Chambumo-ron Lectures & Discussion 10th May 2025 - Session 2/4

All right. We're ready. Great. Okay. So, this is the next slide. And hopefully I'm can't hope we're not going to spend one hour per slide but anyway. Um, it's the result of 4,000 years of indemnity restoration providence which the Chong Ron doesn't go into at all. uh the only begotten son Jesus is born. So I'm not going to look into only begotten sons and daughters anymore. So after 4,000 years, heavenly parent finally gave birth the only begotten son Jesus through Mary. Heavenly parent made Mary Zacharias

and Elizabeth the first to know Jesus's birth. So of course when Mary went to visit Elizabeth, I'll talk about that later then. Yeah, Mary, Zachchariah, and Elizabeth had an important mission to fulfill to honor and follow Jesus who will be born as the only begotten son of heavenly parent. Okay, so that's what the next part of the lecture goes on to Jesus who promised I will come again. So to achieve the ideal of true parents, Jesus needed protection. Uh the real question is well why did he need protection

and who did he need protection from? It's never gone into or explained but we'll look at that in order for the only begotten son Jesus to safely grow up. So where was the threat coming from for his safety and eventually meet the only begotten daughter and hold the marriage supper of the lamb? It was necessary for Jesus to have protection. Heavenly parent wanted Zachariah Elizabeth, their son John the Baptist and Joseph Mary to protect and serve Jesus. So let's have a look and see what's going on here.

So Jews then they're waiting for the Messiah and the word Messiah is means it's a Hebrew word means anointed and the Greek word Christ also means anointed. So it's not his surname, it's uh just means Jesus was the anointed one. And all the kings of Israel, which we'll look at, were also anointed. So the line of kings finished when the after the Babylonian conquest. So no more kings. And so the first function of a king is to defend a country. And uh that's what you need more than anything else. A government is first function of government is defend.

And so they were hoping that God was going to raise up or send somebody else who could come and defend their country. And the question well defended from whom. So let's see what a messiah is. In Judaism the messiah is a future Jewish king a descendant of king David who expected to usher in the messianic age of peace and universal understanding. So that's the vision going all the way back to Isaiah. The messiah comes to bring about world peace and justice. Peace and justice go together. The concept of the Messiah, the anointed one, originated in Judaism has been a central theme in Jewish esquetology, uh, which is the study of the end times, the last days.

So, Jews then are hoping that God is going to send the Messiah, which is going to be the last days, which is today. Messiah is a human being and is not divine. Someone a human being has been anointed. We'll look at that. And as I said, all the kings of Israel were anointed. So, we'll have a look the anointing. So this is when the uh the Hebrews, they'd lived in Canaan for 400 years and things weren't working out well with the Philistines and various problems they were having. So they went to Samuel who was the last judge

and said to Samuel, just like all the other nations around us, we want to have a king. Why a king? Because a king is a warrior first of all. And secondly, the king would be the person who could mobilize all the different tribes. And so the 12 tribes of Israel, they should have formed a common defense force against the Philistines. But if the Philistines or somebody was attacking in one part of Israel, then only that tribe and maybe the next tribe would go along to form the army. And so they were getting frustrated with each other

because they weren't all working together to defend the country. And so that's why they said, "We need to have a king who's going to mobilize an army with young men from all the different tribes to defend the country, defend Canaan." Anyway, so Samuel went and said that to God. God said, "Okay, they can if they want to have a king, they can have one." Not going to explain much. Then the Lord and so he said to Samuel, "Go to the the family of Jesse. He's got loads of sons and I have chosen one of them to be the next king.

And so Samuel went and got all the sons to be lined up. And he went to look at the first one and thought he's really tall and strong and handsome. Maybe he'll be the one that God wants to be the king. And God said to him, "You just look at the face. I look at the heart. He's not the right one." And he worked his way through all of them. And each one God said, "Nope, not him." And then Jesse then Samuel asked Jesse, "Have you got any more sons?" "Oh, yeah, we got the youngest one. He's just looking after the sheep. Not much use." "Oh, bring him anyway."

And so God said to him, "Rise up and anoint him. This is the one." So Samuel took the horn of oil and anointed him. That's oil pour over the head. That's the an that's the ritual for anointing. Anointed him in the presence of his brothers. And from that day on, the spirit of the Lord came powerfully upon David. So that's what happens when people are anointed in this way. They experience the spirit of God working in their lives. And David's life is transformed and changed from one day to the next.

And then um this is a story about uh the anointing of Jesus. Peter said, "You know what has happened throughout the province of Judea." This is in the book of Acts, after the crucifixion and resurrection, beginning in Galilee after the baptism that John preached. How God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and power and how he went around doing good and healing all who are under the power of the devil because God was with him. So that's when Jesus became the Messiah at when John anointed him

and the Holy Spirit entered into Jesus and became filled with the spirit of God and he went preaching and teaching and made a huge impact upon the Jewish people 2,000 years ago. Up until then he was a nobody. He was a carpenter's son. But when he was anointed, he exper had the same sort of experience as David had. same sort of experience actually as Saul had before David when Samuel anointed Saul Saul also became filled with the Holy Spirit and he went prophesying that's what happens that's what anointing is

and then just recently we had another anointing in this country the coronation of King Charles and it's the same coronation liturgy which has existed in this country for over a thousand years and it's rooted deeply rooted in the Hebrew Bible. That's why so many passages are read out which you can find in in the book of Deuteronomy and Leviticus and the kings about the function, role and responsibility of a king. So this is the sermon given by the archbishop of Canterbury and the way to the task given today your majesties.

