or give me a hard time, if I feel that the situation is right and I have the right relationship with this person, sometimes I'll just look him in the eye and say, 'You know, you don't know how great Jesus really is.' And that really sets a Christian person back on their heals and puts them back on the defensive. It's like, 'What? This Moonie is telling me I don't know how great Jesus is? What in the world?' And it really can crack the door open sometimes. So ...

But because people didn't understand how great Jesus really was in his own lifetime, then we made him into God, now we today can't figure out who Jesus is. We made him into God. He's superman. So, it's really a tragedy. I want to go through this with you.

MIRACLES - One way we made him into God is the miracles, you know. Here's Jesus. He's raising Lazarus from the dead. Now, I really believe he did this. I have no doubt about it. It can be done. Father said it can be done. He (Father) said that, if a body hasn't been dead for too long, you can bring a person back to life. He (Father) also explained that there is a price of indemnity for that. He said that to bring a person back to life from the dead, five people have to sacrifice their lives. Wow... Wow!

Now, it makes me think and wonder sometimes; because, when I read the autobiography of Father, five of His siblings died in one year. nne I don't know. I don't know if there is anything connected in that; and, I heard some rumor that maybe Father raised somebody once in His Life... I don't know. Father didn't want to do miracles because ... Well, you'll see at the end of this presentation why Father didn't want to do miracles too much. But, I believe he (Jesus) did this. It's doable. But the problem is that we made him into God for this.

So because the reality is, if you go to 1 Kings 17:17 in the Old Testament, you'll stumble into a prophet named Elijah. Remember Elijah, he's supposed to come again before the great and terrible day of the Lord and work through John the Baptist? That guy? Well, here in 1 Kings it talks about Elijah raising somebody from the dead:

"And it came to pass after these things that the son of the woman, the mistress of the house, fell sick; and his sickness was so sore that there was no breath left in him. And she said unto Elijah, 'What have I to do with thee? Oh thou man of God. Have you come to call my sin into remembrance and to slay my son?' And he said unto her, 'Give me thy son. And he took him out of her bosom, and carried him up into a loft where he abode and laid him upon his own bed. And he cried unto the LORD and said, 'Oh LORD my God, hast thou also brought evil upon the widow with whom I sojourn by slaying her son? And he stretched himself upon the child three times and cried unto the LORD and said, 'Oh LORD my God, I pray Thee, let the soul of the child come into him again.' And he revived. And Elijah took the child and brought him down out of the chamber into the house and delivered him unto his mother: And Elijah said, 'See thou son liveth.' And the woman said, 'Now by this, I know that you are a man of God and that the word of God in thy mouth is truth.'"

'He stretched himself upon the child three times' (The child was dead). 'and cried unto the LORD and said, 'Oh LORD my God, I pray Thee, let this child's soul come into him again.' And the LORD heard the voice of Elijah. The soul of the child came into him again and he revived. Wow! That's Elijah. Well, we don't think he's God; but, he brought somebody back from the dead. We don't even talk about it. Well, we don't want to take away from Jesus and all his fan fair or anything ...

But that's not all. Elijah had a friend. He had a buddy, a lesser-known prophet. His name was Elisha. Also, in the Book of 2nd Kings 4 16-35, Elisha (Most people never heard of him, but if you are really tight with your Bible, you know about Elisha) down here we can read that this person died and Gehazi was the mother. And she laid a staff on his face; because, Elisha told her to go ahead and lay his staff on his face. And the mother of the child said, 'As the LORD lives and as you yourself live, I will not leave you. So he rose and followed her and Gehazi went on ahead and laid the staff upon the face of the child, but there was no sound or sign of life. Therefore, she returned to meet him (Elisha) and told him, 'The child has not awakened. When Elisha came into the house he saw the child lying dead on his bed. So he went in and shut the door upon the two of them and prayed to the LORD. Then he went up and lay upon the child putting his mouth on his mouth, his eyes upon his eyes and his hands upon his hands. And he stretched himself upon him and the flesh of the child became warm. Then he got up and walked once to and fro in the house and stretched himself upon the child; the child sneezed seven times and the child opened his eyes.

