Dear T,

I can't resist telling you this, but just as I wrote my belief about the real God, who has plenty of anger, it started to thunder outside my window. It was like God saying, yes, I am getting angry with you. Here is some more about Jesus.

"Moreover, if thy brother shall trespass against thee go and tell him his fault between thee and him alone: if he shall hear thee, thou has gained thy brother. But if he will not hear thee, then take with thee one two more, that in the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be established. And if he shall neglect to hear them, tell it unto the church: but if he neglect to hear the church, let him be unto thee as a heathen man and a publican." This sounds like confrontation and an attempt to help others. There is no reason to assume that Jesus used the word church as it is used by religions. The word church may well have been chosen by followers who had formed religions.

Jesus directed his anger toward parent substitutes when he confronted the authorities of church and state and overthrew tables in the temple. In the end he was crucified for his rebellion. But he had released his anger to the point of forgiveness when he spoke his famous words on the cross as written in Luke: 23:34, "forgive them for they know not what they do."

There is nothing in the Bible that says we should be obedient to earthly leaders. "Psalm 146:3 "Put not your trust in princes, nor in the son of man, in whom there is no help." And from Matthew 23:9 "And call no man your father upon the earth: for one is your Father, which is in heaven."

Jesus appeared to have the patriarchal view of God of his time, but it was not a God of judgment. He says in John 5:22, "For the Father judgeth no man, but hath committed all judgment unto the Son.

I believe by jugment he meant to get angry, but not the moral jugement of our justifiable anger that was suppressed by parents and religious leaders.

Ellie