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| https://www.thepeacefulrevolution.info/ christianity-a-successful-failure.html |
Yet lack of love is an omission problem, and it is the biggest problem of all, as we shall see. Examples of sins of commission include getting drunk, swearing or cursing, cheating, lying, stealing, smoking cigarettes, fornicating, disobeying laws or rules of governments, etc. The Christian's list of sins would be long, but it would generally omit the three root problems of fear, self-pride, and selfishness. Some Christians would say that self-pride and selfishness are sins, but they would say they are just different sins not any more important than any other sin. They would not typically classify fear as sin.
In essence, what the Christians do is to focus on the symptoms instead of the root causes, and call the collective symptoms The Problem. Or to put it another way, they focus on that which is less important while ignoring the stuff that is most important. Joshua said it this way: Woe to you, Bible experts and religious leaders, hypocrites! For you give ten percent of your income (to your religious organization), and have neglected the weightier provisions of the law: justice and mercy and faithfulness; but these are the things you should have done without neglecting the others. You blind guides, who strain out a gnat (keep religious rules) and swallow a camel (don’t live by justice, mercy or faithfulness)! (Matt. 23:23-24)
A great and current parallel example of the Christian error of vague or misleading labels of a problem would be calling Muslim Jihadists "terrorists." By calling people "terrorists" who are actually motivated by specific religious beliefs found in Islam's holy book is to at best obfuscate the facts and at worst, to hide them altogether. The symptom – a horrible one at that – is the violence that causes “terror” in the victims or potential victims. The cause is some Muslims following some of the teachings of Mohammed, Islam's prophet and spokesman for God, as found in the Quran. (See Appendix 6, Islam). So, the Christians focus on their dandruff while they are dying of brain cancer. They step on the broken glass and put Band-Aids on their feet, and step on the glass again the next day, thinking the Band-Aid is the solution. They are most upset and focused on Johnny’s poor grades at school while Jonny is bullying others. They keep putting fires out in their community’s houses while ignoring the electrical appliance that is causing the fires. They focus on Betty’s college entrance scores while Betty is having sex that will likely lead to HIV and her death and possibly others. In short, they are worried about and focus on “disease” (the vague unclearly defined concept of “sin”), yet they never look closely enough to properly diagnose and treat the cause behind “disease” (self-pride and fear and selfishness). They do this because it is much easier to focus on symptoms (sin) than to consider the cause (loving my life in this world and thus having no faith and little love because I am in my made cage of self-pride and fear and selfishness).
It is far easier to abstain from minor or perceived moral wrongs than it is to engage in a life of self-change and using truth to foster, encourage and implement change in our lives and the lives of others. Furthermore, they say the way to fix the sin problem is to "accept the substitutionary (propitiatory, vicarious, etc.) death of Christ for the forgiveness of your sins." This belief is perhaps the most damaging aspect in the concept-belief realm of the substitute that is Christianity.
Christians are wrongly taught and hold that “by believing that Christ died on the cross to pay for your sins you are forgiven, and heaven bound.” This belief is sadly and horribly wrong as we have seen. Joshua teaches no such thing – in contradiction, he says let him set us free, so we can care about what is true and right, proclaim and fight non-violently for those things, and above all love one another. Furthermore, a reasonable belief of being accountable for one’s behavior including lack of helping others (or said another way, lack of love) is replaced with Paul’s “gospel of grace” and their doctrines of eternal security derived from non-Joshua sources.
Many Christians are only too glad to push away any notions of accountability and responsibility with their favorite Paul doctrine of salvation by grace. So, there is a three-fold falsehood that is the knock-out punch in substituting the false religious problem for the real problems identified earlier. First, don't look solely to Joshua of Nazareth to understand who God is, what God is like and what God wants. Instead, they look to “the Bible,” their religious leaders and their favorite Christian authors or “scholars.” This mistake is the fatal error, and this error makes it easy to adopt all the other errors, including the next two.
Second, of gaining forgiveness from God for one's “sins” and thus acceptance from Him by “believing” (merely mental only) that Christ's death was a substitutionary sacrifice for you and your deserved death or punishment demanded by God's justice; thereby absolving you from your “sin.” As has been discussed, not seeing ourselves as guilty human beings and not believing what is true nor practicing what is right - especially love - is how we condemn ourselves (being a prisoner in our cage of self-pride and fear and selfishness). Being genuinely remorseful for our realization of the state of our soul, and looking with faith to the True Light of the world to save us from ourselves is what brings us out of our cage and into everlasting Life.