So he's not just anointing King Charles. Uh Queen Camila also was anointed and she was also crowned at the same time. Both of them were crowned. The crowning ceremony for the for Charles was much longer than because he was the um the heir. Yeah. And Camila is his wife. So she was anoint she was also anointed as the queen. Your majesties is only bearable by the spirit of God who gives us the strength to give our lives to others. With the anointing of the Holy Spirit, the king is given freely what no ruler can ever attain through will a coup or politics, election, or war or tyranny. The Holy Spirit draws us to love in action.

And you can see this is what happened to the late Queen Elizabeth. She's the most remarkable woman in the 20th century. He's extraordinary person. You can see the way the king even though he's in his mid70s now. Most people have been retired for 10 years. He just started that task. The queen also she was the queen up until the day she died which is I can't remember she was mid '9s I think. And that's what it is when you get anointed with the holy spirit you become a different person. And that's why whenever anybody went to meet the Queen Elizabeth, you can read about what they said. They'd meet the queen maybe for a short time

and often they will say this is the most memorable event of their life. They felt completely changed about through this experience. Jonathan Sax said that himself. He said you know uh God save our gracious queen. He said when he meets the queen he experiences God's grace coming through the queen the lay queen because she was filled with the Holy Spirit and that's what anointing is. You get a filled with the Holy Spirit and we again we should do more than that. It annoys me when occasionally I get a letter from the international office. These are the people who've been you know made

that they're not anointed. They're not anointed. They just got a it's like a managerial thing. Oh, this person's been appointed not appoint not anointed as the pointed to this job. This person's been sacked and there's no proper spirituality in the way our community functions in my opinion. There should be a proper thing like this. Yeah, it's a serious business. You know, oh well, you know, you get a letter say, oh, you you you've uh been retired, which is what happened to a lot of people recently.

And another letter comes, oh, you've been appointed. But there's no ceremony that goes through. There's no education. There's no liturgy. It's missing. Anyway, I don't want to go on my usual critical rant. And then the Holy Spirit came at Pentecost. When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. Suddenly, a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. They saw what seemed to be tongues of fires and separated

and came to rest on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the spirit enabled them. I had similar kind of experience myself time to time. Okay. So, we're going to look at this then about Mary who's a mother of Jesus. This is what it says in the Quran. So, I do read the Quran from time to time. I need to read it more some more quotes out of it. And that was Mary's mother. Anne said, "Oh my Lord, I vowed to you." So she also wanted to have a child,

but also like Sarah, like Rebecca, like Rachel, like Hannah, she wasn't having any children. And of course, you know, these women, it calls them to talk to God about it more. Oh my Lord, I vow to you what is in my womb to be dedicated to your service. So do accept it of me. I have named her Mary and I commit her and her offspring to your protection from the evil one. Lord accepted her with a gracious acceptance. He made her grow in purity and beauty and to the care of Isaac was she assigned. So Mary

then was committed to the the care of Isaac by that's what it says in the Quran and um sorry so thank you for making sure you're reading it Zechariah. Okay so this is something called the Gospel of James. It's not in the in the New Testament. is one of the gospels that was not included into the New Testament because it's written relatively late, but it ex you know you got the Torah which is very short and dense and then you have the the Talmud which is an goes into these stories in more detail as people think about these things

and talk about them like said Adam and Eve had Cain and Abel where the girls so if you want to know where the girls were and what their names were it's all in the Talmud. You want to know what Noah's wife's name was, it's all in the Talmud. So all these so this is a bit like that. It's like a early Christian church also wrote different things as they thought about tried to give deeper explanations of the things that went on. Anyway, so Mary's parents then were called Yokim and Anna and as it says in the Quran, Mary

then was dedicated to God and when she was three years old, Mary was sent to the temple. So this is the Gospel of James written 150 AD. not very long after the four gospels which are in the New Testament at 12 years old when she got to that age of um they call it puberty. Yeah. Then she was sent to Joseph because she couldn't stay in the temple with all the priests anymore. She was sent to Joseph a widowerower who had sons already. So he's a much older man. He'd already been married. His wife had died. He had sons. Joseph goes on business

because he was a businessman and Mary worked carried on working in the temple and the job she was doing she was uh sewing a curtain and while she was sewing this curtain then an angel of Gabriel appeared and we look at that and she became pregnant later. So in the sixth month of Elizabeth's pregnancy so Elizabeth then is pregnant already for six months that's after the time when the angel appeared to John. Nope. Zacharias. The angel appeared to Zacharias in the temple said, you know, your wife who's barren is going to have a child. He couldn't believe it.

And all that was went through. Anyway, 6 months after she pregnancy, God sent an angel Gabriel to Nazareth to a virgin. Okay. Nazareth isn't in Jerusalem. Anyway, that's what it says in New Testament. The angel said to Mary, "He will be great and will be called the son of the most high." So, not literally anyway, son of the most high and the Lord God will give him the throne of his father David and he'll reign over the house of Jacob forever and on his kingdom there'll be no end. So, this is very much the biblical understanding of the role of the Messiah is to bring about peace

and justice. Yeah. political position, the heir to the throne of David and to carry on what David and Solomon were doing to bring about peace and justice. It's nothing to do with, you know, uh, salvation. Uh, Jews aren't interested in salvation. They're more interested in what goes on in this world than where they go in the next world. Then um Mary then she went to um when she heard about this she went to stay with and meet Elizabeth who is a kinsfolk relative. At that time Mary got ready and hurried to a town in the hill country of Judea where she entered Zachariah's home

and greeted Elizabeth. So when Elizabeth heard Mary's greeting the baby that was John in leapt in her womb and Elizabeth was also filled with the Holy Spirit and she's those beautiful words which you can find in the New Testament what Elizabeth said uh and again it said that she was the first person and that who knew that Mary was going to give birth to the Messiah. Mary stayed with Elizabeth for about 3 months and then returned [Music] home. So Mary was Elizabeth 6 months pregnant. Mary stayed for three months.

