What faith really is to people

Live Laugh Love

Don’t speak to me about your religion; first show it to me in how you treat other people. Don't tell me how much you love your God; show me in how much you love all his children. Don't preach to me your passion for your faith; teach me through your compassion for your neighbors. In the end, I'm not as interested in what you have to tell or sell as I am in how you choose to live and give....Cory Booker, Mayor of Newark, New Jersey

Uniqueness in each snowflake

You are so loved, this is the truth

"I give you thanks, Oh Lord, for the uniqueness in each snowflake - just like the uniqueness in each of us."

We are an inspiration

You are so loved, this is the truth

We inspire one another, we love so much that our hearts can hardly contain it, it's that bubbling sensation that we try to ignore, or push aside, or tell ourselves that we are not worthy to have....don't resist, embrace it with all that you have and all that you are, embrace the LOVE and just see how YOU SHINE!!!! ~ ♥ kim

We are all connected in love

You are so loved, this is the truth

We are all connected!! What you feel, I feel....what hurts you, hurts me....what brings you joy, brings me joy....and what LOVE is in you is in me too!!! You never have to feel alone, you never have to feel out of place, and you never ever have to feel you're not loved, because, YOU ARE SO LOVED!!! HUGS ♥ kim

Love and hate is a reflection of ourselves

You are so loved, this is the truth

Those who say they hate you, really don't hate YOU....it's the reflection they see in you of the Love they feel they lack....pray for them, send them Love and in doing so, you'll be helping them to Love them selves to cancel out the hate....HUGS ♥ kim

Every day is a new beginning

Positive Vibrations

To believe is to know that
every day is a new beginning.
Is to trust that miracles happen,
and dreams really do come true.
To believe is to know
we are not alone,
That life is a gift
and this is our time to cherish it.
To believe is to know
that wonderful surprises are just
waiting to happen,
And all our hopes and dreams are within reach.
If only we believe.

||B.J. Morbitzer||
Have a Blessed Day. ~Ross

Knowing the fullness of God’s love and Debunking the myth of hell (Video transcript) – Part 1 of 2

I have decided to transcribe my message about the fullness of God's love and the myth of hell that I shared in a video in January 2011 so that it can be read at any time. Besides, I don't exactly speak in Queen's English, so my video might not have appealed to as many people as I would have liked to. Here is the transcript for the first half of the message. I have added subheadings where appropriate to summarise the main points in my flow of thoughts. Enjoy. :)

-----

Hello, I’m here to share the good news, and the good news of Christ is something that we need to hear again and again every day – we need to renew our minds, if we can.

Sometimes, faith comes by hearing. Sometimes, faith comes by reminding ourselves, wherever we are, because we are living in a world where there are condemning voices around us, if not from our own conscience, it can be from other people, whether we know them well or not. Sometimes, intentionally or unintentionally, the way they treat us, the way they say something to us, we may all feel a sense of condemnation, or a sense of being judged. But that is life; that’s how life on earth is.

Maybe as children, we were not so conscious of that, but as we grew up, we all tend to be more sensitive and more conscious of how other people perceive us. It may come as early as in our early teens, or in fact, children can be very sensitive towards that. And of course, when we were very young, when we were still babies, we probably were not that conscious because all babies probably have only two fears to begin with – the fear of falling down and the fear of being abandoned. But all other fears are learnt, as some psychologists might observe.

The Good News is about the Love of God

So, as we grow up in this life, we all need to have a sense of acceptance, a sense of being cared for, because after all, God created us to be loved. Out of that love, can we love ourselves and love other people. So, it all starts with God. We can’t start with ourselves, no matter how much we try to psych ourselves, or how much we try to meditate, or refer to self-help books. But these only are temporary solutions.

There is a deeper need in us, in every one of us, that God created heart-shaped vacuum within us that can only be filled and satisfied with the love of God. The good news is really about the love of God, and that love is really beyond our understanding or human knowledge, that Paul said that we might know the love of Christ – the length, the depth, the height, the width – that passes knowledge. That love is something that our human knowledge cannot grasp fully without the help of the Holy Spirit because the Holy Spirit has been poured upon our heart to know the love of God. And we need the Holy Spirit to guide us into all truth regarding how much God loves us.

