The Jesus Papers – Book Review

Dear Readers,

Do you like conspiracy theory books?  Today I read, The Jesus Papers; by author Michael Baigent. This is a very provocative book that is similar to Dan Brown’s; The Da Vinci Code. It’s written from a historian perspective rather than a novel format.

The book begins with the introduction; May 28, 1291, The Holy Land: Acre, the Crusader Kingdom’s last port city, lay in ruins. The Arab armies of Khalil al-Ashraf, the young Sultan of Egypt, had first besieged and then attacked the city. The last capitol of the Christian Kingdom was finished. This was a battle between The Marshal of the Templars and the Sultan.

Michael Baigent gives the Templars credit for introducing the power of money over the sword by means of checks and safe financial transfers from city to city and country to country. They helped open a space for the middle class-according to Michael.

He and Richard Leigh wrote Holy Blood, Holy Grail. They believe in an important bloodline, a dynasty; that of the Jewish royal lineage, the line of David. They believe the line of David lives in Southern France; a descendant from the marriage of Jesus and Mary Magdalene. The wedding at Cana was Jesus and Mary’s wedding. When Jesus turned the water into wine, they were Mr. and Mrs. Christs—according to Michael and Leigh.

In Chapter one Michael writes, during his twenty-year search, he believed when Jesus was crucified, he either had a child by his wife or she was pregnant.

He also writes, both kings and high priests were anointed and were thus a meshiha, a messiah.  In fact, he writes, from as early as the second century B.C. the term “messiah” was used to name a legitimate king of Israel, one of the royal line of David, who was expected to appear and to rule. According to the Gospels, through his Father, Jesus was of the Line of David; through his mother, he was of the line of Aaron the high priest.

Michael restates several times in this book; in his book Holy Blood, Holy Grail, the wedding at Cana was Jesus and Mary’s wedding. He believes at the crucifixion, Mary already had Jesus’ baby or was pregnant with Jesus’ baby. He claims; if Jesus was unmarried and celibate, Paul would have told us. He admits there is no proof to support his allegation; only circumstantial evidence. He cites the 1977 publication, Nag Hammadi; the Gospel of Philip. Also The Gospel of Mary as his evidence.

His book centers around the concept; The Church is at pains to conceal secrets about Jesus. One incident he cites; Jesus entered Jerusalem on a donkey. He believes Matthew’s account is filled with cover-ups. He explains his theories in detail.

Michael Baigent also questions Jesus’ death on the cross. In this book, he analyses details in the bible and cross references them with his own understanding of history. He believes God’s Word is impregnated with cover-ups—thus the cover text; Exposing the Greatest Cover-Up in History.

He believes the Church is covering up Jesus’ life on Earth and offers no solid proof to support his claims.

To be fair, I reread John 2: 1-11-NIV; Jesus Changes Water to Wine. “On the third day a wedding took place at Cana in Galilee. Jesus’ mother was there, and Jesus and his disciples had also been invited to the wedding. When the wine was gone, Jesus’ mother said to him, They have no more wine.”

“Dear woman, why do you involve me?” Jesus replied. “My time has not yet come.”

His mother said to the servants, “Do whatever he tells you.”

Nearby stood six, stone water jars, the kind used by the Jews for ceremonial washing, each holding from twenty to thirty gallons.

Jesus said to the servants, “Fill the jars with water”; so they filled them to the brim.

Then he told them, “Now draw some out and take it to the master of the banquet.”

They did so, and the master of the banquet tasted the water that had been turned into wine. He did not realize where it had come from, though the servants who had drawn the water knew. Then he called the bridegroom aside and said, “Everyone brings out the choice wine first and then the cheaper wine after the guests have had too much to drink; but you have saved the best till now.”

This, the first of his miraculous signs, Jesus performed at Cana in Galilee. He thus revealed his glory, and his disciples put their faith in him. 

I believe God’s Word is flawless and perfect—without cover-up; and to be followed as written—not manipulated or twisted.  I disagree with Michael Baigent or anyone else’s theory that the wedding in Cana was a wedding between Jesus and Mary Magdalene. And that Mary was either pregnant or had Jesus’ child before the crucifixion.

I also disagree with Michael’s conclusion that if Jesus was unmarried and celibate, Paul would have told us. Because something isn’t stated, doesn’t presume it to be non-factual.

In my opinion, Dan Brown’s novel, The Da Vinci Code, was entertaining fiction about the same fantasy hypothesis. I read the book and watched the movie. I’m a big Tom Hanks fan. Michael Baigent’s novel, The Jesus Papers, is about the same topic while also fiction; but, without the writing skills. 

