YOU can learn directly from God.

If you're religion is confusing to you, there's a reason. Get a red letter Bible, and read the words of Jesus to the priests and preachers of His day. Then understand this: There's no difference between them and the priests and preachers of our day. Why would there be? Just as there was in His day, there are some with good intent, but even they are learning from a corrupted system. Want the truth? Throw out everything you've learned from them, pick up the Bible, and read it for yourself. Not by chapter and verse as you were taught. Particularly in the New Testament, read the way they were written, as letters. And unless you're well versed in Old English, get a modern translation. One you can read and understand. Stick to the New Testament at first, so as not to be overwhelmed. And know this, it isn't the word of God the way you were taught. It's the word of God as understood by those who wrote it. Try to understand it from the point of view of those it was written to...we were taught to read it as if it was written to us!
The problem with that is, those the New Testament was written to were going through the transition from one Covenant to another. They were awaiting an event in their time. To learn about that event, one needs to consult historians, such as Josephus and his account of it in "Wars of the Jews."

Questioning the established theologies. The church teaches the law, just as it did when Jesus railed against it in His day. A discussion on the freedoms He gave us, and why true followers might want to operate on the outside. The truth is out there, but where?

Thursday, December 24, 2009

Excerpts from "Apocalypse of Peter"

"For many will accept our teaching in the beginning.  and they will turn from them again by the will of the Father of their error, because they have done what he wanted.  And he will reveal them in his judgment, the servants of the Word.  But those who became mingled with these shall become their prisoners, since they are without perception.  And the guileless, good, pure one they push to the worker of death, and to the kingdome of those who praise Christ in a restoration.  And they praise the men of the propagation of falsehood, those who will come after you.  And they will cleave to the name of a dead man, thinking that they will become pure.  But they will become greatly defiled and they will fall into a name of error, and into the hand of an evil, cunning man and a manifold dogma, and they will be ruled heretically."

"But many others, who oppose the truth and are the messengers of error, will set up their error and their law against these pure thoughts of mine, as looking out from one (perspective), thinking that good and evil are from one (source).  They do business in my word.  and they will propagate harsh fate.  The race of immortal souls will go in it in vain until my Parousia.  For they shall come out of them- and my forgiveness of their transgressions into which they fell through their adversaries, whose ransom I got from the slavery in which they were, to give them freedom that they may create an imitation remnant in the name of a dead man, who is Hermas, of the first-born of unrighteousness, in order that the light which exists may not be believed by the little ones.  But those of this sort are the workers who will be cast into the outer darkness, away from the sons of light.  For neither will they enter, nor do they permit those who are going up to their approval for their release.

"And there shall be others of those who are outside our number who name themselves bishop and also deacons, as if they have received their authority from God.  They bend themselves under the judgment of the leaders.  Those people are dry canals."

"...that he whom they crucified is the first-born, and the home of demons, and the stony vessel (?) in which they dwell, of Elohim, of the cross which is under the Law.  But he who stands near him is the living Savior, the first in him, whom they seized and released, who stands joyfully looking at those who did him violence, while they are divided among themselves.  Therefore he laughs at their lack of perception, knowing that they are born blind.  So then the one susceptible to suffering shall come, since the body is the substitute.  But what they released was my incorporeal body.  But I am the intellectual Spirit filled with radiant light.  He whom you saw coming to me is our intellectual Pleroma, which unites the perfect light with my Holy Spirit."

     I am finding it very interesting that some of the things that were revealed to me in the Bible, which I sometimes struggled with because noone else around me seemed to see them (save for my wife, who pushed and prodded me to not give up, and who took the lead when I grew stagnant), were actually believed by at least some of the earlier Christian sects.  These excerpts are from Peter's dreams, and Jesus' interpretations of the dreams.  At least this is attributed to Peter, the guess is it was actually penned around the third century.