Questioning the traditional concept of hell

Mainstream Christianity or traditional Christianity has made it seem like God loves everyone BUT… There is always a “but” at the end. For example, those who don’t believe in Jesus Christ, they will be seen as forfeiting the love of God, and the ultimate consequence for rejecting that love of God by not believing in Jesus Christ would be to end up in a place called “hell” or “the lake of fire” in the book of Revelation, but is that really the truth?

Because as we think about the love of God that transcends understanding, the love of God that passes all knowledge, would it be possible that such a loving God would want, or would allow, or would even create a whole time frame where finally all those people who have not believed in Christ, or have not heard the gospel therefore they did not have the chance to believe in Christ, would end up in a place called the lake of fire where they would be tormented day and night forever and ever? Is that really the truth? But most areas, most aspects, most parts of the mainstream Christianity seem to subscribe to that kind of teaching, even grace-based church.

So, I want to address that because that is something that has to be… The false doctrine will always hold people in bondage. This kind of teaching, the “turn or burn” kind of doctrine – “believe in Jesus or you will burn in hell” kind of teaching – will always turn other people away, whether believers or non-believers because even some believers will still question, “Oh, maybe there are some parts of the Bible I don’t think is right, but because I’m a Christian, I’d better believe, or else, just in case kind of thing.” Maybe their church elders may tell them “Well, if you don’t believe in hell, then it means you are not really a Christian.” That kind of thing only holds people in bondage.

Do we dare to rock the boat of Christianity?

So, we are here actually, each one of us is born free. Ultimately, we all do not like to be held in bondage in some ways. So, sometimes, we may believe a lie because our pastor tells us so, or we don’t want to question too much, we don’t want to rock the boat, and we are simply satisfied to be just Christians and believe that “Oh, we are saved, therefore I don’t have to bother about that, because anyway I am going to heaven, and I really don’t have to find out more for myself, so that I can share the good news in a more accurate way with others, and whether others believe in Jesus, I don’t care. They can end up in hell for all they want.”

But that kind of belies a certain self-righteous attitude no matter how much we try to excuse ourselves because I came from that kind of position before. I was self-righteous. I came to realise that God’s love is much more than that. If I were to just ignore this set of doctrine, ignore this false teaching on hell, and just live my life like any other Christian in the evangelical or mainstream circle, I would actually be forfeiting myself of knowing… I would be robbing myself of the full benefits of knowing the fullness of the love of God. And that includes whether God would really allow, or would really want, or would really have in His plan of salvation where some people will ultimately end up in the lake of fire to be tormented forever and ever.

So, how can we reconcile the fact that God is loving, and on the other hand, God, or rather we always say “Other people send themselves to hell by rejecting Jesus Christ?” So, what is hell like? And some people may say, “Well, I leave it to God, you know? Let God do what is just. Some people just don’t believe in Jesus Christ. Well, if that’s so, Lord, let God do what He wants. Maybe it’s torture. Maybe it’s torment in the sense of… whatever it means. Because some may say they are physically resurrected and then they will feel the pain or feel the suffering, and the Bible talks about worms and all that.”

The symbolic language of the Bible

But is that really the truth because the Bible is full of symbolic knowledge? And the book of Revelation is actually full of symbolism using the Jewish apocalyptic language, which unless we are familiar with the Old Testament symbolism, we would tend to misinterpret, and I have done that before. But we are here to know the truth because the truth will always set people free – free from religion, free from condemnation, free from fear, free from whatever that holds people in bondage in some ways that deny them the freedom, the peace of mind that they will feel at any point of time, not just when they are about to die, but any point of time, they may feel a sense of alienation or abandonment or being fearful that God will judge them if something goes wrong in their lives, so we have to settle this once and for all.

So this question of whether hell exists or whether hell is true or what does hell really mean – it does not just apply to when somebody is saved; it applies to even believers today because it will really affect what we believe in about our God – the God that we believe in. Is He the God of Christians only or is He the God of everybody?

What salvation really means

And someone might say, “Well, are you saying that everyone will go to heaven without believing in Jesus?” That is another erroneous question; it’s not even a scriptural question to start with because salvation is not about going to heaven; salvation is about having your spirit, soul and body made whole in every way. The word for “soteria” – that’s the Greek word for “salvation” – it means preservation, health, wholeness, prosperity, deliverance, protection from all dangers, deliverance from every evil in our lives, from lack, from any kind of addiction. So, it’s an all-encompassing word “salvation”. It is not “Oh, one day, we go to heaven.” That is actually the wrong question to start with.

