Legalism
Forty years ago, I believed fervently and piously as you do now. What I know now that I didn’t then, was those who taught me were perpetuating a lie It’s not that God has a funny way of kicking you in the gonads, it that sooner or later your strident beliefs will betray you because you take the Bible literally.
You look around and think that the unbelievers are going to hell because they don’t believe in God? The Bible? In Jesus? If you take the Bible literally as you claim to, then tell me what it was exactly that Eve did.
You were told that she sinned, that she disobeyed God and therefore the rest of us are doomed to make the same mistake as Eve. You were told that Jesus was your salvation, so you believed, accepted Jesus in your heart and were automagically forgiven. #MeToo.
That fits the pattern of deception that’s baked into various forms of Christianity. That pattern is right in front of your eyes but hidden from your heart. You read, but do not perceive. And it is wholly dependent upon the very thing that makes each human being capable of miracles or inflictor of harm: belief.
The mistake that Eve made was to believe what a lying, talking snake said. You remember, don’t you, but do you understand it? I think not, because you’re repeating the same mistake that Eve made that became institutionalized and a transaction. Don’t believe me? I don’t give a fuck if you do, and neither does God because he made each human being with the power to believe.
Remember what the snake said that Eve believed? Remember how she felt immediately after believing she wasn’t like God? Remember how afraid she was that she tried to cover up her perfection (Bonus if you can spot the corresponding parable) and hide in the Garden of Eden? Remember the 2 questions that God asked her? Not Adam, just Eve.
Where are you? Well, we know exactly where you are but you don’t seem to realize it yourself because you’re stuck in Fundamentalistan. I used to be too, so no worries about that. It’s the next question that everyone needs to answer.
Who told you?
Who told you that you were not created in God’s image? Who told you that you are a sinner? Who told you that are condemned to Hell unless you accept Jesus into your heart? Did it come from some guy trained at Seminary? Was it a billboard (my case) and a phone number to call?
Religion is marketing, nothing more, nothing less, it’s just pure marketing. All one has to do to induce belief is toss in a kernel of truth and a sprinkle of doubt. The pattern then is the same now: perform this action in order to receive/achieve what you already have/are. You, me, everybody, we were all born believers.
The greatest command to love your neighbor as yourself requires one to love their self first because if you believe the wrong things about yourself, as Eve did, then you will feel, think, and act in ways that hurt yourself and others. Thus love heals everything and miracles become a daily occurrence.
