Having recently read through the four gospels in the Bible, this time as an atheist rather than as a Christian, I could easily see how Jesus was neither a great teacher nor a moral teacher, in fact many of his teachings are immoral. Sure, there may have been a few good things he taught, but first of all not all his "good" teachings were actually his own teachings, and second of all any of those "good" teachings are in the middle of a whole bunch of immoral horrible teachings. Saying we should listen to Jesus just because of a few good teachings and ignore his bad ones is like throwing high-end dessert into a pile of dog shit and saying we should still eat the dessert and just ignore the dog shit. Sorry, not happening.
In this blog post I want to discuss some of the teachings of this teacher that has been hailed by western civilization as one of the greatest teachers that have ever lived. My hope is that you will easily see how Jesus is not only not a great moral teacher but in fact one could make a case that he was an extremely immoral one. Without further ado, here are the teachings of this great moral teacher:
Jesus taught that if you do not forgive people their trespasses God will send you to hell for your trespasses. Jesus makes this clear as He teaches in the Lord's prayer to ask God to forgive us as we forgive others their trespasses, and then follows this by teaching that if we don't forgive others their trespasses neither will God forgive our trespasses (Matthew 6:9-15). If there is any ambiguity with this passage, as some attempt to create ambiguity by saying God simply doesn't have fellowship with believers who won't forgive others (even though that would be the same thing as going to hell after you die), Jesus even more strongly affirms this teaching in His parable of the unforgiving servant (Matthew 18:21-35). This means no matter how badly someone has hurt you, even if someone has brutally tortured and murdered a loved one, or set your house on fire with everything in it, or burned your entire family alive in a gas chamber in Auschwitz, if you do not forgive them you will go to hell, and it doesn't matter how good of a life you have lived either, or how good you have been to other people, because somehow anything you have done that has not been up to God's standard has offended God just as much as you have been offended by somebody brutally murdering and torturing a loved one or gassing your entire family at Auschwitz. To have a standard this high for salvation, to require somebody to forgive after events as extreme as I just described to enter the Kingdom of God, and to completely ignore if they are actually good people living good lives, is clearly extremely unjust and cruel.
Jesus followed the extremely unethical and immoral Old Testament Law and told others they must do the same to enter the Kingdom of God. Jesus makes it abundantly clear that He came to keep the Old Testament Law, that the Old Testament Law will never go away, and that those who want to enter the Kingdom of God must obey the Law as well if they want to enter the Kingdom of God (Matthew 5:17-20). Jesus even criticizes the Pharisees, the religious teachers of the day, for not enforcing the Old Testament Law that a child that is rebellious and disrespectful toward their parents are to be stoned to death (Matthew 15:1-6). Keep in mind this is the same Law that states if a woman is defending her husband and grabs another man by the genitals her hand is to be cut off and she's to be shown no pity or mercy (Deuteronomy 25:11-12). This is the same Law that allows a man to force a woman to marry him after his army just slaughtered her entire family and country (Deuteronomy 21:10-14). It's also the same law that forces a woman to marry her rapist (Deuteronomy 22:28-29). I imagine by now you get the point. Anyone that follows a Law like this and then teaches others they must follow this law as well is not a great moral teacher.
Jesus says it is necessary to be as gullible as a child to enter the Kingdom of God (Mark 10:15; Luke 18:17). When any teacher tells you that you have to be as gullible as a child to join their cult you should run the other direction as fast as you can.
Jesus taught that those who abandon their families will be blessed (Mark 10:29-30; Luke 14:26-35). Yep, completely abandoning your families is totally fine if you are doing it to follow Jesus. He also explicitly tells others they must be so committed they don't even look back to make sure their families will be at least be taken care of before they leave (Luke 9:59-62). I think this one speaks for itself.
Jesus taught that those who believe without actual evidence are more blessed than those that do (John 20:29). When Thomas the Apostle demanded to see Jesus in the flesh and actually touch Him to know for sure He was raised from the dead and finally does so, Jesus tells him those who don't see are more blessed than those who see. When a teacher tells you it is better to believe something on hearsay rather than on actual evidence it's time to walk the other direction, not to become more committed.
Jesus taught that it's foolish to plan for the future (Luke 12:16-32). According to Jesus it's foolish to plan for the future, even to plan for things that are essential for living. Instead we should completely ignore these things and seek God and His Kingdom and trust God to provide for us. This is clearly one teaching the rich televangelists ignore.
Jesus taught that if a man can't stop lusting after a woman with his eye or masturbating to the fantasy of being with her he should gouge out his right eye and cut off his right hand (Matthew 5:28-30). Since God created men typically with an incredibly strong, naturally built in sex drive He's going to judge men even for having the desire to have sex with a woman he is not married to, and hell is so bad you are better off cutting off your hand and gouging out your eye now to avoid hell. This is some pretty intense shit and unless Jesus was a eunuch I highly doubt He followed His own advice.
Jesus taught if a man divorces his wife the man forces HER to commit adultery (Matthew 5:32). Not exactly sure what the logic is behind the woman being guilty of adultery because of her husband's action, but given the misogyny found throughout the entire Bible I suppose it does make sense that it would blamed on the woman.
There are other things, such as Jesus refusing to heal anyone that wasn't Jewish (Matthew 15:21-28; Matthew 10:5-6), or the fact He Himself was a liar (John 7:10, 18:20), or that infirmity was the result of sin (John 5:14), the fact the He came to bring division not peace, especially in families (Luke 12:53), or the fact that He was such a great teacher that He spoke in parables so people wouldn't understand Him (Luke 8:10-18). I trust by now you get the point. Anybody who teaches this much immorality and follows a law as immoral as the Old Testament is not a great moral teacher and is not someone that should be followed by anyone.
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