The Church of Humans

The Church of Humans receives the Gospel as witness to Christ, and The Witness of Thomas as sayings of recognition.

It receives the Two Great Commandments given by Christ: to love God, and to love one’s neighbor as oneself.

It inherits a pre-Nicene Christian tradition that understands God through covenantal action and Christ through lived faith,
and admits as sins both judgment of others before God and harm or hatred toward one’s neighbor.

On Jurisdiction

On Covenant and Jurisdiction

The Church of Humans speaks within limits. Those limits are not imposed by preference or modern sensibility, but arise from Covenant itself.

The Law given to Israel names its own jurisdiction. It binds those to whom it was given and does not claim authority beyond that covenantal scope. This understanding has never been disputed within Judaism, where faithfulness has always been defined by obedience within covenant rather than by universal imposition.

Jurisdiction precedes obligation. Where no covenant exists, no law may rightly bind. To claim authority without covenant is not obedience, but trespass.

Christ did not erase these distinctions. He taught within Israel, honored the Law’s scope, and refused to universalize it. His teaching consistently returned authority to God and called human judgment into question.

Accordingly, any church that exists among the nations must first account for the limits of what it has been given to say and to bind.

Gentiles and Apostolic Restraint

The earliest followers of Christ confronted the question of Gentile inclusion directly: whether those from the nations must enter Israel’s covenant in order to follow Christ.

Their answer was restraint.

Gentiles were received as Gentiles, without conversion, circumcision, or submission to the Law. This decision preserved the integrity of Israel’s covenant while opening fellowship to the nations. Authority was not expanded; it was deliberately withheld.

This restraint was not a concession to weakness, but an act of faithfulness. The apostles refused to bind where no authority had been given, choosing unity in Christ over legal extension.

As a result, Gentile assemblies were formed without Torah obligation and without mandate to govern themselves or others by law. Life together was shaped instead by witness, conscience, patience, and love.

The Church of Humans stands within this apostolic restraint. It does not speak for Israel, judge Israel, or reinterpret Jewish covenantal life. It speaks only as a Gentile church among the nations, bound by what was given and by nothing more.

On Canon

What Canon Is

Canon does not name a collection of inspired writings, nor does it designate a closed library of sacred texts. Canon names the scope of authority a text is granted within a particular community.

A text may be revered, studied, remembered, and treasured without being granted binding authority. Authority is not a property inherent in writing itself; it is a relationship between a community, a covenant, and the limits of what has been given to command.

For this reason, canon is always bounded. It arises where authority is recognized and ends where authority is not granted. Inclusion of a text does not enlarge obligation, and reverence does not imply jurisdiction.

Within the Church of Humans, Scripture is received as witness rather than statute. Texts testify to God’s action, to Christ’s life, and to the faith of earlier communities. They do not legislate conduct beyond the covenant freely undertaken within this church.

Canon therefore functions not to expand control, but to restrain it. It marks where obedience is possible and where coercion must cease. Where no authority has been given, no command may rightly be drawn.

This understanding precedes any listing of texts. Before asking which writings are received, the church must first name what it understands authority to be, and where that authority ends.

Why the Canon Is Bounded

Canon is bounded because authority is bounded. Authority does not expand by accumulation, repetition, or historical layering. It is given, not inferred.

The growth of sacred literature across time reflects the life, struggle, and reflection of communities, but such growth does not imply the growth of jurisdiction. A larger collection of writings does not confer a larger mandate to command. Expansion of memory is not expansion of authority.

For Gentile Christians in particular, this distinction is essential. The apostles did not grant the nations the authority of Israel’s Law, nor did they authorize the creation of new systems of binding command. Gentile life in Christ was shaped by witness, conscience, and mutual responsibility, not by legal extension.

When canon is treated as unbounded, texts written for particular moments are pressed into service as universal law. Counsel becomes command, warning becomes weapon, and testimony becomes coercion. What was given to guide faith is repurposed to govern persons.