But unfortunately, even in the evangelical world, even in the grace-based churches, “salvation” has that kind of connotation that “oh, you are saved from hell”. But no, it is not that. Yes, we use the Bible as our standard. Yes, we have the Bible… Someone called it the “word of God”, and I don’t want to go into that because the word of God ultimately is Jesus Christ, who is the Living Word. The Bible - we should not take it literally or else it becomes the “letter” that “kills”.

Paul said in 2 Corinthians 3 that “the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life” and he said the letter is simply when we take the Bible literally, it’s like using it as the law to tell people do’s and don’ts, and that stems from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, and that is actually bringing condemnation into people’s lives, like you tell them “you have to do this in order to become something”. But the truth of the gospel is that we are already something – we are made in God’s image. There is nothing that we can do to change our identity.

So Jesus came to actually reveal (to) us that identity that has already been all this while, to cause us to remember, to wake up from our amnesia that we are already one with God, and we are made in His image. He has restored (to) us the glory and honour that Adam and Eve used to have. So that is actually the salvation that Jesus has come to give us in our spirit, soul and body.

When we believe the gospel, we will benefit from that. We will enjoy the benefits of salvation in this life. We know our sins are forgiven. And that is another question, I mean, another topic altogether because “sin” is actually referring to, or rather it applies to those who lived in the Old Testament times. They were under the law; therefore, sin was imputed to them. But we are not under the law in the first place because we Gentiles live after AD70, after the destruction of the Jerusalem temple, which actually signified the end of the old covenant age.

So we are actually living in the new covenant age, which is also called “the new heavens and new earth” in the last book, in the last chapter of the last book of the Bible – the book of Revelation. So now that we are living in the new covenant age, there is actually no “sin” issue. If you want to talk about “sin”, sin is only a matter of the ignorance of God’s love. Sin is called “missing the mark” or “falling short of the mark”.

So, if you want to talk about sin, the Lamb of God has come to take away the sin of the world. Well, in the Jewish context, it is actually taking away the sin of unbelief, and the sin of not knowing who they are. So, for Gentiles, you can still say the sin of unbelief, but He has taken away that. And even if we don’t believe, God still sees us righteous because 2 Corinthians 5:19 says that God in Christ has reconciled the world to Himself. So we are all reconciled, as far as God is concerned, He no more sees any sinner any more.

It is not as if you say some magic words, and say “Oh, Jesus is my Lord and Saviour”, and then God changes His mind about you. No, what and whether you believe that Jesus is your Saviour or not does not change God’s mind about you. God has already made up His mind that He has loved you with an everlasting love and He has always seen you as His children. It is up to you to believe that. When you believe, of course you benefit from that. If you don’t believe, the truth is still that God sees you as His children.

When you die, whether you believe or don’t believe in Jesus, you will still be with God because the last chapter of the book of Ecclesiastes says when a person dies, his spirit goes back to be with God who gave it. So we will all still be with God forever.

So it is a matter of “now”, here in this life. Salvation is for this life; it is not for one day when we die. I think I covered that in my previous video.

Life has swallowed up death

 I was reading and chewing on this article "Is Death An Illusion? Evidence Suggests Death Isn’t the End" by Robert Lanza.

It is interesting to know that death does not exist in a timeless, spaceless world. It reminds me of Revelation that says both death and hades (ignorance of our true identity) have been cast into the lake of fire (metaphorically - defeated by Jesus' finished work at the cross through death and resurrection). I think it is true that in a sense, physical death is an illusion, just as its counterpart - physical life - is an illusion. As the article noted, "reality is a process that involves your consciousness". I think that is one reason Jesus came to earth - not only to restore to us a sense of our true identity as God's beloved sons and daughters, but also to deliver us from the fear of death - that is, by removing the illusion of death from our consciousness.

"O death, where is your sting? O hades (ignorance), where is your victory? The sting of death is sin (illusion about our identity), and the strength of sin (illusion) is the law (doing in order to become). But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ."

