Christian Arrogance: The only way to God is through Jesus?
About the inherent and unintelligent arrogance of many Christians
Christians claim: Jesus is the only way to god.
I am happy for any Christian who finds Jesus and the New Testament helpful, enlightening, and improving their lives. I am all for religious and spiritual freedom.
In the past few days, I somehow got drawn into a religious discussion about this topic in the comment section of this post: Fact check: Jesus died on the cross by author
. We had a lengthy civil debate in the comments, which ended more or less with me calling the Christina approach arrogant. To which the author then published another article titled Claim: Christians are being arrogant when they claim Jesus is the only way to God.:The arrogance of the main institutionalised religions, particularly the Christian religions, irked me all my life because these are one of the biggest and oldest manipulative forces on the planet and, in my personal experience and opinion, hinder and control authentic spirituality for billions of people. Instead of genuinely seeking a union with god in their unique way, they are fed with false rituals and beliefs that will rarely lead to spiritual enlightenment.
Ironically, Jesus was of the same opinion and viciously fought the dominating false Jewish religion and ultimately was crucified because of that; decades later, some humans “hijacked” him. They took it upon themselves to write down his apparent orally transmitted words and founded another false religion.
In the above article, the author says:
Christians can indeed behave arrogantly: particularly when we fail to demonstrate in actions towards others the love and humility of our Lord and Master. We can all be arrogant at times.
However, the claim that Jesus is the only way to God is not our claim.
The author than quotes this:
“Do not let your hearts be troubled. You believe in God; believe in Me as well. In My Father’s house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and welcome you into My presence, so that you also may be where I am. You know the way to the place where I am going.
“Lord,” said Thomas, “we do not know where You are going, so how can we know the way?”
Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me. If you had known Me, you would know My Father as well. From now on you do know Him and have seen Him.” John 14:1-7
The keywords directly responsible for countless Christian religious wars and the terrible torture and eradication of millions of indigenous people around the world are these:
No one comes to the Father except through Me.
Christians have used this for millennia to claim a monopoly on all spiritual matters, feeding the inherent Christian arrogance.
What did Jesus really say?
Short answer: We don’t know.
The massive problem with the New Testament is that these words do not come from Jesus directly.
They were transmitted orally over many decades (historians argue if it has been 30 years, 100 years or even more after Jesus apparently said them). In any case, that's a lot of Chinese Whispering going on. I think that's why the New Testament is so bloody confusing and difficult to read compared to many other spiritual texts.
Many ordinary people who didn't know much about enlightenment from personal experience did some writing and tinkered with it. And the complicated and contradictory nature of the New Testament also wonderfully and magically supports all Christian Churches.
It justifies priests, pastors, bishops and popes because they are needed to interpret much of the New Testament garbage. No average, intelligent person can make sense of it. It is because it was written by several confused people who had no personal experience of meeting god. I believe Jesus did, but not them.
I am not saying Jesus doesn't make sense. I do not quarrel with Jesus. I quarrel with the garbage attributed to him by humans writing down what he said 100 years later.
If Christians weren't so narrow-minded and would listen to other enlightened sages, they could learn directly from enlightened people. Who, by the way, pretty much have the same underlying message about god across the millennia and all cultures.
One of the many statements they all have in common is that any advice given to any disciples always refers to the current moment and the specific disciple addressed. All of them, often in different forms and words, endlessly repeat that the way to meet god ("my father" in Jesus' words) is in the here and now, never in the future or past or the scriptures.
God is an individual experience, and the teacher (guru, Jesus) has the wisdom to know what the people in front of him need. It is very specific advice that only applies to a current situation. Every wise man or woman is acutely aware of the ever-changing nature of reality, which is one of the biggest reasons any organised religion wastes time.
Avoid scripture and religion if you are genuinely interested in personal enlightenment and wisdom. Find a living master. Or the direct, immediate words from a dead master, but remember that these words almost always refer to a specific person or group at a particular time and situation. It can never be applied universally.
Masters are also acutely aware of the dualistic nature in which humans operate. There is the old paradox that whatever truth you tell, the opposite will also be true in other circumstances. Everything depends on context.
Most people don’t like this because they want a simple black-and-white truth. But, unfortunately, black and white is human and dualistic. Reality is not specifically human and non-dual, which means: One-ness, which means: God.
Humans divide the Oneness through dualistic thinking: Right and wrong. Like and don’t like. In the old testament, this was referred to as “knowledge”. And when Adam and Eve ate from the Tree of Knowledge, they gave up on paradise. So Paradise is a metaphor for non-dualistic holistic being-ness, Oneness, and enlightenment. Duality, in contrast, is a human illusion and causes suffering.
Religions "hijack" a true sage and take the words literally and out of context. But this will always be "old, outdated" advice.
Therefore, the words the author quoted above are unlikely to be the exact words Jesus actually said (Chinese whisper).