So basically exactly when John was born, Mary left them. To me this is really odd. You think well it's exactly after giving birth that a woman needs a lot of support and help. So why did Mary leave after 3 months? So obviously I guess Mary was pregnant and you know it was obvious it could be seen that she's pregnant after they've been there for 3 months. I'm sure the conversation came up who made you pregnant and I'm sure Elizabeth then was not happy about the way the relationship that Mary had with Zachariah.

And so I think that made it very difficult for Mary to continue to live there. That's what I think. Otherwise why would she leave after 3 months? Here we this is one way of trying to explain it. in a sort of a principle kind of way. You got Zachchariah could be understood as being the position of Abraham and Jacob. There are some people talk about this because anyway the angel said to Gabriel to Mary, the Holy Spirit will come upon you. The power of the most high will overshadow you. Therefore, the child to be born will be holy. He'll be called the son of God.

So Elizabeth could be thought of as being in the position of Sarah or Leah. Mary could be thought of as being the position of Hagar or Rachel. This sort of, you know, and Joseph in the position of the archangel and Zachariah and Elizabeth had John the Baptist. Uh Zachchariah and Mary had Jo Jesus. And interesting St. Paul in Galatians said, "When the fullness of time had come, God sent his son, born of a woman, born under the law." H born under the law. So, Zachchariah, so this is obviously before Jesus, Mary is married to Je Joseph.

So, I don't know what Paul means by that under the law, but interesting. Anyway, so after Jesus was born and then Herod found out about it and when Herod saw that he'd been tricked by the magi, so there's three magi who came from the east who came looking for following the star to to find the Messiah who they heard was going to be born. And they went to see Herod and said, "Where's the Messiah going to be born? The king of the Jews." and Herod made some inquiries amongst the the rabbis and they said in the Hebrew Bible it says the Messiah is going to be born in Bethlehem.

So they go off to Bethlehem and Herod says well when you find him come home tell me cuz I want to go and bow to him and worship him as well. It's also a lie. So the magi would went away without going to see Herod. So when Herod saw that he'd been tricked by the magi, he was angry. He sent, again, this is from the Gospel of James, he sent out his killers, telling them to kill all the infants, 2 years old and younger. So when Mary heard that the infants were being killed, she was afraid. She took her son, wrapped him in cloths,

and put him in a manger for cows. And then later on, as we know, they went to Egypt to escape. And when Elizabeth heard that John was sought, she took him up into the hills and looked around for somewhere to hide him. But there wasn't a hiding place. That's why John actually grew up in the wilderness according to this uh account. And then but Herod then asked for John and sent officers to Zachchariah saying to him, "Where are you hiding your son? because I want to obviously I want to have him put to death.

But Zachariah replied saying to them, I'm a minister of God, a priest, and I sit in God's temple. How should I know where my son is? And Zachariah said, I'm to m I'm a martyr of God if you shed my blood because the law will receive my spirit since you'll be spilling innocent blood at the entrance of the temple of the Lord. And around daybreak, Zachchariah was murdered and the people of Israel didn't know that he was murdered. And then Jesus interestingly, he talks about this. It was something I never really

uh tried to make sense of before until recently because going through all this, I had to think about all these things in ways that I hadn't thought about for ever really. So I always knew this was in the in the New Testament. And I can never understand why until I started looking into more material like the Gospel of James. Takes me a long time putting these lectures together, but I'm enjoying it. It's interesting. So Jesus said, "I'm sending you prophets and sages and teachers after having a bit of a fallout with some of the the Jewish leaders. Some of them you will kill

and crucify. Others you'll fogg in your synagogues and pursue from town to town. And so upon you will come all the righteous blood that has been shed on earth from the blood of the righteous Abel to the blood of Zachariah son of Beria whom you murdered between the temple and the altar. Truly I tell you all this will come on this generation. So when Jesus here talks about the murder of Zachar the blood of Zachariah he's not talking about Zachariah the prophet you know in the Hebrew Bible. He's talking about John's son who according to James was murdered

because he refused to hand over John to be executed and killed by Herod. So Jesus obviously knew about this. This is the So when talking about protecting Jesus, who they got to protect him from the Romans. This is the point. It's never mentioned in the divine principle or the chong wrong lectures. This is the real issue where Jesus needs to be protected from the Romans which is why Elizabeth and Mary behaved the way they did. Yeah. And so G Zachariah then was dead. So he's not in the picture anymore in terms of protecting Jesus. He protected him in

that sense. Anyway, so Gospel James again. After three days, the priests held the priests held a council about who should replace Zachariah. And the lot fell to Simeon, for he was told by the Holy Spirit that he wouldn't see a dream until he saw the Christ in the flesh. And then this is from the Gospel of Luke. Now there's a man in Jerusalem called Simeon who was righteous and devout. He was waiting for the consolation of Israel and the Holy Spirit was on him. He'd been re it had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit. He would not die before he' seen the Lord's Messiah.

So when Jesus was brought in um then he saw Jesus and he prophesied about Jesus. By this stage he was no longer the holy the high priest anymore. He'd been replaced by somebody else. He wasn't. So interesting. This is the first century dwelling in Nazareth. Believed from the 38 three from the 4th century to have been Jesus's home. A convent was built over it and ancient cave outside. The 380s that was probably uh found by Helen Helena who was the mother of emperor Constantine. She went around looking for all these kind of sites.

