Who Do You Say that I Am?

He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?”  Luke 9:20

Look at the different depictions of Jesus in the photos above. There are a ton of different perceptions of Jesus that people have. It is quite evident that people tend to make Jesus in their own image. Therefore, there are huge misconceptions of who the real Jesus is. Your religion, church denomination, theology, culture, race, ethnicity, gender, worldview, home environment you grew up in and even sexual preference will dictate your perception of Jesus if you do not know the Jesus of the Bible.

Here is an example of how the environment you live in will dictate your religious views and perception of Jesus, followed by the huge misconception that Jesus came to the earth to start a religion. 

Mormonism was founded in the 1830 by Joseph Smith in New York. After he died, Brigham Young became the new leader and led his followers to Utah where they settled and established the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (LDS Church). Brigham Young governed this region along with the Church. Today, just over half of the state of Utah continues to be practice Mormonism, who influence the government, the culture, and the environment. Many Utah families go back generations to the religion's origin, believing the religion and traditions of the LDS Church. 

It seems logical that if a person grows up in an environment which incorporates a single religious belief system in which essenttially everyone they know or ever knew believe in, and their government, schools, and businesses make laws, and rules according to that belief system, that it is very likely that the person will grow up believing that religious belief system also. They will grow up knowing the god of their fathers and if their religion includes Jesus, they will grow up knowing the Jesus of their fathers. This is a good thing unless the god and Jesus of their fathers is not the God and Jesus of the Bible. The god and Jesus of Mormonism comes partially from the Bible, but moreso from Joseph Smith who wrote the Book of Mormon. Much of it is plagiarized from the Bible, but Mormonism contains some very unorthodox and heretical teachings about God and Jesus. Even so, I personally believe that there are some within Mormonism who do truly believe in Jesus and are committed to love and serve Him. They have been deceived and therefore do not know the real Jesus, and need to come to that knowledge just as a new Christian does.

This scenario above is not limited only to Mormonism, but to any religious ideology including Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism, etc. In Middle Eastern countries, Islam is the primary religion because it was founded in that part of the world, and is a very similar scenario as the one described above. Generations of families have followed the teachings of Islam, and the government, the schools and the culture are all rooted in Islam. 

Similarly, in southern Asian countries, Hinduism is the primary religion and the cultural environment follows Hindu ideologies. It is also the region of the world where Hinduism was founded. 

The same goes for Buddhism which is the primary religion in eastern parts of Asia and eastern Asia is where Buddhism was founded.

In some parts of Europe, atheism is the primary religion due in part to communism and socialism.

Mormonism was founded in the United States, but has spread to other nations around the world. Some research suggests that it is among the fastest growing Christian religions in the United States, along with Islam and atheism. However, there there is question if that is true or not. Even if it is, Mormonism is classified under "Christianity", the prevalent religion of the United States, but Mormonism by itself is not the prevalent religion of the United States. In the United States, *Christianity is the prevalent religion, yet it is on the decline, and Islam, atheism, and new age spirituality is on the rise.

All religions have spread beyond their founding nations, but all except Christianity are the primary religions within their founding nations. Christianity was founded in the Middle East, yet today, Islam and Hinduism are the primary religions within that region. However, Christianity spread throughout the world when Jesus's apostles and the early church went to other nations to tell them about Jesus. Today, there is at least a remnant of Christianity within every nation of the world.

Christianity has been the primary religion in the United States since members from the Church of England split and came here to settle the region. Despite Jesus and His apostles being of Hebrew descent and from the Middle East, Christianity is sometimes called, "the white man's religion" by other ethnic people groups. This is said because of American and European missionaries who have taken the good news of Jesus to these nations, and because the United States is viewed by the rest of the world as being a Christian nation. This is further evidence that there is a huge misconception of who Jesus is, throughout the world.

Jesus is not only the white man's god, He is the Son and a part of the only true God. No other god created the heavens and the earth and everything in them. No other god created a people in his image and loved them so much that he sacrificed his only begotten son so they could be with him for both now and eternity. No other god died for his people. Because no other god did these things, no other god is worthy of man's worship and no other god can make a way for man to be with God. There is only one God and He is the God and Lord of all mankind and of all creation. 

One of the most important issues that needs to be addressed and better understood when discussing world religions, is that Jesus did not come to the earth to start a religion. Sadly, Christianity has become a religion because of man's misconceptions of Jesus.

