Christianity: The Whole Truth?

Let me say right from the beginning that I am a huge fan of Yeshua Ben David. Who is he? Why that is the man we built one of the world's largest religions around! You know him as Jesus Christ. How did an Essene Jew named Yeshua (Joshua in English) become Jesus Christ and how did a man who repeatedly stated that he was not sent to spawn a new religion but to reform the old one - Judaism - become the God figure of a religion we call Christianity?

You may have noticed that much of our Christian faith is built upon writings by Paul and John. Together, they wrote almost 80% of the New Testament. How much did Jesus write? Not one word. No, there were no scribes following him around every minute of his 2 year ministry, as one fundamentalist acquaintance of mine maintains. We do not know of a certain fact that Jesus ever lived at all! Now I believe he did but that is a matter of faith, not fact. The Romans were compulsive record keepers, yet no record of the most momentous crucifixion in world history appears anywhere. We have records of olive oil shipments and legionary deployments; of conquests and laundry lists, but not one word about a man named Jesus or Yeshua.

Most every Christian I talk to firmly believes that Jesus was the literal Son of God, born of a Virgin impregnated miraculously by God. Of course this means that Jesus was half God, half man. Sounds like the Greek myths doesn't it? Seems the Gods on Olympus loved to come down for a wild weekend from time to time! Do you believe that Jesus was the literal Son of God, his ONLY son? If so and that belief works for you, then I am not here to destroy your faith. Faith is the key to the Kingdom of Heaven. Keep your faith.

I am here to shed light on how Christianity morphed into the odd patchwork of love/hate/darkness/light/kindness/domination/peace/war, that we have today. Let's get a couple of facts straight from the start.

Jesus never once in Scripture said that he was the Son of God - not once! Yes, he called God Father. So do each and every one of us. God is our Father but not the one who conceived us in mother's womb. Our spiritual Father, our creator but not our parent. Jesus said that the Father and I are one. Yes, and so are each and every one of us, whether we know it, are awake to it or not. We are made of the very stuff of God, we are not separate from God but are as much a part of the body of God as our fingers are a part of us.

He said that he was about the Father's business. So is every person who has ever lived; some of us do it unconsciously and others consciously but all serve the Father and all are on the Father's business. Even those who seem to be "lost souls" and appear to be beyond the love of God; serve a purpose in the grand scheme of God's ever expanding creation of life.

He never used the word Christ, it certainly was not his name. He as called Master by his disciples and by those who followed his teaching. Why Master? Master is what a teacher was called in those times. Teachers are still called Master in the UK today and in private schools here. The Master referred to his mastery of the Spiritual Laws of God and to his being a Master Teacher of God's Truth. Christ is a word derived from the Greek Kristos which means the "anointed one" or one who brings truth from God. Jesus was a Christ but he did not speak Greek so it is unlikely that he ever used the word, nor ever applied it to himself. Who did? Why our old friend Paul who virtually invented the religion we called Christianity.

Paul also introduced the idea of the Virgin Birth and of Jesus being the literal son of God. This was necessary to set the Christines (as they were called in the 1st Century) apart from the followers of the many other religions of the day. Our guy is the Son of God! Your guy is just a prophet. In order to start a new religion, you must have something the others do not posses.

The belief that Jesus is the only begotten Son of God is the one key doctrine that sets Christianity apart from every other world religion and why many believe that, as Christians, we are the sole true religion. Jesus would reject this doctrine totally were he with us in body today.

He was inclusive; never exclusive. He was loving; never hateful or judgmental. He despised the priests, scribes and lawyers of his day for their oppression of the people and their public piety and private immorality. He disliked the robes and gold and jewels that the High Priests wore to set themselves apart from the people. Sound familiar? We recreated the very things the Master constantly spoke against and called it Christianity! Modern Christianity bears little or no resemblance to the teachings of Jesus The Christ.

We have created a cult with Jesus as the cult figure and He would be appalled!

The true Spirit of The Christ is unconditional love, joy, abundance, giving, receiving gratefully, putting God at the center of our lives; with the firm realization that God and each of us are ONE. It is never about judging our brothers and sisters; never about us against them; never about division and separation. Jesus taught forgiveness, gratitude, service to others and above all, faith in the one true God. Faith that our every desire is already given to us and that our faith is what brings it to pass.

