Faith in Jesus

John 11:1-2 “Now a certain man named Lazarus was ill. He was of Bethany, the village where Mary and her sister Martha lived. This Mary was the one who anointed the Lord with perfume and wiped his feet with her hair.”

 Luke 7:36-39 says that a prostitute applied perfume on Jesus and wiped his feet with her hair. “One of the Pharisees asked Jesus to dine with him, and he went into the Pharisee’s house and reclined at table. And behold, a woman of the town who was an especially wicked sinner, when she learned that he was reclining at table in the Pharisee’s house, brought an alabaster flask of ointment (perfume). And standing behind him at his feet weeping, she began to wet his feet with [her] tears; and she wiped them with the hair of her head and kissed his feet [affectionately] and anointed them with the ointment (perfume). Now when the Pharisee who had invited him saw it, he said to himself, If this man were a prophet, he would surely know who and what sort of woman this is who is touching him– for she is a notorious sinner (a social outcast, devoted to sin).”

“It was her brother Lazarus who was sick. So the sisters sent someone to tell Jesus. They said, ‘Lord, the one whom you love is sick.’ Jesus heard the message. He said, ‘The man is sick, but he will not die from it. But this will show people that god is great, and his Son also. Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. When he heard that Lazarus was sick, he stayed where he was for two days more” (John 11:3-6). After that Jesus did go to Bethany says the bible: “Now when Jesus came, he found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb four days. Bethany was near Jerusalem, hardly two miles away, and many of the Jews had come to Martha and Mary to console them concerning their brother” (John 11:17-19).

It is ridiculous that even 4 days after Lazarus’ burial many Jews came to console the prostitute and her sister Martha, especially when John itself says that Jews habitually chased prostitutes and stoned them to death.

John 11:20-26 “When Martha heard that Jesus had arrived, she went out to meet him, but Mary stayed in the house. Martha said to Jesus, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. Yet even now I know that god will do anything you ask.” Jesus told her, “Your brother will live again!” Martha answered, “I know that he will be raised to life on the last day, when all the dead are raised.” Jesus then said, “I am the one who raises the dead to life! Everyone who has faith in me will live, even if they die. And everyone who lives because of faith in me will never really die. Do you believe this?”

Martha played her role quite well in boosting Jesus’ requisitioned image by praising him before the apostles, saying, “I believe that you are christ, the son of god. You are the one we hoped would come into the world.” The so-called old testament traditionally followed by Jews to the exclusion of other writings does not say that the christ is the son of god, the catch-phrase “christ, son of god” being altogether missing there. How then could she possibly get that notion? We saw earlier how the devil-possessed described Jesus in the same way as Martha. Mark 3:11: “And whenever any evil spirits saw Jesus, they would fall to the ground and shout, ‘You are the son of god!’ ”

Jesus bragged before Martha that he raises the dead to life, but when the apostles asked him for the date and hour of the resurrection and judgement he said he did not know but only his father knew.

However, he told her in the presence of the apostles that everyone who had faith in him would live even if they die. Cunning that he is, Lucifer was working out here his programme for the homicidal martyrization of the apostles by injecting faith little by little in their psyche. “When she had said this, she went and called her sister Mary, saying in private, ‘The Teacher is here and is calling for you.’ And when she heard it, she rose quickly and went to him. Now Jesus had not yet come into the village, but was still in the place where Martha had met him. When the Jews who were with her in the house consoling her saw Mary rise quickly and go out, they followed her, thinking that she was going to the tomb to weep there. Now when Mary came to where Jesus was and saw him, she fell at his feet, saying to him, ‘Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.’ When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who had come with her also weeping, he “groaned in the spirit, and was troubled.” And he said, ‘Where have you laid him?’ They said to him, ‘Lord, come and see.’ Jesus wept. So the Jews said, “ ‘See how he loved him!’ ” (John 11:28-36).

First of all, it does not say that Jesus asked Martha to call Mary. If Jesus called Mary to find out where they had put Lazarus then he could have asked the same of Martha. This is where we understand why Mary did not come with Martha in the first place though she loved him more than Martha, and also why Jesus remained at the same place where Martha had met him.

