The End of Protestantism

How and Why I Become a Creatorist

I was Roman Catholic for 20 years, before I realized it didn’t work for me.

Then I was Protestant for another 25 years, before I realized that system has also been shown to be lacking, wanting and even now failing… which could be a cause and/or effect of the end of the Christian age.

Anyone paying attention can see that Catholicism is rapidly dwindling. That’s because it is largely just a hollow and lifeless system of ritual and tradition. I predict that it will continue to limp along for years, but that there is virtually no vitality left within it. All that remains is pure tradition, and kind of a club mentality. Eventually it could literally die out, just like the Moravians.

And so, the alternatives to Catholicism are (1) Protestantism, (2) Orthodox, (3) some quasi-cult like Mormons, (4) another non-Christian religion, or (5) to invent your own.

When I was 20, after a year of intensive study with hands-on experience, I selected #1: Protestantism. That then lasted about 25 years, which is pretty good. But over those nearly three decades, I started to see the troubling human traditions within the Protestant camp, and I began to get worried. I also observed the disunity, which is so advanced as to be mind boggling. In addition, there is virtually no accountability, and next to no unified leadership. I began to wonder if this faith system was dying a slow death. The metaphorical cracks started appearing larger and larger. Then when I saw the utter failure of the Protestant faith to know how to handle the social issue of same gender attraction, the reality began to dawn upon me: Protestantism is not it. It has major flaws, which are potentially unfixable. Therefore, it is not the final answer and it can’t be what I am ultimately looking for; because I seek universal truth. (NOTE: the link in the above paragraph shows that Protestantism lacks, and needs, the Sacrament of Holy Orders to call people to celibacy; that is, Protestants should NOT address this social issue by conducting same-gender wedding ceremonies. more here)

And to add some support to my conclusion, I also believe that Jesus is not a Protestant. Nor a Catholic. In my estimation, he is likely an Essene Jew.

Anyway it was only after decades as a hobbyist theologian, that I made what might be the most important discovery of my spiritual life:

All religion is tradition.

And that is because all religions are created by man. We can also observe that every religious text has been written by humans, as well. That doesn’t mean religion is bad or disqualified. On the contrary, religion is good. But we just need to see it for what it really is, without over-spiritualizing it.

When I finally learned that all religion is tradition, I then understood that humans have a few options. We can (1) inherit traditions, (2) pick a new one from those that exist, (3) ignore them or (4) create them. And I chose #4; to make my own faith system, based loosely on the Christian tradition. The result is Creatorist.

How I Became a Creatorist

C.S. Lewis had once said that had he not become a Christian, he would have chosen to be a Zoroastrian. I find that curious. Here we have one of the most reputed Christian theologians of the twentieth century, and yet he also evidently had a high regard for a faith system that most people in the West have never even heard of. Why? What was it that he found so appealing?

One day I decided to try to answer these questions, but I did not get very far in my research. After about an hour, I had this crazy thought:

Would it be possible to fully develop a Christian worldview, purely from observation of the nature that surrounds me? Meaning, if I was the only human on planet earth, could I look at the stars and at animals, and observe all of creation—and then turn around and write, on inspiration, the entire Bible as we know it today?

I had to admit: No. I would never have written the Old Testament if I had been isolated on a desert island. And huge parts of today’s Christian orthodoxy would also be missing from my opus. Why is that? Well, partly that is because the Bible is a book that was written by many people and over many years. It is also a compilation of the history of some humans interacting with Yahweh and with Jesus. And I knew that for me, I cannot experience that history except by reading about it.

But creation…what could present-day creation tell me directly?

I wondered this: What if I were to try to develop a faith system only from what I saw in nature? What might that look like? And here I was inspired, shall we say, by the Zoroastrians, who focus on earth, wind, fire and water. Ok. That’s admirable, especially since Professor C.S. Lewis also took note. But instinctively, those four items seemed incomplete to me. I mean, what about the rest of creation?

Well, hold on; I actually did not start there. First of all: Is this “nature” or is it “creation?” Did it just happen, or was it designed and made? I had long ago assumed a Creator, but was there anything scientific to substantiate such a position? In my elder years, I have since become convinced that there is, and here are the six main reasons for the conviction of a Creator: (1) the human eye, (2) carbon, (3) chlorophyll, (4) the galactic so-called “axis of evil,” (5) the fine-tuned universe, and (6) the lack of intermediary species in the fossil record. This last point was the one that I believe Charles Darwin himself said could one day refute his own theory. However, he died before he had the chance to correct it; as it would take decades of archaeology to show he was either right or wrong. Well, my point here is not to argue against Evolution, but to explain that I did not only assume a Creator because of my Christian past. Instead, it was from how I experience, understand and interpret creation around me.

