Model regarding the operation of the first Christian communities

        The distinction between institutional and non institutional Christianity, consists in the fact that, in the early Christian Church, the spiritual element was more present than the institutional one. It was a time when the institution was not there, it only started to be formed gradually. The Christians were persecuted and their communities were based on the direct guidance of the Holy Spirit, rather than on the exegesis of the written texts of the canonic Bible. There was a risk being Christian. I refer to the risk of martyrdom. During the apostles’ era, only people truly called by God came to God.

After Christianity became the official religion in The Roman Empire and a majority of people have been conditioned to become Christians, as a prerequisite in order to hold certain positions in the army or Roman imperial administration, the institutional Christian church was filled with opportunists. These were people who “believed” in God mainly because their earthly interests.

Institutional churches are full of worldly Christians, caring only the name of a Christian denomination and today they constitute the majority and decide the direction of the development of their religious institutions.

Here, below, I present an approximate model of how the first Christian communities were organized and how meetings were held in the early Christian Church.

I do not see why we would not return to them. Return to the apostolic origins of Christianity, does not mean to enter Pentecostal Church, so called apostolic, not just another religious institution but means a return to Christ, to His teachings and mostly to His presence in us.

 Functioning model of local non denominational churches

This is an open model and contains no fixed or mandatory rules for the activity of a Christian congregation and is closest to how the Apostolic Christian assemblies held their meetings.

Article 1

Non denominational churches are not completely, the Church invisible made visible. The One Spiritual Church, the true Church of God is in itself a spiritual reality, not institutional and its visible side is represented only by the true practicing Christians and not by the religious organizations.

They are spiritual-social centres, free Christian communities, which serve to prepare the faithful to enter into the true Church of God. Entry into the Church of God, spiritual and unique is through being born again and not only through the water baptism.

The entry into the true Church of God is not decided by any man alone, but, in the last instance, by God.

The faithful can aspire to enter the true Church of God but can not get there only by his or her unilateral decision to be baptized in water, only by his or her own will, or the will of his or her parents.

The entrance in the true Church of God can happen only through the human act of will, followed, necessarily, by the will of God. First is God’s calling to people, then their positive answer. After that they will be passed through the born again process, by God and they will be born from Him. Finally He decides to consider them members of His unique Church.

The membership in the true Church of God is not decided only by humans, unlike the appurtenance to a religious institution, in fact is finally decided by God alone. (Acts 2; 47)

One cannot say, in regard of others, who exactly is a member of the true Church of God and who is not.

Everyone knows, for himself or for her, if he or she is a member of the unique Church of God.

Entrance in the true Church of God is only for those who are born again, born from God, according to the teachings of Jesus, expressed in the Gospel of John, chapter 3; 3-6.

Entry into the true Church of God represents also the entrance into the Kingdom of God as far as it is manifested on this earth, because only by being born again believers come into this Kingdom. The visible part of the invisible Church is constituted only by the born-again believers and is not expressed entirely by any religious organization, as such. There are many Christian communities and denominations but just one Church of God. (Ephesians 4; 4)

The fundamental principle of the relationships between community members is the practice of the Christian love, as prescribed by Jesus in John 13 to 34-35. Practice of Christianity must follow any faith in God. Faith and love goes together, inseparably, together with hope. The Christian works are all determined by agape. The works of faith are the works of love.                             One can not love and do nothing for the ones who loves. Faith without love is nothing, doesn’t have any real value for salvation. (1 Corinthians 13; 2) Christian love is bigger than faith and without love faith has not practical value. (1 Corinthians 13; 13) Salvation comes through faith and love. 

  The local non denominational churches have not imposed doctrines and what they have in common is the personal faith, of every member. What is the most important common factor to all members is agape, the spiritual love, which one cannot possess except as a gift from God and which is the ground for the existence of a viable Christian community. (Romans 5; 5)

Opinions, rituals or believes are not obligatory and none of them can be imposed through religious authority. What brings and keeps together the members are their personal relationships with the same God. Believers are united by means of God not only in the name of God, meaning that they are united through the Holy Spirit and not in an institutional manner.

These communities don’t have a single confession of faith, uniform and binding. They don’t have a single creed or a set of dogmas of faith, or one doctrine. All Christian communities accept and declare Jesus as their savior and pattern of faith.

Jesus is not only a mean to our salvation He is also o model to be followed in His footsteps. It is not enough, for our salvation, to declare the belief in His sacrifice for us, if we don’t follow His way of conduct. (1 John 2; 6) Jesus is not saved in our place, He died for us but we have to live with Him. (Romans 6; 8-11)

 Practice is more important, for the individual salvation than following the “right” doctrine or religious dogma. Any imposed religious authority is bad and damaging and hasn’t any legitimacy. Any imposed doctrine or dogma of faith is a sign of a religious decadence and a mark of the “beast,” such that it is presented by the book of Revelation.

The first local Christian Churches, which the book of Revelation makes speech, were non denominational churches because in those days still not settled dogma and creed mandatory doctrines were established. The apostolic communities didn’t have the canonic Bible. Many writings, which today are marginalized, were in circulation.

The first Christian communities were led directly by the Holy Spirit and not by various interpretations of the biblical texts. These communities were local, meaning they were not  organized in huge religious systems and non confessional.

Christian doctrines were established over time, long after Jesus' mission on earth and first appeared long after the apostolic Church. The come back to Jesus mainly means to be personally guided by His Holy Spirit and also means the opening towards all Scriptures which were circulating immediately after Jesus’ death and resurrection.

Apostolic faith is non dogmatic faith and is based on our personal witness of Jesus, every person in question, on our personal experience with Him. An authentic apostolic faith is based on an individual evidence of the power of God, a clear personal revelation.

Article 2

The members of the local non denominational churches will remind constantly that their communities are not the unique Church of God, but they are spiritual-social centers of training, support and advice for the true Church of God.

