Monday, December 19, 2016

Resurrection, No Resurrection, Simeo Ondeto is My God



I believe that Simeo Ondeto is God. That is my belief. I don’t know why some people are amazed by my belief. Maybe it is because they think their beliefs are superior to mine. Well, I don’t care what other people think about my beliefs. I just can’t stop my life and my world to wait for all other people to agree with me. Neither do I have to wait for every member of every religion to explain their beliefs to me. But I live by the doctrine of live and let live, for that was the teaching of Simeo Ondeto himself when he called all his followers to shun all forms of religious bigotry.


 
The other day, someone was so surprised that I believed Simeo Ondeto was God that he had to stop and ask me whether I really meant what I said.  I affirmed and he got mad, trying to preach to me without invitation and telling me how I needed Jesus more than anything. 


Hahahaha! I laughed at him so loudly that he was shocked to the core.
“Did I say something funny,” he asked in shock.
“Yes, you did,” I replied and laughed even louder.
You may wonder with me. Why do some people say funny things and expect their listeners not to laugh. It is crazy! 


Here was a man who had never gone to heaven, who has never seen God, or simply, who never saw Jesus of Nazareth, expecting me to dump the faith that I have experienced in my time and know best in order to believe in his interpretation of scripture without question. And when I question him, he says that God is beyond questioning. OK. Thank you. If your God is beyond questioning then mine too is beyond questioning.


Here was a man who admitted during the course of our conversation that the Bible could not explain everything about God and the afterlife, telling me that my beliefs were wrong and his were right. Well and good. Then if the Bible has not explained where God came from and where he is going, why do you use the same Bible to purport to explain where the God I believe in is and where he is going.


Here was a man who could not explain why Jesus appeared and disappeared after his “bodily” resurrection, telling me how I was wrong to believe in a man who never resurrected and is now still dead. Well, dear friend, if those guys who shared the same road to Emmaus with “Jesus” could not recognize him until their eyes were open and he could then disappear again, how can you claim that your eyes are open enough to know that Simeo Ondeto is still dead?


In all honesty, I practice my religion without caring about how others practice theirs.  In fact, I never stop by the door of any pastor to ask him why God murdered Egyptian children just because of Pharaoh’s stubbornness.
I never stop by the door of any pastor to question why God could not give the people of Israel the promised land of Canaan without slaughtering innocent children, pregnant women and helpless elders.

I never stop by the door of any pastor to doubt the 40 days Jesus is said to have fasted without anyone being with him and yet his conversation with the devil is known?

I never stop by the door of any pastor to question why God had to allow Mary to be betrothed to Joseph then having the spirit impregnate her without Joseph knowing. Shouldn’t simple courtesy have been enough even if the will of God had to occur?

I never stop to question any pastor why the genealogy of Jesus is different in the two inspired gospels of Mathew and Luke.

And I never stop to question the turning of water into wine, the feeding of thousands of people, the casting of demons into pigs, the walking on water, the empty tomb, the ascension, and many more things that strike me as untrue in the bible.

I accept them in good faith as part of the fiber that makes up the fabric of Christianity. Even though some of them don’t make sense, I accept them foolishly, without question.  I recognize that the gospel of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing but power to those who are saved.


 I also know that liberal Christians who have doubted some of them or even questioned them have been branded atheists. I am not an atheist. I am a believer. I believe in Simeo Ondeto and by extension a believer in Christ, the redeemer.  I have learned to accept the teachings of Christianity, even the most dubious ones.

But I will never stop laughing at those pastors who preach to me their beliefs while rejecting mine as foolish.

Hahahaha! You can’t tell me that I should believe that God spoke to Joseph in a dream and reject the voice of God when he speaks in a dream today. Dreams are still dreams.

And by the way, who set the standard that all who are worshipped as God must resurrect? Is it not the delusion of Christianity to claim that what their God did must be the standard for judging any other God? Even if resurrection of Jesus were true, why must Buddha or Mohammed resurrect?

Hahahaha. Pastors never cease to amaze me.

In my mind, death is death. God can’t die. The immortal can’t die. So resurrection or no resurrection, once one can die he is a mortal. He who can die for an hour, three days, or a million years is a mortal, regardless of claims of resurrection thereafter. The same way the universe can thrive for an hour, three days or a billion years when that God is still waiting his resurrection is the same way it continues to thrive without the resurrection of God. 


And even if resurrection was the golden standard for all who claim to be God, who said that resurrection had to occur in three days for all such claimants? What if a claimant to divinity is to resurrect after a billion years? Isn’t God eternal?


Look, my friend. I am never and will never be ashamed of believing in a dead God, if that is what you think I believe in. Sure. I have never and will never be ashamed of Simeo Ondeto. I believe him fully. And as long as we are discussing beliefs, he will stand as the rock of my faith regardless of how much you try to demean him. 


When I was a child, I could be cheated. I listened to pastors shouting hoarse about other faiths and thought they were right. I heard pastors insult Ondeto in public and thought that pious men were ordained by God and given an unquestionable right to insult others in public. For even if Ondeto was just a man, does he deserve public insults just because you disagree with the belief system he has founded? 


Well, nowadays I know better.  I know that every religion that seeks to convert people must behave like a political party, spreading “pious” propaganda in the name of God just to add in new converts, more tithes and more wealth for the clergy.


So let me laugh at you just as you laugh at me. After all, if your God were more evident that mine, there would be no need for faith in yours just as in mine.

Preach your doctrines my friend, but allow me also to believe mine. I don’t need the Jesus you preach for I already have Jesus that suffice for me. He is Simeo Ondeto.