A new religion?

[Jeremiah Ames]

After considerable study, I recently came to some conclusions which differ from what is being taught in many Christian churches, as far as I can tell. (I have been to Catholic, LDS, seventh day adventist, congregational, 2 different baptist, assembly of God, another unaffiliated pentacostal, and two nondenominational, so I have some church experiences)


I have concluded that most (possibly all?) churches are actual stumbling blocks for humanity to have a relationship with God.

Even though a few people inside the churches are able to reach a true relationship with God, the majority (the “many” in the words of the Lord) cannot, because of the stumbling blocks.


The stumbling blocks are church doctrine.

1. A trinity. A complex senseless formula to obfuscate what needs no explanation. God is God, period. God is not a person, He is God. The Lord is not a person. He is God and He is the Word. The Holy Spirit is not a person. It is God. The bible is not a holy book. It’s a book. It represents the Word. And the Word is God. That’s why the bible is a book. Because it is NOT God. The Word needs to be written on our hearts, then we know God.
2. The Lords death on a cross as a substitutionary sacrifice. They like to use the word propitiation. (It sounds authoritative, like trinity). God is not appeased through sacrifice. This should be obvious from the OT. If sacrifice appeased God, they would not have needed to do it over and over again. The Lord’s death was the end of His earthly body and the beginning of His glorified one. The Lord’s death is not a sacrifice. He didn’t die for our sins. If so, His righteousness is imputed to us. Not so.
3. Together with the above, many churches teach that one needs only to believe it is so, to have salvation. So, the belief in number 2 combined with number 3, is the secret formula for gaining salvation. This is a deception which causes many to stumble and actually never receive the salvation they are misled into thinking they have. The Lord made it perfectly clear when he walked the earth, what the true requirements are.
4. Justification by faith alone, through no works of our own. Another misleading concept, to assist the “many” in not finding the narrow path spoken of by the Lord. Seek to understand the entire Word, not just a few verses out of the bible, and one can readily see that there is something that must be DONE by us. And this is not performing church rituals. Not working at the food bank. Not ministering to prisoners. These are the works spoken of. No. What must we DO? The Lord said over and over, to repent and sin no more. Repentance is the first step, and continually practicing true heartfelt repentance for the rest of one’s life is what the Lord commands. So, yes, something must be done. Just a belief doesn’t cut it. And how do others know that you have a true relationship with the Lord? By your fruit. Which will be good, if you repent and sin no more. Without repentance the fruit is not good. (Even though the world may perceive some of it to be good)

The above, explains why I see so many lost souls in the church buildings. They’ve been misled, by false doctrines.



I will now relate a real life example. A woman who attended a certain small church (around 300 people), wrote a very mean gossipy story about someone in the church. She was planning to email it to another friend of hers in the church, when she accidentally sent it to her entire contact list (which included most of the people in the church). She didn’t realize her mistake until it got back to her from someone. What did she do?
She eventually went to another church. A much larger one. She started attending the women’s bible study group. She relayed the story and commented that she was upset that the woman to whom her email was about did not forgive her. She saw that what she did amounted to an “accident” because she hit the wrong button on her computer. The entire group tried to make the woman feel better by siding with her, and saying anyone can make an accident.
Only my wife pointed out that SHE was the person in error, and she should tell the other woman and everyone else that she was sorry.
The entire group looked at my wife like she had two heads. By the way, this woman in question was a lifelong Christian. There is something off when a whole group of people inside the church cannot tell the difference between right and wrong.


Anyway, bottom line.

I’ve designed a new religion. (Not really. These beliefs did not originate with me.)


Here is the doctrine:


God. There is one God, and he is God. God is perfect love, perfect mercy, perfect goodness, and perfect justice. His perfection requires no imperfect sacrifices. His justice requires no punishment. Oh, and God is not santa claus.


The Word. The Word is God. It’s not a book. Although, we can use a book (the bible and others too). We can use reason and intelligence. We can use science. These things are not our enemies. These things are all gifts of God. Given to us to use. Let us work together to get to know the Word more intimately.


The Word gives us perfect insight into how to have a peaceful, productive life on earth. It’s not complicated. We are told to love God with all our hearts. And also, to love our fellow human beings.
The fellow human being part is all inclusive. No one is left out. No matter what they have done, what they believe, or how different they are.


In order to accomplish the above, we must actively repent when we have wronged another person. This repentance must be CONTINUALLY practiced, and it must be from the heart. God, being omnipotent, will not be deceived. After repentance, we must do our best to sin no more.


