Christians: Hypothetically, if Jesus wasn't the Messiah but a normal man with a gift for moral phylosophy?

Question

Would you still appreciate his teachings. I mean if you took away the rewards of heaven and the punishment of hell, and just kept the morals.
Would you?

Answer 1

I admired Christ's teachings long before I came to recognize him as my Savior. So, yes...

btw, I LOVE your avatar!!
^_^

Answer 2

If we would cease to think that Jesus is the Messiah, then we would interpret what He said as merely things to do that might improve our personal happiness. Our purpose for living would shift from seeking God to seeking our own happiness. When He said to love your neighbor as yourself, we would not consider that an obligation but just as a way to feel good about ourselves. Just another way to win the real and imagined praise of others.

Your words "appreciate his teachings" would mean, "appreciating that he had some good ideas for making me feel good about myself."

By the way, the Christian teaching is not that heaven is the reward; God Himself is the One and only reward for wanting to know God. Heaven is just a place where we will be with our Creator. In the secular world, love is just a another pleasant emotion but no so with Christianity. Love is a separate and unique state of being that does not look to pleasant feelings as the motivating reward.

Answer 3

Absolutely. Even Ghandi recognized the value of Jesus teachings. He read the sermon on the mount daily and once said that when the world's leaders would live by it's teachings we would have peace. (or something to that effect). I can't find the direct quote right now.

Steven: Why do you think people would reject Jesus if they realized he wasn't "white"? Why? As far as I'm concerned it does not matter. Jesus SKIN did not buy our freedom from sin. His shed blood did, and it runs red no matter what his skin color.

1 John 1:7 - However, if we are walking in the light as he himself is in the light, we do have a sharing with one another, and the BLOOD of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin.

Ephesians 1:7 - By means of him we have the release by ransom through the BLOOD of that one, yes, the forgiveness of [our] trespasses, according to the riches of his undeserved kindness.

You should think about that.

Answer 4

That's what they used to call him (teacher). I think that's the main reason he came. You make a good point in that he really didn't divulge who he was until the very end when he answered saying "it is as you say". I think he wanted us to focus more on his teachings rather than who he was. Although it's a little hard to hide that when you restore sight to a man who was blind since birth.

Answer 5

I think if most white people knew the true ethnicity of Yeshua (A.K.A Jesus the Christ) they would reject him. Yeshua was an Afro-Asiatic man, meaning he must mixed with Hamatic and Semitic bloodline. He was a black man, probably resembling someone such as Bob Marley or other North Africans such as Anwar Sadat.

The European image is a lie. And most whites would reject him if they knew he was black.

Answer 6

I gotcha. You mean if He were like this really cool teacher, but didn't really heal people with leprosy or that were blind and so forth. Well, I'd like to think I would have listened- but if that were the case, who would've paid any attention to Him in the first place?

Answer 7

Of course. We don't serve Jesus Christ because of the ultimate reward. I serve Jesus because I love him.

Answer 8

Absolutely! I agree with everything he taught and stood for. He was an amazing person as well as the son of God.

Answer 9

NO! Only by being fancy in THE GAWD's magiks can we get to the happy place in the sky!

Answer 10

I appreciate the GIGANTIC left turn he spun the Bible into, but he's not perfect. Human beings today could polish it up considerably.