T.L.C.    Why is the context important, and how is the context relevant to original sin and to the crucifixion story?   

Big D    Are you aware of the principle:  "A Context Controls and Dominates its Content."   

T.L.C.    No.   What does that mean?

Big D    In essence, this principle tells us that in any story about an experience, the circumstances and conditions within which the event occurs  set the tone of  and dominate the meaning of the story.   In other words, the context***ps-50-1b ¹ within which an experience occurs influences, dominates, and controls its meaning.    And to say this in still another way, and Quoting Albert Einstein:   "Everything is the inevitable result of that which came before it."  

T.L.C.    So prior events set the stage for that which follows them.   

Big D    In the linear, Earth  time, they do.

T.L.C.    And the story about the forbidden fruit sets the stage for the Crucifixion story?   

Big D    Definitely.   Without the forbidden fruit,  the murder of Jesus would have to have a very different meaning.   

T.L.C.    Why do you say that? 

Big D    Because correcting the original sin problem is the context within which the crucifixion story is content [has it's existence].    Correcting the original sin problem is what the ancient Church leaders gave to the public as the reason why the crucifixion occurred.   So the question is:  In examining the crucifixion in light of its intended purpose, does the story make any sense?  

T.L.C.    Well, does it?

Big D    As you will soon see, it doesn't.   

T.L.C.    Whew!   If what you are saying is true,  then that revelation could really rock the belief boat for the fundamentalist Christians.

Big D    And rock it big-time.   

T.L.C.    You're going to have to show me the evidence before I'll believe you. 

Big D    Questioning the  foundation of Christian theology is something that the fundamentalist Christian leaders don't want to see happen.    That's why church leaders are intentionally  ignoring the context in which they claim that the crucifixion occurred.   And yes, I'll show you the evidence right out of the Bible.    In the mean time, there's more about understanding the meaning of a story that you'll probably want to know.   

T.L.C.    Yes, what is it?

Big D    In addition to the basic  context, the meaning and significance of every experience is also dependent upon   1) the nature of physical experience itself,  2)  the consequences [the ramifications, the future result] of the experience,  3)  the knowledge, wisdom and experience of the person witnessing or having the experience,  4)  the underlying belief system, [the mind set, the attitudes, and expectation] of the person witnessing or having the experience.***ps-50-1c ¹ and  5) the physical and social environment in which the incident actually occurs.

T.L.C.    When you said the physical and social environment,  were you talking about the difference between today and two thousand years ago?   

Big D    Yes, that is an important distinction.   For example if an airplane landed in a field near you, today, you'd probably not question the event.    However, if that same airplane landed in a field near someone two thousand years ago,  his interpretation of  that event would be very different.   He'd most likely think that God had come come down out of heaven.   

T.L.C.    So you are saying we need to look beneath the surface and consider all these factors in order to find the truth about any story.   

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Literal versus Symbolic      

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Big D    Yes, and there's one more aspect regarding the context of this story that is important for you to examine before we get to the Biblical passages. 

T.L.C.    Alright, I'll wait.   Tell me the more about the context.   

Big D    It deals  with the ongoing argument about whether or not the Christian Bible is the literal word of God, and nowhere is that more important than in the Genesis story, itself.

T.L.C.    Why there?  

Big D    Because Genesis story sets the scene, and builds the context for everything else in the Bible.   Remember what I just told you  about context controlling and dominating content.   The first aspect is to consider is the belief system of the human beings who put God's word into the Christian Bible.   

T.L.C.    Yes, I recall you said that the  listener's underlying belief system  strongly influence  how the he interprets the story.

Big D    I'll briefly describe the underlying belief system out of which came both the forbidden fruit story which supposedly caused all future humans to be created  inherently evil and the currently-accepted version of the crucifixion story. 

          At that time,  millions of people [including those who wrote the Bible]  believed the Earth was flat like a three-layered cake with God,  an angry, vindictive, fickle, superhuman being,  living on a cloud in the sky, with themselves in the middle on a flat Earth, and with Satan in a hellfire-and-damnation pit below their feet.   People believed the Earth was  flat simply because it looked flat,  because others said it was flat, and because they had no information to counter that belief.  

T.L.C.    I've heard that they believed that if a boat sailed too far out into the ocean that it would fall off the Earth. 

Big D    They did.  Can you find anyone today who still believes that today?   

T.L.C.    No.  

Big D    To make this even clearer, let me take you on an imaginary journey back in time.   This will give you  a way of understanding the ground of being, the setting, and the mind-set of the people who actually who wrote the Christian Bible.      I'd like you to pretend that you are the child in the story I'm about to share with you.

The Ultimate Sacrifice   

Big D    Then close your eyes and think yourself back in time to about two thousand years ago.   Imagine yourself as a child living in an arid, semi-desert environment where the collection of a few stone and clay huts were considered to be a town and the average home was a tent.   Imagine yourself living among superstitious sheepherders who believed the Earth was flat like a three-layered cake with Earth in the middle, God and heaven above, and Satan and hell below.    

            Imagine yourself  living among men who considered women as property, and who, all too often, cut out the clitoris of young females so that as adults they wouldn't desire sex and be unfaithful to their male owners/husbands.     Imagine yourself living among men who believed that killing animals and burning them was a way to appease the Gods.   [Gods plural]  In such a culture, what would be the ultimate sacrifice?   The answer is:  "To kill one of your own children as a sacrifice to God."  

T.L.C.    Isn't there a passage about that in the Bible.

Big D    Yes, in Genesis 22:1-2.   As a test of his obedience to God's orders,  Abraham, was instructed, by God, to murder his [Abraham's] only son as a sacrifice to God.

T.L.C.    But God stopped Abraham at the last moment.   