As I said, I started with the idea of a Creator. Then I thought that I would try to use Creator’s creation as my primary source of information. What general themes and ideas become apparent to me by what I see and experience? Right from the start I tried to look beyond humanity, and instead, to all of life.

When I step back and observe creation this way, it doesn’t mean that I also have to automatically reject special revelation (by “special revelation,” I mean the well-known religions of the world, including Christianity). I just want to evaluate such revelation, in light of the creation I observe. And it seemed to me that some, or even large amounts, of special revelation could be correct, as long as it lines up (or at least doesn’t directly conflict) with creation. But even here, we humans could interpret creation differently. In that, it is very much of a personal exercise. One’s own opinions and beliefs are always going to play a large part. There is no way around that, and I’m okay with that. All I can do is share mine. Therefore, I know that I am impacted (biased?) by my Christian faith, but that is acceptable to me; it is part of my history.

So Christianity is a faith of course centered on Jesus. And one of Jesus’ main messages is that we are to refer to, and consider, the Creator as Father. Fine. I don’t see anything in creation that would directly argue against that. In fact, it’s easy for many people to conceive of the idea of “Mother Nature,” so why not “Father Creator?”

I then examined the teachings of Jesus and came up with the Six Precepts:

Honesty
Giving
Apologizing
Forgiving
Contentment
Humility

This is of course not everything that Jesus taught, but it sure seemed like a pretty good way to summarize much of Jesus’ teachings on morality.

At that point, I closed the Bible, and went outside to examine creation itself. I spent hours trying to identify patterns I had observed over the course of my life. And eventually that lead me to the Four Laws of Creation: Survival, Attraction, Role, Renewal. The full list is shown here:

Survival/Continuity/Growth
Attraction/Connection/Love
Role/Function/Purpose
Renewal/Rhythm/Recircling

And finally, I pondered the extent of “creation” that I wanted to focus on theologically. Here my ideas bounced basically between the Zoroastrians and the periodic table of the elements. In the end, I settled on things that humans can see. And so, we have the Seven Sacred Elements:

Earth
Water
Air
Fire
Plants
Animals
Humans

Once I had the One Main Truth, Seven Sacred Elements, Four Laws and Six Precepts, it was natural and simple to pen the Life Goals. They just naturally flowed:

To live by the One Truth, Seven Sacred Elements and Four Laws.
To get and stay aligned with Father Creator. (repent & reconcile)
To trust in, and be thankful to, Father Creator.
To abide by the Six Precepts.
To stay in harmony, balance and bliss with all of creation.
To look toward a future resurrection.
To share this message so that others can reunite with Father Creator.

And with that, I knew I had formulated the basic foundation of a belief system. To borrow a metaphor, while this effort took much longer than six days, I felt I had earned a rest. (I don’t say that to arrogantly equate myself with the Divine, but to say that we, as parts of creation, can also use the creativity that the Creator has given us.)

Just because I now called myself a Creatorist, doesn’t mean I am no longer a Christian. But as far as the rest of my professed Christian orthodoxy, I wondered how to proceed. I mean, am I first a Christian, and second a Creatorist, or vice-versa? And should I try to evaluate every tenet of the orthodox Christian faith to see if I could find a parallel in creation? That seemed a long and laborious task, so I opted to start somewhere else first: I started with some problems.

Reform or Starting Over?

After 20 years as a Roman Catholic, and then 25 more years as a Protestant Christian, I came to a point where it seemed clear that I needed to make some mental changes. The faith that I claimed to adhere to, and that I had learned, seemed somewhat different from the life that I was living out, day by day. The variation was not overpowering, but enough that at times I felt wobbly. I have heard about others having similar experiences. Sometimes people call it a “crisis of faith.” One friend said that, “the faith of [her] childhood did not work as an adult.” I am convinced that many Christians eventually ask their own hard questions with at least a few kinds of outcomes. For example, these may lead to (1) Reaffirmation of the faith, and simply choosing to believe that one’s creed is 100% accurate, (2) Deciding to press on, since it seems too late in life to change, but somehow attempting to live more content with uncertainty, (3) Revising the faith in one way or another, and (4) Abandoning the faith altogether.

I have been open to all options, but #3 (revision) seems the most attractive path. I reject #1 (a kind of denial) because I don’t want to continue believing something solely because I once chose to believe it. Rather, I want to believe something because it is true. Or at least, that it is true for me. Then #2 (momentum and a type of agnosticism) doesn’t work for me because I am not so comfortable with uncertainty that I don’t apply my brain, especially when given the chance to try to figure something, as if working out a math problem. And finally, I can’t embrace #4 (atheism) because I have seen far too much positive life change to ever conclude that Christianity is totally false and worthy of abandonment. So what’s left is revision, or a realignment, so to speak (#3).