So that's what it's figured to be where Jesus grew up. So question is then did Jesus's parents support him? So when he was I think 13 years old as far as I remember they went down to uh Jerusalem for the Passover which is you know one of the the major festivals and after 3 days if and then they went home back to Nazareth. They assumed he was in the you know the caravan of people going home probably hanging out with his friends or you know the the next door neighbor or something like this. But after 3 days they anyway they realized he wasn't around didn't know where he was. They went back to Jerusalem to try to find him. They imagine they went around all the places the fairground

and the playground and etc etc etc knocking on friends and eventually after three days they found him in the temple sitting among the teachers listening to their questions and all who heard him were amazed at his understanding his answers. So Jesus made a huge impact upon people as a teenager and he said to them, his parents, "How is it that you sought me? Did you not know that I must be my father's house?" Yeah. Why? Why did you look everywhere else in the hotels and the motel and etc etc. Didn't you realize I'll be here? This is what is the core of my heart to be here in the temple as it's you know read the psalms. It's like

that want to be in the in the temple of the Lord. and they did not understand the saying which he spoke to them. So they didn't really grasp who he was. This is interesting. You know, look at this picture here. This is uh I can't remember who it was who painted this now. Simon Martini. You look at the tension between Jesus and his parents. Does Jesus look a happy puppy? A happy whatever. Is he look like he's happy? pictures as well. The artist was someone called um Simone Martini. I think it's about probably about 14th century I would guess. Does Jesus look happy? Content. Sorry. Content. Content. When he's when he got his arms crossed. Okay. He's got a scowl on his face. He's looking down at his mother. He doesn't look happy. Does his mother look happy? No. She looks like she's, you know, probably gonna give him a slap or something. His father looks angry. Well,

now look, it's interesting. You look at his father's left hand. It's on his Jesus's shoulder, isn't it? So, he's comforting Jesus. Can I Is it You see there? That's his fingers. Yeah, I see that. Okay. And so he's also looking talking to Jesus and the other hand is pointing towards Mary. So he's I can imagine he's probably saying please apologize to your mom. She's been driving me round the bend for the last three days. Worry, worry, worry, worry, you know, etc., etc. I've got to go here. Please calm her down. Please apologize. You know, I want to have a peaceful night's sleep tonight. Thank you very much.

So that's when I read that picture, it looks to me like that's what's going on. He's he's looking at at Jesus and saying, "Le, look, please apologize to your mom. Please make it up." But Jesus is obviously in a in a in a in a mood. Yeah, he's got a halo. Yeah. Well, they've all got halos. Yeah. Anyway, so the the Christian tradition has thought that uh Joseph died not long after this and thought that Joseph Arythea then was Jesus' uncle. So he took him to Britain and later he buried him in his own tomb.

So if you read the glassine uh legends, there's many stories there about how Joseph Amethy was a tin trader and tin 2,000 years ago was the main place where sorry Cornwall 2,000 years ago was the main place where the metals necessary to make tin were mined. And that's why the up until the middle of the 20th century, it was the most scholarly place for learning about mining was in Cornwall. everything was there. Anyway, so Joseph Amaththeio is called a tin trader and that he you know because Joseph died

then he was Jo Jesus's uncle they took Jesus to Glastonbury and there's lots of Glastonbury legends there about how Christianity came and then Joseph Ramoththeia later after the crucifixion resurrection the legend is that he brought the Holy Grail and brought Christianity to Britain uh shortly after the death and resurrection. Anyway, uh and uh that's why I think it's interesting. You go to Cornwall, if you look at the map, you see there more towns and villages there with named after a saint than anywhere else in the entire world. Look at a map. St. Ives, St. Just, St. This, St. That. All these they had

so many me so many saints there in in Cornwall. The Celts it's a Celtic. They're not English. the Cornish. There's the boundary genetic boundaries between Cornwall and Devon and there. Yeah. So, it's interesting how these things work out. So, what could have should have happened? Well, maybe Mary could have stayed with Zachariah's family for longer. Obviously, there's some I would say probably some kind of tension there between Elizabeth and Mary. So, Mary had to leave. It would have been better perhaps if she' stayed there with Zachariah's family

and grown up there. But again, it was very difficult cuz uh you know Herod wanted to kill all the the infants anyway. Then the magi could have come along and they brought some gifts to Mary for Jesus, but then they went home. Maybe they could have given more support. Maybe they could have taken him away. I don't know who the magi were. People often think that they were Zorastrians, but they came from the east. I think they're probably Jews because a huge number of Jews have been taken into captivity in Babylon by

um the Babylonians. And there's a huge Jewish community for 3,000 years up until 1948 living in Babylon, living in what's modern day Iraq. So personally I think it's quite possible that the magi came from Babylon because they would have been the ones who would have read the Hebrew Bible the scriptures about a messiah and stars and all these sorts of things. These are reference this idea of a star is is can't remember which prophecy it's I think it's Micah. So that's another possibility but they didn't they just went home

but at least they didn't go and see Herod on the way. Um also another possibility par Jesus's parents could have left Jesus in the temple and he could have gone to school there and if Jesus had gone to school there he would received a very good education a much better education than he did receive and secondly he could have made relationship with the leaders they really respected him as a teenager they were amazed at his wisdom and understanding the questions he asked and the questions he answered

so he would have won the respect of all the Jewish leaders in the temple it was the chief priests and that caused the problem which led to the crucifixion. But if Jesus had been able to remain in the temple, he would receive a very good education and he would have won their respect and they themselves would have recognized actually we think he's the Messiah because he would have won their respect. That's the most important thing. Yeah. It's not where you got the title. No, did you win the respect? Yeah, that's really important.

