Setting aside the problem that the Old Testament never makes any mention of God changing his rules for salvation (which were to love him and obey all his laws), by deciding to use a human sacrifice of a man/god to atone for the sins of mankind, the claim that Jesus was perfect and sinless needs to be examined.
The Bible establishes that Jesus was holy and sinless in the following verses:
Heb 4:14-15
Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has gone through the
heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to the faith we profess.
For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our
weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we
are--yet was without sin.
Heb 7:26
Such a high priest (Jesus) meets our need--one who is holy, blameless,
pure, set apart from sinners, exalted above the heavens.
1 Peter 2:21-22
To this you were called, because Christ suffered for you, leaving you
an example, that you should follow in his steps. "He committed no sin, and
no deceit was found in his mouth."
1 John 3:5
But you know that he (Jesus) appeared so that he might take away our sins.
And in him is no sin.
Despite these claims, the track record of Jesus doesn't match up with the advertisements of his holy sinless nature. There are several problems which throw a large bucket of cold holy water on the claims Jesus was a paragon of sinlessness.
Jesus displayed an appalling lack of respect for God the Father's laws when he declared all foods clean in Mark 7:15-19 (versus Lev 11), when he disregarded God's law regarding no work of any type on the Sabbath in Mark 2:23-27 (versus Exo 31:15), and when he disregarded God's law on adultery in John 8:3-11 (versus Deut 22:22).
Jesus also told lies when he was questioned by a high priest after he was arrested. In fact, Jesus packed three whoppers into one single verse:
John 18:19-20
Meanwhile, the high priest questioned Jesus about his disciples and his
teaching. "I have spoken openly to the world," Jesus replied. "I always taught
in synagogues or at the temple, where all the Jews come together. I said
nothing in secret.
The three lies are:
1) Jesus stated he ALWAYS taught in the synagogues or at the temple.
2) Jesus stated he spoke openly to the world.
3) Jesus stated he said NOTHING in secret.
These three lies will be examined individually:
Lie #1
While Jesus did much of his teaching at the synagogue or temple, those
were not the only places he taught. There are examples of him teaching outside
these places:
Matt 5:1-3
Now when he(Jesus) saw the crowds, he went up on a mountainside and sat
down. His disciples came to him, and he began to teach them, saying: "Blessed
are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven"....etc
Matt 13:1-3
That same day Jesus went out of the house and sat by the lake. Such large
crowds gathered around him that he got into a boat and sat in it, while all
the people stood on the shore. Then he told them many things in parables,
saying: "A farmer went out to sow his seed."...etc
Mark 4:1-3
Again Jesus began to teach by the lake. The crowd that gathered around
him was so large that he got into a boat and sat in it out on the lake, while
all the people were along the shore at the water's edge. He taught them many
things by parables, and in his teaching said: "Listen! A farmer went out
to sow his seed."...etc
Clearly, Jesus did not always teach at the synagogue or temple.
Lie #2
Jesus stated he spoke openly to the world. What does "openly" mean? Openly
means honestly and with clarity. The dictionary defines "openly" as meaning
the following:
o·pen·ly, adverb
frankly: without making any attempt at concealment
Did Jesus speak openly to the people? Jesus often taught using parables. Parables are stories which relay a message using words as the vehicle. Even the disciples couldn't understand what Jesus was attempting to say and they often had to ask him what his words meant:
Mark 4:10-13
When he was alone, the Twelve and the others around him asked him about
the parables. He told them, "The secret of the kingdom of God has been given
to you. But to those on the outside everything is said in parables so that,
"`they may be ever seeing but never perceiving, and ever hearing but never
understanding; otherwise they might turn and be forgiven!' Then Jesus said
to them, "Don't you understand this parable? How then will you understand
any parable?
Jesus announced ONLY to his close associates what his wordy teaching really meant. He did this in order to hide the truth which was revealed ONLY to his "special" followers. It isn't simply a matter of the common people not understanding what Jesus was saying. It was a deliberate attempt by Jesus to obfuscate the meaning. This is not teaching in openness. It is teaching with deceptive intentions.
