Dividing Jesus and Paul

Jesus. The rational decision is to opt for the good, for it is the only way that you can have any hope. Otherwise you are lost to evil directly, or to absurd absence/negation, or thirdly also to evil, but now by virtue of a just and morally judging God. And so that your very own rationality tells you that. I am teaching you nothing new. Now what comes next is this. This is what I am telling you: those who seek with all their hearts and their strengths to love their neighbor, all others in the world, as they love themselves, they will awaken to a delightful banquet in the presence of my Abba/Daddy, and they will be so happy. But to the others, those who choose evil or absurdity and guide your lives accordingly, I tell you in all utter truth (and what you yourselves already know of yourselves):* you will be left to fend for yourselves. That is the teaching of Jesus.

[* One is reminded of Luke's story, where Jesus refused to judge between two brothers.]

The world is being divided now in terms of good and evil, light and darkness, meaning and void. Jesus announces as fact what is coming next. A judgment by God as to whether you should be admitted to the table of his son, or whether you should simply be left outside, come what may.

It’s up to you, Jesus cries to all. "Join me in a dedication to the Law of Love in all that you aim at in your life, and I promise you with my life and my death that you will not be disappointed that you chose to help the poor for my sake. I promise you that with my life and my death. In these you will see the truth of what I am telling you. You will see it in my life and in my death and in my resurrection Come and follow me!"*

[* [And to his friends: "you beloved will see me in my transcendent glory that I have hidden from those who choose to go the way of the world, but show you, my beloved, beause you have known me personally and have loved me. The rest of the world must take it on your words and deeds for me. Understand that, most beloved of all for ever, what you do will now be the story, for they will believe that I have risen only when they see it in you, beloved of my Daddy. Do what you do in rememberance of me."]

Jesus: This is the truth that you know yourselves to be true. There is only one rational way to go and that is the way of making yourselves worthy of happiness, of a Happy End to the story, the final judgment when the banquet table set for the Risen Lord is finally ready, which is only a matter of time.

In a word: Jesus divides all people into the good and the lost-in-evil and tells them they all shall reap what they deserve. The only way out of the horror is to resolve to exemplify the spirit of Jesus and to join with him and kindred others in a united assault on evil. A common endeavor.

Paul. we turn to Paul’s thinking. Paul’s thinking is in the context of the gentile, for his commission is to bring hope to those who were outside of the law of "good and evil" (actually "clean and unclean"??) that had ruled the Jews and had tempered Jesus speech through a Jewish vernacular and symbolism.

Paul is dealing with people (like me) who are caught up in sin, namely a condition where someone is drawn to a violation of the law of love. Jesus has called people to put on the good, and the implication is that perfection is expected, but people are so weak and are caught up in the sin of disbelief (in Jesus’s Abba/Daddy) that they stumble and fail and become discouraged.

And so a promise has to be made and that promise is this; if with all your strength you seek me you shall ever surely find me, the Christ. And so all that is required is your sincere intention. If you sin, do not be discouraged. And it is for this reason that Jesus was willing to die for you (through Barabbas) so that you might have a second chance, and then he rose on your behalf to show you (his lovers) that what he had said was true, and that if they will simply do the very best that they can, then they will most certainly be at his table, as a welcome guest, a puny but sincere follower of the Lord. Sincerity is all that counts with Christ.

And so the atoning death and resurrection was Jesus’s gift to those who need it most, the sinners, and it is not for those who know of their own righteousness, for they don’t have any need. Only the sinner has need, and it is for them that Jesus came.

Now, of course, Paul would interject his own opinion. There is a natural evil in the human soul that makes him want to take advantage of situations, a devilish domination act, and that remains with him, the sin of the flesh, that constantly pulls at us, to draw us away from adherence to duty as Champions of Christ (and this evil is in all, Christian and non-Christian alike). And so there is a natural tendency to choose the evil way and I do not think that anyone is able to overcome that natural tendency on his own, and so all men should want to come to Christ (but this is only possible as sinners). It only makes sense to opt for the sinner route. Admit that you are a sinner and the blood of Jesus availith for you, for you will stand alone before Christ and it will be between just the two of you (Romans 14:4) and he will know your sincerity and will bid you to rise. No one will be there with you. Paul won't be there. You have nothing to worry about, for he sees you as you are in your spirit and loves you for that. Be ready to stand before your Lord in the only way you can, by trusting him and working always again and again to stay on his path. He will not disappoint you. You will be at his banquet table and not on the floor as some have once thought was required of the thief who died with Jesus. Such people want to make judgments of their brother or sister in Christ. We are the servants of Christ and he alone will be the one to judge us, and we know already in our hearts how we stand, and have we, thank God, have an advocate in him before his Daddy and his Daddy delights in doing as Jesus bids.

