Jesus Christ, Part 2

Exploring Religious Perspectives

Live from Salt Lake City, Utah, this is Heart of the MatterTGNN’s original show where Shawn McCraney deconstructed religion and developed fulfilled theology., where we do all we can to try and worship God in Spirit and in Truth. I’m your host, Shawn McCraneyFounder of TGNN and developer of the fulfilled perspective—calling people to faith outside of religion..

A Historical Analogy

Imagine for a minute that we are living in the year 1830 and there is a man who says: “There is no oxygen in outer space as we know it, so if we ever hope to go there we need to find a way to protect ourselves from an oxygen-deprived environment. I think that we ought to develop outer space suits that have like a bubble over our heads that somehow pumps oxygen to human beings when they enter into space.” We might think he was nuts or we might agree with what he says – but it would all be unprovable at that point in time, right?

Then let’s say the man adds: “And in order to get into outer space people are going to have to wear fabricated wings that they will flap like mad in order to get them there.” Again, some might believe him and others may not, but his claims for the future are still unprovable. Now suppose we are here in the present day and we read the claims of this man. Some will read them and say: “That guy was a complete idiot! Can you believe he said that people would have to have synthetic wings to get into space?” But others might say, “But he was dead on correct about the lack of oxygen and the need to wear protective suits and bubble helmets.”

Joseph Smith and Religious Beliefs

This has been the standard reception people who step out of the norms and standards of the day are received. Some say they were nuts when they spoke and some believed they had insight. And then once their claims could be proved or disproved they were still considered by some to be nuts and by others to be inspired – at least in some areas, right?

Having been LDS and a student of Mormonism, and then a Christian – and a student of Christianity – I’ve come to see a similarity between the analogy I just gave you and the LDS faiths’ founding prophet Joseph Smith. You see, just as ardent fans of certain professional sports teams tend to hate all others – especially their biggest rivals – religious folk tend to do the same toward other religious folk. I’ve done my share of painting Smith as completely black or evil and categorizing all he said and taught as off the mark. Not so any longer.

Interestingly enough, the things that tend to hold most people in LDS church membership – Families being eternally sealed, The Book of Mormon, Living prophet and apostles, Are most comical to my way of thinking, but just because Smith said it would take synthetic wings for people to get to heaven does not mean he was entirely wrong, dark, or evil.

I’m not slipping back into the myth – my convictions come squarely from the Word of God. But the Word of God contextually supports a number of ideas that Smith simply reworded and made his own. For example, when he said that the Bible is the Word of God as far as it’s translated correctly I can’t help but agree. Unfortunately, the correct translation must come by and through the Spirit and study and not through special men.

Evaluating Doctrinal Differences

When Smith challenged the Trinity I can’t help but think he was onto something, but then again what he replaced it with is certainly antithetical to a sound biblical view. And then there are the Christian views about soteriology and perhaps most challenging afterlife descriptions – each of which Smith gave some remarkable insights.

But again, I reject salvation by “grace and works” and that celestialized men and women will become God’s – but there is a lot of room – made AMPLE by the biblical narrative – for us to talk. And while I certainly do not believe that we owe Mormonism an apology (as Richard Mou suggested) I do think we are at a point where much of the dogmatic demands heaped upon people by rabid Evangelicals needs to be tempered . . . with reason, listening ears and love.

The State of the World

In our third email, I had someone ask me specifics about how I think the world has gotten “better.” They had listened to a teaching I did at CAMPUS online and wanted my justification for the claim that the world is getting better, not worse.

A few thoughts. Firstly, in this world, everything is tied to perspective – truly. If you believe the world is getting worse, then you will see evidence for it getting worse everywhere you look. I used to see the world this way and, with newspaper in hand, saw signs that Jesus was coming back at any moment. It was only when I began to read the Word contextually and without the colored lenses of futurismThe belief that end-times prophecies are still future—TGNN teaches they were fulfilled in 70 A.D. More that I was freed from this perspective, and once freed, I started to realize that my views were entirely slanted by my errant world view.

Evidence of Improvement

Secondly, when I say that the world is getting better, I mean this in a very general sense and I attribute the betterment to God and God alone. Let me explain. I think the world – this world – the fallen world, when compared to where we have been, is in a better fallen world state than it has ever been before. It used to be that when a child got a cold, it could easily add to a worldwide stat of high infant mortality rates. Not as much any longer. It used to be we had debtors' prison, and people could go to its deplorable conditions for decades for owing on unpaid groceries. Not so much anymore. It used to be that Governments could without hindrance stomp on the necks of all who oppose them. Not as much. And not so very long ago humankind believed it could treat the world like its own personal landfill – not as much.

We have statistical proof that humans are trying to make better choices with regard to health, diet, and we have statistical proof that we are worldwide becoming less violent. With the immediacy of the news on hand and a “worldwide front page” hitting us in the face everywhere we turn, we tend to see the world cynically, but I think God is blessing us all more and more as we strive to try and love each other – in spite of ourselves. Today fewer people are dying young, poverty is all around, but fewer suffer from extreme poverty, war is becoming less deadly, and as I said, violent crime is dropping. And compared with our most recent past, racism and sexism are also on the decline. It's not gone – it never will go away completely – but it is lesser.

