Another question for Christians: exhortation or judgment?

The problem is, you are dealing with a rather large beast. We know with absolute certainty that at one time the chruch had vast power over the people. It always baffles me that christians believe the bible were never corrupted yet humans (according to christians) are sinful. So why wouldn't humans who are corruptable, corrupt a book, that would in turn give a small group of people power over the rest? Seems perfectly reasonable to me and I bet it was corrupted for that very purpose.

Another way that I look at the whole thing is that christians are really paulists. Pretty much every modern christian quotes paul's point of views on jesus, even though he never actually met jesus. He had this extravegant way of viewing him and I think that is where the entire divinity aspect comes from. If you actually examine the text jesus never actually refers to himself in any way as being any more important than anyone else. Of course they write this off to say he was just being humble. No it is telling something significant that was exaggerated into being something more than it was.

The last aspect is that christianity is really just judaism-lite. Jesus was jewish and professed the jewish bible. He knew absolutely nothing of what modern christians try to pronounce.

But besides all that, really the whole thing is convoluted. Why would people think that a god killing it's self/son be a reasonable method for salvation? They actually accept that such a thing is not only reasonable but worthy of admiration. Why? It is if you ask me, the worst example of what you would want to find as reasonable. It might have sounded great to primitive cultures but today we are beyond such things and I find them repugnant. I think the rest of the world is starting to realize that too.

So what I think you are asking is on what grounds or authority did they have to preach. Jesus said who sent the son of man. All the prophets of the Lord have said they speak what the Lord told them. Here is a sample;


I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me will never hunger, and whoever believes in me will never thirst.
Everything that the Lord gives me will come to me, and I will not reject anyone who comes to me, because I came down from heaven not to do my own will but the will of the one who sent me.

My teaching is not my own it comes from the one who sent me.
Whoever chooses to do his will shall know about this teaching namely, whether it comes from God or whether I‘m speaking on my own.
Whoever speaks on his own seeks his own glory, but whoever seeks the glory of the one who sent him is truthful, and there is no dishonesty in his heart.

I came into the world as light, so that everyone who believes in me might not remain in darkness. And if anyone hears my words and does not keep them, I do not condemn him, for I did not come to condemn the world but to save it.
Whoever rejects me and does not accept my words he already has his judge, namely, the word that I have spoken that’s what will condemn him on the last day, because I did not speak on my own, but the Lord who sent me commanded me what to say and how to speak, and since I know that his commandment means eternal life what I say is spoken just as He instructed me."