So I made my “list of grievances.” These are mostly theological items which I had been taught; and in some cases, which I also came to believe. Some I learned from the Catholics, but actually most are related to Protestantism. Regardless, now I see them for what they are: erroneous. I might call them metaphorical speed bumps or roadblocks, for my spiritual path. They were simply causing ongoing problems for my spiritual reality. For example, and just for reference, I felt the need:

To integrate some modern creation science realities into Christianity.
To reconnect Christianity with creation.
To affirm the Creator as our Father.
To correct “liberty-based Christianity.”
To correct Dominion Theology.
To distance Christianity from human politics.
To correct the fallacy of discipled nations.
To correct some universal aspects of Evangelical Christian orthodoxy.
To correct some Roman influences on Christianity.
To challenge both Calvinism and Arminianism.
To correct Premillennialism Theology.
To correct “Jesus-centric Christianity.”
To correct Bible-centric and Pauline Christianity.
To correct the sovereignty of God within Christianity.
To correct the notion of “God’s plan for your life.”
To correct the Jeremiah 29 phenomenon within Christianity.
To correct the notion of prophetic Christianity.
To correct the idea of revivalist Christianity (and soon-coming revivals).
To challenge some deity-idolatry issues within Christianity.
To correct some Liberal Christian teachings.
To address the problem of “fallen nature” within Christianity.
To clarify some sexual confusions within Christianity.
To legitimately help Christianity to relate to a much larger percentage of the globe.
To recognize a changing Christianity; and a new age.
To challenge the Theory of Evolution within Christianity.
To correct some “Mother Nature” ideologies within Christianity.
To address “information addictions” within Christianity.
To account for faithful Jews who reject Jesus as Messiah.
To account for born-again Roman Catholics.
To account for faithful Creatorists who reject special revelation.
To make Christianity more appropriate for the 30% of SPs in the world.

My point in sharing this list is not to debate each item. Beliefs can’t be argued anyway. I share this only to say that I had a growing concern that with all of these inadequacies, my life was not accurately representing the faith that claims to intimately know Jesus’ Father. I had to face this reality and decided to try to do something about it.

Reform

Martin Luther did not set out to start a new denomination, but to reform the Roman Catholics; I originally adopted the same posture. Luther had a list of 95; mine above is 31. He made his list and nailed it to the church door, as a means of delivery. He did that because he was powerless to change official church doctrine himself. I am also powerless to change Christian doctrine. So my list is just that: a list. And I deliver it as a PDF document and possibly as a book. (I know that others have made their own lists too.)

Anyway, over the course of a number of months as I pondered these 31 items above, my mind would periodically float to this new creation-based faith I had also started considering at about the same time. I began to wonder if that theology could simultaneously solve at least some of my list of grievances. Curious.

Eventually Luther realized that reform was not possible without some sort of separation from the Catholic Church. And yet, at that time in his life, he seemed more concerned with staying alive, than with starting a whole new denomination within Christianity. In the end, his legacy seems to have become even more substantial than his life. Since he didn’t give a name to his path, others did—in honor of him. That is why we today have the Lutheran Church, and Lutheranism. I say all that because on the off chance that my “list of grievances” and orthodoxy could have that kind of future and lasting impact, I would not wish it to be called by my last name. That is why, just in case, I have opted to name this right from the start: Creatorist.

The Same Destination

So you see, I came to conclude that, (1) the list of 31 problems I had identified above, along with, (2) my interest in finding inspiration directly from creation, both had the potential to lead me to the same destination: My own beliefs, instead of just someone else’s. Then when I understood that all established religious beliefs are basically some form of tradition, I thought to myself: What really is the harm in drafting my own tradition?

Some might consider that heretical or at least arrogant, but after contemplating it a while, it might not seem so overwhelming.

Why not just begin with creation and try to create a faith that works for me and see if it also has the potential to smooth out some of these religious speed bumps at the same time? And then perhaps I could share it with others on the off-chance that it could be encouraging.

Anyway, I’ve spent 40 years basing nearly all of my ideas of reality on some form of someone else’s theological traditions. Now I am going to spend a little time trying to find my own inspiration in the creation of the Creator.

All that to say that I decided to step into the forest, and look at the nature around me—no; to look at the creation around me—and see if I could find my Father there.

Download the full Creatorist Statement of Faith.

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