 Article 3

All members are perfectly equal to each other and there is no spiritual hierarchy between them.

Apostle is any born again Christian who builds a local non confessional church.

Each born again member of the church is a pastor if he or she feels called, meaning that everyone willingly takes responsibility to shepherd people who want to know God and who are not familiar with the Christian faith.

Pastor is a personal guide, for those who are at their first steps in the Christian faith. The Pastor is not the head of the local non confessional church but he or she is a personal guide choice of one or more faithful to their first steps towards God. There is no N.T. pastor of the congregation; the pastor is the shepherd of individual souls, not of the religious organizations. The Great Pastor of all is Jesus Himself.

The new comers will be guided individually; the pastors, or born-again Christians, will accompany their spiritual path, as long as the new members see fit. Pastors have one important task and that is to put the faithful in a personal relationship with the Great Shepherd, Jesus Christ.

Prophets and all the people with spiritual gifts will work freely and unrestrained by anyone or anything in their spiritual activity. Exercise of the spiritual gifts is one of the main purposes of the local non denominational Church meetings.

Evangelizations will be free, based on everyone’s personal experience with God without conflicts and controversies with others. Among themselves born again Christians do not need human shepherds, as they are shepherded, directly by the Great Shepherd, Christ.

 Article 4

There isn’t any spiritual leader or board of the local non denominational Churches.

There is only a trustee or deacon and aid administrator, also deacon, who will deal exclusively with the administrative side of the organization, for the proper functioning of the center. Deacons do not have any spiritual authority or quality of judging, in spiritual matters or the conduct of other believers, they only deal with providing the necessary administrative functioning of the Centre.

Any decision, on administrative matters, takes a majority vote of those present. Decisions or recommendations with binding character, in spiritual matters, will not be taken. The personal conscience of the members is sovereign in spiritual matters.

It is presumed that, together with God, everyone is the only person responsible for his or her spiritual life and none needs any push or constraints from others.

The faithful should not be regarded as children in need of guardianship of any religious institution.

Judgment in spiritual matters, or who is guilty of sin and who is not, are not allowed. The only judge of the spiritual life of the human beings is God and that according to the teachings of Jesus. (Mathew 7; 1)

The local non denominational churches are centers for spiritual healing and also they are places where believers are supported in order to be born again, by Jesus.

In exceptional cases a person may be removed from the center, with the help of law enforcement if serious perturbation of public order will occur.

 Article 5

The meetings will be hosted and moderated in turn by one of the permanent members on a rotating basis by a list of members comprising the absolutely all permanent members, without exception.

When one of the permanent members is not present, the next permanent member on the list will automatically take place.

 Article 6

Sunday mornings will be not a religious ceremony but the present members will meet and discuss among themselves, will advise each other, will listen to their needs and demands and will establish spiritual relationships, and if possible will have a common meal. That will be a time dedicated exclusively to a real communion between Christians, addressing their real problems and also trying to address their questions awaiting an answer. On this occasion it will be taken the Lord's Supper.

Sunday evening, rotating two or three members will talk about their Christian experience, and understanding that each has on the Bible.

During the week, whenever they may meet, usually evening time periods, the meetings will be devoted to the analysis of the Bible and other books, important for Christianity. They will be held by members with good knowledge of the Christian problems.

Each member will make a review of an important book. The other days, programs will be artistic, with spiritual character, and other evenings will be reserved exclusively for prayers. Prayers will be both individual and collective, without a prescribed rule, but with a special emphasis on individual prayers that can be supported and reinforced by other members.

Dedicated groups will be constituted to be available at any time, 7/24, to pray and to be with the sick, members of the centre and others. There will be several groups that will rotate between themselves.

Births, marriages, funerals will be assisted by other members of the community as such as their family problem.

Poor and unable to care for themselves, members of a community, will be in the care of the local non confessional Churches and they will be helped as much as possible. Helping the poor is not limited only to members of that centre.

 Article 7

The centres will perform acts of worship such as: Lord's Supper or Eucharist, baptisms, blessings, marriages and funerals. All acts of worship will be performed by any permanent member of the Centre, whether man or woman, by rotation.

 Article 8

The meetings aim is to help the members to formulate their own best personal faith through open dialogue. The principle regarding the content of faith is respect for personal beliefs of each member in different matters.

Each member should have the opportunity to express his or her opinions in matter of faith and none, in any way, can be forced to believe something other than his or her conscience dictates. The only obligation is to argue, if possible, a belief about which reference is made in public. Even if the arguments are not convincing to others, none is obliged to believe other than he or she personally understands.

 Article 9

Permanent membership of the local non confessional Church is acquired by mere presence at meetings after a period of one year.

 Article 10

Women have equal and same rights with men and participate in all activities in rotation with men.

 Article 11

Centres are not special "places of worship" and for this reason they will be not particularly decorated, with icons, statues, or other symbols.

The local non denominational Churches, the preparation and assistance centres for the One Spiritual Church, the unique true Church of God, are just a frame assembly of believers, regardless of the Christian denomination, which they belong. Anyone can be or not a member of any Christian denomination and of a local non confessional Church, in the same time.

                                                     

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Knowledge puffs up, while love builds up

        Although the existence of a single Church of God is a fact well demonstrated in the Bible, we can not accept the principle of the uniqueness of the Church of God if we don’t accept the validity of the water baptism of the young children. Why? This is because, otherwise, we have to ask all Christians to be baptized at maturity, and where, most likely, that this does not happen, many Orthodox Christians and not only would remain on the outside. If our own salvation through faith is a gift from God, what right have anyone  to judge whether a person is saved or not, regardless of the age when the water baptism took place, as long as that person has personal faith in God? Salvation comes not from the correctness or accuracy of a doctrine or another but because we have genuine love for God and people. (Mathew 22; 36-40) All knowledge is partial. (1 Corinthians 13; 9) We can safely err on the timing of baptism in water, childhood or adulthood and that depends mainly on how we were taught to believe. Quite a few people have formed their own conviction, based on their thorough study of the Bible, theology and Christian history. Most Christians have adopted the doctrines of the institutional Churches and their traditions, in which they were born. However, we are not allowed to make mistakes in terms of the fact of being born of God, in order to see or to enter the Kingdom of God. (John 3, 3.5) We can err in our theoretical, dogmatic or doctrinal views about God and all does it, but we can not be saved without loving God and our neighbour.   

