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| Jesus – Christian Agnostic by: George Geiger
ABOUT THE BOOK: FOREWORD
have been a Christian all of my life (I’m 54); albeit for most of that time, it has been a struggle for me to, as Paul of Tarsus said, to “walk in the spirit”.[1] Every once in a while, all of us have the opportunity to have a Damascus Road experience,[2] and most of us who have been around for a while, have had at least one. If we say we haven’t, then it is perhaps our perspective, and our spiritual blindness at fault; our “natural man”[3] tendency to ascribe to fate, luck, coincidence, or chance, those things which are inexplicable outside the context of a Divine will. This little book is a scratch on the surface of one man’s “wrestling with God”;[4] it is an honest baring of a human’s immortal soul; a confession of doubt and an affirmation of faith: “Lord, I believe... Help thou my unbelief”.[5] Reminiscent of A.W. Tozer’s “The Pursuit of God”, George Geiger wrestles doctrine to the mat, so that the real and personal message of Jesus the Christ might emerge from the fog of Man’s interpretations. It is not every day that one encounters faith that is real enough to be worthy of an effort to challenge it; to prove it so that blind belief is no longer required. Is what you believe affecting how you live your life, or is your lifestyle dictating what you can rationalize as “The Truth”? George Geiger does a wonderful job of challenging our beliefs by being honest enough to wrestle with his. He takes us by the hand and dares us to “wrestle with God”, that we might know God as Jesus knew Him. This little book will change you spiritually. God’s Word never comes back to Him void, and it always accomplishes the purpose for which He intended[6]
ççç&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&èèè SAMPLE TEXT FROM THE BOOK: & You cannot out-theologize Paul. His historical foundations are too deep. The Messianic-resurrection event was established as reality from his historical perspective of the helter-skelter events surrounding Jesus’ life and death. If God is the author of salvation and Jesus is the mediator of salvation, then Paul is the interpreter of salvation. It was done the way Paul said it was done, because it was Paul’s pen. From the ruins of seemingly one more failed Messianic pretender, Paul raised the Son of God in the pages of his letters. How much of what Paul wrote reflects the intentions of the author, and how much reflects Paul’s own agenda and humanly limited understanding? Paul’s thoughts and teachings concerning women at best reflect some of the worst thinking of his day. What he would do to homosexuals in the name of God hardly reflects enlightened views of God’s love and compassion. I am not trying to put Paul down. I am trying to show that at least some of his writings reflect the thinking of the day instead of the mind of God. It is hard to speak for the mind of God other than to find that eternal strand of wisdom, which seems to flow through and bind together all generations. Jesus, as the mediator of God’s will, does not seem to have the need to stamp His personality on that strand as does Paul. Jesus reports God’s message with little interference from what appears to be human limitations and opinions popular with his generation, Paul seems to be less able to do this. We do see real struggles with the will of God in the Garden of Gethsemane, in the desert and on the cross. The struggles of clarity in Jesus’ life seemed to show Jesus’ efforts to bring His life in line with the direction of God’s would. Paul appears to be a great deal more needy than Jesus. Paul’s opinion of God’s will, reflects Paul’s desperate need for God’s grace in light of the inflexibility of Jewish law, and his guilt for overseeing the murder of Christians who did not obey the law. Paul’s conception of God’s grace was so expansive, an elephant could fit through the eye of that needle.[7] If one sticks to the basic Gospels of Mark, Matthew and Luke, it seems as if Jesus did not even raise the concept of grace. Jesus spent a good part of His ministry telling people to repent of their sins: for the kingdom of God is at hand.[8] Clearly He did this out of concern for the salvation of their souls. He was specific about where He would be when God’s kingdom came. Jesus may have had some idea that His life was an imminent danger; however, His life, death, and resurrection were certainly not the central focus of His message. It was Paul’s most important focus of his writings. It seems that Paul was able to theologically package Jesus so that He was attractive to different splinter groups looking for the Messiah. One might think God is laughing at us crazy humans for the importance and correctness we attribute to our particular understanding of God. When it is time for us to meet our Maker, I think we are going to be in for many surprises. Heaven is not an exclusive Jesus club in the sky. Jesus would think a lot of people who think they are in are going to be out and vice versa.[9] Jesus did not judge people by labels,[10] but rather by what was in their hearts. If we Christians are right, then the Jews and everyone else are going to Hell. That means only twenty percent of God’s children even have a chance of going to Heaven. That seems inhumane. I do not think God, who John said, IS love, is about to write off eighty to ninety percent of His children because of the supposed “knowledge” of a few as opposed to the “ignorance” of the many. Christianity is the only religion where if you cannot follow what you say you believe, or do not do what you are supposed to do, you may still get into Heaven if you say you believe. When I was ten years old, I was a believer. By the time I was fourteen I was an atheist. At about the age of twenty, I was agnostic, and when I was twenty-five, I was a believer again. I always considered myself an intellectually honest person, almost to a fault. I have always asked questions and I have not settled for simple or trite answers, even when it would have been easier to do so. At ten, I was in awe of the great Old Testament stories. By the time I was fourteen, these stories and the way God acted, just did not stand up to the way I viewed the world. I remained an atheist until I was twenty, taking every chance I had to shove my arguments in the face of the establishment. I was bitter, angry, and rebellious. God took the brunt of my anger. By twenty, my shrill arguments began to soften. I started to look for some answers rather than just continue to ask impossible-to-answer questions. Nothing changed overnight. I was a second year seminary student before I could really express what I believed, and not just what I did not believe. I do not think there are many children growing up today saying they want to be like Jesus. It seems a lot more popular to want to be like Michael Jordan or Derek Jeter. It is more important to the faithful to fly fifteen feet through the air and stuff a basketball or be the MVP of the World Series than to be able to walk on water. The real miracle is a fade away three pointer that beats the buzzer and wins the game. Nike has done a much better PR job for Michael Jordan than we have done for God. I have no doubt that Michael can hit a better eighteen foot jump shot than God, but when it comes to saving souls, God is much stronger. The only problem is, who cares? People turn to God when they are desperate. It is similar to ignoring an illness; when you finally go to the doctor, he says, it’s too late, the illness has become terminal. Nothing can be done. God is more a prescription for good health than a miracle cure for those who have heretofore ignored Him. It is much harder for a son who is estranged from his father to ask his father for a favor than for a son who is close to his father. It is the same with God. Those who are estranged from Him do not ask in an expectant manner. They do not believe that they deserve an answer to their prayers from God. In addition, for the most part, their prayers go unanswered.
ççç&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&èèè READER COMMENTS "This is the most incredible book on Jesus Christ I've ever read... I just could not put it down. I learned how to differentiate between true faith and religion - the most profound lesson that Jesus ever taught in the parables, and in The Sermon on The Mount. I highly recommend this book - despite its unusual title and provocative cover. If you REALLY want to get the message that Our Lord taught, this book is an absolute MUST". - Samuel D. - Boca Raton,FL. "Ever since I was a child, the rote repetitions of the Catholic Church just bothered me. I couldn't articulate just what it was until I read this book - What a fantastic eye-opener it was! I'm glad I read this book because it GOT REAL with me, and spoke to the issues that were troubling me. God surely moves in mysterious ways and you wouldn't believe how I found your awesome web site!" - Sam A. - Jersey City, NJ
"Jesus - Christian Agnostic" - By George Geiger
[1] Galatians 5:16, 25
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