"Christianity" is a term that is used to identify the religion that has the belief that Jesus is the Son of God and the Messiah, and that God sent His Son Jesus to die for the sins of the people whom He created. However, the term "Christianity" is not used in the Bible because God never intended for His people to follow or to become an organized religion. God never intended for His people Israel to follow or become a religion either, but their beliefs and traditions evolved into the religion of Judaism. Similar to Israel and Judaism, the church has evolved from being a family into an organized religious institution with man made traditions and regulations. 

The term "Christian" was used in Acts 11:26 in the Bible to describe the disciples (followers) of Jesus. Therefore, the definition of a follower of Jesus is a Christian. A follower of Jesus, or a Christian, follows Jesus because they love Him. Jesus said to His followers, "If you love me, you will do what I command." (John 14:15).

That's it! That is what a Christian is, and that is what Christianity should be. It may seem simplistic, but that's because it is!

The religion of Christianity requires its members to do things that are beyond following Jesus, such as going to church, giving 10% of your income to the church, having your children baptized, serving your church, etc. But Jesus does not require these things to follow Him. The things that Jesus requires of those who do choose to follow Him are much more difficult than the religious duties described above. Things such as faithfulness, perseverance, justice, righteousness, love, mercy, grace, forgiveness.

Have you discovered how difficult it is to remain faithful to God and persevere in faith when you are being tempted to sin and to leave God and go back to the ways of the world? Have you discovered how difficult it is to help someone who is in that situation, or have you ever even considered helping someone who is in that situation? 

Have you discovered how difficult it is to even promote justice and righteousness in a world where people believe that injustice is justice and justice is injustice, let alone do what is just and right in a world that is occupied by evil?

Have you discovered how difficult it is to love your neighbor as yourself when they are mean and unlovable? Or to love your fellow Christians when they live in countries that are at war with the United States, or who go to a different church and do not agree with your doctrines? Or to love God after you lose a loved one or have come upon difficult times - to love God knowing that He allows suffering and that He actually uses it to increase our faith and to become more like Jesus?

Have you discovered how difficult it is to forgive someone who has deeply wounded you, and then extend mercy and grace to them?

These are very difficult things that Jesus requires of His followers, which the religion of Christianity regard as being Christian values and principles to live by, but does not necessarily regard as being things that are required in order to be a Christian. 

Jesus also expects His followers to understand that they are not their own, but they were bought at a price when God gave Jesus as the atoning sacrifice for their sins. Their lives, their money, their homes, their cars, their children, their spouse - they all belong to Him - 100%. The religion of Christianity says that its members are to give 10% of their money to their church, but Jesus and His apostles commanded the followers of Jesus to feed the poor and needy, and to help orphans and widows. Jesus commanded His followers to deny themselves and to take up their cross and follow Him. He commanded them to go to all nations to make disciples and to teach them His commands and to baptize them. Disciples of Jesus get baptized, not babies or children who have not believed in Jesus. All of their money and resources belong to Jesus, so He expects His followers to use them for God's purposes and glory, not their own.

Oftentimes within the religion of Christianity, a very small percentage of a church's budget goes to help the needy or to make disciples of all nations, while the rest goes to building projects & maintenance, staff salaries, and programs designed to grow the church. This is much different than what Jesus commanded of His followers. There was no command by Jesus to build church buildings or to go to college for a seminary degree to be a pastor or a missionary, which takes years and tens of thousands if not hundreds of thousands of dollars. Jesus did not command Christians to use their spiritual gifts to make a living for themselves orto pay church staff members a salary. It is likely that Jesus and the apostles were given money by people who supported what they were doing because they liked what they were doing, but they were not paid a salary by a church or organization. People will naturally support what they like and when they like what they are being fed.

Whoever is paid by an organization must do whatever the organization wants them to do, and whoever is paid by a church must believe the doctrines and other related things that the church believes, right or wrong. This is not the case for a Christian who is not paid by a church or organization, but who is supported by others because of their faithfulness to God alone. They have the freedom to simply follow Jesus where He leads and to believe the Bible and doctrines based on what they themselves believe the Holy Spirit has taught them. 

This is just a sampling of some of the differences between following Jesus and the religion of Christianity. Hopefully you can see that there is a difference. 

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Let's now look at an example of how someone's sexual preference and worldview determines their view of Jesus. I'll use a couple controversial topics to explain. 

