Who is God? The Secret of the New Covenant
I’ve begun noticing a sort of central theme throughout the New Testament, a concept that seems to undergird most of the basis of the New Covenant. That theme is obvious, yet obviously a unique realiza…
Non-Religious Christianity
Christianity in my life
I grew up in a series of churches that could be described as legalistic and ultra-conservative. But those designations aren’t really important. The important word is shallow.It would have been easy fo…
Jesus is Lord
This is my rough take on a series of very complex subjects. Be warned. One of the most threatening enemies of early Christianity was gnosticism. And gnosticism was a threat for a very solid reason: i…
Christianity against religion
Recently, I’ve had renewed interest in presenting a viewpoint I worked years and years to realize. When I was working on understanding it, I assumed that once I finished researching, I would be able t…
Paul
A lot of people who really like Jesus, really don’t like Paul. One book puts it like this: everything good in Christianity came from Jesus, everything bad came from Paul. This sort of makes sense. Aft…
Thought on baptism
Baptism is a ceremony or ritual where some individual pledges themselves to a larger religious group or movement. John saw it as a pledge to repentance, Peter saw it as a pledge to forgiveness, Paul s…
Christianity reborn
Today, I’m starting a new email list about Christianity as the anti-religion. I care a lot about my religion. And the thing that concerns me the most is that, as the major institutions of Christianity…
i am not hurt
In reading many, many things that have been written about people who have left or are leaving church, one thing seems to be consistent. They have been hurt. This makes sense, for a lot of reasons. It’…
what is real
I think the New Testament is obsessed with the question of what is real. Of course, this is amply predated earlier in the scriptures. The Jewish prophets spent a lot of time and energy telling people …
i am orthodox
I don’t have much use for the term Orthodox. I think it means “within the bounds of historic Christianity”, but those bounds have been moving ever since Jesus forgot to specify which disciple got to c…
imputed righteousness and switching tracks
In my ongoing quest to remove everything unreal from my religious life, I’ve run head-on into the concept of imputed righteousness. If you’re not familiar with the idea, it’s the cornerstone of Calvin…
imputed righteousness, part 2
I’ve just written how reading Paul’s statements on guilt changed my whole way of thinking, and switched my mind to a new track. The track I’m referring to is something I’ve called “non-metaphysical Ch…
Religion is practice
Some things take practice. But when the practice is over, we must act. Religion, as it exists throughout the world and through history, is practice. It prepares the mind with deep thoughts, meditation…
The Law of Christ
This was written circa 1999, and circulated on some mailing lists and publishing sites at the time. The New Testament says, “the law was a schoolmaster to bring us to Christ…” When Jesus came, the law…