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The Quotations of Jesus
Seems you can't
swing a dead cat anymore without hitting someone who's quoting
Jesus. Or someone who's misquoting Jesus. Or someone
who's creating Jesus quotations out of
thin air with gusto and conviction to serve one purpose or another on his or her agenda.
Frequently you'll hear someone ascribing to Jesus something that
Paul, James, Timothy, or one of the other New Testament writers actually
wrote. Sometimes it'll actually be a few words from a prophet, psalmist, or other
character out of the Old Testament --
not from Jesus, but stuck in Jesus' mouth.
Sometimes, to suggest that Jesus supports whatever belief or
interpretation a person is pushing --
whether that belief is reasonable or wackier than a Looney Toon --
a person roughly paraphrases Jesus instead of quoting him, but makes
the reference seem like a quotation. He or she does it offhand
and matter-of-factly. Earnestly. Accurately or
inaccurately. Usually vaguely. Just sort of slipping an
association with Jesus into the conversation, as if he or she had
just spoken with Jesus about the issue last night at
Applebee's. Unfortunately,
this method works far more often than it should, especially if the
persuader is a convincing actor and the audience can't think
critically or is complacent,
apathetic, gullible, or downright stupid.
Often a person will take a word or phrase of Jesus' and use it to
support some half-baked argument based on sentiment, desire, and
wishful thinking, not on reason, faith, and knowledgability.
Persons doing this will spin it, influencing the interpretation. They get
you all worked up. The quotation is entirely out of context, used
manipulatively, sorely misrepresenting what Jesus actually said and
meant to serve the quoter's designs, not Jesus'. Watch out for
these characters. Even if you feel tongue-tied and can't
respond --
which they're counting on --
you don't have to buy their bananas. Walk away. Just
walk away. You know that feelings can't replace
understanding. You know that sentiment can't replace
faith. Still, these jokers manipulate you and you fall for
their junk time and again. And it's all over the place,
beating against your sensibilities, wearing you down. You even
get a
lot of it in your email nowadays. Especially if you have lousy spam filters.
Or if you have undiscriminating friends and family members who love to share the
word, any word, by forwarding it to you.
Wow. Isn't that something? Nearly everyone in the
Christian world knows what Jesus said, what he
actually meant, why it's important to you, and what you should do
about it --
even when they don't have a clue. Given the hundreds of millions of
people who claim to follow Jesus and his teachings, doesn't this
strike you as pretty scary? It sure frightens us. That's why
we figured that, in good conscience, we should probably publish a simple and clear website where
you can quickly find online what Jesus actually
said, how he said it, where, and when. Now when you walk away
from the sophists and pretenders, you can walk to Jesus. Where
you can measure what they're saying against what Jesus is
saying. Where you can see that he didn't actually speak very
often of
the virtues of ice cream, football, dieting, and BMWs, but does say some
unorthodox, unconventional stuff about caring for your enemies,
about turning your
cheek, and about doing things for other people and not to them.
Hence, this site. Not emphasizing what his old pals Timothy or
James or Paul say, and not emphasizing what his current buddies
Reverend Smith, Father Doe, or Pastor Jones say, but, bottom line,
what Jesus himself, the Christ in Christianity, actually says.
Here, where he spoke, in the Gospels of the New Testament, are his quotations writ blue, right
where they occur, in context, in perspective, easy to read.
Sometimes you forget that the most important stuff, the stuff you use
and are looking for all the time --
even the stuff you claim to profess but really don't know the first
thing about --
is right under your nose. You just have to do your homework.
Which is easy. You can check here, for yourself,
whether or not that guy or gal shouting and schmoozing on TV --
or from
behind the pulpit, or from across the dining-room table --
is just blowing a bunch of self-serving hot air at you. See for
yourself what Jesus was
saying, reflect on it, consider it, then decide what he meant.
If you're going to base your faith on what Jesus said, it might as well
be your faith, and it might as well be based on what Jesus
said.
~ ~ ~
A.M.D.G.
Ad majorem Dei
gloriam -|- To the greater glory of God
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