The author of Mark also injects a quote from Isa 6:9-10 where Jesus is portrayed as speaking in parables just like Isaiah did. The author of the Gospel of Matthew uses the same tactic and takes the deception to an even higher level as he misquotes Isa 6:9-10 to an even greater degree.
Matt 13:10-15
The disciples came to him and asked, "Why do you speak to the people in
parables?" He replied, "The knowledge of the secrets of the kingdom
of heaven has been given to you, but not to them. Whoever has will
be given more, and he will have an abundance. Whoever does not have, even
what he has will be taken from him.
This is why I speak to them in parables: "Though seeing, they do not see;
though hearing, they do not hear or understand. In them is fulfilled
the prophecy of Isaiah: "`You will be ever hearing but never understanding;
you will be ever seeing but never perceiving.
For this people's heart has become calloused; they hardly hear with their
ears, and they have closed their eyes. Otherwise they might see with their
eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their hearts and turn, and I
would heal them."
The author of the Gospel of Matthew has Jesus quoting Isa 6:9-10 to explain
why he teaches using deception.
Let's look at Isa 6:8-12 and see what it actually says and means as opposed
to how it is used in relation to Jesus. Since the authors of Matthew and
Mark left off Isa 6:11-12 and only lifted a small portion of the text
out of Isaiah 6, let's look at why they didn't attempt to quote more
than just a few lines from Isaiah.
Isa 6:8-12 states:
Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, "Whom shall I send? And who
will go for us?" And I said, "Here am I. Send me!"
He said, "Go and tell this people: "`Be ever hearing, but never understanding;
be ever seeing, but never perceiving.'
Make the heart of this people calloused; make their ears dull and close
their eyes. Otherwise they might see with their eyes, hear with their ears,
understand with their hearts, and turn and be healed."
Then I said, "For how long, O Lord?" And he answered: "Until the cities
lie ruined and without inhabitant, until the houses are left deserted and
the fields ruined and ravaged, until the LORD has sent everyone far away
and the land is utterly forsaken.
Isa 6:8-12 is about Isaiah's instructions and commission from God about 700 years before Jesus ever arrived on earth. God instructed Isaiah to go and deceive the people because of their sins. The deceptive teachings God tells Isaiah to give are not selective. They apply to all the people of THAT time.
Unlike the teachings Isaiah was to give, the deceptive teachings of Jesus were selective and his close associates were allowed to know the "secret" true meanings. There is nothing in the Isaiah 6 text which states that some people would be given accurate information while others were deliberately given deceptive teachings to make their ears dull and their hearts hard.
Isaiah also asks for how long he should confuse the people and God tells him in Isa 6:11-12 that he should confuse the people until the cities lie ruined and everyone is sent far away and the land forsaken.
It's little wonder why the author of Matthew and Mark didn't use Isa 6:11-12 and omitted it from their story as it would clearly show that the Isa 6:9-10 passage has absolutely nothing to do with Jesus.
If Jesus was really the one who received the commission God gave to Isaiah in Isa 6:8-12 then that commission contradicts John 3:17 which declares that Jesus came to save the world. You don't save the world by deliberately trying to confuse it.
John 3:17
For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but
to save the world through him.
The commission God gave to Isaiah was to: Make the heart of this people calloused; make their ears dull and close their eyes. Otherwise they might see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their hearts, and turn and be healed.". Notice that the instructions were to MAKE the people' hearts hard and to CLOSE their eyes.
Also note that the author of Matthew has blatantly misquoted Isa 6:10 in Matt 13:15
Matt 13:15
For this people's heart HAS BECOME calloused; they hardly hear with their
ears, and THEY HAVE closed their eyes. Otherwise they might see with
their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their hearts and turn,
and I would heal them.'"
Isa 6:10 actually says:
"MAKE the heart of this people calloused; MAKE their ears
dull and close their eyes. Otherwise they might see with their eyes, hear
with their ears, understand with their hearts, and turn and be healed."
The author of Matthew has altered to words in Isa 6:10 to remove the command to MAKE the hearts of the people hard. In Matt 13:15 their hearts are already hard and Jesus isn't responsible for their hardened attitude and nature.
