Read it for yourself, in Titus 1:12-13.

For some reason the vast majority of Christians look at the Apostles and other writers of the New Testament as being like super heroes, always able to hear God’s Living Word and never interpreting that word from God wrongly. However, all of them were mere men, humans who sometimes made mistakes. We have a record of one of them, Peter, initially getting it wrong; then later he repented, seeing the error of his way. Peter refused to eat with the Gentiles because their food was not blessed and considered unclean. But God finally got through to him, giving him the vision of the sheet coming down from heaven with all manner of animals, telling Peter that whatever God creates is not to be considered unclean. Isn’t it totally reasonable to then assume that in some areas these men of God might never have gotten it right? If that could be true for us, why not them?

What if you were a preacher and traveled to a far country where slavery was still being practiced? Would you feel it your Christian duty to help the slaves obtain their freedom? Would it make a difference if I told you those slaves you would encounter are young girls forced to be sex slaves?

If I came across such injustice I know I would have to do something, because such an action would be in perfect harmony with Christ’s teaching (often referred to as “The Golden Rule”) “Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them: for this is the law and the prophets” (Mt 7:12). Among all the Christian denominations in America during the Civil war, only a very few were united in their opposition to slavery. The Quakers, or Society of Friends as they call themselves, was one such church.

Again we find Paul preaching another Gospel, one that condones and empowers the continuation of slavery. “Teach slaves to be subject to their masters in everything, to try to please them, not to talk back to them, and not to steal from them, but to show that they can be fully trusted, so that in every way they will make the teaching about God our Savior attractive” (Titus 2:9-10). This same command is issued in Paul’s letter to Timothy (I Timothy 6:1-2): “Let as many servants as are under the yoke count their own masters worthy of all honor, that the name of God and his doctrine be not blasphemed. And they that have believing masters, let them not despise them, because they are brethren; but rather do them service, because they are faithful and beloved, partakers of the benefit. These things teach and exhort”.

So, to sum up, if I am the master of slaves when I give my life to Christ, I must not listen to Jesus, who said to do to others as I would have them do to me (and EVERYONE desires to be FREE!!!) but rather, according to Paul, I must listen to Paul, someone I now know to have preached a different Gospel then Jesus on many matters. If at this point there is any doubt in your mind that obeying Paul’s command on this issue of slavery is wrong, just go back and review your history. Slavery in this nation was justified by those very passages written by Paul!! What unspeakable evils were done in the name of Christ, simply because Christian men and women refused to acknowledge that some of the writers of the New Testament might not have God’s word on every subject!!

Paul’s commands regarding women are universally ignored today, but in times past were considered commands from God to Paul and thence to the church. Without a doubt his being a lifelong bachelor gave him no insights whatever into the mind of women or their needs. Paul tells women that they must not teach in the church but rather keep silent. Christians have found all sorts of justifications for why he said what he said about women, never once admitting the truth, that Paul just didn’t hear God right on this one!

His bias towards women extended to his extreme views on sex, considering celibacy (his choice) to be the best choice. This led him to some other bizarre generalities regarding women. “Let not a widow be taken into the number under 60, having been the wife of one man… but the younger widows refuse: for when they have begun to wax wanton against Christ, they will marry; having damnation because they have cast off their first faith. Besides, they get into the habit of being idle, wandering from house to house; and not only idle but tattlers also and busybodies, speaking things which they ought not” (I Timothy 5: 9-13). This is obvious bias against women and it is further proof that Paul is not the saint he makes himself out to be. He was a man who in many instances preached another Gospel then the one Jesus preached, for Jesus never once uttered such foolishness against women.

Finally, let us look at Paul’s commands regarding how we should view those in political power, the rulers of the day. In Romans 13: 1-6 we read, “Let everyone be subject to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established. The authorities that exist have been established by God. Consequently, whoever rebels against the authority is rebelling against what God has instituted, and those who do so will bring judgment on themselves. For rulers hold no terror for those who do right, but for those who do wrong. Do you want to be free from fear of the one in authority? Then do what is right and you will be commended. For the one in authority is God’s servant for your good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for rulers do not bear the sword for no reason. They are God’s servants, agents of wrath to bring punishment on the wrongdoer. Therefore, it is necessary to submit to the authorities, not only because of possible punishment but also as a matter of conscience. This is also why you pay taxes, for the authorities are God’s servants, who give their full time to governing.”

I only have to bring up one tyrant to prove that “The authorities that exist have been established by God… They are God’s servants” is a false statement: Adolf Hitler. But as history has proven, the centuries are littered with rulers who were anything but “God’s servants”! We also have Stalin in Russia, Pol Pot in Cambodia, Saddam Hussein in Iraq, the Turkish Government’s genocide of 1-2 million Armenian Christians after WWI, and many more examples that cannot, by any stretch of the imagination, cause us to agree with Paul and declare that the authorities which did these unspeakable evils were “God’s servants”.

However, for many Christians throughout history it was in fact Paul’s writings that caused them to go along with brutal regimes such as the Nazis. Remember, Paul declares that to resist rulers is to rebel against God. Many years ago I read some of Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s writings and saw just how complicit German Christian’s were in their failure to resist Hitler. They felt they were right because they followed the Apostle Paul’s teaching on the matter, teachings that were given a further boost of authority because they are in the Bible! Jesus on the other hand never made any such statements regarding God establishing rulers for our good. Jesus did say to render to Caesar (or any government for that matter) what was Caesar’s, but this was said in the context of money, not blind allegiance. Again, it is obvious to me that Paul has preached another Gospel.

I could provide a number of other examples but my point is simply this. Stop following blindly and unquestioningly what you read in the Bible. Just because something is in the Bible doesn’t make it the best choice, nor does it make it true. God said in Genesis, “Come, let us reason together”, giving us each a mind that should question and research every idea, including Biblical ideas, before they are accepted as true and the best course of action.

To worship God in TRUTH is to embrace the practical example of God’s love as revealed in Christ Jesus. There is no greater example of self-sacrificial love, no greater pattern for forgiveness in all the world (even forgiveness of those who nailed him to the cross). The life of Jesus is as true a life as any human might experience, totally dedicated to doing God’s will and manifesting God’s love through inner and outer healing and through the sharing of God’s wisdom, which is a Living WORD that forever manifests to those who listen.

I have discovered that the same mind that was in Jesus Christ continues to this day and is ours for the taking. Those who believe in his teachings, who obey his command to “love one another as I have loved you” (Jn 13:34) and who take to heart his prayer for his followers to experience the mystery of oneness with his mind and God’s Spirit, will experience first hand the same unity of love and purpose, the same Living WORD of God flowing through their being. This is the principle of “Abiding”.

“I am come a light into the world, that whosoever believeth on me should not abide in darkness” (Jn 12:46). “Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me” (Jn 15:4). When we worship God in TRUTH, we experience this abiding, this oneness, this glory to glory transformation, this renewal of our fleshly mind through Christ’s eternal mind. This is the Spirit of TRUTH. “I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you forever; Even the Spirit of TRUTH; whom the world cannot receive, because it sees him not, neither knows him: but you know him; for he dwells with you, and shall be in you… At that day you shall know that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you” (John 14:15-20).

This is how we worship God in TRUTH. It begins with the ability to humble oneself, as a little child, accepting that Jesus Christ was indeed sent to reveal the TRUTH of our God given capacity for sacrificial love and forgiveness. And the TRUTH is also this, that we have no need of any other man or woman to teach us the things of God, for as Jesus has told us, he has sent us God’s Holy Spirit to impart God’s Living WORD, to teach us the things of God. With God’s Living WORD comes a peace that passes all understanding… not as the world knows peace, but a far greater peace that is accompanied by joy unspeakable and full of glory. This is the power of God that very few Christians know about or have experienced. But, although this power can be experienced by each individual believer who spends a minimum of one hour a day listening to God meditatively, it is magnified exponentially wherever two or more are gathered in Christ’s name. Spiritual math is not 1+1=2 but 1+1=10.

When Jesus launched his ministry at the age of 33, his first act of love was to gather a group of disciples – male and female – creating a community that provided those disciples with the ability to break free of the need to work incessantly just to survive another day. Creating such a purposeful community of the faithful brought individual and group empowerment. This is the “ship” part of “worth-ship”. Jesus and his disciples ate together; they traveled together; they taught together; they worked together; they healed together; they prayed together; and they even shared a common purse (I do not advocate a common purse, but that is what they did during that time in history, when men and women had very few possessions or money).

Jesus also indicated his support of a community lifestyle as the ideal way to manifest God’s LIFE in other ways. It is no accident that his disciples talked about believers as “the body of Christ”, and called this body the church. “And he is the head of the body, the church” (Colossians 1:18). In Ephesians chapter 4 we see the extreme importance of having a unified and loving church-body: “walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called, 2 With all lowliness and meekness, with longsuffering, forbearing one another in love; 3 Endeavouring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. 4 There is one body, and one Spirit, even as ye are called in one hope of your calling; 5 One Lord, one faith, one baptism, 6 One God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all”.

In this same chapter we are told that each of us has gifts and a purpose, “12 For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ: 13 Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ: 14 That we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive; 15 But speaking the truth in love, may grow up into him in all things, which is the head, even Christ: 16 From whom the whole body fitly joined together and compacted by that which every joint supplieth, according to the effectual working in the measure of every part, maketh increase of the body unto the edifying of itself in love. 17 This I say therefore, and testify in the Lord, that ye henceforth walk not as other Gentiles walk, in the vanity of their mind, 18 Having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart”.

Every church today clearly falls short of this standard of unity and love. And it is easy to understand why if one thinks outside the “box” (the institutional church structure). Worshipping God is not about setting aside a few hours a week for “worship”. Rather, it is about setting apart one’s life for worship.

