Killing Jesus

I'm tempted to read Bill O Reilly's third in a series of books re assassinations,Killing Jesus.His two previous books were Killing Kennedy and Killing Lincoln. Technically speaking Jesus was assassinated,theologically speaking His death was much broader & deeper than killing a President. However, i have the feeling Mr No Spin's book about Jesus is going to be more historical and less theological. Bill's book makes a few things clear: Jesus existed. Jesus was human. Jesus was to put to death.I can surmise that without even reading the book.

I heard Mr O Reilly in a clip from a talk show where he talked about the book. He said several things about Jesus. He mentioned Jesus was afraid.Of course He was.Jesus is true God and true man. Abandoned by His friends and praying alone,Jesus knew that His death was imminent.He knew He was on that path from the day He turned water into wine at Cana. I highly recommend reading Padre Pio's little booklet called THE AGONY OF JESUS for a meditation on the sufferings of Jesus in the Garden.The book is remarkable for its insights into ALL that Jesus suffered;not just physical suffering.

Bill also said Jesus was violent.I take issue with that anecdote. Jesus exhibited righteous indignation at what Jesus saw as the desecration of the Temple,His Father's House.It's the ONLY incident where Jesus ever took physical action in justifiable anger. We have to recall that Jesus told Peter to put his sword away and made no effort to fight off the soldiers or escape. He showed no such anger at Pilate.n His agony on the cross one of his final words were,"Father forgive them."I say to take one incident and extrapolate it to say Jesus was violent is too big a stretch.

The book is available at Barnes and Noble It can also be ordered from the Catholic Company It is one of the few writings of Padre Pio. St. Padre Pio takes you into the heart and mind of Jesus.

Jesus is human AND divine.I take it that O Reilly probably focused on the claims Jesus made about being God rather than showing that Jesus is God.I'm sure Bill emphasized Jesus human nature rather than Divine. The Catechism of the Catholic Church explains:

III. TRUE GOD AND TRUE MAN 464 The unique and altogether singular event of the Incarnation of the Son of God does not mean that Jesus Christ is part God and part man, nor does it imply that he is the result of a confused mixture of the divine and the human. He became truly man while remaining truly God. Jesus Christ is true God and true man. During the first centuries, the Church had to defend and clarify this truth of faith against the heresies that falsified it. 465 The first heresies denied not so much Christ's divinity as his true humanity (Gnostic Docetism). From apostolic times the Christian faith has insisted on the true incarnation of God's Son "come in the flesh".87 But already in the third century, the Church in a council at Antioch had to affirm against Paul of Samosata that Jesus Christ is Son of God by nature and not by adoption. The first ecumenical council of Nicaea in 325 confessed in its Creed that the Son of God is "begotten, not made, of the same substance (homoousios) as the Father", and condemned Arius, who had affirmed that the Son of God "came to be from things that were not" and that he was "from another substance" than that of the Father.88

466 The Nestorian heresy regarded Christ as a human person joined to the divine person of God's Son. Opposing this heresy, St. Cyril of Alexandria and the third ecumenical council, at Ephesus in 431, confessed "that the Word, uniting to himself in his person the flesh animated by a rational soul, became man."89 Christ's humanity has no other subject than the divine person of the Son of God, who assumed it and made it his own, from his conception. For this reason the Council of Ephesus proclaimed in 431 that Mary truly became the Mother of God by the human conception of the Son of God in her womb: "Mother of God, not that the nature of the Word or his divinity received the beginning of its existence from the holy Virgin, but that, since the holy body, animated by a rational soul, which the Word of God united to himself according to the hypostasis, was born from her, the Word is said to be born according to the flesh."90

467 The Monophysites affirmed that the human nature had ceased to exist as such in Christ when the divine person of God's Son assumed it. Faced with this heresy, the fourth ecumenical council, at Chalcedon in 451, confessed: Following the holy Fathers, we unanimously teach and confess one and the same Son, our Lord Jesus Christ: the same perfect in divinity and perfect in humanity, the same truly God and truly man, composed of rational soul and body; consubstantial with the Father as to his divinity and consubstantial with us as to his humanity; "like us in all things but sin". He was begotten from the Father before all ages as to his divinity and in these last days, for us and for our salvation, was born as to his humanity of the virgin Mary, the Mother of God.91 We confess that one and the same Christ, Lord, and only-begotten Son, is to be acknowledged in two natures without confusion, change, division or separation. The distinction between the natures was never abolished by their union, but rather the character proper to each of the two natures was preserved as they came together in one person (prosopon) and one hypostasis.92

468 After the Council of Chalcedon, some made of Christ's human nature a kind of personal subject. Against them, the fifth ecumenical council, at Constantinople in 553, confessed that "there is but one hypostasis [or person], which is our Lord Jesus Christ, one of the Trinity."93 Thus everything in Christ's human nature is to be attributed to his divine person as its proper subject, not only his miracles but also his sufferings and even his death: "He who was crucified in the flesh, our Lord Jesus Christ, is true God, Lord of glory, and one of the Holy Trinity."94 469 The Church thus confesses that Jesus is inseparably true God and true man. He is truly the Son of God who, without ceasing to be God and Lord, became a man and our brother:

Bill's book may be historically accurate,but again i think it probably stresses the historical facts rather than theological. I also heard Bill read emails from people commenting on the book.Some of them told Bill he was going to hell and they were serious.One said it would be for writing the book and the other said for being Catholic.As a Catholic i'm not surprised that someone told Bill he was going to hell for being Catholic.I've heard that one enough times.That said,as a Catholic,i have no way of knowing who IS going to hell.I wouldn't presume to know. All of us are in danger of going to hell. Self included;but NOT for being Catholic.As for writing the book and going to hell for it;haven't read it YET. I suppose after i do read it people will say i am going to hell for even reading it. My faith in Jesus as true God and true man is unshakeable.One book is not going to change my faith. I can think of a 1k reasons i might go to hell and i doubt this is one of them.