Big D    He did,  but think of the message which that story sends to the lay Christians.

T.L.C.    By lay Christians, you mean the followers of Christianity and distinct from the clergy.  

Big D    Yes, like the child in this story.

T.L.C.    He'd probably hear a strong self-image-destroying  message;  something like:   "You worthless, evil, little twerp,  you could be the next person murdered on God's sacrificial altar."   

Big D    That's the type of message that got plugged into children's minds in those days,  and, as you well know, childhood beliefs get  carried  into adulthood.   In such a culture, what would be considered the greatest sacrifice?    

T.L.C.    Killing one's own child.   

Big D    That's what the Abraham story tells us.  And who could make the biggest of the biggest sacrifices?   

T.L.C.    You?

Big D    Definitely not!   I'm referring to none other than God, Himself.   According to Christian theology, God turned the tables on humanity and murdered his own son as a sacrifice to humanity to prove that He (God)  loves all of humanity, including you.***ps-50-2 ¹  

T.L.C.    I wonder if Jack the Ripper loved his victims?   

Big D    No,  Jack was a product of a severely dysfunctional childhood.   And let's get back, now,  to my analogy of you being a child in the Middle East during the time the Christian Bible was being formulated.  

T.L.C.    OK.   

Big D    Because God murdered one of his children, you find yourself and everybody you know indebted to an extremely powerful, all-knowing, ever-present, fickle, angry, insecure, needy, vindictive, vengeful, son-murdering God  who is dishing out orders from some unknown place up in the sky above the clouds.    Now, Stoney,  as that little kid, tell me how do you feel?

T.L.C.    Scared of being murdered or sent to hell, or both.   I'd think that if God was willing to murder his own children, He'd not have a second thought about murdering worthless, evil me if I displease him.

Big D    Good,  you're into the story.    Let me continue.   God's orders are coming to you through an old man wearing fancy, expensive clothes, who lives in opulent wealth while you and almost everyone else live in poverty.   Everyone bows to and respects this revered leader and his agents because they have direct connections to God and you don't.   This revered old man sends God's orders out to you by way of  his agent, your local priest, and in addition to the orders, the priest warn you of the dire, eternal-damnation, hell-fire-and-brimstone consequences of doing anything contrary to what you are being told to do.   Even something as simple as questioning a priest's  authority is punishable by banishment from heaven and eternal condemnation in hell.   

Imagine, for a moment, that you are that ignorant, unschooled sheepherder's child who has never seen anything that's more than 30 miles from the place you were born.   Given the above set of circumstances, what would you do?   Would you make waves?   Hardly!   You'd bow down along side everyone else and pray to be saved from Satan.   

The Cycle Continues

And if and when you survived to adulthood in that environment, and had children of your own, what would you have taught  them about God?   And what do you suppose they would have taught their children.   

In this manner ancient beliefs have been carried along for generations.    Many religious-related beliefs that had their origins in antiquity are still being taught to children today as if those beliefs were provable facts.  

T.L.C.    You mean things like original sin?   

Big D    Yes.   And now  imagine you were a child in that environment who had been schooled to become a monk.   When you grew up, you ended up writing what is now accepted by fundamental Christians as the one and only sacred book on the entire planet.   Would your beliefs, your circumstances, your setting, you time in history, et cetera,  have affected what you wrote and how your wrote it? 

T.L.C.    Of course!  

Big D    Now imagine yourself, as you are today, being transported back in time to witness the life of Jesus and to be his biographer.   Your job is to write your version of the life of Jesus.   Would your version be anything like the present Christian Bible?   

T.L.C.    Almost certainly  not.  

Big D    So our job, today, is to look at the history of the early days of Christianity, to closely examine previously ignored biblical scripture, to look at the evidence available today that was not available when the Bible was first written, and draw some new conclusions.   

T.L.C.    Our job?   Are you pregnant?   Your talking about modernizing Christian theology.   You really are crazy!    

Big D    Anything that is not growing is busy dying.   

T.L.C.    You're  jerking my chain?   

Big D    Definitely not.   What if we leave present-day Christian theology exactly as it is and simply invite people to find God in their own hearts?   There are millions of people who believe in, love, and respect God but do not participate in any form of organized religion.  There are also millions of practicing Christians who are moderate and open-minded, and  who strongly disapprove of what the ultra-conservative Christian leaders are doing.   

T.L.C.    What about God?   Will God still make demands on them?   

Big D    If you mean demands from a superhuman being sitting on a throne somewhere above the clouds, No.    There are, however, several universal laws and principles that simply apply to all life in Earth -- laws such as the law of gravity and the Universal Law of Thought.   

T.L.C.    As I recall, the Law of Thought says that within the context of life on Earth in a physical body, every human being creates  his/her our own reality by beliefs, thoughts, words, attitudes and expectations.***ps-50-2a ¹   

God-Mystery        God - The Ultimate Mystery        ...

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Big D   Another major factor we need to consider in setting the context for our two stories is that God is the ultimate mystery of all Creation.   

T.L.C.   But fundamentalist Christians leaders regularly tell their followers what God wants them to do.   

Big D   Just because they preach it doesn't mean it's true.   The vast majority of people who actively participate in fundamentalist Christianity believe everything their leaders tell them without question.

T.L.C.    Is there any scriptural support for what the fundamentalist leaders' claim that:  they know what God wants everybody to do and not do?   Can humans know God?  

Big D    For Centuries, scholars, philosophers, the Christian Bible, and basic common sense have been telling people that God is unknown and unknowable -- that God was the ultimate mystery of life.     

T.L.C.    And yet,  the fundamentalist Christian leaders tell anybody who will listen that they (the leaders) know what God wants everybody to do.