Worship begins with each individual’s personal, meditative quiet time. Each believer has a responsibility to discipline their mind, to humble their heart, to shake off the daily stress, to instill the right attitude towards the creator by listening to hear what teaching God might provide, by his Living WORD. This leads to an immense sense of God’s presence followed by great peace and joy.

Worship is further magnified when two or more gather for the purpose of manifesting God’s presence. Jesus understood and taught this, not only by the example of his gathering together his disciples but also through his metaphors. The most important metaphor regarding the necessity of purposeful communities of the faithful is that of the sheep. Jesus likened us to sheep over and over again, stressing that he is the shepherd and we are his sheep. Unfortunately, the entire institutional church structure, whether Protestant or Catholic, fails to understand what it means to be like sheep. They have interpreted this to mean we should be meek, mild and followers. If Jesus was so meek and mild how do they explain his taking a whip to the money changers in the temple? If Jesus wanted his disciples to be followers why would he have sent them out two by two to spread the good news and then tell us “He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do” (John 14:12). The traditional church leaders cannot answer this question because they have interpreted this metaphor of the sheep to mean we are to be sheep in attitude. This of course best serves their purpose, to have docile, easily manipulated lay people in their congregation.

However, Jesus meant for us to be like sheep in lifestyle. All sheep hang together for protection from predators. You never see a sheep go off into the next pasture to feed alone. And at the slightest threat they will flock so tightly together that there is nary a space between any of them. I finally understood this when I was watching a movie called “Silver Streak” with Gene Wilder, Jill Clayburgh and Richard Pryor. There is this one scene where Gene has been thrown off the train and is trying to get back. He stops at a ranch and talks the hard old woman owner into flying him back to the train with her crop duster. As they are flying she has some fun, dive bombing her sheep repeatedly. I was totally awestruck by how the entire flock moved as one body in response to her repeated air attacks….first one way, then another, and never once breaking ranks. It was as if the flock had one mind that enabled them to move in such unison.

Besides the metaphors of the body and the sheep, Jesus also used a hen and chicks metaphor to drive home the importance of community to the life of his collective body of representatives here on earth. “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not! 38 Behold, your house is left unto you desolate” (Matthew 23:37-38).

The truth of verse 38, that those who refuse to be gathered will end up with desolate houses, is so obvious to those of us that have no denominational agenda to promote. For instance, I have followed the special studies done by Barna Group, a Christian research ministry that specializes in understanding Christian trends. One recent study revealed that there is no longer any difference in the divorce rate between born-again evangelical Christians and the rest of the world. Back in the early 80’s I remember seeing statistics showing there was a large percentage of difference. Not any more. In every congregation across America the majority of families have broken up and their homes have been left desolate.

If the WAY is a Spirit-Centered way, and the TRUTH is that attendant unity of love and purpose between us and God, then LIFE is at it’s most abundant when living in community. Jesus taught this by creating the first community of believers. He further taught the importance of community by metaphor. These teachings are NOT taught by today’s Christian leaders because those leaders “have a form of godliness [a religion] but deny the power thereof [the power of a Spirit-Centered community life]” (2 Timothy 3:5). I have to agree with Timothy’s remedy in such a situation: “From such turn away”.

Traditional denominations do NOT worship in Spirit and in Truth because they worship at a certain place, in a certain building, for a very short duration, once a week. And the vast majority of those one to two hours spent in so-called “worship” is spent in singing, announcements and preaching. These religious institutions long ago chose to fit in with the world rather than continue trying to transform it. They actively promote the world’s individualistic lifestyle by example and by sermon, conveniently forgetting that passage in James 4:4 which states, “Whosoever will be a friend of the world is an enemy of God”. They are more concerned with appearances then individual spiritual empowerment.

The quality of both the individual’s and the church’s collective life is increased when there is stability within the family, and it is lessened when the congregation is riddled with divorce and financial problems. When members refuse to participate in the usual feigned love (hypocrisy), when they are willing to collectively sacrifice for one another by choosing to BE THE CHURCH-COMMUNITY, when they have been taught how to worship in Spirit and in Truth, then great indeed is the LIFE of that community of believers, for they have multiplied exponentially the love and unity among them.

Simply put, worship arises naturally and spontaneously when we allow Christ to gather us “as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings”, when we mimic the lifestyle of sheep for protection and empowerment, when we finally start being the church, helping each member to realize their God given talents and purpose within the “body of Christ”, which is indeed, the true and only Church.

Jesus, in response to a statement from the woman at the well about where her people worshipped, told this woman that “true worshippers” would no longer be worshipping in a certain place or space according to the dictates of man’s religion: “Our fathers worshipped in this mountain; and you [the Jews] say that in Jerusalem is is the place where men ought to worship. Jesus said to her, ‘Woman, believe me, the hour comes when you shall neither in this mountain, nor yet in Jerusalem, worship the Father… But the hour comes and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in Spirit and in Truth: for the Father seeks such to worship him. GOD IS SPIRIT: and they that worship him MUST worship him in Spirit and in Truth” (John 4:20-24).

Ok, let’s return to what Jesus said about worship, “God is a Spirit: and they that worship God must worship in Spirit and in Truth”. If we accept this truth, that to worship God in SPIRIT is to be Spirit-Centered, then we can see that Protestant denominations are not Spirit-Centered, they are Denomination and Bible-Centered. Likewise, the Catholics and Orthodox churches are not Spirit-Centered, they are Church and Bible-Centered.

What I have learned on my spiritual journey is that being Spirit-Centered is only possible if one disciplines their mind and heart to be STILL, so that they might recognize, might KNOW God’s glorious presence, and in this way connect regularly with God’s messenger/teacher, the Holy Spirit. In my first book, “Secrets – 12 Principles of Prosperity for Spiritual Entrepreneurs”, I have a Preface entitled, “Spend Glory to Glory Transformational Time with God”. It describes how, during a homeless period in my life, I uncovered the power of meditating at least one hour a day. And after experiencing this glory to glory transformation process myself, I was amazed to find it precisely described in the scriptures (see II Corinthians 3). When we sacrifice enough time daily, so that we can experience this glory to glory transference, we find that our attitude and our purposes are transformed by God’s instruction, by God’s Living WORD, helping us to thereby manifest God’s love and unity among us.

But unless we first refuse to conform to all the demands of this world, how can we ever find the time to “Be still and know God”? This is the “Worthy” part of worth-ship. To be worthy of something greater, one must sacrifice that which is lesser, that which is inferior. However, my experience reveals that for almost everyone, their bosses demands, their spouses demands, the demands of their friends and relatives, their church’s demands and the demands of their children, all these are usually allowed to take precedent over spending meditation and worship time with God.

A big part of why true worship is not important in people’s lives is that they’ve never experienced the power of really connecting with God. Rather, they have connected with a religion and its inherent hypocrisy. Jesus warned us to “Beware the leaven of the Pharisees”, that leaven being described as their doctrinal teachings and their hypocrisy (see Matthew 16:12 and Luke 12:1). The Pharisees were highly educated and filled with their own self-importance. They took great care to not offend anyone. They made sure their appearance always projected their high position in Jewish society. They considered their scriptures, the Talmud and the Torah, to be the divinely inspired word of God and as such worthy of arguing over the meaning of scriptural passages and scriptural words. But according to Jesus all this was of little importance and did nothing to help them enter into the Kingdom of Heaven (something which can and should be done on a daily basis; remember the Lord’s prayer, “Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done, as in heaven, so in earth”).

Here is what Jesus said to the Pharisees: “But woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye shut up the kingdom of heaven against men: for ye neither go in yourselves, neither suffer ye them that are entering to go in. 14 Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye devour widows’ houses, and for a pretence make long prayer: therefore ye shall receive the greater damnation. 15 Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye compass sea and land to make one proselyte, and when he is made, ye make him twofold more the child of hell than yourselves. 16 Woe unto you, ye blind guides, which say, Whosoever shall swear by the temple, it is nothing; but whosoever shall swear by the gold of the temple, he is a debtor! 17 Ye fools and blind: for whether is greater, the gold, or the temple that sanctifieth the gold? 18 And, Whosoever shall swear by the altar, it is nothing; but whosoever sweareth by the gift that is upon it, he is guilty. 19 Ye fools and blind: for whether is greater, the gift, or the altar that sanctifieth the gift? 20 Whoso therefore shall swear by the altar, sweareth by it, and by all things thereon. 21 And whoso shall swear by the temple, sweareth by it, and by him that dwelleth therein. 22 And he that shall swear by heaven, sweareth by the throne of God, and by him that sitteth thereon. 23 Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye pay tithe of mint and anise ^F45 and cummin, and have omitted the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith: these ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other undone. 24 Ye blind guides, which strain at a gnat, and swallow a camel. 25 Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye make clean the outside of the cup and of the platter, but within they are full of extortion and excess. 26 Thou blind Pharisee, cleanse first that which is within the cup and platter, that the outside of them may be clean also. 27 Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye are like unto whited sepulchres, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men’s bones, and of all uncleanness. 28 Even so ye also outwardly appear righteous unto men, but within ye are full of hypocrisy and iniquity. 29 Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! because ye build the tombs of the prophets, and garnish the sepulchres of the righteous, 30 And say, If we had been in the days of our fathers, we would not have been partakers with them in the blood of the prophets. 31 Wherefore ye be witnesses unto yourselves, that ye are the children of them which killed the prophets. 32 Fill ye up then the measure of your fathers. 33 Ye serpents, ye generation of vipers” (Mt. 23:13-33).