2nd Kings 4: 16-35
"And he said, 'At this season when the time comes round, you shall embrace a son.' And she said, 'No, my lord, o man of God. Do not lie to your maidservant.' But the woman conceived and she bore a son at about that time the following spring as Elisha had said to her. When the child had grown, he went out one day to his father among the reapers. And he said to his father, 'Oh, my head, my head!' That father said to his servant, 'Carry him to his mother.' And when he had lifted him and brought him to his mother, the child sat on her lap till noon and then he died. And she went up and laid him on the bed of the man of God and shut the door upon him and went out. Then she called to her husband and said, 'Send me one of the servants and one of the asses that I may quickly go to the man of God and come back again.' ... and when she came to the mountain to the man of God, she caught hold of his feet. Then she said, 'Did I ask my lord for a son? Did I not say, Do not deceive me?'

He (Elisha) said to Gehazi (the mother) 'Gird up your loins, and take my staff in your hands and go. If you meet anyone, do not salute him; and if anyone salutes you do not reply; and lay my staff upon the face of the child.' Then Gehazi said, 'As the LORD lives, and as you yourself live, I will not leave you.' So he arose and followed her. Gehazi went ahead and laid the staff upon the face of the child, but there was no sound or sign of life. Therefore, she returned to meet him and told him, 'The child has not awakened.' When Elisha came into the house, he saw the child lying dead on his bed. So he went in and shut the door upon the two of them and prayed to the LORD.

Then he went up and laid upon the child, putting his mouth upon his mouth, his eyes upon his eyes and his hands upon his hands; and as he stretched himself upon him, the flesh of the child became warm. Then he got up again and walked once to and fro in the house and stretched himself upon the child; the child sneezed seven times and the child opened his eyes."

Wow! That's Elisha, friend of Elijah. Well, I mean, you know ... We don't think Elisha is God. But this is one of the big pieces of evidence that we use to prove that Jesus is God, because he raised someone from the dead. Well ... This does not seem really fair here if you're being objective about it...

Okay, how about another one. Here's Jesus (painting). He came back to life after he died on the cross. And here he is. He's in the upper room at Mark's house and he ... They had the doors and the windows locked. And they were in this shut up room, the disciples, because they were afraid of the Romans. They didn't want to be killed. And so, this ... in the middle there is doubting Thomas. And Jesus showed him his wounds. He (doubting Thomas) said, 'I'm not going to believe until I see the wounds in his hands.' And he (Jesus) did. He showed him his wound and everything; and this is evidence that Jesus is God (Christians say). He came back physically...

Well, I mean, you know, Jacob wrestled with an angel and got his hip knocked out of joint, Lot invited some angels in his house to eat dinner. They ate the food on the dish. So, we can use the Bible to explain this thing, you know. It's not necessarily conclusive evidence in a court of law, you know. But the thing is that this is the best passage that people use to interpret that Jesus came back physically, even though he appeared and disappeared in the locked room.

And I told you the other day that a priest said that he (Jesus) wasn't spiritual and he wasn't physical, he just had a glorified body. And I said, 'What's that?' And he said, 'Well, we don't know. We have to call it something.' So, it's still a mystery, right? But we use this (Christians do) to prove that Jesus is God.

But here we are. Here's the story in John 20:19:

"The doors being shut, Jesus came and stood among them ..." You know, two or three times this happened.

When he had said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples were glad when they saw the Lord. Jesus said to them again, "Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me even so I send you." And when he had said this he breathed upon them and said to them, "Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven. If you retain the sins of any, they are retained."

Now Thomas, one of the twelve, was not among them when Jesus came, so the other disciples told him, "We have seen the Lord." But he said to them, "Unless I see in his hands the print of the nails, and place my finger in the mark of the nails, and place my hand in his side, I will not believe." Eight days later, his disciples were again in the house, and Thomas was with them. The doors were shut but Jesus came and stood among them and said, "Peace be with you."

"On the evening of that day, the first day of the week, the doors being shut where the disciples were Jesus came and stood among them and said, "Peace be with you. And this happened two or three times.

This is St. Paul's experience. He says Jesus appeared to him. Jesus came to him on the road to Damascus and knocked him off his horse.

1 Corinthians 15:1
"Now I would remind you, brethren, in what terms I preached to you the Gospel, which you received, in which you stand, by which you are saved, if you hold fast, unless you believed in vain. For I delivered to you of first importance what I also received, that Christ died or our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried and was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scripture and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. Then he appeared to more than five hundred brethren at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep. Then he appeared to James (that's the brother of Jesus), then to all the apostles. Last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me."