We must not worry about our future. Not on this earth or afterward. God will provide for our needs on earth. We are His children, and He loves us greatly. God will take care of us through eternity as well. How that transpires will be effected by our actions in this life, relative to His commands of love for Him and love for all people.


There is a hell. But it is not an eternal punishment. Since God is love and justice, punishment has no place in His realm, and a being composed of perfect love could not produce a hell.
Hell, is that which we create for ourselves in this life when we do not follow His simple commandments.


The above is placed here for discussion. Not debate. I’ve heard the bible verses used for prooftexting, to support certain misguided beliefs. The same beliefs used to alienate and persecute so many of our fellow humans. Have a nice day. And may God bless one and all.

 

[Rival]

I think I might have just come across someone who could potentially be classed as a Noahide.Depends on what you mean by 'Word'.

Cool.

I'm glad to hear most of these conclusions and I hope it works for thee.

 

[Dawnofhope]

Thanks for posting. While I believe in the same God, Jesus, and bible as the Christians, I share many of your concerns. I found the Baha'i Faith much more in harmony with a universalist perspective but that's just me. Its good that you are asking the tough questions and moving beyond conservative Christianity.

 

[Truthseeker]

After considerable study, I recently came to some conclusions which differ from what is being taught in many Christian churches, as far as I can tell. (I have been to Catholic, LDS, seventh day adventist, congregational, 2 different baptist, assembly of God, another unaffiliated pentacostal, and two nondenominational, so I have some church experiences)


I have concluded that most (possibly all?) churches are actual stumbling blocks for humanity to have a relationship with God.

Even though a few people inside the churches are able to reach a true relationship with God, the majority (the “many” in the words of the Lord) cannot, because of the stumbling blocks.


The stumbling blocks are church doctrine.

1. A trinity. A complex senseless formula to obfuscate what needs no explanation. God is God, period. God is not a person, He is God. The Lord is not a person. He is God and He is the Word. The Holy Spirit is not a person. It is God. The bible is not a holy book. It’s a book. It represents the Word. And the Word is God. That’s why the bible is a book. Because it is NOT God. The Word needs to be written on our hearts, then we know God.
2. The Lords death on a cross as a substitutionary sacrifice. They like to use the word propitiation. (It sounds authoritative, like trinity). God is not appeased through sacrifice. This should be obvious from the OT. If sacrifice appeased God, they would not have needed to do it over and over again. The Lord’s death was the end of His earthly body and the beginning of His glorified one. The Lord’s death is not a sacrifice. He didn’t die for our sins. If so, His righteousness is imputed to us. Not so.
3. Together with the above, many churches teach that one needs only to believe it is so, to have salvation. So, the belief in number 2 combined with number 3, is the secret formula for gaining salvation. This is a deception which causes many to stumble and actually never receive the salvation they are misled into thinking they have. The Lord made it perfectly clear when he walked the earth, what the true requirements are.
4. Justification by faith alone, through no works of our own. Another misleading concept, to assist the “many” in not finding the narrow path spoken of by the Lord. Seek to understand the entire Word, not just a few verses out of the bible, and one can readily see that there is something that must be DONE by us. And this is not performing church rituals. Not working at the food bank. Not ministering to prisoners. These are the works spoken of. No. What must we DO? The Lord said over and over, to repent and sin no more. Repentance is the first step, and continually practicing true heartfelt repentance for the rest of one’s life is what the Lord commands. So, yes, something must be done. Just a belief doesn’t cut it. And how do others know that you have a true relationship with the Lord? By your fruit. Which will be good, if you repent and sin no more. Without repentance the fruit is not good. (Even though the world may perceive some of it to be good)

The above, explains why I see so many lost souls in the church buildings. They’ve been misled, by false doctrines.



I will now relate a real life example. A woman who attended a certain small church (around 300 people), wrote a very mean gossipy story about someone in the church. She was planning to email it to another friend of hers in the church, when she accidentally sent it to her entire contact list (which included most of the people in the church). She didn’t realize her mistake until it got back to her from someone. What did she do?
She eventually went to another church. A much larger one. She started attending the women’s bible study group. She relayed the story and commented that she was upset that the woman to whom her email was about did not forgive her. She saw that what she did amounted to an “accident” because she hit the wrong button on her computer. The entire group tried to make the woman feel better by siding with her, and saying anyone can make an accident.
Only my wife pointed out that SHE was the person in error, and she should tell the other woman and everyone else that she was sorry.
The entire group looked at my wife like she had two heads. By the way, this woman in question was a lifelong Christian. There is something off when a whole group of people inside the church cannot tell the difference between right and wrong.


