Dennis, I like your understanding of "church" and the inclusiveness of the so called miracles of Jesus is spot on. I think if we could understand the Jewishness of Jesus, we would see why his call is about including people and not excluding people (which continues to happen with different Christian communities striving to recognize the miracles as proof of his Being god). There is nothing about his life and his death that is so different that we should think of him as god more than ourselves. The Jewish Jesus commands that we love God and our neighbors and complete that love to include our enemies. It is easy to love those who love us...the challenge is to love those who don't and in doing so be made perfect as our Heavenly Father is Perfect. It is the Jewish (Pharisee) Jesus who makes sense to me. The Christian teachings sent me to find out why I had so many questions after studying so many answers. The biggest problem for me is the existence in the NT of two completely different and as far as I'm concerned totally opposing messages. There are the teachings OF Jesus and the teachings ABOUT Jesus. The teachings OF Jesus are clear and consistent---those about him try to convince people of his divinity, his death for the salvation of all and his promise to return. If you try to live your life by those OF Jesus, you will live a good life and specifically the life of a good Jew and that is what I think it means to follow him. The message ABOUT him leads you away from HIS message---because the one ABOUT him couldn't be any less Jewish than it's creator, Paul. Who claimed a mystical version which put his "gospel" above the men who actually knew Jesus. Paul fought for the supremacy of his gospel in his letter to the Galatians (1:11-12) "I assure you brothers, the gospel I proclaimed to you is no mere human invention. I did not receive it from any man (remember he had no relationship with Jesus' apostles), nor was I schooled in it (by any man). It came by revelation from Jesus Christ." Revealed through the mystical experience of Jesus on the Road to Damascus. Paul's message is definitely the teachings ABOUT Jesus. Paul's letters pretty much all precede the Gospel writings and the names attached to those writings were attached much later with little or no proof of who actually wrote them. I'm rambling on. I love the teachings OF Jesus as many Christians do because they can be put into practice!
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