The Amazing Aims and Claims of Jesus

262 Pages·2006·1.12 MB·English

by  Anthony Buzzard

The Amazing Aims

and Claims of Jesus

What you didn’t learn in church

Sir Anthony F. Buzzard, Bt., MA (Oxon.), MA Th

Restoration Fellowship
www.restorationfellowship.org

Atlanta Bible College
800-347-4261 • 404-362-0052
©2006 Anthony Buzzard
ISBN 0-9673249-6-3
These chapters are dedicated to Barbara, my wife, constant
companion in the faith of Jesus, to Sarah, my daughter, tireless
and skilled worker for the cause of the Kingdom of God
Gospel, and to all those who pray “Your Kingdom come”; in
short, to all who long for the return of the Messiah Jesus, who
was once here, to make everything right on earth, and to
transform it into the Eden it was meant to be; and to all those
who seek the pearl of great price.

“But I do not consider my life of any account as dear to myself, so
that I may finish my course and the ministry which I received from
the Lord Jesus, to testify solemnly of the Gospel of the grace of
God. And now, behold, I know that all of you, among whom I
went about preaching the Kingdom, will no longer see my face.
Therefore, I testify to you this day that I am innocent of the blood
of all men” (Paul in Acts 20:24-26).

“Make them holy in the truth. Your word is truth” (Jesus in John
17:17).

“God avails Himself of human thought and speech to make
Himself known and His speech intelligible” (“Revelation,” New
Schaff-Herzog Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge).

“The official line taken by Christianity…was not directly tied to
the actual words and deeds of the historical Jesus”
(Bart. D. Ehrman, Jesus: Apocalyptic Prophet of the New
Millennium).

“Compared to the dynamic religion of Jesus, fully evolved
Christianity seems to belong to another world”
(Geza Vermes, The Authentic Gospel of Jesus).

“Polytheism entered the Church camouflaged”
(Prof. Friederich Loofs, History of Dogma; Paul Schrodt, The
Problem of the Beginning of Dogma in Recent Theology).

Table of Contents

Introduction.......................................................................................9
1. What Did Jesus Preach About?...................................................15
2. More About the Kingdom...........................................................23
3. Jesus Is Coming Back to the Earth.............................................35
4. Filling in Some of the Blanks.....................................................47
5. More on the Gospel of the Kingdom..........................................57
6. God Picks Abraham, the Father of the Faithful..........................71
7. King David: Another Great Figure in the Kingdom Story..........82
8. The True God, the True Messiah and the Precious Seed of
Immortality...............................................................................92
9. Making Public your Confession of Jesus as the Messiah
and of the God of Israel, the Father of Jesus..........................109

Lesson 1: Becoming a Christian — Where to Begin....................116
Lesson 2: Believing the Gospel Message about the Kingdom......130
Lesson 3: The Basis for Believing the Christian Gospel..............148
Lesson 4: Intelligent Response to the Good News.......................165
Lesson 5: The Kingdom of God: God’s Plan in World History...185
Lesson 6: The Kingdom of God: An Event of the Future.............200
Lesson 7: God’s Great Kingdom Plan Through Jesus..................217

Appendix 1: The Various New Testament Titles of the Gospel...233
Appendix 2: What Is Death and Where are the Dead?.................237
Appendix 3: Leading Authorities on the Kingdom of God..........242
Appendix 4: The State of the Dead According to Authorities......249
Appendix 5: Do Souls Go to Heaven?..........................................254

Introduction

The first nine chapters of this book are designed to give
readers who have no special training in the Bible a clear idea of
God’s grand program for every one of us. God’s design for you
and for humanity is to grant immortality to those who love and
obey Him. God’s program is for all who pay attention to what He
has said. In the Scriptures, God spoke through a variety of
different prophets and finally in His uniquely born Son, Jesus (see
Heb. 1:1-2). God intends to grant endless life to believers in Jesus,
the Messiah, and the coming Kingdom. I believe that the Kingdom
of God is the answer to the great puzzle of life. It was the core of
everything Jesus taught. It is the Christian Gospel. Jesus preached
the Kingdom as Gospel, always. In fact, all of the Bible is
concentrated on one major theme, the coming Kingdom. The Bible
is a single drama in two parts, the Old Testament and the New.
The Christian Gospel is called the Gospel (Good News)
about the Kingdom of God. I am going to have to repeat this
basic fact many times, because the public seems not to know what
Jesus preached about. Ask your friends “What is the Gospel?“ and
see if they mention the Kingdom of God. If they do not, ask them
how the Gospel can have any other foundation than the Gospel
preached by Jesus.
You can verify the facts about the Christian Gospel for
yourself very easily by reading the New Testament, starting of
course with the teaching of Jesus in Matthew, Mark, Luke (John
uses other language to say the same thing). And there is lots of
background information about the Gospel of the Kingdom in the
Old Testament. Paul said that the Gospel is based on the promises
in the Old Testament (Rom. 1:1-2). Any translation of the Bible
available to you will give you the necessary information on what
the Gospel is. But don’t make the mistake of not starting with
Jesus!
The Bible contains a thrilling story, an amazing drama, and it
promises a wonderful outcome for our world. At the same time it
threatens those who do not pay attention to Jesus and his aims and
claims, with a tragic future. God expects us to listen to what He
10 Introduction
has to say to us through His agent, His Son Jesus. He gives us a
choice. The Son laid before us two possible destinies — life
forever or death, extinction. The Gospel is both a promise and a
menace, a threat.
Everything hinges on our willing response to the Gospel of the
Kingdom as announced by Jesus and later by the Apostles.
The first nine chapters of this book refer to or quote a number
of fundamentally important Bible verses. You would not need to
have your own Bible to follow what I have written. If you do have
a Bible any version will confirm the story unfolded here. The
Revised Standard Version or New Revised Standard Version or
New American Standard Bible are generally reliable and easy to
read versions. I would suggest not reading the King James
Version, unless that is all you have. My reason is that you do not
speak English the way the King James Version is translated (in
1611). Though it was in its time an accurate translation, its
language puts up a kind of barrier between you and the vitally
important words of Scripture. But if the King James is your
favorite Bible that is fine. The Gospel of the Kingdom is clear
even when it comes to you in old English. You should treat
yourself to a modern translation also, if possible.
It is essential for the reader to know that I am inventing no
new teachings here. Everything I have written has appeared in
scholarly literature, in commentary on the Bible. But the public
knows little about that literature. And some scholars have a poor
record of actually believing what they know the Bible says. They
often report well what they find, but they do not get very excited
about us actually believing it! Or proclaiming it to others as
essential information for learning the meaning of life.
I am asking you to think hard about what you may have
learned about “the Gospel.“ Have you accepted without careful
thinking and analysis a Gospel which is missing vital ingredients?
Do you realize that Jesus is the one we must listen to above all
and his teaching is summarized in the caption “Kingdom of God“?
That last statement is so obvious in our Christian documents,
the New Testament and its background in the Old, that a child
with a basic reading ability could discover it easily.
What I am suggesting is that churches do not do a good job of
relaying the Gospel as Jesus preached it — the Gospel about the
Kingdom of God. I have attempted to explain those areas in which