As we learnt earlier from the post about our true identity, "sin" can be seen as having an illusion about ourselves, or having a false external identity attached to the physical realm. Our physical body is part of the physical realm, so our true identity isn't attached to our physical body. So when our physical body dies, our true identity does not die. Our true identity continues to live.

Jesus said, "I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live. And whoever lives and believes in Me shall never die."

I believe Jesus' words are meant to be metaphorical, or else He was contradicting himself by saying a person "may die" and "shall never die". How can a person "die" and "never die" at the same time? To me, to live means to live in the consciousness of our true identity. When we are conscious of our true identity and origin in Him, we will never experience a sense of condemnation (a form of death).

"Inasmuch then as the children have partaken of flesh and blood (symbolic of the physical realm of time and space and materiality), He Himself likewise shared in the same, that through death He might destroy him who had the power of death, that is, the devil, and release those who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage."

I think this shows that once upon a time, the devil (or false ego) had the power of death, which came from the illusion that death was the finality of life. But that was just a lie. Death is only an illusion, therefore the psalmist called death a "shadow", not the real thing.

"Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow (illusion) of death, I will fear no evil, for You are with me"

So the bottomline to me is: There is life that has swallowed up death, as it is written "Death is swallowed up in victory". It is important for the knowledge of the truth of the gospel be made known, so that people will not despair over "death". Thanks to quantum science and biocentrism, science is now supporting the gospel of grace and peace as well.

Paul wrote: "For me to live is Christ and to die is gain."

I understand it as saying to live is to live in the consciousness of our true identity, and to die is to depart from this earthly realm with the knowledge that our true identity never dies. Our consciousness or spirit continues to live on - as Ecclesiastes 12:7 says, our spirit goes back to God who gave it.

I also noticed that in the Old Testament, people would mourn for those who died because back then, they did not have the revelation of their true identity, for Jesus has not yet come to show them who they are. They probably thought their loved ones would stay dead and would only rise again one day in future. That was what Martha and Mary thought too, when their brother Lazarus died of sickness. But Jesus said to Martha that He is the resurrection and the life. I believe the present moment is where we experience the resurrection and the life - the "I am" - our true identity who never dies.

Paul wrote in the New Testament: "And I do not wish you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning those who have fallen asleep, that ye may not sorrow, as also the rest who have not hope, for if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, so also God those asleep through Jesus he will bring with him,"

I believe this was written in the context of the spiritual awakening that would take place en masse in AD70. Our hope in awakening to our true identity is in Christ.

Today, people mourn over the passing away of their loved ones during funerals and I think there is a place for mourning over the physical loss of a person. After all, Paul also exhorted us to "rejoice with those who rejoice, and weep with those who weep". Life and death - even though they are illusions - is a process we all go through on earth in time and space. We express love and kindness through relating with one another in happy times and sad times. Jesus Himself - even though He knows perfectly the reality behind the illusion of death - still chooses to relate to us in our daily struggles and challenges, for "we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathise with our weaknesses, but was in all points tested/tempted as we are, yet without sin (without illusion of His own true identity)."

We learnt that Jesus kept Himself in the consciousness that He is the beloved of the Father, in whom He was well pleased, which gave Him strength to carry on, and having experienced sufferings Himself, He uses His knowledge to relate to our sufferings, and His strength to help us deal with our personal challenges. I think that speaks of His self-sacrificial love.

"For in that He Himself has suffered, being tempted/tested, He is able to aid those who are tempted/tested"

So in a sense, we are all Christs living on earth today. Having been awakened to the truth of our true identity, we are able to help others who have yet to receive the revelation of their true identity, and sometimes when we forget who we really are, others help us in our weaknesses too. I think it is a beautiful picture of our oneness and interrelatedness where we all experience love through helping and supporting one another in times of need.

Reflections on "Ending Judgment" Teleclass by Rikka Zimmerman

The above video has an encouraging message to remind everyone to accept ourselves wholly and not entertain any voice of judgment or condemnation in our minds or from any other source.

It offers a therapy workshop at the end of the video which is probably similar to the gospel of grace, except that it doesn't use christian lingo. I think we can also simply remind ourselves and arm ourselves with the truth that we are created to be loved and beautiful. After all, God created everything good, and God created us VERY good. We are made in Love's image. As Jesus is perfect and complete, and beautiful and blameless, so are we in this world.

