I was raised in Evangelical Christian culture and get this question a lot from Evangelical Christians, so this FAQ is written for Evangelical Christians, in Christian lingo. Non-Christians might get lost in the lingo. I could very well use Taoist, Buddhist, Hindu, Islamic, or secular scientific lingo, or whatever school, to say the same thing. I in no way believe any religion is superior over another or has a monopoly on truth. It is anti-Christian to believe otherwise, because it would break the Golden Rule, Rule above all rules. Please understand that this is about putting into action the very heart of Evangelical doctrine which has been rendered meaningless by lipservice: salvation by grace, through faith. Most of so-called "Evangelical Christianity" has become a lackey of Babylon, bowing down with all its loyalty to commercial, corporate politics, changing truth to mean the opposite to serve its own materialistic ends. Not only has it rendered its own doctrines meaningless, but it has twisted them to mean just the opposite, with Orwellian Doublespeak, calling good evil and evil good, justifying greed and warmongering under the mask of "grace."
Grace is the whole point of the moneyless lifestyle and the very theme of this entire website!
This is about making abstract concepts of Grace into Reality, Reality that anybody can understand.
Grace means gratis: grace is unmerited favor, freely given, freely received. Grace means pure gift.
We are saved by grace in the spiritual realm, we live by grace, walk by grace, work by grace, in the physical realm. At the point of no possessions, the line between
spiritual and physical dissolves!
This is about the Mediator between both the physical and the spiritual, breaking down the wall of partitian between the spiritual and the physical.
The very nature of living without money and possessions is living by grace, through faith, not of our ego works. To see a few of Jesus' teachings on money & possessions, see The Way of Christianity, Judaism's Estranged Daughter You probably notice the mysterious enigma of how droves of "Evangelicals"/"Fundamentalsts" and other self-proclaimed Christians won't go near Jesus' practical teachings with a 10-foot pole. Why? They claim that Jesus taught works for salvation & that (according to their very selective interpretation of Apostle Paul's letters) his crucifixion provided a "free" ticket to heaven, annulling everything practical he taught, that, in other words, Jesus spent his life blowing hot air, or he meant his teachings for some "other people" in some "other dispensation". But to know Grace means to know that everything Jesus taught is Grace, giving up ego works, and that the Cross was the Ultimate Confirmation of this principle, not an annulment of it. "I am the Vine, you are the Branches" (John 15:5). What bears the fruit, the Vine or the Branches? The Branches, not by their own power, but by the power of the Vine through them. No action means no faith (James 2:18, 20, 26). No life in a body means its Spirit is gone. It means death.
Consult your Common Sense and ask:
Why in the world would we hoard possessions if we had faith, if we understood the grace of God?
Hoarding possessions betrays our lack of faith that God will provide (Luke 12:28; Matthew 6:30 & 16:8)
Giving up possessions is giving up our own ego works, plain and simple.
When we hoard possessions we believe we are saved by possessions.
When we give up possessions, we no longer believe that our possessions can save us, but that we are saved by grace.
To trust in possessions to save us is to serve Mammon. To give up possessions is to trust in God to save us, to depart from Mammon. Make your choice: trust in your own ego works or live by grace. Serve God or serve Mammon (Matthew 6:24, Luke 16:13). It is utterly impossible to trust both, as Jesus clearly teaches, even though "Christianity" has been trying to prove that we can serve both, and has failed miserably, for 2000 years.
If we do things for others in order to get something in return, to get credit (including money), we are acting through ulterior motivation, we are living by manipulation, not by grace, not through faith. If we work to get credits, rather than simply working for the sake of working, we are being insincere, our minds are departed from the Present Moment (Luke 6:33-36). If we work for future reward, then we lack faith; we lack faith that God will take care of payment. "Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Eternal Present" (Deuteronomy 32:35; Romans 12:19; Hebrews 10:30). Let God worry about reward. The essence of enlightenment is Hallelujah: All Credit to Jah.
You cannot serve God and Mammon. You cannot work for God and Money. Either you will love the one and despise the other, and vise versa. You cannot trust in Reality and Illusion. See What Money Is & What Money Is Not.
This is about Grace becoming actual practice, the Word coming down to earth, in the flesh, right here, right now! This is not about mere words confessing Messiah come in the flesh in some distant historical past that nobody can ever prove or disprove. This is about the Spirit (Action) confessing Messiah come in the flesh, present tense, right here, right now. Any spirit, any action, that does not confess the Word come in the flesh right now, right here, is Anti-Messiah (1 John 4:1-3: notice the present tense!).