The saying, they will not enter, nor will they permit those who are going up to the approval of their release, is right out of Isaiah chapter 28, which is a prophecy about the priests and teachers of the law.  And they put the cross as under the law.  It's nothing new but satisfying confirmation.  It's also interesting to me that the early gnostic Christians considered Peter their founder.  No wonder the catholics wiped them out, and as much of their literature as they could.  We are truly fortunate that some of it was hidden to be discovered in our age.

"

Monday, November 2, 2009

Sin

Sin. Most people don't even know what it is. For some, smoking and drinking is sin. For others, it's a part of their religion. I constantly hear supposed Christians professing that they are sinners, and daily ask for their forgiveness. That was the Old Testament way of doing things, and the churches have perpetuated it despite professing to be followers of the New Testament. In the New Covenant, the laws of God are written into our hearts and minds. Our 'sins' are forgiven, once for all time, and going forward God sees no sin in us. If God sees no sin in me, I certainly am not going to go looking for it. And if I don't see any sin in me, than why would I keep on begging forgiveness? That really isn't what God wants. That's sacrifice. If you stay in this mode, you can't grow, you can't learn. As a Christian, it's time to accept God's gift and move on, accept that He has made you pure.

The eastern religions have a great philosophy about this. Yin/Yang, accepting that the good and bad parts of yourselves make up the whole. We tend to look at our weaknesses as bad things and try to get rid of them, or pretend they aren't there. I personally like Popeye's philosophy,
"I am who I am." When Jesus was preaching, he accepted pretty much everybody who came to him, even the Roman soldiers. The only time he really got upset was with the moneylenders and vendors at the temples. Those temples are symbollic for the real temple, in each of us. The vendors selling their sacrificial animals to me represent those influences around us who would have us constantly offering up offerings, repentance, and keep us under the old system of law. Nothing that goes on in this life is anything more than a shadow of the reality. The churches, the temples, they are not the real dwelling places of God. We are. They are symbols of our inner being, our relationship with God. And Jesus has entered our most holy of holies and become the High Priest, and made us Holy.

So I get pretty upset when I hear somebody trying to berate me into feeling bad for not doing enough, not being holy enough, not being perfect enough. That is literally the job of the accuser, and I recognize that as somebody who doesn't know or understand God, but who's own ego is in control. They think they know something I don't, but I know I'm past them on the learning curve. It's the baby Christians who want to save the world and tell everyone that they're going to hell. As someone who's been there and back, I can tell you they're misguided and full of judgement, which in my opinion is real sin.

Saturday, October 31, 2009

lapses

Haven't posted in awhile. Didn't feel the need, since it seems to be just for me anyway, and I have managed to get some things sorted out that I was stewing about. But I'm going to get started again, because I never got to what I was getting to, which is the best stuff. Nothing like sharpening the old sword with people who think the bible is to be taken literally to get the juices flowing. Shall post again in a day or two, and renew myself with this. Even if it is just for me.

Tuesday, June 23, 2009

Life after Death?

No answers here, just pondering. I grew up believing in life after death, and
never really questioned it except in my rebellious teen years (when I never
truly gave it much thought.) The night my dad died, I was in boot camp, and
had a vision of him as full of clarity as I ever had outside of some recurring
dreams I used to have. When I was called to the Red Cross in the morning
so they could give me the bad news, I never even considered it could be him
though. All the way I was running through in my mind which of my siblings
would have had an accident. I was in shock at the news. My sisters and
brother also had the vision, however, so I figured it was him saying goodbye
to us. I've never really doubted that, either.

But it's not proof of life after death. Noone has ever had any kind of proof of
that, at least that they've been able to share as more than personal experience.
Some people who were brought back talk about seeing the light, or tunnel, or
relatives, etc. But all these can also be explained by the process of the brain
going down. Which leads me to wonder: when did we (humans) start believing
in life after death anyway? Did it start after we became aware of our loss at
loved ones dying? Did we need to be consoled, or to console others? It appears
that virtually every civilization believes in the spirit living on in some form or
other. And yet, why? Noone can prove it (and not for a lack of trying either.)

