"PUTTING CHRIST BACK INTO CHRISTIANITY"

JESUSISM: A type of Christianity in which belivers adhere to the life and teachings of Jesus as the true and perfect foundation for their spriritual walk.

While in theory every Christian believes this, modern evangelical Chrisitianity mostly adheres to the teachings of Paul. A Jesusist holds the words of Paul and all others scribes of the Bible as wisdom gleaned from that person's encounter with God, but believes that the words of JESUS are esteemed above the words of ANY other person.

Jesusism views the LIFE, the TEACHINGS and the WORKS of Jesus as the only infalliable way, truth and life by which we should live. It is our life, our path, our guide and the only source by which we place our faith.

In short- what Jesus said and did is more important than what anyone else said or did in the Bible and if there seems to be any contradiction between words of Jesus and another person's words in the Bible; then what Jesus said is what stands as THE truth.



Thursday, December 29, 2005

SALVATION- ETERNAL LIFE- BORN AGAIN

As I stated in a previous post, the words SALVATION, ETERNAL LIFE, and THE KINGDOM are used interchangably in modern Christianity. This causes the words to also be used erroneously. All three concepts are discussed in the Bible, but they are discussed as entirely separate and distinct from each other. This is the reason why modern Christianity teaches that eternal life is a free gift that comes from confessing Jesus even though Jesus himself taught that eternal life came through keeping the commandments.

SALVATION- Jesus came to give us a more abundant life. When Jesus spoke of salvation he was not speaking of the afterlife, but of the more abundant life that we can live right now.
Mark 16:16- states that if you believe and are baptized you will be saved. Salvation is a free gift, no strings attached, no works involved. It is simply a matter of believing and receiving. This is why Jesus could offer salvation to anyone who came to him wanting it and ready to receive it. Nicodemus was said to have received salvation in Luke 19:9. The woman with the alabaster box received salvation in Luke 7:50. To understand this, we must understand salvation is not for the afterlife; IT IS FOR HERE AND NOW.

Eternal Life- I already stated a lot about eternal life and how to gain it in my previous post. I'll just reiterate here that eternal life is gained by keeping the commandments of God.

BORN AGAIN/ THE KINGDOM- John 3:1 recounts a story where a man named Nicodemus inquired about the miracles Jesus did. Jesus attributed his works to the Kingdom and stated that no one could see this Kingdom unless they were "born again." It is important to note that this is the only time recorded in the Bible that Jesus mentions the concept of being born again. Jesus gave many examples describing the concept of the Kingdom, but He never actually defined what the Kingdom is. He did however tell us that the Kingdom was at hand (very close to us) Matt. 4:17 that it is within us, Luke 17:21; that there are keys to it, Matt. 16:19; its difficult for the rich to obtain, Mark 10:23.
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