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Isaiah 11:2, "And the spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding," (SEE Luke 3 :21-22
Matt 3:16-17 16 And Jesus, when he was baptized, went up straightway out of the water: and, lo, the heavens were opened unto him, and he saw the Spirit of G-d descending like a dove, and lighting upon him: 17 And lo a voice from heaven, saying, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. (KJV)
Mark 1:10-11 10 And straightway coming up out of the water, he saw the heavens opened, and the Spirit like a dove descending upon him: 11 And there came a voice from heaven, saying, Thou art my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. (KJV)
John 1:32 32 And John bare record, saying, I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove, and it abode upon him. (KJV)
Christianity stands today divided over how the above 3 verses should be interpreted concerning Jesus' mikvah (Jewish immersion). First of all you should know that the day that this occurred was the day before Yom Kippur and it was required of all good "spiritual" Jews to be repent and be immersed before they could partake of any Jewish holyday. So this says good things about Jesus. But yet the above three verses as taken from the Gospels are interpreted in Christianity in many different ways. Some see in it the event when Jesus obtained G-d's spirit at his baptism "without measure" thereby becoming equipped to be Israel's Messiah. Paul on the other hand saw that Jesus became G-d's son not by means of anointing at his immersion but by the resurrection from the dead.
Rom 1:4 4 And declared to be the Son of G-d with power, according to the spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead: (KJV)
We must begin with Isaiah chapter 11. Isaiah speaks here of the special qualities the Hebrew Messiah will have, which include G-d's spirit of wisdom and understanding. Christianity claims that Jesus received this special spirit of G-d at his baptism by John. Moreover, and few Christians see this without help, but if this assertion were to be accepted as fact, it would completely shatter Christianity's teaching that Jesus is G-d. So as you can see there is no small diversity of opinion as to what actually occurred and where it occurred during the life of Jesus that may or may not have prepared him to be Israel's Messiah let alone would have bearing on "if" Jesus could be G-d in the flesh. But yet we are 2000 years later and the Messianic prophecies remain unfulfilled and the Messianic Kingdom has not come. Time marches on and that should make the "thinking" believer somewhat curious as to what lies beneath the traditions that we as followers of Jesus have inherited through our Church tradition. I will attempt to shed some light on this matter in this article.
Answer for yourself: Did Jesus become "the" Messiah at his baptism?
If there had been such a dramatic baptismal event, as reported in the New Testament, with a multitude of people seeing the descending dove and hearing the voice from heaven as Luke reported, they would surely have known they were looking at the special Son of G-d, presumably the Messiah.
Answer for yourself: If this event would have occurred as reported with the multitude or people pressing upon the Jordan for immersion the day before Yom Kippur than this fabulous news would have been spread far and wide, don't you think?
Yet, there is no mass knowledge of this astounding event. If the occurrence at Jesus' baptism were true, the very many people viewing it would have made secrecy impossible. Think of the incredibility of anyone, no less "all the people," not passing along the word of what he had seen to the whole countryside. The people supposedly heard G-d's voice from heaven saying to Jesus, "Thou art my beloved Son; in thee I am well pleased." Nevertheless, we are shown that throughout his ministry people questioned who he was.
Answer for yourself: How can this be possible following such a momentous event?
Take notice for a moment that the New Testament discloses that when Jesus asked who people thought he was in Matthew 16:14 (Mark 8:28) (Luke 9:19) the response was: "And they said, Some say that thou art John the Baptist: some Elijah; and others, Jeremiah, or one of the prophets." There seemed not to be a consensus of opinion and this is no less true today. Unlike then, today when you have a different "understanding" or "opinion" of who Jesus might be you are quickly called "Satan" or "the Anti-Christ" or worse. If you think that is not true you should read a few of my emails from overzealous believers who have more emotion than intellect.
I ask you also to take notice that the supposed miracle of the Christmas story is completely unknown to the people. It is as if the news of Jesus being the born Messiah had never been announced let alone his supposed "virgin-birth." I find it rather amazing that only after his death do we find such a teaching surfacing but we should expect such once the Gentiles get their hands on the "traditions" because up to them all they knew were "virgin-born g-ds" and Jesus just becomes another in a long line of them for such "indoctrinated Gentiles" of the first century.