I think it must be the one belief we all share that actually goes back to our
roots. If we really did have an Adam and Eve type beginning, starting from
a common ancestor, it must have started with them. At some point in our
youth of humanity we gained an awareness, a knowledge, that the other
animals don't share. We don't know if that was an event or an evolution,
but it seems to me the idea of life after death must have started back then.
It could be that a fear of death (after becoming aware of it) caused us to believe
this way, out of denial. Or it could have been actual knowledge, passed on by
someone overseeing our evolution.

And so, as I get older, I ponder this more and more. I know what I believe.
I believe the Adam and Eve story is a story about our beginnings with
knowledge and understanding and awareness. I don't believe Eve ate an
apple and suddenly gained knowledge, but it's a symbol for whatever did
happen. I believe it was an event, and humanity evolved from it. I believe
we have an event in our future as well, that will greatly revolutionize our
understanding of ourselves and our place in the universe. But will those
who have passed on already still be around? I know what the Bible teaches
about this, but the witnesses to Jesus death and ressurection lived 2000
years ago, and what we know about them was passed on by people several
generations later. So it's faith, not knowledge. Things get exaggerated
about all the great people in history, so while I accept all Jesus teachings,
I question the stories, or at least don't accept them as verbatum facts.

I have no point to make here. It's just something I think about and wanted
to put down on paper (so to speak). Think on this, though: If we as
humanity suddenly DID have proof of our life after death, and DID have
understanding of what it really is, wouldn't that change us? Perhaps that
will happen someday.

Tuesday, June 16, 2009

King James?

When I was still a babe in the Lord, my preacher was emphatic that the
King James version was the ONLY reliable English translation of the Bible.
I came to believe that the reason this was pushed was because it was so
totally unreadable by most people that preachers were able to hide behind
it and teach whatever they wanted by using excerpts, or verses, totally out
of context. It was very difficult for most English speaking people (especially
those without a higher education) to read this with any flow. Kind of like
reading Shakespeare. I started reading the NIV, and wore it out.

My wife loves the King James. She says the NIV translation is incorrect
in too many critical places, and she's probably right more often than not.
I maintain that any translation you can read will be OK. If you get to the
point that you want to know a more precise meaning to something, go ahead
and pull out a Schofield or King James or New American Standard and see
what they say for a translation. We have the Greek and Hebrew Lexicons,
that give exact translations for the original words, but it isn't necessary to
get the gist of what's being said.

There are many other books out there that weren't included in the Bible.
The Catholic version has several extra books, that were excluded in our
Bible because the original language wasn't Greek or Hebrew. Really though,
you can pick up a Mormon Bible and still find God's message in it. I've had
God speak to me when I've been reading fictional books. There's a series
of novels about a Navaho cop that speaks quite a bit about Navaho beliefs.
There's a lot of great stuff in there. Many of the so called secret societies
such as Dan Brown wrote about in his novels actually had glimpses of truth
that drove them underground to avoid persectution from the church.

God is Spirit. God is Love. God is Light. He lives in the hearts and minds
of many people. He doesn't just belong to Christians, Jews, Muslims, Eastern
Peoples or any one group. We are all His. And we can all learn from each
other. The idea of accepting the Yang side is contrary to the way we teach
our religion in this country, but it's not contrary to the teaching of the Bible.
We are who we are, and we need to learn to love ourselves as well. That
begins when we realize that God loves us. Not, loves us if we straighten
our lives out. Not, loves us if we walk the straight and narrow. For those
for whom that matters, they can become one with Him. Too bad it only
really matters to a few of us.

Wednesday, June 10, 2009

God's Word.