  If we do not have love we are nothing, but if we love God and neighbour, mercy overcomes judgment. (James 2: 13) The judgment is without mercy to one who had no mercy but who loves and has mercy win the final judgment. Our salvation is through faith and love and not through religious dogmas. Who really fully knows, dogmatically or ontologically, God? Who claims to understand the infinite? We can know God only when we know, through personal similar experience, what He lived on the cross, when we think the same thoughts as Jesus thought and only when we live similar experiences as Jesus has lived. What we share with God is the experience of the cross, to His cross and our daily cross. Jesus took our cross and we must take His cross. This magnificent love for us lifts us up to the level that we can understand the essence of God and this is a defining feature of Jesus’ teachings. God is love. (1 John 4, 8) Man also must be love, refined spiritual and intellectual love. Doctrines are a trap, when we pride ourselves to know what we only partially know. (1 Corinthians 13; 9) Knowledge puffs up, while love builds up. Who thinks he knows something does not yet know as he ought to know. (1 Corinthians 8, 1-2) We have always to tend to intellectual knowledge, but we ought to have love. We should have full knowledge of Jesus’ spiritual love.

Pride to be right in terms of doctrines, is the most common form of sin and least acknowledged among Christians. Set on the second plan the doctrines and do what is most important, namely justice, mercy and faithfulness that we have to do, as a priority, all others are secondary. (Matthew 23, 23) In other words, some people firmly believe that water baptism of children is wrong and that what they have in addition to other Christians is that they are baptized into adulthood. This is their opinion and this article will not argue. On the other hand, Orthodox, Roman Catholics, Protestants and Reformed believe, with the same conviction, that there is nothing wrong with the water baptism of young children and that this does not prevent them from being saved. What to do? Who is actually right? Personally I say that it is very difficult to determine because it is a theological discussion, extremely complex. The Bible is not absolutely clear, should be interpreted. Some Christians, taking Christ’s experience as a model in this case, consider an argument for the adulthood water baptism that Jesus wasn’t baptized as a child. Do not forget that there wasn’t any water baptism when Jesus was a child. Jesus was circumcised when he was a child and this is a somewhat similar ritual of Christian baptism in water. To enter among the Hebrew people, the circumcision was obligatory. For Christians the water baptism is the entry among God's people, but not yet the entrance in the true Church of God. We enter into the unique Church of God, following the process of the new birth, coming from God and because we are to be born again, not only from water, but also from the Spirit of God. To be born from Spirit means to be born again. (John 3; 3-6)

 The main mission of Jesus was salvation of man and not water baptism. He did not come to earth primarily to teach us to be baptized in water, but to give us faith in God and teach us to love one another as He loved us. (John 13, 34-35) We can not see whether or not we are truly Christians, through the respect for the doctrine which we joined and we profess, but we are truly Christians if we love one another as Jesus loved us. Surely is easier to believe that we are saved by the fact that we were baptized into adulthood, but notice, if we believe that was our merit to do that, it means that we are not saved by Jesus’ merits but by our merits. Here I see a great contradiction in doctrines. We are told that water baptism is related to judgment and of course it is our personal decision, so if we chose to be baptized in adulthood, thus we took the right saving decision, so "we do" the right thing. Does this mean that we have any merit because we chose to be baptized in water at maturity? The focus, in terms of salvation, should not fall on our decision but God's choice of us. (John 6, 44; Romans 8; 29)

 Who can really resist when he or she hears the call of eternity? No one called personally by Jesus, could resist his calling. We have the example of His disciples, and we are His disciples. Why we pride ourselves with something so I got? (1 Corinthians 4, 7) And if others have received the faith of Christ, as they were already baptized in water, as children, why are they worse than us? We are therefore not saved by our merits, or by choosing a doctrine, which we consider correct. This can help us and point us in our life of faith, but we have no right to judge others about what can help them in their life of faith. Therefore, we are entitled to assume that a certain doctrine is best for us, but others have the right to believe the same thing about another doctrine. Nevertheless, the best doctrine is to have the same thoughts and the same heart as Christ. All theoretical knowledge about God is relative and progressive and will be fulfilled only when we will see Him. (1 Corinthians 13; 12) The knowledge of the sacrificial love of God can be best known, through experience, now, on this earth, where many need our love.  

                                                        

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Faith without love is dead

      Jesus died for us on the cross. What does this mean? He sacrificed Himself voluntarily for us and for our benefit. What for? This is the big question: What we gain from His sacrifice? We gain a justification, a grace, not depending on us, but which becomes effective for us when we believe in this grace. From this point of view, grace is universal in that it applies to all those who believe in God. "For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life." (John 3, 16 NRSV) In other words, we have access by faith to God, free and guaranteed full access. This access does not mean automatically that all they have it is using it correctly. The gift of God is  dependent on our faith, but we have to receive correctly what we are given. Without Jesus' death for our sins we would be separated from Him irretrievably. With all these, it is possible that such access not to be useful, if our faith is not followed by the birth from above, meaning being born from God. We benefit from God's grace because of Christ's death, but this is not enough for salvation. Faith without works is dead, says the Apostle James, but I would be stating that faith without love is dead. (James 2; 20: 1 Corinthians 13; 2)

 We are justified as a gift by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. (Romans 3, 24) If we have been justified, in practice, can we do what we whish, because no matter what we do, we are justified by faith? We can believe in the existence of God and kill people. Is that type of action O.K.?

