Who made the decision

[Steve Consilvio]

Perhaps the question you ask could be phrased differently: Why is Jesus the alpha and the omega? And secondarily, how does that correlate to God, as father?


Jesus was born as an animal in the barn, and then became the subject of a government inquiry. The powers of this world feared an infant, and wanted to kill him. That is pretty low station to begin. Yet, he also had the power of miracles, healing, and was even able to raise himself from the dead. That is a very high spot. Inbetween, he was stripped naked, paraded through the streets, mocked, jeered, spit upon, etc., before he was crucified. Again, a very lowly position. Yet, the last words out of his mouth were not dispair, they were forgiveness 'Forgive them, they know not what they do.'


(You are focusing n the despair, not the forgiveness, which is in line with your pessimist interpretation of all these events).


Of course, others have suffered, too. Nothing that happened to Jesus was unique. Man has brutaized one another for a very long time. What is unique are the extremes of his life. Can we agree that Jesus represents the alpha and omega?


As the alpha and omega, that puts him above all of humanity, while sharing all of the human elements of humanity. He suffered as we suffered; he loved and forgave far more than what we will ever need to forgive. We are all 'middlers.' We give out both good and evil, and receive both good and evil.


Is Jesus God? He is generally referred to as the Son of God. You object to the trinity; I think you know my position on that score. One could easily ask why Abraham, Moses, Jacob, Isaiah, Mohammad? Why aren't they God, too? Why are they saints and prophets, but not 'the Son of God?' The short answer is because scripture tells us so, but to me, the alpha and omega description fits Jesus, whereas it does not fit the others.


Why does scripture make Jesus so special? That is a tough question. Why does the world unfold the way it does? My theory is that in the afterlife God wants to be surrounded by those who have the capacity to love and forgive and to reason through questions of virtue and faith. Basically, he wants to be surrounded by people like himself. Our life is our test. Jesus is an example we can all aspire to, but Jesus does not say to pray to Jesus, he says to pray to God. (Our Father...)


Do some Christians err in making Jesus too special? Perhaps, but no more than others err in making him not special enough. He is a gateway, and his life serves as a reminder that whatever we are going through, we can handle it. Jesus has a purpose that is unique. He brings things together that were never brought together before. Don't forget, we have the benefit of 2000 years of hindsight, which nobody else enjoyed.


At the end of the day, our faith is what we individually make it. None of the labels (Christians, Muslim, etc) mean anything. God will not be checking our ID to see what clubs we belonged to, and how well we fulfilled the arbitrary rules of a particular group-think. The comparison will be made against Jesus: how much love and forgiveness and teaching of faith did we give out?


Just as people can give out hate and revenge, they can also teach against faith. We are middlers, and can be good one second and bad the next. We can state a truth and then a lie in the same paragraph. You need to discern it for yourself, just as I have to discern which is which for myself.


To answer your question, God made a unilateral decision to give us Jesus, just as he made a unilateral decision to give us all the prophets. God can create the universe, the Holy Spirit, and Jesus. He can make other Gods, too, I guess, just as we can make other people. But the issue, for me, is not as much to understand God's organizational chart, but to understand my role and my life. Whose example should I follow? Muhammad, Moses, Isaiah etc are all good examples, but Jesus is better. Jesus was a gift to us.


Do not be so concerned with the sins of others, be concerned about the others themselves. Sins are quickly made and quickly forgiven. It is not a sin to pray, even if praying to Jesus. Rather, make your own self right, and be an example. We will never escape being a middler, but we can always be better. Some find strenghth through Jesus, Abraham, Moses, Mohammad, Isaiah, Mary, etc., but all that strength still comes from God. I don't think anybody will deny that.


We all worship <i>with</i> one another, the living and the dead. You wrote <i>This is The Core of Interest here. Who should you worship.</i> Worship is a holy word, but ultimately means love. Whom should we love? Everybody, even our enemy. There is nobody whom we should not love, and worship through acts of kindness and forgiveness. Worshiping God is an extension of how we live. We do not worship God and ignore other things. All is one.


As I have said before, you are creating false divisions unnecessarily. Rather than seeing what makes things different, see what makes things the same. Both involve comparative analysis. I find the way you think very interesting, but it also troubles me. I suspect that you are missing some great joys of faith: the realization of how similar we all are, in our strengths and in our weaknesses.

"Father, into your hands I commit my spirit." When he had said this, he breathed his last.

That is our finality. The ending of Jesus was the same as all of us, ...but it was not the end; only the end of our understanding.