The contes of the crucifixion story

Chapter 52

___________________________

The Crucifixion
Of Jesus
In Context

___________________________

This book is actually an interview with an Angel of Light whose mission is to expose "The Dark Side" for what it is. He/She shines the God-Light of Love, Inclusion, and Oneness into the pit of illusion, separation, darkness, anger, and fear. F.A.Questions°

An Interview
with

. .

The
Golden Rule:

He who
owns the
Gold rules!

" The Devil "

by R.Robin Cote'

Chapter Content

When one examines the Biblical story about the crucifixion of Jesus in the contest of what Christian theology claims to be its purpose -- reversing God's prior act of intentionally making all humans inherently evil (original sin) and causing them to die, the story becomes an unbelievable tale of a God who, if the story is accurate, must be a violence-prone idiot. Why say that?

Because any God with a lick of common sense would simply have stopped making humans inherently evil.

Because if God wanted a heaven full of "good folks," He could simply have created a bunch of them and chucked them directly into heaven.

Because, by publicly murdering one of his children, the God of the Christian Bible didn't solve the original sin problem. He made things worse rather than better.

Remember, Eve and Adam were created pure and innocent and apparently already had eternal life. According to Saint Augustine (whose interpretation of of the Genesis story became Christian Theology) changing the "blueprints" and making all future humans inherently evil and with a limited life span was an intentional act of God.

(See the prior chapters. If you haven't yet read chapters fifty and fifty-one, we recommend that you do so because they set the stage for and clarify the meaning of this chapter.)

Big D Let's talk about the crucifixion story

T.L.C. OK.

Big D According to Christian theology, the story about the crucifixion of Jesus is filled with important meanings and implications which are not stated directly in the words, themselves. I invite you to look at where those meanings and implications came from.

T.L.C. Why?

Big D Because early church leaders went to great lengths to tell the public what that story meant, but there are serious questions about accuracy of their interpretation. When you look at several, other, significant-but-virtually- ignored Bible passages, when you look at this story in it's-original-sin context and when you add the knowledge about the nature of man and the nature of the universe that has become available since the story was first told, the logical conclusion is that the official Christian interpretation of this story does not represent reality.

T.L.C. Obviously, church leaders had a vested interest in telling the public what that story meant, but I've never questioned the accuracy of their story.

Big D Well neither have most Christians. Did you ever wonder why the early church leaders were so adamantly opposed to the public being able to read the Bible for themselves?

T.L.C. No. Why did they care?

Big D It was a matter of power and control. They cared because there were were [and still are] several, important, Biblical passages that gave a very different picture of reality than the one that Christian leaders were telling to the public.

T.L.C. Are you questioning the integrity of church leaders?

Big D If you are talking about present-day church leaders, definitely not. The vast majority of them are honest, sincere and believe that their theology is accurate. What I question is their wisdom. I question their decision to mindlessly accept the validity of their ancient, carved-in-stone theology. In a moment, I'm going to give you a list of passages from the Christian Bible for you to look up and read for yourself.

Regarding early church leaders, they didn't want people to start thinking for themselves. They didn't want anybody to come up with the perspective on the crucifixion that I'm about to share with you.

T.L.C. Why not?

Big D Stoney, you just answered that question yourself a few moments ago. Let me give you back your own words: "Church leaders need dependent people. They need followers."

The concept called "original sin" in probably the greatest dependency-producing scam in all of recorded history. It's one of the most destructive illusions in my entire bag of tricks. Stoney, remember my job is to provide illusions to those who ask, and early church leaders asked, so I gave it to them.

T.L.C. Yes, I know you are the master of deception and illusion.***ps-52-1

Big D When someone finds God within himself, he no longer needs the church as a middleman between himself and God. And again to use your own words: "Finding God within one's self is an expression of personal sovereignty. "Acknowledging and accessing God within one's self is a spiritual concept, not a religious one."***ps-52-2

It was a cold, cruel world in the early days of Christianity and church leaders had an easy life compared to everyone else. They needed to be needed. They didn't want the truth to jeopardize their life style.

T.L.C. So you are talking about basic survival instincts.

Big D Yes. The prime directive of every living creature including humans and including every organization created my humans is self-survival. That's as true today as it was when the Christian Bible was written. When survival and the truth are either/or options, survival wins every time.

Pre-reformation church leaders were notorious for their violent behavior against anybody who threatened their power. Do you remember what they did to the Library at Alexandria and to the library's director? ***ps-52-2a And as another example, look at how they treated William Tyndale. He was the first person to translate the Christian Bible into English. In grand and glorious appreciation for his work, church leaders had him chased down, imprisoned, tortured, and then burned at the stake.***ps-52-3

T.L.C. Obviously, politics by murder has been around for a long time, but enough of that. Tell me about the crucifixion story.

