CHRISTIAN FAITH
It is interesting to compare Judaism with Christianity. Both religions claim some parts (i.e. Old Testament) of the Bible as the basis of their religions. The big exception, of course, are the New Testament and Jesus.
Most Jews do not have much time or regard for Jesus. They might allow that he existed and that he was a Jewish teacher/prophet, but that is about all the credit they will assign to him.
This is a big contrast, of course, with what Christians believe about Jesus. Here are some of those basic beliefs:
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- He was born to a virgin.
- He is/was fully human and fully God.
- He was born sinless and did not sin.
- He was sent by God to save people from sin.
- He performed many miracles.
- He was crucified on a cross and buried in a tomb.
- He rose from the dead.
- He went to heaven to be with God.
- He will return to earth at some unknown time.
- The story of his life and death are contained in the gospel of Jesus.
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In addition to these beliefs about Jesus, most Christians believe that the Bible instructs them to do the following:
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- Build church buildings.
- Hire pastors with special gifts and callings to teach them about Jesus.
- Recruit singers and musicians to lead people in worship.
- Attend church services on the Sabbath day (Saturday or Sunday).
- Celebrate Christmas, Easter and other Biblical festivals.
- Give tithes and offerings to churches and other religious organizations.
- Pray often and regularly while alone and with others.
- Evangelize others to trust Jesus as their Lord and savior.
- Evangelize other to attend church.
- Observe/practice specific Religious Rituals and Traditions.
- Obey religious laws specific to their religion.
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These practices are firm and unchanging in all Christian communities. Along with the Christian gospel that provides the Biblical justification for these activities, these practices comprise what Christians often refer to as their “faith.” The Christian faith, therefore, is a collection of facts, objects, beliefs, and behaviors.
The Christian faith is very evident in the natural world in buildings, people, politics, traditions, rituals, books, movies, music, television, radio and newspapers. This concept of “faith” seems right and good to Christians because they find justification for these beliefs and practices in the literal bible. Because this concept of faith has been in place for two thousand years, there is an unspoken belief that God endorses and blesses these faith traditions. They do need to know, however, that faith as they understand it does not agree with God’s concept of faith. The fact that religious traditions have prospered does not mean that God approves of them.
The truth is that God hates religion. The truth is that God considers religion in all its many form to be his enemy. Despite his feelings about religion, God does not interfere with man’s choice to practice religion. We see this principle in the story of Adam and Eve in the garden. God gave them a clear choice: Eat the fruit from the Tree of Life, or eat fruit from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil.
STUDY TIP: See this link for understanding of the parable of Adam and Eve in the garden.
Everyone knows that Adam and Eve made the wrong choice. But only New Covenant disciples understand that the serpent represents religious teachers and that the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil is a symbolic reference to religion. Simply put, the story of Adam and Eve is a parable of religious people choosing to listen to false prophets instead of listening to God’s voice. Or, to put it another way, they chose fake faith learned from religious leaders instead of true faith that can be learned only from God.
This parable explains why religious faith is not the same as God’s idea of faith. Christian faith is learned from religious leaders who interpret the Bible literally. The Christian faith, therefore, is fake faith. True faith, on the other hand, is learned by listening to God’s spoken voice. God has made this point clear in many ways.
STUDY TIPS: See this link for understanding of how the Bible teaches about listening to the right teachers.
Also see this link about the differences between True Disciples and Fake Disciples.
Also see this link about Pure Religion compared to Defiled religion.
Despite God’s warning about listening to false prophets, many people find religion irresistible. And, after they have practiced religion, they find it impossible to quit. The creative, clever teaching of false prophets convinces them that the Bible should be interpreted for its literal content. Deceived by that teaching, they claim to believe and trust the Bible with the false belief that it reliably contains God words. This is a wrong belief. God’s spoken words and the written words of the Bible are not the same.
False prophets also teach Christians to put their trust in the human person Jesus while ignoring his words which are God’s words. This is how they have stumbled over the human Jesus. Here are a few of the ways they stumble:
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- When they put their trust in Jesus, they ignore God’s commands that they should trust no man.
- They put their faith/trust in the human Jesus but put no faith/trust in Jesus’ words.
- When they celebrate the birth, life and death of Jesus, they walk by sight in what they see in the person of Jesus.
- When they define their faith in terms of a gospel that celebrates the death of Jesus, they deny the faith that comes by hearing God’s words spoken by all true prophets/messiahs.
- They always preach “keep your eyes on the physical Jesus” and never preach “listen to Jesus’ words.”
- They claim to be followers of Jesus while ignoring Jesus’ command to obey God’s spoken words.
- They claim to have a personal relationship with Jesus while ignoring Jesus’ qualifications for friendship.
