Jesus is God

It seems that a lot of people have an extra-biblical opinion of who Jesus was, what His intentions were and His relationship to God. A few weeks back Reza Aslan regurgitated some old tiresome claims in his Zealot. Now Fox News' Bill O'Reilly (along with Martin Dugard) has obeyed his inner guidance and spun a book called Killing Jesus. This is the third installment of a "killing" series by the pair. To be fair I haven't read his book; however, there's been enough media attention that something can be said here.

O'Reilly made it a point to state that his book was not about "religion" and that it is a "historical" book" Yet a book about Jesus cannot divorce itself from who Jesus was, His purpose for coming to earth and His purpose for dying on the Cross. O'Reilly - born some 1900 yrs after the fact - felt it necessary to impose his own wisdom and logic onto the events presented in the gospels. He deemed that they needed correction here and there. In fact at one point he made the admission that he'd taken the Muslim view of Jesus into consideration. Why? Muhammad was born in 570 AD and died in 632 AD. There are very good reasons for believing that his Qur'an was impacted by something far more mundane than revelations from the angel Gabriel.

Ultimately, O'Reilly and Aslan are no different than the likes of Edgar Cayce, Paramahansa Yogananda and Deepak Chopra who preached a "safe", non-biblical Jesus. Ignoring the biblical Jesus will have dire eternal consequences. The other option will affect an individual's life in the here and now, as well as eternity.

A watered down Jesus is a far more comfortable option for this world. One can place that Jesus on a shelf and forget about Him when convenient. This latter Jesus appears to be the one the modern church is beginning to spin to the world, because that is what society is demanding.



Brannon Howse on Killing Jesus (Part 1) and (Part 2) Recommended!

Dr. Jason Lisle Answers Bill O'Reilly HERE

The Christ of the New Age Movement (Part 1)

Click Here to find Part 2 in the Articles List

Memo from Lord Foulgrin

"Don't attempt to refute Christianity when you can dilute it with anything and everything else. This is how we emasculate the message. Convince him the Carpenter is an enlightened master, in a line of spiritual teachers who went to the East and studied with gurus before working with His disciples. Commend Him as a great mentor. Damn Him with faint praise." ~ Lord Foulgrin

I doubt there's ever been an occasion when I've walked into any Christian section of a bookstore and haven't seen Paramahansa Yogananda's "The Yoga of Jesus" or Deepak Chopra's "The Third Jesus" innocuously nestled among the Christian books. I was once a member of the late Yogananda's Self-Realization Fellowship and Edgar Cayce's Association for Research & Enlightenment. Cayce, Chopra and Yogananda all deny that Jesus was the Christ. Their "Jesus" was a man just like us who attained the "Christ Consciousness", and so could their audience.

The problem, of course, is that it's a lie that leads the unsuspecting to the very gates of hell. And that was what the demon Foulgrin was getting at. Having spent time "searching" in the New Age and still dialoguing with some of these people in an effort to help them understand the gospel, Foulgrin's comments are particularly germane for me.

I was initially leery about reading Randy Alcorn's book "Lord Foulgrin's Letters" because it is based on C S Lewis' classical "Screwtape Letters". How can you improve on a classic? I had seen the book at Barnes & Noble and picked it up several times while debating whether I should buy it or not. I finally relented when my wife was looking for suggestions to buy me a birthday present.

I love C S Lewis' original work but I don't feel disloyal in the least when I say "Foulgrin" is great. I read the 197 page book in one day, I liked it so much. Alcorn is a lover of Lewis' works as well and gives due credit to him. Lewis even gets a cameo mention in "Foulgrin". And though he borrows from Lewis' format, Alcorn does add extra features. The book has a network of characters while the reader is granted insights into the demon targets' lives.

One of Alcorn's characters is a Reverend Braun who strongly reminds me of the Episcopal Bishop in Lewis' "The Great Divorce". In "Long Live Our Man in the Pulpit" we get to see what type of clergyman Braun is. He considers the message of the cross and blood to be "simplistic". And during one service he asks, "Pray with me now to the heavenly parent, whoever you may conceive him or her to be." In short, he's just the type of preacher that Foulgrin hopes for and another memory from my past.

Alcorn has done an excellent job and delivered some great insights. The book is worthy of a look.