It is not enough that we have faith? It is not enough, it is a trap, that we learn as we go and many institutional Churches sustain a false doctrine, in this regard. We are justified in order to get righteous and not to continue to sin. (Ephesians 1, 4) We are justified precisely not to get overwhelmed and discouraged by the task of righteousness, standing before us. In our nature it is impossible to be righteous by ourselves. Jesus was righteous by being born from God and we become righteous only after being born again, born from God. We have an example which tells us that righteousness is possible and that is Jesus’ life on earth. We just have to follow this example and step on His footsteps. We are justified because salvation for mortals it is impossible, without this justification, but we are saved because we love God and our neighbour. (Mark 10, 27) St. Augustine said: “love and do what you will” but if we follow the formula “believe and do what you will,” a disaster will happen. To be sure, just look at the history of Christianity.     

 To be justified is not the same as being righteous. After 18 years old the citizens of certain countries are counted to be mature people, but that does not mean that they are, in fact, all adults. Justification comes by faith, but salvation comes by faith and love and only for those who are born again. Unless we are born again we cannot see the Kingdom of God, and of course we will not go into it. (John 3; 3.5) This is so important to be sure that Jesus stressed it, repeating it twice. Faith is sufficient for justification, but is not sufficient for salvation. If our personal faith is sufficient for salvation it means that salvation is still possible with people easily acquiring it and that Jesus was not right to maintain the contrary position. Only that Jesus was right, because it is God who does the new birth in us, and our faith, deprived of this new birth, is deficient in relation to salvation.

 We can not save ourselves only by our faith, but God saves us when we become His children, in the sense that we are born of Him. Therefore, the new birth is not only men, but God's work. If we do not get righteous in fact, by being born again, the reality that we are justified in Christ becomes useless for us. In other words, if our cross doesn’t follow Christ’s we just stick with the possibility of being saved, but never updated. In this case, we will not enter the Kingdom of God. Paul informs us that we can have faith enough to move mountains and yet not be saved. All Paul tells us that he or she who has no love is nothing, from the point of view of spiritual life. (1 Corinthians 13, 2) Faith alone is not sufficient for salvation and the Apostle James tells us that the demons believe and shudder. (James 2, 19) What kinds of faith have us, Jesus’ faith or the faith of the demons? (Revelation 14, 12) The two of them are two very different forms of faith. Salvation comes only through faith of Jesus. What distinguishes this faith from the faith of the devils? Only the cross distinguishes it. Jesus died on the cross not only to take our sins upon Him, but also to show us what kind of love the Father has for us and how we should love one another. (John 13, 34-35, John 15, 13) Our justification before God comes undoubtedly from our faith and for this we don’t have to do anything but believe. When we believe we are justified before God, we have acquired without anything added to it this justification, just because Christ died in our place. However, our justification before God does not lead automatically to our salvation; there is a need for spiritual regeneration, a need to be born again.

 This new birth is not the same as the justification that comes by faith, as a free gift, but requires a profound change in our character. What is born of flesh is flesh and what is born of the Spirit is spirit. (John 3; 6) Who does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is none of His. (Romans 8, 9) Changing the character is in practice achieved by love of the divine nature, which is poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit. (Romans 5, 5) As an example, would be profound transformation of our way to be when we are in love. Christianity means to be in some eternal psychological state of being in loved, in a mature way, deeply spiritual. Eternal life means eternal love. Of course we should not expect to permanent sentimental effusions but the personal commitment of our neighbours, to respect the other persons, in every way and above all respect justice. Perfect justice and fairness is the essence of love on this earth. Jesus taught us to do justice, mercy and faithfulness, in the first place. (Matthew 23, 23)

Therefore, the faith that doesn’t lead to a profound transformation of our character doesn’t give us the chance to be accepted by God and doesn’t lead automatically to our eternal rescue. We must continue to open ourselves to God and follow holiness, which God does for us, through His Word and through the actions of the Holy Spirit upon us. Good works come, necessarily, in the heart of loving people. We must not make an effort to do good deeds; we will do them when we love our neighbour anyway. In any case, good works without love are useless. (1 Corinthians 12; 3) Our justification comes by our faith, but salvation comes through faith and love, first love of God, who loved us and sacrificed His Son for us and then our love for others. (1 John 4, 10, Matthew 22, 36-39) What should we do? Take up our cross every day and our cross means love for our neighbors, who often crucify us because we love them. Our cross, like the cross of Christ is the answer to a world that often does not understand our intentions and misinterprets them against us. This teaching is entirely in Paul's epistles and fully consistent with Jesus' teaching. Jesus told the healed by Him that they are saved by faith, but He taught people that love for God and neighbor are the greatest commandments. (Luke 8, 48) After being healed those who were in that situation had to become disciples of Jesus, otherwise their healing has served in this life only. Unfortunately, many Christian doctrines focus only on justification but don’t emphasize the need for the new birth.

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It is more blessed to give than to receive

What kind of God do we have? It is one who believes that "giving" is more satisfying than “receiving.” (Acts 20: 35) From this we can draw many conclusions. Firstly, the image that God is an absolute master, requiring blind obedience from us, proves, once again, to be a false one. God does not expect us to give him anything, but he wants to give us its treasures of wisdom and knowledge. God needs people who know how to accept and appreciate what they get. The heavenly Father is not a selfish Person who expects us to give him glory, praise and other forms of recognition that they produce complacency. I think that most people think that this is what God needs because they personally need this and so they would do if they were powerful. For a large majority of believers God is a kind of extension of their own personality, a projection of what they imagine God to be. This phenomenon happens because they do not read the Bible carefully.