Had he gone with Martha he would have lost a chance to play the faith drama before his apostles. The same problem would have been there if Mary were coming together with Martha. The words of faith Mary spoke when she saw Jesus are an exact repeat of the words Martha said earlier: “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.”

The book says that when the Jews who were with her in the house consoling her saw Mary rise quickly and go out, they followed her, supposing that she was going to the tomb to cry. But Martha knew that she was going to Jesus and not to the tomb, and she could have stopped them from following Mary. But to do so there should have been Jews in her house. If the Jews were really there and were coming towards Jesus, then Jesus would have run for his life, as he often did. It is well to recall here John 8:59 & 10:39: “At this, they picked up stones to stone him, but Jesus hid himself, slipping away from the temple grounds;” “Again they tried to seize him, but he escaped their grasp.”

It adds that Mary cried and the Jews cried with her and Jesus also cried. Then the Jews wondered about his love for Lazarus. The Jews in this context are probably his apostles since they are also Jews by circumcision.

Again in the story of Lazarus, John 11:43-44 reads: “And with that he cried in a loud voice, Come out, Lazarus, to my side. Whereupon the dead man came out, his feet and hands tied with linen strips, and his face muffled in a veil. Loose him, said Jesus, and let him go free.”

It is impossible for a man buried in a cave to come out of it with his hands and feet bound like that and his face muffled! Another biblical absurdity.

During each of his so-called miracle works Jesus talked to the people about the importance of faith in him. Here is an illustration of his deep-rooted cunning: “When Jesus was going into the town of Caphernaum, an army officer came up to him and said, Lord, my servant is at home in such terrible pain that he can’t even move. ‘I will go and heal him,’ Jesus replied. But the officer said, Lord, I’m not good enough for you to come into my house. Just give the order, and my servant will get well. I have officers who give orders to me, and I have soldiers who take orders from me. I can say to one of them, ‘Go!’ and he goes. I can say to another ‘Come!’ and he comes. I can say to my servant, ‘Do this!’ and he will do it.” When Jesus heard this, he was so surprised that he turned and said to the crowd following him, “I tell you in all of Israel I ’ve never found this much of faith” (Matt. 8:5-10). Then Jesus said to the officer, “ ‘You may go home now. Your faith has made it happen.’ Right then his servant was healed” (Matt. 8:13).

First of all, to say “in all of Israel I’ve never found this much of faith,” he should have travelled all over Israel but this incident is set in the very early days of his preaching in Galilee, just as he came back from Judaea after being baptized by John. By saying that your faith has made it happen, Jesus means that he had given the order (“Go!) to his minions (devils) and they went away. The sickness was healed then and there!

Luke contradicts Matthew in several respects. Luke: “In that town an army officer’s servant was sick and about to die. The officer liked this servant very much. And when he heard about Jesus, he sent some Jewish leaders to ask him to come and heal the servant” (7:2-3). But according to Matthew as we just saw the officer himself came to Jesus and said his servant was in such great pain that he can’t even move.

Continues Luke, “So Jesus went with them. When Jesus wasn’t gone too far from the house, the officer sent some friends to tell him, ‘Lord, don’t go to any trouble for me! I am not good enough for you to come into my house. And I am certainly not worthy to come to you. Just say the word and my servant will get well’ ” (7:6-7).

Luke here also contradicts himself. If the army officer knew that he was not great enough for Jesus to call at his home, why did he send Jewish leaders earlier to ask Jesus to come and heal his servant?

John contradicts both Matthew and Luke. John: “There was an official in Caphernaum whose son was sick. And when the man heard that Jesus had come from Judaea, he went and begged him to keep his son from dying. Jesus told the official, ‘You won’t have faith unless you see miracles and wonders!’ The man replied, ‘Lord, please come before my son dies!’ ” (4:46-49). When both Matthew and Luke say the servant of the officer was sick, John says it was his son who got sick. Furthermore, in Matthew and Luke the officer held back Jesus saying that he was too humble for him to call at his house. He instead asked Jesus to heal his servant with just a word uttered from a distance. But in John, the officer begs Jesus to come before his son dies.

