While our Christian members are welcome to answer, I'm mostly interested in responses from non-Christians.
As the Bible states. He is known as the Son of God, the Son of Man and a Prophet of God. I accept that these are all titles He is known by.
My understanding is that He was the Messiah the Jews awaited but failed to recognise due to their lack of understanding of the Torah.
I accept that He was conceived from a virgin but that His material body was a physical body that was subject to death and decay as with all of us.
I believe that He was crucified, died and His body hidden from the Jews but that soon after His passing, Mary and the disciples had visions of Him that the Jews didn’t kill His Reality which was the Holy Spirit within and it lived on.
Unfortunately though, I believe, that eventually myths and superstitions were woven around Him causing believers to no longer worship or follow God but descend into personality worshipping only the name of Jesus.
It is my firm belief, that this grave error and unfounded worship of Jesus name only, led His followers to reject subsequent Prophets which God sent and Jesus foretold such as Muhammad, the Bab and Baha’u’llah.
So my belief in Jesus is in His Reality, not personality worship, which would have most definitely turned me away from other Prophets God has sent since Christ. The Jesus I believe in is a Great Spiritual Teacher Who came to bring love into our lives, purify our hearts and raise us up from spiritual death to spiritual life.
I believe in the Jesus Who did not teach superiority or exclusivity but even prophesied the coming of Muhammad the Bab and Baha’u’llah. I believe personality worship is the main cause of Christians rejecting these recent Prophets of God.
I believe the mystical language in the Bible is there to test the believers and distinguish the sheep from the goats. The goats, I believe, see nothing but a literal interpretation. That Jesus walked on water, raised the dead, healed the sick and rose from the dead, all physically. To me, I believe that to be mere superstition.
Sure Jesus healed the spiritually ill by turning them back to God, sure He raised the spiritually dead back to spiritual life and sure His Spirit rose after His body died. He walked on the spirit which is one of the meanings of water.
The Jesus that I believe in was sent by God to purify our hearts and minds from worldly corruptions and desires and to teach us things like love, charity and forgiveness and a spiritual way of life.
I believe, that as a result and consequence of personality worship associated with Christianity, billions of Christians have missed His Second Coming because He returned with a ‘new name ‘ and a ‘new song’ and a new heaven and earth’. That is , a new religion with new teachings.
It is my belief, that to misunderstand Jesus true nature and fall into the trap of personality worship, has misled billions and prevented world peace and world unity.
But I also believe that Christians overall are fair minded and will eventually accept Muhammad, the Bab and Baha’u’llah as they have many sincere souls who will look with an open eye at possible mistakes of the past. God bless.
