I Love Jesus, I Hate Christianity

Despite the catchy and irreverent title, this book is the first book ever to call for a complete rethinking of Christianity that focuses on the human ego and the Christ consciousness. The book describes how the human ego and its dualistic form of thinking has influenced Christianity, beginning with Peter and extending through the formation of the official Christian churches. It describes how the power plays and the black-and-white thinking that are the trademarks of the ego led to a number of doctrines that are inconsistent, illogical and in complete opposition to Jesus' true teachings.

The book also describes how humankind has moved from a mythic level of consciousness to a rational level of consciousness and is not moving into the intuitive level. Most of today's Christian churches are still held hostage by a mythic level mindset and doctrines that spring from the black-and-white thinking of the mythic level. That is why these churches can no longer meet the spiritual needs of people in the rational age. The book calls for a new form of Christianity that is suited for today's rational and intuitive level people.

The book suggests a number of practical steps that can revitalize Christianity, including restoring Jesus as an example to follow instead of an idol to worship. It also gives an unprecedented description of how the path to personal Christhood is hidden between the lines of Jesus' own words from the scriptures. Finally, the book describes a new world view, including a new view of God, that is based on both a rational and intuitive understanding of spirituality and modern science.

There is simply no other book on the market that contains so many revolutionary ideas about the Christian religion and the true meaning of Jesus' mission and message. This is far more thought-provoking than The Da Vinci Code.

Table of Contents

Introduction 13
Is there a beam in our own eyes? 13
This book is not for everyone! 15

Chapter 1
What if Jesus wants to change Christianity? 20
The irony of history 22
Would Jesus be welcomed by modern Christians? 25
Where is Jesus today? 27
How much do we love Jesus 30
Pride and prejudice 31

Chapter 2
Are we allowed to talk and think about Jesus? 34
Was Jesus’ approach to religion based on fear? 37
True love 41
How can we overcome fear? 42
What did Jesus say about love? 44
Why won’t they allow me to think about that? 45

Chapter 3
Can you know truth on your own? 47
Did Jesus discourage questions? 49
Do we have the ability to know truth? 53
Jesus’ promise to answer our questions 56
Oh ye hypocrites… 58

Chapter 4
What was Jesus really trying to tell us? 60
What does it mean to be truly human? 62
What is blocking our true potential? 65
Taking a stand for truth 68

Chapter 5
The human ego—the psychology of anti-christ 71
HYPOCRISY 72
JUDGMENT 73
SPIRITUAL BLINDNESS 74
PRIDE 76
INSECURITY 77
FEAR 78
DIVISION 79
MISDIRECTION 81
Conclusion 82
Jesus as the ultimate messenger of freedom 84

Chapter 6
Trademark of the ego: Black-and-white thinking 86
Black-and-white thinking 86
The dream of absolute authority 88
The infallible Bible 90
Overcoming literalism 92
Literalism is literally inconsistent 94
Some contradictions in the Bible 97
Resolving contradictions 98
The middle way 101
Is the Bible all we need to know about God? 103
How we use the Bible 105

Chapter 7
The dream of infallibility and the cause of hypocrisy 107
God’s definition of good and evil 109
Judgment and hypocrisy 111
The automatic salvation 112
An unthinkable question 114
The basic dilemma of the ego 116
The truly unthinkable question 121
Why do priests become priests? 123

Chapter 8
Liberating Christianity from extremism—in both forms 125
Is Christianity a violent religion? 126
How can we defeat evil by committing evil? 129
The epic struggle—fact or fiction? 131
Freeing Christianity from the dualistic struggle 135
Christians against war 138

Chapter 9
The dilemma of Peter—in all of us 140
No easy way out 143
The essential dilemma of all Christians 144
Upon this rock will I build my church 147
Going all the way—on Jesus’ way 151
The Peter in all of us 153
The ultimate shock 155

Chapter 10
Is Jesus going to do all the work for us? 157
The great pacifier 158
Did Jesus come to give us a blank check? 161
A changing view of God 165
The ego’s view of atonement 166
We can all do better 168

Chapter 11
Jesus—idol or wayshower? 171
Did Jesus set himself apart from us? 174
Who wants Jesus set apart from us? 177
The devil is in the details 178
Why didn’t Jesus remove evil? 180
Who is the only begotten son of God? 181
Can we relate to Jesus? 185

