One Last Hope for Christianity!
 

A short glance at the Christian Newsgroups demonstrates conclusively
the world is not going to buy the old circular Christian clincher of
religious argument: "It's true. The Bible tells me so." Enough said.

Even for a radical left wing Christian like QBaal, you know in the Bishop
Spong mold, it was surprising to have the fellows of The Jesus Seminar
vote 99.9% of the Gospel of John as mainly late interpretation of what
Jesus said and did (written about AD 85). See The Five Gospels, Robert Funk et al. HarperSanFrancisco 1997 Which makes you wonder if the Jesus crew didn't start interpreting Jesus and creating the Jesus Icon right from t=0 when Jesus died on the cross.

Since folk pray to God in the name of Jesus, know God through Jesus Christ
and hope to share in the resurrected glory of Jesus Christ, it would be nice to
have some authentic information re the real historical Christ. You are not going to
get much in the Gospel of John. Nor really, in the Matthew, Mark or Luke.

I suggest Christians bite the bullet, cut their losses, start paying some heed to The
Jesus Seminar, and forsake the Jesus Icon for the historical Jesus. Sure, it's tough
to dump the making of water into wine, the feeding of 5,000 with a basket of fish
and bread, Jesus walking on water, and various physical resurrection stories that
conflict mightily in the pertinent details. Oh, yes Jesus was not born of any Virgin
Mary. And what are we left with? The real Jesus Christ who taught everything, i.e.
in parable. And, as a big bonus, your children won't return from Sunday School to report on another session where they learned yet again to believe what they know very well is not true.

In the Gospel of the Mark, the earliest Bible gospel we have

The Parable of the Sower Parable of Seed and Harvest

The Parable of the Mustard Seed.

In the Gospel of Matthew

Heaven's imperial rule is like leaven..

Heaven's imperial rule is like treasure hidden in a field

Parable of Lost Sheep with 99 in Fold

Parable of Unforgiving Slave

Parable of Vineyard Laborers

Parable of Money Given in Trust (Matthew 25)

Parable of Patches and Wineskins
 
 

In Luke

Parable of the Good Samaritan

Parable of the Rich Farmer who had to build bigger barns

Parable of the Dinner Party where marginalized attend and not guests.

Parable of Woman Who loses Silver Coin and Sweeps

Parable of the Prodigal Son

Parable of the Shrewd Manager
 

Parable of the Corrupt Judge

Parable of the Pharisee and Toll Collector

Actually, I feel we could reduce this list to two parables, the Good Samaritan
and the Prodigal Son. The first emphasizes the ethic of the Kingdom is based
on love. The Prodigal Son story sums up the essence of the person of Jesus
Christ - a brilliant revelation of the nature of God and his unconditional love.
In fact, experience the Resurrected Power of Jesus and believe the Parable of
the Prodigal Son and you are the complete Christian. And relieved of a lot of
outdated erroneous Church interpretation of Jesus Christ.
 
 

I also should add that in all three synoptic gospels the real Jesus Christ says

Pay the emperor what belongs to the emperor, and God what           belongs to God.

Mark 12:17

Yep, pay those taxes. I've always told you Jesus was a very down to earth
realistic, practical person!