What We Found

Eleven lessons ago, this volume started with one sentence nearly every Christian would sign: Jesus is the center. Since then, each lesson has taken one teaching and set it beside what he actually said and did. The figure that follows gathers all eleven verdicts in one place.

There it is: eight contradictions and three add-ons, none from the center. You suspected that what you heard in Jesus' name did not match the man. Now you have the evidence, from the Christians' own book and history. You are not the only one who sees it. This book calls people like you honest heretics, and this lesson pulls it together.

Read it3 min

Five sentences carried this volume. Read them once more, together.

The first says whose voice comes first. The second says what God is like. The third says what counts: doing, not only hearing. The fourth names the center of everything. The fifth is the question Jesus asked of people who honored him without following him, and it is the question this whole volume has been asking.

The world behind the words4 min

The first followers of Jesus had very little of what Christianity later became. They had no creeds, no denominations, no church buildings of their own, no New Testament, no statements of faith and no political movements. They met in homes and shared meals. Luke describes them as devoting themselves "in the apostles' teaching and fellowship, in the breaking of bread, and prayer" Acts 2:42. The name "Christians" was not even used until a community in Antioch, years later Acts 11:26.

What they had was what he had given them: his words and his example. Jesus told them how people would recognize them.

Not their creeds, not their politics, not their success. Their love for one another. That was the only identifying mark he ever gave.

How it drifted5 min

Every drift in this volume followed a similar path. It began early, usually with a good intention, and then it served a purpose of its own.

• The creeds (Lesson 1) answered real questions about who Jesus was, and became a summary that skipped everything he taught.
• The angry judge (Lesson 2) was meant to make people take sin seriously, and became a picture of God that looks nothing like Jesus at the table.
• Optional obedience (Lesson 3) grew from a defense of grace, and Bonhoeffer named the result "cheap grace."
• The flat Bible (Lesson 4) came from honoring every verse, and lost the center Jesus read it by.
• Rule lists (Lesson 5) tried to make holiness concrete, and pushed aside the two commandments everything hangs on.
• The set-aside Beatitudes (Lesson 6) were moved to monks, to private life or to a future age, so his blessings stopped reaching ordinary days.
• Blessed violence (Lesson 7) began when the church gained an empire's protection, and ran through crusades to the modern habit of treating opponents as enemies of God.
• Performed faith (Lesson 8) began as public witness, and became a badge for votes and status.
• The deserving poor (Lesson 9) began as a way to manage charity, and became a way to withhold it.
• The prosperity gospel (Lesson 10) sold wealth as a sign of God's favor, the reverse of what he said.
• Judgment turned outward (Lesson 11) took correction he meant for ourselves, privately and humbly, and aimed it at outsiders, publicly and permanently.

Notice the pattern. In nearly every case, the drift made Christianity easier to manage, to measure, to defend or to sell, and harder to recognize as his.

What they'll say back3 min

"You found what you were looking for." It is a fair challenge. But every verdict in this volume rests on two things anyone can check: the words of Jesus printed in full, and history with dates and names anyone can look up. Where a teaching was faithful to him, the lessons said so; three were judged "added," not "contradicts," because that is what the evidence showed. Test any verdict yourself. The question is not whether this book is biased. It is whether his words say what they say.

"Christianity has done enormous good." It has. Hospitals, schools, care for the poor, the end of the slave trade in Britain: Christians who took Jesus at his word did all of these. That is exactly the point. The good came from the center. The harm came from the drift.

Measured against the center2 min

Eleven teachings, eleven verdicts: eight contradictions, three add-ons, none that came from the center. These are not obscure teachings. They are things preached in many churches every week. When Jesus asked, "Why do you call me, 'Lord, Lord,' and don't do the things which I say?", he was not talking to unbelievers. He was talking to people who honored him.

What you noticed is real. It was never your imagination, and it was never a misunderstanding on your part. The religion that formed around Jesus has, in large part, wandered from what he taught. And the problem was never Jesus. The further you look into what he actually said, the clearer it becomes that much of what turned you away from Christianity would have turned him away too.

A keeper1 min

Here are the eleven keepers this volume gathered, one from each lesson. None of them requires a creed, a church or a particular belief about who Jesus was. Together they describe a life anyone can choose.

• Treat people the way you want to be treated.
• Be merciful.
• Judge people, starting with yourself, by what they do more than by what they say.
• When a rule and a person collide, choose the person.
• Help whoever needs it in front of you, even someone your side taught you to dislike.
• Make peace, stay gentle, and stand with people who are grieving or forgotten.
• Refuse to return hatred, and do good even to people who oppose you.
• Do good quietly, without needing credit.
• Treat the person who can't repay you as if they were the most important person you'll meet today.
• Hold possessions loosely, and give where it costs you something.
• Look at your own faults before anyone else's.

You can live every line of this without believing anything else. Many people outside the church already do. If you choose to let his teachings lead you, this list is the whole of it, and no one stands between you and it.

Reflect2 min

1. Which of the eleven verdicts best explains something you saw growing up or in Christians around you?
2. Which teaching from the list above do you already live by, without ever connecting it to Jesus?
3. How has knowing what he actually said changed the way you hear Christians talk about him?

Take your time with each one. There is space to write your answers in the book and the PDF.

Practice this week1 min

Choose one teaching from the list and live it every day this week, simply because it is good. Then, the next time someone tells you what Christians believe, ask yourself which of the eleven verdicts their claim falls under. You'll be surprised how often you can tell.

Bring it back1 min

Remember it

Return. The whole volume in one move: back to the center. Luke 6:46 asks the question; Matthew 22:40 gives the answer everything hangs on.

Pulled back to the center: torn layers peeled back on every side, and the clean center showing through. Return.

1. How many of the eleven teachings contradicted Jesus, and how many were added to him?
   Eight contradicted him; three were added.
2. What mark did Jesus say would identify his followers?
   Their love for one another (John 13:35).
3. What does Volume 2 trace?
   The history of how the drift happened, from who wrote the Gospels to the religious right.

Show the answers