Was Jesus Christ a Good Person?

Potemkin wrote:

We live in a society whose moral values have been shaped by Christianity, the religion founded by Jesus, so it's hardly surprising that we would perceive him to be a 'good person', by which we simply mean that his moral values largely coincide with our own.

moralities common to societies long before christianity came along.

Quote:

The Romans certainly didn't regard him as a 'good person', but as a deranged troublemaker.

contemporary Romans made no mention of him he was a non event, the first mention of a "Jesus" doesn't appear until the 2nd century ad

Bitter memories still linger on Him of how His fellow-Jews had Him crucified so as not be suspected by Herod of attempting to subvert the Roman state. If I were to relive the life of the Jews 1 year Before the Death of Christ, I will do it again. His Jewish Apostles were either hacked to death, murdered or decapitated. Put it simply again: Jesus Christ is simply trouble..

That issue is what differentiates our Church with the Catholic Church. Jesus Christ is not God. There is only one God, an envious God. "There is no other God than Me.."-God, Bible. Jesus Christ is the SON of God. Does the Bible say, Jesus is God? He is a MAN. Not God. I can understand those commies in the Catholic Church who sow confusion. If I were NOT of God, I would do it too as an act of desperation. Well, I worship only one God, God of the Christian Bible!

Jesus Christ is just an ordinary person. That is why I treat him as an equal, a sworn friend unless he fires me again for 7 times. Terrible were those days!

Judaism does not run into conflict with the Christian Bible . They too do not consider Jesus Christ, their fellow-Jew as GOD. We in Iglesia ni Cristo have no problems with the Jews. We believe in the same God.

Rich wrote:

Now I'm going to take this slowly, because there's obviously some who are hard of thinking. Notice something funny about that passage: "He was the Christ". Now Josephus was not a Christian and not a follower of Jesus. Clearly it wasn't written by Josephus. How do people think we have Josephus' work? It was copied by Christians. Christians copied what they thought was good and burnt what they disagreed with. The Christians were pathological liars they were always changing texts to say what they thought they should say.

Oh, I agree. That passage was probably mistranslated a few times. But it is unlikely that it was completely made up, don't you think? Josephus probably did write about Jesus before the passage could have been mistranslated. And I agree, there isn't that much evidence proving Jesus did not exist, but there is some. And, on the other hand, there isn't much evidence proving that Jesus did not exist. So I maintain that Jesus most certainly did exist, but most of the stories about him are just myths, invented centuries later by the Church and its clergy.

As for him saying Jesus was "the Christ", keep in mind that Christ is just an anglicized version of the greek word for "Messiah", anyway. If his followers did believe that he was the Messiah mentioned in ancient Jewish texts, then it made sense for Josephus to write about that. Especially if he wrote in Latin, which doesn't really have any articles, so he could just be saying that he was a messiah to his followers.

I was not referring to you, Vera Politica. You should have seen those communist terrorists "praying out there in the open and reciting the Lord's prayer" when the Bible is clear, "Pray where no one can see you". There are closete communists among the churchfolk. They are the ones influencing domestic policies right now in the Philippines. They are part of the advisory group of the President. They go to Mass. One of them decides who the human right violators are and always point to the Armed Forces of the Philippines and not the communist terrorists. A lot of them are priests and nuns in the Catholic Church. The Lord Jesus Christ mocked them by saying, "Go away evildoers, you worship me with your lips but your hearts are far away from me".

What Church? The true real Church of Christ and God. Iglesia ni Cristo which was referred to in the Bible as the "one in Asia" "with churches "in the West"". Although I do not believe that if you don't belong to our Church you are going to get 'damned'. There are so many factors involved. We have had so many members expelled for alcoholism, gambling and corruption. I myself am a candidate for non-attendance although I have my own valid reasons. The Bible is clear, "You can know one by his fruits (deeds) and by the words coming out from his mouth." We are not hostile to the Catholic Church. 99% of our members were former Catholics who were enlightened. We just do not subscribe to some of their teachings like eating blood of animals (dinuguan), worshipping icons in the form of statues and that Jesus Christ "is God".

Smertios wrote:

Oh, I agree. That passage was probably mistranslated a few times. But it is unlikely that it was completely made up, don't you think?

I'm don't read Greek, Latin, Hebrew or Aramaic. Earl Doherty and G.A Wells have both written at moderate length about this passage. I don't have their books to hand. From vague memory I believe Doherty references later Christian writers who don't seem to know of this passage. Any detail in New Testament scholarship can spiral into complexity, because there are virtual no fixed points in the first two centuries of Christian history. We know so little for certain. I'm not saying that there is no argument for some kind of original passage in Josephus, but I am saying Christian scholars are being totally dishonest when they quote Josephus, you just can't trust them as far as you can throw them.

Other

If he existed, he had good and bad in him just like everyone else.

Western text-consumers don't know Jesus at all. They only know the cartoon nice-guy Jesus that gets tortured and killed in the texts that their Elite forces them to read.

Jesus as the way he was portrayed was an aweful, disgusting character. Vicarious rendemption? Telling people you forgive them for something they didn't even do and that personal responsibility is absolved? He forgives you not for treading upon him, but for treading upon another man? Do you realize how utterly insane and bloody that idea has made the world ever since? A megalomaniacal narcissist with a record holding grandiosity complex. That's what most of you consider a good person? Are you out of your minds? The guy actually, genuinely believed he was both the creator of the entire universe and was all knowing, all seeing, all punishing... and the son of him at the same time.

YA WAT A JAKASS

hee prolly gon raep tha baby sheep!122ws

Was Jesus an irreproachable Christian?

http://www.religioustolerance.org/chr_jegay.htm

Vera Politica wrote:

Let's not be uncharitable. Christ forgives those who are truly repentant. The last sentence just treads on the issue of the trinity which is quite complex: three persons of one being. I am not a theologian so I do not presume to understand the trinity.

I rest my case.

No

His teachings are a path to self-destruction

He was good, in the D&D sense (that he was working for some greater ideal as opposed to personal gain). So was Hitler, incidentally.

Exercising the atheists with Jesus questions... it's like a PoFo energy drink... It's like asking the dog's opinion on cats. Virulent atheism and vain "realist" posturing.

It's ignorant and impolite.

Suska wrote:

Exercising the atheists with Jesus questions... it's like a PoFo energy drink... It's like asking the dog's opinion on cats. Virulent atheism and vain "realist" posturing.

It's ignorant and impolite.

Yes, the smell is in fact coming from the outside. Don't fret though, you're a chosen one. Special in gods eyes. He made you exactly how he wanted you and all that.

I grant you that ignorant and impolite is just some folks way. I never understood the attraction of lose-lose propositions.