Strong City

Who Was Jesus Christ?

There are many who have felt so sorry for those who live in this Strong City “cult.” They wring their hands in feigned regret, that the followers of Wayne Bent could be so easily deceived and deluded by his “obvious trickery, hypnotism and force.” They think that Wayne Bent should be put in prison to keep him from touching anyone, especially the virgins.  They warn the cult members to get out before it is too late.  They congratulate themselves that they were not foolish enough to be “taken in” by this “false Messiah.” Some congratulate themselves that they escaped from my mystical powers.  It does not seem to dawn on these souls that they are reacting just as the Jews reacted when “Jesus” was among them.  They said that “Jesus” had a devil, and that he was a deceiver of the people.

It might be good to look at what actually happened with “Jesus,” whom his followers called the “Christ,” or “Messiah.” No one else called him Messiah but his cult.  Jesus was actually called “Joshua” (Yeh-ho-shoo’-ah) by his people, and his name was later transliterated into the Greek ee-ay-sooce, which many years later was anglicized to read, “Jesus.” The Jewish Savior’s name in Hebrew is sounded Yeh-ho-shoo’-ah. The English name “Jesus,” which later employed the letter “J,” is a derivation from Greek “Iesous” and the Latin version “Iesus.” This name “Jesus,” commonly used in Christianity today, simply did not exist, and was not spelled with the letter “J” until about 500 years ago.  In other words, the name “Jesus” was unknown to the disciples of the Jewish Messiah.  If you would have used that name then, everyone would have thought you were somewhat strange.  Yeh-ho-shoo’-ah was a very common name, but “Jesus” was unheard of.

So why don’t the modern religious preachers call their Messiah Joe, or Pete, or Sam?  These names are just as close to Yeh-ho-shoo’-ah, as the name “Jesus” is.  And when the people pray in Jesus’ name today, the angels in heaven might ask, “Who is that?” They look at each other wonderingly, at this English god who was manufactured out of the imaginations of the people.  The “Jesus” who is preached in the pulpits of America and the world today DID NOT EXIST, either in character or in name, 2000 years ago.  Let us look at Yeh-ho-shoo’-ah’s character and see if it is anything like the “Jesus” you know.

Yeh-ho-shoo’-ah (Jesus) was a boy raised in a somewhat poor family.  There was a cloud over the family, for his mother got pregnant before she was married.  Everyone knew this, and it may have contributed to some youthful oppression that he may have received from other children who had heard the story.  He was raised in Nazareth, a city from where even one of his own disciples questioned if anything good could come.  He left home, never having married, when he was about thirty years old, and did not help his mother any longer.  He seemed to be strangely drawn away into himself.  His spirit was sometimes depressed and he seemed driven for some mission.  Joseph, his dad, had died.  “Jesus” left the care of his mother with the older siblings and went to the Jordan to be baptized of John.  There was a good deal of agitation by John, and many who felt the need for cleansing went to him at that time.  John was the cousin of Yeh-ho-shoo’-ah and they were nearly the same age. After his baptism he seemed possessed of the need to go into the desert.  He later told his followers that he was driven to be only with God.  He later shared that while in the desert he had to wrestle with Satanic forces that were tempting him to go back into normal society and get a life.  He said that the devil promised to make him really rich if he would just be normal.

One day soon after that, he went to church (the synagogue) and intimated to the congregation that he was the Messiah they were all waiting for.  He applied a well known messianic prophecy to himself, and that greatly enraged the elders. Their idea of a Messiah was not what they saw in this young man Yeh-ho-shoo’-ah who had very questionable beginnings. He seemed to be obsessed with some messianic purpose. This knowledge seemed to come upon him most strongly at his baptism when he said that he heard a voice saying he was the Son of God and he had been begotten that day. When he shared his conviction with his fellow worshippers the congregation immediately threw him out of the building, and some of them tried to throw him off a cliff, but he managed to escape because of the confusion that he had started.  They all knew Yeh-ho-shoo’-ah in that town, and thought that this young man had gone off the deep end of mental stability.  They thought that he might be demon possessed.