We can be set free from condemning voices in the past - from family members and relatives, from workplaces, from religious circles, from our own past thought life that used to be performance-oriented. We are fine the way we are - we need not feel guilty or pressurised by the world system about having to do anything or be anything to prove ourselves. We are already valuable, already priceless, already favoured.

I believe that this revelation, when meditated on regularly, will keep any form of stress or anxiety far from us. Yes, in Righteousness (or Innocence), we shall be established, and we shall be far from oppression. We shall prosper in all things and be in health, even as our soul prospers.

Furthermore, if the truth be known, I believe that the so-called "judgment of God" and "wrath of God" in the Bible is nothing more than a projection of our judgment mentality that we once heaped upon ourselves before we came to the realisation that we are one with God and there is no separation between us and God who is Love.

Is our true identity defined by our belief system?

 My take on the issue of “christianity versus atheism” especially in the West is that the kind of christianity propagated by the instititional church systems tends to be the legalistic kind that heaps guilt and fear upon people. It is no wonder many people are shunning the christian religion and embracing atheism, thinking that atheism is the epitome of life, or the panacea to all the problems that are perceived to have been caused by the fundamentalist christian beliefs. Yet atheism in the West tends to take another extreme form, in that it is seen as a platform to actively oppose christianity. So this becomes an “us” versus “them” mentality for both the fundamentalist christian camps and the atheist camps.

I do think there can be a balance, which can be achieved by not subscribing to any form of label or outward identity to ourselves or others based on what we believe. After all, “atheism” and “christianity” are only different schools of thought, just like hinduism, taoism, buddhism and so on.

To be attached to a label can cause us to be tossed to and fro because our belief systems change every now and then – we are all constantly evolving over time as and when new revelations or circumstances pop up, and we keep revising our belief systems. So I think it is probably best to see ourselves and others as human beings, regardless of belief system.

When I look at a newborn baby for example, I don’t find myself trying to find out whether the baby is an atheist or a christian or a buddhist. We all want to hug and care for the baby simply because a baby is a baby who needs love and care. A baby doesn’t know whether he/she is an atheist or christian too, because a baby only knows how to just be a baby. Similarly, when we grow up, even though we may develop some schools of thought along the way, we remain a “baby”, so to speak – or more accurately, we remain a “human being”. I think this identity as a human being is something that does not change over time, even as our thinking changes and evolves.

This is something that the poem “Awake” touches on too. It helps people awaken and remember who we really are – we are not defined by our beliefs (or lack of beliefs) – we are simply who we are by birth and by our original design.

An imaginary conversation about "Who Am I?"

What happens when we try to define ourselves not based on our original design and blueprint but based on our belief system? We may find ourselves proclaiming we are christians one day, and then atheists another day, and then buddhists some other day. Some of us may describe ourselves like this: "Once I was a buddhist when I was young, then I grew up and became a christian. But after some time, I decided to become an atheist. I call myself an ex-christian and ex-buddhist. Now I am thinking of embracing mysticism or agapethism."

Even for those who subscribe to a mainstream belief system, we can see or imagine a conversation that goes like this:

A: I decided to become a christian when I attended a church camp in my teenage years.
B: Really? So what denomination are you?
A: Well, I started off as a conservative baptist christian. I believed the Bible is inerrant (nevermind the translation errors) and Jesus will return literally.
B: Interesting. What happened after that?
A: Then, some guest minister came and preached about the baptism of the holy spirit. I thought it was cool, so I decided to become a charismatic christian and I spoke in tongues regularly.
B: Cool. And then what happened?
A: Then later, some human rights activists were decrying the spiritual abuse and condemnation caused by organised religion. It got me thinking about the church creed, and I questioned about the doctrines of hell. I came to the conclusion there is no literal hell. So I became a universalist christian.
B: Ooo - wouldn't the calvinist and armenian christians and all those evangelical christians call you a heretic then?
A: You bet. It is not easy being a universalist christian. Then again, it is better than to live a life wondering about the kind of God evangelical christians believe in - one who is a mean, vengeful egomaniac.
B: So, are you still a universalist christian then?
A: Well, you know, even universalist christians don't always believe the same things. Some believe all are reconciled to God already. Some believe one day all will be reconciled to God. Also, sometimes life is hard. Sometimes I don't feel like God answers my prayers. Some of my friends are good at rationalising away things in life, dismissing religion and spirituality as myths and fairy tales. I am contemplating to become an atheist.
B: Oh, do you think God will be angry if you become an atheist?
A: Well, not really, because I come to understand God as love and only love. I'm sure God understands. Besides, we are already one with God, and God already knows what we are talking about even at this present moment - He is probably smiling and nodding in understanding. I believe the so-called "wrath of God" is simply something that the ancient people imagined in their mind because they felt separated from God and Jesus had to come to tell everyone the kingdom of God is within each of us.
B: So will you be an atheist?
A: Maybe, maybe not. I still believe there is God. But sometimes, I am not so sure. Maybe it is safer to call myself an agnostic. I know of people who call themselves atheist agnostics.
B: What a mouthful - atheist agnostics.
A: Haha, that's nothing compared to some of the fancy terms some christians call themselves - such as the so-called "apostolic, Bible-believing, devil-chasing, tongue-talking, spirit-filled fundamentalist reformed evangelical protestant christian". It's as if it sounds very impressive to other people, eh?
B: You bet. I know of people who give themselves impressive-sounding titles like "Most Holy and Reverend Emeritus Professor of Theological and Theosophical Bible College and Seminary with Doctorates in this and that thesis" - you get the picture, yea. I'm half-exaggerating to make a point.
A: Yea, I know. Sometimes I wonder if it is all just in the mind. You know, these preachers talk about love but they don't really demonstrate love in their life.
B: Oh yea?
A: Yea, some are like celebrity preachers and hardly mingle with the congregation.
B: So their teachings are just good-sounding doctrines, eh?
A: That's right. They also are not very kind to their own peers who belong to other denominations. They will say "Well, I believe the Bible says X, Y and Z, but you believe the Bible says A, B and C. So I am now officially disfellowshipping with you and your church because you are a heretic and misled by the devil. Farewell."
B: That's serious, man.
A: You bet. And so Preacher A calls Preacher B a heretic, and Preacher B calls Preacher A a legalist. And so on and so forth.
B: Wow, whatever happens to love and unity?
A: That's why I don't want to associate myself with mainstream christianity anymore, you see. I don't want to be a hypocrite, or look like one to others. Sometimes a secular humanist is better at human relationships and seeks to champion or promote social justice better than an average evangelical or mainstream christian minister.
B: You are not judging people, are you?
A: Not really - it is more like stating an observation. There are good and caring ministers everywhere, no doubt, regardless of whether they are in the christian or muslim or buddhist or whatever spiritual or religious circles.
B: So where are you at now, spiritually speaking?
A: I don't know. I am constantly evolving in my belief systems. Maybe it is better not to label myself based on my belief system. It can be tough trying to revise the terminology to fit in my ever expanding and ever growing understanding of the divine, of the world, of life in general. Any label would be restrictive and may even impede my spiritual progress or development, so to speak.
B: I suppose many people wouldn't agree with you. They like to fit you in a particular category in their conversations for ease and convenience of reference.
A: Yea, I understand, but life isn't always so clear-cut. There are always grey areas. For example, at which point do I consider myself to belong to a particular belief system that has a label without contradicting myself at some other point in time when my belief system evolves to another level of understanding? I think man-made labels like "christian", "calvinist", "lutheran" etc are best taken with a pinch of salt, if they are worth any salt to begin with.
B: That's true. Talking about salt, aren't you already the salt of the earth, metaphorically speaking?
A: That's a good analogy. Thank you. So are you. You are the light of the world.
B: Thank you. I gotta get going. I wish you a pleasant day.
A: You too. Namaste.

[Post updated on 16 November 2011]

Christian Theology of Violent God is Both Misleading and Pornographic

Someone astutely observed that the preaching on law and grace is part of the dispensationalist christianity camp. I think that this observation is true as the teachings on law and grace tend to portray God as a legalistic judge who will one day execute so-called "judgment" on "unbelievers". As for me, I would subscribe to fulfilled eschatology (as the preterists do), and my understanding of "judgment" is in terms of the conscience of the Jews in AD70, who mistakenly thought their God was judging them when the Jerusalem temple was destroyed. So yea, it wasn't God "judging" them or anyone at all. It was simply the "roaring of the lion" in their consciousness - Satan or the human ego - accusing them, and trying to deceive them into thinking God was angry with them, when all the while, God is already one with humankind and is never separated from humankind.