If ever there was a more appropriate description of today’s Protestant and Catholic church leaders, I have yet to read it. How can one enter into worship if they are so unworthy? Jesus saw that their heart was bound by religion and far from God. And it was for this reason he told the Pharisees that they “shut up the kingdom of heaven against men: for ye neither go in yourselves, neither suffer ye them that are entering to go in”. This is precisely the situation in our institutional church system today.

Those who attend bible colleges and seminaries are taught from a Bible-Centered perspective. What they are taught about worship is how to worship in the standard way, once a week. They are not taught how to still their mind long enough to hear God’s Living WORD; they are not taught to be non-conformists; they know nothing about renewing their mind through meditation. And so it is impossible for these so-called leaders to “Be NOT conformed to this world but be you transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you can prove that perfect and acceptable will of God” (Romans 12:2). Without breaking from this world’s ways, without this daily renewal of their mind, they will never experience that glory to glory transformation talked about in II Cor. 3:18. And without this level of self-discipline, knowledge and experience, it is impossible for these religiously trained leaders to “Worship in Spirit and Truth”, as Jesus said we must.

Today’s religious leaders have thus become Pharisees. They are unable to enter into the Kingdom of Heaven themselves because they are focused on the theology of the Bible, on appearances, on what people believe, all of which prevents one from going to the source to learn directly from God, via the Holy Spirit.

Focusing on externals like the Bible and not being able to break the bonds of their Bible-Centered denominational teachings, there follows a lack of tolerance and unity. “Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty” (II Cor. 3:17). Tolerance and unity is something in short supply among Christian congregations throughout the world. And if Christian leaders are unable to let go of their Bible-Centric positions in favor of the Spirit-Centered life, how can they teach others how to enter into this spiritual Kingdom of Heaven, wherein is great peace and joy? They have indeed “shut up the Kingdom of Heaven against men”. This is the reason Jesus spent so much time warning us to “Beware the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy” (Luke 12:1).

Our Christian leaders have much knowledge about the Bible and about how to lead a congregation, but without spiritual knowledge and experience they are the proverbial blind leading the blind. It’s like they’re leading people to embark on a great, wild river rafting expedition having never rafted down the river them selves! How can someone avoid the pitfalls ahead? How would the rafters survive should the raft capsize! Of course in this case our spiritual rafters won’t drown in water, but as we can see by observing those around us, so many are being drowned by family breakups, by burdens of debt and by the myriad demands of this world, all because they are unable to enter into the kingdom and receive that rest, that peace, that joy and that glory which could empower them to become more than conquerors!

Few Christians today are “over comers” and even fewer can be described as “more than conquerors”. The born-again Christian divorce rate, which is identical to that of the secular world, should be proof enough of that statement. And for so many, especially those Christians who divorce, we see the fulfillment of Luke 13:34-35, where he says, “Your house is left unto you desolate”. Jesus is pointing out the importance of the body of Christ, his followers, being gathered together “like a hen gathers her chicks under her wings” (Matthew 23:37). But because we have refused to break from the traditions and lifestyles of the world, because we have refused to allow Christ to gather us into empowering, overcoming, communities of faith, we live isolated, stress filled and desolate lives. The ability to “Worship God in Spirit and in Truth” is something I have found to naturally arise out of a purposely built community of the faithful.

The importance of these words from Jesus, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind” (Mark 12:30) is that they command us to make everything else secondary. How else could we love God with “ALL” our heart and “ALL” our soul and “ALL” our mind? Therefore our human loves should be second to, and arise from, our first love, our love of God. If our love of nature, or our love of our spouse or our love for our children was to become our most important love, then we have put those loves above our love of God. According to Jesus, if we have not made the Spirit of God first in our lives, we cannot worship “In Spirit and in Truth”. How then could we be “worthy” of receiving from God the knowledge, wisdom and power that should be the mark of a true believer?

Those who do not seek after God with all their heart, all their soul and all their mind do not truly love God. Rather they love the forms of godliness that their religion has provided: the “godly” instruction, the “godly” books, the “godly” words, the “godly” holidays, the “godly” buildings, the “godly” ceremonies, the “godly” songs, the “godly” people, all of whom reinforce by their approval their weekly ACT of worship.

1) Reverent LOVE and DEVOTION accorded a deity – to love and HONOR.

2) The ceremonies, prayers, or other religious FORMS by which love is expressed; to perform the ACT of worship.

TRUE HOLINESS

Worship of anything other than God is of course idolatry. Yet I have observed a subtle form of idolatry among my fellow Christians. This idolatry arises from a misunderstanding of holiness, the substitution of scripture for God’s Living WORD and the exchange of forms of godliness for true godliness. In the dictionary Idolatry is not only described as the “Worship of Idols”, it is also, “Blind or excessive devotion to something”. Placing more importance on the visible forms of one’s religion, rather than the spiritual realities they are guiding us to embrace, is therefore idolatry.

We consider God holy because of God’s awesome power and perfection. Few of us, however, would attribute holiness to our wife or husband because we live with their imperfections everyday. I’m not even going to defer to a dictionary definition of “Holy” because I have a deeper understanding than just about anyone on this earth. I experienced true holiness when I was, by God’s grace, transported to heaven. You can read about my experience by following this link: http://www.3circles.net/heaven

Nothing on this earth, no matter how majestic, no matter how awesome, even comes close to the Holiness of God I experienced. And as instructed by the angels, if I was not shielded by them, from the fullness of God’s light, I could not have returned to my body. True holiness is something we should only ascribe to God, for such holiness cannot exist in a fleshly body, the body being incapable, by God’s design, of containing such purity and power.

Those who love and honor their bible by considering it “Holy” have fallen into the same trap as those who translated and printed it, calling it the “Holy Bible”. The translator’s blind devotion to the written word was due in some part to their own educational bias, a common human error in all ages. But it is no secret that the primary way any religion gains control over its adherents is to ascribe holiness to its book of religious writings. Every religion does this and they do it to control the thinking of their followers. Their desire is to stamp out all argument and conjecture. This desire to control the populace might seem far fetched in our day and age but history bears out the truth of this. How else can one explain the approximate 12 centuries of destroying anyone who opposed the teachings of the Catholic Church, through imprisonment, drowning, torture and burning at the stake? It is a testament to the power of Jesus’ original teachings that it took nearly 4 centuries of institutionalization before these draconian tactics took root. But once the might of Roman armies and Roman law was offered to the Church (the Catholic and Orthodox religions), this unholy alliance produced its evil fruit.

Through this alliance of Church and State the Catholic Church became dominant and was able to further solidify its power. They did this by canonizing (officially sanctioning) only those books of the bible they felt best suited their purposes. This process began in the early fourth century and was completed around 385 A.D. Only then did Christians have a collection of official biblical texts called the “New Testament”. Prior to this there were literally hundreds of writings in circulation. Many of these rejected writings were considered scripture and the inspired “Word of God” by early Christians, for over three centuries. However, it’s interesting to note that every New Testament writer, without exception, refers to the Old Testament writings as “scripture” but never refers to their own writings as scripture. Given this fact, I think they would be shocked to see that their words of admonition and encouragement are now considered the “word of God”.

If one reads II Corinthians chapter 3 with an open mind, it soon becomes obvious that passages such as “the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life” (verse 6) places far higher value on the Living WORD than most people do today. Even more importantly, this chapter begins by telling us that God “Has made us able ministers the New Testament; not of the letter, but of the Spirit” (verse 6) indicating a truth that is not promoted anywhere, in any Christian denomination to my knowledge. And that truth is that the REAL New Testament is NOT the collection of books the Catholic Church decided we should call our new New Testament. Rather it is “The epistle [letter] ministered by us, written NOT with ink, but with the Spirit of the Living God; NOT in tables of stone [10 Commandments], but in fleshly tables of the heart” (verse 3). Once again we see the institutional mind set of those who are religious but not spiritual, controlling what most Christians think, for it is universally accepted that the 27 “officially” recognized (canonized) books, which can be seen and felt, is what makes up our New Testament. But according to the New Testament itself, the REAL New Testament cannot be seen or felt. Rather it is the ministration of the Spirit of the Living God who writes the Living WORD upon our living hearts. In many translations the words “New Testament” are interpreted as “new covenant” but since a new testament is a new covenant, the meaning is the same.

Declaring those written scriptures “Holy” was a way to instill blind devotion to the bible. For if the bible is “Holy” then it is sacred, therefore it must be given the same honor, love and devotion that belongs only to God. However, common reason alone should declare otherwise. How can a word or a book be holy when it is forever but a shadow of that which it describes as Holy? When someone talks about God are they able to manifest the fullness of God’s power simply by speaking words that describe God? Of course they can not, for the fullness of God’s light and power has never been experienced by any man or woman, as even the scriptures themselves declare (“No man hath seen God at any time” John 1:18 and I John 4:12).

Those who cannot see this have been blinded by false teachers, those who preach another Jesus. Instead of focusing on manifesting God in their life they remain content to focus on reading about God and arguing over words and the right interpretation of those words. Thus it is that the religious ceremonies and prayers and traditions they developed around their “Holy” bible have become “religious FORMS by which their love is expressed”, leading in turn to a weekly “ACT of worship”.

