THE CANON
With the birth of Christ, our Western era starts with certainty verging on probability, that the year 0 is not well defined and should be placed about 4 years earlier.
Christ is the fulfillment of the Old Testament promise that the Messiah that would come to establish His Kingdom and free the Jews from the yoke of the Romans.
We all know the story about the way that Christ went, to eventually be betrayed and rejected by his own people, made possible with Roman support.
Crucified by lies and deceit, followed by death and eventually carried to the grave by his followers.
At this point the story about this thoroughly good man is supposed to end.
Believers became disappointed, despite everything that Christ said and did during his life on earth.
Christianity, let alone Christians, had no form of viability now that the leader Christ was dead and buried. End of story.
” No hope for a new and different world without a resurrection; no confidence in a good future without a resurrection; no all-embracing love without resurrection “
Not at all, because a very remarkable event happens after his death. Christ is resurrected after three days and reports this physically to his disappointed followers.
They cannot believe it and barely comprehend it at first.
This goes against all the laws of nature that apply at that time as well.
Not just a story about someone who has risen from the dead. No, He is physical and touchable for all who has seen Him, after those three days in the grave.
That is the beginning of Christianity and of the followers named after him, although there are still four centuries of persecution, torture, oppression and an underground church, before this Christ movement can officially become above-ground and visible in the world through the construction of cathedrals etc..
No followers without resurrection.
No Christianity without resurrection.
No danger to the ruling class without resurrection.
No persecutions from those same Christians without resurrection.
No personal faith without resurrection.
No hope for a new and different world without a resurrection.
No confidence in a good future without a resurrection.
No all-embracing love without resurrection.
No God on earth without resurrection.
No Christmas without resurrection.
No Easter without resurrection.
No Ascension without resurrection.
No Pentecost without resurrection.
It is precisely this unscientific event, this phenomenon of resurrection against all laws of nature, which makes Christianity different from any other religion.
For Gerard Blankespoor this event of resurrection is also the central point of his faith in Christ.
That belief in that resurrected Christ has changed Gerard’s life, made him give up his career at the police in order to live and work for Him.
Not Adam, not Moses, not David or anyone else, is the starting point, but Christ makes people Christians.
In other words, the words and actions of Christ are what matters, what makes Christians different from other believers.
Following Him as best you can, following in His footsteps within our ability as a Christian is the answer to many questions and problems, also in our current world.
” We will have to go back to the heart of the matter, to that what or rather to the One who makes us Christians; the words and deeds of Jesus himself “
However, to follow and serve Jesus Christ in this way has consequences for how we view the bible with all its writings, letters and actions.
It is in Gerard’s view impossible to judge the Old Testament by the same merits as the New Testament.
The Scripture is inspired in its entirety as well, but it also remains work of man in the recording of what is written; not every letter is equally sacred.
Also, the Apostolic letters, such as from Paul, Peter, James etc., are a reflection of their thinking and an interpretation of the words of Jesus.
In addition, the influence of Greek philosophers such as Aristotle and Plato in the New Testament writings cannot be denied.
The Roman church was and still is under the strong influence of Platonism. The Protestant churches have more characteristics of Aristotle, the pupil of Plato.
Apart from that, this is not surprising since the first followers of Christ were familiar with these philosophers in the then mainly Greek-speaking world where they mostly lived.
However, it should caution us with regard to the content of the Apostolic letters.
If we take our current bible with or without the apocryphal scriptures, as a large entity and with as much power of authority, the problem then occures how one text can be reconciled with the other; such as the Old with the New Testament and the words from the New Testament with their own New Testament texts.
According to Gerard, we will have to go back to the heart of the matter, to that what or rather to the One who makes us Christians; the words and deeds of Jesus himself!
Than that will be the basis and can the words of, for example Paul, be seen as non-inspired and are therefore his interpretations of the words of Jesus Christ.
This stratification in the scriptures is of fundamental importance in following Jesus.
” With thinking in stratification of the scriptures, the texts from the Old Testament, such as “an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth” and stoning someone for adultery, acquires the value it should have, namely the old has passed the new has come! “
After all, Christ condemned no one, not the Romans, not the Pharisees, not the Sadducees, not the Zealots, not the Sameritans, or people with a different form of faith.
He also did not condemn homosexuals, dissenters, addicts, the homeless, the losers of society, etc..
By using the words and deeds of Jesus Christ as a basis, the yoke that is imposed by churches, denominations and/or priests, preachers and so on, also falls of.
Then celibacy becomes very relative, homosexuals are no longer denounced but accepted, church leaders being married becomes following the destiny of mankind and divorce and remarriage are no longer out of the question.
With thinking in stratification of the scriptures, the texts from the Old Testament, such as “an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth” and stoning someone for adultery, acquires the value it should have, namely the old has passed the new has come!
Then the quarrel between Peter and Paul and the words and actions used, acquires the meaning it should have, namely two not very holy followers of Christ who are also human with their mistakes; nothing more and nothing less.
Great to be down to earth.
Away from extremism, from an automatic, mechanical inspiration of the Canon.
In this way room will be created within man who follows Christ.
Then we do not need to build churches, to develop traditions which are diametrically opposed to where Christ stood for.
Then the leaders of religious communities, priests, pastors, elders, can come back to the same level as the average churchgoer.
Then all believers can come together under the banner of Christ as equal in the assembly of Jesus.
Then the Bible is no longer a kind of magic book which has an answer to all questions of man, but it becomes what it should be; a stratification of various writers, but subordinate to and of much less importance than the words and actions of Christ himself.
Then the nature of Christ is something to strive for as much as possible in our daily testimony of Him who has overcome death.
Then the old has really passed and the new has really come.
Then room will be created again for the Spirit of God in the inner life of man in order to bear witness of the God who lives and who has a plan with mankind and the world.
Then we follow Him in doing good for all people and the world in which we live.
Then we no longer see the need of following and expressing extreme thoughts that can be found in the current populism.
Then we have no need to embrace new world saviors such as Trump and on a smaller scale figures like Farage and Wilders.
Then we are no longer searching for religious gurus who show us a different light.
Then we do not need Paul, Peter, etc..
We have found it in Christ himself, a revolutionary of the love for all that lives.
That is also the change where mankind longs for; people that have really changed by Christ’s example.
No extremely holy, pious, know-it-all people, but ordinary ” down to earth ” living people who strive to do well for everything and everybody. They make the difference!