Big D This story is at the core of Christian theology and brings up some important questions such as: What does the story mean? Is it literal or symbolic? What actually happened on that day and on the days following? Whose interpretation of this story is correct one, and most importantly: What was the context within which this story was played out?

The Context of the Crucifixion

T.L.C. Since you've already explained a context to me,***ps-52-4 please take me beneath the surface to the truth about this story.

Big D The context in which the crucifixion story occurred sets a particular tone for it and gives it some meanings that are not obvious to the casual reader. This, in turn, gives the story some rather strange possibilities about what it does or does not mean. So an important question to ask and answer is: What information can be deduced about this story that is not stated directly in the words themselves? And what information can be gleaned from the context within which the crucifixion occurred?

T.L.C. Wow! The moment I open my mind to this story, several unanswered questions come rolling out. To murder one's child as an act of love never did make any sense to me, but I never questioned why it didn't make sense. I just believed it because the adult people I trusted told me that's the way it was.

Big D That's probably what your parents told you and what you learned at church when you were a young child.

T.L.C. It was.

Big D That's what billion of other children were also taught and believed without ever looking into the details and never examining the crucifixion in its context. Remember the old maxim, "Get the mind of the child and you control him as an adult."

T.L.C. Yes, I know. I'm still dealing with dysfunctional beliefs that got plugged into my mind when I was a little kid.

And now that I think about it, any God with a lick of common sense would simply have stopped making humans inherently evil.

Big D Stoney, you've just demonstrated why it's important to bring your mind into your religion and why church leaders didn't, and some still don't, want people thinking for themselves.

T.L.C. When I start thinking, a brand new picture emerges.

Big D Precisely. So Stoney, now that your mind is engaged, answer this question: Suppose a common-sense God simply stopped making humans inherently evil. Or what if humans were not inherently evil to begin with? What would that do to the validity of the Christian story about murdering one's child as an act of love?

T.L.C. Do you want the truth, or shall I sugar coat it?

Big D Now you're using my words. Again, let me say, I suggest you go into your heart, into you feeling space, into the place where the-voice-within speaks to you, into what the Christians call "your conscience" and speak to me from there.

T.L.C. OK, I and billions of other people have been hoodwinked and deceived. The murder of Jesus must have had some other meaning about which we were never told.

Big D I hope you realize you are speaking blasphemy to the n'th degree.

T.L.C. Yes, I realize some will see it that way, but one can also see it as following the instructions of Jesus, Himself, "Know the truth and the truth will set you free."

Big D OK, let's get into the heart of this story. Let's set the context for the crucifixion. Remember, Eve and Adam were created pure and innocent, with eternal life. Changing the "blueprints" and making humans as inherently evil with limited lives was Saint Augustine's interpretation of of the Genesis Story. According to his interpretation, making humans inherently evil was an intentional act of a sadistic, angry, vengeful God who punished all humanity because Eve and Adam didn't follow the rules.

T.L.C. Yes, you already explained that. ***ps-52-7

Big D When one examines the Biblical story about the crucifixion of Jesus in the contest of correcting God's prior act of making all humans inherently evil (original sin), the story becomes an unbelievable tale of a God, who if the story is accurate, must be a violence-prone idiot.

T.L.C. Explain why you say that?

Big D Because, by publicly murdering one of his children, the God of the Christian Bible didn't solve the original sin problem. He made things worse rather than better.

T.L.C. Now, I'm going to stop you right here. You are talking about the core belief of Christianity. Are you trying to destroy Christianity?

Big D Definitely not! The goal is to revitalize a religion with great potential for human enlightenment. That potential is presently being strangled by ultra-conservatism and by lies of omission.

T.L.C. What's a lie of omission? Is that something different from what Pinocchio did that made his nose grow long?

Big D Yes, a lie of omission is deceiving someone by remaining silent -- by withholding the truth. Pinocchio made statements that weren't true.

T.L.C. So a spoken lie and withholding the truth by remaining silent are both acts done with the intention to deceive.

Big D That's correct.

T.L.C. So a lie of omission is like Shakespeare's rose -- "A rose by a different name . . ."

Big D Yes, it's intentional deception wearing a mask of silence.

T.L.C. That doesn't smell like a rose.

Big D Regarding the Fundamentalist Christian leaders, I am referring to, among other things, the numerous Biblical passage that they simply ignore and the half truth they use which are very misleading because a piece of the truth is simply left out.***ps-52-7a

T.L.C. So you are suggesting that we add the missing pieces. Why?

Big D Because the whole truth will bring new life to a structure that hasn't seen significant change in over a thousand years and the truth will produce freedom in lay Christians, instead of bondage to an illusion.

