This is a complex and sensitive topic, by which people used to get burned at the stake, but we should be able to debate this rather openly and peacefully in the twenty first century...

If one takes a secular historical perspective of the life and teachings of Jesus Christ, one encounters all manner of inconsistencies with the Bible. It has been pointed out in the Hiram Key that Jesus made radical departures from a belief system passed down through the Essene Community at Qumran. The Dead Sea Scrolls have cast a very different perspective on the life of Christ. Teachings and rites that theretofore were secret and made available only to a select few, were made indiscriminately available the many after the execution of John the Baptist, and the rise of Jesus.

There is a certain fear of impending doom surrounding the teachings and life of Jesus Christ, that parallels a kind of fear we have today as a result of 9-11: that of Armageddon and impending doom. The fear in Christ's time was more localized and developed in response to Roman and other inside and outside influences, but I would argue they could be nothing else but localized. This may have been an irrational fear, ignorant of the outside world, and leading to a very fundamental schism in what we call today: Christianity

The questions for debate:

1. Was Jesus too radical for his time?

2. If He was too radical for his time, how can we apply a truthful account of Jesus's and further, Essene teachings to the world as we see it today? How can we apply such a localized, radical thought to our own behavior and actions in the twenty first century? Was this radicalism good for the world as we see it today or not?

3.If Jesus was not a radical and truly had a timeless universal message that applies to everyone down to the present, what exactly is that comprehensive message and how can we use it at the present time, say in the War on Terror?