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In summary, Christians trust the man Jesus but not God’s words spoken by the man. The focus of their trust is in the wrong place. They have stumbled over the human Jesus.
STUDY TIP: See JESUS IS A STUMBLING BLOCK/STONE and this link for more about stumbling over Jesus.
As a son of man, Jesus had no human qualities that made him trustworthy. He had no supernatural abilities to heal people or raise them from the dead. The only thing about Jesus that was special and supernatural was the fact that he spoke God’s words. Only God’s words have supernatural power to do miracles — not the human person Jesus.
When God said “do not put your trust in man,” he was talking about all men — including Jesus. When God anointed Jesus to speak for him, he didn’t want people to put their trust in his human messenger. God never gave up on his expectation that people would put their trust in his words. Jesus provided the human voice, but the spiritual power that changed hearts exists in God’s spoken voice.
By stumbling over Jesus, Christians prove themselves hypocrites regarding what they believe.
Understanding of hypocrisy begins with these basic facts:
WHAT GOD SAID TO DO: | WHAT CHRISTIANS DO: |
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This list is a small sample of inconsistencies and contradictions between what God has commanded his people to do compared to what religion teaches them to do. The result of these inconsistencies and contradictions is hypocrisy, which means that people are working hard to act like spiritual people, but are actually doing the exact opposite of what God wants them to do. In God’s language, when you don’t obey what God says to do you sin. That awareness makes the inconsistencies and contradictions a much more weighty matter that hypocrisy.
The problem for religious people is that they actually believe that every religious thing they do is commanded by God. They see evidence for the things they do in the Bible, they hear the teachings of religious leaders, and they watch people they otherwise know and trust doing religious things that are not consistent with God’s commands. It all seems so right and seems so satisfying that it is nearly impossible for religious people to accept that the religion they know and love is actually sin in God’s eyes.
So what is a religious person to do? Religion seems right, and it does have its rewards, but when they look at the list of inconsistencies and contradictions in the list above, they are faced with a choice that they could never have imagined they would have to make: Do they keep practicing religion — even in the face of evidence that God considers religion to be his enemy? Or do they take the new information they now have about what God has commanded them to do, stop doing what religious people have told them they should do, and begin experimenting with obedience to what God has commanded them to do? It is not an easy decision to make and it is not a decision that anyone will make quickly or without a lot of soul-searching over issues that they had not ever considered.
The basic question that people must answer for themselves is this:
Do I continue to practice the religion that I have been taught? And, do I continue to trust religious leaders for knowledge of God and his ways?
Or,
Do I quit religion in the hope that God himself will teach me what he wants me to know about him and his ways?
And there is this related question:
Do I give up the religion that my family, my friends and I know and love in exchange for something else that I do not know or understand?
Obviously these are not easy questions to answer. But there are Biblical facts available to help make an informed decision. Here are some links to pages that contain those facts:
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- Pure Religion Compared to Defiled Religion
- Godliness Compared to the Way Religion Looks and Works
- How to Identify True Prophets and How to Identify False Prophets
- Definition of a True Prophet
- True Disciples and Fake Disciples
- Discerning Between False Gospels and the True Gospel
- True Faith Compared to Fake Faith
- Jesus’ Character and Character of New Covenant Disciples
- Jesus’ Ministry Functions and Ministry Functions of New Covenant Disciples
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And here are other facts about knowing God that must be considered:
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- There can be no physical evidence of God because God is spirit.
- People will not find evidence of God in miracles — other than the miracle of a changed heart.
- God desires intimacy with people.
- God’s idea of intimacy is achieved when people hear his voice.
- God made a covenant with people that says if you obey my commands, I will be your God. God’s commands are not found in the literal words of the bible. God’s commands exist in his laws written on the hearts of New Covenant disciples.
- When we hear Jesus’ words in our hearts, we know God.
- We know Jesus and know God when we believe God’s words spoken by true prophets.
- We trust what we know.
- We don’t trust what we don’t know.
- The more intimately we know someone, the more we trust them.
- We have perfect trust in people when we know their hearts.
- It is impossible to love and trust God if you can’t hear his words.
- We know God when he writes his laws on our hearts.
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From these facts we draw these conclusions:
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- It is impossible to know God if you have not heard his voice.
- It is impossible to know Jesus if you have not heard God’s words spoken by Jesus in your heart.
- Knowing Jesus’ literal words as revealed in the bible is not the same as knowing his spiritual words written on your heart.
- Knowledge of written words results in Old/First Covenant religion.
- Knowledge of the bible’s written words results in obedience to religious rules/laws.
- Knowledge of God’s laws written on the heart yields New Covenant disciples.
- It is impossible to trust God without trusting God’s words.
- Evidence of trusting Jesus’ words is God’s spiritual laws written on your heart.
