The Greatest Biblical Coverup: The Simple Gospel Message of Jesus

 

The lying pens of translating scribes has distorted

the true underlying message of the Bible.

There's an overarching message running through the Bible that Christianity doesn't teach. The Bible consists of two testaments, old and new. For 2000 years Christianity has used the Bible as the defining document of the religion. There are a great number of stories in the Bible, but perhaps the greatest story of the Bible is not told directly.

It all begins with the mysterious, enigmatic sect known as the Essenes. Nobody really knows where that name came from. It seems to originate from the elaborate, detailed writings of three first century authors, Josephus, Philo, and Pliny, translated into English from the Greek from the word Essoloi. Although we do know this group was living in the Qumran valley area in those days, and were likely the authors of the Dead Sea Scrolls, nowhere in any writings do we find the term Essenes.

Many of the documents that make up the Dead Sea Scrolls seem to originate with a group that designated themselves as the congregation of the Ebionim. In Christian/Jewish history this is a group known as the Ebionites. It is this Ebionim group that holds the answers to truly understanding the underlying story that the Bible is aiming to tell.

Around 1000 BCE when Mosaic Law was introduced into the Jewish tradition, and going forward to perhaps 650 BCE, at some point, the pagan practice of animal sacrifice became weaved into Jewish law. Every culture, every tribe of the time essentially practiced animal sacrifice. As we take history back as far as it will take us, there seems to be this ancient world attempt to keep god in your own tribe, almost like a pet, where a temple was built for the god to live in, offering animal sacrifices to feed the god and keep it well fed so that it stays with you, protecting you, control the seasons, giving you favor in war, etc. This was the ancient world way of understanding god.

We read in the Old Testament of God’s special covenant with the Jews, who are repeatedly described as a “chosen people.” In fact, in the ancient world, all tribes or nations considered themselves chosen—and protected—by their gods. Whether it was Apollo and the other Olympian gods in Greece, Marduk and Nabu for the Babylonians, Rah and Isis and Osiris in Egypt, or Jehovah among the Jews—the gods of the ancient world were always the gods of a particular people. That is what it means to say religion in the ancient world was political.

In this respect, the Hebrews were like other ancient peoples. However, they were unique in one very important way: they were monotheistic, while other ancient nations typically had pantheons of gods. The Hebrew God was singular, mysterious, and omnipotent, and He was the God of the whole world. In this sense, Judaism prepared the way for Christianity, the first universal religion. But the ancient Israelites did not proselytize or seek converts. No pre-Christian people, including the Jews, wanted to share its gods.

All ancient nations were closed societies in which civil and religious obedience were identical. All law was divine law. There was no such thing as religious toleration or religious pluralism. Priests were public officials, and there was no distinction between church and state.

Every tribe wanted to have their own god. Even in the Jewish Old Testament, it was always my god versus your god, Yahweh vs Baal, or Moloch vs Elijah... god battles, on and on. In Deuteronomy 6, a decree came down from Moses that there was just one God. In those days, that was somewhat challenging in a world that believed in a pantheon of gods.

To defeat another nation in war meant defeating its gods. Even this militant aspect of ancient life appears in the Old Testament. Consider the following from Deuteronomy:

When the Lord thy God shall bring thee into the land whither thou goest to possess it, and hath cast out many nations before thee, the Hittites, and the Girgashites, and the Amorites, and the Canaanites, and the Perizzites, and the Hivites, and the Jebusites, seven nations greater and mightier than thou;

And when the Lord thy God shall deliver them before thee; thou shalt smite them, and utterly destroy them; thou shalt make no covenant with them, nor show mercy unto them.

And this, also from Deuteronomy: “Ye shall overthrow their altars, and break their pillars, and burn their groves with fire; and ye shall hew down the graven images of their gods, and destroy the names of them out of that place.”

This kind of rhetoric was perfectly normal in the ancient world. Every people saw its enemies as unclean heretics who had to be destroyed because they worshipped false gods.

Perhaps the most famous example of the laws being absolutely sacred and binding is the story of Moses descending from Mount Sinai, carrying God’s commandments to his people. Every ancient people had divine commandments of this kind. This also meant that political authority—for Moses and every other ancient leader—came directly from God. Therefore there was no distinction between religious and civic obligations. Every ancient city understood itself to be a holy city.

At some point this practice of animal sacrifice caused the Jewish people to bifurcate into at least two different sects. The majority sect consisted of orthdox Jews; the minority sect were those in the Jewish community that would ultimately become the Essenes, preaching that God did not approve of the abominable practice of animal sacrifice, murdering innocent animals to atone for sin. Their thinking was that God wanted a repentent, humble heart.

This sect broke off around 300 BCE and sequestered themselves in the Qumran desert to escape this intolerable practice that they believed contaminated their religion. Escaping into the wilderness, they abandoned this practice, and began practicing something new called baptism as a substitute for animal sacrifices in order to purify yourself. They believed that when you repent and are baptised, the waters wash the sins off of you. Repentence opens the healing centers and allows atonement to happen. The Essenes believed God did not want death and evil to atone for death and evil. How could evil be atoned for with more evil?

So it was this community that Jesus emerged from. The Essenes, or the Ebionim, is translated from Hebrew as the poor ones, or the poor. This is derived from Jesus' famous Sermon on the Mount, the beatitudes of Matthew 5: “Blessed are the poor, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” The poor Jesus was referring to were actually members of his own community, not poor people in general.