Chapter 12
The true salvation that Jesus offers us 188
What is life and what is death? 189
Thou shalt not surely die 192
The kingdom of God is at hand 194
Jesus as the archetype for the age 197
Where does Jesus’ path lead us? 200
Salvation though grace or works? 202
The path of oneness with Christ 206
Oneness with all life 208
Does Jesus ever feel frustrated over our unwillingness to change? 210

Chapter 13
Why hasn’t Christianity changed with the times? 213
A process of gradual growth 215
Looking with God’s eyes 217
The developing concept of God 220
The cosmology of Jesus 223
Taking responsibility for ourselves 224
How the ego influences religion 225
The mythic approach to religion 226
Beyond the mythic approach to religion 228
Why is Christianity stuck at the mythic level? 232
Mythic Christianity run amok 233
How the ego perverts religion 235
Why Jesus wouldn’t be king 236

Chapter 14
The beginning of a new Christianity 239
Why fundamentalism will not die 239
From the frying pan into the fire 240
Wanted: A viable alternative to fundamentalism 244
The intuitive level of consciousness 248
A new approach to Christianity 251
Enough is enough! 253

Chapter 15
Making peace with God 254
Anger against God 256
How to make God make sense 259
Overcoming anger 261
How to eradicate an idea 263
Does God exist? 268
What do we really love? 270

Chapter 16
Practical ways to change Christianity 272
The Pandora’s box of organized religion 274
Our naive expectations about religion 276
The essential dilemma of modern Christianity 278
Change from the grassroots level 279
CLEANING UP THE BIBLE 280
CLEANING UP THE PAST 283
A RATIONAL/INTUITIVE WORLD VIEW 286
WOMEN IN THE CHURCH 287
THE PATH TO CHRISTHOOD 288
A PARTICIPATORY CHURCH 290
A SPIRITUAL HEALING MINISTRY 291
THREE TYPES OF CHRISTIAN CHURCHES 292
The mythic church 293
The rational church 294
The intuitive church 296
A NEW THEOLOGY 297
UNIVERSAL CHRISTIANITY 300

Chapter 17
Steps on Christ’s way 305
AWAKENING 307
STUDY 309
BECOME WISE AS SERPENTS 311
GRADUAL TRANSFORMATION 315
MAKE A COMMITMENT AND SET PRIORITIES 318
OVERCOME ATTACHMENTS 321
LEAVE BEHIND 323
PURIFICATION 325
OVERCOME DUALITY 328
HARMLESS AS DOVES 331
FOLLOWING JESUS 332
BECOME THE TEACHING 333
MULTIPLY YOUR TALENTS 334
TAKE A STAND 335
ALIGNMENT WITH GOD’S WILL 337
LET THE EGO DIE 340
SPIRITUAL REBIRTH 344
ONENESS WITH CHRIST 345
FROM FAITH TO KNOWING 346
ACCEPT AND EXPRESS CHRISTHOOD 348
ONENESS WITH GOD 351
ONENESS WITH ALL LIFE 351
HELP OTHERS 352
LET GOD WORK 354
CONCLUSION 356

Chapter 18
Can we find a new way to look at God? 358
WHAT CAN WE KNOW ABOUT GOD? 358
IS GOD STATIC OR CHANGING? 362
WHERE DOES GOD LIVE? 364
IS GOD ALL ALONE IN HEAVEN? 366
WHO ARE WE? 368
HOW DO WE CO-CREATE? 369
WHO IS THE ONLY BEGOTTEN SON? 374
A NEW PERSPECTIVE ON SIN 380
A NEW PERSPECTIVE ON PRAYER 385
A NEW PERSPECTIVE ON EVIL 387
A NEW PERSPECTIVE ON ETHICS 390

Chapter 19
The second coming of Christ 392
Will the world end? 393
The second coming 394
Who would want to stop the second coming? 397
How do we respond? 398
Total selflessness 401
The role of the Living Christ 402

Epilogue
What is truth? 406
Finding truth is an ongoing process 408
Find your inner comforter 410

412 pages, paperback. Format is 6 X 9 (same as Mother Mary's book).

Copyright © 2006 by Kim Michaels