 God is characterized by infinite generosity. Heavenly Father can not but love because He is love, that nature is spiritual love. (1 John 4: 8) God is not punishment, He is not authority, He is not a sadistic Person, torturing people in hell, He is not an absolute ruler who governs without restrictions, a ruler who exercises power in a harsh, cruel manner, He is not an oppressive, harsh, arbitrary person, He is love. The N.T tells us that God is love and that is His essence. Unifying in love is God’s purpose and the struggle is between ignorance and the knowledge of the love of God. God is pleased when He can give, when He can see us satisfied and happy. God does not want to turn us into frightened and terrorized creatures, inhibited by the fear of not making errors. Desire not to mistake it animates all those who sincerely whish to improve, to be as good as possible at what they do and in what they are. For Christians “to be” is more important than “to make.” Everything that we don’t do from our spiritually reborn nature doesn’t start from the right source. If you help others just for the desire to be rewarded by God for good works, that is primarily a form of trade. Give something to get something in return.

 What is the right motivation for "giving?" Proper motivation is the sincere desire to help others in a disinterested manner. Of course, we continue to think of God, not as to the One who rewards our works, but to Him who is our model. In general, human motives are not pure. Somewhere behind our consciences, we continue to think that God will reward us for our deeds. The real reward, however, are not material possessions or earthly happy destinies, but personal satisfaction and happiness, when we offer with generosity, when we "give." The spiritual aspiration of every faithful Christian is to become like God, to reach the stature of the fullness of Christ. (Ephesians 4: 13) This means that we might receive the same moral nature as His, that we become the space for the manifestation of His love. It is not absurd because the Son is like the Father and we aspire to be like the Son, and consequently like the Heavenly Father.

 In the selfish world, in which we live, each one is thinking primarily of himself or her and of course his or her family and the Christian spiritual aspiration seem to be a great utopia. In reality, it seems that there is not such a thing. However, there are few individuals who are exceptions to the rule. They love sincerely and help those around them, without expecting anything in return. These people experience Jesus' principle, which says that greater satisfaction is when you give than when you receive. We are imperfect in our love, yet we understand when we say that Jesus can find more spiritual satisfaction in "giving" than "receiving." Such a fact can not be accepted unless through our personal experience. Therefore God is not a Person who requires a blind obedience; our obedience is based on trust attached to our faith. God does not ask us anything other than what we are willing to give, out of love. God wants to win our love and in no way wants us to obey through fear.

 One which is the subject of fear becomes a slave without personality, a shadow of his master. An human existence which should meet the needs of a Lord almighty who sees everything and read our thoughts, but have not love, but only annihilating power and authority, seems more like hell than heaven. Often, religious institutions presents the image of a God who demands total obedience to us, unconditionally, who wants to turn us into robots, in some praising automatons, squeezing all personality and all human dignity out of us, subjecting us to the threat of eternal punishment, the punishment in hell torments, prepared for us. Such a God can love? Personally, I would respond negatively. I honestly believe that the Christian God is not such a Person and I think this because He finds more pleasure in "giving" than in "receiving."

 The corporatist Churches presents God as our Lord and they present themselves as His representatives which must be obeyed with the same rigor. In fact, God’s representatives are not the religious institutions in their entirety, but only individuals who really practice He’s love and find grater satisfaction in “giving,” than in “receiving.” A God who asks us to give up our personality, that in turn give us eternal life, is not the true Heavenly Father, but his image forged by religious institutions. Man cherishes certain values, including freedom, considering it even more important than his or her life. Even the eternal life cannot be the supreme value for man. Supreme value is freedom and the supreme freedom can be found only in love.

Eternal life is desirable, but not lived in any conditions, but eternal life that has personal meaning for each human individual. A God that doesn’t loves us, even if He gives us eternal life, means nothing if we become only some perfect tools, some subjects without the right to express our thoughts and feelings. However we can be sure that God, unlike religious institutions, loves us, because He prefers "giving," but "receiving" and He is ready to sacrifice everything, including His life, for those He loves. (John 3, 16)

 

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Turning to Christ

        I advocate a return to Christ, not only to the Bible, not just to the first Christian communities, the so-called apostolic Church. Why? I found that it takes a continuation of the Reformation, a New Reformation even, in order to deepen what others, in the past have started. Luther, Calvin, Zwingli and others reacted correctly to the development of Christianity in its almost one and a half millennia of history. The problem is not how far they went with their Reformation, but from where they started it. In the mean-time almost another half millennia passed away and many things have changed in the way that humanity perceives the possibility of the existence of God and the right approach to Him, but most importantly in the interpretation of the biblical texts.      

 Luther and other reformers took the Bible to be paramount for the understanding of Christianity, concretizing this idea, in the principle “Sola Scriptura.” After Luther, countless and very valuable studies regarding the Scriptures were made. The Historical-Critical Method involves asking analytical questions about various aspects of the texts and their contexts. Source criticism is the search for the original sources which lie behind a given biblical text. It can be traced back to the 17th century French priest Richard Simon and its most influential product is undoubtedly Julius Wellhausen's “Prolegomena zur Geschichte Israelis” (1878), whose "insight and clarity of expression have left their mark indelibly on modern biblical studies," according to Antony F. Campbell SJ. Form criticism breaks the Bible down into sections (pericopes, stories) which are analyzed and categorized by genres (prose or verse, letters, laws, court archives, war hymns, poems of lament, etc.).  Redaction criticism studies "the collection, arrangement, editing and modification of sources", and is frequently used to reconstruct the community and purposes of the author/s of the text.[1] In the last period of time, The Dead Sea scrolls and the Nag Hammadi manuscripts were found and all this cannot be neglected from the point of view of their influence on Christianity. The modern sciences gained a lot of ground in the field of human understanding of life and all must be put in a correct perspective in relation with faith.    

