Christianity

Christianity began as a small radical Jewish sect that worshiped the prophet Jesus as the Son of God. The secretive cult of Christianity grew as a religious passive-resistance movement within the Pagan Roman Empire. Among many other messiah prophets, Jesus (0-32 AD) was claimed to be the Christ Messiah mentioned in Hebrew scriptures (Old Testament), and brought a New Testament by supposedly identifying himself as the loving Son of God the Father. His main messages were to give away or share most of your possessions, live in humble communes, worship only God, love all, and give your money to the government (Caesar unto Caesar). Like other political-religious rebel leaders, he was crucified by the Romans; but his followers were fanatical, and they created quite a story around him, even after he was dead. The main books of the New Testament were written by disciples of apostles: Paul (60 AD letters – never met Jesus), Mark (70 AD gospel- not an apostle, but was disciple of Peter), Matthew (85 AD gospel- actual apostle’s disciples), Luke (90 AD gospel- not an apostle, but friend of Paul), John (100 AD gospel- claims to be son of Zebedee but would have been about 100). Some missing gospels are included towards the end of this summary.*

The story and parables of Jesus were dictated by apostles, to their disciples, and proselytized until there was a cult following. The most influential apostle was a critical convert named Paul, even though he never met Jesus when he was alive. Peter was closest to Jesus, but the apostles that knew Jesus did not have books recorded until generations after Jesus died. This gap gave them time to get their stories straight, and get more fans. Some of the apostles wanted others to believe that Jesus was the physical incarnation of God. The Holy Spirit of God works with God (the only true god), who was the Father of Jesus Christ, and this forms the Divine Trinity. If you did not believe the New Testament, they wanted to make it clear that you would go to Hell and burn forever. Salvation for your sins was now only possible through Christian prayer, under the direction of Church Basilica leaders.

The cult of Christ made it big when Emperor Constantine made Christianity the official religion of the Roman Empire. In the Dark Ages the Roman Church doctrines were made to centralize authority. Apostles’ Creed: (200 AD) The mandatory paradoxical literal belief in selected testaments, primarily the Trinity, the Resurrection and Ascension of Christ, the divine authority of the holy Church, Christ’s second coming, Day of Judgment and Salvation of the faithful. Even worship of saints. Nicene Creed: (400 AD) wanted to emphasize some additional points: Jesus was born from Virgin Mary, and only one baptism for the forgiveness of sins. King Charlemagne was one of the first on record to kill in the name of Christ. By the Middle-Ages the Church, its priests, and nobles became the judges of sin, and were well on their way to murdering millions in the name of Christ. The Crusades, the Inquisition, mission conversion, the burning times, the hanging times, and Manifest Destiny all became important parts of the Christian legacy.

The three largest worldwide systems of Christianity are the Roman Catholic Church, the Eastern Orthodox Church, and Protestant denominations. The Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox split during the East–West Schism of 1054 AD. The Protestant Reformation, led by Martin Luther, split from the Roman Catholic Church in the 16th century. Christianity continues to evolve and remain popular, as it struggles to adapt to modern times. New Age ethics, scientific discoveries, and technologies challenge the existence of religions with stagnant traditional moral doctrines; and despite Christianity being one of the newer religions, even it has as hard a time seeing the writing on the walls as any of the older religions sometimes.

Christian Biblical Commandments

The Greatest Commandment for Christians is the Golden Rule, it is referenced by Jesus in the New Testament several times:

“Love your neighbor as yourself: I am the LORD.” – Leviticus 19:18 Torah

Jesus was saying that to Love God is to love your neighbor. In a way the Golden Rule sums up the 10 Commandments:

“So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you; for this sums up the Law and the Prophets.” – Matthew 7:12

In fact Jesus expanded the definition of neighbor to mean all of humanity, even your enemy. Jesus tells the parable of the Good Samaritan, making it clear that “your neighbor” means any other person. It is important to note that Samaritans were despised by the story’s target audience, the Jews. The Samaritans were also largely taught to hate Jews. Thus the parable, as told originally, had a significant theme of non-discrimination and interracial harmony.

“Love Your Enemies. If anyone hits you on the cheek, offer the other also. And if anyone takes your coat, don’t hold back your shirt. Give to everyone who asks from you, and takes away your things; don’t ask for them back. Just as you want others to do for you, do the same for them.” – Luke 6:27

Although Christianity introduced more peaceful teachings than those in the Old Testament, God became a triple god (son-youth, father-adulthood, ghost-death), and added more about Satan, which created even more of schizophrenic dualism. In Christianity Jesus was good, and evil was blamed on the Devil Satan. God continues to allow both good and evil to happen to humans, because of the free-will and sin that he created.

The Book of Revelation (John of Patmos) is an apocalyptic description of a complex series of prophetic events, divined from psychedelic visions. Armageddon, the Four Horsemen, and 340 other apocalyptic metaphors come from 24 books of the Tenak. For example the Beast combines body traits from four beasts mentioned in Daniel 7. John was obsessed with the number 7: 7 churches, 7 spirits, 7 horns, 7 eyes, 7 seals, 7 trumpet blasts…

“To our knowledge Jesus left no written records. … Whatever else the gospels are, they are certainly not the writings of Jesus. It is equally clear that the gospels are not the result of Jesus’ dictation found in the written notes from his disciples.” – Spong, Sins of Scripture

* There were many gospels by other disciples that were omitted for political reasons within the early Church. Many of the rejected gospels contradict the Peter, Paul, and Matthew conspired versions, but were discredited by using slander (as was common practice). The fact that the accepted gospels are similar about the same key points, does not mean that those points are at all historical, in fact the only thing it actually means is that they were pushing a religious-political agenda that they agreed upon, whether it was true or not. It is these other period texts that ask us to rethink the basis for Church authority.

The West Bank Essene Dead Sea Scrolls and other Gnostic Gospels are perhaps more valid than the Bible for understanding the real Jesus. The earliest Gospels of Thomas and Mary show that some apostles did not consider Jesus to be Son of God, they did not witness miracles or resurrection, and they introduce the profound revelation that salvation was an inner spiritual journey. Bishop Marcion rejected the Old Testament God as an inferior deity (circa 150 AD). The later Gospels of Mani (Manichaeism) influenced Christianity, but have since been largely forgotten, labeled heresy, and even considered Satanic.

Satanism – Devil Worship

Originally Satan was the Jewish word for an adversary, so satan was used to refer to any accusers that challenge the heroes in the Torah (God, Eve, Job). Ha-Satan was an arch-angel of the Angelic Council, “Sons of God” who, by the time of Jesus and the Essenes, had been revealed as Lucifer (Morning Star). Lucifer Satan fell from God’s grace, and was condemned to rule over Hell as a devil with god-like powers. Pagan gods were branded as the image of Satan, but ironically Satanism is a product of Christianity. In fact most depictions of Satanism come directly from Christian sources. There are some actual Satanists that exist, and they are divided into theist and atheist churches. Satanists basically believe that God is evil and Satan is good, and so the Bible is a lie.

Monotheist immortal spirits in Christianity: God, Jesus, Satan, angels, demons, prophets, kings, apostles, disciples, sinners

• Christian Crusades (1098-2017)