So, St. Paul is saying that he (Jesus) appeared to him, right? "he appeared to me.' So, then in Acts 9:3, St. Paul describes that experience where Jesus appeared to him. And this is how he describes it:

"Now as he journeyed he approached Damascus, and suddenly a light from Heaven flashed about him. And he fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to him, "Saul, Saul, (which is his other name) Why do you persecute me? And he said, "Who are you Lord?" And he said, "I am Jesus whom you are persecuting; but rise and enter the city and you will be told what you are to do." The men who were traveling with him stood speechless, hearing the voice but seeing no one."

'... hearing the voice but seeing no one.' They heard the voice but they didn't see anybody. But he said Jesus appeared to him. This is his description of that experience. Maybe Paul saw him but nobody else saw him. They just heard the voice. Doesn't sound very physical to me.

And so, in reality, there are three passages, as I told you before, in the Bible that you could take to mean that Jesus came back physically. And the most powerful of them is the ones where Jesus showed the wounds in his hands to doubting Thomas. That was the most powerful of the passages; and we can explain that one, right? It's not a problem. And as I said before, there are 22 passages like the one we just read that make it very clear that Jesus did not come back physically. But, this is the evidence that people point to to say that Jesus is God.

Biblical passages that support a PHYSICAL RESURRECTION OF JESUS - THREE

Biblical passages that support a SPIRITUAL RESURRECTION OF JESUS - TWENTY TWO

It's so shaky (the conclusion). I mean, it isn't even shaky, it's up side down. The weight of evidence is solidly on the side of Jesus coming back spiritually. But people are taught to think differently; and they believe what they want to believe. We do that too; but oh, my gosh, it's ... the evidence is totally on the side of the Principle. I mean, we can explain away these other three passages. It's not so difficult. Twenty-two passages like that one.

You know, he appeared, he disappeared. People doubted who he was. He didn't look the same, and so many things as that. And then, a big supporting thing that all the Bible scholars are trying to squirm out of and don't know what to do with is St. Paul. Because the fact is, as they all know, these Gospel stories were not written until ten to thirty years after Jesus came back. They thought he was coming right back. He said, "I'll return before you go to all the surrounding towns around here." They thought he was coming right back; so nobody wrote anything down for ten to thirty years after Jesus died. They thought he was coming right back. He said, "I'll return before you go to all the surrounding towns around here." They thought he was coming right back; so nobdy wrote anything down for ten to thirty years after Jesus came back; and most of the Gospels (maybe Mark but we're not sure about Mark either) were not written by the people who lived with and followed Jesus, anyway. They were written in the name of an apostle; but it wasn't them who wrote it. And we know that.

But Paul is a little different. Paul, he was persecuting Christians, getting them taken and arrested and killed for being Christians; and Jesus converted him on the road to Damascus. And he went and hid out for a while to digest this revelation that he got that changed his whole life's direction, right? And after he absorbed it and everything, he went back to Jerusalem and he met with the real, living apostles of Jesus. He met with them. He spent time with them it says in the Bible. He asked them, 'Tell me everything you know about this Jesus; because he didn't know him in person.

And he got everything he could from the apostles of Jesus who really lived with him (Jesus) for those three years. And then he went on his big crusade all over the world and spread the message of the Gospel. But Paul never said anything about THE EMPTY TOMB. You know, the empty tomb is a big one, right? The empty tomb is a big one. Jesus came back physically because of the empty tomb. The rock. They put that rock back and the tomb was empty. Somehow the rock was rolled away. And Mary Magdalene was there all night watching the tomb; but the rock was rolled away and the body was gone. So, he's physically risen! Wow! How amazing is that? But St. Paul never said a word about it.

I mean, you can look this up, you can google this and see what a big controversy this is. They don't know what to say about it; because it's so out of place out of tune out of touch. I mean, if this really happened, this empty tomb event, and the apostles knew about it, I mean I'm sure that would have been some of their testimony to St. Paul. St. Paul surely would have said something about it; but he didn't say a word. So, it makes you wonder if it really happened. It seems like the apostles didn't say anything about it.