I find the N.T, filed with many contradictions and I also wonder about the historicity of many assertions, said to be coming directly from Jesus. Some things attributed to Jesus are probably not originated from Him. In the same time, inside the history of Christianity was a continuous battle between various currents, opinions, dogmas and doctrines. To me, it seems that the biblical texts have fallen victim to all this battles and certain texts bear the mark of a certain interference with the original texts. More over, through the process of recopying the manuscripts, numerous times, something is lost and it is not impossible that some of the copiers were set to live their mark on the texts, sometime influenced by their own theological opinions or by opinions that they cherish. All together, I consider that the principle “Sola Scriptura” doesn’t say anything today and the only reliable source for the knowledge of God is the human personal experience with Him. John Calvin remarked: "All things in Scripture are not alike plain in themselves, nor alike clear unto all; yet those things which are necessary to be known, believed, and observed, for salvation, are so clearly propounded and opened in some place of Scripture or other, that not only the learned, but the unlearned, in a due use of the ordinary means, may attain unto a sufficient understanding of them" (<The Westminster Confession>) I surely agree with Him, but I will also say that, without God, living in us, the basics for salvation doesn’t make any sense for us. The N.T. is an utopia for everyone who doesn’t personally experience its teachings. None can fully receive the Bible if he or she didn’t yet receive God in his or her consciousness. We need a guide in the process of reading the Bible and this Teacher must be in us. Bible doesn’t make any sense if it is not read with a spiritual mind, in a spiritual manner.  

 The Bible contains the basics for salvation; the sacrifice of Christ on the cross for our redemption and Jesus’ new requirement to love each other as He loved us. (John 3: 3-6) In the same time, the Bible doesn’t love for us or in our place and it doesn’t feel love, being only a collection of books. What I am saying is that the divine love, the basics for our salvation is poured in our hearts directly by God and not only following the study of the Bible. (Romans 5; 5) In order to understand the divine love we must feel it first in us, and that is more important that only to study about love. First, God shows us His love by calling us to salvation and secondly He gives us His love, in order to have it in us, than the direct work of the Holy Spirit in us is more important and prior to the study of the Bible. Second, we should study the Bible and discern all that God, through the Holy Spirit give us to discern and to understand, personally not officially or compulsory. For us, the Bible speaks by itself, lives in us and for us and any official or imposed interpretation of it is a potential danger for us.     

 I add to that the fact that the canonized Bible contains only the texts agreed upon by the Council of Nicaea, but here again we can see the results of the controversies surrounding the various opinions about the diverse doctrinal aspects. Many other texts, which circulated in apostles times and immediately afterwards were “buried alive” by the religious institution and actually the form taken by Christianity was determined by an authority, which had a certain ideological program. They wanted to respond to present challenges confronting them, at the time and to achieve a goal linked to a certain image about the future of Christianity on earth. In order to have a more complete image about the early Christianity and much more than that, about who Jesus was and what He thought, we need to consider all texts circulating in the period following His mission on earth and above all we need to meet Jesus in Person, in us.                                                               

The Reformers proselytized the return to the Bible and that was a good thing, but the Bible opens the way for a multitude of interpretations and these interpretations transformed into religious doctrines and dogmas, contradict each other. In the Bible there are many potential theologies and even if we make huge efforts to present NT as a whole, differences remain and make impossible a doctrinal unity of the Church. Jesus required unity among His followers, but precisely because the texts of the N.T. such a unity is precluded, at least in an organizational or institutional sense. The Bible also presents another kind of unity, a spiritual one. Jesus prayed for unity to the Father, before being crucified. (John 17; 21) The institutional unity among Christians is not possible, because the imprecision of the N.T. texts and their contradictions doesn’t allow for that. The spiritual unity is a fact, a reality and all people that are in Christ are united in Him, by the unity of the Holy Spirit.      

 An example of conflicting theologies, in the Bible, would be the difference between the doctrine of the justification by faith and the theological attitude towards women. On the one hand, we are told that in Christ, spiritually speaking, no longer exists any difference between men and women, on the other hand in the first epistle to Timothy we are told that women are saved only by the birth of boys, not girls, if they continue in faith. There are two different theologies that lead to two different interpretations of N.T. fundamentally different between them. (Galatians 3: 28, 1 Timothy 2, 15) Paul tells us that we are saved by faith in Christ, but in 1Timothy, we are informed that women are saved not by their faith, but by the random selection of their birth performances, not even by their good works. Such a huge discrimination, not taught by Christ raises an important question mark on the reliability of the texts of the N.T. Paul or the author who wrote the first epistle to Timothy went astray from the teachings of Jesus and the question is: “How many texts in the N.T. present another theology, than Jesus taught? Can we really discern from the N.T. what Jesus wanted to teach us, or everything is covered by various theologies that in fact it is impossible today to say what Jesus really told us. We know exactly what He did for us, but can we know precisely what He said? Because the answer seems to be negative, the proof is the numerous conflicting doctrines, we need a primordial personal experience with Jesus, in order to understand what the N.T teaches.

 In many ways Paul contradicted Jesus and we have to make a very clear difference between what Jesus taught and what other texts of the N.T. purport to assert. In fact, even the gospels sometimes contradict each other about what Jesus taught; consequently it is impossible to understand His teachings without Him living in us. For this reason the institutional chains of Christianity must be broken and the whole weight of Jesus’ teachings must be put on the individual and on his or hers personal experience and relationship with God. No religious institution should stay between us and Jesus and all tradition and rituals can be just an indication available only within the limits of such individual spiritual experience.

 On the other side, let us consider the state of the so called apostolic Churches. Is there someone to believe that they are truly an authentic picture of the first apostolic church? If anyone thinks so, in my opinion, is wrong. Why? Today’s Christian communities, organized in religious institutions, are not at all like the first apostolic church, in which all goods were shared amongst the members and the apostles and deacons served the food at the dinner tables. (Acts 6, 2-4) Nowadays there is a “Christian aristocracy,” which leads with "iron fist" the communities, under their responsibility. Sins are judged "in the interest" of the leaders and most spiritual people who make one mistake, are often marginalized first, because in this way the management of the church institutions have the chance to get rid of potential competitors or people with uncomfortable opinions. First, what is with all these judgments? Institutional churches have turned to be some judicial courts; they are not “hospitals” anymore, in order to cure the souls. Christians are not spiritual doctors among themselves but police who lurk and wait for mistakes. These spiritual executors find the opportunity to create for themselves a more favorable image, in comparison with others. This light is undoubtedly blurred because the comparison should not be between us and those around us, but between us and Jesus.

