I am the way...

After the excitement, or more like non-excitement, of the May 21st Rapture (the latest and most recent wrong prediction), I realized I had not yet put my thought on the famous "I am the way..." statement found in the New Testament from 2,000 years ago as I said I would in the rapture post.

Now, and back then, I wanted to share some thoughts on the single most passage from religious texts that is the reason for disunity, hate, death, and the feeling of superiority throughout the world. I am not trying to point fingers at my friends who believe the meaning of this passage is a statement to the monopoly of truth that Christianity claims to have, but rather to analyze what is being said in the passage. So, I apologize in advance to any reader who takes this the wrong way. But seriously, can anyone argue that the following passage is not the number one cause of death and “hate” in the history of this world?

"Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.” - Jesus in John 14:6

Is Jesus the only way to get to heaven or to God? This is what many Christians think and what gives them the idea that Christianity is the ONLY true religion in the world. When Jesus said "I am the way... no one comes to the Father, but by me" what was He saying exactly? Who was Jesus exactly? What was His exact relationship with God? Was Jesus God in essence? Or, was Jesus a Messenger that spoke the words of God given to Him to speak?

A long time ago, Jesus was talking to His disciples. He told them: "Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father's house are many mansions (rooms): if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also. And whither I go ye know, and the way ye know. Thomas saith unto him, Lord, we know not whither thou goest; and how can we know the way? Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.” (John 14:1-6)

The translated word here as "way" in English comes from the original Greek word HODOS. The word HODOS means "road" or "highway" or “path.” In other words, Jesus was claiming that He is the true road or highway or path that leads to "my Father's house." What was Jesus saying? Was He saying that He, personally, was the only possible way to get to God’s house? We certainly know, and certainly Christians with a “monopoly” mindset know that God has sent other Prophets in the past. Hebrews 1:1-2, for one example, states:

"God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets, Hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son (Jesus)…”

Can anyone doubt or question that Abraham, Moses and all the other Hebrew Prophets weren't also from God... that they also "at sundry times and in divers manners," didn't also provide a “path” to God and that they too were also part of this "highway" process of the Covenant? Of course they can’t, but they apparently forget about the former messengers and favor the one they have been taught to know as “the ONLY” without investigating things for themselves.

Jesus DID say, however, that He was the "highway" that leads to God’s house. At the same time Jesus also clearly identified Himself with the other Prophets who had appeared before His time. And, He also prophesied that there was still yet more to come when He foretold the future appearance of his Father's Kingdom on earth at a time when all things will be made anew.

Also, Jesus made a number of other "I am" statements. For example, Jesus claimed to be bread (John 6:35), living bread (John 6:51), light (John 8:12 & 9:5), a door (John 10:7 & 10:9), a shepherd (John 10:11), resurrection (John 11:25), a vine (John 15:1), the first & the last (Revelation 1:11) and a root (Revelation 22:16). Jesus was also called the Anointed or the Anointing (Greek: Christ) and He was called the Son of God. He called Himself the Son of Man. And He also was referred to as the Representation of God (Greek: Logos) and the Presence (Greek: Parousia). Again, what was Jesus saying when He said things like these? Certainly no one would claim that Jesus was a literal loaf of bread, or that He literally was a door or that He literally was light or that He literally was a root. Evidently such statements have inner, spiritual meanings. This brings up a question that people have been asking for two thousand years. Who was Jesus? Is Jesus personally the only way for people to get to God or to heaven? Was Jesus God, as many Christians today think? Who did Jesus claim to be? What does the New Testament say about who Jesus was?

Many Christians today point to Jesus' assertion that "I and my Father are one…" (John 10:30) and "he that hath seen me hath seen the Father…" (John 14:9) as evidence that Jesus was God. The Apostle Paul, writing about Jesus, said that: "God was manifest in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up into glory" (1 Timothy 3:16). In John 10:38 Jesus claimed that "that ye may know, and believe, that the Father is in me, and I in him." And in Colossians 2:9 Paul further asserted that: "For in him (Jesus) dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily." From these passages it is easy to conclude that "God was manifest in the flesh" of Jesus, that in Jesus dwelled "all the fullness of the Godhead bodily", that God was in Jesus and that Jesus was in God, that Jesus was one with God and that whoever had seen Jesus had also seen God. This is pretty convincing evidence that Jesus personally was God in essence.... except for that fact that Jesus said many things that separate Him from God like "…for my Father is greater than I" (John 14:28) and many, many, more. How can Jesus be God if God is greater than Jesus?

Jesus Himself defined His relationship to God. Jesus said: "…the words that I speak unto you I speak not of myself: but the Father that dwelleth in me, he doeth the works. Believe me that I am in the Father, and the Father in me: or else believe me for the very works' sake" (John 14:10-11). "For I have not spoken of myself; but the Father which sent me, he gave me a commandment, what I should say, and what I should speak." (John 12:49). When these "who do you say that I am" statements are looked at with the perspective of this “additional” evidence, we get a much different picture of Jesus' true relationship to God. According to these statements: God manifested himself to Jesus; God dwelled in Jesus; God was in Jesus and Jesus was in God; Jesus was one with God; Whoever had seen Jesus had also seen God. But at the same time: Jesus is not God since God is greater than Jesus and that God had sent Jesus. Doesn’t it make sense that the God part that dwelled in Jesus is the part that was doing the speaking and the mouth of Jesus spoke only the words that God gave to Him to speak?

