Hello Tyron,

Yeshua bar Yosef, the Jewish rabbi who taught in the hills of the Galilee territory, spoke the words of an old soul who was able to bring what he and the Source or God wanted to bring to us. He spoke to the Jews in the first century, but was speaking also to all of humankind. His name was mistranslated until today it came out as Jesus.

His followers largely misunderstood what he taught. His teaching was very different from the traditional Jewish teaching, although it was in line with what others were teaching at the time, such as the Essenes. They thought he was the Jewish Messiah who would rout the Romans and establish an Earthly Kingdom of God.

So after he appeared to his disciples and many other people after his death, they were sure he would return within a few days and have a great battle in which he rid the country of the Romans and established the Kingdom of God. They got it wrong. He didn't say that. But because they expected him pretty quickly, they didn't write down what he had said. There was no reason to because he, himself, was coming.

It wasn't until 30 or 40 years after his death that people wrote down what he had said. Up to that time, it had been passed along orally, in stories they told. During that time, what he said changed as people passed along the stories.

Then between probably around 60 and 100 CE, people wrote gospels with his words in them. The first, called the Q gospel, had sayings, but was lost. Mark was written around 70, 40 years after Yeshua's death. Then Mathew and Luke were written using Mark and the Q gospel as sources. Finally, John was written, somewhere around 100 CE.

That means we don't really know what Yeshua said. We can get only indications from all the sayings in the first three gospels. We can't take what we get literally.

Also, Yeshua spoke Aramaic, a Semitic language different from Hebrew. That was not what the Bible was written in. It was written in Greek. So his words in Aramaic, that were passed down orally for 30 or 40 years, were finally written down in an entirely different language, Greek.

Then the Bible was translated into Latin. Then it was translated into English. What we get when we read Yeshua's words today is just a flavor for what he said.

He most likely did say that not everyone who did things in his name would enter the Kingdom of Heaven. And he likely did say the Kingdom of Heaven is inside. And that this Kingdom of Heaven inside is what God wants to be. It's where God wants us to live.

So what he meant was not everyone who goes to church, is priest, is a deacon, or is an evangelist would go inside and be what God wants us to be. Inside, where the Kingdom of Heaven is, God wants us to be loving, compassionate, humble, and servants to all others. That's what Yeshua said clearly in other places, over and over. When you look at the priests today who sexually abuse children, who become wealthy, and who live lavish lives while people are starving, they aren't doing the will of God. They aren't going into the Kingdom of Heaven, which is a loving heart, that they should have.

So it doesn't mean some people will be rewarded and others not. It just means that the church, with its focus on wealth, ceremony, exclusion of people who don't agree with them, and unwillingness to let people go directly to God rather than have to go through church, isn't doing the will of God, and even though they do it in the name of Jesus (Yeshua), they haven't entered the Kingdom of Heaven and can't do it. They aren't Jesus' disciples.

Love and peace, Craig