It seems like the good story that might have appeared later; you know the story in the Bible about Jesus shielding the woman from the men who were going to stone her to death because she had been sexually active. And the men were going to stone her to death because that's what the law says should happen. And Jesus shielded her and said, 'You who have no sin cast the first stone.' It's a great story, right? But it doesn't appear in any of the oldest manuscripts that we can find of that Gospel. It's not there. So, it didn't really happen. Somebody added it in somewhere along the line. A scribe added it in and it stuck. It's a good story though. But it didn't happen.

So, here's another one ... See, we make Jesus God for all that. This is how we make Jesus God. Here's another one: He walked on the water. Nobody walks on the water, right? Only Jesus walked on the water; so he must be God, right? You know, there was this big storm; and all the disciples were in this boat out in the middle of the lake together. It's already suspicious. I mean, why would they do that? Anyway, it says here:

Mark 6:45

"and straitway he constrained his disciples to get into the ship and to go to the other side before unto Bethsaida, while he sent away the people. that he saw them toiling and rowing for the wind was contrary unto them. And when he had sent them away he departed into a mountain to pray. And when even was come, the ship was in the midst of the sea, and he alone on the land. And he saw them toiling in rowing; for the wind was contrary unto them; and about the fourth watch of the night he cometh unto them, walking upon the sea, and would have passed by them. (That's a strange thing to say) but when they saw him walking upon the sea they supposed it had been a spirit, and cried out: For they all saw him, and were troubled. And immediately he talked with them and saith unto them, 'Be of good cheer: it is I; be not afraid.' And he went up unto them into the ship; (Wow! and here's a picture of it and there he is skipping across the waves, the white caps there, walking out to the boat. Wow! I mean, that's pretty convincing there. He must be God, right?) and the wind ceased: and they were sore amazed in themselves beyon measure, and wondered."

But here's the Book of Matthew relating the same story, Matthew 14:22 - I mean, you know all the disciples were there. Here's Matthew writing about it supposedly. It's the same story ...
And straightway he constrained his disciples to get into a ship and to go before him to the other side while he sent the multitudes away. And when he had sent the multitudes away, he went up into a mountain apart to pray; and when the evening was come, he was there alone. but the ship was now in the midst of the sea, tossed with waves; for the wind was contrary. And in the fourth watch of the night Jesus went unto them, walking on the sea. And when the disciples saw him walking on the sea, they were troubled, saying, 'It is a spirit;' and they cried out for fear. but straightway Jesus spake unto them, saying, 'Be of good cheer; it is I; be not afraid.' And Peter answered him and said, Lord, if it be thou, bid me come unto thee on the water. and he said, 'Come.'

And when Peter was come down out of the ship, he walked on the water to go to Jesus. but when he saw the wind boisterous, he was afraid; and beginning to sink, he cried, saying, 'Lord, save me.' And immediately Jesus stretched forth his hand, and caught him, and said unto him, 'O thou of little faith, wherefore didst thou doubt?' and when they were come into the ship, the wind ceased. Then they that were in the ship came and worshipped him, saying. 'Of a truth thou art the Son of God.' "

What a great story about faith. He didn't have enough faith and he started sinking in the water and Jesus reached down and lifted him up and said, 'Oh you of little faith ...' It's a great story, right? about faith. But how come Mark forgot that Peter got out of the boat and walked over to Jesus? Mark didn't say anything about that. How could he forget that. I mean, it's more miraculous for Peter to get out ... Who's Peter? He's nobody... a fisherman. How did he get out of the boat and walk on the water? I mean, Jesus if he's God, no big deal he's walking on the water, but Peter! How could Mark forget that Peter got out of the boat and walked over to Jesus? I mean ...

And then there's another version of the story in the Book of John that's a little bit different yet. But he didn't say anything about Peter getting out of the boat walking over to Jesus. And this is the evidence that we have that Jesus is God. What really happened here? I don't know. Did they have a group spiritual experience or something like I did once when I joined the church. I mean, I don't know. Is it just a good story? How in the world can you stand on this kind of ... If you have witnesses come to a court of law and they give such a completely drastically different testimony you're going to throw it out, right?

Okay, let's move along to the last big one. We're gonna hit it hard now. Isaiah 7:14 -

"Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign; 'Behold a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immmanuel.

Well, there's nothing magical about that, right? A virgin is gonna conceive and bear a son. Well, that's what happens every day, right? That's not a miracle.