 We don’t have to receive anything, not even some questionable texts from the Bible, if they are not confirmed in the teachings of Jesus, the one from the N.T. and living in us. Is there any difference between Jesus of the N.T. and Jesus in us? It shouldn’t be, but if it is the One who is in us is bigger than the one transmitted by the Bible. Why? This is because from reality to the N.T., Jesus suffered modifications, due to different theologies and perceptions had by the N.T. authors. Mathew shows a quite different Jesus than John and probably, in reality, He was farther different than both images. The Jesus of organized religion is not exactly the same with the Jesus in us. It is not even the same with Jesus from the Bible.

 The founder of Christianity is Jesus Christ and He is the One who saves us. Any interpretation of the Bible must be judged strictly through the teachings of Jesus and any deviation from these teachings disqualifies a particular interpretation of the Bible, a certain doctrine or dogma. More difficult it is to discern what the teachings of Jesus are, but in order to make this task easier, God have written His spiritual Law, in our hearts. (Jeremiah 31; 31-34) Through the Holy Spirit, the God’s Law is written, first and foremost, in our hearts and only afterwards in the texts of the N.T., which unfortunately suffered countless alterations. God said that in the latter times, that we live in today, knowledge will increase and also said that the last will be the first. (Daniel 12, 4, Mark 10, 31) What does this mean? There are two things to be said, first, that the modest people in the church meetings can be first in the Kingdom of heaven. Second, Christians today have better conditions to have more information about the history of Christianity, which enable them to understand and distinguish between spiritual Christianity and religious forms.

Turning to Christ means not only "Sola Scriptura," but primarily means "Solus Christus." First, the outmost importance for a Christian is a personal relationship with Jesus. Second as importance, are the biblical texts. The latter can not be properly understood except by those who really have a personal relationship with Christ. Why? Understanding of the Bible can be made only by spiritual wisdom, ordinary human wisdom is not enough. (1 Corinthians 2: 13) This is not to say that only a few religious functionaries hold the privilege to be able to understand the Bible, rather this important observation means that every Christian needs to possess this kind of wisdom, in order to be able to understand it. By a literal reading of the New Testament, for example, we remove ourselves from Christ rather than to approach by Him. Many times, when Jesus spoke in parables, some disciples went away from Him, because the literal meaning of the words seemed to be absurd or even insane. (John 6, 66) So it is nowadays. Some Christians interpret the Bible without taking into account the spirituality, which it contains. What is the result? An impressive collection of dogmas and doctrines and all they talk about is what to "do" in order to be saved but little talk about how a Christian "should be." These are only the visible forms of Christianity. (John 6, 63) To choose the easy part, the broad way, means to consider that if one does some good works is better than doing nothing and consequently that one is a better person than others. (Matthew 7, 13-14) In fact, authentic Christianity requires us to be like Christ, to live up to the fullness of His stature. (Ephesians 4: 13)

Both O.T. and N.T. are only a guide to Christ. The Bible is not God. The Bible shouldn’t be “deified,” it is not “the word” of God, but it is the word about the Word of God and the living Word is Jesus. (John 1; 1) The Bible is equally the product of God and the object of human misunderstandings about Him. The Scriptures can become an idol, when a certain interpretation of them, is imposed upon the believers and when it is presented as the only possible interpretation. The Bible can unite and also it is able to separate the believers. They are united when the Spirit unites them and they are separated when they choose to interpret too literally its texts. The letter kills, the Spirit gives life. (2 Corinthians 3, 6) What is the meaning of this text? I understand by this formula that an interpretation of the Bible by which we tend to justify our religious doctrines and institutions and which doesn’t lead the believers directly to the Person of Christ is a literal, not a spiritual one. A spiritual understanding is any understanding of the Bible which leads us in a direct relationship with Jesus Christ and if a biblical interpretation fails to achieve this goal such an interpretation separates us from Him.

Without Christ we cannot be saved, so any teaching that claims to be from the Bible should not do anything else but to guide us to establish a personal contact with our personal Saviour. We don’t need only stories about Christ, but we need to be clothed with His power. The kingdom of God is real power, not only rituals, doctrines and dogmas; it doesn’t express itself only in words. (1 Corinthians 4, 20) Jesus spoke to the people and explained very well in words what the kingdom of God is, but He didn’t limit Himself to words, because His teachings were accompanied by the proof of God’s power. Where are the church officials, who do miracles more than Jesus, did? According with the N.T. they should do all kind of miracles by the power of God and through the faith they have in Christ. (John 14, 12-13) They are not visible, probably with some exceptions. Why? Every one must answer for himself or for her. Some have replaced the manifestation of power through living human beings with the power of relics of dead saints. To preach like Jesus means not only to tell to the people about Him, but to tell them what He has to say to nowadays world. Jesus not only told us about the Father, but the Heavenly Father spoke through His mouth. In all things we must resemble Jesus because He is the firstborn among many brethren. (Rom 8, 29)

 

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Born from above or sinners

          No man on earth can stop sinning as long as it is still motivated by his human nature. Why? This is because every man is a sinner in God's sight precisely because of his human nature. Sin dwells in us, in our genes, in our most profound structure. I don’t refer here to facts considered criminal or offensive by the society, which are also sins in God’s eyes, because all this can be prevented by education. There are many citizens all over the world, who never performed any crimes or offences, in their entire life. Nevertheless, this time I want to speak about the interior movements of any human being and to the visible sins. Hard to be seen from the outside, some sins, such as: malice, hypocrisy, envy, greed, indifference, selfishness etc, thrives in the human nature unless this nature is regenerated in a spiritual way. Probably a careful analyse can emphasis all this deficiencies, considered as such only when we have a term of comparison, for example in the Christ teachings, but this kind of investigation presupposes a long personal relationship.

