Why You Still Need to Be Saved...
But do you still need Jesus?
The content of today’s blog is not new information for many readers, but it’s an important segue into next week’s topic. And I might offer here a few perspectives or angles that you hadn’t thought of before.
Back in the day, when I first wrote Raising Hell: Christianity’s Most Controversial Doctrine Put Under Fire, it was very important to me to preserve the notion of Christian Universalism—that idea that Jesus came to save the whole world, not just a few who were lucky enough to be born in the right country, family, and religious subculture. Christian Universalism was a great first stepping stone that created a perception of spiritual safety in my early days of questioning, but still required adherence to a Christian worldview with the Bible as the authoritative text. I often encountered divisive and intolerant attitudes by many of the groups representing this viewpoint.
The biggest problem I found with Christian Universalism is that it stops short of the most important goal in my opinion: absolute freedom to expand one’s self throughout the spiritual journey. Most Christian Universalists hold to tenets that I no longer found useful or valid in my pursuit of truth.
Time went by in my quest for understanding. I started challenging the notion of violent atonement, or the idea that a blood sacrifice was necessary to save people from an angry, righteous, perfect, “forgiving” Deity. It didn’t make sense to me that a “loving God” would require someone to be violently tortured in my place—especially this God’s son (who was somehow also God the Father…and other fun games theologians play). What kind of a barbaric, savage god would require a blood sacrifice from anyone? This idea created some serious cognitive dissonance once I contemplated the idea freely.
Apparently, this line of thinking isn’t new. Others have been talking and thinking about it for centuries. “Franciscan John Duns Scotus (c. 1266-1308) said that Jesus wasn’t solving any problems by coming to earth and dying. God did not need Jesus to die on the cross to decide to love humanity. God’s love was infinite from the first moment of creation… That, in a word, was the Franciscan nonviolent at-one-ment theory” (from Richard Rohr’s CAA). Richard Rohr himself is often quoted as saying that the cross wasn’t meant to change God’s mind about us, but for us to change our minds about God.
Like any precarious looking house of cards, as soon as I took out another foundational pillar (after hell), the whole Savior-sacrifice doctrine began to topple. If a blood sacrifice wasn’t necessary (or even reasonable), I wondered, then what did Jesus die for? And if I didn’t need Jesus to die for me (nor could anyone else die for me) then what did I need Jesus for at all?
These are the kinds of questions I mulled over for years, allowing reason and my evolving perceptions of “God” to challenge all of these cornerstone doctrines of the Christian faith. I have not written about many of these realizations before now, because most people who are early in the deconstruction process cannot go there yet, and to suggest such a radical concept scares them away. I guess I also wasn’t ready for people to pull out wooden stakes and garlic.
But I’m ready now.
I kept going fearlessly into these kinds of question. As it turns out, I came to “innerstand” that I didn’t need Christian Universalism in order for everyone to be “saved.” Everyone already came forth out of God, and would return to God, without any Christian influence or intervention. I could finally let go of all the labels and formulas of the spiritual obstacle course to heaven (a.k.a. Pilgrim’s Progress) completely!
Firing Jesus?
For many years, I distanced myself from Jesus altogether. The Jesus I had worshipped for decades under the umbrella of many Christian denominations was nothing more than a false teacher, an imposter leading people away from their innate, invincible connection to Divine Source and fellow sojourners. However, over time, I realized that there was a difference between the Jesus—a Latin name—of modern Christianity and the real Jesus (Yeshua). Real Jesus retained a unique role as an iconic figure in history. He rebelled against the bait and switch techniques of institutional, hypocritical, letter-of-the-law religion that disempowered people with bondage to worthlessness, guilt, shame, and fear more than it delivered them. The problem is, most people don’t have a clue what Real Jesus actually taught, because they have been indoctrinated in how to read and interpret the Bible in ways that miss his entire message.
Think about how much religion, and in this context, Christianity, reinforces your separation from God, your worthlessness as a “sinner saved by grace whose heart is deceitfully wicked” and can’t ever be trusted. But, they tell you, you can trust the heart of your pastor and elders to keep your soul safe, making sure you stay on the narrow path! They often remind you that you have eternal consequences to pay if you don’t follow Jesus the way they tell you to follow (false) Jesus. “The Kingdom of God is within” is replaced with “you are completely incapable of relying on your own inner compass and connection to the Divine without the instruction, intervention, and accountability of your church’s leadership team.” Sure, you can have a quiet time and pray at home—alone—but let us (your church leadership) know if you are straying from our narratives and doctrines when it comes to matters of biblical authority and interpretation, salvation, and eternity.
Real Jesus challenged many of these same problems in his day. Also, by nature of the beliefs of the future followers in the West, Jesus represented the collective’s psychological end of the sacrificial system, though the Jews didn’t stop the sacrificial system until the destruction of the second Temple in AD 70, when they could no longer perform rituals according to custom and the law of Moses. Early Catholic Church leaders reinterpreted this to portray that the sacrifices stopped because Jesus died as “the last sacrifice.”
