Lies, Greed, and Fear: The origins of Christianity

The idea of an evil being which tries to manipulate us is only as old as humans. Animals never had to worry about any sort of devil because 'beliefs' simply are not a part of their being. We are also animals, but animals with the ability to reason and think. Lesser evolved animals are pure in that their mind isn't polluted with opinions and dogma. They don't need someone to guide them in their lives. They just live. That is the natural way. We are living very unnaturally.

All religions, ALL religions, are simply irrelevant to the existence. Believing in anything (God, Jesus, the Bible, etc.) is completely beside the point because no matter what you believe, you will never be any closer to what is actually truth.
For example, I have been told by many people and many sources that the Earth is round. I take this to be true, and based on the evidence I have seen, it makes sense. But all that any 'evidence' really is is just my brain processing objective information using my various sensory organs to create a subjective experience, followed by an opinion. Even if I were to fly into outer space and look at the Earth, I could never be truly certain that it is round. I'm not actually looking at the Earth, but the image of the Earth being processed by the billions of neurons in my brain and projected onto my consciousness. Basically, it's just a mirage. The only thing I can be ABSOLUTELY, POSITIVELY sure about, is my own consciousness. Think about it.

The same goes for religion. You may believe that your 'god' is THE 'god', and your 'savior' is THE 'savior', but you can never ABSOLUTELY know for sure. It is, quite literally, impossible. All you can have is faith. Faith is extremely limited.

The negative experiences you have had are simply that -- negative experiences. They have nothing to do with any external force (there are no such things), but you used the biases contained in your limited mind to associate the experience with something you label as 'Satan'. This is simply immature. You cannot handle the responsibility of your own negative experiences, so you blame all of it on a made up entity external to yourself. All fear is self created. ALL of it. Just like every other experience you have.

A big issue with Christianity is that Christians spend their entire life trying to 'be good' so they can 'go to heaven', and every time they do something that the bible tells them is 'bad' they get scared that they'll 'go to hell'. All they can think about is the so-called 'afterlife' and what will be in store for them. They waste the beautiful experience called life trying to perfect their morals, or worry about where they're going when they die, or worshiping 'god'. And by the time they DO die, all of that will be irrelevant and they will know this. You gave yourself life to experience beauty and love, not to blindly follow another man.

Speaking of Jesus, I'd like to talk a little about him. Jesus was, in fact, an enlightened being. He lived to spread the message of infinite love and oneness to all who would listen. He realized that all is one, which allowed him to perform so-called 'miracles' with no effort at all. Did he not say, "The Father and I are not two, but one. And ye are all my brethren."? Jesus understood that we were all one, and lived in that experience. That is why he is called Jesus the Christ. He allowed himself to be crucified not to cleanse humanity of its sins, but because he knew he could simply move back into his body if and when he pleased. He saw no reason to resist the crucification and deny his captors the 'justice' they thought they were delivering., because he felt no need to prove himself to anyone. And, three days later, when nobody was around, he swiftly took back his body and continued his life. He was not religious, he was beyond religion. He did not preach of a jealous, angry vengeful god, but of a joyful and blissful reunion with existence itself.

When you live by the bible, you are not channeling Jesus. You are doing exactly that which he, and every other enlightened master which walked the earth before and after him, warned us against. You live your life based on the writings of a book which has been mistranslated, misinterpreted, and most of all, manipulated by greed and fear over thousands of years.

'Hell' and 'Satan' were not originally part of the the bible. The bible in its youngest form spoke only of unity and love, and about that which would bring human beings the most joyful and whole life experience. Over the years, however, the greedy and power-hungry saw an opportunity. They created a church and formed the Christian religion. But this religion was not based off the teachings of Christ. It was based off counterfeit varieties of his teachings, laced with fear and hatred. This was the invention of sin.

They told people that if they did not attend the holy Church of Christ, they would face eternal damnation. This, as you may guess, did the trick. People started flocking to these churches, trying to save their soul from the 'depths of Hell'. This is just the tip of the ice burg, but I am sure you get the point.

The so-called 'Ten Commandments' are the foundation for these lies. In the original bible, they were probably closer to something like the following (a quote from a wonderful book called 'Conversations with God' that I recommend EVERYONE read. Also, notice how it says COMMITMENTS and not COMMANDMENTS):

"THE TEN COMMITMENTS
You shall know that you have taken the path to God, and you shall know that you have found God, for there will be these signs, these indications, and these changes in you:

1.
You shall love God with all your heart, all your mind, all your soul. And there shall be no other God set before Me. No longer will you worship human love, or success, money, or power, or any symbol thereof. You will set aside these things as a child sets aside toys. Not because they are unworthy, but because you have outgrown them.
And, you shall know you have taken the path to God because:

2.
You shall not use the name of God in vain. Nor will you call upon Me for frivolous things. You will understand the power of words, and of thoughts, and you would not think of invoking the name of God in an ungodly manner. You shall not use My name in vain because you cannot. For My name---the Great "I Am"---is never used in vain (that is, without result), nor can it ever be. And when you have found God, you shall know this.
And, I shall give you these other signs as well:

3.
You shall remember to keep a day for Me, and you shall call it holy, this, so that you do not long stay in your illusion, but cause yourself to remember who and what you are. And then shall you soon call every day the Sabbath, and every moment holy.