The New Testament tells that shepherds knew of the birth and spread the news revealed to them by the angels. Kings from the east came to give him gifts. Still, now it was unknown to them!
Further, let's look into the knowledge of John the Baptist, the man who performed the baptism for Jesus and who presumably saw and heard everything, as reported in all accounts. Keep in mind that the baptism was a water cleansing ceremony for spiritual repentance. It had nothing to do with Christian baptism. It was Judaic. And Jesus participated in it.
So often over the years I was amazed at how little people "understood" of what the passages in their Bibles spoke. I want you to read slowly this surprising revelation in Matthew 11:2-3 (Luke 7:19-20):
"Now when John (the Baptist) had heard in the prison the works of Christ, he sent two of his disciples, And said unto him, Art thou he that should come, or do we look for another?"
Answer for yourself: What should we learn from this?
From this we learn John the Baptist did not know Jesus was the Messiah. So this means Jesus' immersion did not mean to John that Jesus was the Messiah or that he was "becoming the Messiah at that moment."
These are hard things to say especially in light I grew up a Christian and was ordained in the Christian Church. But at that time in my life I like most had more emotion than intellect. Study was often buried beneath the need to "hear preaching." What a joke!
These words recorded from John's own mouth, at the most serious time of his life, betray his true understanding of Jesus. This account in the New Testament surely prove false the alleged baptismal scene for Jesus, as depicted in the New Testament, especially as presented in John's version. The question, coming from John the Baptist, simply means he did not witness G-d's voice from heaven calling Jesus His "beloved Son" as we are led to believe by the writers of the New Testament.
Answer for yourself: Then what can we believe in the New Testament? How do we discern "truth" from "emotional creationism" or "pure fabrication?"
That is easier said than done. Study is paramount if one wants to retrieve the truth about Jesus that is why I have dedicated myself and my life to such study since realizing I had religious fables instead of the truth about Jesus and a whole lot more. But dear ones you will never know how true such a statement is until you begin serious study in your own life, for in the final analysis, you are personally responsible before G-d and not your preacher.
Answer for yourself: If John the Baptist didn't hear it, who did?
John the Baptist's question also throws great suspicion on the following remarks by him that Jesus was greater than he. Notice with me Matthew 3:14, "I have need to be baptized of thee, and comest thou to me?"
Now in summary please understand that G-d anointed Prophets, Priests, and Kings. Although there is great liberty taken by the writers of the New Testament in their "characterization" of Jesus to their readers let us not doubt in the slightest that such a man from Galilee preaching the Kingdom Message was not anointed for the task. One only needs to be familiar with Judaism (which I recommend to all of our readers) to know that the Jewish teachings of Jesus are not "superficial" and reveals a close relationship with G-d and assures us today that he was anointed for the task. The problem for us is to understand correctly all that other stuff about him in the New Testament which is not Jewish and which betrays the hands of Gentile writers who are attaching to Jesus, his life, and his teachings pagan concepts that they concurrently believed. We come out with Jesus dressed like Constantine. Such a mutant never lived. Jesus was a Jew and he taught salvation through Judaism as this is the Eternal Truth that all Christians need to know and discern when reading the New Testament. I pray we can grow to such a level that we can, when reading the New Testament, eat the meat and leave the bone. The trick is developing your knowledge whereby you can do this. It will take time but it can be done within a few short years of consistent reading and study. I and others know this very well as we have done it.
In closing let us focus on one more point. On the other hand, if the baptismal story were to be believed, very serious faults would result in the depiction of Jesus as G-d the Son of the Trinity.
Answer for yourself: Can G-d send Himself His own spirit?
And, although it might be possible to describe G-d as being pleased with Himself, G-d cannot be described as being pleased with His Son, if His Son is Himself. It just doesn't make sense. The Trinity concept is in difficulty here. However, with Judaism's interpretation of Isaiah, we comfortably find G-d's "spirit of wisdom and understanding" resting on the Hebrew Messiah, who in no way is G-d Himself.
Think on these things.
Shalom
Bennoah1@verizon.net