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IFISEEUS
"There are a thousand hacking at the
branches of evil |
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Other Major Mistakes Man is a credulous animal, and must believe something; in the absence of good grounds for belief, he will be satisfied with bad ones. -- Bertrand Russell HOPE Hope is a dirty, four letter word symbolizing something which Christianity has used to substitute for doing something that brings the reality of fulfillment. Hope is what people do when they don't know what to believe and don't have faith. "Hope springs eternal to the human breast." That is too bad because there is no hope, there is only choosing to believe and then faith comes. Jesus didn't teach hope and didn't use the word. BIBLE/WORD OF GOD The Bible is not the word of God, never has been, never will or can be. The OT is valuable only in pointing to Christ and substantiating him as the Messiah. The NT, except for the gospels, is totally worthless except as a record for wrong ideas that do not work, as a track record for failure. Neither Jesus nor the Father ever authorized the writing of the NT nor had anything to do with it, nor has time or history validated it. TEN WORDS/COMMANDMENTS In the OT and in the NT the Ten Commandment terminology was not used, they were called the ten words or decalogue, not commandments. At best these ten words were meant to be promises to live by, not commandments or demands that were directed toward men by God. The value to us of the Ten Words is that they elucidate fundamental principles which we can incorporate into our lives to the extent that they do not interfere with the sustenance and/or the enhancement of life. MORALITY Jesus never talked directly about morality because it should be self-evident that life should define and determine morality, not some written code of morality determining life. In his conversations about morality, Jesus only scorned the current morality of the Jews. This literally means that whatever sustains and/or enhances life is moral. This means that in this world no specific rules can be absolutely valid. The most immoral thing that can be done is to impose rules of morality upon humans that God created to live free and use their own feelings and emotions to live by. MARRIAGE Marriage is only sanctified or validated by romantic love, not by any formal rite or vows or priestly blessing. Marriage as a legal contract is strictly a human institution and was never ordained, instituted, or authorized by God. The whole mentality of marriage as it has evolved in the world is one of ownership and obligation, completely opposite to the ideal way to live. The only possible efficacy of a legal marriage contract between two people who are romantically involved is strictly the benefit of having any written legal contract as a form of an agreement between people in this world when there is a dispute. This means that the legal marriage contract as constituted in the general society of the United States is the worst possible kind of contract in that it is vague, nebulous or silent as to specifics and terms of abrogation, and is subject to a different interpretation in every state, county and courtroom in the country. DEFEATISM Christianity has fostered spiritual defeatism by its mysticism and by misappropriating quotes from the OT such as: "Who can know the ways of God?" and "Thy ways are past understanding." Even worse, they have failed to see the humanity of God, have declaimed it as anthropomorphism, and set up a false contrast between humanity and divinity. With their terrible doctrines of Hell and oblivion, and their false and arbitrary conceptions of perfection, who could or would even want to identify with or understand such a person, one capable of 'doing his strange act'. We are told that we should try but can never measure up to the standard and that we always have to rely on God's grace in order for him to put up with us. Jesus is saying that we now have no excuse for not understanding all the truth about God. PARANOIA The most virulent form of fundamentalism does not feel good about itself unless it makes itself 'peculiar' and is persecuted. By teaching people that they are sons of God when they are not, Christianity fosters the concept of a very capricious father who sometimes can be counted on but most times can not, a father who allows his children to experience devastating trauma and savage destruction, a father who promises and then does not deliver, a harsh, stern father interested in rigorous discipline, a father who will even literally throw them to the lions or fire for His glory. TRIVIALIZATION Christianity has trivialized the Sabbath by insisting on sacralizing a special day of the week instead of understanding this as a symbol of our freedom from works and legalism. It has trivialized Jesus washing the disciples feet by making it an 'ordinance of humility' instead of realizing it to be merely a symbol of service and helping each other to finish cleaning our belief system. It has trivialized the wine and unleavened bread as a sacrament instead of accepting them as symbols of understanding the true meaning of Jesus words and deeds. It has trivialized the language with fervor of Acts 2:3 as literal tongues of fire dancing on the people's heads. It has replaced the reality of understanding the message of Jesus about God with the sacrament of literal baptism of water. It has mysticized understanding all the truth by thinking of being 'possessed' by the Holy Spirit and then indulging in 'charismatic' nonsense. MISAPPLICATION Christianity has misapplied so much of what Jesus said, causing us to shift our emphasis, away from accepting ourselves as we really are and concentrating on understanding what he said, to being concerned with remanufacturing ourselves to fit someone else's arbitrary, artificial standard. Christianity has totally misapplied his words about sin and sinning, the parousia, marriage, divorce, denying him, loving him, the Holy Spirit, the Kingdom of heavens, righteousness, the scriptures and the law, etc., ad nauseum. DISENCHANTMENT The disenchantment of the universe began for humanity when Adam chose to be afraid in the 'Garden'. A disenchanted universe is, at the same time, a universe or world vulnerable to control and power manipulation. Any theology that concieves of the universe as being governed by a set detailed plan or chronological agenda that reduces its various riches to the drab application of general laws thereby becomes an instrument of domination. And certain men in the name of Christianity, intended to be enchanted dwellers and adventurers in the world, set themselves up as dominators of it and rulers of other men. SENSUALITY/EROTICISM Because they are so powerful, and