There is a big difference between following Jesus and following Paul. I classify Christianity as follows: People who worship in a church follow Paul. Some people follow both Jesus and Paul – they worship in church and do a lot to help the poor. Some extremely orthodox Christians also follow Moses, and most Christians follow the Ten Commandments. A true Christian is someone who follows only Jesus, not anyone else in the Bible or anyone else in our society. There are descriptions of modern day worship in the Bible as described below.

Psalm 150
Praise God in his Temple!
Praise his strength in Heaven!
Praise him for the mighty things he has done!
Praise his supreme greatness.
Praise him with trumpets.
Praise him with harps and lyres.
Praise him with drums and dancing.
Praise him with harps and flutes.
Praise him with cymbals.
Praise him with loud cymbals.
Praise the Lord all living creatures!
Praise the Lord!

Psalm 150 is the very last Psalm in the Bible (occasionally there is an extra Psalm 151, which describes David slaying Goliath). The placement of this Psalm right at the end of the book of Psalms suggests a relationship between it and the time of the end.

John 5:41
"I am not looking for human praise." Contrast this with Psalm 150.

Matthew 21:16
So they asked Jesus, "Do you hear what they are saying?" "Indeed I do," answered Jesus. "Haven't you ever read this scripture? 'You have trained children and babies to offer perfect praise.'"

Amos 5:21
"The Lord says, 'I hate your religious festivals! I cannot stand them!'....'Stop your noisy songs; I do not want to listen to your harps. Instead, let justice flow like a stream, and righteousness like a river that never goes dry.'" 6:5-6: "You like to compose songs like David did, and play them on harps. You drink wine by the bowlful and use the finest perfumes, but you do not mourn over the ruin of Israel."

Mark 12:38-39
"Watch out for the teachers of the Law who like to walk around in their long robes and be greeted with respect in the market place, who choose the reserved seats in the synagogues and the best places at feasts. They take advantage of widows and rob them of their homes."

This refers to modern ministers who teach people to follow Paul rather than Jesus. As described in "Parables and General Issues", wives are used to represent followers of Jesus. Widows represent those who have lost their 'husband' Jesus because priests take advantage of them and rob them of their homes in the Kingdom of God.

Matthew 23:13
"How terrible for you, teachers of the Law and Pharisees! You hypocrites! You lock the door to the Kingdom of heaven in people's faces, and you yourselves don't go in, nor do you allow in those who are trying to enter!"

Chapter 23 of the Gospel of Matthew gives a detailed description of the priesthood and why we should avoid it.

Isaiah 29:13-14
The Lord said, "These people claim to worship me, but their words are meaningless, and their hearts are somewhere else. Their religion is nothing but human rules and traditions, which they have simply memorized. So I will startle them with one unexpected blow after another. Those who are wise will turn out to be fools, and all their cleverness will be useless."

Exodus 32:17-18
"Joshua heard the people shouting and said to Moses, 'I hear the sound of battle in the camp.' Moses said, 'That doesn't sound like a shout of victory or a cry of defeat; it's the sound of singing." The Israelites were singing and dancing in front of the bull calf. This idol may represent modern church worship, or it may refer to the time just after 2039 (Moses returned to find the Israelites worshipping a bull calf after spending forty days on mount Sinai, representing the time period 2007 to 2039).

Luke 18:10-13
"Two men went up into the temple to pray; the one a Pharisee, and the other a publican. The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, God, I thank thee, that I am not as other men are, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this publican. I fast twice in the week, I give tithes of all that I possess. And the publican, standing afar off, would not lift up so much as his eyes unto heaven, but smote upon his breast, saying, God be merciful to me a sinner."

I believe that the converse is now true. Saying, "I'm a sinner," is now the equivalent of praying loudly in the street corner. Why? Prevailing views in some churches imply that if you're open about how sinful you are, Jesus will have no problems with you even if you aren't actually following his teachings.

Isaiah 66:6
"Listen! That loud noise in the city, that sound in the Temple, is the sound of the Lord punishing his enemies!" This refers to the loud hymns sung in church and it contains the number of the beast (666).

The Pauline form of the Christian religion adopts the following characteristics:

1. Most available resources are put into church buildings and ministerial wage.
   
2. Ministerial waffling.
   
3. Hymn singing.
   
4. Little mention of actually following what Jesus said.
   
5. Not following the commandments of Jesus (although some Christians follow the commandments outside church to some extent).
   
