Leaving Christianity to Follow the Teachings of Jesus

Video also on BitChute: https://www.bitchute.com/video/lDFiXo62Vbms/

In this video I discuss some of the major differences between the religion of Christianity & teachings of Jesus, why I left evangelical Christianity, and some of the dangers posed by fundamental Christianity, based on my experience growing up in a devout evangelical Christian environment.

One of the major problems with being brought up in Christianity, is that you are taught that the Church’s interpretation of the message of Jesus and what it means to ‘believe’ in him, is the only valid belief system about Jesus one can have. You can take it or leave it, essentially. If you don’t like it, you can convert to another religion, or become an atheist. The idea that you could follow the teachings of Jesus and pursue any sort of connection with God or divine union outside of some religion or church is out of the question.

As it turns out, however, the teachings of Jesus happen to be in direct contradiction of the teachings of the church in most regards. My experience is with evangelical Christianity, but there are many similarities in how the various different forms and sects of Christianity operate. All of them to my knowledge are fear-based religions, whereas Jesus taught universal love, and that love casts out all fear.

The whole idea behind organized religion of any kind is that man cannot connect with the divine directly, and needs a group of men to show them the way. This gives one smaller group of men control over large masses of people, in a similar manor to how government rules over the masses, but in the case of religion, instead of the church threatening to punish those who do not obey their edicts (as the state operates), the church threatens that God will punish anyone who doesn’t obey their edicts or believe the ‘correct’ doctrines, which of course they claim are divine edicts; and such punishment will be eternal torture.

The idea of conscious eternal torture by an all-loving deity is on the other hand entirely absent from the teachings of Jesus, and wasn’t even made a part of Christian doctrine until many hundreds of years later during the dark ages. It also runs contrary to reason, that any finite wrongdoing, no matter how evil, should be punished eternally, even for those who believe that ‘justice’ requires ‘sin’ be punished. This Christian idea of hell is not true justice, even for those who believe in the idea of requiring punishment for wrongdoing.

On the other hand, Jesus taught that karma (law of cause and effect - “what you sow, so shall you reap”), not eternal torture in ‘hell’ would bring the just dues for any evil acts committed by people. “Whoever lives by the sword shall die by the sword,” he taught, as just one example.

Another major flaw with Christianity is the doctrine fundamental to the religion that in order to be ‘saved’ from this eternal torture, one must also believe that Jesus himself was tortured and killed as a blood sacrifice to appease the wrath or ‘satisfy the divine justice of God’ as they say, in order that this same all-loving God would be able to forgive you and I, and thus not punish us with eternal torment.

The problem with this theology is that it turns a loving all-merciful Father of humanity and creator of life that Jesus revealed into an evil bloodthirsty devil of a deity, who is less merciful and less forgiving than even ‘sinful’ human fathers. After all, what human father would punish an innocent son in order to forgive the other son who had committed some wrongdoing?!? This is absolute insanity, and has nothing to do whatsoever with love, mercy, or justice for that matter. Sacrificing an innocent being in order to forgive the guilty party is not justice, it is evil, and in that case the ‘forgiveness’ isn’t true forgiveness anyway.

Jesus agreed, teaching against sacrifice, telling the Jews that if they had understood the saying, “I desire mercy and not sacrifice,” they would not have condemned the innocent. He also taught that in order to be forgiven, all we must do is forgive others.

The church is constantly going around and judging other people in other religions, or atheists, for rejecting the ‘truth’ of their religion and condemning them to eternal hellfire for not believing the ‘correct’ beliefs, and yet Jesus taught his followers to judge not, in order that they not be judged, and said people should be judged by their actions rather than beliefs.

The church teaches that salvation comes through believing religious doctrine, and practicing certain religious rituals such as reading your bible and going to church, baptism, communion and the like. Jesus taught that ‘salvation’ comes through selfless love to neighbor, by feeding the hungry, caring for the sick, and visiting those in prison, and that this salvation is from our own karma and suffering, not some future hell after death. He identified himself with the weak and suffering, saying that anyone who didn’t help such people in need didn’t help him, and rejected the company or worship of such people whose deeds he called evil.

The church teaches people to believe certain things about Jesus, but Jesus taught people to simply follow his teachings, and takes great issue with those who call him ‘Lord’ and yet do not do what he says. Almost as if he is speaking directly to the Christian church...

The church teaches that a physical kingdom of God will be brought to earth in the future when Jesus returns to violently slay all of his ‘enemies.’ Jesus on the other hand taught that the kingdom of heaven was already here, in each and every person who manifested it - “The kingdom of God is within you,” he said.

Many Christians, especially evangelicals, are pro-war, and support the troops, and believe that governments waging war are instituted by God. Jesus on the other hand taught people to love their enemies, he blessed the peacemakers, and taught his disciples to not seek to “exercise authority” over others as “the kings of the earth” do, as governments do.

Christianity teaches its followers to believe a book, the Bible, that is full of many contradictions, and thus in reality they are teaching constituents to follow their particular interpretation of the book. Jesus taught his disciples to follow his teachings and the simple law of love over any human writings, and that if they did so that the spirit of truth would teach them directly. There is no need to follow a book as the highest authority if we are in fact ourselves divine beings clothed in physical bodies; if God dwells in us as Jesus taught, and if by following our hearts we could get in touch with this inner divinity. There is no need to read the ‘word of God’ if we can hear it directly, within ourselves.

Christianity teaches that Jesus was the “only begotten son of God,” God in human form, far above any other human, and so they have created a nonsensical doctrine of the trinity, that is foreign to both the teachings of Jesus and the entire Bible itself. This also greatly disempowered humans, as it teaches we can never become like Jesus in this regard, and we are doomed to a state perpetual ‘sin’ and can only be redeemed by believing on that all-important blood sacrifice.

Jesus taught rather that we are all sons of God, and can all realize this divinity as he did, and that anyone who learns to love as he loved are his brothers and sisters. He taught the brotherhood of humanity; that we are all equals. He taught that we could all become enlightened as he had, that we could all become “one with God” as he claimed he was. This, unlike religion, is greatly empowering.

The church teaches the doctrine of ‘original sin’, that we are all born sinners, a state inherited from Adam who they claim sinned when he ate an apple given to him by his wife who was deceived by a talking snake. They teach it is impossible to escape this state by our own doing, and therefore the only option is to accept the ‘free gift’ of the blood sacrifice of Jesus.

Jesus rather teaches that it is possible to stop sinning, which he saw more as a state of sickness to be healed than an evil to be punished, brought about by the accumulated wrong choices made in our past as opposed to an evil nature we are born into. He also never taught that people are born evil as the church does, but rather taught that children are innocent and thus used them as symbols of what we should seek to become like in order to “enter the kingdom” (higher state of consciousness). He taught that people can choose good or evil, light or darkness, and are not predisposed to a perpetual state of sin and darkness as Christianity seems to teach.

I could go on and on, but that is enough for one post, to show some of the major differences between the liberating teachings of Jesus and the disempowering teaching of the Christian church. That is not to say there are not many loving and well-intentioned Christians, and I grew up in a very loving family and church.

But that still does not negate the fact that the doctrines and beliefs being taught and instilled into the minds and hearts of religious constituents are disempowering, fear-based, illogical, and pose a great danger to all those who think, as I once did, that the only alternative to this religion is converting to a different fear-based religion or becoming an atheist. In reality, nothing could be further from the truth, and a study of the teachings of Jesus outside the influence of religion reveal some of the most revolutionary spiritual teachings ever given to humanity, that teach a radical way of life completely opposite to the way of religion.

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