Whose Jesus will you follow? According to Mark....Jesus is a fallible,suffering human.There is no miraculous birth,and he becomes Gods son at his baptism.Marks Jesus repeatedly tells people he will return in their lifetime[9:1,13:30,14:62] and dies on the cross crying words taken from the 22nd Psalms...Matthews Jesus is a new and improved Jesus, by embellishing Jesus deeds and attributes,and beefing him up with plenty of miracles throughout. Matthews Jesus corrects Marks Jesus and even removes anything that makes his Jesus look less than perfect. For example: in Mark 6:5-6 Jesus is unable to do any mighty works because of their unbelief. Matthew will have none of that and changes "could not"do mighty works to "did not".[ 13:58 ]. He even goes so far as to deliberately alter scriptures to fit what he wants Jesus to say, such as when he cuts out whole generations of Jesus genealogy to make it fit his numerological scheme[ 1:17 ]. Matthew switches Jesus last words from Aramaic to Hebrew so that he cries out" Eli,Eli,lama sabachthani"not "Eloi,Eloi,lama sabachthani".Lukes Jesus is serene, beautiful and unflappable right from the grave. Lukes Jesus is wonderful and faultless. While Marks Jesus dies in anguish and despair,Lukes Jesus exits with composure and acceptance. Lukes dispenses with with the words of the 22nd Psalms altogether and makes his Jesus speak words from Psalms [23:46, 31:5]..Johns Jesus is a superman without a Clark Kent. Not only is he a no secret Messiah at all: He has a radically different personality, much more large and in charge, in total control at all times. Johns Jesus knows he's Gods and he does'nt care who knows it. He [Jesus] is constantly talking about his divinity and declaring himself to be: the bread of life[ 6:35,6:41,and 6:48 ] the living bread that came down from heaven[ 6:51 ]the light of the world[ 8:12,9:5 ]from above and not from this world[ 8:23 ] the Son of Man[ 8:28 ]the good shepherd[ 10:11 ] the resurrection and the life[ 11:25 ] the way ,the truth, and the life[14:6 ]the true vine[15:1 ]. Johns Jesus is not born of a virgin[ 1:45 ]and unlike the other gospels-no baptism for the perfect and sin-free Messiah. Johns Jesus does'nt speak in parables, no sermon on the mount[ like Matthew], no sermon on the plain[ like Luke ],no beatitudes, no blessed are the meek, no love thy neighbor,no suffer the little children, no consider the lilies of the field, no turn the other cheek. The poor and the suffering may be the focus of his ministry in the other gospels,but they barely get mentioned from Johns Jesus. Johns Jesus hates the Jews. His antipathy is not just confined to the treacherous Jewish leaders and the rich hypocritical fat-cats; no, Johns testy Jesus depicts the Jews as conniving persecutors out to murder him[5:16]. They bad mouth him[6:41],stalk him[7:1-11,25,35] are blind to his teaching[7:46-47] accuses him of having a demon in him[8:52]and try to stone him[8:59]. In Matthew,Mark and Luke;Jesus shares the meal with his disciples. John makes Jesus the passover lamb..Paul's Jesus is a cosmic Christ who traveled from the Hebrew underworld to the seven heavens to defeat demonic Archai [ ruler ].Mark's community took the opposite tack: their suffering Jesus was a ordinary human who God adopted at his baptism, tested and later resurrected and exalted to divine Lord to reward his obedience. This in stark contrast to Johnanine community,Jesus the Greek Logos who was there at the creation and fearlessly walked wanders across Judea loudly declaring that he is God himself.. In the epistles to the Hebrews Jesus is the heavenly High Priest who offers his sacrifice in a heavenly sanctuary, a perfect blend of traditional Jewish theology and Alexandrian style Platonism, and a conception of Christ unlike any other.[ 10 beautiful lies about Jesus by David Fritzgerald ]..

" NO SUCH PLACE AS HELL"....Orphics created the christian idea of purgatory, and was taken over by the Jewish books of Esdras. It was in Germany and England that the word " HELL"began to evolve into the pagan unscriptural  meaning of eternal punishment...Hell is not supported anywhere in scriptures[ SHEOL,HADES] means[GRAVE].Hell was championed by Augustine and embraced by the ROMAN CATHOLIC church 553 ce. As generally understood,hell is the abode of evil spirits; the infernal regions....Where lost and condemned souls go after death to suffer indescribable torment and eternal punishment...Some have thought of it as the place created by GOD, where HE punishes with inconceivable severity ,and the souls of those who through unbelief or through the worship false gods have angered Him. It is the place of DIVINE REVENGE,untempered ,never ending. In theology,the concept of dualism assumes that there are two separate entities-good and evil-which are equally powerful. In Christian dualism,GOD represents the good entity and the DEVIL the evil entity. Dualism is a theology based on the belief in to gods. This theology appeared first in ancient Persia...." LEARN FIRST WHAT IS TO BE BELIEVED"......