We already know that the blood of animals does not take away sins. The purpose of animal sacrifices were man made rituals that had powerful symbolic psychological effects on people to address guilty consciences. It was like a clean slate opportunity each year, a threshold for new beginnings and a reminder that when people carried their sins around in their consciousness, it was unhealthy and unproductive for them. It was also a motivational tactic to remember that when you sinned, you caused pain and suffering to another (in this case, an animal, who was the substitute victim of one’s wrongdoing. The annual ritual would hopefully bring about reconciliations between God and people, along with purer intentions and actions in the coming year. But many Christians don’t pause to consider that the Bible plainly states in many places that God never required any sacrifices for sin (e.g. Ps. 40:6; 51:16, Micah 6:8).
The Salvation of Jesus
Jesus did come to tell people how to be saved! The problem was a krivda—a crooked truth—came in through corruption of the message, redesigning salvation to be a completely different concept that what was meant by Jesus. The word krivda, which I have written about in a previous blog, is an important concept in the development of Christian creeds and doctrines.
A krivda is a truth cleverly distorted it until it becomes false, yet still appears true. It’s like looking in a carnival mirror and seeing a distortion so radical, that your reflection is perceived completely different than your true appearance, but yet enough remains to surmise it is you. The krivda then, is a distorted reflection of a greater truth, but one that tricks the mind into thinking it is looking at a clear truth.
There are five major concepts Jesus addressed to empower humans through awakening to our true nature. Let’s consider them and how they were manipulated to produce opposite results due to the subtle twists of meaning by the shapers of religious orthodoxy.
Christ (Christos)
Christ is not part of Jesus’s name, nor is it a descriptive word unique to him. It is one of the Greek words that frequently (and seemingly maliciously) did not get translated, and simply means, anointed. What does anointed mean? In context throughout the Bible, it carries the idea of being chosen, designated, or set apart for a certain role or task by someone else, generally in authority—a king, an angel, a divine being, etc. All people are chosen by Creator God for belonging, power, and purpose (and everlasting life); it’s just a matter of time until everyone figures it out.
Christ consciousness, a popular term in modern spirituality, is the empowered consciousness internalized by everyone who comes to the realization that they too are chosen (which is ultimately everyone). This is the meaning of 1 Corinthians 15:22-23: “As in Adam all die; so in Christ, all are made alive, but each in their own order.” This verse is talking about how those who come into a physical, earthen-derived body all have to die a physical death (Adam means “children of the earth” or “humanity”). But this same ALL (see also Romans 5:18) come back to life in the spirit as they awaken to their anointing (christos). This takes place in the order preordained for each of us.
Sin (Hamartia)
Sin is not a list of moral and shameful failures that the modern interpreters and preachers of the Bible would have you believe. A sin is an action or choice a person makes based on the perception of being separate from others (separation consciousness), rather than on the perception of connection (unity consciousness), that results in harm to self or other. To understand sin is to understand The Golden Rule. Do unto others as you would have them do to you. When we do not regard the needs, safety, and importance of others with the same value as ourselves (or we do not value ourselves), we violate The Golden Rule. It is then that we are forgetting that we are all from One Source, brothers and sisters in a great family unit.
Let’s look at a concrete example. What is considered a huge, life-altering “sin” of the conservative Christian worldview? Sex before marriage. Yet the (unadulterated) Scriptures do not even touch on sex before marriage. It is not a sin in and of itself, but it certainly could be. If sex occurs between two consenting unmarried people who love and respect each other, and both are of age and maturity to choose with understanding what would cause harm to self and others (this may vary from person to person), there is no wrongdoing and no sin has been committed.
Example #2: Same sex marriage. Two consenting adults of the same gender love each other and decide to be in a committed relationship or marriage. No one has been harmed, there is no sin.
Example #3: a woman decides to study tarot and astrology for deeper understanding and compassion of self and others and only uses it for others if they are consenting. Again, whether you think it’s dark arts or witchcraft, who was harmed? No one.
Many of us, due to our Christian programming, are quick to judge certain activities or behaviors of others as bad or evil. Some of you reading this probably winced (or worse) for a second at the above photo.
I have written before about magic and divination tools…and will do so again in the near future. What Christians (and most people) are blind to is the fact that we live in a universe where everyone is practicing (and accepting) magic every day—that’s how this realm works. Our words and thoughts are magic wands that are always creating, whether with white magic or dark magic. The Bible is also a divination tool. How many times (past or present) have you gone to your Bible for guidance related to a dilemma? The only difference between using the Bible or tarot cards for guidance are what you believe about them. They use the same Source for insight. There is only one Source.
As far as astrology goes, it predates the Bible and has been used for guidance and insight into the human soul journey for thousands of years. The Bible is full of amenable references. Personal astrology is your soul’s blueprint—what you came here to learn and overcome. I cannot believe that I didn’t know about or use this tool throughout my life. It would have saved me a lot of unnecessary wandering, self-abasement, and grief!