THE WAY, THE TRUTH AND THE LIFE

Jesus said, “God is a Spirit: and they that worship God must worship in Spirit and in Truth” (John 4:24). But before I get into what true worship it, I need to enlighten you regarding another saying of Jesus, “I am the WAY, the TRUTH and the LIFE” (John 14:6). When I seek to understand a scriptural passage such as this I do not rely upon other men to give me understanding. Rather I rely upon the Holy Spirit, quieting my mind and meditating until all the walls and perceptual obstacles are removed, leaving only the truth. And this is what I have learned. That the WAY is a Spirit-Centered way, involving forsaking the world’s ways in order to embrace Christ’s WAY, the WAY of Spiritual liberty (“Now the Lord is that Spirit: and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.” II Cor. 3:17); that the TRUTH involves oneness with God and with Jesus Christ, not a merging oneness wherein we become either (that being an impossibility, as my heavenly sojourn revealed), but rather a oneness in love and in purpose, the ultimate goal being that we can say, “We have the mind of Christ” (I Corinthians 2:16); and last but not least, that the LIFE is in the “body” of Christ, which is to say, the life is in each purposeful-community of believers gathered to empower one another through the manifestation of God’s love: “So we, being many, are one body in Christ, and every one members one of another” (Romans 12:5).

In summary:

The WAY = forsake the world’s ways to embrace Christ’s Spirit-Centered way.

The TRUTH = Oneness with Christ and with God, in both Love and Purpose.

The LIFE = individual and group empowerment through a close-knit Church Community (called “the body of Christ” in the Bible).

We who believe in Jesus Christ and the principles of Love and Forgiveness he revealed, embrace:

The WAY = His Spirit

The TRUTH = His Mind

The LIFE = His Body

Coming soon:

Part 2: Worshipping God in Spirit

Part 3: Worshipping God in Truth

It is also extremely likely that the present economic policies of the United States, whereby we have been spending way beyond our means for over 40 years, will lead to world wide economic collapse. It happened in the 1930’s and according to many economists it will happen again. Just to give you some perspective, you need to know that for 137 years, up until 1913, the US Government printed all our money. That meant we didn’t have to pay interest to anyone. However, in 1913 both the IRS and the so-called “Federal” Reserve were created. The Federal Reserve is not federal, it is a cartel of private banking interests, corporations that owe no allegiance to any country.

The Federal Reserve is our national bank, something the founding fathers warned us to avoid. Abraham Lincoln said, “The government should create, issue, and circulate all the currency. Creating and issuing money is the supreme perogative of government and its greatest creative opportunity. Adopting these principles will save the taxpayers immense sums of interest and money will cease to be the master and become the servant of humanity”. Thomas Jeffereson said this in an even more forceful way, “If the American people ever allow the banks to control the issuance of their currency… the banks and corporations that will grow up around them will deprive the people of all their property, until their children wake up homeless on the continent their fathers conquered.”

And finally, you should also know that our government removed us from the gold standard in the 1970’s. Backing every issuance of money by gold meant that we had tangible wealth behind every transaction. That is no longer the case. Before Alan Greenspan was appointed to oversee the Federal Reserve he said this about the gold standard: “In the absense of a gold standard there is no way to protect savings from confiscation through inflation. There is no safe store of value… [Gold] stands as a protector of property rights”.

Since 1913 the value of a US Dollar has slid from $1.00 to 4 cents (a dollar bill saved since 1913 and spent today would only buy 4 cents worth of anything). Inflation is escalating, invisibly stealing our hard earned dollars. Our national debt, according to statistics provided by Ron Paul, who helps oversee the Congressional committee on monetary policy, is now at 43 TRILLION dollars. This includes money that is usually figured “off budget” in order not to alarm the American people. Just one trillion dollars is a nearly unfathomable number. But the following illustration might help.

If you were to count $1 a second it would take you 11 and a half days to count to one million dollars (do the math yourself… 60 X 60 X 24 = 86,400 seconds a day; divide one million by 86,400 and you get 11.6 days). Now a billion dollars is 1,000 million. So multiply 11.6 days by 1,000 and divide by the number of days in a year (356) and you’ll discover that it would take you 32.6 YEARS to count to one billion dollars, counting that same $1 per second. OK, now for the mind blower. So how big is a Trillion? Since one Trillion dollars is 1,000 billions, you simply multiply 32.6 years by 1,000 and you find it would take 32,600 YEARS to count out ONE Trillion dollars at $1 a second. OK, 11.6 days versus 32,600 years. Economists will tell you we are fast approaching the point of no return. Just as individuals can go so far in debt that they can never repay, so the US Government can do likewise. But in the case of our government, it would cause a catrostrophic meltdown of world economies.

Those who went through the Great Depression of the 1930’s will tell you that most families survived because most families still had relatives living on farms. That is no longer the case. What happens when there are so few people working that the tax revenue falls below the level necessary to maintain our highways and our bridges? There are already thousands of bridges in dire need of repair, a fact discovered after that bridge in Minnesota collapsed recently. Where is the money going to come from to maintain those bridges? If the infrastructure that sustains our economy begins to crumble, then we could witness what happened Rome. It’s tax revenue base kept eroding steadily until one catastrophic event triggered the total collapse…. several large volcanic eruptions around the year 435 AD led to two years of no summer, with frosts in every month (due the world wide flow of volcanic ash which blotted out the sun’s heat). On the back of this lack of food came starvation. And when people don’t get enough good food their immune systems can’t fight off disease. The rats multiplied on the dead bodies and garbage that could not be removed. Their fleas carried their diseases to humans, including the dreaded “Black Death”, otherwise known as the Bubonic plague. There were recurring waves of infection that eventually wiped out about half the European population.

The latest Nova science program was on “Super Volcanoes”. Three scientists verified independently that 75,000 years ago there was a Super Volcanic eruption that plunged the entire earth into a “volcanic winter” and eventually an ice age that lasted for thousands of years. I don’t remember the exact height of the ash that blanketed an area about one thousand miles in diameter, but it was deeper than the height of the Empire State building in New York.

If you say, “That can’t happen here” you would be wrong. According to these scientists, the two most likely areas where super volcanoes could explode (where they have exploded a number of times before and are overdue for another super explosion) are here in the United States. Yellowstone National Park’s super eruptions take place about every 600,000 years. The last one occurred 640,000 years ago.

It is not being an alarmist to say we should prepare for the inevitable. Individually the financial burden to do so would be great… too great for the majority of people. But by living in a community, where people understand the necessity of disaster preparation, anyone can be prepared,

We must remember that such disasters can lead to world-wide economic collapse. And when there is a world-wide economic collapse a country’s infrastructure cannot be maintained. The lack of food would be a reality no one could escape. People eventually get sick and die when they lack quantity and quality of food. If we lost 25% or more of our working population (they lost over 50% in Europe and Rome) then there would be no one to carry on with the huge amount of work that’s now required to sustain our present standard of living. Services we now take for granted, health services, and medical facilities, garbage removal, road maintenance, child care, education, human waste disposal facilities… all of them would collapse. Who would send their child to a school when they could become infected and die? How could you buy your food if the food stores are closed because no one wants to risk becoming infected in such public markets?

I can tell you unequivocably that only those who lived in intentional, self-sustained communities with enough fire power to fend off invaders could survive in such a world. With our own power generators and heated greenhouses we could resist the frosts and with lighting to compensate for the loss of the Sun’s full intensity, we could survive. But those in the cities who didn’t know how to grow anything, who hadn’t saved seeds from previous crops, would perish in a matter of months, starving to death and fighting for dwindling resources. Where would they get the gas to drive their cars? In the country we could run diesel pickups and electric genearators on vegetable oil we pressed ourselves, from our own crops. And if that failed, we could depend on riding our horses. Those in the city would have bicycles but bicycles aren’t suitable work vehicles for survival.

I’m telling you this to warn you. Prepare yourself for the inevitable. It’s not “IF” but “WHEN”. Whether it’s an economic collapse, a world wide killer flu or a super volcanic explosion, history tells us it WILL happen. Since scientists are warning us that we are long overdue for one or the other, we need to heed their warnings and begin preparations. Our survival and the survival of our families may depend on it. And if it doesn’t happen in our generation, it will happen in the generation of our grandchildren or our grandchildren’s grandchildren. Regardless of when, we would be foolish to allow the busy-ness of our life to keep us from taking action.

What can you do now? You can keep in touch with our effort to build self-sufficient communities. You can get books such as Holly Deyo’s “Dare to Prepare” and read it as a family. You can put together an emergency survival kit. And of course, you can pray. Never underestimate the power of prayer, especially meditative prayer where you spend at least an hour a day with God, stilling your mind, listening for divine guidance. God still speaks to those who take the time to listen. For some help with this you might want a copy of my book, “SecretS - 12 Principles of Prosperity for Spiritual Entrepreneurs”. I have a chapter devoted to this, called “Spend Glory to Glory Transformational Time with God” and a final chapter on Community. You can read about my books contents by going to http://www.3circles.net/dream/biz/home.htm and you can read about some of our basic community principles here: http://community.3circles.net/

I also recommend reading my Wisdom Blog - “Transform Yourself” (http://www.3circles.org/transform/) which contains many articles about the new direction God has been leading us spiritually. Don’t forget, you can keep in touch via our email address: 3CirclesChurchCommunities@3circles.net or via my Skype ID: Leroy-3CirclesCommunityUSA

God’s blessings to you and yours,

Leroy & Vonda Grey
931-442-0800

Of course, by the time of the 16^th century reformation, we had an entire Bible. But as pointed out in Part One of “What is the Word of God”, those Christians who lived during the first three and a half centuries had no universally accepted set of scriptures from which to discern God’s truth. And it is obvious to those who study closely our present day New Testament, that those who wrote the letters we now call “Scripture” never themselves referred to them as such. Every New Testament reference to “the scriptures” is a reference to some Old Testament passage. So these facts beg the question, “If the Bible as we have it was so necessary to salvation and to be considered ‘the final authority of Christian doctrine’, why did God wait so long to deliver it”? A corollary question is, “Why did the apostles fail to use the word ‘scriptures’ or ‘word of God’ when referring to their own writings, using those words to refer only to the old testament scriptures or the words of Jesus passed onto others via their cultures oral tradition”?