therefore dangerous in this world when misused, our God-given dimensions of sensuality and eroticism have been frontally attacked by Christianity in the same way it has approached other areas of human life; that is, it applies a set of restrictive rules. Only for these aspects the rules have tended to be more harsh and negative, usually designed to shut down these qualities or deny the legitimacy of experiencing these dimensions. In the realm of sexual behavior and feeling the large part of Christianity has purposed to put part of the range of human experience off limits, to narrow the full spectrum of the piano keyboard, i.e. to play music with the notes only around and above middle C with the lower notes considered to be perversion, base instead of bass. MARTYRDOM When they are properly translated the Gospels contain no reference to Jesus even suggesting or implying martyrdom for his true believers. The martyr complex is a serious sickness of the psyche. The truth is that there is no truth that is more sacred than a human life. For us to die for the truth is to make of no effect the death of Jesus and to deny the truth he died to emphasize. All martyrs to this point in time have died in defending error and violating the advice given by Jesus. The belief in a God who will resort to the ultimate violence has caused Christianity to kill more non-christian martyrs than the ones it has suffered. PERSECUTION The one understanding the truth about the character of God and the nature and imminence of the 'Kingdom of the heavens', and supporting unity is not called upon by Jesus to be persecuted any more than Jesus was during his public ministry. The one understanding these truths is not trying to solve the world's problems with mundane methods, is not concerned with military, political, social or 'moral' issues, and does not need to take a stand that will subject himself to more than the incedental and psychological persecution he is willing to endure. There is persecution enough in being alienated and in the frustration of being out of harmony with others as to purpose and values. PETERIANITY Peter is the disciple most often rebuked by Jesus and the one Jesus called Satan or Adversary. Peter is the disciple who was afraid to admit that he even knew Jesus and publicly lied three times. Peter was probably the oldest and most ignorant disciple, the most set in his ways and thinking. He is probably correctly portrayed as ebullient, a take charge guy, least prone to do any thinking. Peter never learned anything significant from his time and closeness to Jesus which is indicated by his course of action before and after the resurrection. Peter is the disciple who led six others back to their 'wonderful' and 'rewarding', smelly, slimy occupation of fishing naked at night, when they had the authority from Jesus to enter the kingdom and receive the power of God. Peter was the one concerned with John's relationship and destiny instead of his own. Peter is the one who violated the example and good advice of Jesus in going out and publicly condemning the Jews and 'converting' masses of people(to what?). Peter is the one who supported a formal, hierarchal authority system in contrast to the explicit instructions of Jesus by 'electing' a twelfth 'apostle' to replace Judas Iscariot. He is the one who set himself up with James and Andrew as religious rulers in Jerusalem and established a powerful triumvirate which began to pass new rules concerning believers behavior and focus on a mundane organization. Peter is the one who pressured for and solicited donations for the 'Lord's' work and condemned and frightened to death the two reluctant and superstitious donors, Annanias and Sapphira. After watching Jesus breaking Jewish laws and talking and ministering to Romans, Phoenicians, Samaritans, Greeks, lepers, prostitutes and thieves, Peter was not even willing to go with some Gentiles to share information about Jesus until he had a special 'vision'. This, in spite of the fact that Jesus' last words were to the effect that they could now go to any "nation, kindred, tongue, and people" and invite them into the Kingdom of the heavens. Peter is the cornerstone of the world's oldest formal Christian organization, a proven system of tyranny if left unchecked. The religion of Peter, superstitious and focused on sacraments and the mundane, is the primary foundation of what is called Christianity. PAULIANITY It has been justly said that there is more of Paul than Jesus in orthodox Christianity. Just as the dark, ignorant, superstitious side of Christianity is based on Peter, the zealous, fanatical, theological side is represented by Paul. Christianity is based secondarily on this fanatical Pharisee they claim to be a prophet and spokesman for God whose basis for 'conversion' was a private, unverifiable supernatural visit from Jesus. Paul was not initially nor ever was completely accepted by the Disciples but allied himself with the existing power structure and put his stamp of approval on their new rules. For over 22 years he roamed the world proselytizing and arguing with the Jews, yet he allowed other people to manipulate him into observing the old sacraments when he 'knew' better. He listened to people give one side of a dispute and then pronounced judgments without even hearing the other side, and even took upon himself the authority to "excommunicate" a man because of who he was living with. Paul's theology to the end was still based on wrong concepts from the OT, and his concept of righteousness is based on pretension and some pretended mystical transaction. He fostered and became an apologist for hierarchal and authoritarian organization, yet had the audacity to suggest that other people emulate him, a man who could not get along even with those close to him, who never came into unity with anyone, and who needlessly died a martyr, cold, alone and complaining in prison. Given the a priori assumption that the bible, especially the NT, is the word of God, Christianity continues to give Paul free reign to interpret and make 'clear' the 'esoteric' issues dealt with by Jesus in the Gospels. While Paul--in his magnum opus of Romans--reiterates in his own way a few of the exhortations given by Jesus, only once ("You shall love your neighbor as yourself." Matt 22:39) does Paul ever quote Jesus; and yet, he overwhelmingly quotes the OT for support of his theological and soteriological positions. This, in spite of the fact that among other examples, the spirit or meaning of his little doxology of Romans 11:33-36 is in sharp contrast and mutually exclusive with the message of Jesus recorded later by the disciple John (John 1:18, 6:40, 8:19,47, 12:48, 14:7,9,26, 15:24, 16:13, 17:3,26). ATONEMENT |
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