- Christians do not know or trust God because they do not hear God’s voice.
- If you don’t hear God’s voice but say you love God, what you love is the idea of God — not God.
- If you say you love God but do not hear God’s spoken voice, you are actually in love with the idea of God that is based on the literal words of the bible by religion — you are not in love with God.
- If you say you love Jesus but do not hear God’s spoken voice, and do not have God’s spiritual laws written on your heart, you are actually in love with the idea of Jesus that is based on the literal words of the bible by religion — you are not in love with Jesus.
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CHRISTIANS LOVE THE IDEA OF JESUS — NOT HIS WORDS
Christians have faith, but the faith they have is in their religion (e.g. buildings, pastors, rituals, worship, rituals, traditions, etc.) which can be seen and which are constantly changing. This kind of faith is very different from Godly faith (i.e. God’s spoken voice) which can be heard but not seen, and which does not change.
Despite the fact that the Bible clearly says that faith cannot be seen, Christians proudly, but ignorantly, infer that their religion which can be seen represents Biblical faith. This claim is a major disconnect from Biblical truth. It spoils all Christian claims about righteousness and Godliness. Christians do not see the disconnect but God sees it, and so do all New Covenant disciples .
STUDY TIP: See Religion is not Faith and this link for God’s understanding of faith. Also see this link and this link for understanding of why Christians have a hard time seeing the disconnects between their idea of faith and God’s standard.
Another major disconnect in Christianity is found in their faith in Jesus. Christians call themselves Christians because they claim to follow Jesus. This also is a deception. They do not follow Jesus the way God wants/expects people to follow him. Here is a short summary of what it means to follow Jesus:
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- Represent his character to others.
- Fulfill his ministry functions.
- Say the things he said and do the things he did.
- Love their neighbors as they love themselves.
- Speak out against religion and religious people in ways that will cause religious people to hate and persecute them.
- Rebuke religious leaders.
- Pray in a secret place — not pray in public.
- Break religious laws.
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Christians do not do the things that Jesus did. What Christians do is what their religion tells them to do. It must be said, therefore, that they do not follow Jesus. What they do follow, however, are religious rules created by religious people, taught by religious people, and enforced by religious people.
Because Christians follow religious rules made by religious people, it must be said that Christians in fact follow other religious people (past and present) — not Jesus. Here are some of the reasons it is correct to say that Christians follow other religious people:
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- They go to religious meetings to listen to the teachings of religious leaders.
- They read books written by religious leaders.
- They sing the words of music created by religious musicians.
- They try to obey the teachings of religious leaders (past and present.)
- They pray and worship alongside other religious people.
- They financially support religious leaders by giving money to religious organizations that hire the leaders to teach.
- They observe religious rituals and traditions taught by and conducted by religious leaders.
- They teach their children to observe religious rituals and traditions taught by and conducted by religious leaders.
- They honor religious leaders with titles (i.e. Pastors, Priests, Rabbis, Apostles, Bishops, Elders, Deacons, Overseers, Rabbis, Popes, Missionaries and Evangelists, etc.) that indicate that these leaders have authority to teach them about God and lead them in religious rituals and traditions.
- They give praise and deference to religious leaders.
- They show favoritism and partiality to people who share their religious beliefs when they conduct their religious activities in unique religious communities with unique identities.
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All of these activities and practices are the visible, tangible substance of the Christian faith/religion. After he was baptized, Jesus did not do any of these activities himself nor did he teach his followers to do any of these activities. It must be said, therefore, that Christianity is a man-made religion that has no resemblance to the things Jesus said or did. In other words, Christians follow other Christians — not Jesus. In God’s view, Christianity is idolatry because it is based on the teachings and practices of religious people — not on God’s spoken word.
God’s word is a consuming fire and a refining fire. Because Jesus spoke for God, it must be said that Jesus’ words are also a consuming fire and a refining fire. Here are some things Jesus did that had a consuming/refining effect on people:
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- He said he came to cast fire on the earth.
- He said he did not come to bring peace, but a sword.
- He confronted and rebuked religious leaders for their religious practices.
- He modeled for his followers the kinds of actions they must take to utterly destroy religious nations and tear down idols and high places, so that captives to religion can be set free from religion.
- He said he came to set people free from captivity to religion.
- Like all true prophets, he broke religious laws.
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When Christians think about what Jesus said and the things he did, they do not typically think about him in these ways. It would never occur to them that they would do these things because they know that if they did these things they would not be welcome in their religious community. Therefore, they do not imagine that these are things that followers of Jesus should do, or would do. So they do not do them. Thus, it must be said that they are not true followers.
