The Church of ‘Peace and Love’

This writing is not intended to convert people to the Christian faith. It is meant to dispute the authority and ‘divine mandate’ of the Church. To show the history.

…… on Jesus

• Who was Jesus by line of prophecy?
  He was related to King David’s son Nathan thru his mother Mary. He was born in Bethlehem, as was King David. He was a Jew as were his disciples:
• (Matthew 10)
  2 These are the names of the twelve apostles: first, Simon (who is called Peter) and his brother Andrew; James son of Zebedee, and his brother John; 3 Philip and Bartholomew; Thomas and Matthew the tax collector; James son of Alphaeus, and Thaddaeus; 4 Simon the Zealot and Judas Iscariot, who betrayed him.
  5 These twelve Jesus sent out with the following instructions: “Do not go among the Gentiles or enter any town of the Samaritans. 6 Go rather to the lost sheep of Israel. 7 As you go, proclaim this message: ‘The kingdom of heaven has come near.’

…….

• Who was Jesus historically?
  At the time that Jesus was said to be alive, there was a cultural practice of mysticism and miracle working. Nothing the Bible said he did was outside of that culture.

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Were Jesus and Mary Magdalene lovers or married? In the culture of the time, she wouldn’t have been allowed as close to him and his friends if they weren’t. And his Jewish followers wouldn’t have addressed him as ‘Rabbi’ if he weren’t married.

…….

The only POV we have of what Jesus himself asked of his followers is The Sermon on the Mount or Beatitudes (Matthew 5):

• Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
• Blessed are the meek: for they shall possess the land.
• Blessed are they who mourn: for they shall be comforted.
• Blessed are they that hunger and thirst after justice: for they shall have their fill.
• Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy.
• Blessed are the clean of heart: for they shall see God.
• Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God.
• Blessed are they that suffer persecution for justice’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

……. a fractured church

Issues of contention:

• The fallibility of the Bible
• The fallibility of the Pope and as an extension, the priests/pastors and church
• the rites, indulgences and relics
• recently, the theory of Creationism vs Evolution

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• exclusion of women – Nicene Creed. 325 CE

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• Crusades against Christians
  Albigensian Crusade of 1209-1229 CE
  Drenther Crusade 1228–1232 CE
  The Stedinger Crusade 1233–1234 CE
  Bosnian Crusade 1235–1241 CE
  Despenser’s Crusade 1382 – 1383 CE

…….

• The Spanish Inquisition – 1478 to 1834. CE
• The Counter-Reformation (also known as the Catholic Reformation) 1545 to c. 1700 CE
• Witch Trials in Europe 1500 and 1660 CE

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• Paulicians (7th-9th centuries)
• Bogomils (11th century)
• Cathars (11th-13th centuries)
• Waldensians (12th century)
• Lollards (14th century)
• Hussites ( 1419 – 1434 CE)

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• East–West Schism, Coptic Orthodox split from Catholic Church 451 CE

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• monophysites and dyophisites occurred following the Council of Chalcedon in 451 CE or 553 CE.

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• Gnostic Christians and Orthodox Christians occurred in the 2nd century.

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• The Great Schism Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox. 1054 CE

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• Martin Luther 1517 CE – Sola gratia, sola fide and sola scriptura — by faith alone, by grace alone and by scripture alone.
  His ‘Ninety-five Theses’ began the Protestant Reformation.

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• The Anabaptists John (Jan) of Leiden and Menno Simmons. originated in the 1520s CE in Europe at the time of the Christian Reformation.

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• Ulrich Zwingli (followers Conrad Grebel and Felix Manz) and John Calvin (you could argue that Calvin influenced a lot of Capitalist attitudes toward the poor and disabled) were active in the Swiss cities of Zurich and Geneva in the 1500s CE. They both called for the reform of church doctrines and practices, and advocated the elimination of many elements of the Catholic faith and worship.
• …….
• When did Henry VIII start Anglican Church? 1534

…… Solomon’s temple

• The First Crusade lasted from 1096 to 1099.
• The Second Crusade began in 1147 and ended in 1149.
• The Third Crusade started in 1189 and was concluded in 1192.
• The Fourth Crusade got underway in 1202 and ended in 1204.
• The Fifth Crusade lasted from 1217 until 1221.
• The Sixth Crusade occurred in 1228–29.
• The Seventh Crusade began in 1248 and ended in 1254. * And the Eighth Crusade took place in 1270.

…… the heathens

• And you could argue Colonialism (15th to 20th centuries) was the Church’s issue as well. Since the countries all claimed to be spreading Christianity to the ‘heathens’. Which may lead to a claim that Christianity is responsible for the Trans-Atlantic slave trade (approx 1526 to 1867) though not slavery itself since there is historical evidence of it’s existence back to the Stone Age.

is there a church?

• Not as directed by Jesus, whether one sees him as divine of origin (which was a common trope in the religions of that time) or not.
• Have the leaders followed Jesus’ teachings about the separation of church and state? No.
• Have the leaders been who they were instructed to be in the Beatitudes? No.
• And one could argue that since the church was spread thru the Roman Empire, it would have been bordering on blasphemy to participate in the cult of those who took his life. Something to consider?