His family began to wonder at his strange behavior and actions.  Even his mother was concerned for his little group of men, taken mostly from the lower, uneducated classes of people.  They were fishermen, a tax collector, and someone trying to make a name for himself, called Judas.  Judas was attracted by miracles that Yeh-ho-shoo’-ah was able to sometimes perform.  Some of them seemed extraordinary.  There were also times when he could not perform miracles.  He said that it was because the people did not believe.  Sometimes he had to perform the miracles twice, because the first time didn’t quite work. (See Mark 8:25.)

But over time, his statements seemed somewhat disconcerting.  When his mission began to divide families that were in conflict over his claims, he declared that he came to divide families and turn the members against each other.  He said that he came to start a fire in the nation and that is what he surely did.  He told his followers that they needed to drink his blood and eat his flesh or they could not follow him.  He audaciously declared that he was the bread of heaven. He upset the centuries old traditions of the temple services.  He was still a young man and he had the temerity to interrupt the services of men much older than he and with much more experience in religious matters than he had. He would often hide with his disciples in locations that could not be found, for the authorities wanted to arrest him. He was offensive to the norms of civilized society.  Many Jews wished that Yeh-ho-shoo’-ah would just get a job and be normal, but he could not be contained.  They sometimes shook their heads and said, “This is what happens when one is a bastard child.  He goes crazy.”

One time his family came to visit him and his mother was with them.  Yeh-ho-shoo’-ah was told this but he acted unimpressed.  He pointed to his followers and said, “These are my mother and brothers.” Some thought that he was insensitive to his own mother and that he didn’t care about her feelings. He seemed to have a driving need to bring all people to him in worship.  If they were not members of his cult and followers of him, he tended to downgrade their importance. He said that only his followers could be saved.  “I said therefore unto you, that you shall die in your sins: for if you believe not that I am he, you shall die in your sins.” John 8:24.  This astonishing claim made by this young man sent the more experienced men into a rage.  “How can this kid show up, claim to be God’s Son, and then say if we do not believe him that we will all die in sin?” They thought that he had a huge ego problem.  This was especially seen in his statement that if they destroyed the temple he could build it back in three days.  This astonishing boast was later explained that he was talking about his physical form as the “temple.” This was just like him.  He never came right out and said something.  It was always hidden in some mystical hocus-pocus, some parable, or some spiritually speaking expression.  The people said, “Then why didn’t this Messiah tell us what he meant?  Why did he make everything so unintelligible?  He was always changing his mind.  One day something meant one thing, and the next day it meant something else.  Our minds were feeling messed with.”

One of his disciples wanted to go to his father’s funeral.  His dad had just died and he wanted to comfort the family. Burying the dead immediately was very important to the families of that age, but Jesus did not encourage his cult members to go to funerals. “And another of his disciples said unto him, Lord, suffer me first to go and bury my father.  But Jesus said unto him, Follow me; and let the dead bury their dead.” Matthew 8:2.  Did not the “loving Jesus” let his followers bury their beloved mothers and fathers according to the law?  There was just no end to this Messiah’s offenses.  He constantly offended the norms of his present age by the things he would say, and the claims that he made in regard to his own importance and religious significance.  His cult was tightly controlled so that not even a funeral was acceptable to attend.  Yeh-ho-shoo’-ah seemed driven to make everyone just like him.

After a few years, a close disciple betrayed him and he was arrested for a number of crimes.  The people were so incensed at his utter audacity to name himself the Son of God, that they had him crucified in place of a true patriot who was arrested for murdering a national enemy.  This greatly troubled the followers of Yeh-ho-shoo’-ah, since they had hoped he was the Messiah.  The Jews were so offended because they believed that God was One God.  This “impostor” was making himself a second God, so now there were two.  To them, there was only God, the one true God, instead of the pagan concept that there were more than one, and that gods had sons, or other family members. The claims of Yeh-ho-shoo’-ah were blasphemous at the very least.  The Jews had endeavored for centuries to weed out idolatry, and now they must deal with this new idea of more than one God, even in their own midst.  It was unthinkable.  They just had to do something about it.  The Scriptures plainly predicted the coming of another Moses.  Nowhere did they predict a second God, or a Son of God, coming out of Nazareth.  Moses was not another God, but only a messenger.  This Yeh-ho-shoo’-ah was making claims unsupported by the word of God.  Some of the Scriptures were being wrested from their true and original meaning, in order to make it look like this man was sent from God.  This assertion that Yeh-ho-shoo’-ah was the Son of God, was incomprehensibly astonishing to say the least.  It was disgusting to even consider this thought by those who were the keepers of the Scriptures.

