Jesus had a near death experience, Thomas Jefferson was an idiot, and other St. Luke's Episcopal Church Tiny Kingdom black sheep heresies

     In the fall of 1995, St. Luke's Episcopal Church, my mother's church, in which I was Confirmed, hosted a series of presentations by a noted Episcopal theologian. At the invitation of a lawyer friend, I attended one presentation. 

    The noted theologian said the resurrection of Lazarus from the dead was not a resurrection but was a resuscitation, and not a miracle, whereas Jesus died and was resurrected from the dead, and that was a miracle. 

    The audience was allowed to speak. I left my pew and walked to the podium in the center isle and said I'd had some training in herbs, and I had learned aloe is a powerful wound healer and myrrh incites lymphocyte production to fight infection. Why was a hundred weight of those herbs put on Jesus' body if he was dead?

John 19:39-40 New American Standard Bible - NASB 1995(NASB1995)Nicodemus, who had first come to Him by night, also came, bringing a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about a hundred pounds weight. So they took the body of Jesus and bound it in linen wrappings with the spices, as is the burial custom of the Jews.

    The esteemed theologian said he was not familiar with that science. St. Luke's head priest said it was according to the burial custom of the Jews. 

    Later over dinner,  my lawyer friend said he understood what I was driving at, but he chose to believe Jesus physically died and was resurrected. I said, and Lazarus was dead longer than Jesus was in the tomb, and Lazarus was not resurrected? 

    Recently, I joined a discussion at the World Deists Union Facebook group.

Frankie Waves Top contributor · 
The simple truth of the matter is Jesus does not exist…

Sloan Bashinsky
Do you bet your life and your soul on that?

Frankie Waves
Sloan Bashinsky 1776 traitor… the rule of law will be enforced!

Sloan Bashinsky

Frankie Waves looks to me, thr Declaration of Independence recognized a Creator that gave unalienable rights only to white men. Yet even its allege author, a slaveholder, who had a black slave mistress, recognize Jesus had existed, when he made The Jefferson Bible out of what he deemed relevant in the Gospels about Jesus.

I am not a Christian, but I have had direct experiences with the being Christians call Jesus, and I have had direct experiences with angels known in the Bible. I was raised Christian, but along the way things happened that moved me past believing into knowing God exists, and I sometimes tell Christians they are saved by Jesus to the extent they live as he lived and taught people to live.

This poem fell out of me in the spring of 1994, when I was in the 3rd year of what would be a 4-year dark night of the soul, which came up on me and there was nothing I could do about it, and it left the next year, after I had 3 spontaneous visions that clearly were not of this world. Anyway, here's the poem that seems to sum up God and humanity's relationship thereto about as well as anything.

"Earth, the sacred prism through which souls are refracted into their elemental parts, purified in Holy Fire, then one-forged and sent on their way to not even God knows where, simply because they are all unique emanations of God, evolving..."

Perhaps you should hope, or pray, that God doesn't take a direct interest in you and all of a sudden you don't wonder, believe, reason, or doubt God exists- you know God exists, as surely as you know when you are having an orgasm or hit your thumb with a hammer or take a poop. 

Rebecca AnnTop contributor
The existence of Jesus the man has yet to be factually proven but also yet to be factually disproven. What you choose to believe is your own personal view. However virtually all scholars of antiquity seem to be in agreement that the historical human Jesus existed. My statements are researchable.

Frankie Waves
Rebecca Ann no proof of rising from the dead… and flying out into space… therefore suicide (extremism)

Rebecca Ann
Frankie Waves there is absolutely no proof of that. Also, no proof of any suicide. However, having studied ancient cultures a fair amount myself, I can say with measured certainty that Romans used crucifixion as a means of execution. 

Frankie Waves
Rebecca Ann toxic… the anonymous authors thought the three days and rise was a good idea for our character…

Rebecca Ann
Frankie Waves I am speaking about the scholars and researchers that are published today, those that specialize in the study of ancient times. I’m not referring to the anonymous authors of so-called scripture. The researchers today hold a consensus that a man called Jesus, who did preach, existed.

Frankie Waves
Yeah but we don’t want to associate suicide with love… they are not connected… too extreme…

Frankie Waves
Remember it is the light from the sun which lifts everyone up, regardless of position… especially with a collective reverence… only the blind suffer and even they still feel it’s warmth… science may find a cure soon too!

Rebecca Ann
Frankie Waves I like that.

Joe Robinson
Rebecca Ann If proof were needed that a Man named Jesus existed comes from the Koran who acknowledge Jesus as a great Prophet.
It is also held by many Philosophers and Scientists that a Man named Jesus existed but nowhere is there any evidence that he was a “God”. The idea that he was a “God” comes from organized religion who deified Jesus in order to use him for their nefarious operations in gaining wealth and power from their Parishioners.

Sloan Bashinsky
I was born and raised in Christianity. I don't think Jesus ever claimed in the Gospels that he was God. I recall he said the Father and he were one, and if you saw him, you saw the Father. In Gethsemane, he prayed, "Not my will, by your Will, be done, O Lord." In modern lingo, Jesus in the Gospels claimed to be an avatar infused with God. As for suicide, Jesus in the Gospels had to know what would happen if.he kept shooting off his mouth and infuriating and scaring the shit out of the Jewish hierarchy and even the Roman government. As for the crucifixion described in the Gospels and the resurrection also described there, two secret disciples got permission from Pilate to take Jesus down from the cross the same day he was nailed to it. They slathered him with 100 weight of aloes and myrrhs and wrapped his body in linen and took his body to the tomb of one of the disciples. Aloe is a potent wound healer. Myrrh incites lymphocyte production to fight infection. Linen is a sterile bandage. Today there are lots of reports of Near Death experiences. Where do Deists stand on NDE's? Jesus in the Gospels had a NDE. There are reports of him walking and talking with people after he left the tomb. There are reports he later was in India. I think it is ludicrous to claim that Jesus did not exist. Frankie Waves did not claim that. Frankie posted. "Jesus does not exist." Being inclined to be a prick at times. I asked Frankie in my first comment here, "Do you bet your life and your soul on that?" So far, Frankie has laid low. That tells me volumes. If Jesus never existed, that makes the Deist who wrote the Declaration of Independence out to be an idiot. Why? Because that idiot cut and pasted from a Bible many of Jesus's sayings in the Gospels into his own book, which became known as The Jefferson Bible.

sloanbashinsky@yahoo.com