Third, that after having received the forgiveness for one’s sins, one continues to be “saved” (headed to heaven) by God’s grace (and “going to church”) and thus God will not hold you accountable or responsible for how you live your life or at least there are little or no consequences for one’s decisions and behavior in life. This falsehood successfully turns people away from Joshua of Nazareth and to Paul or others and their erroneous religious doctrines.
After having entered into Life, what keeps us on the difficult way and abiding in eternal Life is we make sincere and real efforts to do what Joshua says motivated by our love for him and his Father. Please note this saying of Joshua which validates that Paul’s “gospel of grace” is wrong. Do not marvel at this; for an hour is coming, in which all who are in the tombs will hear His voice, and will come forth; those who did the good deeds to a resurrection of life, those who committed the evil deeds to a resurrection of judgment. (John 5:28-29) Many religious people cement the third error by their doctrine of “eternal security,” meaning once a person is “saved,” they are always “saved” and cannot lose their salvation. In essence, they say to themselves, “Isn't that great! Just believe this stuff about our christ and his blood sacrifice to pay for our sins, and we are heaven bound-now we can get on with loving our life in this world to its fullest-me, me, me and money too!”
The thing that its leaders and members call “the church” is now justified in their “sin forgiveness” aspect of their religion by those three errors that they make and hold. People are not taught to think about how fear and self-pride and selfishness affect their daily lives. And if they are not motivated to identify, recognize and work on those three root problems of our nature, will they ever be part of the solution? Of course, not--they will remain in darkness and be part of the problem. They will put Band-Aids on arteries squirting out blood. They will flail at their sins and ignore their self-condemnation. Christians are very complacent in their delusion, “they just know” that they had their sin forgiven when they “entered into a relationship with christ”-- religious lingo for having some emotional experience or of affirming or adopting the intellectual doctrine of their “church.”
In the prior chapters in the section, we have taken a close look at the significant falsehoods that Christianity is built upon, namely the Bible instead of Joshua, a false gospel, the central ritual that substitutes for what Joshua asks for, and an inadequate and negligent understanding of our real problems. In the next few chapters, we will look not at specific errors and wrong practices that Christians hold and substitute for what God wants, but rather a few of the primary methods and beliefs the Christian leaders use to nullify, hide or make of no effect the teachings of Joshua of Nazareth.
Chapter Summary:
- Christians teach that “sin” is the primary problem for human beings, but they do not define sin clearly and which sins are important will vary according to the religious leader; The true root problems for us are a nature ruled by fear, self-pride, and selfishness;
- Christians teach that we can have our "sin" problem fixed by “believing Christ died for your sins.” What that generally means is if I merely make an intellectual or emotional profession in Christianity's Christ, my sin problem will be gone. That is a delusional belief which leads to much hypocrisy; Joshua teaches that repentance for the wrongs I committed in my state of non-faith and entering into faith in HIM and the Father HE reveals are what brings me forgiveness and into eternal Life.
- Joshua teaches that living according to his Way of love and caring about what is true and right is what keeps a person in the state of eternal Life. See Appendix 8, Forgiveness and Blood Sacrifice.
- In the appendix, "Forgiveness and Blood Sacrifice," the following facts will be established: Joshua never said that his death would be a sacrifice for sins;
- Joshua never taught that his Father required a sacrifice for sins; Joshua did speak about the meaning of his death, and he spoke of it as paying a ransom, not being a sacrifice for sin;
- Joshua provides no basis to support the primitive Hebrew belief of requiring blood to be spilled to receive forgiveness; (Some will point to Luke 22:20 to try and argue that Jesus did teach his death was a sacrifice. Here are arguments against that. The passage does not use the term “sacrifice”. Some manuscripts do not have the phrase,“given for you” or “poured out for you”. It was ancient Hebrew practice to seal a covenant with blood.)
- Only a terrible and unjust dad would punish his innocent child for the wrongdoings of a guilty child; Forgiveness is granted to those who are sincerely remorseful for their wrongdoing(s) and thus desire to change.