According to Matthew, when Jesus said to the officer that he will come and heal his sick servant, the officer said “my servant will be healed if thou wilt only speak a word of command.” This is similar to the text in Matt. 8:16: “That evening many people with demons in them were brought to Jesus. And with only a word he forced out the evil spirits (devils) and healed everyone who was sick.” Jesus healed the officer’s servant with a word of command ‘Go!’ The evil spirit goes out and the servant turns healthy. This is miracle for the people who do not know the true identity of Jesus!

They know him instead quite familiarly as the carpenter: “Is not this the carpenter,” they tell each other in response to his highfalutin talk, “the son of Mary, the brother of James, and Joseph and Judas and Simon? Do not his sisters live here near us? And they had no confidence in him” (Mark 6:3). In Matthew and Luke Jesus said to the crowd in adulation of the officer that in all of Israel he had never found anyone with so much faith. But in John, as we just saw, Jesus reproaches the same officer for lack of faith. John goes on: “Your son will live. Go on home to him.” The man hopefully believed Jesus and started back for home. Some of the official’s servants met him on the way and told him, “Your son is better!” He asked them when the boy got better, and they answered, ‘The fever left him yesterday at one o’clock.’ The boy’s father now realized that it was at the same hour the day before that Jesus told him, ‘Your son will live!’ So the man and everyone in his family put their faith in Jesus” (4:50-53). According to Luke, when Jesus was close to the officer’s house he came out and stopped him from entering. But according to John, Jesus was far away from his house and he reached there only the next day.

Here is another example of how Jesus tries to force-feed faith to the so-called apostles and to the bible-adorer at large in later times. In Matthew a man brought to Jesus his son who had bouts of epilepsy from spirit possession. The man said: “I brought him here to thy disciples, but they have not been able to cure him.” Jesus promptly fulminated: “Ah, faithless and misguided generation, how long must I be with you, how long must I bear with you? Bring him here before me.” And Jesus checked him with a word, and the devil came out of him; and from that hour the boy was cured. Afterwards, when they were alone, the disciples came to Jesus and asked, Why was it that we could not cast it out? Jesus said to them, Because you had no faith. I promise you, if you have faith though it be but like a grain of mustard seed, you have only to say to this mountain, remove from this place to that, and it will remove” (17:16-19).

These words of Jesus have been enormously sermonised over ever since by cassocksters until the time science discovered atomic energy. Since then they have given rise to free comments and a proportionate loss of pulpiteering. Philosopher Bertrand Russell made this comment: “Christians hold that their faith does good, but other faiths do harm. What I wish to maintain is that all faiths do harm. We may define faith as a firm belief in something for which there is no evidence. When there is evidence, no one speaks of faith. We do not speak of faith that two and two are four or that the earth is round. We only speak of faith when we wish to substitute emotion for evidence. We were told that faith could remove mountains, but no one believed it. We are now told that the atomic bomb can remove mountains, and everyone believes it.”

However, according to Luke Jesus already before had given the apostles power over devils, “Jesus called together his twelve apostles and gave them complete power over all demons and diseases” (9:1). But the father of the boy says that although he took him to Jesus’ disciples they were unable to help him.

This shows that Jesus has no power over the devils but they operate on their own according to the plan they devised in the ecumenical conspiracy against mankind held in hell under Lucifer’s leadership immediately after their fall. The fallen rebel archangel Lucifer, commonly known as Jesus, exhorted his co-fallen angels then: “And you, you demons who were injured together with me, follow me. Obey me in the pursuit of this vengeance (against man), as you have followed me in the rebellion” (Revelations of Mary of Agreda).

If disobedience is the first sin as christianity asserts, then––as we know from the authentic revelations of Mary of Agreda––the fallen angels or demons are the first ones who committed that crime in the proverbial paradise and not Adam as the bible says. But the demons there as also those on the terra during Jesus’ sojourn here are generally obedient to Jesus: “Jesus told the evil spirit, ‘Be quiet and come out of the man!’ The spirit shook him. Then it gave a loud shout and left. Everyone was surprised and kept saying to each other, ‘What is this? It must be some new kind of powerful teaching! Even the evil spirits obey him’ ” (Mark 1:25-27).