4.
You shall honor your mother and your father---and you will know you are the Son of God when you honor your Father/Mother God in all that you say or do or think. And even as you so honor the Mother/Father God, and your father and mother on Earth (for they have given you life), so, too, will you honor everyone.

5.
You know you have found God when you observe that you will not murder (that is, willfully kill, without cause). For while you will understand that you cannot end another's life in any event (all life is eternal), you will not choose to terminate any particular incarnation, nor change any life energy from one form to another, without the most sacred justification. Your new reverence for life will cause you to honor all life forms---including plants, trees and animals---and to impact them only when it is for the highest good.
And these other signs will I send you also, that you may know you are on the path:

6.
You will not defile the purity of love with dishonesty or deceit, for this is adulterous. I promise you, when you have found God; you shall not commit this adultery.

7.
You will not take a thing that is not your own, nor cheat, nor connive, nor harm another to have any thing, for this would be to steal. I promise you, when you have found God, you shall not steal.
Nor shall you. . .

8.
Say a thing that is not true, and thus bear false witness.
Nor shall you. . .

9.
Covet your neighbor's spouse, for why would you want your neighbor's spouse when you know all others are your spouse?

10.
Covet your neighbor's goods, for why would you want your neighbor's goods when you know that all goods can be yours, and all your goods belong to the world?


You will know that you have found the path to God when you see these signs. For I promise that no one who truly seeks God shall any longer do these things. It would be impossible to continue such behaviors.

These are your freedoms, not your restrictions. These are my commitments, not my commandments. For God does not order about what God has created---God merely tells God's children: this is how you will know that you are coming home.

Moses asked in earnest---"How may I know? Give me a sign." Moses asked the same question that you ask now. The same question all people everywhere have asked since time began. My answer is likewise eternal. But it has never been, and never will be, a commandment. For whom shall I command? And who shall I punish should my commandments not be kept?

There is only Me."

Thank you for reading. Hopefully you have a better idea about the truth about your religion, and all other religions and belief systems of the world. Joy to you all. Namaste.

So, what? You have a problem with people who don't want to sin and obey the Ten Commandments?

Does it take breaking the Ten Commandments in order for you to consider life worth living?

Originally posted by Deetermined
So, what? You have a problem with people who don't want to sin and obey the Ten Commandments?

Does it take breaking the Ten Commandments in order for you to consider life worth living?

I feel as though you didn't actually read both posts entirely.

Great posts dude.
We are human beings, If God is real we will never understand him/her/it, we can try but it has to be a personal thing you have to look within and not let others try and convince you their way is the right way.
I believe in God but Iam not going to tell anyone what I think what Gods plan is because I know I will never be able to guess, it is just too big.
Like you say Religion is only a way to control others into doing something they want.
I see Religion as the worse thing humanity ever invented it divides us makes people hate each other for no reason, we are all the same and the sooner we try and get rid of it the better.
It will take many years for people to wake up and think this but it will happen and then humanity will achieve what we dream of in our imaginations.
Just look around the world and think of the problems happening on earth with humanity and you can place the roots of these on religion.

reply to post by HarryTZ


Unfortunately, everything that you wrote in your first post contradicts what you wrote in your second one.

How do you know what it means to love God with all of your heart when you don't even understand why he came here in the first place?

Jesus told us to keep his words. All of them. Not just the Ten Commandments.

So, in essence, aren't you breaking the first commandment or commitment?

In the original bible, they were probably closer to something like the following

No, your fictional "commitments" were not in the original Bible.

You want to create your own religion, knock yourself out, but don't misrepresent an existing religion, simply because you don't like it.

This is to the point and wonderfully written.

Yes, early Christianity, with the teachings of Jesus was actually in its core SPIRITUALITY with some very profound wisdom about unity, our true purpose, the reality of god, us, humankind..the universe. Very similar to the teachings of other, mostly Eastern spiritual masters and schools.

This fundament what once was the TRUE message of this belief has more or less entirely been removed and replaced with other things which haven't any thing to do with the true message. And of course it has been replaced because of various agendas as you already pointed out.

