1 John wrap up.

We have finished the supposed first epistle of John. What have I learned? This letter was written by an anonymous person, at an unknown date, probably sometime at the end of the first century, to an unknown group of christ believers. It may or may not be the same author that wrote the gospel book of John and the 2nd and 3rd epistles of John. There are arguments on both sides. The author does not claim this letter is the word of god or is inspired by god or the holy spirit.

There are no Old Testament characters, places, or events mentioned in this letter, except for Cain and Abel. There is no Jewish theology on display, except for the concept of obeying god's commands, sin is breaking the law, and one admonition to stay away from idols, tacked on to the end. There are no Old Testament quotes.  There are no New Testament characters, places, or events mentioned in this letter, except for Jesus. There is no mention of Jesus's birth, life, miracles, and almost no mention of his teachings. (We'll get to what is mentioned) The believers are just told to walk as Jesus did. The words crucifixion, resurrection, baptism, heaven, angels, and hell, do not occur in this letter. The terms devil, the evil one, and anti christs, make appearances. The prize for belief and obedience is a vaguely worded concept of eternal life. In fact it's all pretty vague and abstract. It's not even clear what obedience entails.

In this letter, Jesus is called the Word of life, the christ, and the son of god. God loved believers and sent his son as an atoning sacrifice for believers' sins. Jesus is righteous and speaks to god in the defense of believers. He appeared to destroy the devil's work, and lay down his life for believers. God sent him to be the savior of the world. He also "came by water and by blood." (This is not explained) Jesus is never specifically quoted as saying anything, but the author mentions "a message heard from the beginning: We should love one another." This is an echo of Jesus in the Gospel of John.

There is a lot of talk of love in this letter. It sounds really good in small bites. God is love. Don't hate your brother. Love your brother and you love god. To love god you must love your brother. Don't be like Cain and Abel. Everybody sins. Just "walk in the light" and your sins will be forgiven. But who are the brothers in this letter? The children of god. Who are the children of god? Those who believe that Jesus is the son of god. Everyone else is not a child of god. They are children of the devil. (Yes it says that.) Those who deny that Jesus is the son of god are antichrists. If you take the letter as a whole, it seems to be an attempt to create an us and them mentality. The other guys are the bad guys, even if they say they love god, cause they really don't.

How can you know who is telling the truth? "Every spirit that acknowledges that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from god." All believers have the spirit of god, and the spirit of god tells the truth. "God's testimony is greater because it is the testimony of god." Which leads me to say, I've never come across so many circular arguments in one place as I have while reading the book of 1st John. Seriously, you should try reading it if you like torturing yourself with that kind of stuff.

Why would someone need to write a letter like this? It would be my guess that there were enough people going around saying that Jesus never existed to be concerning to true christ believers. This letter appears to be damage control by creating a fire wall. It also appears to have worked for a while.

1 John part two.

We are at 1 John 2:1. The author says he is writing this letter so that the readers will not sin. But, if they do sin, Jesus speaks to god on their behalf. Then why should they even worry about sin? Jesus was the atoning sacrifice for the sins of the whole world. Even so, the author says everyone must obey Jesus's commands. If they say they know Jesus but don't obey his commands, they are liars. Yeah, but doesn't Jesus's sacrifice atone for that? Apparently not. You can only know your are "in Jesus" if you walk as Jesus did. And how did Jesus walk? We are not told yet.

The author says he is not writing a new command but an old one which has existed from the beginning. He doesn't say what that command is. He says the command is the message the reader has heard, but he doesn't say what that message was. Then he contradicts himself and says, yes, he is writing a new command. The truth of this new command is seen in Jesus and the reader. Though what is seen is still a mystery to me.

More metaphorical language about darkness and light. Hating your brother =darkness. Loving your brother=light. Who is ""your brother?" Good question. It doesn't say. It could be referring to all people, all males, all Jews, a male Jews, all christians, or all male christians. Interpret it in the way that works best for you. That's what most people do.

Verses 12-14 are in poetic form. The author addresses three groups, children, fathers, and young men. He cycles through them twice, but doesn't say much of anything substantial.

Verses 15-17 are about  not loving the world or anything in the world. None of the stuff in the world comes from the father. Huh. That's weird. I thought that god was supposed to have made all the stuff and the ingredients to make other stuff, for which we are supposed to be truly thankful. But this says that everything in the world comes from the world. It is not good to crave any of it because the world will pass away, but "the man who does the will of god lives forever." What about the woman? And what exactly is it that lives forever? Not our worldly bits, obviously.

As I head into verse 18, I'm noticing a pattern to this letter. We are coming upon the fourth section that starts "My dear (children or friends)." Looking ahead, I see similar phrasing at least eight more times by the end of the letter. Not only that but I see a lot of repetition of ideas coming up too.

For now, we are headed to antichrist territory. The author says "this is the last hour." The reader has  heard about the anti-Christ but he's telling them there are Many anti-christs right then. Who are these anti-christs? Apparently former believers who left the fold. Oh but they never really belonged. If they did, they wouldn't have left. Their leaving just proved they didn't belong. There you have it, the No True Scotsman fallacy in the 1st century. According to this, I am an antichrist.

