An Unintentional Journey

I base my Christianity on Jesus, even though Church follows Paul instead.

Have you ever noticed that when some Christians defend their views, they cite passages from all over the bible, but rarely quote Jesus.

You do realize practically nothing of what you do in church is actually Biblical, or even Gospel founded. 

Most conservatives don’t even realize they cherry pick their scriptures. Unless they consider women unclean during their periods or had the house blessed after mildew, they are cherry picking.

One of the main hallmarks of a cult are charismatic leaders. The second one is that you do not question the leader or their interpretations of scripture. While the charismatic aspect may be lacking in many churches may be lacking, the do not question the interpretation of scripture, vis a vis leadership, is not. This was made clear to me when I told a conservative that I had been taught what he got, but that I was also taught other interpretations and interpretation methods. He gave me blank stare. He was unable or unwilling to step out of his single view of scripture, even when I pointed out to him areas where he already had. You know, do you eat pork or shrimp? Or, did you call in a priest when you had mildew. Or do you consider your wife unclean when she has her period? Nope. He just couldn’t wouldn’t allow himself to get it. Lie most cult followers, willful blindness.

It seems to me that what is called Christianity these days is in reality a version perverted by the idol of Church ... at least for the most part. Magisterium is nothing more than the self justification of “church authority” as their power to interpret scripture over anybody else. One of the very few things the protestants took with themselves when they left. This alone is reason enough to go back to the gospels and study Jesus all the more.

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No, I am serious. It is a very pertinent question. Let me translate that into asking, “Who is following Jesus or who is following  ‘church’?”. I put that point home one day to a close friend in a discussion of sorts, and I asked him, “What did Jesus have to say about “X”?”  ... he was forced to say, “Nothing,” in other words, his belief was not founded in Jesus.  This is where I started thinking about faith being founded in Jesus or church. I was lucky. I know a few others who are lucky to have been able to do that. A long time ago I decided I would be Christian, but denomination X for the purpose of worship. I noticed two high profile ‘losing faith’ stories in the past few days, an author and a musician. I have to wonder if being able to separate church from Jesus could have worked for them. Why do they have to quit the whole kit and caboodle? Why not just follow Jesus?

I got lucky. I grew up around science. I worked around scientific endeavours, and had hobbies rooted in it. When I went to the University of Saint Pauls, I ran across theology professors rooted in philosophy, and the Biblical professors rooted in a methodology as rigorous  as the scientific one. It was also a very liberal place. Looking back it seems that for the most part it was a very Jesus Only oriented community. Given the range of denominations that was there when I attended and given the range of interpretation, the only safe topic was Jesus himself.  Maybe this is why going to simply Jesus does not bother me. Its how the early Christian me was formed in many ways. You can’t argue with his words. Unfortunately words are always being put in His mouth. This Jesus Only experiment is in part a filter in the hopes of recovering the Authentic chosen one. https://ncse.com/cej/3/2/answers-to-creationist-attacks-carbon-14-dating

The “Christianity’ of the earliest church is no where near the abomination it has since become. So, baptism then meant something a lot different. I was considering this after listening to a Bible thumper and his distorted view of scripture. Most churches these days are not Christian, and at best only partially so. A few are trying to get back to the roots of their faith, but it is a hard slog, and an uphill one. There are so many layers piled on top of the original faith it is difficult to uncover that original nugget that Jesus intended. The ecumenical councils were political conferences rather than theological. Oh yes, they decided theology, but they arrived at their decisions via political mechanisms and theology itself frequently took a back seat to the church maintaining control over the populace. If you look at just the Gospels without the learned distortions and contamination, that nugget starts to become self evident. I am learning how to free the nugget, let it loose from the bondage it has been place under, in the hopes it will begin to blossom once more. It is that nugget that I want blossoming in my heart. There is intrinsic beauty in Jesus Only Christianity.

Yeah, ‘Jesus Only” left me with the tiniest number of options. Other than berating the pharisaic tendencies of most denominations, what’s left? Love your neighbour. That is the only thing left. No judgement except for those that should know better ... read ‘denominational hierarchies”. I have been left with the idea that more people follow church than actually follow Christ. I have had to come to that conclusion because of the oft used “What did Jesus Say?” for a lot of things. The most common response to that question is “Nothing, but ...” ... you can fill in the blank with any number of, well, excuses really. People have forgotten how to think for themselves, and those that do, find themselves at real odds with religious authorities. 

I am going to draw a cartoon of Jesus talking to somebody.  Jesus is saying, “I am the way, and the truth and the … will you pay attention! Look at me! Stop looking at Paul!!” That pretty well sums it up.