Thoughts on the Cross

Thoughts inspired by my church's reading of the Good Friday account in John 18 and 19:

• Jesus' death sentence was for blasphemy. It was a false accusation, but He accepted the sentence for His friends, who each in their own sins had committed that blasphemy, had declared themselves to be more intelligent than infinite God through their defiance of His laws.  Our pride is our death sentence, and Jesus has taken it for us, if we choose to be His friend.
• “Shall I crucify your king?” Pilate asked. “We have no king but Caesar,” the chief priests answered.  In doing so, they, the highest religious authorities of Jacob's line, broke the covenant and ended the Levite priesthood. Then, upon Jesus' death, the inner veil of the Temple was torn, showing that God had accepted His sacrifice, that the age of the priesthood of Melchizedek had come, to offer forgiveness to all the Jews and gentiles.
• Pilate crucified Jesus with the sign "King of the Jews" in the languages of the people (Aramaic), of the Empire (Latin), and of the world (Greek). He was the appointed authority of the Empire of Rome, the hand of the Emperor of mankind, and he recognized what the priests refused to. In doing so, he declared who the world system would forever oppose: the King of the next world.

Moses on Mushrooms

It's interesting how high heresy is being elevated to tabloid news. It's also interesting how those heresies contradict each other.

Other researchers say there is no evidence whatsoever that Israel was ever enslaved by Egypt; the theory of Moses on narcotics require the enslavement to have occured.

Other historians say that Moses' miracles (water to blood, staff to snake, frogs, plague, darkness) were the result of Egyptian temple stage magic and the death of the firstborn of Egypt was a concerted effort on the behalf of the Israelites to assassinate thousands. This would require Moses, after being FULLY CONVINCED by becoming high, to take matters into his own hands and perform stage magic replicating the effects he saw when high (staff to snake, leprous hand).

Each heretical explanation requires a DIFFERENT part of the historical account to be false, but requires THE REST to be true. It is logically impossible.

The heretical explanations all have this in common: they deny the reality of God, or His honesty or character.