First, Iet's say a young man has physical attractions towards other men. In other words, he would be considered by himself and by others as gay or homosexual. Let's also say that he is sexually active and that he does not consider his lifestyle to be one of sin, but he proudly supports and advocates for it and others who are in this lifestyle. He will likely have one of two view of Jesus:

1) He will deny belief in God at all, and therefore Jesus also, because he believes that God condemns him for his lifestyle based on what he has witnessed from Christians. Because he does not want to be condemned by God and he wants to continue to live in sin, he would rather deny that God exists. He might not want to believe in the God of the Christians because maybe they were a poor witness of God's love. But it might be that he doesn't want to believe what Christians say about God because he doesn't want to stop sinning. This is true of a lot people. They don't want to give up their sin for God, or they don't feel the need to. It's easier just to deny His existence and live life their way. Someone can deny God's existence all they want, but it doesn't change the fact that He does exist and that He is God and Lord of all.

2) He will view Jesus as being a god of love, who wants nothing more than for his children to be happy and do whatever they want. He does not view his sexual activity as sin, but if he did, he would believe that Jesus overlooks his sin because of his love for him and because his grace covers his sin. He believes that Jesus does not want to get in the way of his happiness. He might also believe that Jesus was gay. 

Okay. Briefly, let me say that someone who is attracted to the same sex is not sinning because of their attraction, at least before becoming a Christian and initially after. The desire gives birth to the sin. Meaning, it is only sin when they give into the desire. The man in the example is not sinning by having attractions towards other men. He is sinning because he is having sex outside of marriage with men. A man who is attracted to a woman is not sinning because of the attraction, he is sinning when he has sex with her while he is not married to her. 

If the man made the decision to follow Jesus and has been a Christian for a while, then he is also sinning because he does not have self control over his thoughts and sexual desires. This kind of change does not happen over night, but it is his responsibility as a Christian to grow in his knowledge of God, to surrender his thoughts and opinions to God and to submit to Him, and to put the sin to death so that he can overcome it. Remember that a Christian is someone who follows Jesus, and therefore they obey Him, and do what He says because they love Him and believe in Him. If someone does not do those things, even though they may say they are a Christian, they really are not. And if they say that they are, but they refuse to do these things, then Christians have the right and the obligation to judge that they are not, based on their fruit. Christians are required to judge those within the household of faith. If the man is not a Christian, then he is only doing what those of the world do, and Christians are not to judge him. God will judge him.

The man's image of Jesus is not Biblical. It is an image that caters to his sexual preference and worldview. The fact is, the reason that sin is sin and God does not want His people to sin, is because sin is the cause of harm and death. God wants to protect His people. Jesus never left anyone who He encountered in their sin. He said to the woman caught in adultery, "Go and sin no more". He said to the woman at the well, "I know that you have had five husbands, and that the man you are now living with is not your husband". She knew that she was living in sin, and Jesus pointed it out to her. Not to condemn her, but so that she would turn away from her sins. 

This time, I'll use the example of how the political culture has made Jesus in its image. 

American Christianity is deeply influenced by American politics and patriotism. So, much so, that our love for our Christian family both within the United States and within nations outside of the United States, hardly exists. There is immense division among Christians due to politics. Besides a Christian's love for one another, the political culture has also affected his love for his neighbor. 

The United States has two primary political parties - Democrats and Republicans. The Left and the Right. I recently read where a Christian said that if you are a Democrat, then you cannot be a Christian. To my knowledge the Bible does not say that a Christian is required to be a Republican. Of course, the people who say such things would respond that what they mean is that the modern Democratic party supports issues such as abortion and homosexual rights and agendas, and therefore if someone who says they are a Christian supports the Democratic ideology, then they certainly must not be a Christian because they hold views that are in direct contradiction to God and His word.

I agree that someone who holds views which contradict God and His word is not a Christian, but I do not agree that someone who identifies as a Democrat can not be a Christian. Until fairly recently, the Democratic party was the more conservative of the two. I fully understand why most Christians support conservative politicians. I support conservative politicians. But conservativism has become the same thing as Christianity to a lot of Christians, and it's not. Most conservative values are good for the country and should be implemented, but it is not the same thing as following Jesus.

The question that arises in my mind is, why are Christians identifying with political parties at all? Jesus is the king of another kingdom, and Christians are the people of His kingdom and should be focusing their attention and efforts on building His kingdom, not earthly kingdoms. 

Should Christians be involved in politics and government? Yes, if they are doing it to bring righteousness and justice to the oppressed and to fight against evil. And, if it does not distract them from the kingdom of God or cause division among Christians. 

I think that Christians do not understand the importance of unity and that God requires His people, His children, to be united. He is not pleased with things that divide them.

