Christianity According to Christ: A Gospel Primer for Nonbelievers

By Dan Davis

The Christian Bible, in all its versions, is the most widely read book in the world. Billions of people have read at least parts of it, and over its history of nearly two millennia, thousands of groups and individuals, if not hundreds of thousands, have interpreted it in myriads of ways. Consequently, today's big tent of Christianity encompasses a bewildering variety of often conflicting belief systems. But which of these systems most accurately reflect the teachings of Jesus? This groundbreaking book presents and analyzes the actual gospel narratives and their implications for believers, as observed from the viewpoint of a nonreligious outsider.

The gospels were essentially written in chronological order, but for purposes of this book, the author has reorganized their passages into broad subject areas. In each chapter, the author examines and discusses a particular topic, providing all the pertinent gospel citations for reference. Highlights include Jesus as an individual, his place in the Christian pantheon, a look at the disciples, the ongoing conflicts with the Jewish clergy, heaven, hell, the miracles, and the gospel prescription for admission to heaven. The only major departures from gospel sources are Old Testament references that are included for background, context, and clarification. Written by a religious skeptic, this book offers a thorough analysis of the gospel that will help readers understand the context, complexities, and contradictions in one of humanity's most famous texts.

• Language: English
• Publisher: BookBaby
• Release date: Nov 1, 2021
• ISBN: 9781667800905

Dan Davis

Meet Coach Chad Dennis and Coach Dan Davis - two highly accomplished individuals dedicated to helping athletes succeed. With their extensive experience in leadership and training, they have developed a program called ELEVATE, designed to help athletes build a strong foundation for success in sports and life. Coach Dennis has spent many years working in law enforcement. He is a former NCAA D1 baseball player for Eastern Kentucky University. He has also coached high-level athletic teams for over 25 years. He has a proven record of creating high-performance athletes, teams, and coaches. He understands what it takes to get athletes to the next level and has worked with hundreds of successful athletes on their mental performance. Coach Davis is a retired Sergeant Major from the U.S. Army who has operated and led teams in some of the most demanding, diverse, and challenging environments. As a former collegiate baseball player, he was selected to play for the All-Army Sports program for several years. He was chosen as head coach of the program in 2019. He currently coaches at the collegiate level and understands the importance of controlling the chaos during high-pressure situations. Coach Davis has worked with hundreds of athletes, assisting them in elevating their mental performance in their chosen sport. Coach Dennis and Coach Davis deeply understand the importance of mental performance in athletics and life. They have studied, worked with, and trained alongside some of the most successful people on the planet. With ELEVATE, they aim to help athletes set a solid foundation for success, drawing upon their own experiences in leadership and athletic achievement. Contact Information: www.mindsetmattersathletics.com

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Christianity According to Christ

A Gospel Primer for Nonbelievers

Copyright © 2021 Dan Davis

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law.

Print ISBN: 978-1-66780-0-899

eBook ISBN: 978-1-66780-0-905

Published by BookBaby

First Edition

Table of Contents

Introduction

Prologue: Dark Father

Chapter 1: Who Was Jesus, and What Was He Like?

Chapter 2: The Christian Pantheon

Chapter 3: Apostles, Disciples, and a Herald

Chapter 4: The Miracles

Chapter 5: Jesus and the Jews

Chapter 6: Promises and Prophesies

Chapter 7: Getting into Heaven

Chapter 8: The Sounds of Silence

Chapter 9: How to be a Christian According to Jesus

Epilogue: Mythology, Miracle Men, and the Gospels

Bibliography

Introduction

The Bible is the most widely read book in the world. Billions have read at least parts of it. And thousands of groups and individuals, perhaps hundreds of thousands, have interpreted it in ways that conflict with the interpretations of thousands of other groups and individuals, either in whole or in part.

Fundamentalists try to accept the Bible exactly as written, in the belief that it reflects the actual words of God. But the more of it one reads, the harder it is to take literally. Its many books were written by many different people in many different times, and its writings and teachings regularly contradict one another. Lay people rarely try to read the Bible as a whole, more often latching onto sections and passages that resonate with their individual personalities and mindsets. They either gloss over or minimize the parts they find confusing, disturbing, or simply boring.

Enter the interpreters, who tell us the Bible is replete with mystical metaphors that can only be properly interpreted by special people: priests, ministers, rabbis, pastors, preachers, padres, deacons, monsignors, bishops, cardinals, popes, nuns, monks, and the like. These messengers range from barely literate, self-anointed snake handlers to brilliant scholars with advanced degrees who are conversant in several languages. Sometimes the interpreters form focus groups (also known as ecumenical councils), gatherings of special people convened to argue out the meanings of God’s words, arrive at mutually acceptable conclusions (or compromises), and package the results for consumption by their followers. In any case, interpreters and interpretations abound, as do the inconsistencies and conflicts among them.

Non-fundamentalist believers chalk up inconsistent theologies to improper interpretations of biblical symbolism and metaphor. But once any writings, particularly as voluminous and varied as those in the Bible, are accepted as metaphorical, we have entered Bordertown. Here anything goes—readers or their chosen religious authorities can interpret the Bible any way they like, ascribing whatever meanings suit their outlooks and temperaments. Since religious conclusions cannot be falsified (or, of course, objectively verified), no one can be proven right or wrong.