As Christians, it’s imperative that we believe the Bible is flawless, perfect, and without cover-ups. After all, it is God’s Holy Word. Could it be anything else?

May good fortune guide your path,

J.A. Ireland

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A Bible Story – David; Saul; and Jealousy

   Dear Faith Readers,

   Being a life-long scripture reader, God's Word has helped me to understand many trials. However, by understanding my plights, that hasn’t always made me feel better. Often times the increased anxiety of wisdom is equally painful.

   Just like today, in many of my favorite bible passages, the character in the story goes through horrific trials. Knowing that my biblical brothers and sisters suffered for their faith doesn’t always help me to feel better.

A Bible Story - David and Saul

   You probably think I’m referring to  Job.  His testing is considered by many to be the harshest in the history of mankind.  I don’t know if that's true or not since testings go on every day in God’s kingdom. I have read about many testings. I have also endured many of my own testings – some more severe than others.

   I'm referring to the trials that David endured. If you recall, Saul and his armies had been pursuing him  for some time. Saul’s goal was to kill David. In the cave, David had an opportunity to kill Saul and spared his life; he crept behind him.

   Have you ever known someone who is truly gifted? That was David. He was gifted in music, in appearance, and in battle skills. Everything about him displayed God’s favor. Were all of those gifts and recognition easy for him to live with? David would have been the first person to say no. These gifts caused jealousy. His gifts also caused him to sin.

   God speaks about jealousy in Exodus 20:17, You shall not covet…

   In 1 Samuel 18.6,7; When the men returned home after battle, the women sang the praises about and to David for slaying ten times as many Philistines as Saul. Saul burned with jealousy. In Vs. 10, God put an evil spirit into Saul. I believe just like with Saul, God uses evil spirits for his work today. If  someone is jealous, that is an invitation for trouble – an open door for temptation.

   It can be very difficult to accept that someone  simply has more gifts. It is important to accept that fact and don’t fall into jealous temptation. That was true in David’s time and it’s true in our time. It will be true in the future. Jealousy is a dangerous temptation. Follow God's Word and make the personal decision to avoid the trap.

   In Christ's Service,

   Shepard Cross

 

A Public Faith – Book Review

To My Christian Readers,

I read another interesting book today; A Public Faith by author and Yale professor, Miroslav Volf. In the introduction he writes, debates are raging today about the role of religions in public life, and it is not difficult to see why. Religions of all faiths are on the rise. In a provocative statement he writes, religious people fear impositions—different faiths fear each other.

He argues; Unlike those who think religion should stay out of politics, religious people ought to be free to bring their visions to the good life into the public sphere – into politics as well as other aspects of public life. It would be oppressive to prohibit them from doing so.  The author adds, some refer to this as religious totalitarianism; the ghosts that haunts discussions of the role of public religion today. He cites Sayyid Qutb’s Milestones, to sketch his point.

Miroslav designates a religious political pluralism, emerged within Christianity, but it is not the Christian position.

He explores three questions. One; In what ways does the Christian Faith malfunction into the contemporary world, and how should we counter these malfunctions. Two; What should be the main concern of Christ’s Followers when it comes to living in the world today. Third; How should Christ’s followers go about realizing their visions of living well in today’s world in a relationship to other faiths and together with people with whom they live under the roof of a single state.

In chapter two; Idleness, he states his three reasons for idle faith. One; the character of believers—shallow faith. Two; very little effort put into their faith. Three; their faith has very little meaning to them—irrelevant faith. He also states, many Christians turn from faith due to materialism.

He believes God is not a demander; God is a giver. He further believes, the more we reduce faith to vague religiosity that serves primarily to energize, heal, and give meaning to the business of life whose course is shaped by factors other than faith, the worse off we will be.

He writes, Christians have used and continue to use their faith to legitimize violence they deem necessary, and they have done so on a massive scale. Misconceptions of the Christian Faith mirror the wide spread misbehavior of Christians.

I Sharing Wisdom, he writes, we live in an age of great conflicts and petty hopes. Petty hopes generate self-subverting melancholy experiences.

Although Miroslav Volf’s book, A Public Faith, was interesting, I detected  almost from the beginning a lack of passion or personal understanding for his topic; rather, a tremendous amount of research rewritten.  I felt he used the words Christian and Christianity far too loosely. I detected a lack of personal understanding of the topics.  He somewhat validated my suspicions in his conclusion, With these eight points I trust I have sufficiently attended to the problem of faith’s coerciveness – at the level of theory, of course, not at the level of practice.

