Why I am a Jesusian

When asked what my religion is, I reply that I am a Jesusian.

You've never heard of Jesusians because it's a word I coined to describe my religious belief.  I think many Christians will agree it describes theirs as well.

A Jesusian is someone who believes Jesus may or may not have been the Messiah (God's chosen one), but his importance was his teaching.  Thus, "Jesusian" instead of "Christian."

I'm a Jesusian (pronounced jee-SOO-sian) because I reseached Jesus for 20 years before writing a book about him, and based on the biblical books of Matthew, Mark and Luke, that's what Jesus wanted.

In fact, in those three books, which are short biographies, he is reported to have claimed the Messiahship one time only -- and that time, the only witnessess were people who were trying to have him crucified.  He never claimed the title again, although he had plenty of occasions to do so.

There are two reasons Jesus did not want people to label him the Messiah.  One, he knew his enemies would crucify him for blasphemy before he could get his teaching out.  And two, if people thought he was the Messiah, they would worship him instead of following him.

His first prediction came true about a year after he started teaching.

His second has been coming true among many Christians ever since.

(By the way, the Book of John does quote Jesus often as claiming the Messiahship.  But John was written many years after the other three, all of whom certainly would have written about that had it happened.  Read Matthew, Mark and Luke as factual stories, and read John as his conclusions.)

-Skip