And you only win respect by the way in which you live your life and by your understanding. And um yeah, I first thought about this when I read father's autobiography. Father went to school in Korea and I remember one of the schools he's graduated from that school. I don't know if you remember he he gave us a talk and in this talk he critiqued all his teachers and saying they were giving him a rubbish education. I don't know if you read that. It really annoyed the authorities and they got on his case.

But he felt he received a rubbish education and I think it was a real shame. Father should have received a much better education than he did receive and that's why he should have received it here. Eaton or Harrow. Okay. So, Zacharias and Elizabeth and John were to be Jesus's protectors. Well, Zachchariah couldn't be because he was put to death. They witnessed to Jesus as a son of the heavenly parent, but they did not follow him to the end. Their failure present prevented the Jewish people from believing in following Jesus. Okay.

So, first thing I'm going to look at who were they to protect Jesus from the Romans. Yeah. As I said, there's no discussion or dis in of this in the divine principle, the Chong Bon. So the family actually weren't in a position to protect Jesus. Zachchariah being put to death and Joseph died not long afterwards, you know, very difficult situation. Just the two mothers were left. So this is the Roman Empire. It's basically not just Europe, it's the Mediterranean Empire. All of uh the countries surrounding the Mediterranean.

And they first came to uh Israel uh about 60 years before Jesus was born I think. And so what kind of who were the Romans? The founding myth of Rome was Romulus and Remis. They were two brothers and they decide to build Rome, but they had an argument with each other about walls and so and uh yeah and so Romulus killed Remis. So the founding myth of Rome is about power. The older brother kills the younger brother. That's the basis. It's all about might is right. It's about power. And so that's why they

uh named him that named the city that. So Rome then the descendants of this they became very militaristic and very expansionist. They con Rome they conquered the whole of Italy and they gradually expanded and they glorified war. So that's why you had gladiators and you can see this film the gladiator you know that's what they were into war fighting incredibly vicious you know it's bad enough watching uh football mobs after the game you know that's what they did there and that's why you got the coliseum you know coliseum was built for

that kind of sport gladiators fighting each other or fighting lions and being put to And also they would seize territory to extract wealth. You might wonder why did they go all the way to Egypt? In those days Egypt was a bread basket of Europe of the Mediterranean. So they needed food for to feed the Romans. So they conquered one land after another and they extracted the money and the food and the wealth and they took it to Rome. And um you know you look at the coliseum. Do you know where the money came from to build the coliseum

and all those great buildings in Rome? Do you know where the money came from? No. Sorry. No. No. In 70 AD, Romans invade the Romans destroyed the temple and they took all the gold from the temple and they invested it in building the coliseum and all the many of the huge buildings most significant buildings in Rome were built from the money that was raised in the temple by donations and tithing and there's a you know there's a stat there's a big column in Rome and in the about this destruction of Jerusalem

and there's pictures there on this column in stone of the manora which is the big gold candlestick being carried by the Romans from the temple to Rome and of course they melted it down and that's where the money came from that was the kind of people the Romans were yeah greedy taxation and exploitation of their empire so here we got some pictures there. We got them feeding, you know, Christians of the lions, the fighting lions, fighting each other, and the coliseum in which a lot of this was going on. I mean, all you can say, at least the coliseum had a decent

uh quality of building, unlike the buildings we make these days, which certainly aren't going to be standing in 2,000 years time. So, it's very harsh, oppressive, and exploitative. So, they occupied Israel. I'm not going to go into why they violated the temple. They controlled the high priest. So the high priest is appointed by the the Roman governor and uh land tax. This is all recorded in the New Testament. The land tax, income tax, pole tax, water tax, city tax, taxes on food, road tax, house tax, boundary tax, market tax, customs duties, etc.

And they were getting the Jews living there were getting taxed to death. And so there were four towns who said, "We can't afford to pay all this tax." And so Romans said, "You're going to pay it." So they were all captured and sold into slavery. And they paid the taxes for that town through being sold into slavery. That's the way it was. And the bulk of the money collected was sent to Rome and paid into the Emperor Augustus's personal bank account. Ever heard of dictators in the modern world who do that? There plenty of them around. You know, they plead poverty for our country. Send us, you know, aid.

And you look at their bank account, it's all in Switzerland or somewhere. That's where the money ends up. So that's the way it was. Terrible. Then they built the Roman fortress is built next to the temple. That building behind this is the the temple courtyard. the big courtyard behind that is the Roman uh fortress. And so they realize if we can control the temple, we control the whole of Israel. So if they got any problems in the temple, the soldiers will come out and slaughter people. It's just the way it worked.

So how do the Jews respond to this? Well, when King Herod died, there was a revolt by led by someone called Simon of Perea, and that was crushed and put down. Then when there was a census in AD six, uh again they didn't like the census because basically the census isn't just to count the number of people. It's to count the count find out the names of everybody that's supposed to be taxed. That's why the census is taken. You heard of the um doomsday book. Yeah. When the Roman when the Normans invaded England, they commissioned the doomsday book. That's a record, an exact record of every field, every cow, every sheep, every piece of crop, every house, everything is recorded there from 1068. The invasion was 1066.