THE BLACK MADONNA AND CHILD..In Indian art KRISHNA literally mean" black."( in early Christian art Jesus is almost invariably represented as a black man) Sir Godfrey Higgins made a thorough investigation of the pictures and images of black infants and Madonnas in the cathedrals of Europe, "in all the Romish countries of Europe, says he, in France,Italy,Germany, the God child as well as his mother are described in their old pictures and statues to be black.The infant God in the arms of his black mother, his eyes and drapery white, is himself perfectly black. If the reader doubt my words, he may go to the cathedral at Moulins, the chapel of the Virgin at Loretto,the church of the Annunciata,the church of ST.Lazaro,or the church on ST. Stephen at Genoa, to ST. Francisco at Pisa, the church at Brixen,in the Trol, and to Padua, to the church of ST. Theodore, at Munich, to the church and cathedral at Augsburg, to Rome, and the Borghese chapel Maria Maggiore, to the Pantheon , chapel of ST. Peter. There is scarcely an old church in Italy where some remains of the Worship of the Black virgin and child. Very often the black figures have given way to white ones,and in these cases the black ,as being held sacred, were put into retired places in the churches, but were not destroyed, and are yet to be found there.. When the circumstances has been named to the Romish priest, they have endeavored to disguise the fact, by pretending that the child and his mother became black by the smoke of the candles; how come the candles did not blacken the white of eyes,teeth,and the shirt or the redden lips? There real blackness is not to be questioned for a moment; the presence of a black virgin and child among the white Germans,Swiss,French and Italians!!!!

what makes you a man?????

012011

I just came out of a meeting where one of the participants was introduced as preparing to get married next month. In the words of the moderator “…next month he becomes a man…” and I began to argue with that thought line in my mind, asking myself the question “what makes you a man…? Because honestly, am not sure I have a definite answer to that.

I grew up knowing that the man is the one who fathered you, as in, he doesn’t get to carry you in the womb. He is the one who’s last name you get to bear in school. He is supposed to be the one you ask first when the fees are due in school. All of these are the realities I grew up with as a child, but as an adult, should I still see these things as the defining factors of who a man is?
Going back to what prompted all these thoughts in the first place, marriage. My bible tells me that “…therefore shall a man leave his father and mother, and cleave unto his wife…” (Gen 2:24). I have heard pastors quote this passage at the few wedding ceremonies I have been at, or at marriage-related seminars, stressing the fact that the bible says A MAN was going to leave and cleave, and not a boy, obviously trying to buttress a point, but it always leaves me wondering who gets to be called a man. Obviously, my moderator at the meeting tonight had the notion that marriage made you a man(and I have heard so many people tow that line of belief as well), but I have also heard pastors say from the bible that you had to be a man BEFORE you get married.
In exploring various thoughts, I know that there were cultural practices(some of which may still be in existence), which required teenage boys to go through initiation rites, after which they became men, not minding the fact that these rituals didn’t go on for years, not even months. I have raised this point because, although it is no longer a common practice, there was a time and in different cultures too, when it was the acceptable norm and I do not think we are light years wiser than those who carried out such practices. I see no difference between this practice and the beliefs that you become a man as soon as you get married. After all, they both say an event makes you one.
To some people, you become a man as soon as you can impregnate a woman, and though I do not have ready medical statistics nor evidence, but I should think that any 15 year old would be able to do that(correct me if am wrong). I know I would get knocks for this thought, but I have heard an Igbo adage which though I do not remember verbatim, it basically says “Once a young boy starts checking out his father’s wife, then it’s an indication that has become a man”. Now I ask myself when the average teenager starts having feelings for women, whether he admits it or not, and the answer I get is… (Never mind just put yours, lol). So if I understand that cultural point of view, you become a man when you can impregnate a woman.
Now another point of view: you become a man when you have a job and can take care of yourself. This view gets me upset because I have seen people get out of school and stay five years without getting a job. We all know how ‘easy’ it is to get a job in this part of the world, so then I ask myself “if an external factor way beyond your control is used to measure who you are, can we be said to be fair in our judgments?’ I mean, if I have my way, I would want to leave school and get to start working immediately at the peak of my profession. So technically, my childhood friend with whom I happen to be age mates and we both left school at about the same time, gets to become a man five years before me if after school he immediately got a good job, but I had to wait for five years to get a decent job. Hmm, how logical a thought!
I would want to present a final viewpoint; one which I find interesting because it really has no clear cut demarcation as far as I am concerned. I am sure a lot of you guys would say been a man is about been matured. Now, the question is “what exactly defines as maturity?’. I have had people tell me that maturity is of the mind, but that always sounds as vague and elusive to me, as the concept itself. Don’t get me wrong, I totally accept the word on its own merit, but who defines what? It obviously has nothing do with age, and call me “over-logical” if you want, but I always have a problem with concepts that you cannot pin down and nail on the head. With such concepts, people very easily begin to speak from both sides of their mouth.
On a lighter note, I would want to share an incident with you. I was sitting in church next to a young lady, and in the course of the sermon ,the pastor made a statement, saying “…let all men be liars, but let God be true…”, and the lady mused to herself( but loud enough for me to hear) “…yes pastor, all men are liars…” You and I both know they were obviously talking about different ‘men’.