There is much misunderstanding regarding the Bible. What if I told you that what we today call the “New Testament” isn’t the true New Testament? I’m not talking about which scriptural books should have been included, but the nature of the New Testament, as in it being a written collection of scriptures. I have no doubt many of you would be thinking right about now, “He’s nuts”! But what if I added this fact, that the Bible itself proclaims this truth? Would you believe it then? Or would you still cling to the “traditions of men”, which is how those 27 canonized scriptural books came to be called the “New Testament”?

Jesus and his apostles taught their followers that the “New Testament” they came to deliver was a spiritual one, not a written one. Here is what the Bible itself says, “God has made us able ministers of the new testament; not of the letter, but of the Spirit: for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life” (II Cor. 3:5-6). This New Testament, the TRUE New Testament, was to be written on the heart of every believer, “written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God” (II Cor. 3:3).

To me it is now obvious. The apostles and disciples who wrote their letters of admonition, clarification and rejoicing, letters which we now call “scripture” and the “word of God”, never considered them as such in their lifetime. The quotes I just gave, about the New Testament not being “of the letter, but of the Spirit”, and “the letter kills but the Spirit gives life”, only make sense in the context of this “new” understanding.

Remember, those who proclaim the Bible is the only Word of God, also proclaim that nothing more can be added nor taken away from it (forgetting the fact that the scriptures have been added to by the Catholic Church, as when it needed to prove the trinity and added that passage scholars now call the Johanine Comma). In other words, in order to accept the Catholic and Protestant view of the Word of God one must accept their related premise, that God no longer gives revelation worthy of being called the Word of God. The Catholic Church, unlike Protestants, believes God continues to reveal new truth, but only through his chosen vessels, the Pope and other clergy.

However, Catholics do not believe this new truth can be called “The Word of God”. Therefore, both Catholics and Protestants believe God’s revelations are finished, that what we have in the Bible is the complete and finished “Word of God”. A natural outgrowth of that belief is the belief that all miracles of the Bible, though authentic, were made to happen by God only during the time of Jesus and now are no longer necessary since we have God’s word, the Bible. This is in fact what the Fuller Theological Seminary of Texas teaches, spreading a most damnable lie through many, many denominations (Fuller is multidenominational and evangelical).

I am absolutely certain that I’ve re-discovered an ancient third way as to how God delivers and protects truth. It is not dependent on man’s Church or on man’s Bible (both of which have been easily corrupted) therefore it is not Church Centered or Bible (“word”) Centered. Rather, it is Spirit Centered, dependent on each individual man and woman’s willingness to sacrifice time and spend that time with God, waiting in stillness long enough to quiet all other voices, until at last there is only one voice, God’s voice, delivered by God’s Holy Spirit and revealing the truth of God’s Living Word.

To be perfectly clear, in no way am I saying the Bible isn’t important. There is much wisdom there and it contains sayings inspired by God, some of which is God’s word to man (i.e. the word of God). But this “new” understanding allows us to see the REAL TRUTH, that just as God is a Spirit, his Word must also be a Spiritual word, and those who worship God will worship in Spirit and in Truth. The word of God in the Bible is but a written shadow of THE Word of God. Remember, Jesus said, “I am the way, the TRUTH, and the Life”. It is through meditative prayer that we learn to abide in Jesus and to thereby find that life and truth which leads to love and unity in the Spirit.

Church Centered or Bible Centered paths lead to divisions. The Spirit Centered way leads to tolerance and spiritual liberty. This way brings with it a great peace, not as the world knows peace, but rather a “peace that passes all understanding”. It also brings with it a “joy unspeakable and full of glory”, with its attendant love, a sacrificial, forgiving love that is the true Spirit of Christ. This is the way of the Living Spirit within, whose light has been given to all men and women born into this world, but which light is only awakened to its fullness by a rebirth in the Spirit of Christ. As we learn in II Cor. 3:17-18, “Now the Lord is that Spirit: and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is LIBERTY. But we all, with open face (dropping our social masks and games) beholding as in a glass (i.e. a mirror) the glory of the Lord (we see Jesus in the mirror instead of our self) are changed (transformed) into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.”

My discovery of this Spirit Centered way began some 10 years after my initial rebirth in Christ Jesus, during a time when I was suddenly forced into homelessness. The year was 1983. Through a series of miracles I was able to buy an inexpensive used car to live in, until I could recover financially. It was during that homeless period, as I was meditating and praying for God’s help, that the Holy Spirit revealed this Spirit Centered way through two scriptures. The first I quoted above, in II Cor. 3, about being transformed by God’s glory and thereby obtaining liberty in the Spirit. The second one was from the gospel of Matthew, where Jesus went to the Garden of Gethsemane on the Mount of Olives to pray. He asked his disciples to wait and pray while he went into the garden. Three times he returned to where his disciples waited and three times found them asleep. The first two times he woke them and said, “Could you not watch but one hour? Watch and pray, lest you enter into temptation. The spirit truly is ready, but the flesh is weak.” God revealed to me that one hour is a minimum prayer time for overcoming fleshly distractions and thoughts.

This meditative principle I call, “GLORY ABIDING” or “GLORY TO GLORY TRANSFORMATION”. Jesus prayed for us to experience his “GLORY” and “ABIDING PRESENCE”. During another prayer time Jesus said, “And the glory which you gave me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one: I in them and you in me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that you have sent me… Father, I will that they also, whom you have given me, be with me where I am; that they may behold my glory, which you have given me” (John 17:22-24). The apostle John put it this way, “But the anointing which ye have received of him abides in you, and you need not that any man teach you: but as the same anointing teaches you of all things, and is truth, and is no lie, and even as it has taught you, you shall abide in him” (I John 2:27).

The Catholic Church’s historical model, that they have been the protectors of an unbroken lineage and that lineage’s attendant truth, doesn’t just run counter to reason, it also runs counter to what Jesus, Peter and John have taught. Jesus told us God was sending his Holy Spirit, to guide us into all truth, to teach us about God and bring to our remembrance any truth previously revealed by Jesus. This eliminates the need for other men to teach us or intercede on our behalf. In I Peter 2:9, we read, “But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that you should show forth the praises of him who has called you out of darkness into his marvelous light”. Thus we see that Peter told us we are ALL members of the royal priesthood (and regardless of what we men would like to believe, that means both male and female believers are members of this priesthood). This eliminates the need for a special class of privileged priests. And as quoted above, John tells us that Jesus prayed for us to be one with God as he is one with God, so that we might partake of his Glory, the kingdom of heaven here on earth. This provides for direct revelation of God’s word to each individual believer and eliminates the need for endless disputes over the written “word of God”. As Paul rightly said, those who focus on the letter, kill the Spirit. The bible is our guidebook, not our destination. It is the word about the WORD. The Bible itself proclaims that it contains many different kinds of words, not just God’s word. The Bible also contains the words of evil men. It contains the personal opinions of some men of God (as Paul himself proclaimed regarding marriage). And the Bible also contains inspired words from God.

Having received God’s Living Word directly into my mind from time to time I can say this with absolute certainty, that God’s word is not spoken in English or Aramaic, or German or any other language. It is spoken in images and with power and yes, sometimes with thoughts, but those thoughts are not like my thoughts because God’s thoughts are not man’s thoughts. Though this exchange is instantaneous, it is also overwhelming. Believe me, God is throttling back his Word when he gives it, so as to allow us to receive what is infinite in scope and beyond our full understanding. Truly, “We see now through a darkened mirror, but then face to face”. How do I know this with such certainty? Because, by God’s grace, I was given the opportunity to be in heaven and experience what it is like.

Seeing God face to face will only happen when we are no longer tethered to this body, for “No man has seen God and lived”. This passage of scripture is absolutely true. I stood (after having first prostrated myself in awe!) before a wall of angels and almost before I could think a thought they responded, telling me that they were protecting me from the fullness of God’s light. If I had stood before God unprotected by the angels, I could not have returned to my physical body. You can read more about my experience by going to this link: http://www.3circles.net/heaven

When God’s Living Word is flowing directly into one’s mind, one must then translate what is being seen into one’s language and therein much is lost. God’s word is filtered by our limited perception ability, by our limited language, by our limited mind. Those who think they can become one with God in the sense of merging with, or becoming God, have never been in the presence of God. That kind of Eastern mystical experience (or western LSD experience, because they are one and the same) are limited to the mind and its imagination. It is a soulish experience, a fantasy that has no reality in heaven. Only by being in heaven could I understand this. Prior to my heavenly experience I thought I had experienced this merging with God. This happened many years prior, when I was a hippy experimenting with LSD. In reading of other’s enlightenment experiences I could see many parallels with my own LSD induced, “becoming one with God” experience. The God of Jesus is a God that is far beyond man’s ability to fully comprehend with our limited mind, let alone merge with. As you can read in John 14 to 17, the oneness that Jesus claimed to have with the Father, was the same oneness he prayed for us to have. This is not a merging; this is a oneness of purpose. As Jesus said, “Believest thou not that I am in the Father, and the Father in me? The words that I speak unto you I speak not of myself: but the Father that dwelleth in me, he doeth the works” (John 14:10).

Eastern Gurus tell us that only by letting go of this world illusion of duality can we achieve “Enlightenment”. They talk about the cessation of self, wherein our self, becomes God’s self. This is when one merges with God, achieving enlightenment. But this is a lie. Only after I was taken to heaven was I able to understand the deception of men who claim to have merged with or become one with God (one as in becoming God). It is an absolute law that no man has seen God and lived, because one’s physical body, to which one is tethered until death, cannot survive the experience. Flesh cannot survive in God’s presence, period. And that is why I KNOW, Jesus was the Son of God, NOT God in the flesh.