Everything I believe is grounded in the Bible. There was a time when I could quote scripture with the best of them, and wouldn't read anything else. I still try to live my life by the principles I learned, even though I wouldn't necessarily agree anymore. (Like tattoos. Don't have them, don't know why anymore. I don't wear jewelry. Stupid things like that.) I no longer necessarily look at the bible as the sole guideline of my life, even though I'm guided by my grounding in it. If that makes sense.
When I read the Public Letters to the Editors in the paper, I get so sick of people arguing there point with their Bible as their authority. You can be on either side of almost any issue and argue your point from the Bible. Someone thinks their point of view is backed up by God if their interpretation of the Bible backs them up. Too bad most people get their interpretation from
someone else, who gets it from someone else, etc. etc. etc. I read today that one of the Reformed Churches has voted a new statement of faith, which is to be accepted by everyone in their church.
Never mind the politics involved (in accepting gays or not and how strong etc), it's a statement of faith put out by men. Nothing to do with God or the Bible, but dictating beliefs nonetheless. We've literally had centuries of this sort of thing. And yet it's "God's will". Right. So excuse me
for not jumping to your point of view just because you think the Bible backs you up. I've learned enough of what the bible has to teach to know that the teachers don't have a clue, but not enough to consider myself a teacher.
For instance. I might say that the bible is God's Word. But the way you might interpret that is that God literally dictated what was written. NO no no. The bible is God's word in the same way that what I'm writing now is God's word, (sort of). Someone learned from God and wrote about what they learned, in the context of what they knew. I believe I learned a few things from God myself. For instance, the timing of the rapture, whatever that ends up being, isn't in the middle of the tribulation, as is taught by most of the Tribulation Warning preachers. What makes them think they should be spared the battle is beyond me, but that's another discussion.
God has made himself manifest in many people in our societies. God is Love. God is Light. It's not too hard when you get to know God, to spot Him in others. And if he is in someone, that someone might just have something to teach you. And it would be considered God's Word. If you consider the Bible to be God's word, anyway.

Friday, May 22, 2009

Can Christians Sin?

According to Paul, Once God has accepted you, sin no longer has a hold on
you. There is no more sin in your life. Feel free to smoke that cigarette.
You'll still run the risk of getting cancer, but God isn't going to condemn
you to hell for it. Whatever that struggle is in your life, in the churches
system you'll constantly be repenting and starting over in your relationship
with God. It gets so depressing you can get suicidal and give up. When you
are being told how you should live your life, and your life doesn't stack up,
it becomes a spiral heading down into hell. Add to that a breakdown in a
relationship with someone you love, and your days become one miserable
stretch.

We think of ourselves as a Christian nation. But the reality is that only a
portion of the Christians truly seek a relationship with God. Most people
are content to be sheep, to be led down a path they think God wants for
them (because their leaders told them and that's where they put their
trust.) Just praying to God to meet needs isn't really a relationship.
When you have a relationship with someone, you learn about them,
you learn their character, you get to know them.

People who say they know God, but really everything they know about
God is what they've been taught, only know about God. Don't trust me
to tell you about God, as He'll reveal Himself to you without my help.
Preachers and priests go to school to learn about God, supposedly.
Really what they are learning is theology and pschology. Doctrines
have been passed down through generations upon generations
dating back waaay before the time of Jesus. It didn't change with
the New Testament and the advent of the Catholic or even Christian
church. Politics has influenced decision making in the church, and
always will. Well, maybe someday we will see "the knowledge of
the Lord cover the earth as the sands on the seashore." That's
another discussion.

To have a relationship with God, you must be perfect. There can
be no sin in God's presence. So by the teaching of the law, when
you think a bad thought, you need to repent of that before God
will accept you again. Our guilt bears witness, we don't feel we
deserve to be loved unconditionally. But that is how God loves
us. Even Paul struggled with this, and the early apostles. They
were brought up in a system of law, and they couldn't grasp how
God would just set us free like this. In his letters, Paul qualified
how our lives would be with: "...if the Spirit of God lives in you."
Which is true, if you don't really establish that relationship for
yourself, than the Spirit of God wouldn't live in you. As I said,
only a percentage of people actually seek that out for themselves.
The rest are followers who let other people seek it out for them.
And that is what you are doing if you are letting a preacher or
a priest tell you how to run your life. I'm not saying you don't
belong to Him if you're in the church (I'm sure God's people
really do reside there too) just that your trust is in men.