And that has always left me asking the vital question, “Who is a man”…

a voice in the wilderness

The message of God,is a guide that is sure to those who seek His light. But those who reject faith is blind;their hearts are sealed.Woe to the hypocrites,self-deceived and deceiving others,with mockery on their lips and mischief in their hearts.The insincere man who thinks he can get the best of both worlds by compromising with good and evil only increases the disease in his heart,because he is not true to himself. Righteousness comes from a secure faith, from sincere devotion to God and from unselfish service to man,Our duty then is to seek the path of goodness,kindness upright conduct and charity;to grasp at no advantage from a believers need,to stand by the word that is pledged.To bear true witness,and remove all cause of misunderstanding in our dealings  with those of the faith.No good deed is fruitless,to be true in word and deeds is to hold our selfish desires at bay and follow Gods call.The wisdom in this revelation is a guide to the straight path and a warning against the terrible state in which the yokes of sin have enslaved us.No plots against truth or faith will succeed;But those who follow both will be strengthened.Be firm in the fight and God will guide you,Fidelity will cool the mind and feed the heart....."God I don't have great faith,but I can be faithful,my belief in you maybe seasonal,but my faithfulness in you will not.I will follow in your ways;I will act as though my life and the lives of others matter,I will love and live in thy word.I have no greater gift to offer you than my life.It is yours,do what you will"...AMEN !!!!!

religous sects

Over the centuries,Believers has divided into numerous denominations.Each denomination has it's own distinctive beliefs or practices,but they are commonly considered branches of the same religion because they agree on such fundamentals as the bible and the trinity.The way in which members regard other denominations varies from mutual respect and acceptance to suspicion and denial.Religious sects are groups of people with distinctive religious,political or philosophical beliefs.Although, in the past it was mostly used to refer to religious groups,it has since expanded and in modern culture can refer to any organization that breaks away from a larger one to follow a different set of rules and principles.The word sect comes from the Latin noun secta;which means to follow an beaten path,and figuratively a prescribed way,mode or manner,and hence a discipline or school of thought as defined by a set of methods and doctrines.There are several different sociological definitions and descriptions for the term.Church-sects are describe as newly formed groups that formed to protest elements of their parent religion.Their motivation tends to be situated in accusations of apostasy or heresy in the parent denomination;they are often decrying liberal trends in denominational development and advocating a return to the true religion,and assert the claim to be authentic,purged and a refurbished version from the faith from which they split,inspired variously by new interpretations of the bible and the teachings of new prophets and teachers/thinkers.All claiming to be the right way or the only true path to God.How can one determine which one is correct or if ,in fact,correct at all? The method by which the answer can be found is to clear away the superficial differences in the teaching of the various claimants to the ultimate truth and identify the central object of worship to which they call directly or indirectly.What most of them have in common is one basic concept with regards to God.They either claim that all men are gods or that specific men were God.From my reading it is said that I AM GOD and besides ME there is NO OTHER!!!!Gods people die from lack of knowledge,,return unto the LORD that HE may heal you.....