 All people have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. (Romans 3; 23) It is impossible to be otherwise as long as the human being is a natural being, led by his or her human nature. It is impossible not to sin as long as we are directed in our choices by our flesh:

 13 For you were called to freedom, brothers and sisters; only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for self-indulgence, but through love become slaves to one another. 14 For the whole law is summed up in a single commandment, "You shall love your neighbour as yourself." 15 If, however, you bite and devour one another, take care that you are not consumed by one another. 16 Live by the Spirit, I say, and do not gratify the desires of the flesh. 17 For what the flesh desires is opposed to the Spirit, and what the Spirit desires is opposed to the flesh; for these are opposed to each other, to prevent you from doing what you want. (Galatians 5; 13-17 NRSV)

 We cannot be without sin as long as we are led by the flesh. As much as we will try, we remain sinners until God, through the Holy Spirit is giving us birth from above.

 3 Jesus answered him, "Very truly, I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God without being born from above." 4 Nicodemus said to him, "How can anyone be born after having grown old? Can one enter a second time into the mother's womb and be born?" 5 Jesus answered, "Very truly, I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God without being born of water and Spirit. 6 What is born of the flesh is flesh, and what is born of the Spirit is spirit. (John 3; 3-6)

 Any man or woman, who is not born from above, meaning spiritually regenerated will continue to sin no matter how often he or she will visit a church building or a Christian assembly, no matter how much he or she will pray or how many times he or she will read the Bible. Our human nature produces sin such as our lungs breath.

 We need a new nature, meaning God’s nature. Jesus couldn’t live without sin if He were only man and not God, in the same time. In a sense, Jesus is us, all of us, when we live in the divine nature. He is the pattern of a spiritually regenerated human being; He is the Son of Man, meaning the man having a double nature, divine and human, that is a spiritually regenerated human nature. We become one with Jesus; we become Him, by being like Him. It will be no difference between us and Christ, in the Kingdom of God, on the new earth, we will be perfectly one. We are already one, in this life, not perfectly one, when our human nature and His human nature are in us. The hierarchy between Jesus and us, He is the boss and we are his subjects, is an invention of the institutional churches, in order to make us to obey them, because they present themselves, directly or indirectly, as being the replacement of Christ, on earth. That is true for all institutional Churches, the organized religion, which tends to impose a certain religious doctrine onto believers. That is true not only for the Roman Catholic institutional Church, regardless of what some representatives of other institutional Churches, Protestants, Reformats, Evangelicals, etc, officially or not officially maintain. Starting with Luther, some sustain that the Roman Catholicism is the epitome of the Anti-Christ, but this is not actually the message of the Bible. All imposed authority, in matters belonging only to the competence of individual consciences, such as the religious believes is the epitome of the Anti-Christ. Such an imposed authority can be exercised by any organized religion and in fact many they do it.

 What can we do, in order not to sin? We can do just one thing, namely to escape from our own human nature and to “live by the Spirit, and do not gratify the desires of the flesh,” as Paul said in Galatians. No matter how much we will fight not to sin, living in our unregenerate human nature, it is impossible to succeed completely. Why are we not informed by the institutional Churches about that? That is because they don’t have any interest to do that. Sinners need the institutional Churches, in order to confess their sins and be supported in their demand for forgiveness. The institutional Churches get, in this way, an authority over us, based on our imperfections, them which are not perfect in themselves. This kind of authority is a fictional one because in fact it doesn’t come from Jesus’ teachings. We are inoculated with the idea that we, the sinners are in need of the institutional churches to teach us how to live without sin. We are persuaded by them that we need them constantly, because they are a spiritual guide, which help us fare correctly. It is not like that, but we are taught just that. In reality, we need Christ in a personal manner, in order to give us birth from above, to regenerate our human nature, to live in us and to share with us His divine nature.

 The institutional churches don’t teach us what to do in order not to be sinners any more, but they teach us to come back to them over and over again. In order not to be sinners any more we need to suffer a profound transformation of our minds and our hearts, to get a new spirit and a new hart. Heart transplantation is needed for a Christian, a heart from above; more precisely we need to be a receiver of new hearts and the donor is Christ. We find this kind of promise in the O.T. also:

 26 A new heart I will give you, and a new spirit I will put within you; and I will remove from your body the heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. 27 I will put my spirit within you, and make you follow my statutes and be careful to observe my ordinances. (Ezekiel 36; 26-27 NRSV)

 We must be led by the Holy Spirit and not by the flesh and if we do that we can successfully won the battle against sin. The real motivation for sainthood comes from above and is transmitted to us by God. Only God can give us what He knows that we need in order to be strongly motivated to live for Him. The kind of love and peace that one can experience with God is enough to compensate all promises from any given temptation on earth.

 Uselessly, the religious functionaries utter loud, vociferous remarks or threats against the sinners but they are not able to explain how the sainthood works. First, all believers must know about the need to be born again and afterwards the sainthood comes naturally, from that. The institutional Churches don’t need saints they need sinners, people who feel guilty all the time and who need the pardon of the institutional churches and are influenced by the words of the religious clerks. The one who doesn’t sin any more it is more independent, less obedient to the religious functionaries because he or she knows that they are not under their authority, but are free, in Christ. How can the religious leaders remain leaders if the people led by them would be more spiritual than themselves? What need still remains for someone to be led, in his or her spiritual life, from outside if he or she is already led from inside, by God? What we really need is to be guided by Jesus, from inside and all the other Christians are only our brothers and sisters. Christ also is our brother, the first born among many brothers and sisters. (Romans 8; 29)

 

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