The intention is to take back Christianity from the ultra-conservative Christians who are to Christianity as Al Queda and the Taliban are to Islam. Although Christianity holds a wide variety of views about God and the nature of the universe and the nature of humanity, one would not know it by listening to the ultra-conservative Christians. They claim that their tiny fraction of Christian beliefs is the one and only true version of Christianity.

Collectively, their claims, their proclamations, and their activities are equally as destructive as open, outright murder. The difference is that the death and misery caused by the ultra-conservative Christian leaders is hidden behind one or more degrees of separation.***ps-52-8 But don't believe me, examine the evidence for yourself.***ps-52-9

T.L.C. Are you telling me that most Christians today are looking at only a small fraction of the truth and believing that that small reaction is the complete truth and as a result, they have a very distorted perspective of the teachings of Jesus?***ps-52-9a

Big D That's exactly what I'm telling you.

T.L.C. So how can Christianity transform itself into a winner?

Big D That's another story for another time.***ps-52-10 At the moment let's complete with the crucifixion story.

T.L.C. OK.

Big D According to Christian theology, God created the universe about seven thousand years ago. Thus, at the time of the Crucifixion, God had been intentionally creating all humans inherently evil for somewhere in the neighborhood of five thousand of years. According to the Bible God created Eve and Adam innocent and good, so God must have "altered the original blueprints" for making human beings. This intentional change by God -- a change into making all humans evil -- was the result of the convoluted story I just told you about Eve, Adam, a snake, and the forbidden fruit. ***ps-52-7

T.L.C. Yes, I remember.

Big D From the day God kicked Eve and Adam out of paradise until the day Jesus was murdered, God had been making all humans inherently evil.

T.L.C. So where are these people? Are your telling me that from creation to the crucifixion, God had been intentionally created all humans inherently evil and then simply abandoning them to some unknown place.

Big D Yup!

T.L.C. Does God have a Cosmic Trash Bin? Are all these people stashed away somewhere? Did God simply un-created them? Are they burning in Hell?

Big D 'Don't know for sure. All we have to go on are the stories told by some of the present day preachers, like the recently exposed and deposed, anti-gay, anti-sexual, hypocrite, Ted Haggard. Haggard and most other fundamentalist Christian leaders tell their followers that that anybody not baptized and washed in the blood of Jesus is sent to hell to be tortured forever by Satan. That includes you, if you are not born-again saved.

T.L.C. Well, if they're correct, that must also include all those people born prior to the death of Jesus. Before that time nobody was allowed into Christian heaven.

Big D That's what the crucifixion was supposed to fix.

T.L.C. If the fundamentalist Christian leaders have the correct interpretation of the Bible, that means God spent about five thousand years producing billions of inherently-evil humans.

Big D Yup!

T.L.C. And then shipping them off to hell.

Big D Yup!

T.L.C. And they are still there today experiencing nothing but grief and misery.

Big D Yup!

T.L.C. This doesn't make the slightest bit of sense.

Big D Yup!

T.L.C. So you're telling me that God created billions of humans using the inherently-evil mold and then simply sent them to hell to be tortured forever?

Big D I'm not telling you that. That's what becomes apparent when you listen to the fundamentalists leaders and when you read between the lines of fundamentalist Christian theology.

T.L.C. Either the fundamentalist Christian leaders are wrong or God is the sickest sadist in all of creation.

Big D Now who's being a Christian basher?

T.L.C. Telling the previously-ignored truth about the inherently-evil story is not Christian bashing?

Big D I'd agree with that, but I'll bet that other will have a different opinion.

T.L.C. So we still have no idea were these billions of human are today.

Big D That's correct.

T.L.C. So how did murdering Jesus fix this problem?

Big D It didn't.

T.L.C. Ok, then tell me what it did do.

Big D It compounded the problem. It made it worse and infinitely more confusing.

T.L.C. How so?.

Big D Well, for one thing, God is still, today, at this very moment, manufacturing inherently-evil humans. Let me start with the day God decided to fix the inherently-evil problem and take you through this step by step.

T.L.C. OK.

The Crucifixion Story, Itself:

Big D One day, God decided do something about the evil nature of humans. According to Christian theology, He decided to convert a few inherently evil humans into "good folks" and fill up his apparently-empty-except-for-Jesus-and-the-angels heaven.

BUT. . . He didn't simply stop making humans evil. He didn't acknowledge His own responsibility for making humans inherently evil and simply change His ways. He didn't "look at the blueprints for making human beings" and "shift a line or two" and, thus, end this whole, dumb "inherently evil" fiasco. Instead, he sent his kid to Earth to get murdered by Roman soldiers, and that murder was intended to show humans how much He (God) loves humans.