When I was in heaven I, as a created being, did not cease to exist. We are created in God’s image, with the same sovereign will, the same creative capacity of thought, and with the power to draw upon God’s power and accomplish great things. We are also created with the same capacity for love and forgiveness and mercy. So when we become one with God, we become one in purpose, we become an extension of God, allowing God’s will and purpose to flow through us, to help transform the world.

This teaching of Jesus and his apostles concerning the Holy Spirit as teacher was one teaching I took literally. Unlike everyone I knew who felt God’s call to ministry, I chose to avoid learning about God through attendance at a Bible school, a theological seminary or any other school. I chose to believe God would indeed send his Holy Spirit to teach me directly, just as Jesus stated. Thus it was that I learned about God directly from the source, by passing man’s religious views. I was able to learn how to hear God’s “still small voice” and to thereby receive God’s Living Word. And in time I came to KNOW God, not just know ABOUT God.

After decades of experimentation and testing I can personally say that this is the only way to avoid being led astray by the ideas of men, who “have a form of godliness but deny the power thereof”. To study at any Bible school is to become indoctrinated by that school’s teachings. You too can be taught directly by the Holy Spirit and experience this “glory to glory transformation” I speak about… if you believe, if you discipline yourself to “Be still and know God”. Then you too can experience the Word of God being written on your heart, the Living WORD of God, God’s true New Testament.

Christian idolatry isn’t based on the carving of idols it’s based on the substitution of physical things for spiritual things. We substitute physical, certified teachers for the Holy Spirit; we substitute Church buildings and Church rituals for worshipping God in Spirit and in Truth. We substitute reading about Biblical heroes from long ago for doing heroic things today. We substitute written inspired words given by God to other men of God for the Living Word of God, which comes to all who learn how to “Be still and know God… commune with your own heart upon your bed, and be still… meditate on all God’s works… meditate in God’s Word”. According to the dictionary definition of “Idol”, these substitutions for the real thing can become idols. Besides the obvious “graven image”, the dictionary says an idol can be, “Any person or thing regarded with blind admiration, adoration, or devotion; a figment of the mind; fantasy. a false conception or notion; fallacy; a mental image.” Today the vast majority of Christians are idolaters of either the Bible or their Church.

We have also substituted the lifestyle chosen for us by this world (with its emphasis on appearances and frenetic activity) for the community lifestyle Jesus revealed by his own example. Jesus called his disciples to forsake their normal lives and follow him. The Bible record reveals they shared a common purse, ate together, traveled together and generally had a common ministry that they all worked at. In short, they were by any definition a close knit community of believers. And as you’ll learn later, Jesus revealed mysteries of the kingdom of heaven only to His inner circle of disciples.

From the teachings of Jesus and also the Old Testament, we learn there was an emphasis on a quiet contemplative life in addition to proselytizing and serving others. Jesus delivered this command to his disciples, both present and future, “This is my commandment, that ye love one another, as I have loved you”. There is no way that could mean, “Love one another once or twice a week when you can take time away from your busy worldly schedules to make time for me and each other”. But that is how modern Christianity has interpreted this command. Jesus told us through his parable of the 10 virgins that entering into the kingdom is like a marriage, where we are all brides and Jesus is the groom. Just imagine getting married and then telling your spouse that you really do love them but because you’re so busy you can’t get together to demonstrate your love more than a few hours, 2 or 3 times a week. Your spouse would obviously conclude you didn’t love them. So why do we continue this hypocrisy of pretending to “love one another” as Jesus has loved us? The reasons are simple: it’s easier; it meets with the approval of everyone else in the world (they would obviously look down on people who lived “differently”, in an intentional community); living in a close-knit community of faithful believers requires more honesty and self-discipline; and finally, it is human nature to want to be liked and accepted by as many people as possible.

There are many who will question the idea that Jesus lived in a community of believers, but if one reads the scriptures with an open mind it soon becomes apparent that Jesus reinforced this community model through his teachings. Jesus said things like, “I would have gathered you as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you would not” and “Jesus was moved with compassion on them, because they fainted, and were scattered abroad, as sheep having no shepherd”. In the Bible Jesus talks about the sheep that are scattered and must be found, therefore the desired situation for us sheep is to be gathered together, into “one fold, with one shepherd” as Jesus put it. One “fold” would be one fenced in area, usually delineated by stone walls.

It took me a long time to unlearn much of what I was taught as a young Christian. Of course, some of what I was taught was true, but most of it is just what men’s religion and traditions dictated. The symbolism of us being the sheep and Jesus being our Shepherd is a good example. Once while I was watching an old movie, “Silver Streak” with Gene Wilder, Richard Pryor and Jill Clayburgh, I was astonished by this scene of an old farm woman barnstorming a flock of sheep. As she dive bombed the sheep I was utterly amazed by how they stayed together as one contiguous flock no matter how many times she dived near them. They would surge to the left, then to the right, then back again but never break ranks. They moved as one body, as one flock. How they could all know to move as one, with not one straggler left behind, is a mystery to me. But that’s the image Jesus was projecting when he called us his sheep, the image of being like the sheep in how they lived, how they stayed together, not in mannerisms like meek and mild, not like followers who blindly obey as sheep do.

This is vital distinction. Those who represent Christianity as a formal religion rather than a living spiritual relationship with God, through the person of Jesus Christ, are NOT preaching this simple truth. Once again the church offers a substitute in place of the real thing. Instead of preaching about us being like the sheep in lifestyle, they preach about how we should be good followers and obedient. And so it is that we as sheep have lost our way, with nearly every Christian leader living as the world lives, and expecting their followers to do the same. No wonder so many of us are stressed out and barely able to cope; no wonder we Christians experience the same divorce rate and most of the same dysfunctional family issues that everyone else does.

Living in community is the best way to manifest the Living Word of God. I know this from first hand experience. I’ve been at hundreds of church services over the past 33 years and there is no comparison in terms of the manifestation of Gods power in a community of believers. The Shakers got their name from what took place at their meetings. God’s presence was so powerful that they would literally shake. The Quakers, or Society of Friends as they prefer to be called, likewise lived in community and experienced this firsthand. That’s how they got the name “Quakers”. And I have read about this same thing happening at the Society of Brothers, whose communities were founded in the early 1920’s and thrive to this day in various parts of the world.

Before I knew of any of this, when I was in the first half year of my new Christ Centered life, I joined with others to form a community and we likewise experienced this shaking by God’s power. There was such a manifestation of God’s presence that we had to hold onto one another so as to focus that energy and lessen our shaking. God’s power also came with great peace and joy and love, that is beyond words to describe. God’s power is so overwhelming at such times that no one can speak because of the great sense of awe and holiness that accompanies the presence of God. When I compare these Spirit Centered experiences with my Church and Bible Centered experiences, where the pastor whips up the congregation to an emotional fever and people are dancing and speaking disorderly and generally acting as if they were at a loud, drunken party, I am ashamed of my fellow Christians. At such times I have been grieved by their lack of spiritual discernment, that they could not tell the difference between God’s presence in power and their own emotional manipulations, which are certainly no substitute for the real thing.

I do not share all this to boast, but rather to bring new understanding. It was not the external experience of shaking which was important, but rather the internal, Living Word of God that entered into us and empowered us to know and do God’s will. I’ll give you one example. Once when this shaking happened in our fledgling community of four, God revealed the desperate need of a neighboring family. God revealed this knowledge to all four of us simultaneously and it was so certain, with such a power behind it, that not one word was spoken by any of us as we prepared to visit this neighbor. In silence I went to get my shoes. I looked up and my friend had his shoes in hand, preparing likewise to go. We just looked at each other and knew what we had to do. We got into the car and drove away. For five or ten minutes of our journey our silence continued. Finally, my friend spoke, “This has got to be God’s will because I would never wake up someone at two in the morning otherwise”! When we arrived at their home, which was temporarily a converted school bus, we knocked. The man came to the door, opened it and asked what we wanted. We replied, “We don’t know. All we know is that God’s power came upon us and directed us here”. At that moment he fell upon his knees and began to cry. He told us that he and his wife had had the worst fight of their marriage and that he prayed for God to send someone to help them. We stayed for hours, talking to both him and his wife and having a great sense of fellowship in the Spirit.

When we gather like sheep we move as one body. We receive the knowledge of God’s Living Word into our hearts and then act on it in unison. Our faith takes a quantum leap because it is no longer based on lifeless letters but on the living spirit of God within, God’s Living Word with power. When we become like sheep in lifestyle we are protected from predators. In today’s church Christians are living like the rest of the world and they are being picked off one by one by the predators that surround them: financial predators, housing predators, contractor predators, house-invasion predators, thief predators, education predators (who teach beliefs contrary to our own), and of course, sexual predators. How foolish is it to refuse to obey Christ’s command that we live as sheep, together, for mutual empowerment, for real agape love, for the manifestation of God’s living word, and for our protection. As Jesus prophesied for those who refused to gather under his wing, “Behold your house is left unto you desolate”.

In the earliest days of Christianity, immediately after Christ’s death, we find that one of the first things believers did was to set an example for us, by obeying Christ’s command to “Love one another as I have loved you”. They established a second Christian community (see Acts 2). And all throughout history we find people here and there who did likewise, believing that community was not an option but the only way to truly love and empower one another. We see examples of this in the Anabaptists, the Mennonites, the Amish, the Hutterites, the Quakers, the Gnostics, the Russian Dukabours, the Shakers, and in more modern times The Society of Brothers and Plow Creek Fellowship, just to name the few within easy reach of my memory.

