Some have mistaken this to mean that Jesus thought that you could ignore God’s laws if those laws were upsetting you. Jesus never says this and in fact is quite strict in how he interprets the law.

What Jesus didn’t like was ‘religiosity’. When people compain about organised religion they often mean that side of religion that seems to make people feel bad just to suit the religious leaders. Jesus hated this. He had no time for any religious leader who was using people’s faith as an excuse to gain a little more power.

Jesus described people as ‘sheep without a shepherd’ meaning that people need some guidance but sadly all they get are these impotent religious leaders. Jesus saw himself as the good shepherd, by the way.

So Jesus didn’t say ignore the law but he did say that he wanted religious leaders who helped people. Sadly even the followers of Jesus at times have made too much of the authority of the church and not enough of the compassion of Jesus.

It seems to me that we can’t take the fulfillment of prophesy to be literal (e.g. we expect every last detail to be exactly how it is fulfilled). A good example of this is given in Christopher Wrights book about Jesus in the Old Testament. He says that if a father promised his young son a horse (for transport) and when his son was fully grown instead he bought him a car (the world has moved on and engineers have developed a car) his son would not complain that his father had not kept his promise to provide for his sons transport needs. The promise has been fulfilled but in a different way that was originally described.

This makes a lot of sense to me. If God describes something at one time in such a way so we can understand it this doesn’t mean that when the world is different and God fulfills it in a slightly different way (but retains the essence of the promise – e.g. to be with you or forgive sins etc) that this means something is wrong.

So if God fulfills all of the essence of his promises in Jesus why should we complain.

If you look at Matthews gospel for instance you would see that Matthew uses the old testament in just this way. He points to the essence of what God was predicting about his messiah and the new convenant and then shows that Jesus is the fulfillment of that promise. This is why sometimes the quotes that Matthew uses are a little confusing at times (e.g. the quote from Jeremiah when Herod has the innocent children of Bethlehem slaughtered).

So what does that mean for now? Well perhaps it means that we shouldn’t be looking for the details in prophecies and expecting God to fulfill them using those details. For instance perhaps looking at the old testament peoples who are mentioned and expecting to transfer those peoples into a modern day world. Perhaps such a literal view of prophecy is misleading.

What do you think? Am I wrong? If I am what could you say to convince me otherwise?

If Jesus is indeed God then nothing else you do or think about will be as important as thinking about Jesus.

Suddenly everything that Jesus said is very important to listen to. The stuff he said about heaven is very reasurring and the stuff he said about how we should live is essential to life.

I was once very skeptical about Jesus and what Christians say about him but now I am convinced. Not because I left my brain behind or because I was brain washed but because I discovered enough about Jesus that not believing was no longer an option for me.

I want to encourage you to answer the questions about Jesus for yourself. For me the evidence is impossible to refute and I have become a follower of Christ – but you must make your own choices.

The Jesus Course is one way for you to search for an answer for yourself.