nativity or rebirth.

nation, becomes a focus of evil.

Thus patriotism, as usually centered in one's earthly

We are no more patriots in the national sense, for patriotism means "fatherism", and we have supplanted the old fatherism, which focused on "the fathers of the nation" and the progenitor fathers, with a new one centered in the Father in heaven.

This secon nativity is nothing less than the new birth that Jesus made essential to seeing the Kingdom of God. It was to Nicodemus that he said: Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born a new, he cannot see the

Kingdom of God (John 3:3).

This new birth acts in precisely the same way as the old one, in that it provides one with a new parentage, a new family, a new nation and citizenship. Every relationship arising from the first birth is replaced by the new relationships arising from the second, or new birth.... Within the new ethnicity, God is the new and only Father; those who do his will are the new mother, brother, sister, son, and daughter.

flock, and

the new citizenship is

that

in

The new nation id the little the little flock, or more

fundamentally, citizeship in the Kingdom of God, since it is to the little flock

that the Kingdom is given.

9. Davis, Kenneth C., Don't Know Much About The Bible: Everything You Need to Know About the Good Book But Never Learned, p. 374: One of the centerpieces of Jesus' teaching is an extensive talk that Augustin labeled the "Sermon on the Mount." The "Sermon on the Mount" appears its entirely in Matthew (more than one hundred verses long) and in a somewhat abbreviated version in Luke.

similar, though shorter (about thirty verses), and is delivered "on a level place" after Jesus comes downs from the mountain where he had been

praying.

In Luke this teaching session is

In

(Is poverty of spirit

The differences between the two versions have led scholars to contend that the version in Matthew represents a compilation of many of Jesus' teachings compressed into one long and memorable discourse. other words, while it faithfully captures the words and teachings of Jesus, the sermon was a "Best of Jesus", edited into a single speech.

10. Charles Bradlaugh, The Freethought Web,

the chief amongst virtues, that Jesus gives it prime place in his teachings? Is it even a virtue at all? Surely not. Manliness of spirit, honesty of spirit, fullness of rightful purpose, these are virtues; poverty of spirit is a crime...)

of

11. Charles Bradlaugh, Ibid., Jesus pictures one in hell, whose only related vice is that in life he is rich; and another in heaven, whose only related virtue is that in life he is poor. He affirms it is more difficult for a rich man to get into heaven, than for a camel to go through the eye of a needle (Luke 18: 25). The only intent of such teaching could be to induce the poor to remain content in this life with the want and misery of their wretched state in the hope of higher recompense in some future life. Is it good to be content with poverty? Is it not far better to investigate

its cure and prevention?)

poverty,

with

a view

to

the

causes

12. Charles Bradlaugh, Ibid., What does Jesus teach? "Blessed are you who hunger now, for you shall be filled" (Luke 6: 21).

He does not say