These are difficult concepts to try to get an illiterate, uneducated, unsophisticated audience of two thousand years ago to understand. It's easy to see how such relationships could be misunderstood. At the same time, this explanation of Jesus' relationship to God makes the other difficult concepts in the Christian Bible make perfect sense. For example, at one time Jesus said: ”I am the living bread which came down from heaven: if any man eat of this bread, he shall live for ever: and the bread that I will give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world" (John 6:51). This statement is identical to Jesus' "highway" statement. Jesus is the “path” to God... and people who eat the “flesh” of Jesus "shall (not will) live for ever." Ask your inner self, when Jesus said that anyone who eats "my flesh" "shall live forever"... was He saying that people should eat His literal flesh? Of course He wasn’t. Was He speaking of rituals, priests or sacraments? No. Instead, Jesus was speaking of spiritual characteristics found inside that His followers who had understood His true teachings will manifest and teach to others. This is what He meant when Jesus spoke of leading people along the path to God and transforming their lives. In none of these passages was Jesus speaking literally.

In John 6:38, Jesus also claims to have come down from heaven. When a number of rabbis, present in the crowd that day, heard Jesus claim that He had come down from heaven, they began to ”murmur at him” (John 6:41) and they asked "And they said, Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? how is it then that he saith, I came down from heaven?” (John 6:42). Good question, isn’t it? The rabbis knew that Jesus had been born as a child just like everyone else. They knew that He had a mother and a father. So it's not surprising that they would have wondered, "How could Jesus possibly have come 'down from heaven'?"

The same was true about the disciples of Jesus. When they heard Jesus claim that He had come "down from heaven" they were shocked into disbelief. They knew that Jesus' claim couldn't possibly be true... at least not literally. They said: "This is an hard saying; who can hear it?” (John 6:60). From this time many of his disciples turned back and no longer followed Him (John 6:66). For the most part, people today believe that Jesus had only twelve Apostles. But… many don't know that Jesus also had either 70 or 72 disciples (depending on which early manuscript you read). It was these other disciples and not His Apostles who "turned back and no longer followed him." It was these other disciples who abandoned Him forever. Both the hostile Jewish religious leaders and Jesus' own beloved disciples found it impossible to believe His statement that He had come down from heaven. From what they knew about the life of Jesus, having grown up in Nazareth with His mother Mary, they knew that this couldn't possibly be true, because they thought that He was speaking literally. They thought that Jesus was telling them that He had come down from heaven in his fleshly, physical body.

The disciples that walked away did not have the understanding to see what Jesus was really saying. While standing there, watching His disciples walk away, knowing that they were not going to ever come back, Jesus explained this "mystery" of His coming down from heaven. Jesus said: ”It is the spirit (PNEUMA) that quickeneth; the flesh (SARX) profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit (PNEUMA), and they are life” (John 6:63). Think about this, "The words I have spoken to you are spirit." Jesus was trying to explain that when He said such startling things as "I came down from heaven", He was not speaking of His own personal, physical, fleshly body coming down from heaven. Instead, Jesus was trying to tell us that it was the "Spirit" of God which dwelled in Him that had descended from heaven... and not His physical body.

The body of Jesus did not literally descend from heaven two thousand years ago. The Spirit of God that spoke through Jesus did. Jesus was not literally a highway, but those who listened to and followed the words of God which came from His mouth were led to God. Jesus was not literally bread and He was not suggesting that people eat His literal body. Jesus was not literally light, a door, a vine or a root or a star. Jesus was, at the time that the Bible was written, the most recent in a long progression of Teachers sent to deliver a Message from God. Each one of these Teachers spoke the words of God. Jesus was the "way." So were Moses and all the other Prophets of God. Jesus was the Christ ("the one who is Anointed by God" in Greek). Jesus was the Messiah (also "the one who is Anointed by God"... in Hebrew). This Anointing was another way of saying that God dwelled in Jesus and that God spoke through Jesus. This Anointing or “Christ” also spoke, in varying degrees, through all the other Prophets of God who also spoke the words of God. Take a look at just a few statements made by a few people that claimed to have a message from God to share, and see if you can see the same voice (Anointing Spirit) speaking to their followers:

“This is the way [to God]; walk in it.” Isaiah 30:21

“I am the way, the truth and the light…” Zoroaster

“I am the way and the truth and the life…” Jesus (John 14:6)

“Just this path, there is no other…” Buddha

“Follow Me: this is the right way [to God].” Muhammad

“This is the Way of God for all the inhabitants of earth and heaven and all that lieth betwixt them. No God is there but Me, the Almighty, the Inaccessible, the Most Exalted.” The Báb

“This is the Way of God unto all who are in the heavens and all who are on the earth.” Bahá’u’lláh

From age to age, in every culture and throughout history, many Prophets appeared who have been sent to bring God's message to humanity and to bring people to the light. There has been only one Anointing Spirit of God. This Anointing Spirit (Christ) is "the Way, the Truth and the Life". This Anointing Spirit (Christ) is the only way to the Father. It is the Anointing Spirit (Christ) who is "the same yesterday, today and forever." This Anointing Spirit (Christ) has been in many Messengers and called by different names. Think about it…