When asked what was needed to enter the Kingdom of God (state of Grace/Heaven) the Master replied: Just this: love God with all your heart and all your mind. Love your neighbor as you love yourself. He did not say that you must be a Baptist, a Catholic or a Nazarene. He did not say that you had to recognize Him as your Savior and Lord. Just love God, love your neighbor and love yourself.

Imagine what our world would be like right now, if every person on the planet did this!

God Bless and Keep You until we are together again!

How It All Began

Did you know that every thing in your world begins in Mind? Strange as it might seem to the casual student of spirituality, it is true that nothing just happens. All of life begins in the mind of a person or in the much greater mind of God. When we understand that everything begins in Mind, we begin to see how we have created the life we now have, how the world got into the state it is in and how we can begin to change our lives and the state of our world.

You see, if things just happen by some unknown force of fate, luck or random chance; then we are just cosmic victims struggling against great forces beyond our understanding or control. The best we can do, if this is so, is to cope as best we can.

Pretty grim picture, don't you think? Yet, this is what most of us were taught as children, what most of us believe about life and what we say every day when we wish someone "good luck" or "I guess it is my fate". This false belief in luck or chance is part of our culture, our thinking and our everyday speech. I believe it is time we grew up and learned to use the Spiritual Laws that God has instituted for us.

The Universe and everything in it was designed and created by an Intelligence beyond our understanding. It has no beginning, it has no end and it has always existed. It is First Cause, the cause of everything that has ever been. We call this Intelligence God, for lack of a better name. This intelligence creates by thinking things into existence. Everything that has ever been or every will be has begun with a thought - an idea - in our mind or the mind of God.

Nothing comes from nothing. Every Cathedral began in the mind of an architect, every symphony began as an idea in the mind of the composer, every child began as love or lust in the mind of two people. This Earth began as an idea in the mind of God. In fact, the Universe, as we know it, is the body of God. The Universe, everything in it, including us, is the result of the thought of the great Mind of God. What can we learn from this?

We operate just like God in microcosm. We create our world with our thoughts, our speaking and our actions. No one creates our life experience for us, they may influence us for good or ill, but we decide what to let into our minds, hearts and lives and what to exclude. We are the guardians at the gate of our world and what we let in is what we experience. Think about this idea for a moment! We are responsible for our entire life! This is a lot of responsibility and many refuse to believe this simple truth because they cannot accept that, whether consciously or unconsciously, they have created the life they are living at this moment.

Now be careful here! Do not make the mistake of jumping from responsibility to blame. There is no blame in the spiritual universe but there is responsibility. You are not to blame for your life but you are responsible for it. Think of the power, the awesome power, that this idea gives each of us!! If we are responsible, if we created this heaven or hell that we are living in right now; then we can change it, enhance it, start over and create something new right here and right now. The road to the Kingdom of Heaven is simple but not easy.

You will have a new life the moment you begin to change your thinking, what you focus on, your attitudes, your beliefs about people, love, life and God. You will have a new life the moment you change your self-talk and your image of you. You will have a new life the moment you can really love yourself, just as you are, without guilt or condemnation. You are a beloved creation of the Most High God and He/She does not make wretched, condemned people. We make wretched people with our judgment, our concept of an angry, vengeful God that never has existed and never will.

How to begin this life transformation? Start with the realization that business as usual is over. Your life is going to change in very fundamental ways and it will never be the same again. You are going to have to let go of your "story" (the reasons you tell yourself why your life is the way it is). Examples of "stories" might be: "all the people in my family are fat" or "I come from a long line of people with bad hearts" or "I was abused as a child so I have never been able for form healthy relationships", etc. etc. You must give up your story, there is no option except more of the same. Desire preceeds all creation. If you do not want a new life you will never create one.

This is hard to do! We have been repeating our "story" for so long it has become part and parcel of who we are! It is part of our identity! That is ok, you won't need that identity anymore because you are about to become transformed, to be "born again" as our Fundamentalist friends like to say. Romans 12:22 puts it like this: Be you transformed by the renewal of your mind.

In other words, "change your thinking - change your life". Until you are ready to put new wine in new wineskins, as Jesus The Christ put it so well, you will never see real change in your health, your wealth, your love, your life. Are you ready to begin?

How to begin and what to do? Log on next week and find out!