Zachaeus. And so then in the Jesus story we have the Zaachaen Christian, one who follows the Lord by doing the best of his faith, which was paying back those whom he had cheated four fold, and then giving half of his wealth to the poor (in contrast to Saint Francis who gave all his wealth to the poor). He has no notion of Jesus’s atoning death and resurrection and yet enters into the Kingdom of God, and even though he had not given his all. The widow’s mite was all and so she was greater. But nevertheless the Lord still invites in to his banquet all those who simply do the best their faith and fears will let them, and there will be delights that are different but in all case delight. For example the widow in her joy, along with that of Francis, and the delight of Zachaeus who gave much more in dollars but less in faith. And the thief on the cross, he also gave all and would love and enjoy the Christ as much as Francis and the widow, for he gave the truth, all that he could do, and made the humble appeal of a worthless thief. And indeed he gave all he had. The sincerity is universal and identical, and it is only the strength of faith that varies and determines the various capacities for happiness.

To each according to his or her faith will the reward be, and all shall be happy and there shall be envy and no one will count anything as his own, nor ever shed a tear.

Implications for Paul. And so I suppose the self-proclaimed righteous man who declares no need of any assistance can be theoretically accepted, and then Paul can still say: I assure you that you are wrong, and that you would be well advised to get off of your high horse of self righteousness (for that is where I was*) and come to Christ as a sinner. Believe me. There is no man who is righteous before God. No one is worthy of admittance to the banquet. No one.

[* This then is the source of the confidence of Paul in his statement. He, as Saul, was self righteous and without blame before the law, and still fell so far short of the measure of the Christ. But he only realized it by means of a vision which was forced upon him. Then he saw how far short he had come from the righteousness of Jesus Christ, who would reach out to his worst enemy and make a servant and a friend out of him, the one to represent him to the hoards of. gentiles.]

And so I think the Christian evangelist should proclaim to the world that while it is theoretically possible that a man should be totally righteous, except for the miracle of Jesus no man in his right mind would think that utter righteousness likely enough to depend upon it as a course of life (and determinant of the trajectory in the next). Hence you are well advised to come to Christ as a sinner when you face him as the judge of the human race for the sake of his Abba/Daddy. Daddy has given Son the judgment of all the humans. His judgment will serve as the very judgment of Daddy himself. He declares someone to be his friend and to be admitted, and another not so and to be left outside. This is what is going to happen next. (Paul thinking Jesus's conception)

So then: the acceptance of Jesus Christ as Savior is not necessary for the righteous. But, keep in mind, the righteousness of Jesus will be seen as the standard, and it is not expected that that will ever be repeated, unless it be a work in those who have received the Holy Spirit (which in fact, the Wesleyans say, is progressive for most people, due to their weakness of faith). A man who is willing to proclaim himself sincerely as the replication of Jesus the Righteous, that man has no need of the atoning sacrifice of Jesus for Barabbas.

Practical Implementation. Now as far as practical matters are concerned, that will always be a process of unifying the law of love with one’s own sincere understanding of what helps and what hurts, and will depend upon conditions upon the ground, knowlege at the moment. If you think that evil giants appear as windmills and you are an enabled Champion of Christ then do what you can do, attack the windmills. Just do what you sincerely know is right in your heart, and trust in Christ and seek the truth, for the truth will set you free from the sin of ignorance and you will finally come to the right medicine. Just keep trying to be imitators of me (Paul) as I am of Christ. Husbands be good husbands in accordance with your sincere understanding. Everyone else do likewise. And then trust that the truth will arise and make us free, eventually, if we simply will not give up trying. It is your own sincerity that will be determinant between you and Christ. Do not fear. Jesus knows you as one human knows another, and he is able to make you stand. So do not be afraid. let’s look forward to the next that’s coming and strengthen ourselves in doing good. That is our calling in Christ. He bore his cross for us, and we now bear our cross for him. We have become one in Christ, the binity of spirit between Christ and each of his servants, each in absolute acceptance, but in a progress in faith, each happy, but some especially happy, and each taking happiness in the happiness of all the others. A party where all people are happy. A Happy End Party.