So where the world is still roiling in despair and difficulty, things are getting more reasonable, and they have markedly improved over the past 50, hundred, thousand, and even 5,000 years. I mean, just 100 years ago we had outhouses for restrooms, for goodness' sakes. My youngest daughter works for a company that sells groceries. Like any corporation, they have sales goals each quarter. But do you know what they do with the company income that exceeds the quarterly goal? They divide it fairly among the employees based on the number of hours worked. They don’t have to do that. But they do. I mean, a freaking grocery chain has decided to make a financial improvement to the lives of their “in-the-trenches workers,” and an improvement was made!

Remaining Challenges

But take note – this is important. From what I can tell, there are a few vestiges of evil that remain and continue, like stodgy old Wall Street capitalists, to retain a stronghold of control on their underlings. There are a number of them, but the one that interests me is religious institutions. I mean, for nearly two thousand years, religious institutions (using Jesus' name) have successfully capitalized on the time and income of people (by misappropriating the contents of the Bible) as a means to benefit themselves… and when we step back and look around, nothing has really changed in the big picture!

Again, the human race has been willing to try and self-govern some things to a better level – Environment, Medicine, Industry, Social and civil affairs, Education, Technology, Arts and Entertainment, Sports. They have all made marked advances for the betterment of their sphere of influence – but organized Christianity remains – REMAINS – utterly capitalistic, utterly immovable, and resolute in its traditions – all in the name of God. And here’s the CLASSIC PART.

Criticism of Institutional Religion

– defenders of the religious status quo respond to this view with the following logic – “Well Mr. McCraney, the world may be getting better but the world is utterly falling apart spiritually!” And to this I would ask: “Whose fault is that?!!!” Whose been in charge of the Spiritual community? Answer that and you have the ones responsible for our spiritual dearth today! Of course the answers is the religious institutions are the ones who have been at the helm for almost 2000 years and look at where we’ve gone under your management! On the one hand the churches are either empty (look at Europe) or the ones that are thriving are either cultic or feed their congregates junk food – which all leads to more spiritual deathSeparation from God—now overcome. Physical death remains, but it no longer separates us from life with God.. The fault is two part – all of us who have sat back and tacitly allowed the institutions to have their way and all the pastors and leaders who have fed themselves on the results.

The Role of Church and Pastors

I think institutional religion is one of the last bastions that has yet to wake the heck up to the need for change, and the only reason they have lasted as long as they have is because they used God, sinMissing the mark of faith and love—no punishment, just lost growth or peace., and the afterlife to terrify people into complicity. Only when individuals, at the grass roots level rise up and refuse to play along anymore, will institutional Christianity in this day and age change and change for the better. Do Pastor’s deserve and income. Of course they do. Are building necessary to hold church? Typically so. But church needs to be just church – a place where the flock is fed the Word of God, a place that is not of this world, a place that accepts the sick and wounded and lost, and a place that tends to the spiritual nourishment of the children of God. Nothing more. Not an empire. Not an institution. Screw the denominational demands and tithes and dress codes and marriages and all that tripe. Get together and worship God in spirit and truth.

The Need for Change

I’m not by any means suggesting regulation or oversight committees. I’m suggesting deregulation – meaning that which has been “regular” becomes “deregular” with the hope that Christianity will in the years to come be seen as having improved rather than stuck in its same old stodgy dying place it is today. The change will happen when you say ENOUGH – and vote with your feet.

Last week we embarked on discussing Jesus – both from a classic Christian and the LDS views – past and present. We ended by talking about His name – Yeshua the anointed. Let’s talk about the notion of Jesus being the Son of God. Admittedly this title has personally caused me no small amount of trouble. And admittedly there are views that are not clear even among Evangelicals. Jesus is universally called the Son of God by Christians and the LDS alike – but the reason this title is given Him differs.

The reason the LDS call Jesus the Son of God is because he is the ONLY biological, material, physical Son God has ever had. The reason I make this clarification is because the LDS believe that all human beings are children of God spiritually, so the distinction between us and Jesus is Jesus is the only biological Son God the Father has ever had. Within Christianity there are a few ways people see Jesus as the Son of God. One is that Jesus, prior to anything existing, was the Son of God the Father. In this view there was a Daddy and there was his Son, no different than a man on earth and his son Jimmy. This explanation was provided me by a recognized scholar on the Trinity and it is one that rubs me entirely the wrong way. Matt Slick, a guest we have had on our program in the past explains that there is a better way to understand the Sonship of Jesus to God the Father and says:

Now in the Old Testament, the title, “son of God” is given to individuals who found themselves in a special relationship with God. According to Gerald O’Collins in his book, Christology: A Biblical, Historical, and Systematic Study of Jesus (page 117) “In the Old Testament divine sonship was attributed to . . . angelic beings, the chosen people and their king.” Harrell points out that the title sons of god is found in several Old Testament passages (like job 1:6, 2:1, Psalm 29:1 and Daniel 3:25) which refer to angels, and the Children of Israel are called God’s children or

The Concept of 'Son of God' in the Old Testament

Even Hosea 11:1, speaking of the Nation of Israel says: “When Israel was a child, I loved Him, and out of Egypt I called my son.” Of course this is often applied to Jesus but first it was clearly tied to the Children of Israel being led out of Egypt by Moses. Additionally, a number of Old Testament passages speak of God having a son but are connected to the coronation of Israel’s King. Each king was recognized as God’s representative or Son here on earth. Only in later New Testament times would the same passages be tied to Jesus. Let me give you some examples.