The Gospel writers, the author of the Gospel of Matthew in particular, were all eager to portray Jesus as fulfilling verses from the Old Testament. They would rip Old Testament verses like Isa 6:9-10 out of context and then claim Jesus fulfilled them in some way by his actions or words. This is called manufacturing a prophecy fulfillment.
These misquotes are the type of dishonest and deceptive tactics used by the writers of the New Testament. Christians have built their faith around these deliberate distortions and then have the nerve to proclaim to the world that the New Testament is the "word of God".
If anything, the author of Matthew fulfilled Isa 6:10 because he used deceptive writings to make the peoples hearts hard towards Yahweh in favor of a new savior called Jesus. The irony is interesting isn't it?
The bottom line is that Jesus did not teach openly. Jesus stated that he was following and fulfilled God's instructions in Isa 6:9-10 which were to deceive the people.
It's also worth noting that the Gospel of John(John 18:20) is the only gospel which has Jesus making the three claims about where and how he spoke to the people. The Gospel of John also doesn't have Jesus saying anything about teaching in parables to fulfill Isa 6:9-10. This is an excellent example of the writer of the Gospel of John being tripped up by the writer of the Gospel of Matthew in particular.
Lie #3
Jesus stated that he said NOTHING in secret.
If this is true then Jesus should have taught the people he preached to
the same things he disclosed to his disciples. Once again Jesus (actually
the author of the Gospel of John), is exposed as lying to the high priest.
As already noted, Jesus said that his close followers were allowed to know
the secrets of the kingdom of heaven that others were not allowed to know.
It follows that the disciples must have been taught some things privately
and these things were not revealed to the public by Jesus.
Mark 4:10-12
When he was alone, the Twelve and the others around him asked him about
the parables. He told them, "The secret of the kingdom of God has been given
to you. But to those on the outside everything is said in parables so that,
"`they may be ever seeing but never perceiving, and ever hearing but never
understanding; otherwise they might turn and be forgiven!'
Notice that Mark 4:10-12 says "When he (Jesus) was ALONE". When the crowds were gone Jesus divulged information to his disciples in private and in secrecy. "Those on the OUTSIDE" are spoken to in parables so that they will NOT perceive the true meaning of the message.
Jesus exhibits this same pattern of teaching secretly in Luke 10:23-24.
Luke 10:23-24
Then he (Jesus) turned to his disciples and said privately, "Blessed are
the eyes that see what you see. For I tell you that many prophets and kings
wanted to see what you see but did not see it, and to hear what you hear
but did not hear it."
Notice how the verse says Jesus spoke PRIVATELY to his disciples and informed them that they are privy to special inside information which isn't available others.
Another example of teaching in secret is provided in Matt 13:34-42. Let's look at this passage in detail:
Matt 13:34-42
34-Jesus spoke all these things to the crowd in parables; he did not say
anything to them without using a parable.
[Here it's once again stated that Jesus spoke to the crowds in parables and not in plain "English".]
35-So was fulfilled what was spoken through the prophet: "I will open my mouth in parables, I will utter things hidden since the creation of the world."
[Here Jesus is portrayed as having fulfilled Psa 78:2 . The problem is that the author of the Gospel of Matthew has ripped a piece of Psa 78 out of context and used it to apply to Jesus.
Putting Psa 78:2 back in context:
Psa 78:1-7 (New Living Translation)
1-O my people, listen to my teaching. Open your ears to what I am saying,
2-for I will speak to you in a parable. I will teach you hidden lessons
from our past-
3-stories we have heard and know, stories our ancestors handed down to
us.
(Note that Psa 78:2 says nothing about uttering things hidden since the creation of the world but about hidden things from the past.)
4- We will not hide these truths from our children but will tell the next generation about the glorious deeds of the LORD. We will tell of his power and the mighty miracles he did.
(Psa 78:2 couldn't be about Jesus because Jesus already declared that he spoke in parables to deceive people (per Isa 6:9-10), not to inform them of any truths. Jesus HIDES the truth by using parables and the subject in Psalms 78 uses a parable to REVEAL the truth. What we have here is the author of the Gospel of Matthew trying to claim that Jesus "fulfilled" Psa 78:2 by speaking in parables. The author of Matthew already claimed that Jesus also "fulfilled" Isa 6:9-10.
