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Word Gems
exploring self-realization, sacred personhood, and full humanity
The four gospel accounts
present two conflicting versions of Jesus
– which is the real one?
return to main-page of the "Jesus" article
'the kingdom of heaven is in your midst'
There's an assertion of Jesus found in Luke 17:21: “the kingdom of heaven is in your midst.”
Some churches, threatened by the “made-in-the-image for all" principle, errantly interpret this New Testament verse by saying, “Jesus meant, ‘I am plainly standing here before you, in your midst, as the great ambassador of God’s kingdom, and a member of the Trinity.”
Editor's note: See "The Wedding Song" for a discussion of “eisegesis,” a diseased literary analysis of injecting one’s own prejudices and private viewpoints into another’s message.
However, there are so many things wrong with this latter interpretation one hardly knows what to address first. But the best way of determining what Jesus meant is by reviewing the immediate context of his words. Essentially, he said,
“The kingdom, God's realm, isn’t something you can point to. It doesn't have three-dimensional elements. You can’t gaze in the sky and say, ‘Look, there it is!’ or you can’t see it on the horizon and say, ‘Look, over there, it’s coming our way!” No, none of that. The kingdom of God is not something material or made of matter. It's not a political dominion as men define this. The kingdom is in your midst; the kingdom of God, if you have eyes to see, is within you, part of your being, in your very hearts and souls.”
We know that this is what Jesus meant because in other places he said the same thing in different words. For example, in John 4, in his conversation with the Samaritan woman at the well, he said, to the effect,
“You have life eternal, inside you, right now, like a natural reservoir of living water, an artesian spring of refreshment, that effortlessly bubbles up to the surface of life, with no work on your part required, at all."
Editor's note: Also see Greek scholar Dr. William Barclay's discussion on the classical meaning of "eternal." As we trace the usage-history of this word, we discover that it did not primarily refer to "endless duration of time" - although that was an aspect - but instead "quality of life" and "living life as the gods." This God-energy, this divine essence, this celestial life, is what you have inside you, right now, by virtue of having been "made in the image."
the ancient Gnostic documents, such as The Gospel of Thomas, presented this “individual responsibility” version of Jesus – which is why the worldly Great Church tried to destroy all copies of these competing gospels
Allow me to restate the problem. In the canonical gospels you will find a small amount, a sprinkling, of teaching indicating that each individual might enjoy direct access to God, with no middleman needed; that, each individual, here, right now, possesses sacred eternal life within one’s deepest person; that, no external salvation is necessary or even possible. This message is what we so often find in the Gnostic gospels, and occasionally – as if “slipping by the censors” - in the canonicals.
However, we also find a different Jesus speaking in the traditional gospels. This Jesus is the voice of Big Religion. This Jesus promotes salvation via external savior god. Here’s an example:
John 12:32 “If I be lifted up [on a cross] from the earth, then I will draw all men unto me.”
which is the real message and the real Jesus? – the one who solemnly adjured 'truly, I say to you, by no means will you get out of prison till you have paid the last penny,' or the Big Religion spokesman 'all you have to do is look to me on the cross'?
The gospel of John was written many decades after the time of Jesus. The author never heard Jesus speak one word. And the sentiment expressed in John 12:32 is something that the real Jesus would never have said.
Why is this? It represents a competing, and conflicting, “salvation theory.” You can’t have two Jesus’ saying contradictory things. You can’t have him saying “you have eternal life in you right now” and “the kingdom is inside you right now,” and at the same time suggesting that people will not find access to God unless they are drawn to a dying savior on a cross. You can’t have it both ways.
We must bring to mind, and escape from, the enslaving notion that the New Testament documents represent some kind of infallible missive from on high. This idea is simply not true, and any “non-aligned’ scholar will be able to provide numerous examples of how the New Testament documents have been massaged, interpolated, added to, and otherwise doctored over the decades and centuries.
And this is why Father Benson, a former RCC priest, communicating from the afterlife, spoke of the Bible as a “dangerous” document, in that it will easily mislead the unwary:
Father Robert Benson, More Light: "Orthodoxy [Big Religion] has made havoc of the truth. The New Testament ... has undergone all manner of accident from interpolations, omissions, deletions, mistranslations, misstatements, and misinterpretations. Even as the books stand ... they represent but a sorry fragment of all that Jesus said and did. As it is now, the New Testament is one of the most dangerous of books since by its incompleteness it can so easily be misread... The New Testament is not inspired by God... How many Christian religions are there in existence upon earth this very day? There are literally [thousands], and most of them are based upon wide variations of scriptural interpretations of some one text or another. [However,] they all have one feature in common, monumental error..."
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