Did Jesus start a Religion?

 Religion claims that Jesus came to start a new Religion and is the founder of Christianity, which is no more than an extension of Judaism, an Old Testament religion. 

Jesus was unlike any man the [then] religious world had ever seen. He lived a perfect life, faced temptation from religious people but never gave in, and even defeated death. It was not the people that the religious world called sinners that caused Jesus to speak harshly, it was the the scripture quoting, finger pointing, judgemental, high and mighty, holier-than-thou religious people who thought they had God all figured out. 

The problem with many religious Christians today is the same problem that religious folk had in Jesus’ day. Their trust is in denominated preachers, preaching denominated doctrine in segregated-denominated buildings called churches where the Bible is interpreted in light of what the denomination believes, rather than interpreting the Bible through the life and work of Jesus in order to formulate what they believe.

Jesus’ anger was expressed to the religious people, who were hypocrites, judgmental and condemners. They taught one thing and acted like they were better than everyone else. They prayed in public so that people would think they were holy and godly. They were quick to point out sin in other people while concealing their own sin. They disgusted Jesus. Jesus spoke harshly to them because it was not godly actions or a part of His gospel.

Jesus was born under the Old Covenant and taught from the Old Testament Scriptures. He studied the Old Testament Scriptures. Religious Christians today believe, study, preach as if Jesus read the New Testament. Jesus never saw, read, or studied the New Testament. All of the New Testament Scriptures were written anywhere from fifteen to ninety years after his resurrection. Jesus taught entirely from the Old Testament. 

The Old Testament and the New Testament were written with major stylistic, linguistic, and thematic differences. The Old Testament is full of stories where people are sacrificing animals to atone for their sins. It’s a work-based faith that required men and women to make a sacrifice in order to be forgiven off their sins. It also contains stories regarding God by men who had never seen God and believed Him to have a dualistic nature, one good and one bad. Bible literalists deny the possibility that the stories could simply be metaphorical and didn’t actually happen. This belief is heretical to some Bible Literalists Christians of today, but it is a valid interpretation. In the New Testament, how did Jesus usually teach? He told stories that were called parables. They didn’t actually happen though some of the stories felt especially real and all of them contain critical lessons for life. The fact that they were made up stories didn’t lessen their importance. Think about the story of the Prodigal Son. It’s so well known it feels like a story that actually happened. The same goes for the Good Samaritan. Both of these were parables told as a teaching aid. The metaphorical approach to the Old Testament is denied by Religious Christian Bible Literalists today.

In the New Testament, we find Jesus teaching from the Old Testament Scriptures while sharing a message that was different. There are a few themes that are repeated over and over again throughout the New Testament. Repent from your sins and turn to God. Love your neighbour as yourself. Love your enemies. Love God with all your heart. These teachings show up time and time again because they are the main point that God wanted us to learn. 

However one thing you will find no mention of in the Old Testament is the teaching of a torture chamber of eternal suffering in the fires of Hell. The writers of the Old Testament mention Sheol quite often and it refers to death, the grave, and the underworld. There’s a reason people of Jewish faith, to this day, don’t believe in a Hell depicted by fire and eternal torment. It’s not in the Hebrew Bible. The Hebrew Bible and the Old Testament are one and the same. Jesus didn’t come to start a new religion, He came to fix the sin problem that all of mankind suffers from. His blood on the cross, replaced the need for people to use the blood of animals in their sacrifice. Jesus was now the ultimate sacrifice, taking away the sins of the world (John 1:29). 

The old covenant required good works and depended on the individual to be holy in God’s sight. The new covenant was completely initiated and maintained by grace, no works required. Now, faith in Christ would produce good works, instead of good works producing a real faith in God. This is great news for everyone. We are extremely flawed individuals who are drawn to do wrong. Salvation has nothing to do with us, it has everything to do with Jesus. 

Why would the Old Testament, a collection of writings with a much harsher tone than the New Testament, not mention, let alone teach an eternal Hell for the punishment of sins? That actually does not make any common sense, let alone any God sense. If salvation was earned by works and sacrifices mixed with faith, then there should be harsher punishments. Instead, we find the punishment being death, destruction, and the grave. It’s not an eternal Hell. Are we supposed to believe that the New Testament model of salvation by grace holds a harsher punishment than the Old Testament model of works? That again is also senseless. Remember what Jesus said. He didn’t come to get rid of the Old Testament teachings. He came to accomplish what they were supposed to do. He came to offer eternal life with a sacrifice that none of us could offer. No one could offer their life as a sacrifice to a holy God because all of us have sinned. Jesus lived a perfect life and His blood was an acceptable sacrifice for the entire world. 