Anyway, bottom line.

I’ve designed a new religion. (Not really. These beliefs did not originate with me.)


Here is the doctrine:


God. There is one God, and he is God. God is perfect love, perfect mercy, perfect goodness, and perfect justice. His perfection requires no imperfect sacrifices. His justice requires no punishment. Oh, and God is not santa claus.


The Word. The Word is God. It’s not a book. Although, we can use a book (the bible and others too). We can use reason and intelligence. We can use science. These things are not our enemies. These things are all gifts of God. Given to us to use. Let us work together to get to know the Word more intimately.


The Word gives us perfect insight into how to have a peaceful, productive life on earth. It’s not complicated. We are told to love God with all our hearts. And also, to love our fellow human beings.
The fellow human being part is all inclusive. No one is left out. No matter what they have done, what they believe, or how different they are.


In order to accomplish the above, we must actively repent when we have wronged another person. This repentance must be CONTINUALLY practiced, and it must be from the heart. God, being omnipotent, will not be deceived. After repentance, we must do our best to sin no more.


We must not worry about our future. Not on this earth or afterward. God will provide for our needs on earth. We are His children, and He loves us greatly. God will take care of us through eternity as well. How that transpires will be effected by our actions in this life, relative to His commands of love for Him and love for all people.


There is a hell. But it is not an eternal punishment. Since God is love and justice, punishment has no place in His realm, and a being composed of perfect love could not produce a hell.
Hell, is that which we create for ourselves in this life when we do not follow His simple commandments.


The above is placed here for discussion. Not debate. I’ve heard the bible verses used for prooftexting, to support certain misguided beliefs. The same beliefs used to alienate and persecute so many of our fellow humans. Have a nice day. And may God bless one and all.

I agree with you that God did not create hell. We create hell for ourselves when we are distant from God. I also agree that Christianity has degenerated into doctrines instead of the Reality itself.

 

[socharlie]

Ii tried few denominations, and I came out with were similar conclusion. Original church was fed by spiritual memebers assuring spiritual growth other members without printed Bible.

 

[MonkeyFire]

I so happen to be staring a new religion

• God is Love, and all his angels have subjective nature. Jesus is passive, and Michael is Faith
• Passive Jesus has power over pleasure and suffering sepereratly at the same time, unlocking supreme nirvana.
• Michael as Faith is a groundhog who came up one day to tell the fortunate fate of the universe. Faith creates Hope out of his rib.
• The fallen angel of light is Knowledge. Lucifer had existed for all eternity with Love, and Faith until one day a creature called the devil was begotten out of nothing having never been before, and the angel of Existence fell infecting a portion of All and All itself fell. Because of that Omniscience could now see fowl, and filthy things and fell.
• Lucifer and Satan are not the same. Lucifer is the highest of the most high, Satan is the low of all lows.
• Hate gives No-Love his power, fulfilling the book of revelation.
• We believe in order. God is number 1.
• We believe faith is fundamental in science.
• Not only do we believe in ever after, we have always existed in eternity always before I call it Alpha.

 

[shunyadragon]

I see some people tripping through fields of poppies trying to custom design the shoes that fit. This is not a very realistic reality. It is common for people to do this in recent history and by they way what they believe is not a religion and everyone else believes in a religion.

Your post does contain some contradictions, and you seem to conditionally want to keep one foot in the churches and put your other foot in some kind of personal creation deleting somethings you object to.

Actually a very humanist approach to be a personal selective process as to what you want and not want to believe, and some things appear to be from an interpretation of scripture you want to reject, such as the belief in hell.

 

[Aldrnari]

Reading your story reminds me of my own in a lot of ways... I have to say that I think it's awesome that you're being intellectually honest with yourself and asking the big questions. Have you started researching other texts, or does the bible have everything you need at this point?

 

[Jeremiah Ames]

Reading your story reminds me of my own in a lot of ways... I have to say that I think it's awesome that you're being intellectually honest with yourself and asking the big questions. Have you started researching other texts, or does the bible have everything you need at this point?