6. Not understanding why Jesus died on the cross (following Paul's 'idol of forgiveness').
   
7. Following many pointless church traditions.

Christians following Paul generally have no problems with:

1. Buying and owning expensive cars, houses, horses etc.
   
2. Flying off to exotic places on holidays.
   
3. Working for a sinful organisation, or for sinful purposes.

Christians following Paul do not:

1. Teach people to follow Jesus.
   
2. Perform spiritual healing, except in the few cases where Satan decides to heal people (see also – the letter on Hinduism).

The Pauline form of the Christian religion is exclusive (it implies that you have to like singing in order to be saved from an eternity of torture) and directly prevents people from finding the Truth. Therefore any good deeds that a modern Christian does are outweighed by the false pretense of Christianity which actually causes death through false teaching. In fact, the false pretense of Christianity is the biggest enemy to those trying to follow Jesus (far more so than religions such as Islam, which present other alternatives to the Truth, but are much easier to identify as being false than what goes on in a church).

Anyone who practices the rituals and traditions of a church service is worshipping that which is not God (the word 'service' is misused here by the Church to justify the activities of priests). The word 'Jesus' may be used several times during a church service, but that does not mean that churchgoers worship him. Imagine that whenever the words 'Jesus', 'God' and 'Father' are used, that the word 'Paul' is used instead. This gives an accurate description of what churchgoers are doing.

True Christianity is very different. Here is a simple checklist to see if you are following Jesus:

• You follow Jesus and his two commandments above all else, and you understand them correctly. You strive to defeat evil and death. You help people to follow Jesus, teach against false religions like Islam, Buddhism and Hinduism and you are dedicated to helping the less fortunate and are helping to end poverty.
  • Love the Lord your God with all your strength, heart, mind, body and soul.
    
  • Love your neighbour as yourself.

• You understand the other teachings of Jesus and you keep in touch with the Bible to make sure you understood them properly. For example, "He died on the cross to save us from our sins, he made the ultimate sacrifice on our behalf" is true, but unless you think about it carefully you can come to the Pauline conclusion that Jesus is an 'idol of forgiveness', which would mean that people would be free to sin. Jesus died on the cross to show that innocent people suffer and die because of the sins of others. They still do so today in their thousands – they are our sin bearers.

• You don't go near a church, at least not in their present state. You could change the style of worship such that it becomes a staging post for organising useful service to others (for example, you could change the building into a homeless/refugee shelter).

• You judge by true standards; for any given situation or problem, you determine the appropriate action, breaking any law or social convention if required in order to reduce suffering in the long term. Another way of thinking about true standards is by imagining what Jesus would do or say in a given situation.

• You must have faith (in other words, you believe what Jesus says is true, therefore you can do what he says).

  God will resurrect you whether you have faith or not, so what is faith for?

  Faith is relevant for general life. Phrases like "take no thought for yourself, what you will eat or clothe yourself with" imply that God will provide, or step in on your behalf. In my opinion, faith is entirely for day to day living in this world, being dependent on a God you can't see, but certainly communicates; dependence on God requires the ability to interpret personal parables in some instances. Faith does not mean having a vague belief in an afterlife (although it might help you just before you die, or if you are required to give up your life as Jesus was to teach many people).

  Matthew 8:9-10
  "I order this one 'Go!' and he goes; and I order that one 'Come!' and he comes; and I order my slave, 'Do this!' and he does it."
  When Jesus heard this, he was surprised and said to the people following him, "I tell you I have never found anyone in Israel with faith like this."

  In saying this Jesus means that faith is needed to do what he says, and likens it someone following orders.

  Faith does not mean taking unnecessary risks. One example is this: a man at a zoo announced to everyone that he would prove the existence of God by going into the lions' cage like Daniel did. He did so, and the lions ate him. Matthew 4:7 says that we should not put God to the test like this. The only reason that the lions did not eat Daniel is because he was doing what the Old Testament god wanted him to do – he did not go voluntarily into the den of lions.

  A few words about belief:

  What does Jesus say about belief? John 11:25: "Jesus said to her, 'I am the resurrection and the life. Those who believe in me will live even though they die; and all those who live and believe in me will never die. Do you believe this?"

  This implies that all we need to be saved is to believe in the existence of Jesus. However, the people who crucified Jesus believed in his existence, because he was there when they crucified him. Therefore, belief in Jesus must be different from believing that he exists. Believing that what Jesus says is true and a consequent ability to follow his teachings is the real meaning behind 'belief in Jesus'.