Here is the FUNDAMENTAL DIFFERENCE:

* Spirituality does not involve "someone else" to obtain wisdom or insight. In fact, Spirituality *requires* to "find the truth" on your own, through own experiences. (This is the reason for practices such as meditation etc. just to name one)

* Religion like today's Christianity is the exact opposite because the "experiencing 'god' yourself" spiritual component has been replaced by a power-structure where one "belongs" to religion and is "taught" by others, where the "knowledge" is fed by other people as opposed to really experienced.

It gets even worse since Christianity often denies and rejects spirituality - but here is the kicker: Without it you CANNOT experience or find god/the creator or the truth about of the universe. How should that work? You don't get a spiritual enlightenment or become aware of god by citing bible verses or sitting in a church each Sunday, it needs more than that. (Actually, it needs "less", but I am sure you get what I mean)

By denying people this and calling it blasphemous, the church is actually actively preventing people from FINDING GOD. If this alone is not proof enough what agenda is at work here....then I don't know...

To make it short and in agreement with your OP: It's an abomination of the true message/teachings which might once have existed..abomination is probably really the best word for it.

It also took me a long time to really realize this, simply because we are "brought up" like this first - some people might never really see the truth because they are indoctrinated from all sides and can't or are unwilling to start to think for themselves.

Originally posted by Deetermined
reply to post by HarryTZ

 

Unfortunately, everything that you wrote in your first post contradicts what you wrote in your second one.

How do you know what it means to love God with all of your heart when you don't even understand why he came here in the first place?

How do you understand, and I mean TRULY *understand*? By reading someone else's books? By taking at face value what a religious teacher tells you? This is NOT understanding. You simply hear something and adopt his belief as your own. What do you KNOW and how do you KNOW when all this is 3rd hand teachings, from a book which was edited 1000 times because rulers added and deleted things for specific reasons?

Originally posted by HarryTZ

He realized that all is one, which allowed him to perform so-called 'miracles' with no effort at all.

Well you seem to realize that "all is one", so when's the last time you walked on water? Can you turn water into wine?

Did he not say, "The Father and I are not two, but one. And ye are all my brethren."? Jesus understood that we were all one, and lived in that experience. That is why he is called Jesus the Christ. He allowed himself to be crucified not to cleanse humanity of its sins, but because he knew he could simply move back into his body if and when he pleased.

You believe this, yet you have the nerve to mock Christians?
You're telling us that you believe he existed, and that he was capable of "miracles" because he was an enlightened being, but he used that power to "play" us?

I'm so confused.

reply to post by flexy123

* Religion like today's Christianity is the exact opposite because the "experiencing 'god' yourself" spiritual component has been replaced by a power-structure where one "belongs" to religion and is "taught" by others, where the "knowledge" is fed by other people as opposed to really experienced.

Like anything else, there are people who will follow just to follow, but just like any kind of spirituality, Christians stick with it because of their spiritual experiences, not because they are told to.

It gets even worse since Christianity often denies and rejects spirituality - but here is the kicker: Without it you CANNOT experience or find god/the creator or the truth about of the universe. How should that work? You don't get a spiritual enlightenment or become aware of god by citing bible verses or sitting in a church each Sunday, it needs more than that. (Actually, it needs "less", but I am sure you get what I mean)

Yes, you can experience spirituality (through the Holy Spirit) without practicing some kind of mysticism. The reason mysticism isn't advised is because there's a large spiritual world out there in which many of these spirits will lead people astray just by telling them anything they want to hear.

terrific post: you know you are on the path when you do something good, this is the most pleasing path but very difficult to commit to.

reply to post by flexy123

How do you understand, and I mean TRULY *understand*? By reading someone else's books? By taking at face value what a religious teacher tells you? This is NOT understanding. You simply hear something and adopt his belief as your own. What do you KNOW and how do you KNOW when all this is 3rd hand teachings, from a book which was edited 1000 times because rulers added and deleted things for specific reasons?

It's called the HOLY Spirit. Not through a bunch of contradicting spirits.

reply to post by Deetermined


Who named it the Holy spirit? men....men who wish to convert to control..guess you fell for that, well done for ignoring who you really are.

reply to post by boymonkey74


I guess you fell for Lucifer's lie.

What is it with everyone using the tiring phrase about "control". Control over what? What power does religion have over anyone?

reply to post by Deetermined


You really need me to answer that? really? look around the world and see priests,Imams etc telling others to do what they want, what they think the word of God is and how to defeat what they think is Satan.
Heck open a history book eh? look what Religion has done.
Lucifers lie? ha ha ha....no point you are far to gone and brainwashed.

reply to post by boymonkey74


I thought this thread was about Christianity.

Christianity doesn't try to exert control like Islamic countries who try to use Islam as a political tool.