In Psalm 2:7 we read: “Thou art my Son, this day I have begotten thee.” According to II Samuel 7:14 and Psalm 89:26-27 this was a ceremonial proclamation that was made any time a king was crowned. According to Raymond Brown and his book, The Birth of the Messiah (page 136): “At the moment of coronation a prophetic oracle explained to the people what God in heaven was saying of the king (which was), “You are my son, today I have begotten you.” Other directives were given and exchanged all showing that the proclamation was to them at that time and had no future appointment (at least not to them).

Misinterpretations of Old Testament Proclamations

I mention this because we have allowed Pastors and preachers to create stories (even myths) around all the Old Testament utterances that supposedly let the Jews know perfectly of the coming Messiah but this does not seem to be the case. In fact, the term Son of God used in the Old Testament had zero allusion to the coming Messiah and was not applied to prophesies of the Messiah to be. Nevertheless, as a means to assign the “royal coronation psalms” to Jesus many New Testament scholars have tried to legitimize His right to the throne by suggesting these passages spoke of Him prophetically.

Again, I’m not saying they don’t, but I don’t think they were seen as having any application to the coming Messiah by the Jews all the way up to the Maccabean revolt, which seemed to initial the age when the Jews began looking for a promised Messiah to save them. Methodist scholar Knut Heim writes: “Not one royal psalm originated as a prediction of a future savior king; all of them originally referred to the king actually reigning at the time. A messianic meaning was given to them only AFTER the disappearance of the Davidic dynasty. In particular, it arose from the contrast between Nathan’s promise of an everlasting rule for David’s house and the fact that the dynasty had ceased to be a political reality, the situation reflected in Psalm 89.”

Original Meanings and Interpretations

To shake things up even more, we have another common coronation passage that was interpreted in the New Testament as a reference to Christ – and it’s one Jesus even applied to Himself. “The LORD said to my Lord, sit thou at my right hand until I make thine enemies my footstool.” Now I fully admit that this passage did speak prophetically of Christ. And agree with the fact that Jesus cites this passage to prove that He (Jesus) was King David’s Lord.

But the ORIGINAL intended meaning of this Psalm is clear when we realize that in the Old Testament, LORD (all upper case) refers to Yahweh or Jehovah (the God of the Old Testament) while Lord (Upper and lower case) often refers to the reigning King. Who was the reigning King David was referring to here when HE wrote these words? That’s right, Saul. As king, Saul was David’s Lord while God was Saul’s LORD. In other words, the actual meaning, at the time the passage was written, was: The LORD (God) said unto my (David’s) Lord (Saul) sit thou at my right hand until . . . etc., etc.

I mention this not to take away from the passage foreshadowing Jesus, but to bring it into context and a reasonable view. Without these reasonable views we tend to overemphasize and over accentuate the context and history of what the Bible says and means, which leads to an over-inflated unnatural, supernatural view of the faith, which then leads to disappointment in the minds of people who have bought into the hyper-inflated rhetoric about Jesus. This can be avoided (for the most part) if we simply teach the Word from a reasonable and textual way.

Main Topic: Personal Struggles and Faith

them to let a lot of what they have accepted go, but to retain what is good, and viable, and of good report.

Personal Story and Challenges

I was baptized Mormon and want to be baptized Christian but wound have to somehow get away without anyone knowing in Here in southern Utah. I cannot risk losing now my living child and her five kids. I gave birth to three children. My first daughter died from a seizure at age 32 on my son Jayson's birthday. He loved her very much. My second child, Jayson committed suicide on Christmas Eve 2015.

Coping with Loss

I am having a very hard time dealing with this mainly because I do not know where his Spirit is. He said he believed in Jesus but never lived as a Christian or as a Mormon. He had been a teenager in trouble. He married a woman who was fifteen years older and had a daughter who is now 17 years old. He murdered himself at the home of his ex-wife Diana and his daughter. His ex-wife Dianna is the mother of Michelle Sinclare. Porn name Belladonna. My granddaughter Poetry has spent lots of time In LA. At the home of her porn and lesbian sister.

Dianna is the mother of eight and most of her grown children are in the porn business. Her oldest son was Belldons's bodyguard. Donna now goes by her maiden name of Paden. She is a Nurse in Salt Lake. My Husband has dementia and I have severe and very painful scoliosis. He is a convert. The main reason he joined the church is because he wanted the Priesthood.

I have every former Mormon and anti-Mormon YouTube I can find.