But even if they were, they were told to a particular group of people (his disciples) in a specific context. What was the context?
In the context of intense and dangerous oppression by the Romans and, more importantly, against the dominating doctrine of ancient and scripted Jewish spirituality, which Jesus identified rightly as hindering the way to god (the father).
Jesus was the man who angrily went to the Jewish temple to destroy the false gods and religion. That was the main reason he was crucified and killed. (Or not killed - depending on which historian you believe)
In this context, all his words make total sense. Only two ways to god were available for his disciples at that time: The false, scripted, institutionalised Jewish way, which never fostered true enlightenment or his fresh-in-the-moment path through him as a current living present master. That's all that his disciples had access to. No Internet, Buddhism, meditation, psychedelic drugs, Zen, or any other master or technique that would bring them to god. It was either him or the Jews.
And his disciples were scared to death. So he reassures them that in this specific case, the only way to god open to them is through trust in Him and not submitting to their fears and going back to the false Jewish doctrine. That's the only way these words make any sense. It is literally there in the quotes above.
He doesn’t talk to us, 2000 years later, does he? Instead, he speaks directly to his frightened disciples, possibly hours before he gets crucified. This was great advice to them. And that’s all it was. He had no idea that some guys would write this down 100 years later, create a church, and proclaim this as a universal truth for all people of all ages. But the Christian did.
Jesus wasn’t very educated, either. He might never have heard of any other ways to god taught by masters before him. Judea, at the time, was oppressed back-country. Big stuff happened in Rome, India, China, and Europe then. There was no Internet, obviously. But there were no books either, at least not for ordinary people. They could neither read nor write. So all Jesus knew about god and spirituality was local and through his own experience. All this context is essential to understand the New Testament.
Jesus was an ordinary man who almost certainly had profound spiritual experiences and met god in all its glory. It was life-changing. It evaporated his fears. It made him a courageous and compassionate man. Meeting god also made him acutely aware of the falseness of the dominant Jewish and Roman religions. So he started calling the truth. That got him into trouble, and he got crucified. This story is widespread amongst other enlightened masters. It does not mean that the only way to God is through Jesus. That is simply laughable.
There is nothing wrong with relating to Jesus and loving his words if it advances our spiritual path. There is everything wrong with taking them out of context and applying them to all times and all people because it is simply not true that the only way to god is through Jesus. Millions of people found god through other means. But the Christians must have such an inferior complex in their system that they feel threatened by any other spiritual message.
Ironically, now the Christians make the same mistake as the Jewish did. They instituilized spirituality and live by and follow out-of-context rules and advice to find god.
Any not-indoctrinated and spiritually minded person that studies the history of enlightenment over the past millennia and across the globe will learn that there are uncountable ways to god. The idea that the only way is through Jesus is foolish and arrogant. The same applies to almost all other religious movements claiming that "our way is the only way."
The arrogance is so ingrained that there is no polite way to say it: Grow a brain and stop this nonsense.
George Gurdjieff (https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-d&q=gurdjieff#cobssid=) is a fascinating spiritual teacher. This is from memory, so not 100% correct.
He reports visiting an ancient secret monastery deep in a mountain range. They blindfolded him all the way. It took about seven days on mule-back to get there. He reported the monastery was over 5000 years old, and some of the most senior monks were up to 300 years old.
They had many strange rituals and habits. They were building and using sophisticated men-sized puppets with limbs that could be arranged in various positions. They expressed god in dances and postures, similar to Sufis: no words or pictures.
Muslims do not allow images of the prophet or Allah. This is very wise and valid, in my opinion. Many say to meet god, your mind must be completely empty of expectations. Otherwise, the mind and the ego play games with you, and you think this is god, but it is mental conditioning and imagination. The mind can produce anything.
What is repeated over and over again by all genuine sages through all times is that God can't be described or only in negative terms. In non-duality, god is simply called "the Absolute", the source of all manifestations. Some spiritual teachers disregard any scriptures as false.
Personally, after reading countless spiritual books and learning from many teachers over the past 25 years, I found the only spiritual book worth reading in "I AM THAT" by Nisargadatta Maharaj. This book collected the direct talk of an immensely lucid enlightened person. I am reading it over and over again, and every time I wake up to more truth. Not saying this is for everyone. It probably would not have worked for me 20 years ago.
https://www.holybooks.com/wp-content/uploads/I-Am-That-by-Sri-Nisargadatta-Maharaj.pdf
I have always said "institutionlised religion" is no different to any other cult, a means for a few to control the many. What I see in a lot of cases is these so called Christians put Jesus on a pedestal above God. Then we hit rock bottom where the Pope states and believes he is the Divine's "chosen" representative on earth." Such arrogance, to have people grovel at his feet and kiss his solid gold ring as kings of old would make others supplicate themselves at their feet.