The Real Jesus of the Four GospelsAtwater, John Birdseye
Religion
The Real Jesus of the Four Gospels
Atwater, John Birdseye
Jesus Christ -- Biography
A superficial glance at history illustrates the necessity of national
compromise.
If Moses had preached, and the Jews had put in practice, the doctrine of
non-resistance, they would soon have been exterminated by their
Philistine neighbors, and the Jesus that was would never have been.
If the tribes of the northern barbarians in the first thousand years of
our era had put into practical effect the Sermon on the Mount, as soon
as they accepted Christianity, there would have been no Anglo-Saxon
England and United States, as they are today.
If Ferdinand and Isabella had not relied on their earthly weapons, Spain
would probably have been Moslem to this day.
If the Christian powers had not warred against the Turks in the
sixteenth century, the greater part of Europe would have bowed the knee
to Mahomet, and the Mosque would have superseded the Church as the
authorized place of worship.
If our colonial ancestors had obeyed the injunction, "Render to Cæsar
the things that are Cæsar's," there would have been no American
Revolution.
If the "conscientious objectors" had swayed the councils of the North in
1861, we would now have a divided country, with slavery firmly
established in one-half of it.
As with the nation, so with the individual, a compromise between Jesus'
ideals and the forces of nature is a necessity, at least until evolution
has produced some fundamental change in human nature.
It is related that when the mother and brethren of Jesus sought to speak
with Him, He repudiated their special claims of relationship on Him, and
said: "For whosoever shall do the will of my Father which is in heaven,
the same is my brother, and sister and mother" (Matt. XII:50; Mark
III:31; Luke VIII:19).
In another place He says: "He that loveth father or mother more than me
is not worthy of me; and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is
not worthy of me" (Matt. X:37).
"If any man come to me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife,
and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he
cannot be my disciple" (Luke XIV:26).
"And every one that hath forsaken houses, or brethren, or sisters, or
father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands, for my name's sake,
shall receive a hundredfold, and shall inherit everlasting life" (Matt.
XIX:29).
"And He said unto another, Follow me. But he said, Lord, suffer me first
to go and bury my father.
"Jesus said unto him, let the dead bury their dead; but go thou and
preach the kingdom of God" (Luke IX:59, 60).
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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