The Jewish Babylonian Talmud, Sanhedrin 98a, confirms this: [Rabbi ben Levi] asked Elijah, "When will the Messiah come?" Elijah replied, "Go and ask him" "...and how will I recognize him?" "He sits among the wretched who are suffering from sores." So he went to him and greeted him, saying, "peace upon you, Master and Teacher." "Peace upon you, O son of Levi,' he replied. "When wilt thou come Master?" he asked. "Today", was his answer. On his returning to Elijah, the latter enquired, "What did he say to thee?" "peace Upon thee, O son of Levi," he answered. . . . 'He spoke falsely to me,' he rejoined, 'saying he would come today, but has not.' He [Elijah] answered him, "This is what he said to thee, 'Today, if you will hear his voice'" [quoting Psalm 95:7. See also Hebrews 3:7, 15 & 4:7, also Matthew 25:33-46 refers to this Talmud passage] Psalm 2:7 (quoted in Acts 13:33, Hebrews 1:5, 5:5) chimes in on this Truth: You are my son, Today I have begotten you. Only the True Messiah is Born Today. All else is illusion, debatable, doubt-able. Today cannot in any way be argued against, because Today is before our eyes. Ye must be Born Again Today, the Only Begotten Son Today, the One and Only Image of God. Ye must be New Adam/Eve, your Truly Sincere Self, created in the One and Only Image of God, Today. Nobody, I mean nobody, can argue against Sincerity, the Present Mind. All else is illusion. There is nothing else. I Am Who I Am cannot be argued against. Why? Because I Am Who I Am cannot be spoken with words. I Am Who I Am: the Way, the Truth, and the Life, Name raised above every name that is spoken. There is and can be no other authentic name under heaven. "The name that can be spoken is not the Eternal Name" (Tao Te Ching 1), which Saint Augustine also stated. How can anybody say they believe in the atonement of the Christ if they trample on his teachings and disregard his example written about in the Gospels? How can we say we believe in the one who gives up all his possessions, right down to his very life on the cross for Truth, when we can't even give up our SUVs and sweatshop-made toys and our McMansions, all of which we know are born on the backs of the world's poor and destroy the very environment our brothers and sisters depend upon? (1 John 3:16-18). How can we call ourselves preachers of the Gospel, Evangelists, when we preach and do and promote exactly the opposite of what is written by what is called the Evangelists in the Gospels in our own Bibles? (1John 2:3-6)
Despite appearances, there are only two religions in the world: the religion of serving Reality and the religion of serving Delusion, the religion of serving God and the religion of serving Mammon, the religion trusting in own ego works and the religion of Grace:
The One True Religion, in its fullness, is at the core of every world religion. It is the Remnant, hidden under the majority religions.
Most of what is called "Christianity" is the religion of serving Mammon. At the core of this "Christianity" is the True Remnant, the same Remnant at the core of every world religion. But, again, most of "Christianity" has been trying to prove it can serve both God and Mammon for 2000 years. It loves to talk of "salvation by grace," even as it trusts in money and possessions, trusts in its own ego works, with all its heart. It loves to harp on how Jesus is the only "way, the truth, and the life" even as it pisses on his teachings and life, even as it condemns anybody who even suggests practicing Jesus' teachings. In its Orwellian Doublespeak, it claims that anybody who follows Jesus' teachings is trying to "be saved by works, not by grace," even as it tramples on grace in its utter materialism.
It's interesting to note that those who actually practice Jesus' teachings, or even have a desire to practice his teachings, have zero interest in denouncing other world religions, just as there is no record of Jesus ever denouncing any other religion (even though he lived in a melting pot of religions). Those who actually practice Jesus' teachings cannot help but see that they are the core teachings of every world religion. They cannot help but see that there are only two religions: the religion of Mammon and the religion of Reality. It matters not whether the religion of Reality calls itself Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, Taoism, Sikhism, Judaism, or Pagan. Truth remains Truth, regardless of what language speaks it. Every religion contains the fullness of Truth. There is no language, no culture, no generation, that has not and will not continue to receive the fullness of Truth, spoken in all Creation and in every human heart (Psalm 19, quoted in Romans 10:17-18 ). When we are accustomed to only washing the outside of our cups, not the inside, we can't see this. All the evidence you need is inside you. "The Kingdom of God is within you" (Luke 17:21).
And yet it is not good conduct that helps you upon the way,
nor ritual, nor book learning,
nor withdrawal into the self, nor deep meditation.
None of these confers mastery or joy, O seeker!
Rely on nothing until you want nothing.
(Dhammapada 19:272)
Power is derived from asceticism, from action, from position, from virtue, from domination, and so on. All such forms of power are evil. It corrupts and perverts. The use of money, talent, cleverness to gain power or deriving power from any use of these is evil. But there is a power which is in no way related to that power
which is evil. This
power is not to be bought through worship, prayers and self-denying or
self-destructive meditations. All effort to become or to be must
wholly, naturally, cease. Only then that power which is not evil, can
be. --Krishnamurti (p.23, Krishnamurti's Notebook) If you have doubt about the One Remnant Religion at the core of every world religion, please see Here's the One Point We Know the World's Religions Agree Upon (in Word)
To further understand the concept of salvation by grace, which is the core teaching of every religion, see Love & Possession - Sex & Money
To understand how we fell from grace, according to general world mythology, see Our Fall From Grace: Our Departure From Gratis: The Beginning of Money
To understand how we fell from grace, specifically according to the Bible's Eden story, see The Seven-Headed Dragon: World Commerce
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"Jesus said, 'don't lie, and don't do what you hate.'" (Gospel of Thomas 6) If you doubt what's in this website, follow this saying, then you'll know whether or not it is true. Aren't lying and doing what you hate one in the same? |
32. Don't you know about grace? Aren't you trying to "work" for your salvation? |