And he thought, well, that's very that's very nice of the Romans to do a census. But then that the reason why they wanted to know exactly how wealthy every single person or family in the country was so they could apply taxes. That's why it was there. It's the same thing going on here. Anyways, there's another revolt. This is by somebody called Judas of Galilee. And then the Romans crucified 2,000 people. The roads were lined with people who've been crucified and put to death by the Romans. That's the way the Romans behaved towards people who wouldn't just, you know, go along with what they wanted.

Then after the death of Jesus, there's another Messiah led a revolt which has also crushed Theodess. So that's the reality. That's a historical reality of what was going on in the Roman occupation. But do you get the impression the Romans are bad people from the gospels? If you read the gospels, the Roman centurion said, "Truly I I truly I tell you, no one in Israel have in in no one in Israel have I found such faith." Oh no. Jesus said this about a Roman centurion. Truly I tell you, no one in Israel have ever found such faith.

So the Roman soldiers coming off well. Then the centurion at the foot of the cross was the one who testify to Jesus. Then Pilate according to the gospel didn't want to execute Jesus. But the backdrop of the gospels, it does talk about taxation. It does talk about debt. It does talk about injustice. And all this is caused by the Roman occupation. But then it's not said that it's the Romans that are causing all these problems. Doesn't say that in the gospels. It says this is the way it is, but it doesn't attribute the blame

and responsibility to the Roman occupation. And so the way it was, the Jews hated the Romans and they revolted more than any other people apart from the Kelts in Britain. One of the reasons why they invaded Britain. Strong religious, national, and political identity. uh because they've been around for you know thousands of years had an incredibly high level of culture incredibly high level of literature far higher than that of the Romans and the Greeks which goes all the way back to Moses you know whereas the Greeks only started producing their poetry

and their literature about 500 BC around about then so a strong national religious national political identity whereas lots of people that were occupied by the Greeks or by the Romans thought the Greeks and Romans got a high level of culture than us. The only people who didn't think that were the Jews because they said actually we're a higher religious and cultural identity than you. So they have a long history of this. And so the Romans though on the other hand look down on the Jews. They thought they were different. They didn't practice

uh religion in the way that the Romans did. They also observe the Sabbath, which meants they didn't go to work on the Sabbath. One day a week, every Jew was on holiday, you know. So the Romans said, "You're just bunch of lazies." You know, why should you should be working seven days a week like everybody else. So they thought they were lazy. They would only eat a certain kind of food. They wouldn't mix with others because they only eat kosher food. Very high levels of diet as well. And so the Romans looked down on the Jews

because they were the only people that wanted to emphasize they were different. They were particular kind of people. So you know when you look at what was the reality you can see it was an incredibly intense the relationship between the Romans who looked down and treated the Jews with contempt and the Romans who hated the and the Jews who hated the Romans for the occupation. And it's very clear it's going to lead to some kind of catastrophe, another revolt, another attempt at revolution, another attempt at freedom fighters trying to drive out the Romans.

And you know, if you know about the Romans, they were incredibly militaristic and powerful. You try to revolt against the Romans, you may defeat one army, they just send another army and they'll wipe you out. And you know, Jesus knew that and the wise people knew that. the idealists didn't the two religious okay so next slide so that was why that was whom Jesus should have been protected from he needed that protection so Joseph Mary the Jewish people failed to recognize the essence of Jesus so one thing it's not said anywhere in chumbaong lectures

that I've come across what is the essence of Jesus not explained Holy Spirit. Well, I'm just saying it's not. It said they didn't know what the essence of Jesus was, but the book the slides themselves don't say the essence of Jesus was this. It just says they didn't know what it was, but didn't actually say what it was in the in the lectures themselves, which is a bit curious. Anyway, there you go. Joseph and Mary forgot the heavenly revelation and continued their conjugal relationship viewing Jesus their only begotten son as merely as their own son

and failing to help the marriage supper of the lamb. The Jewish people didn't understand what Jesus was saying and objected. So we we'll examine these two statements. So did Mary and Joseph continue the conjugal relationship? Well, Christians uh without exception because it's in the Apostles Creed and the Nyine Creed, Christians believe in the perpetual virginity of Mary. They believe she conceived through the Holy Spirit, not through a sexual relationship with a human being, with a man, but is entirely the Holy Spirit. Basically, that's why Jesus is the only begotten son of God

because Mary was the mom and God was the dad. literally the Holy Spirit will descend upon you. Anyway, so that's why Christian believe in the virt perpetual virginity of Mary that she never had a sexual relationship ever. But this is what it says in Matthew, which is interesting. When Joseph woke up because he, you know, he wondered how did Mary become pregnant? Mary said, I didn't have, you know, a relationship. It's the Holy Spirit came. Anyway, so he was wondering what should I do with her? Should I divorce her or not get married or what should I do? Anyway,

so he had a dream and when Joseph woke up, he did what the angel of the Lord had commanded him and he took Mary home and his wife. But he did not cons consummate their marriage until she gave birth to a son and he gave him the name of Jesus. So although Christians believe in the perpetual virginity of Mary, the gospel of Matthew itself said that they did consummate their relationship, their marriage. And that's why, you know, some years later when Jesus was went home to Nazareth, the locals said, "Isn't this the carpenter's son?" In other words, Joseph's son. Isn't his mother's name Mary?

