An image of Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny can be built in the minds of young children and the children will believe that the images are real. Eventually, however, the young children grow up and grow out of this fantasy world of make-believe and get on with their adult lives.
In a similar manner, an image of Jesus can be built in the minds of young children and the children will believe that the image is real. Eventually, some of these young children will grow up and grow out of this fantasy world of make-believe and get on with their adult lives. But some of them, however, will never grow up and grow out this world of fantasy and they will retain the mind of a child all the days of their adult lives.
This same method of mind control is also true in all religions around the world. Images of gods and goddesses can be built in the minds of young children and the children never grow up and grow out of this fantasy world of make-believe, and they will retain the mind of a child all the days of their adult lives. For young children do not know that the images are images. They do not know that their imaginations have created the images, nor that these images have been built in their minds by other people, for they are incapable of separating fantasy from reality.
This is also true when we consider how easily sports stars, music stars, and movie stars can become idols in the minds of children and how the children desire to grow up to be like their idols: to dress like them, sing and dance like them, or play baseball like them. Or how military leaders, presidents, and politicians can become idols. Even mothers and fathers can become idols of children as the children pursue the same methods of life that their parents lived before them, which includes their parents' religion, philosophy, or the same likes and dislikes of certain foods or certain people. So it is no great thing if Jesus, or Buddha, or Mohammad, or the Pope can become idols of children, or even adults with child-like minds.
An image of the mind will do no more or no less than people believe the image will be. If Jesus is that image, then Jesus is the same as a statue---doing no more or no less than people believe the statue will do, which is nothing. For the image (or statue) is a reminder of an imaginary person: with an imaginary birth, with an imaginary death, and with an imaginary resurrection. To believe that the image is alive and living in heaven, however, is beyond their imagination.
If Jesus is an image, then the words of Jesus in the Bible are not real because images do not speak, nor to they have eyes and eyes, and neither do they have thoughts, or feelings, or emotions. But at Christmas, Jesus the image is celebrated as the perpetual baby of Bethlehem, which is expressed in the annual ritual of placing a ceramic Jesus under a green tree, along with Mary, Joseph, and a host of barnyard animals. When the annual ritual is over, Jesus goes back in a box with all the toys until the same time next year.
The psychological twist in images of the mind is in the fact that people do not know that their minds have been tricked. They do not know they have been deceived. Their trust has been placed in the people they trust the most: by the people, they believe, who are the guardians of their souls, such as parents, ministers and priests, or by any other person they esteem as influential and honest.
A psychological Jesus is no more than an image, or a mental picture, framed in the minds of people. They do not see Jesus as the Christ, or Messiah risen from death, for their faith is not in Christ, but in something else such as religion, and they are faithful to their religion and not to the Lord. For even in religious Christianity people can be told they are Christians simply because of their relationship with an institution, for their trust is in those things they see with their eyes, and not with their hearts, at which time Jesus will remain an image of their imaginations.
After the resurrection of Jesus from death, the Lord said unto Thomas, the doubting disciple:
"because thou hast seen me, thou hast believed: blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed." (John 20: 29)
In a similar manner, an image of Jesus can be built in the minds of young children and the children will believe that the image is real. Eventually, some of these young children will grow up and grow out of this fantasy world of make-believe and get on with their adult lives. But some of them, however, will never grow up and grow out this world of fantasy and they will retain the mind of a child all the days of their adult lives.
This same method of mind control is also true in all religions around the world. Images of gods and goddesses can be built in the minds of young children and the children never grow up and grow out of this fantasy world of make-believe, and they will retain the mind of a child all the days of their adult lives. For young children do not know that the images are images. They do not know that their imaginations have created the images, nor that these images have been built in their minds by other people, for they are incapable of separating fantasy from reality.
This is also true when we consider how easily sports stars, music stars, and movie stars can become idols in the minds of children and how the children desire to grow up to be like their idols: to dress like them, sing and dance like them, or play baseball like them. Or how military leaders, presidents, and politicians can become idols. Even mothers and fathers can become idols of children as the children pursue the same methods of life that their parents lived before them, which includes their parents' religion, philosophy, or the same likes and dislikes of certain foods or certain people. So it is no great thing if Jesus, or Buddha, or Mohammad, or the Pope can become idols of children, or even adults with child-like minds.
An image of the mind will do no more or no less than people believe the image will be. If Jesus is that image, then Jesus is the same as a statue---doing no more or no less than people believe the statue will do, which is nothing. For the image (or statue) is a reminder of an imaginary person: with an imaginary birth, with an imaginary death, and with an imaginary resurrection. To believe that the image is alive and living in heaven, however, is beyond their imagination.
If Jesus is an image, then the words of Jesus in the Bible are not real because images do not speak, nor to they have eyes and eyes, and neither do they have thoughts, or feelings, or emotions. But at Christmas, Jesus the image is celebrated as the perpetual baby of Bethlehem, which is expressed in the annual ritual of placing a ceramic Jesus under a green tree, along with Mary, Joseph, and a host of barnyard animals. When the annual ritual is over, Jesus goes back in a box with all the toys until the same time next year.
The psychological twist in images of the mind is in the fact that people do not know that their minds have been tricked. They do not know they have been deceived. Their trust has been placed in the people they trust the most: by the people, they believe, who are the guardians of their souls, such as parents, ministers and priests, or by any other person they esteem as influential and honest.
A psychological Jesus is no more than an image, or a mental picture, framed in the minds of people. They do not see Jesus as the Christ, or Messiah risen from death, for their faith is not in Christ, but in something else such as religion, and they are faithful to their religion and not to the Lord. For even in religious Christianity people can be told they are Christians simply because of their relationship with an institution, for their trust is in those things they see with their eyes, and not with their hearts, at which time Jesus will remain an image of their imaginations.
After the resurrection of Jesus from death, the Lord said unto Thomas, the doubting disciple:
"because thou hast seen me, thou hast believed: blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed." (John 20: 29)
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