It has been a few weeks since I have posted an episode. I have been using that time to edit and proofread manuscripts of the series of talks that I did recently on the Sermon on the Mount and collect them into a new book. It is available now on Amazon under the title “The Sermon on the Mount: A Nondual Interpretation.” So if you are interested, you can find it there.
Recently I have been thinking more about Jesus and his relationship to Christianity. I came across a quote somewhere – probably Facebook – since that is the only social media I see, and even that not often. It said that Jesus was not a Christian. Here is the whole statement: “Buddha was not a Buddhist. Jesus was not a Christian. Muhammad was not a Muslim. They were teachers who taught love. Love was their religion.” The quotation from some unknown source had the symbols of various religions on the border and seem to suggest that all religions are the same.
I appreciate the ecumenical spirit that wants to encourage tolerance and acceptance of all religious traditions. But tolerance should be based on fact and not wishful thinking. It is sloppy thinking to lump Jesus and Buddha and Muhammad together as teachers of love. There is an element of truth in that statement, but as it stands it is misleading. Love was not the central message of these three teachers.
It is true that Jesus taught that the Law and the Prophets could be summed up in the two great commands to love God and love one’s neighbor. But Jesus central teaching was the Kingdom of God. Likewise Buddha taught compassion, which is similar to love. But his central teaching was awakening. Buddha means awakened one, and he taught how to wake up.
Muhammad was very different from Jesus or Buddha, so it is strange to see him lumped with them as teachers of love. I am not Islamophobic. I appreciate Muslims and Islam, especially the mystical strain of Islam. But the truth is that Muhammad was a militant who spread Islam by the sword. I saw his sword on display in Istanbul. That was not the style of Jesus or Buddha, both of whom taught nonviolence.
It is true that Muhammad taught mercy, and he did teach tolerance for “people of the book” meaning Jews and Christians. But it was limited. It was not what we would call religious freedom today. His central message was submission to God. That is what Islam means: submission. Muslim is “one who submits.” Muhammad certainly understood himself as one who submitted to God. So I think Muhammad would have understood himself as a Muslim.
So the meme “Buddha was not a Buddhist. Jesus was not a Christian. Muhammad was not a Muslim. They were teachers who taught love. Love was their religion” is incomplete at best and misleading at worst. Then again I am not a Muslim or Buddhist scholar. I have studied both religions, but I am not an expert. So I cannot say definitively that Muhammad was not a Muslim and Buddha was not a Buddhist. I do agree that Jesus was not a Christian. So that is what I want to focus on today.
Jesus was not a Christian. That is a very important for all people, especially Christians, to realize. Christians tend to assume that our religion is based on the words and example of Christ because it is named after Christ. The truth is that Christianity was not founded by Jesus, and Christians do not follow the teachings of Jesus. Christianity is not even based on the teachings of the twelve disciples of Jesus.
It originated in the teachings of men like Paul and James, who were not among the twelve apostles. Christianity was formed into the religion we know today by centuries of Christian leaders and thinkers. Especially important were those called the early Church fathers, or the Ante-Nicene fathers. There is nothing wrong with being a Christian. I am a Christian. But the teachings of Christianity are not the teachings of Christ.
What does it mean to be a Christian today? If you asked a Christian today you would get a variety of answers. The simplest answer is that a Christian is a follower of Jesus Christ. If you asked an evangelical they would probably talk about having a personal relationship with Jesus or believing in Jesus as Lord and Savior. They might speak of the evangelical conversion experience, which they call being born again. They might speak of repenting of sin and accepting the atoning death upon the Cross as a sacrifice for sin. More progressive Christians might speak of love and modeling the example of Christ. I heard a Methodist friend of mine preach last Sunday; he preached on “God is Love” as the core of the Christian message.
If you got into a longer conversation with most Christians about what it means to be a Christian, it would eventually come around to certain beliefs. Christians agree on a collection of ideas as contained in creeds, confessions of faith, or professions of faith, or catechisms. The Apostles Creed, the Nicene Creed, denominational Confessions of faith. Doctrine defines Christianity today. Doctrine distinguishes true Christians from heretics. By the second century doctrine was all important in defining a Christian. Irenaeus wrote his famous work entitled “Against Heresies” in the year 180. By the fourth century the church was banning books that taught anything that strayed from orthodox thinking.
In the early twentieth century Fundamentalism developed a set of doctrines that it considered to be essential for being a Christian. They called these the fundamentals – hence they were fundamentalists. These doctrines included the Virgin Birth of Jesus, the Deity of Christ the only begotten Son of God, the inerrancy of scripture – meaning the 66 books we call the Christian Bible, and a literal interpretation of that Bible, a literal six day creation happening 6000 years ago, substitutionary atonement, and many more doctrines. Today many Christians would agree with many of these doctrinal essentials.
So was Jesus a Christian by this definition? Of course not! Those doctrines were developed after Jesus’ lifetime. Jesus did not have a personal saving relationship with himself. He did have an experience at this baptism, but not the type of conversion experience that Christians describe. Christians don’t think he had a need for it. They say he was sinless, and therefore had no need for repentance and confession of sin and trusting in the saving death of Jesus. Did Jesus accept the 66 books of Christian Bible? Of course not. The 27 NT books were not even written at the time. He did not even accept all 39 OT books. Only the Law and the Prophets were considered scripture during his lifetime.
Jesus never said anything about his Virgin birth. He would have laughed at such an idea. As far as his divine nature is concerned, he would have agreed but without all the theological distinctions of the creeds. He never said he was the only Son of God, must less the only begotten Son. He said that you and I are children of God. He did not say anything about his death being a substitutionary atonement, a propitiation, or a sacrifice for sin that provided a mechanism for a wrathful God to be able to forgive humans.
Jesus did not believe or teach Christian doctrines, which means was not a Christian doctrinally. He did not teach what we now call Christianity. His central message was the Kingdom of God. I have been talking about that message for two and a half years in these messages, so there is no need to go into detail now. In brief Jesus’ gospel was the message that the Kingdom of God – the Divine Realm or Spiritual Reality – is here now. He taught that the Kingdom of God is within us and all around us. His parables all were pointing to that Divine Reality. The way to realize this was to “rethink,” to have the mind transformed, which is the literal meaning of the word repent. That was a message of Jesus.
Why does this matter? It matters because Christians have been sold a bill of goods. They are under the illusion that to follow Jesus means that they have to believe a whole set of doctrines that Jesus did not believe and never taught. Christians have been taught that they have to submit to church hierarchies and church authority and church tradition and church rules that Jesus never mentioned. Christians have been deceived into thinking that if they believe the right things and go through the right rituals, then they have a reserved seat in heaven when they die.
That is Christianity, but it is not the gospel of Christ. Jesus did not teach doctrines to be believed. He taught a Kingdom to be realized. He did not proclaim himself as the only Son of God. He taught that we are sons and daughters of God. He taught that his true nature and our true nature is to be realized now. He said God desired mercy and not sacrifice, whether in a temple or on a Cross. He wants love, not orthodoxy.
Jesus was not a Christian. Should we be Christians? It depends how you define Christian. I define Christian as one who follows Jesus Christ. It means to follow Christ through dying to self and being reborn to our true nature as children of God. It means to follow him into the Kingdom of God, and in the Way of the Kingdom of God, which is nondual Divine Reality. That is what a Christian is. That is why I call myself a Christian.