Today’s Christians fall within one of four major groups: Catholic, Protestant, Orthodox (Eastern and Oriental), and other (such as the Latter-Day Saints). About half of the world’s Christians are Catholic, with Protestants making up the second largest percentage (about 37 percent). Each group includes subgroups and individual churches with differing viewpoints and doctrines. All (possibly excepting the Latter-Day Saints) claim to base their teachings on printed versions of the Bible that actually vary little from group to group. Their interpretations vary widely, however, since the Bible writers’ ubiquitous use of symbolism and metaphor provides an almost unlimited source of interpretive opportunities.

The four gospels—Matthew, Mark, Luke and John—are the only books in the Bible that claim to be first-hand representations of the words and deeds of Jesus. Since historical evidence pertaining to the gospel narratives is nonexistent, acceptance of their veracity can only be based on faith. Those whose religious beliefs require such faith accept the gospels as true, and those who prefer to rely on objective evidence do not. Others mix and match, accepting parts of the gospel narratives as true while regarding other parts as symbolic and/or metaphorical.

Except for this Introduction and the Epilogue, I’ve tried to suspend any judgement about the veracity of the gospels. Instead, I’ve used the gospels as the basis for examining the life, deeds, pronouncements, beliefs, and values of Jesus himself. Each chapter examines and discusses a broad topic area, using all pertinent gospel citations as the source materials. The only diversions from gospel sources (outside of the Epilogue) are Old Testament references that provide background, context, and clarification.

The original sources of the gospels are unknown. The book of Mark is generally accepted as the earliest of the four (despite Matthew’s appearing ahead of it in the New Testament) and is believed to form the basis for most of Matthew and Luke. (John’s provenance is less apparent.) Mark was probably written around 65 to 70 CE (roughly 35 to 40 years after Jesus died), and Matthew and Luke were written about 15 to 20 years after that (around 80 to 85 CE). John, written somewhere around 90 CE to 100 CE, is the most recent of the four.

The gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke reflect many similarities in style, content and narrative, and they are often grouped under the umbrella title synoptic gospels. The gospel of John is quite different from the synoptics, not only in style and narrative but also in content and pronouncements.

Most biblical scholars believe Mark and/or some parts of Matthew and Luke were based on one or more earlier, as yet undiscovered sources. In any case, for purposes of this book, we will presume the four gospels depict the actual life, beliefs, and teachings of Jesus, unmodified by the interpretations and opinions of third parties.

The components of the Christian bible encompass an odd blend of opposing, often mutually exclusive belief systems. The Old Testament centers around an angry, jealous god (sometimes herein referred to as Dark Father, the Lord, or simply God) and his chosen people, a tribe of brutal, misogynistic savages generally lacking significant redeeming qualities. (In fairness, the Lord’s chosen savages probably were no worse than any of the other barbarians populating the world at the time.) Throughout the centuries encompassed by the Old Testament, God’s people regularly attack, plunder, rape, and murder the people of neighboring tribes and kingdoms, which their Dark Father not only condones but frequently commands. God’s reasons for choosing this particular batch of savages, as well as the nature of the benefits accruing to the savages, remain open to question.

The New Testament centers around Jesus Christ, the only son of this same Dark Father. (Christ is actually a title, similar in meaning to Messiah, rather than a last name, although it sometimes is used as a surname here and elsewhere.) In an uncharacteristic if somewhat limited act of mercy, God begets Jesus for the sole purpose of being sacrificed in order to redeem a relatively small proportion of humanity from eternal post-mortem torment in hell. Before being sacrificed, Jesus is tasked with spreading the word of his mission (including the announcement of a forthcoming apocalypse) and issuing a new set of behavioral requirements to everyone hoping to be saved.

The personality and character attributed to Jesus are directly opposed to those of his heavenly father. Throughout his tenure on earth, Jesus is generally kind, merciful, charitable, and forgiving, and he directs his followers to behave in a similar manner. His behavior is entirely unlike that of either his father or the heroes of the Old Testament.

Jesus warns us, however, that his persona will transform when he returns after the apocalypse. After descending on a cloud, he will sit with his father in judgment of all humanity and consign most people to eternal torture in hell. Note that such consignment, being eternal, is far more merciless than even the most atrocious crimes ordered or condoned by Dark Father in the Old Testament.

The basic premises of Christianity are:

1. God created the universe, including two humans made in his image.

2. He ordered the humans not to eat the fruit of a certain tree.

3. The humans ate the fruit anyway.

4. God reacted in anger (apparently his go-to emotional response) and condemned not only the two humans but also all of their descendants to lives of drudgery and second-class status, afflicting all humanity with the irredeemable curse of original sin.

After several unpleasant interactions with subsequent generations (including the drowning of nearly everyone on earth, along with nearly every nonhuman land animal), Dark Father decided to enter into a covenant with one particular tribe. In exchange for worshipping God and nobody else, the tribe eventually might be granted a homeland overflowing with milk and honey, at least for a while, if it happened to please the Lord at the time.

