Christianity is Simple (not easy though)

In my humble opinion (and I suppose since I write this perhaps humble is a matter of opinion itself), Christianity is not as complicated as so many seem to make it. Afterall there are a lot of people out there making a lot of money telling you what you are supposed to believe. It would suck for them if it was not very complicated.

So by Christianity I mean, what Jesus taught. That is in the four Gospels (and perhaps other writings if you like them). It is not necessarily in the rest of the Bible.

The Old Testament:  The God of the Old Testament is irreconcilable with the God of Jesus. The God of the Old Testament was viscious. If you take the Bible literally (which I don't), the first thing the offspring of God's first humans did was fight and kill and then run away. God later killed thousands in a flood, destroyed two cities, turned a woman to salt, killed every first born son of an entire country, killed the Egyptian army, and ordered the Israelites to kill every man, woman, child and every animal in Jericho, and punished the Israelites who did not do so. These are just a few of the murders commited by or ordered by the God of the Old Testament.

The God of Jesus is about love, kindness and non-violence. The God of Jesus is the love your enemy and turn the other cheek God. So, either there are two completely different Gods, which I suppose is fine, or the Old Testament is like the mythologies of the Greeks, Romans, Babylonians, Assyrians, Persians, Egyptians and other ancient peoples of the same time period, just stories of human-like anthropomorphized gods to explain things in nature they could not understand and the violent orders of violent leaders hell-bent on taking land from a foe. Nothing increases the subservience of a people in scary times than the much scarier fear of being smited by God.

So, to me the Old Testament is not relevant to being Christian. There might be some inspiring words and sayings in it, but it is not what being Christian is all about.

Paul:  Most of what is quoted from the New Testament comes from the letters Paul wrote, or allegedly wrote, to various rising groups of Christians. We quote Paul as though he was Jesus, but he was not. Paul never met Jesus while Jesus was in his ministry. He ran into him on the road to Damascus after the resurrection. So, everything that Paul knew about Jesus and his teachings came from what others must have told him or what he read in whatever was written about Jesus at the time, none of which we have now.

Paul was a man. Just a guy, like you or me, or perhaps more precisely your minister, priest or someone else who has dedicated his or her life to spreading what they believe to be the word of God as expressed by Jesus. He was hugely important to the birth of the Christian faith and arguably without him, there would be no Christian faith. He spread the "Word" to non-Christians all around the Mediterranean. This was not all that well received by the disciples, who generally believed that Jesus' teachings were for Jews. So without Paul, Jesus would just have been a prophet of a sect of Judaism.

BUT, he was NOT Jesus. Like the Old Testament, what he says has to be taken as inspirational, but not how to be a Christian.

Jesus:  So what did Jesus say Christianity is. To me, it is very simple. Hard perhaps to execute, but very simple. Here is how I see it and you are welcomed to disagree.

1. Personal Relationship: He explained that we have a personal relationship with God through the metaphorical Holy Spirit or Spirit of Truth. This was revolutionary. Jesus explained that you do not have to ask your priest, minister, a saint, an icon or anything else to intercede on your behalf with God. You can speak directly with God and if you ask for guidance, and listen, you will know in your heart what the right thing to do is. The priests and rabbis of the time did not like this message. Their careers depended on being the source of God's word for the people. Great rulers also did not like this. They waged wars and convinced the ordinary people to follow them out of fear that they are God's chosen ruler and God will smite the masses if they do not follow the ruler. This was radical but it is the core of Jesus' new religion.
2. Unconditional Love:  Jesus taught us to love everyone without limitations of conditions. This includes not just our families and friends but enemies, the poor, children, women, the diseased, the infirm and everyone else no matter who they are. These teachings are clearly inconsistent with the teachings of Paul which are often interpreted or translated, perhaps inaccurately, as intolerant of homosexuals, women and others. Loving unconditionally is difficult. It does not require, I suppose, for us to particularly like everyone. Bottom line, love everyone completely. Respect them. Care about them. Be real for them. But most of all love them for who they are, where they are and what they are all about, no matter how much they irritate you, annoy you or their positions are contrary to your own. That is what Jesus taught us.

Really everything else is a corrolary from those two. Non-violence is an extension of loving everyone, including your enemies; as is tollerance of others, foregiveness of others for everything they do for you or others. Love your spouse and don't covet those other's love, etc. If you love everyone, you cannot be greedy. You cannot take things from those you love. You cannot kill those you love.

I actually consider that everything derives from the first rule. Anyone who has read anything I write knows that I go by that first rule exclusively and it has never led me to any result other than the second rule. I ask God for guidance, to know what is the right thing to do. I feel that when I do this, and listen for the answer, I find I come to know in my heart what the right thing to do is. It does not always lead to great financial results. But in the end it makes me happy. I feel like my decisions help make others happy. I feel as though I live in harmony with others.

If Jesus actually performed the miracles reported in the Gospels, they were illustrative of the power of love for everyone, even people Jesus did not know at all. They could have been horrible people. He did not care. He loved them, period.

All of that stuff is window dressing on the very simple message of Jesus. The spirit is with you (wherever you believe it comes from). Ask and you shall receive relates to guidance, not stuff.

All that being said, following that one simple rule, followed by the second simple rule, is very difficult to do every day. Being a Christian is simple, BUT it is NOT EASY.