Luke 1:27
"...to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David; and the virgin's name was Mary.

Well, that sounds fine. That's the way it's supposed to be, especially in the Jewish culture. That sound fine to me.

Matthew 1:20
"But as he considered this, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, "Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary your wife, for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit;

And here is Joseph. He was struggling when he realized that his fiance is pregnant. And so, he wanted to leave Mary. But as he considered this, behold, an angel of the Lord ... And people point to that as reason to believe that Jesus is made of the Holy Spirit ... Does it say that the Holy Spirit made Mary pregnant? 'That which is conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit' Well, if somebody told you to read it that way, I guess that's what you might get out of it. But, I don't get that out of it. It doesn't say that the Holy Spirit made Mary pregnant. It doesn't. I don't see that at all.

Luke 1:30-34
"And the angel said to her, 'Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus. (Well, that's pretty natural. 'You will conceive in your womb and bear a son and call his name Jesus. Wow! How great...') He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Most High; and the Lord God will give to him the throne of is father David, and e will reign over the house of Jacob forever; and of his kingdom there will be no end.

And then Luke says that Mary responded to the angel :
And Mary said to the angel, 'How shall this be, since I have no husband?'

This is the passage here, Luke 1:34 that people will point to and say, 'See that, she was a virgin before she conceived and she was a virgin after she conceived; and the Holy Spirit made her pregnant; and she is ever the virgin Mary.

'How shall this be since I have no husband?' You know, if you read that about fifty times, (you may realize) that there's no reason for her to say such a thing, no reason to think such a thing. She's engaged to Joseph. There's no reason for her to say that. She should say, 'Wow, I can't wait. You know. I mean, that would be her natural response, right?

In fact, I did a little research and I found something by my little google here. And I found a paper, which is an amazing thing. It's written by a Dr. Robert M. Price. And the title is 'Was Jesus the Son of the Priest Zechariah?' See, Dr. Robert Price is a very famous critical theologian. And he taught for a while at UTS (Unification Theological Seminary). He was a substitute professor for us at UTS; and he talked to some of our members while he was there; and they told him that we believe that Jesus' father is Zechariah. Well, see that's not a new theory. That's 2,000 years old. I mean, people have been talking about this since Jesus' time; because the story says that Mary went to the house of Zechariah and when she came out she was pregnant. I mean you know you don't have to be a genius to figure that out.

So, that's been a controversy forever; but the gist of this paper which is really just a scholarly, amazing piece of work here is saying that Rev. Moon's explanation that Zechariah is the father of Jesus is the best explanation, the best argument anybody has. That's awesome.

But in the middle of this paper, he points to this passage here, Luke 1:34. He says, 'Luke says here, 'How shall this be, since I have no husband?' and he points out the same thing. He says that other scholars feel the same way. 'Why would she say that?' he said. There's no reason for Mary to say something like that. He said that she should say something like, 'How is it that I am the Blessed one, how is it that it's me?' He said, instead of 'How can it be. I don't have a husband?' He said that it doesn't make any sense at all.

He said that he believes, as do other scholars, that Luke just put that there. Now why would Luke put that there and make it look like Jesus is born from a virgin? Well, I did a little more research, a little more googling; and here's what I found. The title of this is 'Not Just Jesus, Other Virgin Births.' At the time of Jesus, there happened to be just 32 other mythological deities, you know, Greek, Hindu, Egyptian (deities) who were suppposedly born of virgins, 32 at the time of Jesus.

I mean, if you're a special deity in the time of Jesus, you had to be born of a virgin; because there already was 32 of them. And so, the theory is that Luke put that there because we've gotta make Jesus superman. Otherwise, these other guys whether they really existed or not, are better than Jesus. We can't have that.

AT LEAST 32 MYTHOLOGICAL DIETIES WERE BORN OF VIRGINS BEFORE jESUS

Well, here's the rest of the story. The word used in the Old Testament to refer to (a virgin) ... You know Isaiah 7:14; we read that first right? about the virgin who's going to conceive and bear a son. That's in Hebrew the word 'Almah.' Now, we have the first Jewish man who ever joined True Parent here in our community; so he's a good resource that I've gone to; and he told me all about this. You know, it's no mystery to them. And I confirmed it by doing my own little research, Wikepedia and stuff, and found out that actually it is correct that 'Almah' means:

"a young woman of childbearing age who has not yet had a child, and who may be (but does not have to be) an unmarried virgin or a married woman. It does not, in and of itself, indicate whether that woman is a virgin or not."