Of course, among us humans the tendency has clearly been to gravitate towards a religious life (either Church Centered or Bible Centered) rather than a Spirit Centered life. It is far easier to attract more converts if one dumbs down the mysteries of the spirit world. The Bible refers to this as, “Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away” (II Tim. 3:5). The Pharisees were an extremely religious and strict sect. To be a Pharisee one had to go to special schools and study the scriptures for many years. They made a great show of their love of God by being at Godly events, wearing elaborately embroidered robes, and praying public prayers that were works of artistic literacy. Yet Jesus warned us to “Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy” (Luke 12:1).

Jesus Christ understood this tendency of men, to move away from a direct spiritual relationship with God into a relationship with lifeless Godly words and dead religious rituals. He also understood that unless a person was ready spiritually, they would not understand this truth. One had to be careful, had to be aware of whether or not someone was a truth seeker drawn by the spirit of God, or was in fact too carnal in their nature, at least at that time in their life, to really understand the things of the spirit. There are many who seek truth just so they can boast of their learned accomplishments.

In Mt. 7:6 we read, “Give not that which is holy unto the dogs, neither cast ye your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet, and turn again and rend you.” And after delivering his parable of The Sower to a mass audience, Jesus was asked by his disciples, “Why do you speak to them in parables”. His answer further reinforces this fact, that Jesus taught the mysteries of the Kingdom of Heaven only to those who revealed by their faith and actions that they were indeed spiritually ready. Here is his answer, “Because it is given to you to know the mysteries of the Kingdom of Heaven, but to them it is not given… because they seeing see not; and hearing they hear not, neither do they understand… For this people’s heart is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes they have closed; lest at anytime they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and should understand with their heart, and should be converted, and I should heal them. But blessed are your eyes, for they see: and your ears, for they hear” (Mt. 13:10-17).

It is no accident that Jesus never wrote a single word of our Bible and never built a Church building. If these things were so important, as the entire Christian denominational and non-denominational church structure says they are, wouldn’t the founder of the Christian faith have said so? Wouldn’t he have recorded some of the words of God he said he always spoke, especially since he knew his death was imminent? Wouldn’t he have built a Church building and demanded that his disciples attend every Sunday if that was the way it should be done? The truth is, neither the Bible nor the institutional Church is the way; Jesus is “The way”, the Spirit Centered way. The Bible and the Church are helps along the way.

TO BE CONTINUED…

In this Church Centered model the Catholic Church is accepted into the fold of the faithful and given a prominent position as a preserver of truth. Let’s not forget that to this day the Roman Catholic Church considers itself to be the one and only true church. They also have a history of creating traditions and practices not found in the Bible, which must be followed by their faithful because the “Church” (the Holy Catholic Church) says so. They truly believe the Church trumps the Bible, so much so that Pope Innocent III proclaimed that every cleric must obey the Pope, even if that Pope commands what is evil. That’s not just blind allegiance it’s downright evil to proclaim such a thing. Some of the Catholic Church traditions include the worship of Mary as the “Mother of God”, Purgatory, their elaborate and ornate rituals, transubstantiation of the bread and wine (believing it becomes the body and blood of Jesus Christ), oath taking (during the middle ages anyone who refused to take an oath was considered a heretic and condemned to die), and eating no meat on Good Friday.

Those who accept this Catholic promoted historical view must of necessity see some greater purpose to the Catholic Inquisitions, the Crusades, and their draconian censorship of any scripture they didn’t canonize. But how can we Christians overlook their wholesale “seek and destroy” mandate against immensely important historical documents and non-canon scriptures, making the Catholic Church’s evil intentions and actions part of God’s will? More importantly, how can we overlook the hundreds of thousands of people the Catholic Church had tortured, drowned, beheaded, or burned at the stake as heretics, all under the guise of this “truth” preservation? In the course of my research it amazed me to discover that most of Christianity has turned a blind eye to these historical facts, sweeping them under the carpet so to speak. Continuation of each denominations religious power is an obvious motivating factor. This is most likely why Christian’s everywhere just accept this whitewash of history.

However, doing evil or allowing it, in order to achieve what is believed to be a greater good is an example of Voltaire’s doctrine, “The end justifies the means”, not Christ’s doctrine of “Do unto others as you would have the do unto you”. Killing heretics just doesn’t fit with Christ’s Golden Rule. There appears to be two primary reasons why the rest of Christianity has been so complicit in this historical cover-up and they both arise from the same carnal mindset that gave birth to Catholicism and Protestantism.

First, every denomination has sought to create a pedigree past that would link back to the original apostles and Jesus, thereby creating an Apostolic Succession that bolsters their particular theology. And since, after it’s unholy alliance with Rome there was only “One Holy Catholic Church” (composed of two branches, Eastern Orthodox and Western Catholic) any pedigree lineage would have to include this “Holy Catholic Church”. As history reveals, the Catholic Church continued this unholy alliance with governments around the world, for 13 centuries! It should be noted that the Eastern Orthodox and Western Catholic Church were almost identical in both theology and governance up until the great schism of 1054.

By the 16^th century, when the Protestant Reformation began, the Catholic Church had long ago destroyed all non-canon scriptures and numerous other historical documents pertaining to non-Catholic church groups, effectively erasing from the collective memory of mankind all trace of Christianity’s diverse historical heritage. Especially singled out for destruction where those documents and groups associated with a more spiritual, mystical path, such as Gnosticism. This included not only the Gnostics but the original, so-called primitive Christianity, the Quakers and some lesser known groups as well.

Because Cathars had embraced many of the tenets of Gnosticism Pope Innocent III called for a crusade against the entire Languedoc region of France in 1209 A.D. This war would rage on through two generations (about 40 years). The Catholic Church believes to this day that the crusades where just and righteous necessities, including their war of genocide against the Cathars, referred to proudly as the “Albigensian Crusade”. It is estimated that 500,000 men, women and children were slaughtered, simply because they didn’t accept the Catholic Church as God’s true and only Church. Twenty thousand, an entire town, were slaughtered when they refused to give up a few hundred Cathars. All the men, women and children were killed, including Cathars, Catholics and even Catholic priests, many in the Churches where they sought sanctuary. It is reported that before this siege an officer inquired of the Pope’s representative as to how they should tell the Christians from the heretics. He answered, “Kill them all. God will recognize His own”. The Northern noblemen, many of whom were members of the Knights Templar, were bribed into waging this war on behalf of the Catholic Church with promises of remission of all sins, a place in Heaven, and all the lands and material possessions they could carry away.

The Cathar region was also singled out for extermination of the entire population because it was a region where men and women enjoyed more educational and spiritual freedom then just about any place in Europe at that time. This region was experiencing a pre-renaissance Renaissance (the historical Renaissance took place between the 14^th and 17^th centuries). Philosophy, poetry, the study of other religions, scientific studies and enlightened reasoning flourished there and this was threatening to the antiquated, superstitious ideas of the Church. The majority of people followed a Gnostic tradition which focused on direct, personal knowledge of God, arrived at through meditation. Preachers and teachers in Gnostic congregations could be men or women. They rejected the validity of all clerical hierarchies, which included so-called “ordained” intercessors between man and God, whether they were called Priest, Bishop or Pope. There were differing branches of Gnosticism, with differing ideas as to the nature of Jesus. A Gnostic life was simple, devoid of rituals and Church buildings, but extremely devoted to God and a quiet, meditative, spiritual life.

There can be no doubt this was an act of genocide. However, I wouldn’t say it was an act of Christian genocide because those who did this could not possibly be followers of Jesus Christ! They were followers of men who invented a religion called Catholicism that distorts what Jesus taught for the purpose of building their own religious empire. Just to get an idea of how twisted the thinking of a religious person can be, I’m going to give you a sampling from my research, which shows how Catholics see Pope Innocent III and the Albigensian Crusade (and please don’t think I’m a Protestant anti-Catholic; I consider myself neither and see no significant difference between the two, as I’ll explain later).

In the Catholic Encyclopedia we read, “Pope Innocent III, one of the greatest popes of the Middle Ages…”. In the New Advent Catholic Encyclopedia we read, “[Pope] Innocent [III] was also a zealous protector of the true Faith and a strenuous opponent of heresy. His chief activity was turned against the Albigenses [Cathars is what they called themselves] who had become so numerous and aggressive that they were no longer satisfied with being adherents of heretical doctrines but even endeavored to spread their heresy…”. And this glowing report from an anonymous individual’s Catholic website, “His Holiness, Innocent III, always one of my favorite pontiffs, Innocent III is often cited as the representation of the peak of papal power and Christian influence. During his six years on the papal throne, virtually all of Europe was united under the Christian religion, the Catholic Church was triumphant and even the secular powers, almost to a man, recognized the Papacy as the source of their legitimacy and the Pope as their feudal lord. Pope Innocent III encouraged this and is remembered as the champion of the “Papal Monarchy. He was impeccably honest, virtuous and highly moral. Through all his actions, Innocent III embodied to the greatest extent exactly what Christendom was supposed to be. The Church above all else, Christ as the center of society, focus on the spiritual rather than the temporal and a society in which God was given supremacy in all things, even in government; which is why the Vicar of Christ acted as the lord of all the kings and princes in Europe”.