Secondly, a few bad apples are always going to try and spoil the barrel, but that's not what religion is about. That's what people are about.

reply to post by HarryTZ


Cynical and inaccurate and you're knowledge of christianity and what it means, is piss poor at best.

A big issue with Christianity is that Christians spend their entire life trying to 'be good' so they can 'go to heaven', and every time they do something that the bible tells them is 'bad' they get scared that they'll 'go to hell'. All they can think about is the so-called 'afterlife' and what will be in store for them.

Christianity isn't about "trying" to be good, under your own power without God you won't last very long. You would burn out. Christianity is about realizing that we as flawed humans are inherently evil and we need a Savior to remake us in his image, so that we can resist temptation. I don't have to spend my life "trying" to be good, i want to be good and i want to do good to others. We're saved by Jesus Christ's mercy and grace. Mercy is not getting what we do deserve, which is to be destroyed forever. Grace is getting what we do not deserve, which is eternal life with Christ. A christian has no need to fear hell, nowhere does Jesus say he will revoke salvation to those who come to him.

They waste the beautiful experience called life trying to perfect their morals, or worry about where they're going when they die, or worshiping 'god'. And by the time they DO die, all of that will be irrelevant and they will know this.

We don't waste anything. Living in Christ and for Christ is what we long to do and worshipping him gives us joy and we find peace of mind in the assurances of his promises. No one has perfect morals, if we did we wouldn't need Christ. I'm not worried about where i will go when i die, my confidence rests totally in Jesus.

You gave yourself life to experience beauty and love, not to blindly follow another man

I didn't give myself anything, i inherited death and despair. Before Christ i was being consumed by hatred and rage, i had sex with married women, engaged in drugs and alcohol and went into a tailspin until one day i had enough and i had 2 choices, blow my brains out or stop making war on God. See the thing about sin is, it's pretty damn fun, thats why no one wants to be a christian. I certainly didn't grow up saying "Daddy i want to be a christian when i grow up!". But you know what? I did things my way for 30 years, until i finally realized my way wasn't working out.

Clearly your way isn't working either, we all can see by your painfully pathetic attempt to troll, that your hatred and anger are seething out of the pores in your body. What you need to do is get over yourself, and learn to forgive, because if you can't forgive, then you cannot ever love. You have to learn to forgive before you can truly learn to love.

Great, just what ATS needs, another religious post,,,,who cares what people believe in..

When you live by the bible, you are not channeling Jesus. You are doing exactly that which he, and every other enlightened master which walked the earth before and after him, warned us against. You live your life based on the writings of a book which has been mistranslated, misinterpreted, and most of all, manipulated by greed and fear over thousands of years.

"Enlightened Master"? Ah now i see what you are. New Age. Is Oahspe your cult? Thats one place all that "enlightened" or "ascended master" b.s. comes from. Let me ask you something. If it wasn't for the bible, how would you know Jesus Christ ever existed? You wouldn't unless you lived in Palestine and heard stories of him by word of mouth. The scriptures are the only way you can know him until he comes again, that is the mode he reveals himself through.

'Hell' and 'Satan' were not originally part of the the bible. The bible in its youngest form spoke only of unity and love, and about that which would bring human beings the most joyful and whole life experience. Over the years, however, the greedy and power-hungry saw an opportunity. They created a church and formed the Christian religion.

Hell and Satan were most definately originally parts of the Bible. Hell is the closest translation in the gentile tongue to Sheol. When the Apostles were teaching gentiles who were not raised from the cradle hearing Torah, they used the closest reference to sheol a gentile could know back then and it was Hades, to kind of convey the meaning of what the agony of eternal death would be like. Hell is eternal death, and sheol is the grave. Death translates as Shiloh and the Grave as Sheol. Hell is very much a biblical concept, just you and people like you don't know what you're looking at.

The original movement was called "The Way", but by the time believers in Christ had reached Antioch and established a new church, the pagan gentiles began calling them "christians" as a derogatory comment because the jewish believers would die for what they believed in Christ. The jewish believers in Christ kept the word Christian as a badge of honor, knowing that the word was intended to make them suffer.

But this religion was not based off the teachings of Christ. It was based off counterfeit varieties of his teachings, laced with fear and hatred. This was the invention of sin.

Ok, now i know you're talking out of your ass. If you read the gospels, and subsequent epistles and books, you can clearly see they match the Torah and Tenach. "Sin" was invented? I hate to burst your bubble but even Moses preached about sin and he wrote the Torah. Sin means "wrong doing", so by your account there is no such a thing as wrong doing, so that means you think murder is ok, rape is ok, robbery is ok, pedophilia is ok and well, pretty much everything that falls into subsequent categories. I don't know what you're channeling son, but it's the opposite end of the spectrum from Jesus.

I'd advise you to quit channeling those demons you talk to, because they have you thinking evil is good and good is evil.