It's not that kind of word; in fact this Almah word is used seven times in the Old Testament; and in one instance it is used to refer to a prostitute. But the Greeks, they interpreted 'Almah' to mean 'virgin' in the sense that we believe in it, 'virgin' the contemporary meaning of it; because after all, if Mary wasn't a real virgin, then she should be stoned to death. She would be an immoral person. So, they just interpreted it 'virgin'; so that's what we're stuck with. That's how this stuff came to be.

So, the reason I went through all this stuff with you is because there are consequences for all this; and I want to point them out:

CONSEQUENCES

- CHRISTIANS SEEK MIRACLES
Christians, because we made Jesus superman, we made him God, then nowadays, Christian people expect miracles. . 'Come and get your free ticket to Heaven; and if you have a problem just throw it on Jesus. He'll take care of it. He's the miracle man.'

And Father didn't want that kind of culture. He didn't want that kind of motivation for people to come to True Parents. So, that's why He said that He didn't do a lot of miracles. He did a few but not that many; because He didn't want people coming for that reason.

- JESUS SHOULD BE A HOMELESS POOR MAN?

i mean, He's God. Whatever happened in his life is the way God wanted it. There is no recognition of human portion of responsibility. And he said, 'Foxes have holes and the birds have nests; but the son of man has no place to lay his head. He was homeless, poor ... 'Well, he was showing the humility of God.' Right (not right).

JESUS IS BEYOND REACH

And the big thing is that, when you make Jesus superman like this, you put him (removed) on a pedestal up here ... But Jesus came as the new Adam. He came as a role model for us, a mentor. He came to show us what true love is and how we can have it, and empower us; and make it possible for us to be like him! He said:

"Love one another as I have loved you."

He wanted us to be like him. You wouldn't know that from reading St. Paul but that what Jesus was preaching. But when we made him God, and we made him superman, then we put him up here. Nobody could be like Jesus. He's God. He's superman. He walks on water. He's born of a virgin. Nobody can be like him. We don't even try. This is really bad, right? It ruined the whole thing.

And the worst consequence is ... You know it's not easy to be the Messiah, you know? I mean, who can believe it. It's too hard to believe. It's big. It's TOO BIG! 'Come on, so-and-so is the Messiah? Come on ... 'Jesus came again? Come on.' It too big. Who can believe that? right? How can He be the Messiah? It's not easy; but now it's impossible. It's impossible now because Jesus came as the Messiah and he's superman.

'Moon, you think Moon's the Messiah... Hey... Did He come back from the dead physically? Huh? Did He walk on water? Huh? Huh? Was He born of a virgin? Huh? He's not the Messiah.' It's a real big problem. It's a REAL BIG problem.

So, it seems to me that there are only two solutions:

One: We make True Parents superman; but that's not the way to go because, if you make True Parents superman then you have the same problem.. They're way up here on a pedestal. We can't be like Them. They're special. They're like that; but we're just lowly fallen people. We can't be like that. They're superman. That's not ... We don't want to go there.

Two: The only other answer is: We've got to tell the truth about Jesus. He was awesome. He was incredible. He was amazing. He was the (true love) Son of God. He was the new Adam. But he wasn't superman. He was perfect (Air's note: matured after how Heaven Parent is perfect) and PURE (Air's note: the sinless/absolutely obedient heart, mind, body unique expression, the masculine human being, the most Beloved Son directly feeling and responding to his indwelled Heaven Father's Love and Heart) . He was the new Adam.

Then, (it's possible) for True Parents to be (received by Christians) as True Parents (Christians and all fallen people to be new wine skins and learn anew and engraft to live after our Heaven Parents' Will and Heart). (We are human beings and) THEY ARE HUMAN BEINGS (Air's note: Who have the providential foundation to be born as a universal Abel, and who know the heart and love of God for the same Messiah Mission Jesus had. They love Jesus more than anyone because more than anyone They are DOERS of the Will of God as Jesus said is the way to love him.) They're now irrevocably, champion, victorious HUMAN BEINGS.

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