By Gordon Hafslund
I had just ordered a to-go pizza at a local pizza place when I found myself witness to an exchange between a newbie Christian evangelist and one of the restaurant’s non-Christian owners. It was a hard-sell effort by the new Jesus lover to “witness” and recruit him to her faith. The pizza owner was doing his best to respectfully listen to his customer’s ill-informed religious sales pitch, but his discomfort was palpable. In a last-ditch effort to free himself from the conversation without offending the customer, he noted that “in my religion we revere your Jesus also.” The woman’s response was lukewarm: “Oh, well that’s really not the real Jesus… my Jesus is the real one. If you come to my church you’ll see.” I so much wanted to step in and help this poor guy. Instead, I decided to just watch how the pizza owner managed to end this encounter by promising to “give it some thought.” The woman promised to return later.
I am sure that promise made his day.
Anyway, after I left with my hot pepperoni pizza, I couldn’t help but reflect on this pizza-shop Jesus discussion. It took me back to my childhood through early adulthood years, in which I too was imprisoned in the illusion of Christianity being the only “right and true” religion. I never questioned any of its premises, even though I found it lacking in both what it proclaimed as the righteous path for the faithful and the actual conduct the church endorsed and sanctified with the excuse that all Christians are “forgiven.” The contradictions just in those two areas were palpably uncomfortable, but I remember holding the course, so to speak, because I thought the Bible was the only key to spiritual fulfillment.
This need or desire to believe in something was a strong drive, reinforced by various Christian charismatic leaders who had become very popular because of their message about Jesus’s imminent return to save us. One of the most popular books on my college campus was Hal Lindsey’s apocalyptic The Late Great Planet Earth. Lindsey’s book was the best-selling work of nonfiction (apart from the Bible; and using the term “nonfiction” somewhat loosely) in the English language in the 1970s. Lindsey, like many evangelicals, believed that the Bible was absolutely inerrant, to the extent that you could read the New Testament and know not only how God wanted you to live and what he wanted you to believe, but also what God himself was planning to do in the future and how he planned to do it. Lindsey firmly believed the world was heading for the Apocalypse described in Revelation, and the inerrant words of scripture could be read to show what, how, and when it would all happen.
Referring to the prophecies of Jesus in the Gospels, Lindsey insisted the Bible was very clear about what was to come: The end of the world would come sometime before 1988, forty years after the reemergence of Israel, which he dubbed scripturally significant. Of course, 1988 came and went with no Armageddon. And it’s worth noting other Christian pundits over the following years offered their own predictions of imminent Apocalypse — in the process successfully selling more of their books — and all ended similarly, with no Jesus arriving on a white-winged horse leading his army of avenging angels.
It became rather clear to me the Bible was not a product of God, but a very human book from beginning to end. It was written by different human authors at different times and in different places to address different theological needs over many centuries. And the majority of these writers were anonymous. Few faithful are even aware of this factoid. Twenty-four of the twenty-seven books that comprise the New Testament were anonymously authored — or some combination of anonymous, homonymous, orthonymous, or forged. The early church added names like Mark, John, Luke and Mathew much later to give their sacred book the appearance of credibility — a common practice in the ancient world. And those anonymous authors often contradict one another in the telling of the same story.
Mark did not say the same thing that Luke said. John is different from Matthew. Paul is different from Acts. And James is different from Paul. Mark says that Jesus was crucified the day after the Passover meal was eaten (Mark 14:12; 15:25) and John says he died the day before it was eaten (John 19:14). Luke indicates in his account of Jesus’s birth that Joseph and Mary returned to Nazareth just over a month after they had come to Bethlehem (Luke 2:39), whereas Matthew indicates they instead fled to Egypt (Matt. 2:19–22). Paul says that after he converted on the way to Damascus he did not go to Jerusalem to see those who were apostles before him (Gal. 1:16–17), whereas the book of Acts says that that was the first thing he did after leaving Damascus (Acts 9: 26).
The truth of who Jesus really was and what really happened during his life is backed by virtually no historical sources, other than two or three passing references by ancient historians related to the rise of Christianity (and those were many decades after the death of Jesus). No one really knows anything substantive about Jesus’ teachings. Snippets and partial (supposed) quotes exist, but a full portrayal of his teaching is nowhere to be found.