T.L.C. If a human being committed a premeditated act of murder and then billed it as an expression of love, he or she would get a one-way, no-return ticket to the loony bin.

Big D Ya, but God's all powerful.

T.L.C. Do you suppose God is subject to the Maxim, "Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely."?

Big D Good question, Stoney. I . . .

T.L.C. Never mind. Please continue.

Big D When someone does something for the express purpose of producing a result, and when one looks at the cause and effect relationship between the intentional act and its intended result, both the cause and effect are usually pretty obvious. For example, "Joe added sugar to his coffee to make it sweeter." Does anyone question that adding sugar to coffee makes it sweeter.

T.L.C. No, the relationship is obvious.

Big D How about: "Suzie stepped on the brake to stop the car." or "Jean was cold, so she put on a sweater." or This story didn't make sense, so I asked for clarity.

T.L.C. The relationships are obvious.

Big D And on and on it goes, statement after statement, with nary a doubt about how the specific causes are designed to produced predictable results. -- He washed" his hands to get them clean." -- "He ate the fish to satisfy his hunger" -- "He looked under the bed to find his shoes." -- "He murdered one of his own children to prove he loves you."

T.L.C. Wait a minute. Murder and love are obviously incongruous. The statement is ridiculous, but what does any of this have to do with the Christian crucifixion story.

Big D I'll get to that in a moment. First answer this question. Do you know of anyone anywhere who thinks that murdering one's own child is an act of love?

T.L.C. No, but the story must be true because nobody in their right mind would intentionally come up with such a ridiculous, non sequitur expression of love and then speak it out into the world as if it were an irrefutable fact.

Big D The action and the intended results are worlds apart.

T.L.C. I know, that's why it must be true and why it must have come from God.

Big D Say that again.

T.L.C. He doesn't have to make sense. He is God, you know. Nobody but God could get away with saying anything that absurd.

Big D Have you been taking smart-ass pills.

T.L.C. No, I've been listening to you.

Big D I'll take that as a compliment. Suppose, for a moment, that you get to talk to God him/her/itself.

T.L.C. OK.

Big D So there you are face to face with the ultimate master of wisdom and creativity -- face to face with whatever he/she/it is that has the capacity to create the entirety of the universe and keep it working with infinite precision. And you say to God: "So, I hear rumors that you are going to stop creating defective human beings? Is that true, or are you just kidding?"

"I wasn't kidding. It's true," He says, and so you ask,

"How are you going to do that?"

And He Replies, "I'm going to set one of my children up to be murdered by Roman soldiers."

And in wonderment, you ask, "How does the suffering and dying of Jesus -- how does murdering one of your children -- cause humans to no longer be inherently evil?"

You and God both just sit there in silence. You look Him directly in the eyes and wait for an answer, and after a long time, God says, "Look behind you." You turn around to look, but see nothing, and when you turn back to where God's was sitting on his throne, you see the throne is empty. God has slipped out the back door.

And. . . ?

Big D If there's a link somewhere, between committing murder and expressing love, nobody that I know of has ever been able to find it.

T.L.C. But, according to the Christian theology, God setting his kid up to be murdered was supposed to solve the "inherently evil" problem.

Big D But it didn't solve the problem. It didn't even come close to solving the problem. It actually compounded it and made it many times more confusing.

T.L.C. How?

Big D According to Christian theology, the murder resulted in some humans having the opportunity to follow the orders of Roman Catholic Church leaders and thereby get God to forgive them for something they didn't do and then, after the death of the physical body, be invited into Christian heaven above the clouds of a flat Earth.

It left everybody else exactly where they were before the murder, still inherently evil, and either condemned to hell or abandoned to an unspecified fate. The God of fundamental Christianity even condemned millions innocent babies to burn in hell. And it left everybody on the entire planet completely dependent upon "God's one and only real Church" for salvation.

T.L.C. How about those who were not aware that Christian Church even existed?

Big D Yup, them too. It did absolutely noting for billions of humans who were not beholding and subservient to or even aware of the Roman Catholic Church. It did absolutely nothing for the victims of the previous five thousand years of God's sadistic behavior. It did not forgive Eve and Adam. And God is still, right now, creating all humans inherently evil.

T.L.C. Even today? I thought he fixed the problem.

Big D I just told you that he didn't. The only thing He's did was offer a few people the opportunity to get their inherent-evilness cancelled. Of course, they still had to go through an Earth life and follow all the rules. Nobody is quite sure exactly what those rules are, but God will punch your E-ticket to heaven only if you followed them.

T.L.C. But there are several conflicting rules.

Big D Didn't and doesn't matter. Just follow the rules or your on your way to hell.

T.L.C. But, which rules?

Big D Nobody knows for sure. Just follow the rules or your on your way to hell.

T.L.C. But,