The Church of Humans therefore refuses the expansion of canon as a means of expanding control. Its canon is bounded to what is necessary to bear public witness to Christ, to remember the formation of Gentile assemblies, and to guide faithful life without exceeding the authority that was given.

This limitation is not a rejection of Scripture, but an act of fidelity. By refusing to bind where no authority exists, the church preserves both the integrity of the texts it receives and the freedom of the people who read them.

The Witness Received

Having named the limits of authority and the bounds of canon, the Church of Humans now names the writings it receives as its shared public witness.

These writings are received for recognition, memory, and faithful practice. They are not treated as law, nor are they used to extend authority beyond what was given. They are sufficient for Gentile Christianity among the nations, and no more is claimed of them than this.

The canon received here is presented in three parts.

Gospel

The Gospel writings bear witness to the life, teaching, death, and resurrection of Christ. They are received as the primary public testimony by which Christ is known.

• Mark
• Luke
• John
• The Witness of Thomas

The narrative Gospels proclaim the good news of Christ in story and testimony. The Witness of Thomas is received alongside them as a collection of sayings that train recognition rather than command conduct. Together, these writings shape encounter with Christ prior to doctrine, discipline, or institution.

History

• Acts

Acts is received as historical witness to the earliest communities following Christ, with particular attention to the entry of Gentiles and the apostles’ refusal to impose the Law upon them. It is read as memory and narrative, not as law or institutional template.

Letters

The letters are received as situational counsel addressed to identifiable communities. They speak to life in common, suffering, freedom, conscience, and love, without constituting a legal code or universal system.

• Romans
• 1 Corinthians
• 2 Corinthians
• 1 Thessalonians
• Philippians
• Philemon

These writings are read for guidance in faithful practice and restraint of authority. The collection concludes with Philemon, which leaves the community entrusted with responsibility rather than resolved by command.

In receiving these texts, the Church of Humans does not claim completeness, universality, or finality. It claims only sufficiency for faithful life among the nations within the authority that was given.

On Omitted Writings and Scope

Writings not received within this canon are not thereby dismissed, denied, or disparaged.

The Law, the Prophets, and other Jewish and Christian texts remain indispensable for historical understanding, comparative study, and faithful interpretation of the world in which Christ lived and taught. They are read as witnesses to covenantal life, moral struggle, and the formation of communities before and alongside the emergence of Gentile assemblies.

Such writings are not received here as binding authority, not because they lack depth or truth, but because their instruction presumes covenants and obligations not given to the nations. Respect for those covenants requires restraint, not appropriation.

The Church of Humans therefore studies these texts freely and seriously, while refusing to treat them as law where no authority was granted.

On Authority and Limits

Authority within the Church of Humans is bounded, derivative, and restrained. It is received, not assumed; exercised, not possessed; and limited to what has been given.

Authority does not arise from office, consensus, tradition, or volume of text. It does not accumulate through repetition or institutional inheritance. Where authority is claimed beyond what was given, obedience becomes coercion.

Within this church, authority is exercised as testimony rather than enforcement. It takes the form of witness to Christ, recognition of faithful life, and mutual accountability freely undertaken within Covenant. It does not take the form of command imposed upon conscience or control asserted over persons.

Discernment is not judgment. Discernment names actions, patterns, and consequences within shared life; judgment claims standing before God. The former belongs to communities; the latter belongs to God alone. To confuse them is to trespass beyond authority.

Leadership is therefore not dominion. Those who teach, serve, or guide do so without claim to final verdict, coercive power, or exclusionary mandate. Influence may be offered; submission may be given; neither may be compelled.

Scripture functions within these limits. It forms, warns, encourages, and corrects as witness. It does not authorize the governance of persons beyond covenant, nor does it license harm in the name of obedience.

Exclusion, discipline, and enforcement require authority. Where such authority has not been given, they may not be exercised. The Church of Humans therefore refuses practices that rely on fear, threat, or social control to produce conformity.

These limits are not a weakening of the church, but its integrity. By refusing authority it does not possess, the church preserves both the freedom of its members and the credibility of its witness.

On Membership

Those who seek membership do so by freely consenting to the limits described in A Rule for Humans.