What's Your Favorite Jesus


For some reason, the various Jesuses are not discussed much in the Christian press. It takes the secular press to explain the differences. Author Eric Lane wrote about his experience of moving from one area of the U.S. where one version of Jesus prevailed to another with a very different Jesus.

It's worth reviewing the whole Jesus thing we find in the Bible. First of all, no one in the Bible claims to have talked to or even saw the living Jesus. Yet, there are pages and pages of "quotes" of Jesus. The modern way of talking about this lack of credibility is to say, "We in Christianity have a tradition of claiming to know what Jesus said." It's much nicer to say it that way instead of telling the truth. The truth is many people made up many pages of Jesus quotes and falsely claimed they knew Jesus said these things.

Author said the area where he first lived taught that the real Jesus was the one portrayed by the Sermon on the Mount. This Jesus was big on profound moral and ethical standards. He called his followers not to just love and peace but also humility, integrity and trust in God. 

Then the author moved to Texas and learned that all those nice things about Jesus were not the real guy. The Texas Jesus is found in Revelations. That Jesus is King of Kings and Lord of Lords. His word is the law. And the law is carried out with an iron hand. The Texas Jesus is angry, vengeful, aggressive, forceful and militant. 

The founders of our nation seemed aware of the two Jesuses and did not want the Texas one to be the religion of the land. We today also must be aware of the Texas Jesus and keep it from getting even further into our government than it is already. Anti gay and anti abortion are not the Sermon on the Mount Jesus. They are the Texas Jesus.

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