There really are no rules beyond love. I've tithed and not tithed,
it's made no difference on my financial status. I don't generally
swear or call people idiots, but it happens. Instead of being
seperated, I might get a nudge, when He knows I'ld be receptive
to it. At some point, you get a realization that our purpose in
this life is more about the people around us than it is ourselves.
You don't need to go looking for good works, but opportunities
to do the right thing and help your brother out will present
themselves from time to time. There's no requirement to do
anything. You don't have to give the homeless meals, but if
you do there are rewards that go way beyond money. God's
rewards are treasures that are not material in nature.

More later.

Wednesday, May 20, 2009

Why Trust Men?

The point I was trying to get to in my last post, is that the people doing the
teaching have their own motives and slants. They've been taught by other
people with THEIR own slants. The theology that they preach doesn't get
questioned, with any credibility, and answers are bought into and accepted
as facts. Interpretation is controlled by a few at the top of the chain. Any
time a priest or preacher saw a different interpretation and stuck to it, we
would get a new denomination. These were courageous people, like Luther
and Calvin, but if they wanted to question further than the issues they
pursued they were probably limited by the thought of being labeled as
lunatics.

The advent of the press, that made the Bible available to laymen and as
time moved on millions of people made control of theology threatened I'm
sure. But the established churches have been consistent in their dogma,
and to belong to one means you believe as they believe. Minor differences
might be allowed, but not taught. If you tried to teach in the church that
heaven is here and now, not someplace you go when you die, you wouldn't
last long as a teacher. If you try to counsel someone that they are no longer
a sinner and that sin is no longer in them (despite that act they just did that
they're feeling guilty about), I doubt they'ld let you continue to counsel. You
get the idea.

This isn't limited to the Christian church, by the way. Any time you have
men running an organization, you'll have corrupt men running things. I
would dare say the number of people with an absolutely pure heart is a
fairly small sampling percentage wise. So if you're REALLY after the truth,
you're on your own. Or are you?

There are a lot of people today who have figured out what to believe for
themselves, thanks to the religous freedom we have found in America. It's
a good thing, really. There was a time that I would have been tortured and
killed for what I believe in. I'm careful talking to religous people, because
I still have respect for most of them, and I don't want to insult them. But
I do feel free to speak among most of my friends. I don't have to worry
about anyone ratting me out to the religous authorities, because I don't
belong to them. I'm free to go to their services if I choose, but I really
can't stand any more to listen to the garbage that gets spoken as 'God's
Word.' I hear Isaiah preaching, "For it is do and do, rule on rule, a little
here, a little there. To whom is he trying to preach, a child just weaned
from his milk?" I believe many of the preachers, whether it's their intent
or not, really do turn their converts into sons of hell with their teaching.

So what do I believe that's so different? Stay tuned. When I have enough
posts I'll change the title of this blog to "Are we really sinners?" One thing
I DO believe, is that if you earnestly seek out God, you WILL find Him, and
HE will teach you Himself. And the Bible, which men said for decades that
couldn't be interpreted by anyone but the leaders of the church, attests
to it. And when you start down the road to listening directly to God, you
will learn to trust Him and know His voice. And the Bible will even teach
you HOW to learn to recognize His voice. It's a voice you can hear like the
calm in a storm, but you do have to learn how to be calm yourself. (Comes
with trust.)

Monday, May 18, 2009

Scribes and Pharisees

I am of the opinion that the priests and preachers and religous
leaders of the day today are just the same as the scribes and
pharisees of Jesus day. Human's being what they are, full of
ego and a lust for power, still do what they have to do to get
to the point of leadership. I think there are legitimate preachers,
who think of themselves as servants, but none of them are in
any of the megachurches. The ones I've met, that I felt were
sincere, are in smaller neighborhood churches of no particular
denomination. (Just my personal experience). But I've only
met one that was able to shake off the theology he belongs to
in a quest for truth, and he had a church with maybe 10
members. He had a radio broadcast, and whatever he talked
about, the preacher who followed his broadcast would address
his subject the next week. He put up with me for a summer
when my first wife left me, and I was at the time heavily
indoctrinated in Baptist beliefs. I imagine I was a pretty
miserable person to be around.