Unless one is a brainwashed Catholic, anyone who would take the time to research Pope Innocent III could not help but see a huge disconnect with reality in the above statements about his “holiness” being “virtuous and highly moral”. On a site created by the French citizens of the Languedoc region (the region of the Cathars and the Albigensian Crusade) we get a different point of view, one that does not gloss over the truth regarding Pope Innocent III. “Innocent did much to bolster the position of the papacy. He claimed to have been given the whole world to rule over by God… It was Innocent’s desire to sit at the apex of the feudal system… He stated that every cleric must obey the Pope, even if he commands what is evil, for no one may judge the Pope. His views on human rights were also conventional. He set the pace by declaring Magna Carta, the great charter of English rights and liberties drawn up in 1215, to be void. He declared it to be contrary to the moral law and excommunicated anyone who maintained its pretentions. Virtually all English speaking peoples have thus been automatically excommunicated for the last 8 centuries… Since 1184, when Pope Lucius III published Ad abolendum, the refusal to take an oath has been automatic confirmation of heresy in the Roman Church. Pope Innocent III confirmed that those who took Jesus’ teaching on this matter literally were heretics, and that they deserved to die. In 1199, Pope Innocent III declared heresy to be high treason against God, and of course the penalty for that was death. He also held orthodox views on abortion, though those views would now be regarded with horror. Innocent stated that a monk who had persuaded his mistress to have an abortion was not guilty of murder as long as the fetus had not yet been animated… Roman Canon law maintained the distinction between a fetus animatus and a fetus inanimatus until 1869 when it was suddenly abandoned. We do not hear much about it nowadays. Innocent also held orthodox views on Jews. His conventional anti-Semitic ideas would influence Europe into the twentieth century and beyond. There was for example nothing at all new in Nazi anti-Semitism. It was simply repackaged traditional Christian anti-Semitism promoted by men like Innocent III. The whole panoply of Nazi persecution was founded on Christian precedents espoused by Innocent. Hitler’s Nuremburg Laws of 1935 were modeled in part on the decrees of Innocent III and Paul IV… Before the war Hitler had boasted to Bishop Berning of Osnabruch that he was doing what the Church had done for fifteen hundred years, only more effectively.”

All this is only the tip of the proverbial iceberg as far as examples of Pope Innocent III’s “moral and virtuous” character!! Continuing with quotes from the Languedoc-France.info website, “It was Innocent III who made explicit the right of husbands to go off without their wives permission. Crusaders could abandon their families without a word of explanation – without even saying goodbye – emulating Jesus’s early disciples”. By the reign of Pope Innoncent III, the great 1154 schism between Eastern Orthodox and Western Roman Catholic had occurred. Crusades were NOT wars waged by holy men and the following example from the Fourth Crusade, which took place between 1202 and 1204, just 4 years before his infamous call for a crusade against the Cathars (or Albigenses as the Catholic Church derisively referred to them) proves that fact. The Fourth Crusade, although it began ostensibly as a crusade against the Muslims, ended up being waged against their fellow Christians, the Eastern Orthodox cities of Constantinople and Zara. “The victorious crusaders amused themselves in the usual way, even though this was the capitol of Christendom. As well as the standard bout of murder and destruction, the men of the cross desecrated imperial tombs, plundered churches, stole holy relics, wrecked houses, vandalized libraries, destroyed whatever loot they could not carry, raped nuns, and set a prostitute on the Patriarch’s throne (the Patriarch is like the Pope to Eastern Orthodox Churches) in Santa Sophia, the Church of the Holy Wisdom, the greatest Church in Christendom… The western Church saw nothing wrong with this conduct… The new Latin Emperor (installed by the crusaders), Baldwin, wrote to the Pope about the sack of the city as ‘a miracle that God wrought’. Pope Innocent III rejoiced in the Lord and gave his approval without reserve.”

So, how is it that today Pope Innocent III is considered one of the greatest popes? One might make a case that nowadays things are different with the Catholics. But when you dig deeper and research their views in their own encyclopedias, you find rationalization after rationalization for their evil actions. And if you then look at the recent sex scandals among Catholic Priests and Bishops, you see once again that the Catholic Church does not really care about their parishioners as much as it cares for keeping their Church “pure” and unsullied by controversy, sending the same unregenerate clergy to a new church where they were free to prey upon the young and innocent. All this should be proof enough that the entire Christian denominational structure, based as it is on the appearance of an unbroken Apostolic Succession, a pedigree lineage that includes the Catholic Church, is built upon the foundation of man’s teachings and man’s church, not the teachings of Jesus Christ.

It has been my experience that most Christians have little to no understanding of Christian history, outside of that which their own denomination teaches. For that reason I am compelled to digress somewhat. This will help my readers understand why I’ve arrived at some of my conclusions regarding “The Word of God”.

For instance, how many Christians know that the Bible’s New Testament wasn’t gathered into one book and approved as our “New Testament” until 350 years after the death of Jesus Christ? There was a series of church/state councils from 325 A.D. (Council of Nicea) to 393 A.D. (Council of Hippo) and the stated goal for most of those councils was to arrive at an agreement regarding which scriptural books should be canonized (officially approved by the Church) and included in our Bible.

The Roman Emperor, Constantine, saw that Paganism was on the way out, and Christianity was on the way in. And after his reported vision, he aligned himself with Christianity so as to further unify the Roman Empire. To that end, Constantine called for a series of Christian Councils to resolve their differences and determine which books of the Bible would be authoritative. However, there were a large number of Christian groups by the fourth century. So Emperor Constantine chose to invite only those he believed would further his political agenda, those that were already powerful by virtue of the money, buildings and followers they had accumulated over the first three centuries.

Attendance records reveal that these councils were primarily made up of Catholic and Orthodox Church bishops. The fact that it was a Roman Emperor who arranged and subsidized these council meetings, beginning with the Council of Nicea in 325 A.D., and that it was Emperor Constantine who sent out the invitations to every Catholic and Orthodox Bishop, should be proof enough that this was primarily man’s doing, not God’s. However, Church historians like to point to the fact that Emperor Constantine had a vision and considered himself Christian as proof that God was working all this out behind the scenes. On the other hand, secular historians point to the fact that Constantine refused to be baptized right up till he was on his death bed. The reason he straddled the fence is simple, he was first and foremost a politician who wanted to appease both Christian and Pagan.

Although Church history has been primarily written by a small, but powerful elite, namely the institutional Catholic and Orthodox branches of Christianity, there are surviving records that paint a much different picture of early Christianity. Even in Acts 2, we read that the earliest Church congregations were founded by those who preached love and then gathered believers into close-knit Christian communities. And Justin Martyr, an early historian and a convert to the Christian faith, wrote in 150 A. D. that such communities were common. It is evident that most of the Christians at that time, whether communitarian or not, were wary of manmade governments. Christ and his apostles warned us in scripture that “friendship of the world is enmity with God? Whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God”. So the truth is, a majority of early Christian groups and their followers wouldn’t have come to those 4^th century government sanctioned councils even if they’d been invited.

Those who were invited and came were all Bishops of either the Western Catholic Church or various Eastern Orthodox Church groups. In keeping with the church-state nature of those council meetings government officials and prominent pagans were also in attendance, since they also had a stake in their outcome. It’s important to note that these men, who were already predisposed to work closely with government, chose to further their agenda by disobeying the wisdom of Jesus and his apostles, as so clearly stated by James.

Prior to my researching the history of the early Church councils and their canonization of scripture, I was told in Sunday school and through Sunday sermons that it was God who brought these men together for the purpose of arriving at our present Bible. I was also told that these were mighty men of the faith whom God had entrusted with this most sacred duty, to determine exactly what was God’s word, and what was not. One website I visited seems to summarize what I was taught, “God’s providence gave us the 27 book New Testament Canon, not the church. God, not men decided the canon. This providence does not mean church leaders were inspired in their selecting the canon, only that God had his eye on the scriptures the whole time and brought about His will to form the Bible we see today!” But after doing extensive research I have no choice but to declare such a statement a lie.

All the religious leaders of the various denominations champion some form of the above statement. They feel it necessary to prove to the world that it was God who gave us our Bible and not man. I believe this is because their faith doesn’t rest on the Spirit of God in their heart, but rather it depends on the entirety of scripture having some proven lineage as the “word of God”.

Why is it that men so often embrace a lie to protect their own positions of power? In subsequent years some of them, including one of the most influential and popular Bishops, Bishop Athanasia, would use their new found power to crush all opposition. They did this by ordering the banned books of the bible burned, along with anyone who tried to preserve them. If someone tried to help a person who was being hunted down for the heresy of protecting what they believed to be the inspired word of God, they too would suffer, either having all their lands and possessions confiscated (which in those days was often a death sentence, since no one would subsequently employ them) or being tortured or burned at the stake also. The Church’s Ecclesiastical Court system was empowered and emboldened by their close ties to the Emperor. Their decisions to censor scriptures they did not canonize, then to in-prison, torture, drown, and burn at the stake those who harbored those scriptures, were decisions that the Roman authorities rubber stamped, because they invariably served the purposes of the Emperor. It is evident in the reading of the proceedings of these councils, especially when one considers the proliferation of many Christian sects during that time, that the opinions and wisdom of there fellow Christians, those outside the Catholic and Orthodox Churches, was never considered. Of course, this is entirely in keeping with the Catholic and Orthodox Churches theology, their central belief being that they are the only true Church.

How is it then, that non-Catholic Christians have so easily accepted the canon decisions of their historical enemy? The only logical and reasonable conclusion I can come to is this, that by burning all scriptures not canonized, by then forbidding the reading of the Bible by anyone other than the clergy (which the Catholic Church did for many centuries, for at least a 1000 years if I remember correctly) and by making the writing or teaching of any ideas not approved by the Catholic Church a capital crime punishable by a very public death, they were indeed successful in stamping out all trace and all memory of those other Biblical scriptures. So when the reformation came and they broke away from the Catholic Church, there was no option other than accepting the Bible as is. To further solidify the importance of this canon of “approved” scripture among new converts, the Protestant church chose to embrace the lie begun by their enemy, the Catholic Church, telling every new member that it was God, not man, who gave us the Bible as we now have it.