STUDY TIPS: Before reading this series of pages, it will be instructive to read the following links about Jesus:
1. WHO WAS/IS JESUS?
Solving the question of Jesus’ identity is a question that has long plagued Christians. An internet search will yield thousands of articles, books, sermons, and internet sources that claim to answer the question. In their own way, committees, pastors, theologians and authors use reason, scripture, history, artifacts, doctrine and experience to prove what they believe. And still there is no agreement.
A rational person would think that, if the Bible has all the answers, and if Jesus was the important character that Christians believe him to be, wise, knowledgeable men would be able to prove the truth from scripture and agree on that truth. But they cannot prove the truth to the satisfaction of everyone. The problem is, of course, that the Bible does not contain all the answers. The book of the law (i.e. Bible) is only a shadow of things to come. The full truth comes by hearing God’s voice in which there is no shadow or variation.
Because those wise and knowledgeable men have hard hearts and can’t hear God’s voice, they apply their best human knowledge to divine who Jesus was/is. The result is disagreement, confusion and debate about Jesus as multitudes of Christian denominations and movements continue to advance their theories about Jesus and compete with one another for believers who will join and support their religion based on those theories. This scenario hardly satisfies God’s desire that his people would live in unity and oneness.
Religious people who are willing to break out of their strongholds of wrong thinking about Jesus, and who are willing to humble themselves enough to entertain the possibility that their idea of Jesus might not be correct, will help move the world toward a universal understanding of the truth about Jesus.
Those who have their minds made up about Jesus will probably find an in-depth, Biblical review tedious and challenging. Nevertheless, the truth is here for anyone who is committed to asking, seeking and knocking for understanding that exceeds what they already know.
Before disclosing the evidence of who Jesus is/was, however, it is useful to ask this question: Why do Christians not agree on who Jesus is? And a companion question that is also intriguing: Why do Jews not embrace a doctrine that recognize Jesus as a messiah?
The answer is both simple and complex. The simple part is that they are all trying to divine Jesus’ identity by interpreting the Bible literally. No one, Jews included, tries to understand who Jesus was/is by listening to God’s spoken voice. That is the reason they do not understand who he is.
If everyone would listen to God’s spoken voice instead of listening to religious false prophets who report their own personal opinions based on the literal words of the Bible, they would all know the same truth about Jesus. Instead of holding to many different ideas based on their personal interpretations of scripture, they would all believe one truth because God does not change his message from one person to another. And when they know the truth, there would be no need for so many different kinds of churches and denominations because they would all hear God say the same thing. Obviously, this is not what happens when people interpret the Bible literally.
The complex part of understanding Jesus is the lengthy process of investigating scriptures that tell about the messiah, the high priest, and Jesus’ ministry. This task is complicated by the strongholds of wrong thinking that blind religious people to a singular spiritual understanding of who Jesus is and how we should consider his teachings.
In this series of pages, we will endeavor to lead readers in a systematic and comprehensive study of scriptures that will lead to the symbolic interpretation of Jesus’ identity and mission.