And aren't his brothers James, Joseph, Simon, and Judas? actually quite several of his brothers became disciples. Aren't all his sisters with us? And where then did this man get all these things? So you the locals in Nazareth, they believe that, you know, Jesus was Joseph's son and that, you know, he had brothers and sisters as well. And one of them was James, the brother of Jesus. So, Catholics and Orthodox Christians teach that James along with others named in the New Testament as brothers of Jesus were not the biological children of Mary

because they believe in the perpetual virginity of Mary, mother of Jesus, but were cousins of Jesus or stepbros from a previous marriage of Joseph. So, as I said in the Gospel of James, it says Joseph was a widowerower. He already had sons. And so maybe the sons that are referred to as being Jesus's brothers were actually stepbros mar or step brothers from a previous marriage of Joseph. Others consider James to be the son of Mary and Joseph. So different Christians believe different things. James the just that's the brother of Jesus was according to the new testament yeah was according to the new testament a brother of Jesus. He was the first Jewish bishop of Jerusalem. Traditionally is believed he was martyed either in 68 62 AD by being stoned to death on the order of the high priest anaeas.

So after the crucifixion and the resurrection then James the brother of Jesus became the head of the church in Jerusalem. So you know there was a lot of support that Jesus had from his family from his relatives to the extent they could do that. Was Jesus married? Well, the reality is the historical reality is that every rabbi was married and had a family. You couldn't be a rabbi without being married. And the New Testament doesn't say that Jesus was celibate or unmarried. And Jesus's disciples are married.

And so if we read the gospel what it says when the Sabbath was over Mary Magdalene Mary the mother of James and Salom Mary's sister Jesus's aunt as Mary his mother's aunt his mother Mary's aunt sister bought spices so they might go and anoint Jesus's body. So it's after the crucifixion then Jesus was buried in the in the tomb that belonged to Nicodemus. So you have to say think, well, why was it Nicodemus who buried Jesus in his tomb? Well, the only person has the authority to go and ask for the body of a person who's just been put to death is a relative.

So that's probably why Nicodemus has understood that Nicodemus is Jesus's uncle because he is the only one who had the authority to go and say, "Can I have Jesus' body and I want to bury him in the family tomb grave?" But then Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, that's mother Mary, Virgin Mary, and Salomi her sister, bought spices so they might go and anoint Jesus' body. So after the crucifixion and after the Sabbath, they went to the tomb. So, but when you try and unpack this and examine this, no woman would touch the naked body of a dead rabbi unless she was family. Those that's why Mary his mother was there obviously

and the arm was there. Jesus was whipped, beaten, and crucified. No woman would wash the blood and sweat of his private parts unless she was his wife. Okay, that's interesting. So that would be the job of the wife would be to go and clean the body of her dead husband including sexual organs. No other woman would be allowed to do that apart from his wife. So the suggestion there is that actually Mary Magdalene was Jesus's wife otherwise she wouldn't have been allowed to go and do that or to go to the tomb.

And then Jesus appears to Mary Magdalene and says she uh after the other women went she stayed on. Now Mary stood outside the tomb crying. As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb and saw two angels in white seated where Jesus's body had been, one at the head and the other at the foot. They asked her, "Woman, why are you crying?" "They've taken my lords away," she said, "and I don't know where they put him." At this she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not realize it was Jesus. He asked her, "Woman, why are you crying? Who is it you're looking for?" Thinking he was the gardener, she said, "Sir, if you carried him away, tell me where you've put him,

and I will and I will get him." Jesus said to her, "Mary." She turned towards him and cried out in Aramaic Rab Bonnie which means teacher. Jesus said do not hold on to me for I have not yet ascended to the father. Go instead to my brothers and tell them I am ascending to my father and your father to my God and your God. And Mary Magdalene went to the disciples with the news. I have seen the Lord. And she told them that he had said these things to her. You can see the heart that she had towards Jesus was the heart of her husband, heart of someone who's married. She was his wife. That's why she was

and felt the way that she felt deeply touched, moved. And um so what is the status of marriage? Sometimes people say, well, she you know, she is uh had been a prostitute or something. It's all not true. Uh it's not actually what it says in the gospels. It's sort of mixed up things that have been said for various reasons. Anyway, this is a book written not very long ago by Jane Shabberg. Resurrection of Mary Magdalene. Mary is prominent among the followers of Jesus. She exists as a character as a memory in a textual world of androentric language

and patriarchal ideology. She speaks boldly. She plays a leader's role. Viz vis viz v is the male disciples. She is a visionary. She praised her superior understand. She is praised for her superior understanding. She's identified as intimate companion of Jesus. She's opposed by or in open conflict with one or more of the male disciples. She is defended by Jesus. There's actually incredibly prominent figure within that. And uh yeah, she would receive a lot more respect than she has been given cuz people wanted to say Jesus wasn't married,

but actually I think she he was married. I think he had a family. It's impossible for a Jewish man 2,000 years ago to reach the age of 30 without being married and having a family and expect to be taken seriously as a rabbi, let alone as a messiah. Okay. So next thing it says in that slide that Jesus was rejected by the Hebrews, the Jewish people. So let's examine that statement from the gospels. Was Jesus rejected? So this is after the um after he was anoint after the the baptism he was anointed by the Holy Spirit.

Then Jesus filled with the power of the spirit returned to Galilee. After this is after the 40 days fast, he returned to this Galilee and a report about him spread through all the surrounding country. He began to teach in their synagogues and was praised by everyone. Has he been well received? Sorry. Well, been he's been praised by everyone. All the people heard about him. He's been praised by everyone in the statement. Then there's, you know, traveling around Galilee. It says in the Gospel of Matthew.

