A Declaration of Freedom

The Religious Establishment

What they call “Christianity” is polluted by two millennium of emperors and political ambitions. They hijacked His name to build petty, human fiefdoms. They perpetrated a hoax by oppressing, imprisoning, torturing and murdering the real Jesus People–those who remained loyal to His teachings–but little is said about the widespread suffering Jesus People endured under the Empires of Christendom.

Can we now speak about the gap between Christianity and Jesus?

The facts are irrefutable:

• Christianity is rich, but Jesus was poor.
• Christianity is dirty, but Jesus is respectable.
• Christianity is complicated, but Jesus is easy to understand.
• Christianity is superstitious, but Jesus challenges educated minds.
• Christianity is hypocritical, even hostile, but Jesus is kind.
• Christianity was built by the military, but Jesus taught peace and forgiveness – doesn’t this bother anyone?
• Christianity is a religious world the real Jesus avoided.
• Christianity means good behavior, but Jesus means spiritual life.
• Christianity loves rules, but Jesus broke the religious rules.
• Christianity means “blind faith”, but Jesus lampooned blind faith.
• Christianity is the Establishment, but Jesus was persecuted by it.
• Christianity means rituals, but Jesus just fellowshipped with friends.
• Christianity suppresses women, but Jesus honored and educated women.
• Christianity keeps a clean house, but Jesus hung out with social outlaws.
• Christianity means singing, which Jesus never taught or practiced.

Christianity is a Religious-Political Establishment, but Jesus is cool. He rescued commoners from the ignorance and superstitions enforced by the Religious Establishment:

“When you pray, don’t babble on and on as people of other religions do. They think their prayers are answered merely by repeating their words again and again.” Matthew 6:7 (NLT)

Think about it—why is God the only one people talk to by “repeating…words again and again”? Is He deaf?  Did God create us to be machines or lovers? We never “babble on and on” with anyone we care for! Why so with God? Because Religious Establishments always gain power by selling incantations and superstitious chants that “babble on and on.” Jesus taught the freedom of talking directly to God outside the Religious Establishment:

“But when you pray, go away by yourself, shut the door behind you, and pray to your Father in private. Then your Father, who sees everything, will reward you.” Matthew 6:6 (NLT)

Who needs a Religious Establishment when you can “go away by yourself” to pray? The Creator God is the source of personal freedom, and our own Declaration of Independence claims the Creator is the universal, moral foundation for all personal freedoms:

Even the secular world understands our Creator gave us freedom.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights.

Foremost among human rights is our right to communicate directly with our Creator, without the Religious Establishment.  This right-of-access means each of us is personally significant to our Creator. No Religious Establishment can stand in-between God and His people.

Jesus despised religious chants and returned significance to all people. Anyone can talk directly with the Creator, without interference, because Jesus brought us freedom:

“If the Son makes you free, you will be free indeed.” John 8:36 (NASB)

This freedom threatened the Religious Establishment, so they killed him. But they could not kill everyone Jesus talked with. The Jesus People wrote down his words and spread the virus of freedom from religion.

Religious Revenge

Roman temples emptied, and Roman priests lost their jobs, so they began killing anyone who taught the freedom of Jesus. Still, they still could not stop its growth.

Jesus People met in the catacombs (graveyards) beneath Rome, and they were OK with that. They never built church buildings. The Christian Empire changed all that. (Wikimedia Commons)

So great is this freedom, it dismantled the Religious Establishment in Rome—and then the Emperor hijacked the name “Christianity” and claimed ownership. These claims were false, because Christianity and Jesus are so wildly-different. As the new Religious Establishment, the Christian Empire resumed the superstitious chants that “babble on and on”.

Those who taught about Jesus were persecuted and driven underground for millennium. Jesus People never killed or persecuted anyone in the name of Jesus, not ever! They would rather “turn the other cheek,” as Jesus taught.

Jesus People never established religions or fat bureaucracies. They denounced superstitions and rituals. Jesus People met outside the buildings called “churches” because Jesus rejected temples and holy places, like this:

“The time is coming when it will no longer matter whether you worship the Father on this mountain or in Jerusalem…But the time is coming—indeed it’s here now—when true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth. The Father is looking for those who will worship him that way.” John 4:21,23 (NLT)

This was the Declaration of Freedom From Religion, freedom from its Establishments and all its wealth.  Building-owners get enraged at the teachings of Jesus, so they killed Jesus and Jesus People.

Spread Freedom!

Jesus People are not owned by any institution, because membership in God’s family is a free gift. He loves all people and makes it possible for anyone to talk with God anywhere, “In Spirit and in truth.” This was declared in the earliest writings of the Jesus People:

“For God loved the world so much that he gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.” John 3:16 (NLT)

Nobody has to join a Religious Establishment to communicate with God. Anyone can find Jesus directly, so “everyone who believes in him will have eternal life.”

Jesus was an important teacher, most would agree (even if they don’t know why). What makes Jesus so important is His promise of “eternal life.” He brought us both freedom from religion and freedom from the fear of death.

Common Jesus People called this “the Good News!” for the underprivileged classes. The Religious Establishment replaced “Good News” with religious words like “Gospel”–which nobody understands.  Christianity gets complicated after centuries of these religious words, debates and wars. Few would call it “Good News” today.

Jesus People need to speak out against meaningless creeds and debates over institutional brand-names.

• Spread the word! Jesus delivered us from the Religious Establishment.
• Spread life! Tell people everywhere that Jesus merely came to set us free from the fear of death!
• Spread freedom! Tell people everywhere that Jesus made it possible to “worship the Father in spirit and in truth” without the Religious Establishment standing in-between.

Sourced from: NeoZine