The readers know the truth because they have an "Anointing from the holy one", whatever that means. No lie comes from the truth. The liar is "the man who denies Jesus is the christ." This means there were people around at that time denying Jesus was the christ. Good for them. Oops. That means they are antichrists. Anyone who denies the son, doesn't have the father (god). So, if you don't believe Jesus is the christ, your are told you don't have any part of god the father. I bet that was news to a lot of people at that time. I bet some of those antichrists were blissfully unaware that they were antichrists.

Speaking of antichrists, you should watch Good Omens on Amazon, or even better, read the book. Till next time.

2 John, part 5 And wrap up.

Today is the third anniversary of this blog! A great big thanks to all my readers. I don't know who you are, but you keep me going. More people from more countries visit the blog each week.

We are continuing on from verse 8. "Watch out that you do not lose what you have worked for, but that you may be rewarded fully." What have they worked for, and what will the reward be? We aren't told.

Verse 9: "Anyone who runs ahead and does not continue in the teaching of Christ does not have god; whoever continues in the teaching has both the father and the son." The running ahead appears to mean going beyond, or leaving the teaching behind. Once you have been in the cult, if you leave you are doomed.

Verses 10-11: "If anyone comes to you and does not bring this teaching, do not take him into your house or welcome him. Anyone who welcomes him shares in his wicked work." There you go. All nonbelievers are not welcome in christian homes and are deemed wicked. Is that Love? Is that Agape? My bible commentary says "This does not prohibit greeting or inviting a person in for conversation." According to the commentary, the injunction was only against feeding and lodging. But that's not what it says, is it? That sounds like the attempt to find a loophole in the command. What should a christian do about nonchristian family members who want to come for a visit?

Verses 12-13 just express the author's desire to visit the unknown readers. Then he closes with "The children of your chosen sister send their greetings." This could mean a christian woman or a church congregation.

There you have it. This letter does not mention: heaven, hell, angels, demons, Satan, miracles, life after death, Jesus's birth, life experiences, teachings, death, or resurrection. It does not mention the names of any bible books, places, events in history, or people, except for Jesus and god. It does not mention the Jews, the gentiles, or the word "church."

It boils down to: God is the father. Jesus is the son. God commanded the readers to love one another and obey his commands. Jesus came in the flesh. Anyone who does not acknowledge that is an antichrist. Do not let an antichrist into your home. This letter is extraordinarily generic and pretty pointless. Is the author trolling? (Trying to stir up trouble in the community)

It is interesting to note that the term antichrist appears nowhere else but in the epistles called 1st and 2nd John.  In 1 John 2:22, it is defined as the one who denies the father and the son.

2 John part 4

 Last time I talked about what hubris the author of the gospel of John must have had to effectively have made himself the mouthpiece of god. Then I got to thinking. Most of the bible writers had to have been charlatans, mentally ill, or deluded. They set themselves up as authorities about the words and actions of a god  that cannot be verified (the god, the actions, or the words) and we must take their word for it that they are telling us the truth or know what they are talking about.

Let us continue with verse 7.   "Many deceivers, who do not acknowledge Jesus Christ as coming in the flesh, have gone out into the world. Any such person is the deceiver and the antichrist." This is what you call group insurance. No one wants to be called a deceiver or an antichrist. This puts a person in an uncomfortable position if they just don't believe. There is no room to wiggle here. This is the attitude of a cult. What if you are in a community or a family of believers? You may have no option but to pretend belief.

Commentators say that this passage is in response to something called the "Gnostic heresy." Gnosticism is supposed to have said that "the son of god did not become flesh, he temporarily came upon the man Jesus between his baptism and crucifixion." It doesn't really matter. If Jesus Christ is not acknowledged, in way whatsoever, this scripture is used to condemn. I'm sure many first century Jews did not believe or accept that any actual son of god appeared in the flesh. Many people all over the world still do not accept it, including me.  Some people don't even believe that any Jesus Christ, in any form, ever existed. According to this verse, that makes us the antichrist.

This verse is also compared to one in 1 John, to try to prove that they have the same author:

1 John 4:2-3,  "This is how you can recognize the spirit of god: every spirit that acknowledges that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from god, but every spirit that does not acknowledge Jesus is not from god. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you have heard is coming and even now is in the world." Notice the wording is similar but not precisely the same. Again, it may or may not have been written by the same person. Neither the John epistles, nor the gospel, state who the authors are in the text.

Notice the condemnation of anyone who does not acknowledge Jesus. Clearly, at that time, there must have been enough people denying the existence of Jesus, whether in the flesh or in the divine, to warrant an attempt to curb the spread of such teaching. Basically, the readers of these letters are being told to cover their ears and yell "LA, LA, LA, LA, LA" when anyone tries to convince them they are wrong. Such a person would not be from god. Where would they be from? We shudder to think.

These are the kinds of passages that scare many christians into refusing to  read, listen to, or even associate with, nonbelievers. The religion comes with built in safeguards to prevent members from questioning too hard or learning too much. Anyone who does not acknowledge belief in Jesus, is automatically suspect and is often disregarded as any kind of expert or authority on any subject that touches the fundamentalist christian's beliefs about history, science, and even their perception of reality. The opinions of nonbelievers on all sorts of subjects do not matter to the "true believer."