Dear believer in Jesus

AN OPEN LETTER

TO THE CLERGY, MISSIONARIES & CHRISTIAN FRIENDS

Dear believer in Jesus,

I commend you on your efforts to share the gospel with me. I know that much time and money has gone into this effort; way out of proportion to the success rate of Jews especially, and others, accepting your teachings. Therefore, I feel it only fair that first I reciprocate by sharing something important with you.

Before I consider your teachings I ask you in all honesty, Are you indeed “a True Christian?"

Roman Catholics, Greek and Russian Orthodox, Methodists, Lutherans, Episcopalians, Witnesses, Seventh Day Adventists, Baptists, Pentecostals, Mormons etc. each claim the exclusive right on being true Christians; excluding all others. Each has their own “unique” brand of Christianity that makes it true and the others false, misguided and in error. In fact, when I tell you of the Spanish and Portuguese Inquisitions, the crusades, the pogroms and all the other persecutions ― each in the name of Jesus and all sanctioned by the church ― you will tell me that those were not real Christians.

While studying your New Testament I learned what it meant to be a real Christian. In Mark 16:17-18 I read where Jesus defined the powers given to real Christians. I was greatly impressed, and I know you must be too, knowing that you can do these things! WOW! Specifically, what Jesus says about you – a real believer in Jesus – is:

“And these signs shall follow them that believe; In my name shall they cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues; They shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover. (King James Version)

Well, there you have it; a guarantee from Jesus himself. When is the last time you cast out demons or picked up a serpent? Prove to me that you are a real Christian! I challenge you to drink a glass of cyanide. If you are a real Christian nothing will happen to you. But, if you die then you were not a real Christian.

If you should choose to drink the cyanide as a test of faith and nothing happens, even that still will not prove that you are a real Christian. Jesus seems to be playing mind games with you, for in Matthew 7 he says:

Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? And in thy name have cast out devils? And in thy name done many wonderful works? And then will I [Jesus] profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity. (Matthew 7:22 -23)

Either Jesus can not make up his mind who can perform miracles or he promises you something that anyone can do. He could have promised the power to “cure a ham” or “heel a dog.”

Before you tell me about being a Christian, you should find out for yourself what a Christian really IS. If Jesus himself tells you to do one thing, and then turns around and says that if you do, he will deny you; claiming you work iniquity; what kind of god is that?

If you can not pass Jesus’ tests of a real Christian, then you have no idea what it is to be a “real” Christian. You must simply be a Christian wannabe or a fake. There is one more possibility though. If you can not do it, maybe nobody else can either. If that is the case, then there is no such thing as a real Christian. If there is no such thing as a real Christian then the New Testament is false and there was no real Jesus.

By now, you should realize that the story of Jesus, the New Testament et al, is just fiction, created by persons unknown and used by Rome to solidify an empire. That is why there are four different conflicting versions of the story! That is why there are so many Christian denominations, who each profess their own version of the "vision of a virgin” or was it the “version of the virgin’s vision?”

Confusing? Very!

As Sir Walter Scott wrote in Marmion, A Tale of Flodden Field (1855, xvii) “O what a tangled web we weave, When first we practise to deceive!”

I’ll tell you what; you keep your gospels, your Christian bible!

As Samuel Levine wrote, “You take Jesus, I’ll Take G-d!”