I have read other writings, but at this time always go back to the bible to see how it connects. It’s strange, the more I’ve been reading outside the bible, the more I seem to understand what the bible says. If I had to quantify my bible understanding, it would be that I may be close to a single grain of sand on the entire seashore. Also, even though I believe I understand far more than I did a month ago, I now feel I have far more to learn. Oh, and a year ago I knew virtually nothing. But then, I was attending a church at that time.

 

[Aldrnari]

I have read other writings, but at this time always go back to the bible to see how it connects. It’s strange, the more I’ve been reading outside the bible, the more I seem to understand what the bible says. If I had to quantify my bible understanding, it would be that I may be close to a single grain of sand on the entire seashore. Also, even though I believe I understand far more than I did a month ago, I now feel I have far more to learn. Oh, and a year ago I knew virtually nothing. But then, I was attending a church at that time.

That seems to be a common theme, I notice. The more one learns, the more one finds they know so little.

One can never know everything there is to know despite their best efforts, but rather than feeling discouraged, I find it invigorating.

You make me want to pick up the bible and read it again! Though, this time, I might go for the king James translation. It's the most poetic one, imo.

 

[shunyadragon]

I believe that many only consider the Bible in their own personal and cultural context, and fail to consider it in the historical and universal perspective.

 

[socharlie]

That seems to be a common theme, I notice. The more one learns, the more one finds they know so little.

One can never know everything there is to know despite their best efforts, but rather than feeling discouraged, I find it invigorating.

You make me want to pick up the bible and read it again! Though, this time, I might go for the king James translation. It's the most poetic one, imo.

KJV version called The Companion Bible by Bullinger is very helpful.

 

[Rival]

Oh, and a year ago I knew virtually nothing. But then, I was attending a church at that time.

Lmfao! No it never helps.

 

[shunyadragon]

KJV version called The Companion Bible by Bullinger is very helpful.

Other than an inspirational translation in older King's English. In what other way is it helpful?

 

[columbus]

The stumbling blocks are church doctrine.

This.
I use the term dogma, myself.

But yeah, insisting that some ancient people had a better understanding of God and Reality than modern people do is probably the single biggest problem with religion (as it is practiced in the world around me.)

It results in people dragging primitive and obsolete ethics into the modern world. Tom

 

[columbus]

I’ve designed a new religion. (Not really. These beliefs did not originate with me.)

I so happen to be staring a new religion

Here's the problem I have with people inventing new religions.
The most redeeming feature of most religions is that they create community. That takes a long time. By inventing a new version of an ancient concept, you're losing the most valuable part of the concept.

There are religious communities that already exist that are quite similar to your "new" theology. And they have the community, which most people enjoy and benefit from. Religious communities such as Baha'i and UU come to mind.

Tom

 

[socharlie]

Other than an inspirational translation in older King's English. In what other way is it helpful?

Bullinger was Greek and Hebrew scholar, he was not a Jew but was invited proof read Torah scrolls. He points out newer MSS that was not available to KJV interpreters-translators. As a language scholar he points out better choice of translation, comprehensive Hebrew and Greek used phrases and sayings included and pointed out. Customs pointed out.
word explanations like this e.g. Dead and The Dead. - Appendix to the Companion Bible

 

[shunyadragon]

Bullinger was Greek and Hebrew scholar, he was not a Jews but was invited proof read Torah scrolls. He points out newer MSS that was not available to KJV interpreters-translators. As a language scholar he points out better choice of translation, comprehensive Hebrew and Greek used phrases and sayings included and pointed out. Customs pointed out.
word explanations like this e.g. Dead and The Dead. - Appendix to the Companion Bible

Okay, but later translations have been demonstrated to be more accurate based on more sources. Actually, I tend to use comparative Bibles and for the Old Testament I rely on more recent Hebrew translations.

 

[socharlie]

Here's the problem I have with people inventing new religions.
The most redeeming feature of most religions is that they create community. That takes a long time. By inventing a new version of an ancient concept, you're losing the most valuable part of the concept.

There are religious communities that already exist that are quite similar to your "new" theology. And they have the community, which most people enjoy and benefit from. Religious communities such as Baha'i and UU come to mind.

Tom

Everyone supposed to have one's own religion, This is ideal - Living spirit, living one's own dream. This is old Gnostic way.

 

[shunyadragon]

Everyone supposed to have one's own religion, This is ideal - Living spirit, living one's own dream. This is old Gnostic way.

. . . and in Islamic religion the Sufi way.