Another realisation I had recently is that Isaiah 53 also mentioned it was man who thought God was angry with Jesus at the cross. Isaiah 53:4 says "Yet WE esteemed Him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. But He was wounded for our transgressions". So it is clear that it wasn't God who smote Jesus at the cross, although it appeared like that to people surrounding Him. Psalm 22 also recorded that God was all the while with His Son - "For He has not despised nor abhorred the affliction of the afflicted; nor has He hidden His face from Him; but when He cried to Him, He heard." (Psalm 22:24)

The truth of the gospel is that God is not angry with humankind at all - not with His Son, not with any one of us. God is love, and love keeps no records of wrongs, so the penal substitution view holds no water.

Preaching of Violent God is Nothing More than Pornography

The online Merriam-Website dictionary has an interesting definition of the word "pornography". One of the definitions given is: 

"the depiction of acts in a sensational manner so as to arouse a quick intense emotional reaction <the pornography of violence>"

It is ironic that many evangelical or fundamentalist church preachers are condemning people for watching pornography (which they often think is referring to sexual materials, maybe because they are struggling with sexual temptations themselves, for whatever one resists only becomes stronger), yet by their very condemnation of people with threats of hellfire and damnation, these same preachers are promoting pornography themselves without even realising it. Why is that so? Because they are projecting the "pornography of violence", painting God as some mean, vengeful and judgmental egomaniac. Not only are they manipulating people with guilt and fear, by preaching do's and dont's instead of the divine life indwelling people, the preachers are strengthening the power of addiction and temptations over them.

Want to see an example of a "christian" hellfire and damnation pornographic material? Well, for the sake of your health and wellbeing, I won't post the video here directly. I will just put a link here - watch it only when you are prepared. If you are already set free from religion and condemnation, knowing that the christian "hell" is a myth, then you may even find this video laughable because you know the person who did the voice-over was just being blinded, brainwashed and unconscious himself. "Oh the madness!" cried the preacher in the video. Yea, right - what a mad, crazy, looney fundamentalist preacher, that is.

Someone wrote, "I think that looking for God outside of ourselves is the problem; thus, I have chosen to reconnect myself to the real world. Therefore, I'm not an object of weekly incessant brainwashing, spiritual and emotional rape, psychological and mental manipulation and abuse anymore." I totally agree with that - what sweet freedom we experience - like a breath of fresh air - when we are no longer subject to the pornography and violence of evangelical or fundamentalist church teachings!

Related link:

"the god who burns you" - David Hayward

How are we righteous?

 Video commentary:

Christianity fosters self-hate in mankind (sometimes tastefully called "conviction of sin") so that it can offer its own special answer (salvation) to an entirely artificial problem. The real solution begins by understanding that there is nothing wrong with you just as you are - that man is not a "fallen" being.

If you consider yourself a christian, does it strike you as strange if people say christianity is a self-loathing religion? After all, you think christianity is about God loving us unconditionally, even the worst of us. Yet I realise there is something amiss with the presentation of the gospel by mainstream or traditional christianity. The doctrine of "original sin" tends to paint a picture of how sinful and fallen we once were, and a holy and righteous God could not stand being around us for a second more and had to come up with a plan to send His Son to die and cleanse us with His blood to make us acceptable before Him, and even then, those who are seen as "rejecting this good news" will continue to fall out of favour with God and will continue to suffer misery and separation for ages and ages in a place called hell without end after they die. What a miserable existence, is it not?

Another common refrain I have heard in the evangelical christian circles goes something like "We are nothing without Jesus" or "It is all about Jesus, not about me". It is as though to love ourselves the way we are is a terrible sin and can cause us to become proud or puffed up, and so we must see ourselves as originally dirty and condemned, and only Jesus' blood can wash us clean. I also hear believers say things like "All glory to Jesus", as if Jesus is somewhere up there and we are down here, and the only way to defeat pride and demonstrate humility is to try to make ourselves nothing and make Jesus everything.