Around the end of the Old Testament, the rules changed again. Virtually everyone, chosen or otherwise, was to be punished for their inherent sinfulness by being condemned to hell after death, where they would remain eternally conscious while being burned alive.

To show his mercy, however, Dark Father produced a son who would be sacrificed (i.e., murdered) to atone for humanity’s innate sinfulness. All (or at least most) of those who accepted and expressed appreciation for this sacrifice would be forgiven for being sinful and granted post-mortem entry into heaven, where they would attain the status of angels. Everyone else (presumed by Jesus himself to be most of humanity) would continue on to hell.

God’s son would return after his pre-ordained death to sort out the sinners from the saved before shipping them off to their respective destinations. He then would rule over those survivors who were saved.

As stated previously, Jesus’ pre-crucifixion assignments were to spread the word of his status and mission and provide a new set of behavioral guidelines for his followers. We must look to the gospels for further insight. To fully accept their teachings, one must believe in:

1. The truth and divine authority of the Old Testament;

2. The supernatural birth, mission, sacrifice, and resurrection of Jesus;

3. Heaven and hell;

4. The Holy Spirit and angels;

5. Satan and demons;

6. Demonic possession and exorcism;

7. Miracles, including their implementation by Jesus; and

8. The forthcoming apocalypse.

The gospel narrative drastically revises human destiny. Being born can no longer be regarded as the beginning of a limited earthly lifespan but instead is the start of an eternal existence. Life in this world is a mere flicker compared to the infinity of existence that will follow. It is a vitally important flicker, however, because our earthly behavior will determine whether we will spend the rest of eternity idling happily in heaven or suffering miserably in hell. And for most of us, the latter outcome is likely.

Putting aside the question of purpose—why God would create us at all when he knew we’d be confined to these narrow and mostly awful parameters—the only sensible approach for believers is to follow Christ’s teachings as closely as possible. The overriding goal should be acceptance into heaven, and behaving in any manner conflicting with that goal would be nothing short of insane.

Herein we will investigate the gospel prescriptions for admission to heaven. We will look at Jesus as an individual, review the overall gospel narrative, examine that narrative’s application to various broad subject areas, and compare its prescriptions to the beliefs and practices of self-declared Christians.

We begin with the Prologue, describing the Old Testament history leading up to the advent of Jesus.

Prologue:

Dark Father

Before we examine the gospel depictions of the life and teachings of Jesus, we should review the reasons God deemed his birth, message, and sacrifice to be necessary in the first place. Here we will reexamine the doctrine of original sin and the nature of Dark Father himself, as described in the Old Testament.

The Founding Serpent

It began, of course, in the Garden of Eden. Here God planted every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil. He put Adam into the garden (he had not yet created Eve) and told him he could freely eat of every tree, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die. After telling Adam this lie, God went on to create Eve.

Although God is all-knowing and omnipotent, he somehow failed to foresee the almost immediate misbehavior of three of his creations—Adam, Eve and the talking serpent. The importance of the serpent, clearly the smartest of Eden’s inhabitants, cannot be overstated. Without him, there would be no original sin and therefore no need for the subsequent birth and crucifixion of Jesus. The snake’s successful temptation of Eve is the anchoring link in the narrative chain of every Abrahamic religion.

Of all Eden’s non-human creatures, the serpent was the only one endowed with both the gift of speech and sufficient free will to defy God’s orders and trick the poor, dumb humans. (Indeed, one wonders why the snake’s free will has not received more attention from bible students and whether his descendants, like Adam’s and Eve’s, have retained that attribute.) Without the founding serpent, Adam and Eve might still be wandering through the garden of Eden in ignorant bliss, too dumb even to be bored. They probably would not have known how to reproduce or even had the urge to do so (no knowledge-producing fruit, remember?), which in turn would have precluded the rest of humanity’s being dragged into existence.

So God, the omnipotent and all-knowing, gave the gift of free will to Adam, Eve, and the snake. He clearly should have foreseen that this gift would create a never-ending legacy of misery for the recipients, ultimately condemning most of their descendants (possibly excepting the snake’s) to eternal torture in the fires of hell.

Some Christian commentators have suggested that the serpent was actually Satan, but Genesis does not support this assertion. In fact, God specifically cursed the snake and his descendants without mentioning the devil at all—note the following verses:

Genesis 3:14-15

"So the Lord God said to the serpent, ‘Because you have done this, Cursed are you above all the livestock and all the wild animals! You will crawl on your belly and you will eat dust all the days of your life.

‘And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel.’

God clearly categorized the serpent with all the livestock and all the wild animals and decreed enmity between the snake’s offspring and Eve’s. (To the best of our knowledge, Satan had no offspring.)

It also is noteworthy that Adam didn’t die on the day he ate the forbidden fruit, even though God had said he would. Dark Father had simply lied.

God’s Original Sin

Adam and Eve were God’s beloved children, made in his very image. Their Dark Father may have given them free will, but they also were completely innocent, with no concept of what God regarded as good or evil. Until they had actually eaten the forbidden fruit, they could not have known that disobeying God would be evil. Their free will allowed them to be tempted,