In creating his books, he has chosen an excellent method to ensure readers are able to first, grasp, then study, and, then, hopefully to accept what he has shared. He does this by simply using a normal scholarly method of presentation: First, Chapter Questions--or what is to be covered--are given. Second, would be a general discussion of points that the writer provides, through sharing what is, first, and then to debate what may be, for want of a better word, wrong... Finally, he presents Chapter Summaries which repeats in a clear and concise way the central concepts conveyed in the chapter.
To me this was a very important process to be followed, routinely, consistently, and for easier understand and retention. After all, we have negatively learned that repetitive rhetoric of misinformation can result in major problems, as is happening, right now, in today's world...
Essentially what Spiess is doing for his potential readers is to, first, present the issue, then he presents his logic and reasoning, and finally, arrives and shares his conclusion. Specifically, Spiess has ensured that, given the very controversial material he is presenting, that we readers have every opportunity to, first learn what the issue is, explore with the writer his opinions and documentation, and then to allow you to consider his final conclusions...
This is so very important, in my opinion, because Tim Spiess is, in essence, presenting Jesus Christ, (Joshua) to us in a way that we can learn, come to understand, and recognize exactly what we who are Christians, have as the Truth, the basis upon which our faith is to be based... Let's get very specific:
The definition that Jesus (or Joshua) of Nazareth gives to “religion” is the things people believe and do concerning God, spiritual or metaphysical things, human life, and death - that have no basis in my teachings or which nullify or work against my teachings.6 This view or definition of religion has one voice informing those who inquire about God and His role in human life. This distinction is critical – between the conventional definition of religion and Joshua of Nazareth's definition of religion. The term "religious" means people who believe some God, gods or a spiritual reality exists and who have practices around those God or spiritual beliefs which beliefs or practices have no reasonable basis in Joshua of Nazareth’s teachings. Please read that again...
Over 2000 years have passed, and a writer by the name of Tim Spiess started questioning... Tim, being a man of logic, saw things that just should not be happening... He began to use his reasoning--the action of thinking about something in a logical, sensible way. What he ultimately acknowledged as truth resulted in this and his other book... They are both highly recommended!
It was back in the 1970s when I first started a similar, though not as concentrated, journey, to question... I was glad to see this book was updated into this century... The key point I began to realize is that we had a right to doubt. In fact, since we were created with Free Will, the ability to know right from wrong, it was quite easy for me to accept and agree with Spiess' thesis, in this book, that, indeed, Christianity has been a successful failure.
In creating his books, he has done an excellent method to ensure readers are able to first, grasp, then study, and, then, hopefully to accept what he has shared. He does this by simply using a normal scholarly method of presentation: First, Chapter Questions--or what is to be covered--are given. Second, would be a general discussion of points that the writer provides, through sharing what is, first, and then to debate what may be, for want of a better word, wrong... Finally, he presents Chapter Summaries which repeats in a clear and concise way the central concepts conveyed in the chapter.
To me this was a very important process to be followed, routinely, consistently, and for easier understanding and retention. After all, we have negatively learned that repetitive rhetoric of misinformation can result in major problems, as is happening, right now, in today's world...
Essentially what Spiess is doing for his potential readers is to, first, present the issue, then he presents his logic and reasoning, and finally, arrives and shares his conclusion. Specifically, Spiess has ensured that, given the very controversial material he is presenting, that we readers have every opportunity to, first learn what the issue is, explore with the writer his opinions and documentation, and then to allow us to consider his final conclusions...
This is so very important, in my opinion, because Tim Spiess is, in essence, presenting Jesus Christ, (Joshua) to us in a way that we can learn, come to understand, and recognize exactly what we who are Christians, have as the Truth, the basis upon which our faith is to be based... Let's get very specific:
So, some disciples will see what is happening in the world around them, gain useful insight, and be able to speak The Light’s truths in a strong, convicting manner (prophets). Some will be able to help other people with things they don’t understand or decisions they are facing (wise men). Some will be good writers who will proclaim The Light’s truths with their writing skills (scribes). Disciples value each disciple in a Family for whatever talents or skills they bring to the Family, remembering that "the greatest among you shall be the lowest servant of all." And then he proceeds to use common examples of what he means: All the world's problems regarding human-caused conflict, lack of love and neglect, can be solved IF people will make Joshua their true Leader! Because people choose not to make Joshua their true leader does not mean the solution has not been identified and given, nor does it mean it will not work. To say, “making Joshua of Nazareth one's Leader will not solve the problems,” is a false claim. When the people who say that refuse to give Joshua of Nazareth a chance to lead them, it is like the soccer player who says, “we will never win the world cup without a good coach,” but refuses to listen to the new coach and thus will not do what he says! Or, as another illustration, not making Joshua their leader and saying he can’t fix the problem is like the alcoholic asking the question, “what is the cure for alcoholism if I continue to drink alcohol”! Or like saying the solution can be known and realized at the top of the mountain but refusing to make an effort to climb the mountain. The simple truth is that for every person that participates in one of Joshua’s Families/Flocks, the problems are solved for that group of people. And for every successful group of people living the way the Way wants, you will have a model for other people to learn from, emulate and mimic. Seeing truth and love lived out is a powerful thing and it is desperately needed--not seeing it is a horrific omission that those who claim to “follow Jesus” are responsible for and which they will be held accountable. It is truly horrible to take people's only true Hope and hide him beneath an empty and shallow counterfeit—the successful failure.
