The Church of Humans
The Church of Humans is a Christian community grounded in reflection, faith, and human responsibility.
We receive the 17 books of Gentile Bible and the Seven Commandments of Christ: to love God, and to love one’s neighbor as oneself, and those reiterated in Luke 18:19: "You shall not commit adultery, you shall not murder, you shall not steal, you shall not bear false witness, honor your father and mother."
We align with the earliest Christian communities, understanding God through covenantal action, Christ through lived faith, and confessing as sins the judgment of others before God, and harm or hatred toward one’s neighbor.
Different Gentile churches were given different instructions to emphasize. The Church of Humans follows the Galatian tradition, with its emphasis on freedom from the Law of Moses and equality in Christ.
Those who prefer the traditions of other Gentile churches may form assemblies with different practices. For example, the Corinthian, Ephesian, and Colossian traditions include more restrictive rules concerning worship, households, marriage, and communal order.
These differences are matters of local church practice, not grounds for declaring other Gentile churches fallen or false.
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 marked by restraint.
Gentiles were received as Gentiles, without conversion, circumcision, or submission to the Law. In this way, the integrity of Israel’s covenant was honored, and fellowship was opened to the nations without alteration or extension of what had been given.
This was not a retreat from conviction, but fidelity to covenantal limits. The apostles did not enlarge authority beyond its scope, nor did they impose obligations where no covenant had been established. Unity in Christ was affirmed without legal expansion.
As a result, Gentile assemblies emerged without Torah obligation and without jurisdiction to bind by law. Their common life was shaped by witness, conscience, patience, and love rather than by codified rule.
The Church of Humans stands within this same restraint. It does not speak for Israel, judge Israel, or reinterpret Jewish covenantal life. It speaks as a Gentile church among the nations, bound by what was given and by nothing more.
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 the Canon for Gentiles
The Church of Humans receives 18 books of the Gentile Bible. We also receive a selection of 12 verses from the Gospel of Thomas.
The Witness of Thomas
Thomas is received as contemplative witness to the hidden and present Kingdom of God. Its sayings concern perception, inward reconciliation, hidden light, and the unveiling of what already spreads throughout the world unseen. It is read not as law, prophecy, or secret doctrine, but as revelation through parable, inversion, and reflection.
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 Hebrew 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 the Strange Attractor of Goats
Paul writes:
- "But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed."
— Epistle to the Galatians
- "For if he that cometh preacheth another Jesus, whom we have not preached..."
— Second Epistle to the Corinthians
- "And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light."
— Second Epistle to the Corinthians
Forty years later, after Paul's death:
- “I, Jesus, have sent mine angel to testify unto you
about these things for the churches.
I am the root and the offspring of David.
I am the bright and morning star.”
—Revelation 22:16
On Membership
- "My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me."
— Gospel of John
Those who seek membership do so by freely accepting the limits described in A Rule for Humans.
Those with further questions should visit our FAQ and may further engage with us at our LinkedIn page.
- WE ARE AMONG YOU.