Hello Bryant,

There is such profound ignorance about Yeshua bar Yosef, the Jewish rabbi who roamed the hills of the Galilee teaching in the first century, that it would be better if humankind washed away all of the teachings, as with a great flood, and started over again. Yeshua's teachings are profound, but profoundly misunderstood.

We have only the gospels, including the several non-canonical gospels, to understand what Yeshua taught. Yeshua's teachings weren't recorded until decades after his death, and were recorded by well-meaning followers who had only the oral traditions passed along from person to person through untolled numbers of people before they were written down. We know that scribes and church leaders, with their own biases and messages to convey, changed the texts of the various gospels.

And so, we must not take any handful of statements in the canonical gospels and claim that they represent what Yeshua taught. That leads to the problem you've seen. Someone points to a passage or two passages and creates a mythological Jesus from them. They then invoke the "God's breathed words" to give legitimacy to their very personal positions.

We can only know what this remarkable man told us from his insights into the Higher Power and eternal life by looking at all of the sayings and generalizing from them. There have been some excellent descriptions of what Yeshua undoubtedly taught. Just look on amazon.com for the books.

We also have direct access to the Higher Power, and are guided in our individual, unique paths through life by guides, our loved ones, and helpers on the other side. We have no need to go back to the first century for guidance. Allow what you are being taught today to be your source of growth. Read Yeshua's words, but also read or listen to the words of today's teachers who have wonderful insights. God is the God of the living, not the dead. Yeshua's primary teachings were that we should love our neighbor as we love ourselves, and we have direct access to the Higher Power, with no person, book, or institution mediating our communication. Everything else must align with those two great teachings. If they don't, then they're mythology created by someone on the Earth plane.

Love and peace, Craig