The practices and traditions that Jesus introduced to the rest of the world were practices and traditions that were already in place within the Ebionim community. Jesus may have been a bit more liberal in this thinking than the strict expectations of his community, thus his breakaway from the Essenes along with John the Baptist. The Ebionim were isolationist, very rigid and too withdrawn for Jesus' sensibilities; they were very anti-temple, refusing to go anywhere near Jerusalem. Jesus believed he had sheep not of this fold that we wanted to share the gospel or good news with... that you don't have to murder innocent animals for God, that repentence is all that God wants, that your heart is all that God wants.

All three times that Jesus is asked what must one do to inherit eternal life, the answer that Jesus gave is not what is taught by Christianity today. If you go into any Christian church today and ask a pastor what you have to do to inherit eternal life, they are not going to just tell you to keep the commandments. More likely they are going to tell you to confess Jesus as your personal savior because he died for your sins on the cross before returning to the Father, amen.

But Jesus never equated salvation with confession, a necessary belief in him as Lord and belief that his death and resurrection were to save you. Never. Jesus would never ask you to say out loud that he is your Lord and Savior.

Jesus was clear about this. Why would God care what you say that you believe... if you don't actually live what you believe??? Jesus said that if you love him, keep his commandments (John 14:21). The one who keeps his commandments is the one who loves Jesus (John 14:15). A confession is not a free ticket into the kingdom. Jesus gave this very stern warning to his closest disciples, letting them know that he was extremely displeased with people who confess him as Lord, and do not follow his greatest commandments – to love God with all your heart and love your neighbor as yourself. These commandments fulfill the entire law of the prophets.

So Jesus was a part of the sect, the poor ones, who were in opposition to the orthodox practice of animal sacrifice. The Ebionim were also called the Nazarenes because they practiced communal living, where everything was shared in common, no one had possessions of their own (Acts 2 and 4). The Church of Jesus was communalistic – they lived together, shared everything in common, and their entire needs were met. When asked, Jesus would tell people to sell everything they possessed and come follow him. Living in a community where all is shared through giving and receiving is how all would fluorish. Jesus shared the beliefs of the Nazarenes which was all about bringing the kingdom of heaven to earth. He asked us to pray: “thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.”

None of the escatological messaging of modern Christianity about escaping this realm to return to heaven was what Jesus taught. Earth bad, heaven good. When is the rapture coming? When do we get to be taken up into heaven? Jesus said that heaven is right here. Already at hand. All within each of us already. You access the kingdom by loving God with all your heart and loving your neighbor as yourself – the ultimate demonstration of repentence.

The Old Testament is clear – God forgives anybody who truly repents. (Isaiah 55) (Saul 103) God wants your heart, not your verbal confessions and orthodox proclamations. Stop worrying about all the religious nonsense. This is what Jesus was condeming the Pharisees for in the New Testament – despite all your strict religion practices, you neglect the weightier matters of the law – justice, righteousness, and repentence.

In the Old Testament there are competing atonement doctrines - many of the prophets condemn animal sacrifice, while much of scripture commands bloody sacrifice. When you look at these two competing doctrines and ask yourself which one you think God would want, it should be obviously clear. Why would God want death to create life? Where did this assumptive conclusion that 'God needs blood and violence for atonement' come from?

This thread weaves right into the New Testament, manifesting as Paul and Jesus. Jesus was never trying to begin a new religion about himself. His mission was to abolish ritual sacrifice with the aim to reform Judaism. Paul was a lifelong Jewish Pharisee, steeped in the belief of ritual animal sacrifice, the atonement doctrine of the Pharisees. Paul had it stamped into his mind that blood, death, and ritual sacrifice is the only way the supreme lord of the universe forgives sin. Paul brought a different version of Jesus' gospel to the Gentile nations, preaching that Jesus was all about blood atonement, that Jesus was God's final animal sacrifice. Paul called the Ten Commandments the ministry of death.

Paul never met Jesus, never heard a teaching from his mouth, only learning about him after the fact. He had been a chief persecutor, even murderer, of Christians for a long time. He really didn't seem to care about Jesus' teachings, never providing even one commentary on the teachings of Jesus. His interpretation of Jesus was through the lens of his animal sacrifice beliefs, upbringing, and background. His only concerns were with the ontological facts about Jesus. Paul's interest in Jesus was with who he was, not with what he taught or his mission.

The real mission of Jesus was not to come and be butchered on the cross under an angry God because of the sins of humanity. That is a man-made pagan idea that Paul corrupted into the gospel of Jesus and ultimately became the Christian religion that we have today. Jesus came to reform Judasim from this demonic practice of spilling the blood of innocent animals, as if God wants that, for atonement. That is black magic and spell casting and has nothing to do with what God wants from us.

The message of Jesus got hijacked into a religion about Jesus, so that if you go into a church and ask what God wants, they will not tell you what Jesus said, but only what Paul said.

Jesus' gospel was “love God, love people'. It is that simple. Jesus showed us the perfect way to God. Jesus' words alone are sufficient for salvation. Does that make more sense than believing that the Bible is infallable, that everything in it is literally true, and that you should confess that Jesus died for your sins and was resurrected? We don't need anybody else to come and interpret Jesus for us. We don't need Paul to tell us how to see Jesus. We don't need Christianity to interpret the message of Jesus. Follow the commandments and look in your heart for answers.

from the podcast of Amrit Sadhu interview with Aaron Abke on YouTube on February 5, 2025 and by Glenn Ellmers, excerpted from Imprimis Magazine, December 2024/Volume 53, Issue 12