Do you think he’d even subscribe to the current views on the devil, his own resurrection, and people wearing little crosses with him on their necks?
I have a feeling that most church trappings and prayer services would not have made it into his own ministry, had they been invented by then. And it’s not clear to me that he would have placed so much emphasis about whether you pass the test for being a believer on whether or not you bought every tale in the old testament. Not to mention he might have included some of the apocrypha in the bible.
Or do you think he could walk into a modern church service as an emergency replacement and just do the regular program?
I personally think he would be unhappy with the way things are:
(1) (Agreed as above) no follow Jewish Law.
(2) That they’ve screwed with the concept of “what God wants” and “What God looks like” waaaaay too much.
(3) Central to his teaching were Humility, turning the other cheek and not playing “Holier than Though” crap.
(4) He would NOT be against “fair” taxation (“Give to Caesar what is Casear’s. Give to God, what is God’s”)
(5) So what if Christians are killed by Muslims. If they were purely evangelizing at the time, “the kindom of heaven will be theirs”.
“Christianity” has fragmented into thousands of fractious shards. In my view, Jesus would probably hook up with those few rare individuals who hold true to his original principles, and experience a hearty “what the fuck?” as regards all the rest of them. And then start all over again from scratch. Nobody’s in need of a re-Jesusing like the vast majority of modern “Christians,” if you ask me.
Then again, most modern Christians would probably just stone him to death anyway. (And if the guy does show up, whatever you do, don’t tell Mel Gibson.)
[Bill Hicks] A lot of Christians wear crosses around their necks. You think when Jesus comes back, he ever wants to see a fucking cross? Kind of like going up to Jackie Onassis with a rifle pendant on, you know. [/Bill Hicks]
Prcatically speaking, I imagine that Jesus (like anyone else from the first century) would be so overwhelmed by technological and physical changes to the world over the past 2000 years that it would take a while for him to even begin to process historical Christianity.
I also believe that the thing he would be most shocked, put off and confused by is his own deification. I believe that Jesus thought of himself as a Jew teaching Judaism to other Jews. Modern Christianity would be so alien to him that I think it would have to be explained to him that he had any connection to it at all.
I do think he would approve of some of the ethical and charitable endeavors of organized Christianity but I think he would be scandalized by the theology.
I’m reminded of a scene toward the end of “The Last Temptation of Christ” in which Jesus confronts Paul, after one of the latter’s proclamation speeches of having the scales fall from his eyes after Jesus appeared to him in a vision. Jesus says words to the effect that none of that ever happened, and why are you spreading stories like that?
Paul replies to the effect that, “Don’t you realize that you don’t matter any more? The people don’t want a savior who’s an ordinary man. They want an image of someone mighty who can smite their enemies and save them.” Words to that effect, at any rate.
I’d say right around there, at the latest, is when Jesus would have started disapproving of Christianity, as opposed to the content of his own teachings. Christianity became, and quite rapidly, a business, not a true spiritual path.
I believe Jesus has been alive this entire time. He never died on the cross, that the crucifixion was an attempt for him to prove to himself that he was in fact immortal and could not be killed. After he was removed from the cross, it took him three days to heal. I do not think that any of the forms of Christianity accurately represent Jesus, even though he has been making moves that have guided Christianity to where it is today, ever since he became Dictator for Life of the Roman Empire, and he will make his rule known when humanity is ready to accept it, and that is when he will remove the mantle of Satan and be known by his true name. ;p
In short, my answer is no. I don’t think he would approve of what is done in his name. He dragged Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell from the temple 2000 years ago.
If the churches and synagogues of the world made no pretense of being “of God”, he might far more readily acknowledge that they have done good things through history, along with a lot of bad.
But the man had very little patience with self-righteous people, or groups thereof, setting themselves up as the manifestation of God and Godliness. Or at least was uninclined to hold his tongue when pointing out their shortcomings.
He’d tear them a new one, collectively speaking, and there’s not a denomination with a pulpit to its name that would not quickly wish him safely dead and spoken for rather than speaking.
I suspect more than a few people associated with such orgs would strongly consider doing something about that, in fact. That’s how he ended up dead the first time around, if you may recall.