The Democratic and Republican political parties have been the cause of massive division among Christians. Both parties are corrupt. I thought President Trump did a great job as the leader and manager of the country. I do not think he is a straight up, Godly man who has God's best interest in mind. I would not look to him as a model of integrity. But for the job he was hired to do, I think he did a spectacular job. There are Christians who praise him as the savior of the United States and who strongly oppose other Christians who do not view him as being a good president. No president or world leader is a savior, and Christians should certainly not view them as such. The question that arises in my mind is in whom does your faith and allegiance lie? Many American Christians seem to place the country and the president above Jesus, making Him a lesser god. 

Another example of how our cultural worldview influences our view of Jesus, has to do with how American Christians view Christians who reside within nations outside of the United States. Sadly, many American Christians do not have any regard for Christians in other countries and view them as "those people over there". If the Christian is from a Middle Eastern country where terrorists reside or a country that has been at war with the United States, some American Christians will have resentment and maybe even prejudice towards them. 

The patriotic American Christian will celebrate holidays that commemorate American military veterans and those who gave their lives for America, but few will take time out of their lives to remember and pray for Christians at all, let alone Christians within other nations who have given their lives for Jesus and His kingdom. I'm a broken record on this subject, but it reveals the heart of the American Christian and the fact that American Christianity is not the same thing as following Jesus, and is not what God had in mind. 

Do you know that there are Palestinian Christians - Christians who reside in Palestine among the Jews, Muslims and atheists? I had never given it much thought until recently. I never really cared I guess. You might be asking why I ask or why it matters. The reason is because the news networks report that Palestinians are evil people who are fighting against Israel and doing everything they can to stop Israel from claiming its God given land. Well, what about Palestinian Christians? Are they evil people? The news media lumps them together with other Palestinians, but if they are Christians, then they are not evil, and they are our spiritual family members. 

Another question- is it wrong for Palestinians to fight to protect their land from people who are taking it from them? I would say no. I would fight to keep my land if someone was trying to take it. Many Christians will argue that the land was not occupied when the Jews came to Palestine, or that Palestinians have no claim on the land because Israel is the rightful owner of the land because God has given it to them. I'll say that none of those things are historically or Biblically accurate. And even if God did give Israel the land, does He want them to take it by force and persecute Christians who are His people living within it? Absolutely not. Does God want "His people", the Jews to persecute His people, the Christians by forcefully and even violently stealing their land from them? Absolutely not. Would God see this as an injustice if it was happening among any other nation in the world? Absolutely yes, He sees it as an injustice to any nation in the world, including Israel. 

Did you know that there are Christian organizations within that part of the world who have been trying to get the United States and the United Nations to understand that what the Jews are doing to Palestinians is apartheid? You won't hear any of this on the news, because news media is owned and operated by global leaders who do not want people to know the truth because it will hurt their agenda.

At this point, I have lost some friends and am being called an antisemite because I am not standing in support of Israel. That is not my intention. My intention is to point out how these divisive issues have become part of the Christian religion and change how Christians view Jesus. But I would rather lose friends and be called names knowing that I am standing in support of my Christian brothers and sisters before I will stand in support of a nation who rejects Jesus as the Son of God and the Christ, and who persecutes Christians. That may sound antisemitic to someone who doesn't know what that word means, but I will pray for Israel and for their salvation, just as I will pray for Muslims and their salvation.

Unfortunately, many Christians continue to support the secular nation of Israel that rejects Jesus and who persecutes Christians. They have the very spirit of antichrist by definition. Most Christians are not aware of the injustice taking place by the hand of Israel because the news doesn't report the truth. It reports one side of the story. When was the last time you saw the news report the Palestinian side of the story? The ironic thing is that there are probably Christians who read the above statement and disagree with it because it is in regards to Israel, but who fully agree with it when it was in regards to President Trump. 

The truth is, the United States and Israel are in tight together. The United States gives Israel $10.5 million dollars per day, and Israel feeds the American news beast what it wants America to know. 

Furthermore, the doctrine of Israel being God's chosen people still today did not widely exist until the 1800's when dispensationalism started. About the same time as Mormonism. It is now the popular view among American Christians. Because Christians believe this to be true, they feel that Israel and the Jews have free reign and can do whatever they want, because it would be bad for them and for the country to say anything negative about Israel, or to hold them accountable. This kind of thinking is called superstition. The idea that God would allow His people to do the things that Israel is doing to the Palestinians goes against everything that the Bible says about God. 

*Statistics typically include Mormons, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Catholics, Protestants, charismatic, and Pentacostal under the religion of "Christianity."