The Old Testament writers prophesied that Jesus would come and fulfill the Law. The writings compliment each other, therefore no eternal, burning Hell wouldn’t come as a result of the perfect sacrifice of Jesus Christ. There being no hell doesn’t cheapen or devalue what Jesus did on the cross. It makes it even more magnificent because none of us deserve it. Simply believing it happened and accepting Him as Savior, doesn’t make anyone deserve it any more. It’s a gift. There is nothing you can do to earn or work for a gift in its’ purest definition. If the Old Testament Scriptures didn’t point to Jesus as the Son of God and the Savior of the world, would we be preaching Jesus as such today? Of course not. Miracle workers and prophets were common in those days. This was nothing new. The fulfilled prophesies of the Old Testament Scriptures and Jesus’ resurrection from the dead proved that He was who He claimed to be. We rely on the Old Testament Scriptures for the integrity of the New Testament Scriptures. We must do the same when it comes to the doctrine of Hell and the discussion of eternity. We should be very careful about making the Scriptures mean something it was never intended to mean.

People believed the Earth was flat for a very long period of time. Just because it was a commonly accepted belief and thought to be true, didn’t change the fact that the Earth was always round. The Earth didn’t become round when it was proved to be round. No, it was round the entire time. A people’s belief in something doesn’t make it truth. The truth makes something true or untrue. We often forget why we believe something, especially as Christians. We accept what we’ve been taught or what we thought we read and believe that belief because it’s validates our man-made religious doctrines. 

Doctrine is dangerous if trust is put in doctrine instead of God and the Scriptures. Just ask Galileo about his belief in the Earth orbiting the Sun. It was believed that the Sun orbited the Earth and that the Earth was the centre of everything (imagine that, man thinking they were the most important thing around). Galileo spent the last nine years of his life under house arrest for this belief, even though he turned out to be right. The Old Testament brings us the story of creation and the New Testament confirms this belief. We read in the book of Genesis that God is the creator of everything. Did God create Hell? Why would He create Hell? He knows everything, and everything that He created was good. How can anyone explain how Hell came into existence? Satan doesn’t create anything. So, are we to believe that God created an eternal and fiery place of torment? 

Could it be that the teaching of an eternal burning torture chamber of Hell-Fire has been wrong all along. If the Old Testament didn’t teach this doctrine, how could it be true? God never changes. He’s the same yesterday, today, and forever (Hebrews 13:8). Here are a few Old Testament Scriptures from the NLT that talk about Hell or were translated as such. Remember the word that was used in the Old Testament was Sheol; which means the grave, death, or an underworld of sorts. You’ll find the word Sheol in bold. Job 11:8 says, “Such knowledge is higher than the heavens—and who are you? It is deeper than the underworld—what do you know?” Psalm 16:10 says, “For you will not leave my soul among the dead or allow your holy one to rot in the grave.” The word death is translated as Hell in the KJV, dead here in the NLT, and the actual word used was Sheol. This is an entirely different picture of Hell than modern Christianity portrays. David is praying and is confident that his soul won’t be left in Hell, the grave, the underworld, or Sheol. 

David had faith that God was good and that God was merciful. A grey area, not black and white.  Psalm 18:5 says, “The grave wrapped its ropes around me; death laid a trap in my path.” Once again, the KJV translates grave as Hell. Is it possible that David is speaking metaphorically or is Hell literally wrapping its ropes around him? It’s more than possible; it’s even probable. He feels like death or the grave or the underworld has a hold on him. 

Remember Jonah and his figurative speech of being in that fish forever? Well, he says something similar when describing the condition of being inside the fish. Jonah 2:1-2 says, “Then Jonah prayed to the Lord his God from inside the fish. He said, I cried out to the Lord in my great trouble, and he answered me. I called to you from the land of the dead, and Lord, you heard me!” The KJV translates that phrase land of the dead as belly of hell. The actual word used is, once again, Sheol. Was Jonah literally in Hell? Of course not, but I’m sure it felt like he was. Metaphorical and figurative speech is common throughout the Scriptures.  

Jesus came to save the world, not to condemn it (John 3:17). 

Jesus didn’t pay the ultimate price for most of humanity to be tortured in Hell for all of eternity. Religion teaches that without Hell there is no Gospel. I want, as much or even more than any Hell-Fired believer does, that ALL people put their trust in Jesus Christ and His gift of life. God wills and wants the same thing. 

Just because Christianity has been wrong about the doctrine of Hell, doesn’t mean that there isn’t a sense of urgency to  spread the Good News of Jesus Christ. As Believers, we live with this sense of urgency because God loves ALL people. That’s why we serve Him and dedicate our lives to Him, because He first loved us and has given forgiveness for ALL PEOPLE.

The Gospel was not, is not and never will be about ESCAPING ETERNAL HELL FIRE!

It is about the "GOOD TIDINGS OF GREAT JOY TO ALL PEOPLE"...JESUS IS THE SAVIOUR OF THE WORLD...ALL PEOPLE, the Gospel IS about letting ALL PEOPLE know that.