Does Christianity have a future?

Seeing Jesus as a political figure does not diminish his stature one little bit; it increases it. When seen in the context of the times, the teachings of Jesus take on a whole new and vibrant meaning.

Jesus did not come as the lamb to be crucified to atone for the sins of the human race. Jesus did much more than that. Jesus, through his teachings, gave us the means to save ourselves; he gave us the means to become conscious of our humanity. He taught us personal responsibility. Jesus taught that our “salvation” was entirely our own responsibility.

The truth to me is that we have hierarchical structures in religion and in other areas because we have not, in the past, accepted that we are responsible for ourselves, and have been actively discouraged from doing so.

It is not Jesus who is irrelevant in our lives today, it is Paul’s Christianity. I hope that the human race can come to understand the difference.

Jesus, Son of God? Jesus, king of the Jews? Jesus, the fulfillment of the Jewish prophecies? Does it matter?

Is the human race going to continue arguing about what happened 2,000 years ago? What happened last year? What happened yesterday? And then plot revenge and war to “right” a “wrong” that is only a figment of our limited thinking? Does it matter?

What does matter is what is happening now. We cannot change the past, or even judge it. We can accept responsibility for what is happening now, and change it if we want to.

Throughout history there has been a continuous thread of gnostic thought kept alive by individuals who may not even be recognised as gnostic.

The teachings of Jesus before they were “christianised” appear to be gnostic. Much of the works of William Shakespeare are gnostic. Hamlet lays out similar principles to Jesus. Frank Herbert may appear to be a writer of cheap science fiction, but he continually interweaves gnostic thought into his stories. The problem is not that we’ve not be given everything that we need to know in this life, but that we haven’t heard.

There is the gnostic view that truth comes from within and those performing a religious service are simply those chosen to perform the service. They have no more or less rights, nor are they in any way closer to God, than the congregation. All are equal.

In orthodox Christianity, the process by which a priest becomes a priest assumes the proportions of being “called” to the service of God. The priest takes God away from the congregation and claims the power of God for himself.

This has always been a very tender point for orthodox Christianity. At every stage of history where orthodox Christianity seemed destined to reform or die this has been a central issue. It was a central issue in the 1500s, during the Reformation. The Christian church did make a “come-back,” but only through its usual tactics of oppression.