In Isaiah 6 the words were used to deceive and in Psalms 78 the words are used to inform. In his eagerness to manufacture a prophecy "fulfillments" the author of Matthew has written Jesus into both the Book of Isaiah and the Book of Psalms, the result being that Jesus teaches to deceive and to reveal the truth at the same time. Such is the nature of a concocted text.
Of course, the author of Matthew forgets to quote Psa 78:2 in context so this major deception isn't exposed unless the reader takes the time to check out what Psa 78 actually says. One deception is piled on top of another in the New Testament and millions have taken the bait--hook, line and sinker.)
5-For he issued his decree to Jacob; he gave his law to Israel. He commanded
our ancestors
to teach them to their children,
6-so the next generation might know them--even the children not yet born--that
they in turn might teach their children.
7-So each generation can set its hope anew on God, remembering his glorious
miracles and obeying his commands.
(Note that taken in context, Psa 78:2 refers to God's deeds and laws being passed on and obeyed by the use of a parable. This is to help insure that all generations will obey God and his commands. This is in stark contrast to what Christianity has done to God's laws. Paul declared the laws a curse which were canceled and eliminated by Jesus (Rom 10:4, Col 2:14, Gal 3:13). There isn't any reason to believe that Jesus "fulfilled" anything related to Psa 78:2 or Isa 6:9-10. The author of Matthew simply wrote Jesus into the Old Testament where he/they deemed fit.)]
continuing with Matthew 13:
36-Then he left the crowd and went into the house. His disciples came to him and said, "Explain to us the parable of the weeds in the field."
[Jesus left the crowd and went into the house. Once again he is quizzed by his disciples.]
37- He answered, "The one who sowed the good seed is the Son of Man.
[Jesus is now explaining the "real" meaning of the parable in secret in his disciples.]
38-The field is the world, and the good seed stands for the sons of
the kingdom. The weeds are the sons of the evil one,
39-and the enemy who sows them is the devil. The harvest is the end of
the age, and the harvesters are angels.
40- "As the weeds are pulled up and burned in the fire, so it will be
at the end of the age.
41-The Son of Man will send out his angels, and they will weed out of
his kingdom everything that causes sin and all who do evil.
[Jesus never discloses this "final solution" to anyone but his disciples. He taught them this message in secret and never told the public this would happen.]
42-They will throw them into the fiery furnace, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
[Considering the nature of this scourge which Jesus will unleash on the world, for him to claim he said NOTHING in secret is both absurd and dishonest. It's worth noting that the author of the Gospel of John never tells this story of Jesus sending out angels to exterminate people nor does it tell of Jesus speaking secretly to his disciples about it.]
If the Gospels are to be taken as fact then all three of the statements of Jesus in John 18:20 are deceptions and lies. He did not always teach at the temple or synagogue, did not speak openly but deceptively, and taught things in secret. Contrary to Christian advertising, Jesus falls far short of being perfect or sin free. The Bible has some interesting things to say about telling lies and being deceitful:
Prov 12:22
The LORD detests lying lips, but he delights in men who are truthful.
[This is not a ringing endorsement of Jesus considering his track record on telling the truth.]
Prov 17:7
Arrogant lips are unsuited to a fool-- how much worse lying lips to a
ruler!
[Christians declare Jesus to be a ruler who sits on the throne of Israel.]
Psa 55:23
But you, O God, will bring down the wicked into the pit of corruption;
bloodthirsty and deceitful men will not live out half their days. But as for
me, I trust in you.
[Deceitful men will not live out half their days!!! Didn't Jesus die at age 33(?) It sure looks like Jesus fulfilled Psa 55:23 right along with all the other Old Testament verses Christians claim he fulfilled.]
Psa 120:2
Save me, O LORD, from lying lips and from deceitful tongues.
[If this is true then Christians need to be saved FROM Jesus, not by him.]
The next time you hear a Christian chant the mantra that Jesus was the only perfect sinless man, make sure you ask them what they really mean by "perfect" and "sinless".
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