Just before Yeh-ho-shoo’-ah was arrested and after the Jewish Passover supper together, he acted very strange.  His spirit became very heavy and he wouldn’t talk to them.  He could not even keep his step while going up to his place of prayer and they had to help carry him up.  He groaned and moaned and his disciples thought that something was not quite right about him.  He seemed frightened that night, and several times came over to them to ask why they were not praying with him.  When the soldiers came to arrest him, they all fled for their lives.  They were astonished that this Messiah had no power over his enemies.  He was crucified and also abandoned by those who previously followed him.  It was a dark day for the cult of Yeh-ho-shoo’-ah.  They had later heard that Yeh-ho-shoo’-ah had said on the cross, that God had even abandoned him.

A few days later his followers reported that he had risen from the dead, a claim the authorities denied.  Probably the greatest offense to the proud Jews was that Yeh-ho-shoo’-ah, who professed to be the Messiah, allowed himself to be crucified by pagans.  They thought that no actual Messiah would ever allow himself this kind of humiliating end.  It would be analogous to someone today being hung in the town square for crimes against humanity and good religion.  Would you worship a man today claiming to be the Messiah, whom the town sheriff took and hung in the public square for various crimes?  Would you point to that man, with his head cocked in a strange position and with his tongue hanging out, and say, “That is the Son of God, the Savior of the world?” No, you would not, any more than they did.  You would think what they thought.  “This guy was an idiot, a deceiver and a fool and he led astray a lot of simple minded people.” Yes, that is exactly what you would have thought of Yeh-ho-shoo’-ah. 

All but one of the disciples of this man were murdered in their lifetime for being offenders of normal society.  Strange things happened with the disciples who followed this cult.  One thing that happened, that had everyone talking, was when two well-off land owners named Ananias and Sapphira suddenly died in the presence of one of the leading disciples — who himself had betrayed Yeh-ho-shoo’-ah earlier, and before he too went crazy — because they did not give over all of their money as they had stated they would.  These strange deaths had everyone stunned.  Would the “loving Jesus” have killed someone who refused to give him their money after having promised it?  Would the “loving Jesus” have split up families, turning them against each other?  Would the “loving Jesus” have barged into the temple and rudely accused the workers there of being whores, and overturned the tables of the workers who were providing offerings for the people who had traveled far to get there?

Would the Jewish Messiah actually side with the pagan Romans against his own people on occasion?  If God had in fact sent this man as Messiah, would He not have protected him from the disciple who betrayed him?  Would the God of heaven send His Messiah to be murdered by pagans?  The true God did not allow Moses to be murdered by the Egyptians. The people highly doubted that anyone sent of God as His Son would then be so impotent against his enemies.  This Messiah was definitely not a Moses, and another Moses was what the Scriptures had promised them.  The Messiah promised would not be some dusty fugitive who could only attract for disciples the susceptible, unlearned and uncultured.

There were many times when Yeh-ho-shoo’-ah would do something, or say something, and then tell his followers not to tell anyone about it.  This secretiveness was a mark of his ministry, especially in the early years, when he tried to keep too much backlash from coming back on himself.  Sometimes he stayed in secret desert locations, or secret chambers, and then he told his disciples that some would come who would be in secret chambers and in the desert and that they should not follow a person like that.