But I digress.

Anyway, I had to move 12 hours away from my home to find
someone like that. That's where God led me. Perhaps it was
to be just far enough away from home that I had to be alone
with Him too. That was the start of my growth. Fortunately,
my current wife (of almost 30 years) won't let me get stunted.

Getting back to the subject at hand, it's the nature of the beast.
The more followers they have, the more stature they have. It
doesn't matter if that's what they're after, it affects them, and
they can't do anything that would hurt it. By the time they are
there, theology is set. The Bible isn't read in the eyes of a
searcher, but in the eyes of a teacher. And accepting that
there could be other scripture, well, that would be out of the
question. Never mind that God's message could be in it, for
so many the Bible is God's only and last word. Psht.

All it takes is a little history lesson to determine the absurdity
of that. The organization that put it together was already
corrupt, with their own agenda. God protects his word, is
the rationale. But then here's a bunch of power hungry
men telling us what that word is. No thanks. I've found
that when you live with God, His word is revealed in all
kinds of people's writings. Because God still lives in people,
and people still write about their view of him, which is what
the writers of the Bible did. But until you get to know him,
I guess it's safe to stick to just the Bible. Just not the Bible
as taught today.

Sunday, May 17, 2009

Church has limits

Never blogged before. The address and title are intentionally provocative,
because I intend to write about this with the hope of reaching other people
who are searching God beyond what the churches are offering, which I believe
is based on fallible teachings. I find I can barely tolerate the jibberish that is
offered by most of the preachers, but also understand that to someone who is
in the church is where God wants them to be. Maybe. Or maybe wanted,
at one time.

I do believe the church serves a purpose in our society, and acknowledge they
do much good. But for those who are earnestly seeking God in their lives, it's
only a stepping stone. There is no church that has a corner on the truth, and
much of what is taught is actually AGAINST the true teaching of the Bible and
Christ. To know this, however, you have to take the Bible yourself, and read it
for yourself without the influence of what you've been taught. Sound
impossible? Difficult. Especially if you've been raised on Bible verses. They
need to be read the way they were written. The letters by Paul were letters,
and while the historical understanding that theologians might (or might not)
have helps, it isn't necessary to understand most of the points he's trying to make.

For instance, in his letters Paul refers to not defiling the body of the Lord. He's
talking about the body of believers, the church. Many preachers use this to tell
you it's a sin to smoke or drink. If you hear this from a pulpit, you're listening
to someone who hasn't even got the slightest clue what sin even is. They would
have you begging forgiveness over and over, even though the Bible teaches our
forgiveness is once for all time. When you have been forgiven in Christ, sin is
no longer in your life. It's a concept that teachers of law can't grasp, because
human nature being what it is, you will naturally go out and do things that
would be considered breaking the old law. But if there is no more law, there
is no lawbreaking. The idea is that you are free to be in the presence of God,
without guilt. Being in his presence starts a transformation in you, but it's a
process. A lifelong process.

Most people who grow up in stable homes, and who lead stable lives, don't
really 'search' out God. The people who really search are the people who
have trouble, at least at some point. And finding Christ really is a life
changing experience. And so, having gone through this, you naturally
have a certain loyalty to the church or people who led you down this path.
This is a good thing, and it takes a ton of courage to be able to continue on
in search for the truth, because the fact is that noone has ALL the truth.
So at some point in your growth, to continue growing you have to learn
from the only one who does (God Himself). If He teaches you something
that contradicts what you've been taught, you must understand that your
teachers are His as well, and were bringing you along as far as He would
have them do His work. That's kind of what my writing is about, I need
to continue my own growth and this is a tool to help me do that. If I get
into a dialogue with someone else who is searching, then that would be
awesome. I have no desire to get into any arguements with anyone who
is going to be dogmatic and stunted in their opinions, especially if they're
grounded in what they've been taught by their denominational doctrines.
Been there done that. I'll do it if necessary for someone else's benefit,
but I'm past it for myself.

Followers