Jesus is one of the least offensive Bible characters, but he’s not without his issues. My issues with Jesus:
1) He upheld the Old Testament and often quoted from it. He did not rectify the harmful passages.
“Think not that I have come to abolish the law and the prophets; I have come not to abolish them but to fulfill them.” - Matthew 5:17
2) He believed in thought crimes.
“But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart.” - Matthew 5:28
3) He urged people to put following him above their families.
“And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or fields, for my name’s sake, will receive a hundredfold, and will inherit eternal life.” - Matthew 19:29
4) He wanted to be followed to the point of fanaticism.
Luke 9:59-62:
59 He said to another man, “Follow me.” But he replied, “Lord, first let me go and bury my father.” 60 Jesus said to him, “Let the dead bury their own dead, but you go and proclaim the kingdom of God.” 61 Still another said, “I will follow you, Lord; but first let me go back and say goodbye to my family.” 62 Jesus replied, “No one who puts a hand to the plow and looks back is fit for service in the kingdom of God.”
Also, Matthew 10:34-36:
“Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth; I have not come to bring peace, but a sword. For I have come to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law; and one’s foes will be members of one’s own household.”
5) There are various contradictions in the Gospels.
6) The Golden Rule did not originate with Jesus.
Quote:
The Old Testament book of Leviticus, which was written in about 1400 B.C., says in verse 18, chapter 19: “Love thy neighbor as thyself.” The Chinese philosopher Confucius, who lived from 551–479 B.C., is said to have written, "Do not do to others that which we do not want them to do to us." A Hindu text written in about the same time period, the Mahabharata, includes the phrase, “Do not unto others which would cause pain if done to you.” Similar concepts are expressed in Taoism, Buddhism, Zoroastrianism and many other religions and philosophies.
https://www.languagehumanities.org/what ... _article=17) In my opinion, the ransom sacrifice does not make any sense. Certainly, God could’ve thought of something that would not cause an innocent person to experience pain.
8 ) There’s no evidence outside of the Gospels which were written decades after Jesus’s death surrounding Jesus and his supposed exploits.
9) Jesus seems to have had anger issues.
Mark 10:15-17:
15 On reaching Jerusalem, Jesus entered the temple courts and began driving out those who were buying and selling there. He overturned the tables of the money changers and the benches of those selling doves, 16 and would not allow anyone to carry merchandise through the temple courts. 17 And as he taught them, he said, “Is it not written: ‘My house will be called a house of prayer for all nations’? But you have made it ‘a den of robbers.’”
Certainly, he could’ve handled this situation in a more peaceable, less confrontational way. Galatians 5:19,20 forbids “fits of rage” after all.
10) Most people won’t be saved according to Jesus. I believe that most people are good, so that seems extraordinarily unfair and harsh.
Matthew 7:13,14 “Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.”
Luke 18:25 “It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.”
11) Some things in the Jesus myth already existed in local legends, literature, and cults, so he may have been an amalgamation rather than a distinct entity.
Last edited by TwilightPrincess on 19 Oct 2023, 1:46 pm, edited 4 times in total.