The promise to those on his path: trouble and crosses now, but a happy end finally. Join me (Jesus says) in order to join those who love because these are the only people worth spending eternity with. And do not give up hope for our quest of the perfect world, for our success is assured (Paul's interpretation).

Impliation for Muslims. Perhaps the best news for the Muslim here is the possibility, through the Risen Christ, to find the assurance with is totally lacking in Islam. Finally one can know for sure, by believing Paul's testimony to the Risen Christ.

Ishmael. Musing about the Arabian Abraham and (presumably) Ishmael. The only certitude of the highest pleasure palace for a Muslim lies in dying in the sincere belief that this is a command of their Allah, i.e., as a martyr. If Abraham was able to convey this to Ishamael, it stands to reason that Ishamael would have been willing to go along; indeed he would have been eager and delighted (like the images of Mohammed Atta today on the news, looking forward happily to the greatest of all the pleasure palace, where the fun never stops). And so if Abraham wanted an eager victim he would have told this to Ishamael, to make him want to go along, and take advantage of the opportunity that Abraham was offering him.

Indeed perhaps there is here a great love for Ishmael on the part of Abraham, such (and perhaps he even believed this himself) that he would want to spare his precious child all the ills that would light upon him in this life, and with the possibility of some overpowering temptation that would ruin the forever forever. In this light then he took can take on the identity of someone who is luney by todays standards and in that way we can forgive him.

This the is the moral solution to the Arabian tale of Abraham. He sincerely beleives in rewards and he knows that Allah is absolute just and infaliable and he looks upon this command of Allah as a favor to him, in his great love. An opportunity to spare his son all the heartaches of longer life with great delight instead. And so in this way we can look upon Abraham as a man of great love, but of questionable understanding (according to our standards), and very much like the lunancy of the Jewish Abraham (Palmquist's solution).

And so Abraham is morally rescued from the tight grasp of Immanuel Kant and is shown to be one of the most loving fathers who ever lived, who was willing to give up what he most loved and delighted in, the joy of his life, he very own beautiful Prince of all sons, for the sake of that same son, that Abraham might love him in the greatest way possible.

Abraham the assistant to the magician and Abraham the good Don Quixote, in both cases they are preserved from the blame of immoral actions. And thanx to Kant for even suggesting the indictment against Abraham that occasioned this quest for moral acceptability of the sire of all of the People of the Book.

Now perhaps some advantage can be taken by the evangelist. What is required is that of Abraham the Lover and not Abraham the Slave. Abraham is a very clever man to take advantage of Allah's command to insure the happiness of his child, at the great expense of his own happiness (the absence of the child). I did not expect that the great icon of Islam would turn out to be a great icon of the love of God for his children, i.e., Abraham exhibited the spirit of Jesus Christ.

Impact on Muslims. Musing further: the Christian evangelists can now call out to the Muslim and say: your own icon of Abraham can be easily understood as a reflection of the spirit of Christ which had been set loose in the world. And so in this way we can see that Mohammed's Allah is a good God, for like the Jews he holds them in bondage to law for their own well being like children, and then presents to them the Christ when they are ready to grow up. He was there all along, in the bosom of the amazing Koran. Christ's own sign delivered through the good offices of Allah. Don't choose to see Abraham as the Great Immoral Slave but as the Love of Christ set free in the heart of Abraham. Choose freedom over slavery, and especially that of the worst kind: self inflicted.

Muslim Assurance. There is simply no assurance in Islam except via martyrdom (which has until now also been mistakingly thought to condone the killing of innocent children). The most that be expected is to do the best one can and hope that that gets you over Allah's threshhold of pain, according to his grading curve, and into something at least satisfactory for eternity. This is never more than a hope, that Allah is basically in a good mood. And there is always the hope of spying someone less submissive than yourself. A hope. A hope. Hope is good. Hope keeps alive and makes one willing to go on without giving up.