Instead of thinking of Jesus as a consuming fire, they think of him as a loving, comforting, gentle, meek, handsome, white man who held children in his lap and healed people of their diseases. They much prefer the image of Jesus as a cuddly baby or a bloody messiah on a cross to the image of a warrior with a sword in his mouth.
Christians have a soft, mushy idea of what it means to follow Jesus. Basically, they think that if they were baptized as a child, or raised in a church, or occasionally pray to him, or have invited him into their heart and, at a minimum, recognize him at Christmas and Easter, they are qualified to call themselves Christian. And they believe that the fact that some people in the Bible were called Christians provides all the legitimacy they need to apply that label to themselves.
Religious labels and religious branding are very important to religious people but they are offensive to God because they grossly misrepresent him. Religious labels, religious behaviors and religious beliefs are exactly what God has in mind in the Third Commandment.
In addition to labels, all religions do different things to make their religions distinct from other religions. They do these things to brand and market themselves in a world of religions that competes for the hearts, minds and money of followers. Here is a short list of things that religions do to identify themselves:
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- The names (e.g. Catholic, Lutheran, Baptist, Assembly of God, etc.) they adopt.
- Their buildings.
- Their clothing.
- Their music.
- Their rituals and traditions.
- The titles they use to identify their leaders.
- Their language.
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All these physical features, along with doctrinal beliefs, and labels are the substance of the Christian faith. But it is fake faith because it is not at all like true faith. Here are the differences between fake faith and true faith:
TRUE FAITH | FAKE FAITH | COMMENTARY ON FAKE FAITH |
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The main points found in this table are these:
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- Faith that can be seen, touched and heard is not God’s idea of faith.
- Faith that can be seen and heard is fake faith.
- True faith is invisible because it exists in the heart.
- True faith is a mystery because it cannot be seen.
- True faith exists only in the heart of New Covenant disciples.
- Fake faith is very visible and on always on display in the language and activities of Old/First Covenant religious people.
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Fake faith is easy to identify because it always wears a label (e.g. clothing, language, name, activity, etc.) that says “I am a religious person.” God does not use labels to identify his people. Christians and Jews do not understand that God actually hates labels and the religions they represent. God does not look at external labels. He looks at the condition of hearts.
Christians wrongly believe that following Jesus means going to church and observing Christian traditions. They wrongly believe that if they love the physical Jesus and put their faith in him, they will go to heaven after they die. They wrongly believe that if they can evangelize others to believe in Jesus they will save them from going to hell after they die. These are all examples of fake faith because they are learned by listening to religious leaders — not God’s spoken voice.
While Jews and Christians disagree about Jesus, there is still much about Judaism and Christianity that is the same. For example, here is what Christians say about the Bible:
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- It is the inspired word of God.
- It is trustworthy.
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Unfortunately, Christians put their trust in the literal words of the bible — not in God’s spoken words. They do not understand that the literal bible and God’s spoken words are not the same.
By emphasizing the literal words of the bible, they have all but ignored and rejected God’s spoken words. And, at the same time, they have used the literal words to develop Christian doctrines that equate Jesus with God. Thus, Jesus is a stumbling block to hearing God’s spoken voice.
Even though the Bible says several times that Jesus was a servant, and even though Jesus clearly said that his words were not his own and that he spoke for God, and said that he did not see himself equal to God, Christians insist on making him equal to God. In choosing to put their faith in Jesus whom they can see, they all but ignore God’s voice which can be heard but not seen. Christianity does not practice Godly faith.
Christianity is not a Godly faith because it is impossible to represent God, who is an invisible spirit that does not change, with natural objects. Nor is it possible to represent God by pretending to be like Jesus. Here are a few ways to help people evaluate if they are true followers or Jesus or not:
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- If you don’t say the things Jesus said and don’t do the things Jesus did, you are not like Jesus.
- If you don’t duplicate Jesus’ character and don’t fulfill his ministry functions, you are not a real follower of Jesus.
- Using Jesus’ name in conversation, prayer and music does not make anyone a true follower of Jesus.
- Wearing a cross and observing Christmas and Easter does not make anyone a true follower of Jesus.
- Evangelizing people to become religious does not make anyone like Jesus.
- Going to church and paying tithes does not make anyone like Jesus.
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Only true disciples are true followers of Jesus. People who say they love and follow Jesus are hypocrites who pretend to be like Jesus and pretend to be Godly.
Jesus is the spirit of prophecy. It is impossible to pretend to be spiritual by doing things with your physical body.
Again it must be said that Christianity is not Godly faith because it is impossible to represent an invisible spirit that does not change with religion that is constantly changing.
Christianity is Fake Faith. Christians have stumbled over Jesus by making him equal to God.
Christianity is the largest religion in the world, and Judaism is one of the smallest, and they are both very well known. But the fact remains that they are both still religions — not faith. They are not faith because they can be seen.