I will admit to disconnecting emotionally from this book in the second chapter when he stated his reasons why Christians turn from their faith—shallow faith, no effort, and irrelevant faith. From my experiences, many people turn away from faith and churches as an act of emotional survival of the moment. When a heart has been broken by betrayal, hypocrisy, or an act of evil by a church or church associate, the only viable option is to run; then try to understand why—later. I have seen this wreck a person’s faith far more than this author’s reasons. That is why I suggest this author is lacking person experience in his topic.

Having said that, the book, A Public Faith, was interesting to read. I only recommend that someone reads it from the point of view of a very successful college professor who is well studied in his trade but probably has never experienced the heartache that church members can cause.

In Christ’s Service,

Shepard Cross

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The Greatest Prayer – Book Review

Christian Readers,

Recently I spent an afternoon reading John Dominic Crossan’s book, The Greatest Prayer. Let me start by saying; John has a real appreciation for linguistics, parallelisms, and rhetorical effects. He spends a great deal of the book describing his views and analogies on how the Lord’s Prayer was written using these metaphorical techniques.

The Lord’s Prayer, according to John, is Christianity’s greatest prayer. He believes the Lord’s Prayer is one; a prayer from the heart of Judaism on the lips of Christianity for the conscience of the world. Two; a radical manifesto and a hymn of hope for all humanity in languages addressed to all the earth.  

He feels the Lord’s Prayer was written using synonymous and crescendo parallelisms.

John asks the question, If the “Our Father” is prayed by God’s Spirit within and through us, to whom and for what is that prayer uttered? Are we praying for God’s intervention, or is God praying for our collaboration? If Paul can summarize the entire prayer in its opening cry, “Abba, the Father!” how is the rest of that prayer contained in its inaugural address?  

He feels Matthew’s version of the Lord’s Prayer is a well-crafted, carefully organized, and poetically structured hymn—poetic parallelism. The primary and fundamental name of God is a verbal paradox just as the burned-but-not-burned bush is a visual one.  In effect, John states, “My name is the unnamable one.”

John Crossan describes Daniels vision of the kingdom of God coming down from heaven to earth as a eschatological vision. He describes it as God’s Great Divine Cleanup of the World; worldwide peace, banquet, and equality.

He believes this divine cleanup does not begin, cannot continue, and will not conclude without our divinely empowered participation and transcendentally driven collaboration. He also believes it will be nonviolent.

Why is God’s Will more difficult for us than God’s name or kingdom? John writes, God’s Will is an anthropomorphic or human word.

In the chapter; Your Will Be Done on Earth, John sights, 1938 Hitler’s Nazi Germany and the holocaust, Dr. Martin Luther King JR’s assassination, and the execution of Jesus. These are examples of catastrophic events that he asks how it could have been God’s Will. As Christians, we understand that Jesus’ crucifixion was God’s Will. He asks, how could other cataclysmic events be God’s Will as well? John offers no hypothesis for this question after posing it.

He also states, the question is not whether God will forgive this or that sin, but whether there is anything God will not forgive, even-or especially-our lack of human forgiveness.

John Dominic Crossan’s book, The Greatest Prayer, was interesting to read. He believes strongly in the topic with a love for linguistics.

He raised the timeless question; how can a loving God allow such evil in this world as the holocaust, assassinations, etc.  Sadly, he raised the question without offering his opinion of a possible answer.

If you have a heart for Bible analysis, like I do, and can allow for John’s frequency of linguistics, parallelisms, and rhetorical effects, his book will probably be at least somewhat interesting for you. I will admit to skimming through many redundant areas; John tends to overstate his points.

 Blessings,

Shepard Cross

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Shepard Cross - The Christian Writer

My name is Shepard Cross.  I'm a writer who lives in America, with my family.

Like many families, we've experienced our share of God's Blessings.  

In this blog, I will  write about God's Forgiveness, Love, and Blessings.

As a Spiritual Writer, I'm writing fictional novels about how God changes lives and his Blessings.

My first book, Waiting for the Sunrise, is available on Kindle. You can read it Free in the lending library.

If you have a change to read my novel, please tell me what you think. I'd love to here from you. You can email me at shepardcrossblessings3@gmail.com.

With best wishes,

Shepard Cross

Counting Our Blessings

Dear Faith Readers,

When God Carries  Us

Like many christian families, we count our blessings.

I'll write about the things in my fictional character's lives that are Blessings From God.

In my first novel, Waiting for the Sunrise, God's Blessings came after forgiveness and during a time of great turmoil.  If you have a chance to read my spiritual, fiction, novel, leave a moment and tell me what you think. I'd love to hear from you. 

Thanks for reading,

Shepard Cross