And he went about all Galilee teaching in their synagogues and preaching the gospel of the kingdom and healing every disease and every infirmity among the people. So certainly in one synagogue, there's a record of him not being them not being happy with him. That's the one in Nazareth because he was completely different to the way that they knew him when he was growing up as a child and as a young man. And that's why they couldn't take him seriously. whereas all the other synagogues, you know, he was a huge impact

that he made and they welcomed him and he could preach all the in all the synagogues and then great crowds followed him from Galilee and the Decapillus. This is 10 towns within that part of the world, that part of um the north and Jerusalem and Judea and from beyond the Jordan. That's uh east of the river Jordan. So huge crowds followed him. So is he being received and accepted? That's what it says in the gospel. It says that over and over again and the sermon on the mount. And when Jesus finished these sayings, the crowds were astonished at his teaching. For he taught them as one who had authority

and as not as their scribes. They're really impressed by what it was he was teaching. And they and it was, you know, much more profound than the teaching of other scribes. How did the other scribes feel? Uh, why is everybody in the synagogue today? Oh, they're listening to Jesus preaching on a hill somewhere. Oh, it's not doing very good for our finances, is it? Where's all the donations going, etc., etc. It's the way it works, I'm afraid. Okay. And so, uh, that was basically that's what the gospels say. This is the way in which Jesus was received

and accepted. things only went wrong uh in the last days and we'll look at that another later. So he's very very that's why he said to his disciples the harvest is plentiful but the laborers are few. You know there's loads of people who want to hear my teaching and loads of people want to form do this this and this but there aren't enough close disciples to go and look after and guide all these people. So that was how well he was received. And this is a very interesting story I came across. This is a book written by someone called Josephus. He was a Jewish priest

and then uh when uh Israel when Jerusalem was sacked in 70 AD he was able to leave Jerusalem and he wor went to work with General Vespasian. Should I stop now? I'll just finish this little bit off. Hang on a second. I'll just fast forward. What comes next? Okay, I'll just do this bit and then we'll have a break. Okay, so he wrote this book, The Great Roman Jewish War. He wrote lots of histories of the Jews in Latin. Anyway, he was alive uh around about the time as said he was alive during the the destruction of

um the temple. So he was very much a contemporary of Jesus. And so this is one of the things that he wrote. So Pilate who was the the governor at that time. Pilate took the army to Jerusalem for the winter in order to in the purpose he did it as it says there in order to abolish the Jewish laws. That was a harsh thing. They wanted to stop Jews from not going to work on the Sabbath. They wanted to stop Jews from being circumcised. They wanted to stop Jews from this and from that and the other. Basically want to wipe out Judaism as a religion

and make them conform to the Roman traditions. One of the things they did is they built a Olympic kind of games outside Jerusalem. How do people dress when they're at Olympic games? Naked. Naked. Yeah. They ran around naked. How do Muslims dress in public? The opposite. The opposite. That's the way the Jews dressed as well. Incredibly modest about physical body. Whereas the Greeks, they would do all their sports naked. So when the Romans and the Greeks, they built these kind of stadiums in Jewish communities, it was really deeply offensive. Can you imagine, you know, if you decided to go to

um Saudi Arabia and you walk down the street in a bikini, would that go down well? No. You'd be dead. Really, it's the way it works. Anyway, so he introduced images of the Caesar which were on standards and brought them into the city whereas a law forbids the very making of images. So you have not must not have idols. So these are the standards which is the Roman standards. There's a film about some Romans going off to Scotland to track down the standard. And um so they brought them in at night

so nobody could see them and then set them up in the so this is why previous governors made their entry into city without such ornaments because they were much wiser than Pilate. They knew if they went in like that, the Jews would rebel. Pilate was the first to brought in those images to Jerusalem and set them up there. This was done without the knowledge of the people as it was done at night. But as soon as they saw, they knew they came in multitudes to ask Pilate to remove the images. When he would not grant their requests

because it would tend to the injury of Caesar, they persevered in their requests. So he's more concerned about the honor of Caesar and the face of Caesar. That's what he concerned about more than anything else than offending the the locals. On the sixth day, so day after day, they came and protested peacefully came and protested. On the sixth day, the pilot ordered the soldiers to have their weapons while he came and sat upon his judgment seat which was in the open place of the city. When the Jews asked him again, he gave a signal to the Roman soldiers to surround them

and threatened that their punishment should be immediate death unless they stop disturbing him and go home. But they threw themselves upon the ground and made their necks bare and said they would take their death very willingly rather than let their laws be transgressed. Pilate was deeply affected with their firm resolution to keep their laws unviolated and soon commanded the images to be carried back from Jerusalem to Cesaria. Now there was about this time Jesus a wise man. That's the next sentence.

So you I think okay where did all these Jewish people get the idea from that they should risk their life in this case? In other words, not rebel violently. I think they got this from Jesus. Okay, I'll stop there. I'll come back to the details of that after the break. Comment. Oh, someone's commented. What do they comment? Oh, okay. I can read it here. Let's see. That's from Kreiona. Let's find her. Uhhuh. From one of the criticisms CBMR makes is that Mary and Joseph should not have had a sex relationship

and children and that these mistakes early in Jesus's life were part of the reason the OBD or potential spouse could be born. I mean, yeah, I know that's what it says. Uh, I don't think that's an issue myself that they consummated the marriage and um, yeah, I don't see why that would have affected anything to be honest. I mean, father, was father the oldest son? Did his did his mother have other children as well? Does that mean father's not qualified to be the messiah? No. That is neither here nor there in my opinion.

And so yeah. Okay. Let's uh have a break. This is till this is the lunch break, is it? Yeah. Okay. Let's have the lunch break then. Thank you very much. I hope you find it interesting. About 1:40. Uh yeah. Okay. 1:40. Yeah. It's 1 hour. Yeah. Okay. Have a good lunch time everybody. Catreiona in Germany. Have a good lunch break as well. [Laughter] People all over the world watching.