This Messiah said the most outrageous things, such as, “Whoever lives and believes in me shall never die.” John 11:26.  He died, and all of his followers died.  He also said that before they had evangelized all of the cities of Israel, they would see him come again. He told them to run to the next town if things got too hot for them in the town that they were in. “When they persecute you in one town, flee to the next; for truly, I say to you, you will not have gone through all the towns of Israel, before the Son of man comes.” Matthew 10:23.  He said that some standing with him would not die before he came again in his kingdom.  “Verily I say unto you, There be some standing here, which shall not taste of death, till they see the Son of man coming in his kingdom.” Matthew 16:28.  They all died.  No one has seen this Messiah (Jesus) since he said those things 2000 years ago.  These were the arguments of those who came to dispute with those who said that they believed in this “self proclaimed” Messiah but the arguments did little good.  His followers simply could not be convinced that the man was a fraud, or at least, mentally ill or demon possessed.  Some time later, the idea began to develop that Yeh-ho-shoo’-ah was a sacrificial lamb.  By believing in him, the people thought that they would get to go to heaven someday, for their sins would be overlooked by God now.  In this way they were able to explain why a Messiah would let himself be crucified. 

The followers of this Messiah wrote the present day New Testament.  There is almost no historical evidence for this man Yeh-ho-shoo’-ah anywhere else.  Would the world today believe in Scriptures written by only my followers?  Why do they vainly imagine that they believe in this “Jesus” when they do not believe in me?  We are the same.  The very same Spirit that was in him is in me.  No, the people worship themselves, and their own imaginations, for if they worshipped Yeh-ho-shoo’-ah, they would recognize me, for he and I are one.  If a man does not believe in me, and what the Father has done in me, then he will die in his sins, in just the same way that men who disbelieved Yeh-ho-shoo’-ah died in their sins.

Some time after Yeh-ho-shoo’-ah was executed, his followers began acting very strange, even drunk, and making a general nuisance out of themselves.  Many of them had to be thrown into jail, and others hid out much of the time so as not to get caught by the authorities.  They sure gave no evidence that their God had any actual power to save them from catastrophe.  Why would the followers of the true God need to hide?  Moses didn’t hide. This new religious cult was offensive and not after the order of civilized society, let alone good religion.  The people wondered why, if this Yeh-ho-shoo’-ah had actually risen from the dead, did they not see him? Why did he not show himself, for then all would believe in him? His disciples said, “Oh, he went to heaven.” The people nodded in polite incredulity. “Sure he went to heaven,” they said.  “Why don’t you get a job and make yourself useful? Quit upsetting families, and taking their caregivers from them.”

Over the centuries this Messiah was generally accepted by many, mainly because of the story that he had risen from the dead, but no one knew that for sure.  One convert, called Paul, said that he saw Jesus out on the road in a flash of light, and that impressed many, especially the ignorant and uneducated.  Paul was finally beheaded for his part in what was now called Christianity, after spending two years in a Roman dungeon.  The Christian religion was finally amalgamated with the Roman pantheon of gods, and both pagans and Christians were now amalgamated into one religion.  That was largely due to the wisdom of Constantine, who thought it better to have everyone together than have the kingdom split down the middle with religious fanatics on both sides.  Out of this amalgamation came the renamed pagan Christmas, Easter, Sunday observance instead of Sabbath keeping, and other forms of worship that both beliefs might find themselves comfortable with if just the right words were used to explain these forms.  “Christianity” now became acceptable to Christians, pagans, and even some Jews who wanted to convert, for similar religious forms were now accepted by all.

Hundreds of years later, the name “Jesus” was used instead of the actual name of the “self proclaimed” Jewish Messiah.  Now, in these days, there is nothing at all in established Christianity that remotely resembles the actual Messiah of 2000 years ago.  Jesusites of today, are actually worshipping a manufactured image presented to them after years of political cleansing.  Today’s Jesus did not exist 2000 years ago.  There was no such person in name or character.  The “Jesus” of the “prosperity” gospel was never heard of until the last few decades.  He is a false god manufactured by the religious elite, for the purpose of the mighty shakedown.  Yeh-ho-shoo’-ah would have never condoned war, or the religion of the Jews.  Yet, today’s “Christians” freely advocate and support both.  Yeh-ho-shoo’-ah proposed a complete revolution of thinking, and the Jews knew it would destroy their economy if it was accepted. Actually, their economy was destroyed because they rejected him.  It was going to be destroyed either way, just as our modern economy is now being destroyed.