Why is this important? Well, for a start, it keeps us from actually loving and accepting ourselves the way we are if we think God is constantly trying to change us into something we are not. Secondly, it may cause us to see others as lost and miserable creatures if they do not profess to believe in Jesus. No doubt, some of us may say Jesus saw people as sheep not having a shepherd, but I believe it does not mean that Jesus saw people as being destined to go to a so-called place for hell.

Thirdly, it can create a sense of false humility when people insist on saying that it is all about Jesus and not about them. The question is: How can it be only all about Jesus when He is already one with us? We are inseparable from Jesus, so if Jesus is glorified, so are we glorified together with Him. It is impossible to glorify Jesus without us sharing the same glory that He had, so it might as well be better for us to be truly humble and accept the fact that we are as perfect and complete and righteous and beautiful and powerful as Jesus is.

1 Corinthians 6:17 says "He who is joined to the Lord is one spirit with Him."

"Yes, but that is referring to believers", someone might say. Really? When Jesus died on the cross, who died with Him? When Jesus was raised from the dead, who rose with Him? Only believers? No, every one of us rose together with Him and we are united with Him.

"If we are already righteous, why did Jesus shed His blood then?" Good question. The interesting answer that I have come to learn is that God is not the one who requires the blood sacrifice. The religious sacrificial system is actually a pagan practice, which the Israelites borrowed from the pagan cultures in the old testament times. God does not need to appease His anger because He was not angry with us at all. "What? This is blasphemy! Heresy!" I hear some of you say.

Wait a minute, folks. Why would the Israelites think God was angry with them whenever something bad happened to them? Has it occurred to us that they interpreted events based on their concept of God or Yahweh, thinking that God must be punishing them whenever they were attacked by enemies or harmed by natural disasters like earthquakes? I believe before Jesus came on the scene 2,000 years ago, people back then felt separated from God. It began in the garden of Eden when Adam and Eve ate from the tree of knowledge of good and evil, and after that, they felt alienated from God. It was interesting to note that God was all the while with humankind, and yet humankind thought their sins had separated them from God.

To cut a long story short, the Jews in the new testament times needed to be saved from sin-consciousness because they had been under the law for so many years (about 430 years). The law of Moses could not save them; it only condemned them. The only way for them to be saved from the religious mindset is to understand that Jesus came to be the perfect offering. Again, it is not to appease God's wrath, but rather to silence the roaring of the lion that accuses them day and night in their own conscience.

"For the worshippers once purified, would have had no more consciousness of sins" (Hebrews 10:2)

This blood sacrificial system is never for us today. Why? Because we are never under the law in the first place. We are living in the new covenant of grace already. The law system ended officially in AD70, marked by the destruction of the temple by the Roman army in Jerusalem. So, since we are under not law, and by the law is the knowledge of sin, it means that sin has never been imputed to us.

So let's fast forward to the main question - How are we righteous? Is it by believing in Jesus or is it by Jesus' obedience? Some might say, "well, it is definitely not by our works, because the Jews sought to be righteous by obeying the law to obtain their own righteousness and have not submitted to the righteousness of God, according to Romans 10". I agree we are righteous not by our performance, but it is also not by believing in Jesus either. "What?" I hear you say. Yes, you read it correctly, we are righteous not by believing in Jesus, but by Jesus' obedience.

Romans 5:19 says "For by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so also by one Man's obedience many will be made righteous".

"Fine" you might say. "That happens when Jesus did the divine exchange at the cross, for God made Jesus who knew no sin to be sin for us that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. That means before Jesus died on the cross, no one was righteous."

Well, not really, because the cross is outside time - Jesus is the Lamb slain from before the foundation of the world. Therefore, by the time God created humankind, He created us to be righteous and innocent and perfect and complete. We were originally beautiful and good and perfect - that is our true identity, and Jesus came to restore that identity to us. Our part is simply to renew our mind with this wonderful good news.

"And be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and that you put on the new man which was created according to God, in true righteousness and holiness." (Ephesians 4:23-24)

So, the heart of the gospel is that we are created righteous and holy and beautiful, and it is not by our doing but by God's doing. We are crowned with glory and honour. Christ in us is the hope of glory. And Love is who we are because we are made in Love's image.

Poem based on Colossians 1

In Him we live and move and have our being
All things included - living, non-living
Christ in us the mystery is thus revealed
On the day we awake, our soul is stilled.