And, yes, I was curious about whether and how he might refer to the political issues that are being faced in America since around 2015... I was fully in agreement with how it was handled, including how it was clarified:
In sum, existential or ethical relativism will always lead to conflict, anarchy, destruction, and the absolute rule of the human cage of self-pride, fear, and selfishness. And when anarchy happens, then it is only a matter of time before a single ruler – the strongest or most powerful person – will end up ruling. There are other dominant false and deceitful beliefs and practices out in the culture besides relativism, which lead many people astray. One of those ways to get people to think wrongly is to redefine language. We will examine that practice in the next chapter. In so doing, we will remove another obstacle to people seeing whether Christianity is a successful failure or not.
Chapter Summary:
- Truth or ethical relativism is an erroneous worldview;
- We were designed to acknowledge and think using absolute things/concepts in the domain of human behavior and in the reality in which we exist on this earth;
- Human beings are NOT a trustworthy source of ethics—we need Someone Greater than ourselves;
- Ethical or Truth Relativism will always lead to anarchy, suffering, and destruction due to the deeply flawed human nature we possess.
I want to quickly point out that words such as ethical relativism are clearly developed through the step-by-step process used by the author. And also recognize in writing my review that I have provided merely an overview that was sufficiently selected to provide potential readers a chance to understand the content of the book. Based upon my working with many PhD candidates at a university, I was completely attuned to a very structured style of presentation for introducing new possibilities, even with familiar material. I want to commend the writer for his willingness to, in creating an obviously controversial book title, also take readers into the nitty-gritty (the most important aspects or practical details of a subject or situation.) in order to justify and help teach exactly how a religion can indeed be a failure... Nearly all books have a main thesis of good over evil... Yet, in this world, we have purposely chosen or accepted without question that others, other than the one and only leader of the Christian Religion, might actually embellish, misrepresent and/or lie about what His teachings say.
As many of my ongoing readers may realize, I was already attuned to the reality of the concept presented in this book. As a Christian, I have always been open to learn more and more about my Lord and Savior. Each time I read a book, I learn a little more about the truth about His teachings. Nearly all books have a main thesis of good over evil... Yet, in this world, we have purposely or accepted without question that others other than the one and only leader of the Christian Religion, might embellish, misrepresent and actually lie about what His teachings are.
Finally, if you have concerns about what is happening in America and across the world, I consider this and Spiess' other book, The Light of the World as both must-reads. I chose this one first because I knew that the other would, in actuality, become my one and only bible to continue to learn more about His Words... Words are so important, aren't they? But much misinformation is purposely being thrown out in a continuous litany of rhetoric that speaks of the dark nature of man. We, you and I, must begin sharing His Light across the world. I am so happy to have readers from all parts of the world, because that is where He is--He is the hungry child in Africa, He is the grandmother murdered by the Hamas, He is the widows who suffer, but still support the war in Ukraine because of a real desire to be free...
And, What We Do Unto The Least of These, You Do Unto Jesus Christ (Joshua). I've already purchased one set of books to give to another family member. If your family has been divided due to politics, these books may be perfect gifts for those who think nothing about accepting that "Retribution" is called for...violence is called for...and our children must continue to die because of lies about guns...
You each must become as children again...to learn accepting love, and knowing that love is right and should be shared... I know that the world is not like that...But we have to start somewhere. I am suggesting to you that these two books may very well be the way that you take those first steps in finding Truth, Understanding, and the awareness that we have all been corrupted in some small or larger way from where we should be as followers of our Savior,
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