So, when I come on the scene, claiming to be the Son of God, many are offended by me for the very same reasons the Jews were offended in their Messiah.  Men today say, “Jesus would never do this or that thing that Michael does.” Oh yes he would.  He would do just what would offend this modern age to the core.  I have come to expose the hypocrisy of the age.  I have come to break up the old order, just exactly as Yeh-ho-shoo’-ah did in his age.  Yeh-ho-shoo’-ah broke up families, offended friends, was betrayed by his trusted followers — just as has occurred with me.  He called his present day religion a generation of vipers and hypocrites, just as I have called this generation those names.  I have told the people that I have come to kindle a fire, just as Yeh-ho-shoo’-ah did in his age.  Men are offended in me, just as they were in him.  The difference is that “Jesus” hid from those trying to kill him, but I have not hidden.  I have openly declared everything to the mob in full daylight.

Many today claim that “Jesus” died for them, and so they get to go to heaven someday.  They misunderstand.  No, “Jesus” did not die for them so that they could go to heaven someday.  He died, so that they might receive the very same Life that he had in himself.  They would be “Messiah[ed]” as he was.  He lived a perfect life of offense and never gave in to the adversaries because of threats or through compromise.  And all who receive his Life, will also never give in to the devil.  And, all who receive his Life will offend their society, just as I have.  I offend my society, just as Yeh-ho-shoo’-ah offended his.  We both are scandalons, and we are treated the same by the mobs of our respective ages.  My followers are respected just as much as his followers were respected in their day.  All who truly follow God, will suffer persecution.  This is a biblical promise. 

Finally, Yeh-ho-shoo’-ah (Jesus) said, “Don’t weep for me.  Weep for yourselves and for your children.” I say to the people, “Don’t wring your hands in feigned sorrow for this cult, while you try to excuse yourselves in your utterly vain faith, and your pretense of righteousness; but weep for yourselves and for your children.” When Jerusalem came to its end, after Yeh-ho-shoo’-ah warned them of it, mothers ate their own children, just as this generation will eat theirs.  The people killed each other in the city, just as your people will kill each other.  This generation’s temple will be left without one stone upon another.  Your blood will flow in the streets, and you will worry no more about Michael and his virgins.  In the terrors that will come upon you, you will not worry about anything that Michael has done.  Your manufactured gods will not save you, because you have refused the second coming of Messiah into you.  Instead, you will still cling to the fantastic modern “Jesus,” and even he will not save you from the wrath to come, for that “Jesus” does not exist.  When Jerusalem fell in 70 A.D. the Jews quoted the law and promises of Moses because they believed that God would deliver them, but it did them no good, for they had manufactured a Moses and a promise that did not exist.  They had rejected the Spirit of Messiah, and that left them with Scriptures that were only a dead letter.

Those who enjoy the afterlife, will be only those who have received Christ into their flesh.  They will have received the Messiah into themselves, the same Messiah who has appeared in me.  Messiah only, the Anointing only, is that Spirit only Who ascends back to the Father.  No others will be saved at last.  There is only one thing that recommended Yeh-ho-shoo’-ah to his nation.  It was his testimony and the testimony of those who believed in him.  He stated himself, that he kept the instructions of his Father, and that he always pleased his Father.  This is also true for his followers, for it is written:  “And the dragon was wroth with the woman, and went to make war with the remnant of her seed, which keep the commandments (instructions) of God, and have the testimony of Yeh-ho-shoo’-ah Christ.” Rev. 12:17.  “Here is the patience of the saints: here are they that keep the commandments (instructions) of God, and the faith of Yeh-ho-shoo’-ah.” Rev. 14:12.  This is to say, that those who are children of God, always follow His instructions to them, and have the same testimony that Yeh-ho-shoo’-ah had.  These souls will most certainly be persecuted for their testimony, and they will be an offense to normal society.  It has always been this way with God’s society.  Every soul who knows God will not be offended in me, for they will know the truths that I speak, but those who do not know God, will be offended, for I am alien to their understanding and a mystery to their spirits.  Those who love God will love me, and those who seek me early, before their prejudices take hold, will find me.