I think we can all agree that there are certain actions or behaviors that are always injurious to others and would be considered sinful. Damaging body or property of others, stealing from or cheating people (or cheating on partners), performing black magic—essentially verbally pronouncing curses on others OR asserting your will on another person against their will (how many parents do that?!). Black magic, practiced knowingly or unknowingly, causes harm.
It is also important to note that you can sin by doing harmful things to yourself. Self-harm still operates from separation consciousness. When you harm yourself, you cause harm/suffering to the whole. Also, when you cause self-harm, you cause suffering to the Transcendent (Creator), as you are a microcosm of that Being. It is like when your children harm themselves, you feel their pain. Or when you hit your finger with a hammer, your whole being is affected by the microcosm’s (finger) consciousness of pain.
Salvation/Saved (Sozo)
According to Christianity, you need to be saved from your sins. I couldn’t agree more! We all need to be “saved” from things that hurt or harm us. But what does being saved mean exactly, and who is doing the saving (if not Jesus)?
Consider the screenshot from a Lexicon with the fuller meaning of the Greek word Sozo, the word that (through krivda) came to be associated with saving your soul from eternal hellfire and damnation.
Being sozo-ed is more accurately the idea of being healed and made whole from your perception of separation/fragmentation (and all the “sins” that result)! Consider Matthew 6:22: “The light of the body is the eye: if therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light.” The word for single is haplous, and means unfragmented, undivided, “free from duplicity.” (I just love it when I get a chance to walk down memory lane and geek out with my old Christian resource tools!)
And now we must ask, Who does the saving? I assert that it is not Jesus. Jesus never taught us to look outside ourselves for help and answers. He reinforced over and over that all help comes from within. The only Being who can save you (or that you should want to save you) is YOU. Your Higher Self, which is a more advanced, conscious version of you outside space and time, is the One who is and has always been your primary guide and “Savior.”
According to many, many accounts, our experience here is rife with Guides and Watchers who assist us when we are unable to merge with the wisdom of our Higher Selves. This does not suggest that there is no Transcendent Source who created us and has an interest in the purposeful, safe, successful outcome of our journey. Of course there is a Transcendent God with whom we can call on and commune with. But this God has already given us everything we need for a safe, empowered journey! This God is already as near as our very breath! Our Higher Selves, on the other hand, are the ones holding our life ropes. It is they who have the wisdom, knowing, and the unique keys to our struggles and obstacles. Our Higher Selves, like the most powerful mentors you could imagine, are tasked with the job of helping us wake up to this special power.
While this sounds far-fetched, modern science has already proposed (proven?) the existence or at least likelihood of parallel universes and realities in which we reside simultaneously with other consciousnesses of ourselves. Even if our current conscious awareness isn’t privy to the possibilities, it doesn’t negate or disprove them! I have come to find comfort in knowing that I have a Higher Self making contact with my “lower” conscious awareness. This must be the “Jesus-like” companion that has been present and attentive throughout my life, whereas the “external God” of Christianity was unreachable because he didn’t truly relate to anything that I have been through as a fragile, injured, blind, wandering mortal. Now that I suspect my Higher Self is my wise Guide, it is more comforting to know that this Guide has felt and experienced it all with me, yet come out victorious on the other side!
To answer my earlier questions:
What did Jesus die for? Jesus died because we mortals in 3D all have to die.
If I didn’t need Jesus to die for me (nor could anyone else die for me) then what did I need him for? Jesus was a great teacher in constant fellowship with his Higher Self, a prototype and a pattern of what we are all becoming. We needed Jesus to model for us what is possible, and what is promised—where we are all going. He gave us important shortcuts and tricks of the trade to get there!
Eternal Life (Zoe Aionian)
This is kind of a quick easy one. Rendered “eternal life” in most modern Bibles, this twist of words turns the truth about your right now life into some obscure, elusive futuristic hope without much meaning. Eonian life is life lived connected to the Vine in Christ Consciousness—the conscious awareness of being connected to and part of the whole. Your real life is hidden as Christ (the chosen or anointed) in God, and you are part of one consciousness with all beings. As we awaken to this Divine Unity, we begin to live in the great power and joy of the eternal now, filled with abundance and peace. This is the teaching that brings abundant life throughout the eons of the Great Story (eonian life).
Faith/Belief (Pistis): Next week, we are going to dedicate an entire blog to this very important concept as it was one of Jesus’s most important teachings to us. This word/concept embodies the truth about our nature and essence that Jesus reinforced in all of his teachings.
Be sure to watch for next week’s post where we’ll peel back the layers on this massive word to find out the truth about Who we are!
Thank you so much for reading my posts with openness and grace! Also, a huge thank you to both my free and paid subscribers! Your support brings a smile to my face every day! Sending love! ❤️ 💕
Thanks Julie, you write exactly what I often think about. ❤️
Excellent, Julie! 😇