Getting Started

I'm a layman, not a cleric. I don't have a bone to pick here. I don't hate the church. I love it. But it sure ain't perfect.

What I do believe in is that Jesus is the Messiah (the savior of the world). Outside of that, the rest is up for grabs. I also want to say that I am not hostile to other religions just because I believe that. I'm not hostile to atheists (I was one once), I'm not hostile to people who sin (I'm one of them, too), and I think Jesus has been unworthily characterized as a hostile dude (closer examination does not paint God or Jesus as hostile). That's my basic platform. I'm not out to prove anything, and I don't have an agenda here.

Am I some kind of heretic? Probably. I am to somebody -- maybe even to people I go to church with. Paul said, "Test everything." That's what we're doing here. We (anybody who cares to join me for any reason) are testing Jesus.

I'm reading a book called "Misquoting Jesus" by a biblical historian who went from Moody to Wheaton to Princeton and is an expert on mistakes in the Bible text. My own journey through Christianity went from being an atheist at 19, to a flaming Pentecostal, to Charismatic, to the dark night of the soul, to the weirdo I am now. :-)

What we are doing here is plunging into the big text itself and no-holds-barred seeking to extract its essential meaning. I hope to start with a biblical word that in Greek is parousia. I hope your journey intersects with mine here at this blog. Love, Al