But what a far cry indeed from the assurance that comes through those who witnessed the great Unveiling, the resurrection of their beloved Jesus. Through them and Jesus' special messanger, Paul, hope was guaranteed and became assurance, an assurance grounded via the faith that Abraham exemplified, for then the convert can know that it was for them who are weak that Jesus came to die, for the poorest and even most undeserving outcasts like Barabbas. And all they needed to do to find the salvation, i.e., knowlege of one's acceptance at the banquet table of Jesus, is to trust in this death and to do the very best that they can do, i.e., strive.* Believe Jesus died for you so that "you might become perfectly righteous, and so now do your part and take up your own cross and follow me and do what I do, for then you will be perfect even as your Abba/Daddy in heaven is perfect. Your faith will carry you through and will save you. Fear not when you stumble. My grace is enough for you. There is a Happy End and it is with me in paradise. Come, join me, I will help you along. It is well worth it."

[* It is especially for the latter that prompted Kant to declare the Christian religion to be the only moral religion in recorded history.]

Impact on Islam. Now it is possible for Mohammed to have received an actual dictation of God which can be now interpreted as we can Israel's revelations, at least partly. According to this hypothesis, Mohammed was given a set of laws to hold the Arabian people in check and force them under these severe laws to maintain an orderly and preserving socieity. But at the right time, it is revealed in the great Koran itself the Love of Christ expressed in Abraham himself (perhaps not unlike Don Quixote), in order then to announce to Islam that the Christ has come, the expected one has come, and he comes as a gentile Christian, as Abraham came, a gentile. The Arabs have been protected by the Koran long enough now to see what was there all the time in this amazing book. It is time for them to now grow up and become adults and cast off the law of Allah. Now like the Jews before them they can enter not as Jews but as gentiles. Hopefully they will not refuse the opportunity as did most of the Jews, who preferred externally imposed laws and the hope that obedience means that their children and grandchildren will be ok. Hopefully the Muslim will now trump the Jew, as predicted by Paul himself, and enter into the Paulian Christian faith, leaving only the Jews standing fanaticly on the other side of the clear truth of even their own scriptures, adherring to their externally rendered laws of an antique purpose. For all the Jews have to do is just to believe their own scriptures to know that they were finally to be set aside for the sake of human liberty and the door opened to all and so then where finally the Jews must also enter themselves, but lastly.

Reconciliation of Peterians and Paulians. All Christians will acknowledge the supremacy of the Bishop of Rome in pronouncing the truth of the Holy Spirit on all matters. It will be understood that the summary of all of his edicts is the Three Loves of Christ: neighbor as self, fellow Christian more than self, God beyond expression, that this summary is all that the Paulians are expected to take as binding on them from the utterances of this good Bishop, and which is what they have already bound themselves to anyway. In this way the two great Congregations are united again under the auspices of the Pope, the Successor to Peter. Whether the Paulians (such as Episcopalians) are allowed to sup with the Peterians (Roman Catholics), I can only hope so, both following the sound advice of Romans 14, especially verse 4.

The greatest material benefit of such a reconciliation is the focus that can be placed on the Roman Catholic sense of community, which, as Peterian, will be based on the commune of the then First Church Jerusalem. Now the Paulians can examine this conception and see if it might not also work for the gentiles. Instead of a godless communism, it could be a godly communism, and what a difference that will make!

Role of Minorities. Women will be equal of men in the Paulian congregation (we think with Paul, but while using our own understanding of things, just as Paul used his own understanding), but not so with the Peterians. Homosexuals will be welcomed into the Paulian congregation, but not the Petrian. Left handers, I assume, will be welcomed by both. Both options, Paulian and Petrian, are authorized by the scritpure, and although they are different, and are so by the analogy of the left and right hand. Both congregations are a perfect representative of the church and the church continues when only one of the congregations is alive. And the church will continue as long as one of the two is alive and well, either or both together: the Peterian or the Paulian. In a like manner as long as a left hand or a right hand exists we will have a perfect representation of a hand. They are the same and different, not unlike the conception of a trinity.