He didn’t have a personal scribe recording his activities. His disciples were certainly not a reliable resource for documenting his teachings and encounters because, with the exception of Matthew (a tax collector) and Luke (a physician), all were illiterate. And while it is reasonable to assume Mathew and Luke had some education, the degree of that education — including their ability to speak and write in multiple languages — remains unsubstantiated. What is known is that neither Mathew or Luke provided any actual documentation of their experiences.
While the church narrative builds Jesus into a greater-than-life charismatic presence, history suggests otherwise. His historical presence left a very shallow footprint. His teachings and activities were entirely orally maintained, a tradition notorious for inaccuracies: decades and decades of oral histories passed from one narrator to the next, each telling their version, their preference for what is emphasized, modifying the narrative to meet the outcome they felt most appropriate to win converts and promote the Christian theology of the Jesus persona.
And this was repeated as these oral myths, tales and stories were put to pen and parchment. Each scribe had the opportunity to tweak the narrative according to his interpretive preference. There were no editorial checks and balances during that time — no code of ethics, no criteria to assure accurate representation. Nada. It’s no surprise historians find great difficulty knowing (or verifying) what Jesus actually said and did.
And that fact is tragic. What Jesus taught has all but certainly been filtered, sifted, changed and grossly mis-interpreted to serve the church’s theological preferences.
The only shred of actual direct documentation of Jesus's teaching is from The Gospel of Thomas (and even that is controversial).That Gospel is fascinating read, not only because it is considered by some historians to be the most significant book discovered in the Nag Hammadi library, but also because of what it offers as a document on the teachings of Jesus. On the surface, the Gospel of Thomas appears to be just a collection of 114 of Jesus’s sayings, but when one pays close attention to the differences in the theme and contents of this book and the narratives that make up the Bible, the extent that it contradicts other part of the Bible becomes painfully clear. The Gospel of Thomas clearly implies that a committed student who gains proper “gnosis” (or mystical knowledge) can actually become not a Christian, but an active representative of “the Christ energy,” essentially the energy of Source that one in physical form can hold and take counsel from. Rather than placing faith in Jesus (a heretical turn from Christian beliefs), those with the right discernment can realize how to seek their “inner Christ” to find their own true salvation with Source. This teaching, along with other similar ones within this collection of Jesus-attributed quotes, is undoubtedly why the Gospel of Thomas has never been incorporated into today’s Christian theology.
My personal turning point in my relationship with Christianity occurred when I took a volunteer counseling position at an evangelical college coffee house in Austin, Texas, during my undergraduate years at the University of Texas. During that period I started to finally acknowledge the cracks and dark hypocritical underbelly of my Christian religion. I started questioning the very premises of my religious beliefs.. .not in a divine source, but in how my religion tried to represent its ideas about God and its moral code.
Once I started to see all these problems, it was easy for me to step away from Christianity and begin a search for a different spiritual perspective — one that was more honest, valued and understood how all life is interconnected, respected different cultural pathways for spiritual experience and expression, and actually made sense both on a practical level and spiritually. I eventually found the spiritual common ground I sought through a group of esoteric mystical teachings and practices including the study of Jane Robert’s 11-plus books about her encounter with a non-physical teacher named “Seth,” indigenous healing practices including Andean Mysticism, teachings from a classic Christian Mystic (Joel Goldsmith), and another non-physical teacher group called the Melchizedeks.
For those who realize their current religious pathway is no longer serving them, the good news is there are plenty of alternatives available that will enrich and offer meaningful, heartfelt spiritual experiences. You do not have to be enslaved to fear mongering, or the belief man is inherently unworthy and rife with sin and separate from Source, or the belief a priest or minister or rabbi or mullah is the appointed guardian to your spiritual gateway. There are kinder, gentler paths available to those seeking such.
There is no "my way or the highway" in consciousness. You won’t need a spiritual gatekeeper — just an open heart and a willingness to let go of your reliance on history, the known, and what culture believes is true. Culture is never right in the realm of “truth”. Let your soul, your heart be your “inerrant” guide. ❤️
Gordon Hafslund spent 34 years in public safety, working a variety of positions from firefighter, EMT, Paramedic, Flight Medic, Chief Flight Medic, Ambulance Supervisor, EMS Commander, Emergency Management, EMS Operations Chief, and EMS Assistant Executive Chief. He is now a ranch & business owner, contractor, consultant, conservationist and occasional humanitarian in Latin & Central America.
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